Inspiring Women Entrepreneurs Share Their Secrets to Success Rebecca Minkoff and Rosie Mercado share how they succeed through adversity and inspire women entrepreneurs.
By Carlos Gil
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If you walk through the women's section of a high-end department store these days, it's not uncommon to come across the Rebecca Minkoff brand, which sells everything from handbags to apparel.
However, before she and her brother grew their multi-million dollar fashion empire, Rebecca Minkoff was an early adopter to use social media which she credits to aid in the success of her early days when she had to max out her credit card to create her first bags because nobody would give her a business loan.
Today, Minkoff not only has built a brand that competes with other fashion giants such as Coach, Kate Spade and Tory Burch, but she's also actively the face of her brand digitally to the tune of over 800,000+ Instagram followers who not only get to interact with Minkoff daily, but shop directly within the Instagram mobile app -- one of the first fashion brands allowed by Facebook (Instagram's parent) to do so.
On the latest episode of Real Talk, which you can see above or on Facebook Watch, I sat down with Minkoff for a candid discussion around how she's grown her company over the last decade. During the interview, Minkoff shares how easy it is for anyone today to start a direct-to-consumer fashion brand of their own using Shopify and why influencer marketing has been critical for business growth.
To expand her brand's reach outside of social media where she has an active presence as its face, Minkoff has a podcast called Superwomen where, each week, she interviews successful women from all walks of life ranging from CEO's to artists. Minkoff credits staying in the know with tech as a big part of her rise as well as remaining connected to her target audience which is female consumers.
On the same episode of Real Talk at the Nasdaq MarketSite, Rosie Mercado stopped by to share how she handled rejection early in her career while weighing 420 pounds which she's since shed to becoming a model and the co-host of "Face the Truth TV" alongside Vivica A. Fox.
Mercado began her career as a radio personality because she didn't meet the look of what television executives wanted. She handled her rejection in stride by blocking out negativity mentally and today is inspiring young women to think positively by sharing her story along with a book that's in the works.
For more Real Talk, see the complete interview above or head over to Facebook Watch to follow and be notified when new episodes go live.
Watch more videos from Carlos Gil on his YouTube channel here. Follow Carlos Gil on Instagram @CarlosGil83.
