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Board Governance Best Practices and Stories/Experiences Shared
Rachel Mielke: [00:00:13] I will always go into a board meeting fully convicted on whatever I'm presenting, whatever my beliefs are, and I try and balance that with the reason why I am spending time with them is to learn from their experiences and their, quite often, their failures. We've always managed to be able to get to like a consensus and a good place through, like, respectful dialogue and conversation and debate. And I try and just like always balance my conviction of what to do with just hearing out advice and really thinking through feedback and advice that I'm given from my board.
Munir Haque: [00:00:52] Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of The Boardroom 180 podcast. I'm your host Munir Haque, an executive coach and senior board strategist. I have partnered with Action Edge Executive Development to lead their governance and political acumen division. In each episode, we meet with governance leaders and step into their boardrooms where decisions shape the world around us. We'll hear the good, the bad and the ugly, but with a keen focus on where the gaps are, discover emerging best practices and real world tools to better evaluate, guide, and grow you and your boards.
Munir Haque: [00:01:22] Today, our guest will be Rachel Mielke. Rachel is a founder and CEO of Hillberg and Berk Jewelry, an iconic Canadian company that was founded at her kitchen table in 2007. She grew her one-woman brand to a multi-million dollar enterprise that now has stores across Western Canada and customers globally. Hillberg and Berk goes beyond fashion. Rachel is using her company as a tool for combating gender-specific issues women face through philanthropy campaigns and organizing her business around a social enterprise model. Hillberg and Berk has proudly supported hundreds of organizations across the globe that uplift women, and has contributed over $10 million in cash and products. She's been recognized numerous times, to name a couple of them, she has a Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal for 2012, the Queen's Platinum Jubilee Medal for 2023, class of winning women for 2015, Top 40 under 40 2017, Canada's 100 Most Powerful Women in 2016 and 2017. She has an honorary Doctor of Law and she is an honorary captain in the Canadian Royal Navy. She is the honorary Chair of the Women's Leading Philanthropy and sits on various boards and committees which support economic development. We're happy to have her with us today. Welcome, Rachel.
Rachel Mielke [00:02:40] Thanks. Great to be here.
Munir Haque: [00:02:41] Yeah. No, thanks for coming on. You know, I'm from Saskatchewan too, and Rachel's a bit of a kind of a local hero there, a homegrown hero. Everybody in Saskatchewan knows who Rachel is. And I think that's evidenced by, you know, the kind of the amount she's been able to accomplish over a very short time. So let's start a little bit, well I'll tell a little bit of story about how I kind of know you. I actually bought a used car from Rachel's husband. And Rachel's husband, and Rachel contested Rachel's husband's a great guy, and he still texts me every once in a while when he comes across a hack that's good for the car and stuff like that. But I do remember when I brought the car home and I opened the glove box, he'd actually put three jewelry boxes in there, and he had left some jewelry for each of my three children. So if you get a chance, buy a used car from Rachel. It was a pretty good experience.
Rachel Mielke: [00:03:39] That's funny.
Munir Haque: [00:03:41] So I don't know if you, you know, maybe we can start a little bit of your, kind of your start, your background. Admittedly, I got your intro from the Dress for Success website. That was your bio. Is there anything else that you want to bring to that, or?
Rachel Mielke: [00:03:55] Yeah. I mean, my story is starting this business sort of in a way that was really unknown. The industry was unknown to me. Corporate governance was something I had learned from a textbook in university, but I would say I had pretty limited knowledge on and over the course of the last almost 20 years that I've been growing this business, I've learned by making a lot of mistakes. But I think that's also the, like, richest knowledge that you can get is just really going through it and learning things. So yeah, I would say to anyone who's listening, you know, sometimes the best way to learn is just really just to go through it and not be afraid to kind of jump in, whether it's in the entrepreneurial journey or joining a board or navigating, setting up a board can be a little bit intimidating at first. But, you know, the richest learning is certainly just doing it.
Munir Haque: [00:04:44] Oh that's interesting. I think it's good for people who are just kind of starting out to hear that firsthand from you. I think one of the interesting kind of dichotomies that you have is that you are very creative, and often it's people that are creative that struggle with the business aspect of it. And I think probably through your time, you started out very creative and then the business acumen kind of came as you grew. I don't know if you want to, if you have anything you'd say about that and how that was for you?
Rachel Mielke: [00:05:12] Yeah. I mean, that's definitely been an interesting journey and one that, I think from the outset, I realized as much as I was like super passionate about the creative side and developing the brand and the actual creative process of designing jewelry, I was going to have to, like, sort of grieve and let that go the more I grew the business and I've learned over the years to kind of like, you know, carve out the time and space of when I'm going to, like, dive into that activity. And when I have that space, it's just so special. And I make sure to kind of shut everything else off so that I can fully immerse myself in the right-brained activities, which are very different than the kind of 90% of the time I spend the rest of the time running the business. But it's definitely been an interesting learning curve of letting go, letting go of the creative side to step into more of the operational oversight CEO role and scaling up the business. But I say, I would say the time that I do get to spend on the creative side is just like, I cherish that so much because it's like the funnest part.
Munir Haque: [00:06:15] No, I understand that completely. My kind of background started out in design and then early on the career I decided to go more to the business side of that, but I know every chance I get to go back to design, you know, there's something nostalgic in it for me, but you still get to keep, like for you, you still have the opportunity to go back every once in a while or, you know, kind of get your hands dirty every once in a while?
Rachel Mielke: [00:06:37] Definitely. I work really closely with the design team and manage that team myself. So I do spend, you know, like a good chunk of my time, I would say, with that team in particular, and I would say I've also learned to find the creativity in running the business and like, try and mesh the two sides of my brain together when I'm running the business and when I'm like, thinking about the vision and the future and the strategy. I try and, you know, really lean into the creative and innovative part of my brain and my personality, in how I run the company. So I think you can bring those two together as well.
Munir Haque: [00:07:12] So I'm hearing your kitchen table's a bit bigger now?
Rachel Mielke: [00:07:14] It's a little bit bigger.
Munir Haque: [00:07:15] A lot more people sitting at it?
Rachel Mielke: [00:07:17] A few more people around it. Definitely.
Munir Haque: [00:07:19] Yeah. Okay. Just to give our audiences, the ones that aren't familiar with you, a little bit more background on you? Can you tell me a little bit more about Hillberg and Berk and like the company size, how many locations you have, and I guess a bit of the trajectory that you had.
Rachel Mielke: [00:07:34] Yeah, absolutely. So again, started it in 2007 at my kitchen table. I began wholesaling the product to other retail locations because going direct-to-consumer in 2007 was like, really unheard of. That wasn't really how you run a business, a direct-to-consumer business. You scaled up by a wholesale. So it was almost accidental that we discovered that we were really great at creating connections and relationships with our customers. And the more that we realized we were doing a good job, the more it propelled our investment into that way of scaling our business. And then the more we did it, it was the self-fulfilling prophecy that really allowed our business to scale rapidly. So for several years after starting the company, we weren't focused on direct-to-consumer. Although we had a website and a small by appointment-only space, we were very focused on wholesale, and it wasn't until we opened our first location in 2011 that the company saw this rapid growth over the course of the next eight years. So for eight years after we opened our first store, we had 100% or more growth every year for eight years. So, and now fast forward 17 years later from starting the company, we have 15 of our own stores across Canada, from Kelowna to Toronto, and a very significant e-commerce presence that represents about 35% of our total revenues. And that is from customers all over the globe. And we still have a small wholesale presence, less than 10% of our business, but still some special relationships in the wholesale world. But that definitely became the smallest part of our business, as we really discovered that part of our magic was our ability to connect with customers and create an exceptional experience with them, and really retain the loyalty with our customer base.
Munir Haque: [00:09:19] I've been in your Regina store. And it is, it's a nice experience. Like, it feels, I don't know if that, is it, it was at a renovated house? Or was that purpose-built?
Rachel Mielke: [00:09:31] So that's, yeah. No, that was, that house is, it's got to be 130 years old now, and there's like this very long and interesting history of that house. But after I was on Dragon's Den, I moved into that space from my kitchen table. And we grew the business out of that space for many, many, many years. So it kind of has this, like, very nostalgic representation to us of like being sort of the original place we built the business from. We have two locations in Regina now, that's our flagship store on McIntyre, but we actually just reopened our Cornwall Center location in Regina this past weekend and have this gorgeous new space with the fully built out, new kind of pink branding that we have. And so now every location across Canada has this like updated, beautiful pink branding.
Munir Haque: [00:10:17] And so have in Regina did you move into one of the spaces, like before you had a center kind of island or kiosk and now you have a store?
Rachel Mielke: [00:10:26] Yeah, we had a kiosk or a sparkle bar, as we call it, for ten years, and a space became available in the mall to actually go in line. And so last year we jumped on that opportunity and decided to take it. And now we have like a kind of a full-fledged store.
Munir Haque: [00:10:41] No, I was at that, what do you call it again? A sparkle...?
Rachel Mielke: [00:10:44] Sparkle bar.
Munir Haque: [00:10:45] A sparkle bar. I was there with a friend and helped him choose some jewelry for his wife as well as at your flagship store. That's, I think, where I probably bought, picked up my first piece of jewelry gift for my wife now, girlfriend then.
Rachel Mielke: [00:11:00] Awesome.
Munir Haque: [00:11:02] Yeah, I just, I’ll go back to the intro a little bit. Some of the things I pulled out of it was a social enterprise model. Is that, what can you explain to me about that?
Rachel Mielke: [00:11:12] Yeah. So what we've committed to doing is really using our business as a force for good. And we're really focused on combating gender-specific issues. And so over the course of the history of Hillberg and Berk, what we've chosen to do is give 20% of our annual profits to organizations that support our mandate for what we're really trying to do as a business. And some of the main partnerships we've had over the last three years include Dress for Success Canada that offers incredible programming across the country for women and non-binary people who are looking to reenter the workforce. And it's beyond just the dressing or the suiting that dress for success does for the women, it really gives them a community and a sense of community as they navigate a massive change in their life. So that's an organization that I'm on the board of and also very passionate about. We also work with the Native Women's Association of Canada and the Center for Canadian Sexual and Gender Diversity. And those three organizations, which we have a national partnership with, are really aligned to the values and the ethos of Hillberg and Berk and what we represent and the culture that we have within our company. And beyond those we've also worked with dozens of other organizations, kind of community by community, but it's definitely what gets me passionate about, you know, the challenge of running a business which every day you're up against new challenges. But what kind of like gets me out of bed in the morning, gets me excited about kind of facing those challenges is looking back and just seeing the impact that the company has had over the last 20 years.
Munir Haque: [00:12:42] Nice. 20%. That's quite commendable. Is that quite common? That doesn't sound very common to me. Are you aware of any other companies that do?
Rachel Mielke: [00:12:52] I mean, you know, I think there's different organizations globally like B-corp that, you know, suggest that that's what your philanthropic giving might look like. So I do think there are a lot of organizations, sometimes it's always not well known that companies do this. But I think more organizations should consider doing it because we all know that the amount of overwhelming social issues that Canada and every country globally is facing, and it's not, they're not issues that the government will be able to combat alone. So I do think it's incumbent on private business to be able to, like, have a something that they're passionate about that connects with core values of the company that they can also contribute towards, you know, making change with.
Munir Haque: [00:13:35] The other thing from the intro that I found interesting, I recall hearing a story about it once, was this honorary captain of the Royal Canadian Navy. What did that all entail and how did that come about?
Rachel Mielke: [00:13:46] Yeah, so that was kind of an interesting ask, because when I was asked to become, step into this role in Saskatchewan, I was actually surprised at the Navy presence that there is in the prairies. It seems kind of ironic given that there isn't access to an ocean in Saskatchewan, but there is a huge Navy training presence in the prairies. A lot of naval recruits come from the prairies, and the role is just a way to connect the, like, the broader community, the business community, the like kind of relationships that I have back to the Navy and awareness around the Navy. And so as I learned about it, I became intrigued by it. And then as I moved to Victoria, it was a really kind of a great natural role to step into, to get to understand our military a little bit better. You know, it was a big learning curve for me to be able to really understand that better and the critical role that they play in Canada and some of the challenges that the military is having. So it's been, yeah, just really exciting to be able to like get connected to our military and learn more about the Navy and support and help in any way that I can.
Munir Haque: [00:14:52] And do you get to spend any time on any of the ships?
Rachel Mielke: [00:14:55] I, actually I do, yes. You get to tour ships pretty regularly and being in Victoria, there's kind of always things going on that you can participate in. They have actually sails that you can go on for several days where you would actually live as the sailors would. Haven't had a chance to participate in that yet, although I'm very keen to do so. The timing of it just hasn't worked out yet, but they really do want to immerse you in the experience so that you fully understand what it's like to sort of live in the world of if you do work in the Navy.
Munir Haque: [00:15:25] Nice. I want to kind of switch focus a little bit more and talk more about your internal, Hillberg and Berk internal governance structure. Do you have, like, a vision and a mandate for the company? And how has that kind of changed over time, or has it been consistent?
Rachel Mielke: [00:15431] I would say it's been really consistent since the outset. When I started, we really started with like growing our brand in partnership with local community organizations that we would instead of spending money on marketing, we spent money on supporting silent auctions and donating to like, different events that were fundraising for medical equipment for women-specific health issues in the city. And so that definitely snowballed into what the like, purpose mandate of Hillberg and Berk is today. And I would say from the outset also, having a board of directors, it was very important that the board aligned and was supportive of that. And I would say I was really fortunate in getting full buy-in and support from my board, even to the point of changing our like resolutions and saying that Hillberg and Berk is committed to being a company that's focused on social good and that, you know, as we consider how we run this business and what is important in terms of thinking about profitability and sustainability, that we will also consider what's best for our community more broadly and always make decisions in the best interest of not just like driving profits, but also the broader community that we exist in.
Munir Haque: [00:16:50] Can you tell me a little bit more about your board of directors?
Rachel Mielke: [00:16:53] Yeah. So the board of directors is made up, it's pretty small but then I did expand it to include advisors, so there's a tight, very tight board of directors, which just includes myself and my business partner. But then there's two other people that I've brought in to be advisors, and the four of us would sit down, it's a pretty small board, but the four of us would sit down to review strategic plans, review the annual financial statements, to discuss strategic issues. So I would, I rely on the broader advisory board as opposed to just, you know, the actual directors, which is just Brett and myself.
Munir Haque: [00:17:28] In terms of the company mandate and vision, talk about it kind of at the board level, how do you, how does that kind of distill down to the person sitting at the kiosk? Is it part of their onboarding or is it just immersed in it, or...?
Rachel Mielke: [00:17:41] Yeah, great question. I mean, it's, we've tried to set up every touchpoint with our employees through the business, through their onboarding to how we performance manage them, to how we set goals, to be tied back to the values of the business. So the values of the business are deeply entrenched across the business and how we work together and how we show up and take our company forward. So I would say everything from sort of when you're interviewing, you would learn about the values of our business so that we could really make sure that there was a clear values alignment between the person that we're bringing in and our company. And then your onboarding would include information about that, and then try to celebrate things that we're doing throughout the year. There's a lot. So we can't always be on top of everything, but we really try and celebrate the purpose, commitment that we have, the major activations or the major partnerships that we have on the purpose side of our business and share them more broadly with the company. And we try to get people involved hands-on, too. So there's a few different things that we do. We give everyone one day a year that they can go out and volunteer a day of time on Hillberg and Berk, but get connected, whether they want to go and volunteer at Dress for Success or another organization that aligns with our values. That's something that we give everyone in our company to do. And then, you know, we allow retail staff to just, you know, give out earrings as they would like, either to a donation to something that's meaningful to them, to a woman in the community that they feel like needs like a little sparkle in her life, a little pick me up. So we try and, we do try and filter down to every single person in our business the feeling of being able to give back in the community.
Munir Haque: [00:19:17] You know if time permits in the podcast, I was hoping that we could play the YouTube video that I had included in our, the email. So that's the Dragons Den one. I think I, the first time I saw it, I think you had either posted on Facebook or on LinkedIn or something like that. Yeah, you look like a kid in it.
Rachel Mielke: [00:19:35] I was a kid. Yeah. It's wild how many years have gone by since then.
Munir Haque: [00:19:41] Yeah. So I guess the next question after that is, you know, how did that, like, you had some success before you got on to the Dragon's Den. Like what did that do for you? And then I think you just, you mentioned Brett, Brett Wilson, and that you guys are, you're partners on this. So I guess that's one of the things came out of it. But, like, how did that change your world?
Rachel Mielke: [00:20:01] Yeah, I mean, on the tangible side, it was a venture capital investment. So I walked away from that with a $200,000 investment in Hillberg and Berk and a business partner who, you know, has become like a fierce champion of the brand and has supported me in any way that he possibly could. But on the intangible side, I got a friend who is much more than a business partner, who has always been aligned to what I'm passionate about and has always supported how I want to scale and run this business. And he's also really encouraged me to find, try and find some sort of balance or sanity in the insanity that is scaling a business and has always really encouraged me to prioritize my marriage and my relationship with my children and my health and my mental health. And, definitely, you know, Brett and I have both kind of navigated bumps and challenges in our personal health journey as we've had this partnership over the years and other things. And he has always been this just like backbone of support, of encouraging me to always prioritize my family and my relationships and my health over the business. So I think that's the most rare thing that he's, that, you know, I don't think that's common in a venture capital investment and partnership. And I just feel really thankful that it just happened, that he was the one that invested in my company. And he had such a clear and, clear conviction around how he wants to spend his money and the types of investments that he cared about and just never wavering around believing in how I want to run Hillberg and Berk and the way that we want to, like, position our business and, you know, connect Hillberg and Berk to social causes as we scale.
Munir Haque: [00:21:53] How is he? How do you see who's different than the other, the other dragons, I guess. Why? What convinced him? I think in the clip I saw that like it was he's investing in you.
Rachel Mielke: [00:22:01] Yeah, I think that's, yeah. All I know is kind of what he said and my brief interaction with the other dragons. But I think that a lot of the times the deals are totally financially focused. It's like, can this deal make me a lot of money, or is it super aligned with what I've already invested in terms of my portfolio? And for Brett, it was personal. It was like, I'm excited to invest in a Saskatchewan company. I believe in you. I don't know if your business is like going to be successful, but I feel like I believe in you to figure it out. And that's always stuck with me in terms of like, now that I'm on the other side and starting to make some of my own venture capital investments, I look first and foremost at the person and what my belief in their capacity to like, navigate the problem-solving and challenges and onslaught of things that come at you and the intensity in which they come at you in the first, like 5 to 10 years of business. I really learned that from him. You know, it's like you're investing in the person more than anything because your business will take a lot of pivots through the first five years.
Munir Haque: [00:23:00] So you said you essentially have a board of directors that has four people in it. Do you ever come across situations where half of you think one way and half of you think the other? And how do you deal with stuff like that?
Rachel Mielke: [00:23:13] Yeah, I mean, I always approach my conversations with them, and quite often we have differing opinions, as a, like, this is my time to learn. So I will always go into a board meeting fully convicted on whatever I'm presenting, whatever my beliefs are. And I try and balance that with the reason why I am spending time with them is to learn from their experiences, and their, quite often their failures. So I think that, again, I've been sort of lucky in having a team of people on my board who are first and foremost like cheerleaders for Rachel. And I, we've always managed to be able to get to like, a consensus and a good place through respectful dialogue and conversation and debate. So that's never been a challenge for us. And I try and just like always balance, like, my conviction of what to do with just hearing out advice and really thinking through feedback and advice that I'm given from my board.
Munir Haque: [00:24:08] So you said you started out kind of essentially just the two of you and then you grew it to four. So I guess, what were you looking for or what attracted you to the two more that you brought on between you and Brett, you didn't have?
Rachel Mielke: [00:24:20] Yeah, just a little bit more experience around financial management and governance with Daryl, my third board of director, and my fourth, Murad. Just being Murad was someone I just really respected and looked up to. Murad and I really got to know each other. We went to the EY World Entrepreneur of the year awards, which he ended up winning, and I just saw someone who had been so brave and risk-taking in growing his business, and also doing really amazing things on a social perspective, and really admired him. So, you know, I just, I think it was actually kind of casual that we were talking about it one time, and I invited him. I was like, hey, if you have time, would you like to? And he was like, absolutely. And it just worked out really well to have him be a part of it as well.
Munir Haque: [00:25:03] I guess for our listeners who don't know who Murad is, Murad al-Khatib. He's the other person in Saskatchewan that everybody knows, and he's the kind of president and CEO of AGT foods. But yeah, I saw between the two of you, I think everybody in Saskatchewan knows those names. So like, how often do you meet now? Like, are your meetings, would your meetings be structured? Do you keep minutes to them or is it, or do you just kind of walk away with the information you need?
Rachel Mielke: [00:25:29] I would say on the H and B side, we've run more of an unstructured process relative to the rest of the boards that I belong to. And that's kind of worked for me and the business and the size of business that we are, it's made sense to just do it that way. So we're, we would meet mostly informally, but we would probably meet at least three times a year that would be on a more formal basis to approve the strategic plan, to review the year-end financials, and probably at least one other time where we'd be meeting to talk about something a little bit more formally, we'd have an agenda and we'd go through. But the rest of the time, I'm usually just picking up the phone and calling them and dealing with something that's sort of more acute. And sometimes it's the whole board, sometimes it's just a couple of us. But I would say that, you know, like we probably meet more often informally than we do formally. And that is, I think, the best value I've gotten out of working with them is none of them are in my industry. And so their feedback is pretty focused on a specific skill set that they have. And it's been wonderful in many ways. And I've had to also find coaches, you know, outside of my board that I've worked with to like really have that sort of more industry-specific guidance. But quite often like, again, the most value I've really ascertained out of working with this group of people is like something comes up and they may not have navigated that specific thing in particular, but I know they're going to have a perspective that I'm going to find valuable. And, you know, it's just having them to like, pick up the phone and know I can call them at any time. That's been so awesome.
Munir Haque: [00:26:58] I guess for a company like yours or other companies in similar situations, what do you think would be the tipping point for where you'd go to? I mean, yours is, from what I'm hearing, it's essentially a board of you've got a partner and then it's a board of advisors. So, like you, what would the tipping point be to kind of go formally to a board of directors?
Rachel Mielke: [00:27:19] Yeah, it's definitely a mainly a board of advisors. You know, that's an interesting question. Like when I did the Dragon's Den deal and now had a partner, a formal partner, that was I then needed to have a formalized board of directors. And so that's kind of, that was a catalyst to get it set up. But then like once the business started to rapidly scale and I realized that there was more things coming at me faster than I knew how to figure them out, that was the point. It was like we very quickly scaled to $10 million, and there was just so many things going wrong that again, you just don't have enough time to, like, become excellent and learn all of the things that you're dealing with. I was like, wow, I really need to surround myself with some people who have been there. And it was, I think around that time that I started to more formally think about who do I need to assemble and decide on an advisory board versus a board of directors. I didn't want the, I didn't want the rigor and the time management that I knew I would have to put into if I had a larger board of directors. And that's sort of why I've never gone that route at Hillberg and Berk, is I've always wanted to prioritize putting my time into running the business as opposed to the, you know, time and effort that it takes to run a larger formal board. So, and yeah, kind of then that's given me a little bit more flexibility in terms of the amount of time and rigor and oversight that's needed for my board. And then I can really like, use and connect with the advisory team as often as I want.
Munir Haque: [00:28:49] Kind of want to move next into all the work you've done. Your company has allowed you a certain amount of success and understanding knowledge of how the world works. So now you serve on a number of other boards and just kind of about how that transition happened. Did you start small and start getting involved in bigger and bigger organizations, or how did you get into it?
Rachel Mielke: [00:29:11] I think you just, the more I got known in the province, the more you start getting asked to do things. So, you know, I was first asked to join one board, and it was sort of more of like a regional board. And then I was asked to join something that was a little bit more provincially focused. And then I was asked to join something nationally focused. And they sort of, I think your reputation a little bit precedes you too, you know, I think if you kind of commit and do a good job, then the asks start flooding in. So I a little bit have to be careful of the amount of commitments because they can sort of start to build up. But yeah, it started kind of regionally first with a regional board that oversaw just local things happening in the city. And then it was a provincial group that I joined, and then it was a national joint board that I got asked to join.
Munir Haque: [00:30:01] And presumably they're like different levels of kind of sophistication. Tell me a little bit about your experience with that, with the governments and kind of the scale of the different kind of issues you deal with at a board level?
Rachel Mielke: [00:30:13] It is kind of interesting as you do join a board, because you, like if you sit on a few different boards, you will experience like vastly different levels of governance sophistication. So learning that and understanding, like I sort of start to think about okay, well, I'm only going to be here for a finite amount of time so in my time here, like what can I do to like help improve the governance oversight, the how the government team works together? Because I sort of think about, you know, like, I'll be here for four years or I'll be here for two years, but then there's somebody that comes after, and hopefully the time that I've put into it leaves the organization better than when I joined. So I have seen definitely a variety of things and have been a part of sort of also building, you know, coming into boards that are just sort of starting to get their processes set up and work through prioritizing what's most important. Because the boards that I belong to are all volunteer positions. So you kind of want to balance, especially when a board is fairly new or more junior in their governance practices, you want to balance how much time that you're expecting of people. I think in order for it to be successful, people have to be, like excited about what they're doing. So, and if, you know, if it becomes too burdensome from like just a time perspective, I think that's when you start to like lose people and you become less effective as a board. So it's sort of balancing those two things that's really important. And one of the things that I think about.
Munir Haque: [00:31:40] One of the things we're trying to look for, what are the what are the common themes or things that either make for good board or on the flip side of that, common issues that you see that boards struggle with and that could require some external assistance.
Rachel Mielke: [00:31:56] So I think what makes for a good board is just like very clear expectations of contribution and how each individual member contributes and adds and how to best do that. Very clear expectations of like time commitment and meetings in advance, like basic things. But actually quite often I've experienced sometimes that, you know, that it's not always done well. So as someone who is selective about how I do spend my volunteer hours, it's really important to like get a schedule, you know, a year in advance and know exactly when all the meetings are going to be so that I can really, like, manage my calendar effectively. So I think it's sometimes those simple things and a great onboarding package is always like really important. So, you know, I've experienced kind of both like great ones and ones that are like, you know, not as fulsome. So then sometimes you're like trying to pull pieces and meet with people and like learn the nuance and the history of the organization. So definitely great onboarding package. But again, that's something that really takes time to build. So when you are a volunteer board, you know, it's like it can take time. And I think that's okay as long as you have the end goal of making sure you get to a point where you're effectively onboarding people. The onboarding process, and even just when you're looking for new board members, just the clarity around the time commitment, the expectation of your contribution, perhaps the expectation of your financial commitment.
Rachel Mielke: [00:33:23] I've been invited, asked to join boards, and upfront it's very clear that we want your time and we want your money. And that's okay. I think that's really important. But it's important that that's like clearly stated from the outset, so that everyone joining the board is sort of like bought in that you know what you're coming into. What I've seen not great is when there's just a lack of clarity from board members and, you know, a different level of maybe like people who come really well prepared and others who don't. Sometimes when board members are sort of, you know, like finishing off their term, but maybe not as invested, that can sometimes be challenging. So, you know, board dynamics can sometimes be challenging, especially if the board chair struggles to manage those dynamics. So those are some of the things that I've experienced that can pose challenges. And sometimes then you need an outside facilitator to come in and just support your board. And I think that investing in that for a board is really valuable.
Munir Haque: [00:34:21] Well, that's a really good insight. Kind of reinforces some of the stuff we're looking at, at Action Edge Executive, in terms of the services we provide to boards. We do things like we can help assist with onboarding. Goal setting, I think that's a big one. When you when you first, like, especially when a new board comes in or board members come in, you do a bit of a reset so that everybody is on the same page and everybody kind of moves in the same direction. So I think that's something that is key. And it's all kind of stuff that I, like I've served on a number of boards and you see, as you said you see the same things repeated over and over again in terms of the issues. And it's, it is a bit of lack of clarity and understanding of why you're, what your limitations are even too, when you're joining a board.
Rachel Mielke: [00:35:07] Totally.
Munir Haque: [00:35:08] Yeah. Have you been on any boards that have done a very good job of measuring, kind of measuring their successes?
Rachel Mielke: [00:35:15] Yes. I think I'm a part of a board right now that's doing a fabulous job. We, I think for the size of organization that this organization is, we did a very thorough and robust strategic plan and very, very clear and specific measurable goals and targets for our CEO. And that is now, that initial upfront work, which was a big chunk of work, is now so easy to follow throughout the year. And she just comes and she presents and it's like red, yellow or green. And there's a, you know, a brief comment as to why. And it's so easy for us to just know where the whole organization stands because we have this, like, super clear chart that we're able to follow how things are going based on when they're supposed to be completed. And so, yeah, I think that sometimes even though again, that was a volunteer board, so, you know, going and having a two-day full strategic planning is a big commitment from the members, it was well worth the time invested.
Munir Haque: [00:36:12] Yeah. I, often a good board needs a lot of administration behind it too. And there's again difference between a working board and kind of more of a board of advisors or give overall direction. That they're a bit of a sounding board to make sure that the organization is going in the right direction. But often you need that administration to be doing a lot of the work and ensuring you have that good relationship with them.
Rachel Mielke: [00:36:36] Definitely. And that was, we did bring in an outside facilitator. So there was a financial investment from that board to do that. But again, you know, that time and money spent set us up for, I think, clarity for the next three years across the whole organization, you know, not just with the board, not just with the board dynamic and the CEO, but every single now affiliate chapter across Canada has a clear rollout of the vision and how we're going to get there and what their part in it is. So again, you know, up front, sometimes it might seem a little bit scary to like make an investment in bring in a facilitator to take you through a robust process, I think the outcome for that particular example was absolutely worth it.
Munir Haque: [00:37:16] I, yeah, I think the value of a facilitator often is not something that any single director on a board is incapable of doing, but it's about kind of moving everybody in the same direction and putting that responsibility on somebody. And often that's easier to do if it's somebody external.
Rachel Mielke: [00:37:33] Totally.
Munir Haque: [00:37:33] Okay. So just, you know, trying to end on a positive note, I want to find out, like any of these major mistakes or things that have gone wrong in your, in kind of the path to where you are right now, and kind of how you learned from them and how you, or how you kind of refocused.
Rachel Mielke: [00:37:52] And do you want me to sort of talk about like board-specific examples or examples specific to Hillberg and Berk? What would you like me to focus on?
Munir Haque: [00:37:59] Actually, either. If there's something comes in mind that somebody from the outside wouldn't have seen.
Rachel Mielke: [00:38:06] Yeah. So, I mean, I think the biggest thing that I've seen from a board perspective go wrong is just when boards don't speak up, when people are maybe afraid to call out something that they maybe are curious about or worried about, like, that can become problematic so fast. And I think sometimes board members aren't even fully aware of their fiduciary responsibility in joining a board. You know, it's nice to be asked and invited to join it. And you have this like, you know, serious commitment in how you're going to help govern the body that you're governing. So I have seen some major challenges of boards that just didn't quite understand. Or maybe were afraid to speak up when things were not going as well as they should have been. And things that I've navigated and mistakes that I've made on the H and B side, gosh, like, we could have a whole podcast on those alone. There's been many. But I always think about mistakes as like the most valuable education that I have. You know, things, I kind of referenced this at the beginning of the podcast, but how you think you're setting your business up and what you think you're doing changes so much in the first five years, and you really have to be willing to like, learn fast and change quickly. And I would say today that is even more important than ever before. So, you know, like I've made a lot of mistakes in terms of how we market the business and how we scale. I kind of referenced, you know, thinking we needed to scale via wholesale.
Rachel Mielke: [00:39:40] I made a huge mistake after Dragons Den, investing almost the majority of the venture capital into a wholesale scale-up strategy. So going to like the biggest jewelry trade show in New York and spending a tremendous amount of money on that and the marketing materials associated with that, only to have it be a huge bust, because it was January of 2009, right when that huge recession, the last huge recession we went through hit and people just didn't even attend the trade show. And if they did, they weren't writing orders with new companies. So that was like a huge mistake. That led to like kind of thinking, gosh, should I just shut it down? Or, you know, am I going to figure it out? And thank goodness I had someone on my team, Zlatin, who was like, you know, you're going to figure this out. You know, don't stay down in the dumps too long. It's a great learning opportunity. And so then, you know, it's times like that that you step back and you go, okay, well what is working, like what are we doing well? And it's like those reflective moments that I realized, well, what's going well is this local community in Regina of people who love our brand and who come and knock on our door every day to buy it. Maybe there's something in that. Maybe we should pursue that. And so, yeah, often the failures are what have led to the biggest turning points in the company and the biggest unlocks to growth.
Munir Haque: [00:40:57] Oh, we've got a question from our producer here. He said, what is your why.
Rachel Mielke: [00:41:01] Great question. And certainly something we talked about company-wide when at the height of the kind of Simon Sinek Ted talk coming out, for me, it's like it's connecting to the people in our company and connecting our company to the broader community for sure, and doing that in a meaningful, tangible, financial way. So it's, you know, I've realized I'm very, very passionate about the work that we do socially. I love the fun part of making beautiful jewelry and making women feel good about themselves in our product. But I'm very passionate about the work that we do in the organizations that we partner with and that I belong to and that I volunteer for. Those are the organizations that do so much good work in our community and really help make our community a better place. And so it gets me excited about, you know, working hard and continuing to scale Hillberg and Berk, because then we just have a bigger impact overall. So it's definitely, it's connecting to the people and the community and just trying to continue to make it better. Yeah, I mean, I don't know any other way for me than being a part of it myself. Like, I love being a part of actually, I loved having been invited to the Dress for Success board because then it's not just I'm giving tens of thousands of dollars, actually hundreds of thousands over the last few years, to Dress for Success.
Rachel Mielke: [00:42:22] I actually see the work that's being done, and it fills me up, like it makes me even more excited and passionate about working with that organization. You get to like, go and meet participants in the program. You get to go and meet the executive directors and again, like, organizations like this do so much good work in our community and quite often they go unnoticed. And if you stop and spend a little bit of time, you realize how incredibly valuable they are for the high functioning of our society in our communities. So for me, it's just like, you know, I can spend my days running H and B, you know, which is awesome. Or I can carve out part of my time and hopefully take some of the things I've learned throughout my career and give it to these organizations that are doing so much to make our communities better and to help so many people across Canada.
Munir Haque: [00:43:14] That's very noble.
Rachel Mielke: [00:43:15] And I'll even share a further story. So I was invited to join something seven years ago called Women Leading Philanthropy. So Women Leading Philanthropy is a group of about 100 women out of Saskatoon. It was something that they came up with at the Royal University Hospital Foundation to get 100 women together to pool their philanthropic dollars and channel them where they want to go in terms of healthcare initiatives. So they would ask physicians to put forward a pitch, sort of like a Dragon's Den style pitch, about what sort of a project or a change to the way that we're delivering healthcare in the province that they could impact with this pool of funds. And it's about $100,000 a year. I have been blown away by the caliber of ideas and the change that's been being made with this group of, like, committed philanthropists that belong to the program and the doctors and the women running it, just like they're amazing. And they're doing like real, tangible things to make changes in healthcare in the province and primarily most of them impact women. So that was something I joined that I just became super passionate about. During that time, I was diagnosed with cancer, and it made all of that work, like, so much more real and personal for me. And a lot of the projects that have been funded, that are being funded right now through that program, have to do with cancers that primarily affect women. So I think that, you know, like even sometimes, I don't always know what's the bigger kind of like impact of being a part of things. But I think it's helpful to, when it makes sense from a time perspective, say yes to things that you think are exciting and really do make an impact in the community. And that's one in particular that just like the kind of like stars aligning between the work that I was exposed to and the people that I met and then my own cancer journey, and what I was able to learn really quickly through connecting back to that group of women was just like, pretty impactful in my life.
Munir Haque: [00:45:17] No, it does give you, like I said, it gives you a sense of not worth, value in terms of what you're doing. Like every once in a while you wonder, like, what are you doing here? Not about going to work every day. You know, you've got to, you know, I've always thought you need to raise your children to be good citizens. Like, take care of other people that are less fortunate and kind of give back and I said, like, it's easy to raise children, it's hard to raise adults and somebody who could be a contributing member of society and not just in terms of monetary, like just getting your job done. It's taking what you learn at work or education or in your other experiences and giving back or finding other sources like boards to sit on, give that knowledge. Otherwise you just kind of sit with it.
Rachel Mielke: [00:46:07] Totally. Yeah. I learned early on in my entrepreneurial journey that making money is easy, but making an impact really takes like intention and is not always like the first thing that businesses think about. And so, you know, the making money part of things, you know, that's not what's exciting and compelling to me. It's like, what impact can we have? And even just a tag on to the story that I was telling before. So like when you're connected in different ways through organizations, it can lead to some like incredible things that you might not even ever think would come out of it. So after I went through my own cervical cancer journey that my co-chair on women leading philanthropy is the head of gynecological pathology in the province. I didn't know what that meant until I had cervical cancer. But what that means is if you are diagnosed with cancer, like any type of cancer that would impact your reproductive health, Mary looks at your slide. She sees every slide that gets diagnosed with cancer in the province. So she understands a thing or two about our our healthcare system, what's working, what isn't. And so after I went through my journey, what I learned was that in the province of Saskatchewan in particular, now across Canada it's different provincially and some exciting things have happened recently, but I learned in Saskatchewan that we knew as a province for a decade that there was a better way to screen women for cervical cancer, and that that was a cancer that didn't need to happen. So after going through getting diagnosed with cancer and then learning that provincially we knew that there was a better way to detect it, I became a pretty fierce advocate for making sure that I was phoning the Minister of Health and phoning our Premier and telling them what I had learned. And, you know, and the doctors and head of gynecological pathology had been advocating for a decade to have this change done. And, you know, after sort of like a little bit of rallying and some conversations, that change happened. And it was awesome to see, you know, something that was horrible to go through, have a really positive outcome. But sometimes, like, you know, the politicians and the health care system just need to be connected by a bit of a catalyst in the middle. And it's cool to, you know, to sort of like get to see a different world that I don't normally have exposure to in my day-to-day life.
Munir Haque: [00:48:37] No, that's, some of our guests are in government and the, you know, it's just a different way of governance and it's, you know, it's a pretty big machine. So it needs it to some extent a lobbying group kind of pushing them in the right direction. But, you understand that the challenges are with them, that there's always been pulled in a bunch of different directions. I guess the last thing I'll ask, you know, before we kind of shut this down here, somebody wants to find out more about you, where can they find out more about you? Is there any, would you want to direct anybody to your handle or your website or anything like that?
Rachel Mielke: [00:49:15] Yeah. I mean you can go to HillbergAndBerk.com or visit one of our retail locations if you're interested in seeing the jewelry in real life. Or you can find me on probably the best is Instagram and my handle is @RachelMielke101 I think is the handle.
Munir Haque: [00:49:30] Okay. And we will carry those in the show notes. So if anybody's interested they'll be in the show notes.
Rachel Mielke: [00:49:35] Awesome.
Munir Haque: [00:49:36] So, Rachel, thanks. Thanks a lot for coming on the podcast. It was a great conversation. I think we can, I think our listeners will learn a lot from it.
Rachel Mielke: [00:49:45] My pleasure.
Munir Haque: [00:49:46] Thanks, everyone for listening to The Boardroom 180 podcast. You can learn more about me and Action Edge Executive Development on our website at AEEDnow.com. That's A E E D N O W dot com. Fill out the form if you want me to reach out to you, or if you have any thoughts for future subjects or guests on the podcast. We also have a free board self-evaluation that will be linked on our website. You and your board can fill this out either individually or together, and it gives you a bit of a quick temperature check on how your board health is. As always, don't forget to hit like and subscribe to The Boardroom 180 podcast. It helps us grow and bring more governance insights. We're recording from the PUSHYSIX Studios in Calgary, Alberta with production assistance from Astronomic Audio. You can find their info and the links to the AEX forums in the show notes. We've come full circle to conclude this episode of The Boardroom 180 podcast. Goodbye and good governance.