Tory Burch on Putting Purpose First

and encourages us all to embrace our ambition. Listen to this conversation between Tory and Milan and learn how Tori put purpose at the center of her strategy, bound support and unexpected allies, and overcame naysayers who ridiculed the idea that a purpose driven business could be success us well, and make sure to stick around after the conversation to hear our top takeaways and tips that you can use

in your life and work. Tory is an aime everybody knows and a label that so many of us have worn. She has been way ahead of the curve, not just in fashion, but in the way she runs her business. We've been talking about how companies use their power for purpose and um. They are doing that not just to accelerate progress, but also to be companies that make that kind of a difference that aligns with their business. She has embraced purpose uh an ambition clearly in a way

that works. There's no doubt about it. It goes together. It propelled her company, which was launched in two thousand and four, into a global business with more than two d and fifth de boutiques around the world and more than three thousand stores are selling her label, So Tory. That's quite an accomplishment. And it goes on and on. But there are so much about you. I want the audience to know, thank you so much, so happy to be here. How did you get so many famous people

to do this video? Well famous and hopefully some that aren't, because you know what, I it occurred to me that there is a very harmful stereotype, and that's when women are ambitious, it's it's perceived as a negative and celebrated

in men. And so we wrote an email and it was as simple as that, and we put it together fairly quickly, so I think it was about a month and a half before we shot for that, and I just said we could together do a public service announcement and and start the dialogue to change something that needs to change. You're absolutely right, and it's so true in politics. Um, they're something about a female candidate being a appearing to be ambitious, as she surely is, and it's a good trait. Uh.

And men, it's highly admired to be. Well, it's interesting when I first and actually Milan was one of the first people I ever had the guts to to cold call and ask for a meeting in two thousand and eight. Um. But one of the reasons we and then I'll go back to that, UM, came to the word ambition. Even is there was the first article written on me and the company by the New York Times, and the journalists looked at me and said, are you ambitious? And I

thought it was such a rude question. And after that article, a friend of mine called me and said, why on earth did you shy away from the word ambition? And that was in two thousand and five, a year after I started the company, and it just really struck a chord. And since that moment, I've realized that something that I wanted to work on and change. Well, it's a great contribution because we've got to shatter that stereotype. Yes, so

thank you for that. Now, there was an article I think it's in the current Vogue, UM, in which you talk about how brands are starting to realize, UM, that their values and actions have to be aligned with their customers, which is maybe for some of very novel concept that those two go together. UM. But you've been doing that since you launched story. You have had this sense of

your mission, your purpose. UM. Maybe you'll leave and tell us about how first time I met Tory, she was well into her foundation work, but she actually started thinking about not starting a business so much as starting a foundation. Tell us, well, first of all, far war too, because it's a great story. Are My business plan was about how do you build a global lifestyle round so that

we could start a foundation. And when I went to meet with people, particularly private equity, they really almost laughed at me and said, never ever say business and charity work. I can't even say that because that's not what we do, um charity work in the same sentence. And it was really funny because last Christmas I went to a conference

and it said doing good is good for business. And I called one of those people and I said, oh, hey, you know, I just came from this conference and I think it was doing good is good for business, And I said, just so you know, um, I think things have changed, because well, what do you want? And I said, we'll check for the foundation, naturally, and so he told me at one time check and I should never call back, but I will. But back to when I met Milan.

It was one of those cold calls and I will never forget it because I was in awe of all the work you're doing. Land. I was and um, she took my meeting and I said, you were such an amazing support system and gave me hope. After I was ridiculed and told never um to talk about business and social responsibility. But I will say that was a meeting that I will never forget. But and I just sent to the Land back stage. What I never realized back then is how important purpose would be for the bottom

line of the business. And that's a really important message. And now he's practiced, and now it's time to change. It's become very occurrant for a lot of good reasons. Well, let's tell us about the talk about the foundation a little bit. So, yes, there are one of our best partners is here today, Bank of America and UH. We have partnered with Bank of America America to give women access to low interest loans and access to capital is

obviously one of the major barriers women face. So that has really unlocked a big part of what we're trying to do. And to date, we've given out over fifty million dollars to women entrepreneurs in the United States and they just raised that to a hundred millions, So we're extremely excited. So how thank you, well deserved? How how did you zero in on working with women entrepreneurs? So it was it was a process. I knew that I wanted the foundation to be about women. I knew that

and um I mean women and children. I went to Haiti, I did so much UM work to figure out what would be the best way that I could contribute. And what I realized is I had a lot of experience in a startup and being an entrepreneur, and I also saw the challenges that women face day in and day out. And women are great investments. That is something I know, and the women that we work with are what is going to bring our economy to UH the highest place ever.

UM if we invest in them and really looking at their businesses, looking at the way that they juggle and collaborate and um mentor each other. The idea of peer to peer mentorship is something that we're really interested in. UM. It's it's all. It's all good when I think about women in business. For now, it's in the United States, but we hope to be international at some point. You know, it's so terrific because us UM, entrepreneurship really is the

wind at the back of the economy. Uh. And women entrepreneurs in the United States have contributed immeasurably to our economy besides their own lives inclusive prosperity, UH, and so much more. And I think you're zeroing in on something that related to yourself being an entrepreneur, because entrepreneurs do face a lot of challenges entrepreneurs, but certainly women entrepreneurs,

women entrepreneurs. But are you um, you're addressing the credit which you mentioned, because it's very hard to access credit by you and Bank of America have created a great partnership. Are their trainings or their other We have a fellowship program that just literally opened last week. And what's exciting is it used to be ten women that we would fly into New York. UM. Now it's fifty and it's for a week, and we have seminars, we introduce them

to potential investors. UM. But really it's a out. Also the networking that they get from that week and then they're continued networking after. That's something they need. Men are great at networking and women really UM can benefit a lot from that. It's um all business, it's uh. The only common threat is that their women. There's um uh there's a chocolate company, there's um all kinds of businesses. There's a woman um that makes movie set sustainable. UM.

There's a hot dog stand, there's a deli. There's so many different kinds of business. It's very inspiring. So I know that the next cohort is open now. Now we're taking applications and for this we don't we don't charge, and we fly them in for a week. And it's what's it's amazing for all of us at the foundation. UM. Lauria sitting right here, she spearheads the whole week and she's done a great job. UM of of just I talked to them throughout the week and then at the

and and they have gotten something out of it. So it's fifty women for a week. It's our fourth year. And and do they tell you why they want to participate because you get lots of applications, I get a lot and it's hard to to whittle it down. But that said, we we want as many as possible because we want to create that network. And they we We've created a platform online on the Tory Birds Foundation dot org site and they over fifteen thousand women have written

business plants from our site. But also it gives them the ability to communicate a network. And what question do you ask them? Do you ask them why they think they would benefit? That's a question. And then we have our summit coming up on March five, which is also a question, which is um we tackle unconscious bias, stereotype and ambition. And we we do not charge, but we ask people to apply and they have to write essays on why they should be there, so we really curate

the audience. And it's it's a day that's rapid fire. If anyone in the audience would like to come, we would love it. It's people and it's from nine in the morning until sixth at night. A lot of actions sounds good. One thing that I will say we're that our foundation UM feels very strongly about is having men be part of the conversation and we can talk about women's issues all day long to each other and we all agree we have a lot of things to work on, but we need men to be part of this dialogue.

Tell them what you told me about the first question usked. So I was telling Milan, I was asking her to come to the summit, and last year we we touched on politics. So I had, uh, well, Joe Kennedy and Kevin McCarthy on the stage, and I said to them, you know, I'm gonna start with asking you a question I get or have gotten every single interview. And I said, to tell me, what are you wearing today? I'm sure they've never been asked. And how do you manage being

a father and having a family? So you you they started looking at their ties. They had no clue. You mentioned Bank of America that we talked about the difficulty of when women entrepreneurs accessing capital. UM. We are focused on partnerships somewhat a difference they make. How does your partnership work with Bank of America? So we have been working together now for years and UM we knew that UM we we wanted to give together money out work with local c d f I s, local lenders UM

to identify the entrepreneur and women are great investments. As I said, they pay their loans back over ninety I would at the time, So it's UM, it's a win. And the loan size that we're addressing banks generally don't want to deal with as we mentioned backstage, So our average loan size is roughly sixteen thousand to twenty dollars. So they help us partner with the c d f I s across United States and really help us find the entrepreneurs and then collectively we invest in them and

then hopefully take their businesses to the next level. These partnerships really bring to the table different competencies, different sets of resources, and the reality is that it then achieves something that one may not have been able to achieve. Well, you know what was interesting is it took us a little while to figure out how to give out the capital. We I thought that would be easier than in fact it was. But it has to be with the right time of the business and and UM the right amount.

And we were certainly investing in women as a no brainer. So she's doing it, and she's doing it in a great way, and we're really really happy to have you with a story again. The time has just been Thank here very much. Stay tuned for our takeaways after this break. That was a great conversation. Check out Tori's foundation at Tory Birch Foundation dot org. Now Here are top takeaways. First, it's important for each of us to embrace our ambition.

We need to challenge the double standard in which women are criticized for their ambition while men are celebrated. Second, you can put purpose at the center of your business strategy and succeed. Purpose and business success are not contradictory. In fact, often purpose is the fuel that drives success. Tori is such a great example of this. She built her company with the intention of having a positive impact,

and just look at all she's achieved. Lastly, go outside of your comfort zone and reach out to people outside your immediate network who share your values. They can give you the energy and support you need to keep going. Tori got that inspiration and support in those early days when she cold called Milan. Now, our challenge to you this week is to think out side the box and reach out to someone unexpected who shares your values and

can work with you to achieve your goals. You're listening to Seneca Women Conversations on Power and Purpose, brought to you by the Seneca Women Podcast Network and I Heart Radio with support from founding partner p ANDNG. Listen to Seneca Women Conversations on Power and Purpose on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts, and please support this podcast by telling your friends, subscribing,

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