Stacey Bendet Eisner on the Sun Valley Scene, Female CEOs and Her Tech Startup Creatively

over the past two decades. As of last year, She's also a tech entrepreneur as the founder of Creatively Professional online network designed to help connect freelancers and creative industries with employers and Stacy and her husband, Eric Eisner, have been regulars at the Allen and Company gathering for years.

With her love of bold colors and prints, she cuts quite a colorful figure here, but she also fits right in with the group of prominent CEOs that includes her father in law, former Walt Disney co chief Michael Eisner. As the Titans of Industry gathered, Bendett Eisner took a moment to sit down with me at Java on fourth a coffee shop down the road from the conference, to talk about the heavy environment and Sun Valley and her

ambitious business goals. It's all coming up right after this break h Stacy Bendett Eisner, CEO and creative director of the retail brand Alice and Olivia and also the founder of Creatively, a very interesting new networking platform specifically for people in the creative industries, which will talk a lot about what's going on with Creatively in a little bit.

But I wanted to start because we are in beautiful ming downtown catch him, Idaho, right down the road from the site of the Allen and Company Annual business Conference for business moguls, tech titans, captains of industry and politics. This is an annual event that brings a lot of influential people together for retreat to talk about business, to talk about heavy things going on in the world. And Stacy, you have been attending this for a number of years.

What in your perspective is the value? What do you see as the value of getting all of these minds together in kind of close quarters, beautiful the Sawtooth Mountains setting. What's what do you see? What is the kinetic energy? That comes in that from this grouping. Well, I've actually been coming here for fourteen years. My first year here, I was pregnant with my daughter Eloi, which is so crazy to think about right now, or thirteen years because

she's turning thirteen. And I think that you know, you bring all of these moguls who work so hard, who are so intense to gather in a setting that's all about family. It's almost like adult camp, um, and it kind of relaxes everyone. But it also brings all of these amazing minds together. And I think just great ideas

sort of you know grow here. UM. I think when you you know, you never know who you're gonna you're going to run into, you never know who you're gonna meet, UM, And you also end up having these really wonderful friendships that have been created during this week here every single year. I mean, there's so many people that when I walk in, I'm just you know, it's like this warmth, like it feels like family and you're so excited to see. But I think that, um, it's sort of this very organic

way to network. UM. And I think so many sort of partnerships and investments and you know, you hear about the big deals being made here, like the time I, you know, father in law made the deal between uh, you know, ABC and ESPN and Disney and and you hear things like that, But there are so many smaller things that have been both in the world of philanthropy, both in you know, just ideas like I remember one year, like Mark Zuck met Corey Booker and decided to donate

a hundred million dollars to like schools in New York. Like those kind of things really happen here. And I think that's what's so beautiful about what the Island Company

has created. It's it's interesting because of course we're coming off a year when in like like many other things, the Island Company Conference couldn't happen, So you had a year where you didn't have that mingling, that the random factor of running into somebody around a corner in the beautiful alpine village setting of the of the Sun Valley Lodge. Did you did you feel the loss last year? Did you? Did you? Did you miss it? When July July rolled around,

it's always the weekend after July four. I mean, I think luster year was so disrupted, and there was something I think for like the creative side of my brain where I was kind of just happy working and like not having any socialization for a little bit. I got kind of used to that, and I think I was just so focused between Alice and the Libyan creatively that I wasn't really thinking about the things I was missing all year. I was thinking more of the things I

had to like fix and get done. Um. You know, for anyone in the retail world, last year was disruptive and really tough and you had to, you know, work on every front to make it through. I sort of feel like a fashion survivor this year. Um, but yeah, there was I think coming here this year, there's this nostalgia and warmth and sort of excitement almost like it's like back to camp or back to school, you know, the first day of school where you're just sort of

excited to kind of run into friends and socialize again. Um. You know, obviously deals were made last year, but um, you know, I think that there are kind of special deals that happened here. Well, they certainly have had. There's been quite a legacy of of events and like you said,

those those random encounters. What's you have built Alison Olivia is one of the biggest sort of organic retail of fashion brands to come along and in a long time, and you've expanded significantly in the last couple of years your retail presence, you have a big e commerce business, has has has the experience of being here with so many CEOs and having some pretty well known CEOs in your in your extended family. Has that been beneficial to

you as you grew this business. Yeah, I mean I learned so much from people like my father in law, like watching him work, watching what he does in business, Like you're it's inspiring, and being here always kind of inspires me. Like I'll come up with things that we need to do for even a technology perspective. Sometimes at Alis and Livia, I'll get ideas hearing from you know, CEO is what they're doing. Um, it just makes your you know, I think for me, like a lot of

the panels aren't about retail, but I'll get ideas. It might be things that have to do with the video or crypto or anything that just can apply to the to the retail world. And Yeah, I've been really proud of the growth at Alison Olivia and you know my team, Um in the past, but this year was almost to the point of tears, right because watching the way my team came together and persevered and pivoted and pushed through a really difficult period. Um was powerful? Was it just

was it? Did you have just a downturn, just a massive downturn as lockdown hit in you know, there was no traffic. I mean I have over forty retail stores, I selling of like eight other points of sales. So yeah, we have a strong e commerce business. But you know, we also have clothes that we make for women, where we make clothes for women when they travel, when they go to work, when they're getting married, when they're you know, going on a date. Like every single uh you know,

end use of our clothing was disrupted. Um and you know, so we had to pivot to making a lot more casual clothing up until obviously, but um so it was it was the entire year was just disrupted on all fronts. Plus you know, we had stores that just couldn't even be open for a big portion of the year. M As a lot of people have said that the pandemic period tested every part of the organization. What did you

learn about the business of ours Olivia going through this. Yeah, I think when you're going through really tough periods like that, you know, what it does is it's kind it shines a flashlight on every weakness, right. It doesn't really your strengths at that point don't matter as much as your

weaknesses do. And you know, as a business leader, founder, creative director, we had to kind of really look at those and figure how to fix them at a time when it wasn't easy to fix things right like you know, you're you know, and we and our whole company had to be virtual. But what I was most proud of was that through really trying times, we made some really

positive changes that needed to happen. I think in the business overall, you know, we closed our sample room and took all the costs out of you know, the business that were you know that we're applicable there, and we moved all of our development and design overseas and those were big changes but had to be made. We had no choice, you know, our fittings had to be virtual, our pattlenmaking had to be overseas um so it it

forced change. But I think that looking back, I just have so much pride and how each one of my teams handled what they had to do to pivot to make it through. Um, and we made some beautiful clothes during that period somehow too. Do you have a sense as you as you design clothes for the future, do you have a sense that there has been a significant kind of cultural shift in what people are looking for. Are they looking for more casual clothes after fifteen months

in swept pants? No, I mean I think right now, we've just seen this explosion and like women wanting to shop and wear dresses and dress up again. And yes, right, like I mean I'm casual one today I was trying to be all someome that like jeans. But no, we've just seen like a you know, like a huge demand beyond what we expected for clothes to dress up. And I think people are having weddings and having parties and having special events and there's like a big demand. Um.

I think going forward what will probably change. And again, as a woman who has taken a lot of pride and having a company filled with women who have you know, had babies and still worked, I think there will be more flexibility in the workplace to accommodate people where they work, Like are they remote, are they in an office if you're a writer, like, do you have to be there every day? If you're a designer, do you know, you know, being a little bit more flexible to accommodate people's needs.

Um And for me, like I've had designers who have worked remotely for years. I've had a designer who's working down in South America, another one in Paris, and um, I think that like we're I hope that what this virtual world that was created during allows us to do is accommodate um, you know, opportunities for women in a way that they're allowed to balance their lives a little

bit more so. I mean definitely one of the learnings coming out of this has been, you know what really matters to answer how that yeah, and to answer how that effects dressing? Like I think that when people are working from home, um, you know, they kind of want to do that like blazer and casual pant look you know, like I noticed that we're selling right now all these like wide leg pants but they have like kind of

elastic easy waste bands. You know. So it's like people want to be They're used to be uncomfortable, but they want to dress up again. I do think it's time to burn the sweatpants. Though for all the ladies listening to this, it's just say goodbye. Generation ago was burning bras. Now now it's definitely the sweatpants. What um, What Alison Olivia started with your search for the perfect pair of pants? You've told that story many times. What as you as

you kind of gradually built built this brand. What in the early days? What what was the important catalyst? What? What put Alison Olivia over the top and allowed you to open so many boutiques and have retail relationships. I think that our brand was always about kind of democratizing fashion a little bit for women, right. Our brand was about not like one whole look. It was about items and it still is that allow women to express their own self. And I always think about fashion as each

woman's art each day. It's how you express yourself. It's how you show to the world you are by what you know, it's your it's your startorial art. Um And when I started, you know, I didn't start saying, oh, I'm going to build a global empire and I'm gonna build full collections. I literally started because I was like,

I want to make really cool pants. And at the time, if you want a little fashion history, you know, you had like the denim world, like the Earls and sevens of the world, and then you had like designer, and then you had like real street, you know, like kind of more like H and M E kind of stuff

or Zora or whatever. You didn't have contemporary and theory really kicked off what is now known as the contemporary world of fashion, which is where you find fashion and you find you know, the designer made clothing but at a price point that's not like a ten dollar gown, um. And so I think where we came in at that time, unknowingly, you know, was sort of that we were entering that

itemized contemporary market. And in the beginning, contemporary was like kind of theory pants and suits James first t shirts and jeans, and we came in and started making dresses and beautiful blouses and things that were fancy to kind of pair back to all those items that the big guys were making. And from that we really grew. And you know, I still think of the sensibility of Alice and Olivia the same way as making these beautiful items that every woman who tries it on can wear in

her own way. You know, so you might wear a dress with a pair of heels, and another girl's putting it on with a pair of sneakers. Um, you know, my mom might wear our blazer back to her skinny jeans, and I might wear the blazer back to a ball down skirt. You know. And we've managed to sort of, hope, create clothes that allow women to express themselves with color, with print, and you know, their own and to really like sort of bring out their personality. I mean, that's

what that's what I love doing. I so love your use of bold color in and of itself makes a makes a bold statement for sure. Um, let's talk about creatively. You took the leap and launched a kind of social network, professional networking service for people in the creative community, and you launched it during the in the teeth of the pandemic. What what was it about that time that made you feel like it was the right time to unveil creatively?

So I felt that over the last several years when I was hiring people at Alison Olivia, it was really difficult to hire creative people. And the only way you really you know, looked at resumes or found people was on LinkedIn. And I'm like a most creative people aren't on LinkedIn and be LinkedIn is an amazing tool if you're hiring like a salesperson or an accountant, but when you're hiring a creative person, you need to see their world.

I feel weird going and like stalking someone's Instagram looking at their kids when I'm like trying to interview them. But you need to see their visual world, right, So you get a white piece of resume for someone who's making things in three D for you, and it just doesn't equate. And you know you can interview them or whatever, but you know you'd have to have three hours of you know, they having them to projects, having put together

a portfolio. And I just kind of one day said, there needs to be this professional network and job platform that is built for the creative world that is a portfolio driven tool that allows creatives to share their work in the most powerful way. And I like to describe it as almost the most beautiful free art gallery for the creative, which is basically a way to facilitate creative

showing their work. Um and it is not a place for creatives to share pictures, pictures of their children or what cocktail they're having or you know their political stance on you know, A B and C. It is truly just a safe place for creatives to share their works, show their work, collaborate on their work, and to find work. So it is a job platform, it is a UM

you know, it is a professional network. And what's been really exciting is, you know, the response we've had from creatives that are so excited to have this tool, but also from brands who are now using it. We have over a thousand brands and come to is using the platform not just in fashion and all industries to find creative talent and higher creative talent. We'll take a break here and be back with more from Alice and Olivia and Creatively founder Stacy Benditt Eisner tell me what's the

business model behind We charge companies. We don't charge of the creative. The platform is totally free for creatives. We charge companies UM that we have different service levels where companies can use to UM. They can actually use Creatively

to set up projects so they can hire there. They're going to be able to hire creatives directly, but they can also post jobs UM just like they would on something like a LinkedIn or another professional network, so that's our Our model is similar to that, but we do not charge the creative. We only charge brands to use creatively um to to hire a you know, mobile global creative workforce, freelance and full time. That's the other difference.

It's like there wasn't really a we. We kind of filled this niche for creatives where we have a job. Most people don't post a job like listening for something freelance, it's just for full time. Whereas I'm creatively companies are encouraged to post both we're going to need somebody for six months on this specific for days here in Mexico. And if you have a specialty on this kind of graphics, so much the better. You can search by location, you

can search by category. How have you gotten this company on its feet? Have you funded it yourself? Did you go raise money? So in the beginning, I funded it myself, UM with my partner whose name is Reagan silver Um. And then since then we've done a little bit of fundraising. UM My father in law as an investor, Sherry Redstone's company as an investor. We have Lion Try as an investor.

So we've we've got some great minds and you know advisors behind us UM and you know, we we just started building it about two years ago and then we launched it a little bit earlier than expected. But last you know May, in the midst of the pandemic, all these students were graduating from schools. They didn't have jobs, they didn't have a weight and network UM. And so upon meeting with some of the schools, specifically through the CFTA in the fashion industry, UM, we just launched it

a little bit earlier than we thought. But we're able to allow all these students to put their portfolios places and apply for jobs like you can apply for jobs right through Creatively and we post hundreds, if not thousands of job listings a week. How did you get the word out at the beginning? So we launched it with you know press, I promoted it on social and a

lot of friends who promoted it. UM. You know, we have a you know Instagram account for Creatively, which we used UM and you know, we've just gotten a lot of you know, of of press because I think it's truly something that just hasn't existed in the world. You know, our job is really to facilitate jobs for creatives and to make it easier for companies to find and higher creatives. And our next venture, which we're launching this week, um,

you know, is our next step, creatively Pay. And creatively Pay is what I think, a big game changer UM in the world of hiring creatives, and a big game changer for creatives because what we're doing is eliminating what I think is one of the biggest pain points for creatives, which is getting paid, the long wait between invoice and being an accounts payable sending that check. Creatively Pay will be the fastest way for creatives to get paid for their work. They can get paid the same day for

their work. And not only that, but what creatively pay will um we're announcing it this week, but in the fall when we launch it, there will be ways for you to very easily invoice to schedule your jobs. We want to make life easier for creatives so they can

be creative. I felt so luck in my career to have you know, a sort of infrastructure around me and and and almost like a platform beneath me too, you know, handle a lot of like logistics and a lot of things on the business side, of my company so that I could be free to let my brain be creative. And I want to help other creatives have that, and I think this is a big part of it. I mean,

I hear from friends that I work with. You know, they're a photographer, they're a videographer, they're a hair person to makeup person, and sometimes they're waiting three months to get paid. So what we are doing is announcing a partnership with or um Um and we are the interim financing so that when you use Creatively pay, you're paid the same day and or Um is the liquidity so that companies can still have their thirty day terms or

whatever they need um. But the creative does not have to wait all of that time to receive a check for the work that they've completed. And does the company the companies that partner with Creatively to do this, do they have to pay an extra feed for that service happen, They have to be very fine. But for the first like several months or in the year um, there there is no fee and we will never charge the creatives

for this because that's the other issue. A lot of times creatives are getting chunks taken out of their paycheck from agents and managers, which is okay if that's if they're providing a service, but a lot of times like they're having you know, money taken out for other things when they're trying to get even paid on time. So we want to make things as positive and productive for the creative as possible. Um you know, orum will be will verify all of the brands that we're working with.

But if a creative says to a company, I want to get paid through creatively pay, it's very easy for the company to get set up to pay them through that and it's of no if it's of no pain to the to the brand either well as somebody who's been on the phone with freelancers desperately waiting by the waiting by the mailbox for that all important check. I can imagine that there will be some interest in this service.

I would imagine that there is a risk for you in this in the sense that not every invoices paid in full. How are you going to mitigate against the dig of the deal that falls through the job that gets paid a kill fee or a half fee. So there I mean, listen, They're going to be some things that are worked out over the next several months until

when we launched this in the fall. But Creatively is not Creatively as the facilitator of this, like we're the platform and we are the um you know, the kind of invoicing and payment front end, whereas Orum is the finance. They're like the bank. But Orum is this amazing, you know, new company that is changing the way that money moves around.

So there's also no the other fee that creatives not fee, but the lag time creatives haves is sometimes it takes five days for the bank to clear your payment to so Oorum's technology allows for there to be zero time for your money to clear through the bank, and it's providing the interim liquidity between the company and the creative UM. I mean, it's it's their responsibility to verify the brands

that are working with the creatives. So it's not like if a photographer does a job for a birthday party and it's an individual, like we're not getting in that game. It's about verified brands on Creatively that can use Creatively pay with creatives that would do that kind of business at the scale. What's it been like for you launching this kind of very I P based business versus Alison Olivia a very hard you know, making shirts and making starts.

I know, it's funny exactly like my my uh my main job is so tangible, right, Like it's touch, it's feel, it's you know what like and this is all kind of a little bit more um, you know in the ethos, right. So, um, it's been really exciting for me to work kind of

start up again, right. And but I think like I'm a sort of natural entrepreneur where even if you look at Alice Olivia, over the years, we've done so many entrepreneurial things, even though as a company we're almost twenty years old, like every year we're do something new, you know, we launched this, we did this collaboration. So there's a lot of kind of like startup energy in Allison Olivia still. But the difference is that I think with creatively, um,

you know, the whole company's virtual. I'm working with all these cool tech guys, you know, and and it's so different than my my life at Alice and Olivia that's filled with women in fabric and color and touch and fittings and it's I mean, it could not be more opposite. But it's still really creative um. That last startup of yours, Alison Olivia in you told a fashion magazine that it had grown to be a two hundred million dollar business.

You have expanded significantly since then. Can you give us the ballpark of what the business is to give numbers out and we definitely like cut back a lot in twenty but for this year probably around like two fifty million UM. And you know, I think the resizing that sort of happened in was this kind of I always try to look at things, is like the glasses have full, and it allowed us to like kind of just tighten things up in a way and change things without judgment.

Right Like every year it was like you had to grow, you have to grow, you have to be up you know, ten per cent or this, and in it was just kind of like, no, we've got to fix things and we've got to make things more efficient. And you know we've taken that time too to be able to like make the company more echo like our fabrics are waste are you know? Just everything became less about this, you know. Over I think the retail world for many years was about like grow, grow, grow, and you were kind of

living in that growth versus living in profit. And I like and I think that last year what we did was slim things down to actually become more profitable, which was sort of nice. So, um, you know we're not you know, we're probably what like bigger than we were, but we are way more efficient. So are you and your partner Andrew Rosen? Are you still the principal owners of the business? We are? And he's amazing. I mean I feel like, um, I'm so lucky. I mean, I

my creatively team, I love I picked good work partners. Um. So Andrew has been my partner for almost twenty years, right, he's I mean, like I mean through the pandemic. I can't tell you what I could like actually like cry thinking about it because there were some really tough times. But he was the most incredible support as a like a friend, as like a big brother, and as a partner,

and he really helped us get through. I mean it's complicated getting through all the financial you know sort of runaround of you know, loans and and you know all everything. It was crazy, the ppe loans. Um. He's an amazing not just retailer and entrepreneur, but he's an incredible friend. So I feel really lucky to have that and my creatively team to like my CEO of Right Get Rich

amazing guy, my chief product officer amazing. So I I'm surrounded by by some good good business partners, business business, less business lives. Stacy, you have no shortage of drive and ambition and it's wonderful. What do you think One thing that I know is often talked about a peer at Alan company is the for all the progress, there's still relatively few of you, relatively few CEOs of really big, successful,

influential brands. And I know it's a tough question, but do you have any thoughts about what it will take to bring more women into the c suite? Well, I have a lot of thoughts on it, so we might have to do another interview. Um, but I think, listen, balancing work and children is not easy, and you know it is. It is not simple and it is not easy. But companies need to create environments that allow for you know, women to have a little bit of flexibility to succeed.

And they also need and I think women need to root for other women. You know, I think so often as a culture, when you know a woman is in the press, the press is waiting to take her down. And that is what needs to change. You know, we need to like be proud of women for being ambitious. We need to be proud of women for being successful, and we need to you know, like we need to allow for it a little bit more. And and I think that when you look around this conference, yeah, it's

still mostly men and that does need to change. But we need to start that from the early years. You know, we need to encourage women to stay in the workforce through the first years of having kids, because once you leave the workforce during that time, it is really hard to get back in it like an upper level. And I see it all the time because you know, you have a baby, You're like, I'm gonna take your two off.

Then you have another baby, and then all of a sudden, you're like the world's moved really quickly during those years of babies. And the best advice I can give is, you know, and I can't even say that I did a great job of this because I was kind of always like I'm gonna do all of it. And you know, women, hut, women and men need to be collaborative in their parenting

and caregiving efforts. Like there needs to be a standard that changes where it's not always the mom that has to run to school, or always the mom that has to take the kid to the doctor, or the mom that has to do this. It has to be collaborative parenting.

And I think that's actually a really big part of women being able to make it to the upper levels because women tend to take on all of the home duties and work and then you know, you're fried, you're tired, you're exhausted, and at some point you maybe give up or you know, want to work part time or you know,

lose the ambition to get up here. Um. And and I think that you know, that starts with kind of like societal training, that parenting is parenting between man and man, man and woman, woman and woman, but it is two people that are responsible for that work. And luckily I have a husband who like is really present dad. Right. But um, but that's one thing. And then the other thing is that companies need to create environments that allow

women to succeed. You know, like I don't expect women to be at dinners at eight o'clock every night, because I know they need to go home and they want to be with their kids for bedtime. You know, we're flexible, especially like I have a lot of women who, like, you know, as they became more senior executives in my company, like we have a tremendous amount of flexibility to allow them to kind of, you know, be a little more virtual. And I hope that this year encourages companies to see

that and allow for that too. Sorry I'm rambling, but I could go on about this for a very long time,

I can tell. And I was just thinking that if ever, there has been a there's been a period for learning about what, you know, what requires a person to physically be in an office versus you know what, what you can do in a situation that gives you more flexibility when you have rug rats running around And yeah, it's I mean, listen and I and I always preface these conversations with I know that I was privileged and lucky to have a lot of help when my kids were little.

I will say that the hardest years, or when your kids are like one, two, and three, once they're in school a full day, you can create this balance where you know, you sort of drop them off at school, you go to work, they maybe have an activity, everyone's home right. And you know, I really have always tried to reiterate the fact that Alice and Olivia that if you were at your desk pass like six or seven at night, like you're not managing your time well, because

we don't. You know, as a company, we really try to. We we want women to have a balanced life. That is so important to me as a woman, and it's important to me to nurture and really facilitate for the woman who work for me. But um, but the hardest years or when your kids are little, although I will say that as your kids get bigger, you have bigger problems. But the band aid won't fix everything that neosporin doesn't

like fix every every boo boo. But but you know, it's it's but companies have to you know, just as they're making efforts in terms of diversity and inclusion, they also have to be continuously making efforts to you know, make sure that they have more women involved and not just like oh I put a woman on my board, like you need women involved in your company in you know,

those sea level positions. Even in the fashion industry today, when they did a record a couple of years ago, um, it was like there was only like, I can't remember the exact personage, but the percentage of women in C suites in fashion was like only the number. When we look around, we see so many great examples, like yourself, of women thriving, and yet the numbers are just stubbornly low.

It's going to take time because you can't just pop women into the C suite, right, you have to bring them up and so that, you know, women need to be mentored and women need to be encouraged, women need to be inspired to stay in the workforce, and it's going to take, you know, five or ten years to start to see that all really changed. I do think the efforts being made, and I do think we will

start to see it. But you can't just all of a sudden have like all women in the C suite because you have them down, you know, at the mid level. You've got to absolutely have the foundation to succeed. Yeah. Absolutely, well, Stacy, my goodness, thank you so much for taking time out from this very heavy event to share your thoughts with us, and congratulations on the success of Alison Olivia and look

forward to seeing Creatively grow in the coming year. Yes, and everyone needs to check out creatively pay really appreciate your time. Thank you, thanks for listening. Be sure to leave us a review at Apple Podcasts. We love to hear from listeners, and be sure to tune in next week for another episode of Strictly Business