Founders in Focus

You have built such different businesses, but there’s this common thread. You didn’t set out just to sell product. You really set out to solve a problem. Tell me about that moment when you realized this problem. You couldn’t ignore that anymore.

For me, it was a very distinct moment when I heard an NPR story about endocrine disrupting chemicals in personal care products. And I had just had thyroid cancer, AKA endocrine cancer, and I thought, wow, are those chemicals in my products at home? And I realized that indeed they were. And so I thought, well, that is definitely an opportunity to serve women better.

Wow.

And that’s how I got started.

Yeah.

For me, it was a lifetime of struggling with health issues. By the time I was 18, I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and written so many different scripts and through my own long journey, found out that when I was nourishing myself and fueling myself with real whole foods and not sugar and packaged foods, that I just felt good. I wanted everybody to feel that good at some point. And that was my moment of I’m going to set out to try to help people do that and feel that way.

Great. We all want to feel that way, and it’s possible. Yeah, I love it. And you had a similar pivot. Like you were not in the food business. You had a very robust career before that. So tell us, what was your aha moment when you decided to solve this problem?

My aha moment was really coming back to myself. I grew up in a family of extremely passionate but judgmental home cooks. So I ran away from cooking, just totally ran away from cooking for a decade in my teens and early twenties. And then in my late twenties, I started going back into cooking. I started just being more mindful about what I was eating and putting in my body. I noticed that I had stomach aches sometimes based on what I was eating, you know, what foods were going in. And so it made me think a lot about foundational ingredients. And that led me to olive oil. And I read a very fascinating news story about how the majority of the olive oil that Americans are eating, we may not think that it has the nutritional properties or has the integrity that we think it has. And so that led me down a journey to start Brightland over time.

That’s fabulous. And it’s amazing. I love it’s olive oil and it’s art altogether.

Yes. I love it.

I love it. So, Kirsty, what about you? What was that aha moment?

I think I’ve always loved fashion and always loved jewelry. My grandmother worked for a costume house in the Hudson’s Bay Company in Toronto. And. And I just, like, grew up loving accessories and decoration and always kind of thought that I needed to do something in business and really just kept coming back to it. And it was the move to Los Angeles at the same time that kind of allowed me the freedom and kind of, like, the release of, like, the beginning of a new chapter to really do that. But it’s interesting. You said, like, we’re not, you know, it’s a luxury product. We’re not solving a problem, per se. But I definitely saw an opportunity for a unique point of view in sentimentality and kind of, like, the specific point of view that I have, which is, like, a marriage of nostalgia and sentimentality and symbolism. So. Yeah.

That’s great. Your pieces are amazing.

Well, thank you. 

Entrepreneurship starts out as a solo act, and then at some point, you realize that team, team is critical.

So what was that moment, maybe when you thought, wow, I need to scale through people. And what did that look like?

Sure. I mean, I think, like, that’s probably a problem. It’s a problem that we all come to, like a crossroad over and over and over again where your time is a bottleneck.

But it’s challenging to, like, relinquish any control. Especially, I have such, like, a high touch with my clients as probably Sarah, at least you, right? Yeah. It’s really difficult to find someone who understands your voice and be able to articulate it. It’s like, sometimes I know it when I see it, but being able to articulate it in a way that someone else can really pick it up is, like, probably been the most challenging thing.

And adding people. Yeah. I’m constantly thinking about who else do I need to hire so that I can operate in my zone of genius and be the best version of myself?

And it’s not like, okay, you’re hiring a bunch of people, and then you just sit back and you watch this company grow. Like, that is just not the case.

You wish, right? You’re like, I got it. Not the case. Yeah. Manicure. Exactly. It’s not happening ever, ever, ever.

Yeah. What are things you look for that are the key elements when you’re looking for somebody to join your team? Strategically, culturally? Like, what are the things that you just know?

Founder mindset. So no job is too small and no job is too big.

Can look at a microscope and a telescope.

Oh, I love that. Oh, I love that. I don’t even need to add to it. You nailed it.

Founder mindset and ethos. I feel like, you know, whether it’s the integrity of the brand or work ethic. And I think you know pretty quickly when you have the right person on your team. Just value wise, energy wise, passion wise, are they lit up and excited to be on board?

And you also know, even though I’ve gone through periods where I’m like, this person’s gonna get there. Like, they’re never getting there. Nope, they’re not. Like, they’re just never gonna be a fit. How have you thought about using outside advisors and partners as you’ve built your team?

How do you incorporate them into decision-making, et cetera?

I feel like I was so lucky to meet our Bernstein Advisor. You know, I’ve heard incredibly terrible stories from other founders. I literally know a founder who had all of her money shipped by someone, a business manager, offshore. Wow. You know, and to think that we don’t even for a minute, have to think about anything beyond, you know, doing what’s right in front of us while our advisor is really thinking about that financial big picture.

Because how can you be an expert at that and raise your children and build a business? There’s just no way. Like, I’m not by myself in there. And so, I really appreciate, sometimes he’s like, I don’t wanna bother you with this. I was like, no, it’s not a bother.

Understanding everything, you know, that he’s helped us to accomplish, that’s a really important phone call for me to take. I love that.

Yeah.

You found great success at Bernstein, creating spaces for women to come together. And it’s not about Bernstein. It’s about all of you. Finding the connectivity, sharing their story, sharing their origin story, sharing about the challenges what got them to the place today. And then what are they thinking? What’s. What’s next? And so that’s been really fabulous. And it’s just. It’s challenging to find these spaces. How do you think about that?

I do believe that there is a truth. It keeps being shown to me that when women support women, anything is possible. And I really just think that’s true, whether it’s how our business is serving women or how women have supported me in trying to do something that, like, we’ve all said today, you know, it’s not easy to build a business. It’s never gonna be easy.

And so I think acknowledging that and taking the support and seeking it out when you need it has made it feel a lot less lonely. Like you were saying, you know, it can feel pretty lonely. And then you realize, oh, I’m not alone at all.

I sometimes think I’m like, wow, I, you have to have certain qualities to be an entrepreneur.

And I do think that you’re sort of born with them or at least like, an undying work ethic. Like, you have to be afraid. You have to be okay with being uncomfortable all the time, and not only like, mentally, spiritually, emotionally, physically uncomfortable. And I think that physical burnout, for me, at least, is something I’m still in.

And I’m working really hard to try to not be in that burnout mode, but it is really hard. And I also wouldn’t have it any other way, but it’s really hard. Yeah.

I think about the words, like, choosing emotional violence, because living in uncertainty and discomfort constantly is, for 99% of people, extremely taxing. Like, I can’t live in the unknown so much. But when you’re, when you’re an entrepreneur, you are constantly living in the unknown.

You’re constantly picking up your phone, and you’re like, I don’t know if it’s good news or terrible news that I’m gonna be seeing. And you have to still put one foot in front of the other. And so it is amazing to be able to, like, I’m saying this out loud, and all of y’ all are, like, nodding, which is so validating and gratifying and freeing.

That’s great. And I’m sure just knowing you all a little bit, that you probably pour into younger entrepreneurs, too, in our firm. And I think a lot about mentoring younger talent within our firm, and it brings me so much joy, and I get plenty out of it. How do you all think about that?

I think. I mean, I feel, and I’m sure, like, we all have a similar feeling that, like, I find a lot of purpose in, like, being of service in, like, all aspects of my life, but particularly when it comes to business. And so I totally resonate with what you were saying about, like, you give to get. I probably am getting just as much as whoever I’m offering information or expertise to. Yeah. I think it’s so important.

Yeah.

Yeah. I feel like today we’ve talked a lot about the challenges that we’ve been through, and it is amazing to be able to leverage my challenges in support of other women.

Okay, Hilary, you were part of our inaugural Founders Forum last year in Santa Barbara. What was the most impactful thing about joining us and those founders?

I just made some incredible contacts at that forum. Women that I’ve stayed in touch with and, you know, this mutual understanding of what it takes to build something, what it means to be a founder, that was covered from so many different angles. The speakers were incredibly inspiring. Very diverse group of speakers, I thought, and I just loved the whole experience.