Interview with Jordana Guimaraes, Co-Founder , Fashinnovation Inc., United States

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CONVERSATION HIGHLIGHTS:

• Discover the one fundamental must-have for every budding business. 
• The benefits of democratizing content as a business and social impact strategy. 
• The one thing that can stop social and environmental progression. 
• Business strategies to go from rags to riches.
• The opportunities in the Fashion industry. 
• Two not-to-be-ignored keys to Fashinnovation’s sustainable business.
• Collaboration strategies to grow your business and impact.
• How do you take the emotion out of an emotional business? 

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Learn more or buy the book Make Your Contribution Count for you • me • we

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Interview with Jordana Guimaraes, Co-Founder , Fashinnovation Inc.; United States

Jordana Guimaraes has over 15 years of experience as a Marketing & Public Relations Director in the lifestyle & fashion industries. She was awarded 'Women of Inspiration' by Delivering Good in 2022. She's also the author of the book: It Can Be You: Humanizing Homelessness, as an inspirational and philanthropic project. As the Co-Founder of Fashinnovation alongside her husband/partner Marcelo Guimaraes - a global platform bringing Founders & CEOs together from the ecosystems of technology and fashion to adopt more sustainability throughout the supply chain. One of her career's many highlights was ringing the NASDAQ opening bell.

United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal(s) addressed:
#1. No Poverty, #2. Zero Hunger, #5. Gender Equality, #6. Clean Water and Sanitation, #8. Decent Work and Economic Growth, #9. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, #10. Reduced Inequalities, #11. Sustainable Cities and Communities, #12. Responsible Consumption and Production, #16. Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions, #17. Partnerships for the Goals

Social impact:
Fashionnovation marries fashion, tech, and sustainability. Jordana and her partner Marcelo created a community where affordability, structure, and sustainability in fashion meet. As part of their business mission, they give opportunities to talent in the Favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Jordana also advocates for sustainability and SDGs goals by sitting on the board of different organizations.

Website: https://fashinnovation.nyc/

Resources:  

Interview with Jordana Guimaraes, Co-Founder, Fashinnovation Inc., New York, United States

Note: This interview is transcribed using AI software, which means, the transcription is not perfect. Watch the video or listen to the podcast to hear our guest’s wisdom in her own words. If you want to see more interviews like this, please comment below!

[00:00:00] Suzanne F. Stevens: Welcome to YouMeWe Amplified podcast. You’re in for a treat today. We interviewed Jordana Guimaraes. Who is a, co-founder of Fashinnovation. This is a second person in 12 years that we’ve actually interviewed in the fashion and business and she’s from Brazil, but lives in New York. As you know, every interview is about what social initiative that Jordanna and her partner have been able to make.

You’ll discover the one fundamental thing that is an absolute must have for every budding business. The benefits of democratizing content as a business and social impact strategy. The one thing that can stop social and environmental progression, stay tuned to that one. Business strategies to go from rags to riches. The opportunities and the fashion industry. And to not to be ignored keys, to fashion innovation, sustainable business, and so, so much more. So check it out. I must admit, I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so much during a podcast. If you really want to see the laughter you better watch the video anyway, enjoy the podcast and be inspired to make your contribution count.​

 Welcome. Welcome to YouMeWe Amplified Podcast where we have conversations with sheIMPACTpreneurs addressing the United Nations sustainable development goals. These entrepreneurs are transforming where we live and work with sustainable social solutions. Each episode has actionable insights into what, why, where, and how to make a social impact. Whetheryou’re joining live or listening to the podcast, this is a great opportunity to be empowered to make your contribution count. Hello, I’m Suzanne F. Stevens. I’m an international speaker, author, a sheIMPACTpreneur community builder, and I’m extremely proud to say a multi-award winning IMPACTpreneur.

And guess what? Your host for YouMeWe Amplify today. So today we’re in for a real treat. A woman I met, I think a year and a half ago now. We had an opportunity to have a speaking engagement together and I loved so much what she was doing and I thought I have got to bring her to the podcast. So we’re with Jordana Guimarães, and she’s a phenomenal woman who is the co-founder of Fashinnovation Inc.

Where they merge fashion, tech and yes, the big word, sustainability. So you know why I love her already. Fashinnovation is a global platform, connecting voices from the fashion and innovation ecosystem, encouraging a more sustainable and inclusive industry. The fashion industry inspires technology, facilitates and entrepreneurship makes it all happen, doesn’t it always.

That’s why I love interviewing entrepreneurs. And as part of the business mission, not only have they built a brand around sustainability, technology, and fashion, but they also create a bigger social impact by, providing opportunities to talent in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Jordana also advocates for sustainability and the sustainable development goals from the United Nations by sitting on the board of different organizations.

First and foremost, welcome Jordana to the show. Great to have you.

[00:04:07] Jordana Guimaraes: Thank YouMeWe so much, Suzanne. I’m really happy to be here. I remember meeting you and thinking, wow, what a powerhouse, and so it means a lot, the words coming from you, and I’m thrilled to be here today.

[00:04:18] Suzanne F. Stevens: What is the catalyst for you and Marcel, your partner in love and life to start Fashinnovation?

[00:04:25] Jordana Guimaraes: So it’s really funny you asked that question, but I think it’s all about sometimes looking for needs, right?

In different industry. We don’t come from fashion or tech, which is ironic. But we did find a white space five years ago where we were going to a lot of events in New York and seeing a lot of different industries and different types of people on stage. But we never saw an event where there were CEOs and founders in the tech side and the fashion side coming together on the same stage, let alone even sometimes the same event to speak about where the future of fashion was headed.

And so when we saw that, we were like, Would this work? Would people want this? So we just went for it. And proof of concept, we said, let’s just do an event and see what happens. And if there’s a need for it, people will be drawn to it immediately. So just started cold emailing and then, yeah, everything else came after that, which is a crazy journey that we’ve been on and just five years.

But we saw that really from like founder of Shopify, directors of nasa, VP of engineering at Google, partners at I B M, to be able to cold email those individuals and within hours get them to say, yes, I’ll speak at your event. With us having no website on the internet, no one could find us on Google and having these big companies want to participate.

We were like, there’s something here that they’re looking for, that they’ve been meeting and no one has filled that need. So really that’s how it all came about. And then everything ever since was just been a journey.

[00:05:52] Suzanne F. Stevens: So let’s focus on the social impact of the business. First of all, congratulations on finding a need, but you did something different.

You have values embedded into fashinnovation and particularly you encourage more sustainable and inclusive industry. So share how sustainability is promoted and measured within your organization?

[00:06:16] Jordana Guimaraes: Yeah. So I have to say that when I think of the word sustainability, I automatically think of people.

And then when you think of people, I automatically of course think of diversity, equality, inclusion, and all the things that come with that. so I think for us from day one, because we’re all from Brazil, so my whole team, myself, my husband, we were born and raised in Brazil. And in Brazil there’s this very strong

warmth, that we have and relationships that we like to form and we just have this love for people. So I think leading with that has really been the key to our success. Because of course for us it’s all about people first, relationship first, social impact comes with that. And then profit is, we are for profit, but we lead with people and relationships.

So I think the way that we measure it is really by how far we’ve been able to take, how we think of sustainability and attaching that to people and how far we’ve been able to get globally with that mission. So for example, just from when we started to today, the way that we measure it. Is today we have over 160 countries that are signed up to receive our content that are engaged with us when we have events for this upcoming Monday.

When we have an upcoming event in a month, we have speakers in the Philippines and Bangkok and Saudi Arabia and Argentina, in Ghana, in Brazil. So like it’s broad in terms of the world coming together. That’s how we measure it because we look at what other companies are doing and everyone is doing great, but it’s very rare to have platforms that don’t focus just in the region in which they live, or the regions in which you’re most spoken about when it comes to an industry like fashion.

So really that’s how we’ve approached the whole sustainability angle more really from a people perspective.

[00:08:00] Suzanne F. Stevens: Really no wonder we like each other, because we’re both doing a similar thing. I’m amplifying the voices of sheIMPACTpreneurs internationally that people don’t hear from because they often go to names or celebrities or people they know. And yet the people that are transforming the world for the better are people like yourself and many other, there’s men, nonbinary, there are all kinds of people transforming the world. I have chosen to elevate and amplify the messages of people, women particularly ‘because I want to empower more women.

 Tell me specifically, beyond the getting people involved, tell us how you are sustaining people. Tell us more about that so we get a really clear picture of what that looks like in your organization?

[00:08:49] Jordana Guimaraes: There’s a lot of moving parts in our business, right?

[00:08:52] Jordana Guimaraes: But one of the key things outside of sustainability for us is entrepreneurship. And so my husband, who’s my business partner, Marcello, he comes from Endeavor, which is a not-for-profit globally that allows companies to scale through mentorship systems. When we started fashinnovation, we had this idea, right?

And then with that idea came “what if we became the endeavor of fashion? The endeavor of fashion tech.?” “So really allowing these entrepreneurs to grow not only through our mentorship that we possibly could give them with feedback that we get from the bigger corporate companies that are also part of our ecosystem, but also allowing them to attend our events.

Like all of our events are free. We do that on purpose because we wanted to democratize the information so that everyone has access to it, And at the same time, when it comes to like up, like keeping those relationships alive, not always thinking. Because I think when you always think about business and you look at someone that you know that you can help them, be it through social, economic status, be it through their business that you’re building, but how, in whichever way you want to help them.

A lot of people they think, can I make money off of this person? And if that person can afford it in that moment or ever, they’re going to be like, no, because I need to grow my business. Where really we think of it in a different way. We think of it, we, this will actually allow us to grow more if we give this education, this inspiration, this, capability of someone who’s starting and has no budget, to be able to introduce them to an enterprise company C-suite, that can give them tips and tricks that they’ve used to grow, which most successful people we’ve found are willing to give their time.

They’re willing to give their, what they know for that other person to also have a chance to grow. So I think it’s just like in maintaining the relationships, no matter whether or not it’s profitable in terms of like our revenue model. And also not only maintaining them, but allowing them to grow so that eventually we can do more with them.

And even if we can’t, just so that we as an industry grow in the right direction. Like we all need to help each other. We all need to support each other. We all need to collaborate with each other if we’re going to be an industry that we’re all looking to have in the future. So that’s how little things that we do.

[00:11:04] Suzanne F. Stevens: I love what you’re saying, people are coming first and they’re, you’re offering the education for free. That’s your social initiative right there. That being said, one of the reasons I’m interviewing you or having this conversation is you’re a for-profit organization. Yeah.

Because that’s actually who I have conversations with. And as you said, you are for-profit. So if you are giving away the knowledge in creating these relationships, where is your income stream coming in to support the energy, the time, and the execution of all of that? So where is the profit coming from?

[00:11:45] Jordana Guimaraes: We’ve definitely grown quite a bit in five years and it’s very exciting. and really the way that we do it is we’ve found that if we give the education at no cost and we allow that to be democratized, through that education relationships are built.

And also through to an education sometimes let’s say. I’m going to give an example, I think this would be easier. So let’s say there’s a startup company that’s doing a tech for fashion solution in Israel. They go to one of our events, they watch the event and they go, okay, so first what our social aspect is that they learn what the industry needs for them sometimes to adopt new things into their technology or to say, I have something here that the industry really needs, so I’m going to move forward.

Once they have that frame of mind and they know how to move forward to fit the pain points and the needs of the industry, then this is where we come in terms of the profit. Then they come to us, and then we have many things that we can do to form those relationships with the people that they’ve seen at our events or that they want to get further connected to.

[00:12:49] Jordana Guimaraes: And so what we do is we create projects. We always say we lead with education, which builds relationship and then organically turns into business opportunities. So that part is where we create things such as the mission trips that we do, the webinars that we put together, private dinners that we do for companies, activations that we can do internally in our events.

If you don’t want to just sit to get the education, but you want to do more in terms of building those relationships. So this is where the profit part comes in. And this is where we can really help any business that wants to get in front of the industry fashion saying, but not necessarily to go into whatever it is that we do with them and say, I do this.

It’s amazing, you should buy it. But rather, create a conversation around the pillar of what they do. Be the thought leader in that pillar, and then allow that person that we’re reaching out to, to be a part of that project that we’re compiling for them to organically say, wow, you know a lot about this topic.

Maybe you know somebody, or maybe you are the company that I need to do this. And then that’s where the value comes in from them paying us to create these projects for them. This is our business model today. Is these activations and opportunities.

[00:14:01] Suzanne F. Stevens: Love it. Love it. And it’s interesting too. When you say sustainability and I wondered if you incorporate from an environmental standpoint of sustainability, Products.

 Is that at all consideration in who you collaborate with? So tell, can you tell us a little bit about that?

[00:14:21] Jordana Guimaraes: Yeah, so I looked at the word sustainability when, first, like I’ve always known about it, but then it started getting talked about a lot and everyone had a different definition and it was very hard to keep up with, what was it, what wasn’t.

So I always said, we do our best of course to bring speakers that can really speak on that and shape that for the industry. But at the same time, sustainability to them, to someone else could be greenwashing. it’s very tough right? To manage. So with that being said, we came up to a point where we said we’re a platform where we hear all of the different points of views and we put you all together in a room so that you can either agree or discuss on them.

There’s never like fighting, there’s never disrespecting each other, but just open narratives and shift perspectives. And I think that’s super important in the industry because I feel like the fashion industry, I see it as an industry where it’s very quick to, if one company does something that’s wrong, that company is going to be put on blast today and there’s a cancel culture around, right?

[00:15:24] Jordana Guimaraes: Which is okay, this company did this one time, we can never like this company again. So no matter how much that company tries to do, the industry is just always going to find something in that good thing to turn it into a negative because they did something bad once. I don’t necessarily agree with that. Because I think if we keep doing that company that’s trying to get out of the bad that they did to start to get better and nothing happens overnight, and if we keep this cancel culture up, that company’s giong to say, “ah, I give up.”

I’m not even going to try because no matter what I do, it’s not good enough,” and they’re never going to, get better. They’re never going to want to improve because they don’t have that opportunity. So this is where we’ve decided to be like this platform where we do invite all voices and sometimes we do have, controversies in people that speak and some we’ve had, speakers that said, oh, this person has spoken, so I’m not going to speak at your events anymore.

That’s too bad. But we do try to explain where we were coming from and sometimes that explanation will shift their perspective and they’ll be like, maybe then you’re right. Maybe I’ll give it a chance. So those things I think also do make a difference. And then on the side of environmental, we’re partnered today with a lot of companies that like Waste Wears is one of our latest partners, where they take a hundred percent waste materials from manufacturing companies in India and they turn it into new textiles.

And it’s incredible what they do. So now when we do events, all of our gift bags are created by waste wear. And then in the bag, it also explains what it is so that other companies can look at it and say, oh, maybe I can use this in this way. So this is one of our partnerships. And then we also partner with Bog Water at our event.

So we make sure that in terms of in terms of tangible things, we have the right partners that can help us with the products that we need to really keep pushing that message forward.

[00:17:11] Suzanne F. Stevens: I use sustainability as well. The word itself means anything that can be sustained.

So I’m talking about businesses that can be sustained. That’s what I’m talking about. Because often when people come together and they’re, they think they can, they want to make a social impact, but they don’t know how they can sustain the social impact number one, and they don’t know, they can say sustain their business through the social impact.

So that’s where I try to help them say, hold it. There’s a business case and a personal case of meaning that you can have a social impact and benefit your employees, benefit your customers, your collaborators. It extends and extends. So I particularly like that you’ve chosen a collaborator that is, is doing an environmental sustainable initiative to educate.

But you’re Switzerland, everyone has a voice. Exactly. Can you give us some examples of how you’ve been able to amplify your beneficiary who may have not been able to be successful, like those people in Brazil or those fashion people in smaller communities, perhaps in Africa or in India or wherever, that may not have had an opportunity, but because of your platform, they’ve received exposure and have had an opportunity.

[00:18:33] Jordana Guimaraes: Yeah, no, for sure. I just had a recent case that was like super exciting and I’m really hoping to do more with this, because I saw the power just in one person and I’m like, okay, we could do this with so many others. About two years ago, or maybe two and a half years during C O V I D, we did a campaign in Brazil, where we partnered with an organization called re, where they take talent from the Favelas of Rio models, makeup artists, filmmakers, everything.

And they, bring them for these opportunities for these jobs that come up once in a while in Brazil. We did a campaign, they were incredible. They came out beautiful. And one of the models we became very close to because he reached out for help post a campaign, saying the campaign was amazing.

But on a day to day, as much as I tried, there’s no opportunity given to me because of who I am. What I look like. So we actually ended up, even though he didn’t speak English at all, and we’re a US-based company, we found something internally that he could do and be a full-time team member of ours.

So we ended up hiring him for that position. I always kept my ears open because at the end of the day, really his dream is to be a model. So even in Brazil with who he is, he’s trans, he’s African American, like a lot of things in Brazil still being, there’s racism and different things there.

Very tough for him as much as he tries and as hardworking as he is. So I went to an event during New York Fashion Week in February, and I just overheard someone speaking about a campaign in Brazil. And of course, right away I’m like, this is my chance. So I told this individual, I said, I worked with this incredible group from the Favelas.

Long story short, This campaign that this gentleman was doing in Brazil, the name of the company is Bottle Top. and he was actually doing this campaign to share stories of people in Brazil with the UN and creating this huge campaign around it. So he ended up using this gentleman that worked with us and many others of his colleagues in the Favelas.

And it was just incredible to see how one opportunity like that went from this person that no one ever listens to, no matter how hard he tries. To now being internationally recognized through this campaign and what that does for him in his life. And just having that’s not even so much what that one job is going to do for the rest of his life, but it’s more the belief that it reinstalls in him to keep going. Because that’s very hard for a lot of people. So that’s just one, of the things that, we’ve done recently that I was so excited about. So as you say, the sustainability aspect of maintaining a business that is focused around what we do, is a challenge, especially when you want to put relationship first.

Because as soon as you talk about money is as if though people think, you’re my friend, why are you charging me? So I actually started getting an answer for that as well. So I think this will help a lot of people watching because I know as a startup you want to, have everyone like you. And sometimes you’re like, oh, you don’t have to pay me.

I used to do this when I started. And then I would then I moved from, you don’t have to pay me to, you know what, this is 10,000, but for you only have a thousand. Okay, I’ll do it. And these are huge companies that I know have more than a thousand. But today, having the belief and seeing what I’ve been able to do for people through the money that I make, which is very impactful.

I now say to these individuals that try to do things for free with us, and they’re huge companies, I say, “here’s the problem. So just like you, founder to founder, you are for-profit. I’m for-profit. If I don’t charge you and you value and you take the value from what I’m going to give to you for free, you’re going to keep growing and we’re going to have to shut our doors.

So I’m not no longer going to have a business.” The minute I shift the conversation to that, where I thought in the past the person would be like, no business for you. They actually respect you more, and then they actually want to do business with you and they pay you what you’re worth.

 I think it’s very hard when you’re in a social sustainable fashion business. But I think YouMeWe just have to start relating to them, even though they know. But once they see that you understand and they see that you’re not, it shifts everything.

You just have to be honest.

[00:22:37] Suzanne F. Stevens: That is such an important piece. I was spinning today and, before our conversation and, there, there’s one of these things that’s coming through my mind again and like yourself, women entrepreneurs. I can’t speak for all entrepreneurs, but we get asked to do things for free constantly. And as a speaker, a professional speaker, I get asked to speak for free for women empowerment, all the time. And I’m thinking, how can I empower when you won’t empower me? Yeah. The value system isn’t working and yet almost every women focused opportunity does not want to pay their speakers.

So I appreciate your comment. I found when I was working with organizations that were more corporate, they need to pay, but these women organizations don’t pay. And it’s just very frustrating. Because I’ve got to eat, like you said, you are going to be successful and I’m going to be closing my doors. (end of payment post)

I just love. Love that analogy. Now there’s a quite a few places I want to go with you, but I would be very much remiss if I did not mention your book. It can be you humanizing homelessness. What inspired this philanthropic project and how does that relate to some of the other initiatives that you’re doing?

[00:24:09] Jordana Guimaraes: Thank you for bringing that up by the way. I had a very kind of full circle moment where this book came about and I feel like it all happened for that book to come out. But I was born in Rio, Brazil, and I was born in a very affluent household, so I really had everything and more growing up.

but I remember I would walk out on the streets and in Rio is very, you have the very wealthy and a very poor, like right next to each other. I would go out of the house when I was 2, 3, 4, 5 years old, really young age. And I would walk down the street with my dad. I would see someone and I would be like, dad, let’s buy him a blanket.

Dad. Let’s buy him lunch. Dad, let’s buy. It was just instilled me from a little kid. And it was something that like, I really like just, I don’t know. it felt wrong not to try to help. So I would do that all the time. And then growing up,I saw where people could have downfalls and how money can not be there when you think it’s always going to be there.

And then fast forward to when I started the business, Fashinnovation, for the first year was exactly proof of concept. So no one knows you. People are not going to pay. Sponsors are not going to trust you to pay. They want to see what you’re going to do before they start paying. So for a full year in growing the business, because we did it full time, when we started with two babies at home, we got over ourselves and came to a day,

and this was four years ago now, where we woke up and we were three months behind in rent. There was no way we were going to catch up and we didn’t know where that money was going to come from. So literally we lost everything. We literally just packed little bags. We left all our furniture, house, kids, everything.

We just took the clothes that were necessary and we went to Brazil and we lived with my husband’s mother for eight months in a one bedroom apartment. All of us together. And at that time we had the eight months where we really believed in Fashinnovation and we’re like, we’re going to get over this hump.

Your mom is helping us. Thank God. Because we didn’t even have money to go to the supermarket and buy groceries for the house, for his mom and us. It was like a moment. And it was definitely the biggest struggle that I’ve gone through in terms of what could happen to people.

And this could happen to anybody because it happened to us. And you know, regardless of my life before that. So, with all of that happened, and then of course eight months later, thank God we, people started believing. We really pushed it hard. We got back on our feet. We moved back to the U.S.

Now we’re doing great knock on wood. And like things really turned around for us and we really worked hard to show people that this really was something that needed to be. But through those eight months, coming from very wealthy family background to then seeing how fights and things could happen because of money and having this love hate relationship with it. To then starting the business and losing everything and having to explain to our kids why they were going to go back to no toys, nothing that they knew throughout their first two, three years of their lives, to then recouping everything.

I was like, this really could happen to anyone. Had it not been for his mom or family, my family that also supported us when we were there and everything, we would be homeless.

So that’s really how the book came about and super passionate about it and super open to sharing my story because I think that’s how you build up others that could be going through the same thing.

[00:27:20] Suzanne F. Stevens: And, thank you for sharing because the truth of the matter is a lot of people are right now. COVID was very hard on so many entrepreneurs and small businesses, and people in general. But it really was so hard that people were trying to keep the doors open and many didn’t. Many didn’t, many had to pivot their businesses.

I did. We had to change our financial situation up, which means I don’t have my husband working with me as much as he used to. But you have to do it. So I can thank you for sharing the story. Because it’s real. Now I’m curious, after that eight months, what turned in order for you to start climbing out of the situation?

[00:28:01] Jordana Guimaraes: I think really a few things. When we started the business, it was the first time we were both acting as like entrepreneurs of really building a corporation. I was a solopreneur for many years in my past life, I always say, but as a publicist. But this is the first time of building an actual business.

And in our minds we were like, to build a business, you automatically have to hire a team. And like all these different processes and internal things that we thought we needed as a business, when in reality we didn’t. So first it was just like getting rid of a lot of things that we thought we needed to implement. And when we did get rid of it and then really just focused on what we needed to focus on, that was definitely key for sure, because then of course, takes cost away of what we had at that time.

And then another thing, we wrote down the name Fashinnovation on a piece of paper and within two months of just coming up with the name of the company, we hosted our first event with over 40 speakers, 500 guests.

Everything was free to everyone. Everything out of pocket. So then having that, we started thinking, how do we use what we did do, which wasn’t much, but there was proof of concept there, to really build out small packages that companies don’t have to fully trust us, but they can say, I’m going to try it,

because it’s not that big of a gamble. And I’ve seen what they were able to do in just two months. So being able to build out these new, smaller projects, getting that money in, of course saving for us to be able to come back. But also getting rid of things that we automatically think you need when we start a business and you don’t. Which I think is a big thing, right?

When you see a lot of people wanting to start a business, they’re like, I need a million dollars investment. And you’re like, for what? what? What’s that for? Because in reality, if it’s not a product business, it’s a service business. you don’t really need that much. You’re starting, but we thought the opposite.

[00:29:44] Suzanne F. Stevens: That’s a huge learning. You don’t need all the things, to be all the things. I’m fascinated with the timeline on that. When did Fashinnovation idea come at the end of the eight months, or at the beginning of the eight months?

[00:30:00] Jordana Guimaraes:

The beginning. So we came up with the idea July, 2018. My husband came home from another event that he was at and said, I have an idea. And the first event that we did was September, 2018. So literally July, August, September, the event happened and it was all through just cold emails. We had 40 speakers and it included United Nations, Shopify, Google, F.I.T., Levi’s. All these huge companies.

And it was all cold email directly to that CEO that we wanted on stage. And this is when they were replying back saying Yes. But of course, in terms of getting a sponsor, it was our first event ever. So no matter how big the name was on stage that we were getting, no one was willing to really pay to participate.

So then that was out of pocket. But it was, it was a good move because it obviously, gave the credibility that we needed to build out those projects in the eight months of struggle. And it was maybe, I can’t say it wasn’t the smartest move. I was about to say it wasn’t the smartest because then we did lose everything because we put so much money out.

We needed to do it.

[00:31:05] Suzanne F. Stevens: yeah, It’s tough, right? Because what comes first, that chicken or egg kind of thing. But at the same time, there is that all that work that gets done up front and then the reality, we often, what can happen, I don’t know if this happened to you, but when you have success, you think it’s going to continue.

 You do an event. People love it and you’re thinking it’s going to. Unfortunately it, it’s not necessarily the case. Like then you’ve got to get creative and innovative and create a whole system, which is what now you have done. from the sounds of it to do that.

 Now going back to the beneficiary, the people that you’re giving free education to, why do you think when you started Fashinnovation why was the concept important to them then?

[00:31:57] Jordana Guimaraes: If you’re at an event that is not fashion related, but you say you’re in fashion in that event and everyone else is not in fashion, they don’t take you seriously.

It’s really interesting. They’re like, oh, that’s cute clothes, that’s cool. Meanwhile, fashion is the biggest business in the world. And so that kind of fascinates me how people have this mentality behind it if you’re not in it. This is why I think, these huge companies said yes to sending very high C-suites, if not CEOs and auditors to speak at an event that they knew nothing about.

Because we did see that white space, in terms of like really showcasing fashion as a business and then really also showcasing how much fashion needs in terms of solutions and ideas from different industries to bring into fashion for the industry to be able to move forward. And so I think, that education was always necessary. We’ve had a lot of people that have attended our events as students and now started companies and they’ve come to us and said that their companies were inspired due to conversations and what they’ve seen in Fashinnovation.

That’s, I think where the education is very beneficial to a lot of people.

[00:33:03] Suzanne F. Stevens: This is interesting because not only elevating the individual, but you’re elevating the industry as a whole. Why is what you offer important today? Why do those beneficiaries need it now, or do they need it now more than ever?

[00:33:21] Jordana Guimaraes: A hundred percent. So first, the industry right now is a big question mark. There’s so many changes, and you’re seeing some of the biggest companies, and even like mid-tier, let’s say, enterprise. You’re seeing them figuring out ways to change, to engage the consumer more. There’s so many things that need to happen due to the changes because of Covid, a lot of those changes are because of Covid and bringing the consumer back, engaging them more E-commerce is something that now everybody needs to work before retail.

So people shifting to that. So I feel like right now, more than ever, people need to know about the solutions that exist, especially also in sustainability, because a lot of brands are like, I don’t know what to do to be sustainable. You’re not doing the right research and you’re not in the right places.

And I’m not saying that we’re the only in the only right place, but I’m saying that we’re one of those places where you could find out because all of the solutions that a brand needs throughout supply chain to be fully sustainable, let’s say 99.9, because no one, no brand is fully sustainable, but let’s say as sustainable as they can be, exists.

But the thing is that a lot of these companies and a lot of these individuals that have come up with things that could be like game changers, they’re startups. And the problem with the industry is that they’re not very quick early adapters and they like to see a colleague try it before they do. So a lot of times when we introduce them to an incredible solution, they’re like, that’s amazing.

Who’s using it? And if you say no one yet, they’re like, oh, so we’re going to wait for a little while to see how it works first before we adopt it. But then this is a problem. I think not only on the education front, but also because we’re huge advocates for connecting people. So one thing that makes us really different, I think, from many companies that do similar things, is that

a lot of people say oh, this is my IP this is my IP, so I can share this contact with you. Or This is my contact, so I can’t just introduce you like, I need to be there. They’re not willing to just be like, “Hey, you can do great things with this person connect. To where we do this all the time. And people have said things to me like, you’re going to live forever because you just give away your contacts. But they’re not my people. No one belongs to anybody. We’re all trying to connect with each other. We’re all trying to unify as much as we can so that we can help each other as much as we can, and we can come up with a solution.

I think on those two fronts, the education and what we do in terms of really truly connecting people, I think that’s why we’re growing so much because I haven’t seen anyone else been so open to want to do those things. And I think the industry finds it refreshing. We had someone ask me the other day, they were like, how many people do you have on your team for like talent?

And at the time, this was like two years ago, and I was like, it’s four of us in total. And they’re like four of you and you get, I remember this conversation, but they’re like, there’s four of you and you have Fern Mallis appear on a Saturday morning to do a pre-recording at an event and on a Saturday morning and it’s four of you reaching out to her.

I’m like, yeah, because we’ve built that relationship with her like many others. And it makes a difference when you really build a true friendship relationship with people to where they also want to see you grow. They see what you’re doing is impacting and then that just helps them want to impact more and connect more.

This is the only way forward.

[00:36:36] Suzanne F. Stevens: Let’s dive into that a bit. You do have some really cool collaborators ,and you’ve had them since day one and where you got them day one was you were giving them a platform that didn’t cost them anything. Things have changed. Yay. So do YouMeWe have any advice for our audience on what are three strategies that are important for collaboration?

[00:36:58] Jordana Guimaraes: So I would say the first thing is always make sure that there’s benefit on both sides. That’s super key. I feel like a lot of people go into collaborations because they see what you can do for them, but then what they do for you in return, you’re not really getting much or it the other way around. And I think that’s not fair and I, I just don’t think that’s a good collaboration.

So that’s number one. Number two, is really getting to know not only the company, but the person. Sometimes we forget that there’s a person here, right? If I say, oh, I’m speaking to Kenneth Cole, people are like, wow, Kenneth Cole. But they’re not thinking of Kenneth person, they’re thinking of Kenneth, the brand.

Those are two completely separate things. So I think it’s really allowing that time if you’re granted that time by that person to get to know them on a personal level. It changes the whole game in terms of when that collaboration does happen. so that’s definitely something that I think is very easy to do when you’re looking at these celebrity personas.

One more thing would really be maintaining throughout that collaboration, making sure that you’re in the know of the changes that are happening so that sometimes you can either adopt new things that you can put into that collaboration, take away things that are no longer working. But also realizing when a collaboration has, like some of them have a deadline, right?

An expiration date. So like realizing when it’s like time to part ways and in a good way, and then being able to just transfer them to other colleagues of yours that can then take that over. So I think those would be the three things that really come to mind.

[00:38:29] Suzanne F. Stevens: Fabulous. Thanks for that. So I have to ask, how did you get on the NASDAQ ringing

the bell? Isn’t that

[00:38:35] Jordana Guimaraes: crazy? I

[00:38:38] Suzanne F. Stevens: like how you, just like I own the world!

[00:38:45] Jordana Guimaraes: I felt that way. How that come to be. So funny story with that. So they did invite us. This was like on them, it wasn’t us saying can we ring the bell? First I will say that it did start with us creating again, here it goes, creating a relationship with an NASDAQ team. So every event that we did, from, I would say our second event.

It wasn’t like that much further down the line. We started reaching out to NASDAQ and saying, Hey, we have this event we’d love to have you guys as guests. We have this event. We’d love to have you as guests. Oh, check this out that we’ve done. So just keeping them up to date, creating relationships. They went to our events.

We would have conversations getting to know the person, so the person that was in charge and all these things. So just really we, we had this relationship where they would come to our events, they would have a great time, we would talk to them on a personal level, have a drink with them at the after parties. Just create that relationship.

And then during COVID they reached to us and they said, “Hey, so we’ve been noticing that a lot of your speakers are NASDAQ held companies and it’s pretty impressive how many of them you have in your platform. And it’s pretty impressive, like how you guys keep growing and bringing the world together, And they said, we do have these moments where sometimes people that ringed a bell, they’re not available. So then it’s an empty slot, and then we invite someone to take over that empty slot. Would you guys be interested if this ever comes up? I was like, yeah, we would. So literally for two years, almost every fashion week, they would say, we might have one with this date work if it comes up.

And we would say, yeah, and it would never come up. And then it came to a point that we were like, it’s not going to happen. And then one day, this was like February, we finished our last event before this one is coming up now. And then we just got an email and they said The bell was available.

We’d love to have you come and ring the bell. And this is the power of relationship, so they gave us 24 hours to invite 75 people to be there with us for the moment. And in 24 hours we emailed all of our speakers. So we had, we emailed, business Insider, Tommy Hilfiger, Tiffany, and Co.

Everyone that we like, just emailed a ton of people. And in 24 hours we ended up getting 54 of our, community members, brands, technologists, media, FIT showing up for that moment. So it was incredible. That was a moment I’ll never forget.

[00:41:09] Suzanne F. Stevens: It would be remiss if I didn’t ask you about your partner. Being someone who’s worked with My love partner as well as my, my partner in work. How’s it going? Depends. Are you asking me now? Yes.

[00:41:28] Jordana Guimaraes: I’ll tell you, it’s not easy to work with a husband. Not easy. Like really not easy.

At the same time, it’s very gratifying when things do happen. I have to give him credit. He’s the brain behind of most of what at Fashinnovation, if not almost all. Like he really is genius with like ideas and how like sometimes I’ll wake up to emails from people that I’m like, how’d this person find us?

He is I couldn’t sleep last night. And I, so he is amazing. But at the same time we have very different personalities. So I’m very much kind of the relationship likes to have fun,type of I like to do what I like to do and what I don’t like to do. I tend to get maybe lazy at sometimes, or he is, and I’m okay with just if everybody’s happy, I’m happy.

But he’s really go big or go home. IPO, like he has like the vision set very high. So because of that difference in working, it’s very normal for you to have arguments. Especially with your husband. And I’ve come to learn, and he tells me this all the time, and finally it sunk in. But every time we have an argument and I get a very emotional and very emotive, which is not good.

And I really like in a ‘because he’s not at all, he’s very very like strong. So when we fight, or argue, I would say I cry. And then he is don’t take this personally. There’s the business Jordana and there’s the personal Jordana. I’m not speaking to the personal Jordana, I’m speaking to the business Jordana.

Nothing that I’m saying to you now has to do with the personal. So now that we’ve started setting those boundaries, it’s helped a lot. But it’s still not easy. But it’s fine.

[00:43:03] Suzanne F. Stevens: I’ll share something that was shared with me years ago and I share with many people I coach now, among many other things, is if you can receive information and just see it as information, That’s a good one because. You’re emotional and I am as well.

and just see it as this is information you can choose to accept or deny. I love it. It allows for that, a bit of that buffer for you. A friend of mine Deri shared that with Me years ago, so a big shout out to Deri. because I know she listens to my podcast. I’ve used it in my coaching.

I live it, I breathe it. I remind my husband of it. Because it’s so powerful. It allows you to remove yourself from, because let’s face it, marriages can be very emotional and the best ones that opposites attract in personality, not in values.

[00:43:52] Jordana Guimaraes: Yeah, hundred percent. And I love what you just said.

Accept it or deny it. I’m going to start using that. I’ve never thought about it in that way. Yeah. Because I tend to accept everything and then I’m like, but I don’t agree. But I accept it and then it hurts me and it’s a whole thing.

[00:44:06] Suzanne F. Stevens: So we’re going to dive into our 10 in 10. All right. So this is going to be a challenge because 10 in 10 means 10 questions and only 10 seconds to answer it.

Okay, I got it. All right. Which means it’s short and it’s sharp. Do you agree to the terms of engagement, Jordana?

Yes, I agree. I’m ready. I like it. Challenge. What is one thing you wish you knew prior to engaging down this path of your organization, but particularly the social impact it is making?

[00:44:44] Jordana Guimaraes: I wish I would’ve done more. Knowing that I didn’t need as much to make those things happen.

[00:44:52] Suzanne F. Stevens: Okay, so more research to make sure.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay, great. Thank you. What is the worst piece of advice you’ve ever received?

[00:45:03] Jordana Guimaraes: It’s impossible. You can’t do it. I hate it when people say that.

[00:45:08] Suzanne F. Stevens: What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

[00:45:15] Jordana Guimaraes: Someone told me once the secret to success is to sometimes shut off your brain, take out your heart and place it in your hands. Magic happens.

[00:45:25] Suzanne F. Stevens: Amen. What is one piece of advice you would give to an entrepreneur who wants to have a social impact?

[00:45:33] Jordana Guimaraes: That the more you grow your business and the harder you hit on the profit side, the more opportunities you can give in the long run.

So that’s really what ends up being sustainable, and you can give back a lot more that way.

[00:45:46] Suzanne F. Stevens: What’s your best leadership advice?

[00:45:50] Jordana Guimaraes: It is really, it sounds cheesy, but anything you set your mind to is truly possible. To look at something that we’ve built with no resources and to today be doing all of these things that we’re doing with all the context that we’re doing it with. It’s really about persistence and passion. (social – what two things do you need to focus on to grow your business?)

Persistence and passion. Focus on those two things, can’t go wrong,

[00:46:12] Suzanne F. Stevens: Okay. What would be your best leadership advice to lead a team of people?

[00:46:18] Jordana Guimaraes: (social – leadership addvisce – i like it) I would say treat them as friends, but draw a line in terms of like when it’s business and when it’s fun. But definitely do have that fun and that friendship involved in leading a team so that they trust you enough to be fully themselves, because that’s when you can take the best aspects of who each person is and adopt that into your business to make your business more successful.

[00:46:42] Suzanne F. Stevens: Now, I know you have a children, Jordana, but I do not know if you have a boy or girl , but do you have a child that’s 10 years old or

[00:46:50] Jordana Guimaraes: near that?

[00:46:51] Suzanne F. Stevens: I have five and seven, two girls. Okay. So this, but they act like they’re 16,okay. So this is a good question for you to prepare for the next few years. If you had a daughter who was 10, 10 is a very important time for a young girl, what advice would you give to her?

[00:47:08] Jordana Guimaraes: So this is something I already tell my kids now, but it is, and this is to anybody, but to 10 year olds. Listen to your inner voices much more than you ever do to your outer voices, because internally you’re here. You’re meant to be here for a reason. You’re you because you’re you. And that’s what makes you unique.

So I think listening to yourself and believing in yourself in every aspect of who you are is going to allow you to understand where you want to go in your life. That’s what I would say.

[00:47:42] Suzanne F. Stevens: Fabulous. What piece of advice do you wish you had when you were 10 years old?

[00:47:49] Jordana Guimaraes: That it’s okay not to be like everybody else.

And that it’s okay if I’m not evolving in the same timeframe as others are. I think that would’ve been crucial for

[00:48:02] Suzanne F. Stevens: me.

Okay, great, thank you. What is one thing you had to do that made you uncomfortable, but if you didn’t do it, you wouldn’t have had the desired impact on your social initiative?

[00:48:18] Jordana Guimaraes: I think there are two things. I think the main thing, that I would say that made me uncomfortable was when I was doing the homeless book, I had to go with the street team into the cities of Manhattan and give out meals and ask homeless individuals to allow me to sit with them and listen to their life story.

And I was not comfortable at all because in my mind they’re probably looking at me like, oh, look at this girl, she’s fine. And she’s asking me why I’m like this. But it was pretty impressive, the return that I got on that.

The other one is that during COVID when everything happened with Black Lives Matter,I wanted to speak about it, but I didn’t know if I had the right terminology and everyone was getting yelled at and people were really fighting because people were doing things, not using the right words. And I didn’t want to be that person.

So I went out of my comfort zone for sure in asking individuals of color that I know today and are really good friends of mine to help me understand the right terminology and to also help me understand the difference between, let’s say diversity and inclusion. Things that maybe I thought, by me asking this, they’re going to be like, this girl is very, ignorant, but actually was the opposite.

They were like, it’s amazing that you’re opening up that you don’t know and that you want to know more and I’m going to teach you everything there is to know about it. So that was a really special moment for me. I grew a lot.

[00:49:40] Suzanne F. Stevens: It’s interesting, I hosted a diversity, equity and inclusion panel during several of different cultures so that people like you and I could ask those questions in a safe space. Yeah. Because, be it the black community, the Asian community, the indigenous community, they don’t have all the answers either.

Yeah. However, we have to start somewhere. So now we have to go do our due diligence without necessarily asking because that’s, they’re, they are living their lives too. Yeah. But I understand it’s very difficult to ask the question and yet if we don’t speak up and say something, then that’s what concerns me the most.

Yeah. Yeah. And to your point that you may say the wrong thing. That’s consciousness. Yeah. I talk a lot about consciousness. It’s doing those due diligence before opening our mouths. Yeah. But sometimes, guess what? We’re only human and we’re going to make mistakes. And saying something sometimes is better than just sitting quiet and saying nothing. But saying it with respect.

 Who is the greatest female influence in your life? And why?

[00:50:48] Jordana Guimaraes: I would say my mom, yeah, my mom hands down.

[00:50:53] Suzanne F. Stevens: Why?

[00:50:54] Jordana Guimaraes: She turned a world upside down from when I was like 15 and my father left with me and three other girls, four sisters in total, to make sure that we never noticed any difference in anything.

And she’s just always there no matter what. Like we could be anywhere in the world with an issue. It literally looks like she takes a, what do you call those things that you put on when you jump an airplane, like a parachute. She comes out with a parachute out of nowhere, no matter where we are, what we need.

She’s there 24 -7 and no matter, even if she doesn’t agree with things that we do, if we need her, she’s always there. So it’s, she’s amazing. I love her.

[00:51:35] Suzanne F. Stevens: What are three values that you live by?

[00:51:39] Jordana Guimaraes: I would definitely say, respecting every single person, no matter who it is. I think at the end it’s respect and love,and respect love.

I think when you have those two things, I don’t even feel like there are three, it’s just respect and love and just realizing that we’re all exactly the same. Takeaway, economic and those things that, we have different, but in if we just strip everything away, we’re all exactly the same.

So I think those two things go a long way.

[00:52:09] Suzanne F. Stevens: Okay, great. Now, besides yours, which beneficiary do you think needs the most investment of time, research, and money. besides, People in the fashion industry that don’t have access, which I would suggest is, would be the beneficiary. Who else do you think needs the most time research and money?

[00:52:30] Jordana Guimaraes: The medical industry.

I would say like the researchers, like the nurses, the doc, like the people that are, on the ground. but not just saying they’re on the ground to make more money off of people, but we’re really like doing the work.

I think there’s a big missing gap there, especially in the US.

[00:52:48] Suzanne F. Stevens: Wonderful. Thank you Jordana. Where can people follow you if you want to just give them your handles. You’re also going to have all your handles on your resource page on podcast dot YouMeWe dot ca, Jordana and it will be there as well.

But you want to give them a shout out to where to find you.

[00:53:07] Jordana Guimaraes: Yeah. Thank you so much. So yeah, so my full name on LinkedIn, Instagram, it’s, I am, so i a m my full name, Fashinnovation, NYC Instagram, actually it’s Fashinnovation nyc all across YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, et cetera. And yeah, honestly, this has been so amazing.

I feel like I was just talking to a friend and it was super fun. So thank you, Suzanne, for the work that you do, and I’ve loved it. Thank you.

[00:53:34] Suzanne F. Stevens: Great. I’m glad to get to know you better, which has been awesome. Do you have any sort of words of wisdom for our audience regarding making a conscious contribution to society?

[00:53:46] Jordana Guimaraes: (social post- words of wisdom) I would say go out into your neighborhood and your community and your,just surroundings and pay attention. Listen. It’s all you have to do to come up with sometimes the best ideas that will really change lives. I think it’s just really allowing ourselves to stop wanting to just listen to ourselves and our own voices sometimes and really listen to others because a lot of things can come out of that.

 One more thing, there’s a lot of talk right now in the news about another shutdown and another COVID and all these things. And not to get into politics at all, I know it’s hard, but just try to, just focus on what you’re doing. Continue to grow what you’re doing.

Don’t stop to go, why am I doing this if this is coming up? because you’re living in the now. Live in the now. Don’t think so much about the future because you don’t even know. It’s not guaranteed to any of us. Just live with it today. And that’s it.

[00:54:37] Suzanne F. Stevens: Love it. Listen in the now. Awesome. Thank you so much, Jordana, for sharing your insight, your inspiration, your social impact with us today, and for our audience to discover more podcasts with sheIMPACTpreneurs, transforming where we live and work with sustainable social solutions.

Please do visit podcast dot YouMeWe dot ca and you’ll find each guest has a page on our site and if you like reading there, it’s, you can watch, read, or listen to the podcast, or you can listen to the podcast on any platform that you’d like, including Spreaker. We spread the love.

So please do share and review it. the more you love us, the more we will love you back and be able to continue to bring incredible women and their insights and inspiration to you. So until next time, I’m Suzanne F. Stevens and I hope you feel empowered to make your contribution count for you, me, we.