EntreLeadership - #86: Barrett Ward—Social Entrepreneur on Changing the World

Episode Date: December 15, 2014

For most people, charity begins at home, but for social entrepreneur Barrett Ward, it starts with a job. Barrett is founder and CEO of fashionABLE, an apparel company that creates employment opportunities for vulnerable women in Africa. This is an interview you don’t want to miss. http://www.entreleadership.com/podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Charismatic, passionate, as integrity, humble, servant, faithful, inspiring, persevering, positive, flexible, driven. This is who we are that call ourselves leaders. Helping business leaders grow themselves, their team, and their profits. This is the Entree Leadership podcast. Now, here is your host, Ken Coleman. Coming to you from the Music City, this is the podcast of leaders, by leaders, And for leaders, my name's Ken Thrillger with us. Coming up, our feature conversation is with Barrett Ward.

Barrett is the founder and CEO of Fashionable. You can check about online, live fashionable.com. And I love this story. I met Barrett recently, not more than about a month and a half ago, lives here in the Nashville area. And you'll hear this in the conversation that's coming up. But Barrett was recently awarded GQ Leader of the Year. There were five of those awards that GQ magazine gave out. This guy's legit, got a lot of power under the hood.

But I wanted to share this specific story because I think it will hit a lot of nerves for our entree leader audience. Many of you have heard the recent conversation we have with Mike Rowe, which, by the way, was probably one of the most enjoyable conversations I've ever had in my life. Professional or personal. But the big theme of the conversation with Mike is you remember that there are so many jobs out there. There are so many problems, if you will, to be solved. At the end of the day, I think what you entree leaders do is you solve problems. You see what could be, and then you mix

it with the passion of what should be, and thus you build businesses, and you fix things, and you get paid for your honorable work. And so I recalled the conversation that I have with Mike about this idea, there's so many jobs out there that need to be filled, and thus opportunities for entrepreneurs to come in and say, there are problems out here that aren't glumption. glamorous, but they need to be solved. And so as I met Barrett Ward for coffee and began to hear the story of fashionable, I said, this is something that I want our audience to hear because there are many of you out there who aren't running your business. But something burns inside of you. Something has tweaked your interest or your passion and you have begun to have that conversation internally or

maybe externally. This could be and this should be. And I believe passion. that when that internal conversation or external conversation begins to happen, that you need to act on it. And yes, this is a business and it is a for-profit company. But it is helping women around the globe create a sustainable job and thus a sustainable lifestyle and ultimately potential influence to change their family tree forever. It's not a charity. And my goodness, there's nothing wrong with doing business and making a profit while doing good. by the way, let's just clear this up. Barrett doesn't get special treatment or he's not better than any of you because he is employing women around the globe who would otherwise not have a job.

All work is honorable. Check out Genesis for that debate. But I wanted to share the story because this is so great because I believe that you can make a profit and really solve social problems at the same time. I think we need more of this. So if this burns inside of you, I think it'll inspire you. For those of you, this has no actual context to what you do. You think it does because he started it from scratch just a few years ago. We talk about all of these things. This will encourage you. And by the way, we love giving away stuff here.

So Barrett is going to give us a special Christmas offer. Guys, you can really make the women in your life very happy. Trust me on this. Stay tuned right after the conversation. I'll let you know about the special offer. But let's get right to it. Here is the founder and CEO of Fashionable in studio with me, Barrett Ward. Well, Barrett, I'm so thrilled to have you with us here in studio because you're a Nashvilleian and Live Fashionable.

Everything that emanates out of that wonderful organization happens from this great city. That's right. And so let's talk first about what Live Fashionable is and does. Is and does when it comes to Live Fashionable. What is it? Great. So fashionable is our website is LiveFashionable.com. And our company name is fashionable. Yes, yes, yes.

We are a social business. And so our social mission is to create jobs for those living in extreme poverty in Africa. And we especially focus on women. And so we do that. We create those job opportunities by helping them design and create beautiful products that we then sell here in the West, like scarves and woven blankets and leather products like clutches and purses and totes and wallets. I brought you a wallet today. Did you bring me the wallet?

It's the new mids line. I got to tell you, I'm very excited about this. Designed by Matt Wirtz, another local national. Yes, great musician. And artist, yeah. So that's our social mission is to create job opportunities. And at the core of what we do is the belief that if we are going to have a serious address to solutions in extreme poverty, then we have to do more than just charity.

And charity is critical. I help start a portion of a nonprofit that works with education. and vulnerable women, and I think that is critical, but at some point where charity should stop and economic opportunity should pick up, often charity just goes on too far. So while I was living in Ethiopia with my wife, we really started to hone in on that reality

that not enough people were engaging economically on that solution side of extreme poverty. So that's why we started fashionable. And you specifically are working with women around the world. You chose women. there's some very specific reason behind that expound on that. Well, you know, and we do employ everybody. We want to be an equal opportunity employer, but our focus is women.

And, you know, it starts. I can kind of go anecdotally back to the beginning of why we started fashionable. I think it's very important for those that are listening to understand the why. Good. Well, my wife and I moved to Ethiopia in 2008. We had just got married and she was working in the adoption space, and I was working with vulnerable children and vulnerable women. And while we were living in Ethiopia,

the thing that really started to strike us was, why are all these young women walking the streets at night? And it was such a huge number of girls that we would have never even thought that it is what it was, which was the commercial sex industry, and often forced prostitution. And so in seeing that, we really wanted to get involved. And so with the group that I was working at that time,

Moka Club, we engaged a group, a local group in Ethiopia that was working to rehabilitate women. And it was an incredible program. So for six months, they would take these women through a process of saying, listen, extreme poverty is what got you in a position where you had to sell your body in order to make a living. And so they take these women out of that. They cover all their living expenses. They put them through rehabilitation, counseling, group counseling. and then at the end of that six months, they teach them job training.

And the thing I'll say about it is when I started talking to women, the thing that blew me away was, to be honest, Ken, I kind of had a thought about what a prostitute was. Yeah, sure, absolutely. And it wasn't fair. Yeah. And it kind of always goes that way once you meet somebody and you talk to them and you hear their story.

The one story that really blew me away was I met a woman who went into selling her body in order to save her sister from breast cancer. And so when I heard that story, I realized these are not women of a salacious lifestyle. These are women that are, in fact, doing the exact opposite. They're making heroic and extraordinary sacrifices for those that they love. And that changed everything for me. And then again, as we got to know them more, the biggest thing that we heard them say is they wanted job opportunities.

They didn't want to rely on charity coming out of that program. but the challenge was is creating job opportunities that were sustainable that would truly keep them off the streets and teaching them skills that were defensible where they could go into the marketplace and really thrive

and so one day Rachel and I were at the marketplace and she was buying these scarves and I'm not a fashionable guy but Rachel is extraordinarily cute honey if you're listening yes big big husband points here But he got some point. She's not only stylish, but adorably beautiful.

Anyway, so she helped me pick out these scarves for some friends back in Nashville. And I asked her, do you think these are actually cool products? Or are you just buying them because they're from Africa? And she said, these are actually really cool products. I would wear these, essentially. She said I would wear these. And so for that, for me, was the light bulb. I said, this is something that we can market in the West

and train women here to make in Ethiopia. So we started by doing those scarves and now have expanded our product line to much more. Now, this is why I asked Barrett to be here, folks. Men and women out there who are entrepreneurs that are listening in here, Barrett, they need to hear this because there's something about an entrepreneur. You and I are both entrepreneurs.

And there's something about us where we just walk around looking for opportunity. We don't even realize it. And it's based almost. almost completely around what could be, and then we go, this should be. And this is a perfect situation. So the reason I ask you to be here is because you're so unique in that this is not some charity operation. You said something in your last answer.

It had to be sustainable. And profit for good is not just a kumbaya thing. No. You're really solving a problem. And I think there are some men and women out there who say, there's something been burning in me. see something that could be, and most importantly, I see something that should be. So now tell us, how do you take it from there to make it work? You know, what would you tell us? The marketplace in the West has made it available. You know, Tom's Shoes, who everybody knows, created a wide open door for a

lot of us to walk through. And now that kind of a company has a name. It's double bottom line companies, triple bottom line companies that focus on not only profit, but many companies will focus on people, and that's what our double bottom line is. And then other companies will also do environment as their triple bottom line. Right. And so for us, as fashionable, it was a passion project to begin with, to look at how can we give these women an opportunity. And we realized, in starting in the West, that for us to be able to expand and grow this thing as much as much as much opportunity there is possible. We needed to be a for-profit. And so we actually converted from a nonprofit to a for-profit this last year in 2014. But you know, the thing for us is, too, is that

the serious solution to poverty side, the social mission part of the side, is working with women is an intelligent solution to poverty. Yeah. And statistics demonstrate that. Because even in poverty, they are kind of the CEOs of the home. They're the impact players. They're in the West. Well, the statistics are shocking. So we understand that in Africa, some statistics demonstrate that 56% of the labor is done by women, but they only earn 10% of the income. And they only own 1% of the land. Well, that's extraordinary. Now, when you flip that over and you give a woman an opportunity, she will spend 90% of her income on her family and her community versus a man, that's us, that will only.

spend 30 to 40%. Wow. And so by investing in women, it's not just a heart issue. It's also an understanding that leaders in the development world will say if you want to be serious about solutions to poverty, you need to be investing in women. So that's why we chose to continue to focus in that space. Okay. So now I want to get really practical. What are the unique challenges or what are some of the lessons that you have learned that you can share with our audience if they're thinking about, Okay, I like this. Is there a couch here? Can I lay it on?

Right, right, right. Double bottom line here, right. You want to do something for good, but it needs to be profitable so that it is sustainable. This is a unique thing, right? It's a very unique business. Yes. What are some of the things you've learned or maybe some of the challenges that you can lay out for folks that are thinking or already doing this? Give us some wisdom because you're making it work.

Well, we're working at it. So I would say this to begin with is we believe that manufacturing, was an important part of a double bottom line company to do that manufacturing in the area that we want to have the benefit. Okay? So we didn't want to create a company where simply we created a brand, bought product from China, and gave 10% of it away. Right.

Because a lot of companies do that. And that's a good thing. It's admirable to do. But again, what we continually heard from the women on the ground is they wanted jobs. And so we, in the beginning of our business, started doing the manufacturing in Ethiopia. So we've invested a ton into that operation. And so revealing our first big challenge. Yes.

Our first big challenge was quality control. So while these products are beautiful and they're amazing, and you can see even that tote bag that... It's the design on them is phenomenal, right? With that said, the retail market in the United States is highly demanding. Highly demanding. So if there was an off thread in a scarf, we had to work on quality control with that. So if somebody's thinking about starting a business in a developing country as a part of their double bottom line mission, I would say the first thing you have to do is budget for a lot of time to create product and design product that you are confident will sell in the West.

And test that product against local boutiques and local manufacturers even to get verification that they're durable. as well as correctly made. So manufacturing was the biggest thing that we focused on in the beginning. Wow. And so take us, so give us a bit of a timeline here. You know what I mean? You just described kind of that first big challenge, and so there's a lot of patience,

a lot of investment on the front end. Kind of timeline, if we look at fashionable. From the time you kind of started it, if you will, shortly maybe. So we launched in October of 2010. Wow. This is shortly after being over there and seeing the scarf and the light bulb goes off. Yeah, the light bulb went off towards the end of 2008.

Gotcha. And it took us a significant year and a half of development to really get it all right. Yeah. And to create the business plan that made sense. Okay. You know. So then here we are. 2010 is kind of that official launch.

So we're about right to head into 2015. So that's... Yeah. Well, in the beginning, in 2010, when we launched, we thought we had a neat idea. We'd give it a shot. And we launched an online business to start with. and in a month and a half from October through mid-November,

we sold about 4,123 scarves. So we had a very good problem. And it was that people were identifying with the idea of empowering people with jobs. And so we launched, we had a big launch, and then we decided to go into the retail space at that point. And so we started going to these fashion markets around the world. We were invited by some significant people to come. And we're quickly introduced to huge players in the industry,

like Fred Siegel, Sharon Siegel put us in her store in Santa Monica, and we're now in Whole Foods. And so that's been our trajectory. We want to develop that online business as well as a retail business as well. All right, so this is good. I'm glad you mentioned this because I know our audience, right? And let's just be honest. I mean, you've had some wonderful things happen for you.

And so we talked earlier here just kind of about what does it look like, you know, logistically and putting it out there. But let's talk about branding because one of the things I think you've done a wonderful job on is branding and really relationshiping. If I could create a word for a moment because you've been very strategic. I like that word. But there's some hustle involved there. I want you to talk a minute because they're going, oh, gee whiz, you know, how do I get in Whole Foods? You know, talk about some of the practicalities and the hustle factor. And this is a big question.

And the other part is you've done a great job connecting with celebrities who are wearing your product on the Tonight Show. It's just one example. Yeah. Talk to us a little bit about how you've been strategic and how that's worked for you. Well, to start with the brand, you had mentioned the brand. And we're called fashionable. And if you look at our logo, the last four letters of Abel are capitalized. Yes.

And that was just born out of that initial moment of having met these women wanting to make sure that their story was. was told. And while it was critical to me to create a business that could sell their product and sustain jobs for them, I also thought people in the West would benefit by identifying with the women that were making the products, right? And so what we do is we say that every product is named after one of the heroic women we work with, and she tells a story that comes with each product of what she's able to do because of your purchase. So each one comes with a tag. And for example, one woman will say that she's able to feel dignity in her work again. Or another woman will say that she's able to send her son Eob to school. And so that's one thing

that's been a huge part of our product. Right now, people not only buy them for themselves, but they'll buy another one as a gift because it's a gift with meaning, you know? It tells a story. That's it right there. And that's why we want to stop. Story, you just said it. This is nothing new. yet sometimes, you know, we forget that what sells things sometimes is just simply the connection to a story and the product is nothing more than a way for them to say, I like this, I believe in this. I want to have a small part in it. Conscious consumerism. Hello. People want to feel like their purchases having an impact. And that's been the fun part of what we do. You know, when we create these products. We don't want our story to be the reason why people buy them. That's not sustainable.

We want people to see the products and think that is beautiful. So the vision from the beginning is that people would see the product, walk up in the retail store. They say, I want this. And then when they read the story, they'll buy a second one. That's it. Right. So that's what we hope for. It's the connection to it. And you've done a wonderful job of telling those stories. Thank you. Talk about the importance of brand ambassadors. Well, we've been really fortunate. You know, Nashville is an entertainment city. Hello. Come on.

Big time. We're right in the middle of New York City and L.A. Don't check my geography on that, but it's somewhere in between the two. Sort of kind of, yeah. Sort of kind of. You know, and by living in Nashville, there's an amazing woman named Judy Ann Williams that works for Creative Artist Agency. And just through friends of friends met Judy Ann, and she made the first connection to a celebrity for us named Minka Kelly. And I'm interrupting you own purpose, because when you first meet this Judy lady, who's super connected,

The CIA is like, you know, hello, they're everything when it comes to entertainment. She connected to the story, which is why she said, I'm going to go connect you now to celebrities I know. That's the key thing. For sure. For sure. Pointing that out. And we took Judy Ann and Minka. Minka was on shows like Parenthood and Friday Night Lights.

And we took them to Ethiopia and there's nothing like seeing it. Have you been to Ethiopia or to Africa yet? Well, I've been to Zambia. Well, okay, great. So you know. You know. You know. It's extraordinary how it changes you, right?

And it does change you. And so by taking them, we kind of want to let people seeing what they see lead their decision. You know, we don't want to have to close them on working with us. And so when Minka went and when she spent time with the women there, she deeply cares. It's not an issue of product or anything other than. Yeah, this is cool. And I'll get some free scarfs out of this deal. Absolutely. Yeah, it's way more, it's 100% about heart for Minkas.

So she's been a huge ambassador for us, and it's led to incredible opportunities. And she took us on the Jimmy Fallon show at one point, and Questlove tweeted our product, and social media picked it all up. Yeah, and that stuff is like lighting the match at times. Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Twitter. Yeah, absolutely. So growing, right?

I want to kind of get to the next phase. So how opportunity comes at you all the time, I'm sure. One of the challenges that entrepreneurs have is sometimes we get excited and we say yes or we maybe consider things we shouldn't consider. How have you and how are you continuing to manage opportunity? Have you been watching me? You know that I take on too much. You can see to my eyes. You can see the wrinkles created.

And that's a real challenge. It is a real challenge. How do you try to guard that? You know, the biggest thing that I've learned is do not start something that you cannot manage. And so the intellect behind that is actually looking at the opportunity, sketching out a miniature business plan of what it would take not only financially but human resource wise and time wise to make happen. And in that, make a decision is, do we have the space and time to do this? or is it going to create strain on other things,

and everything will be weaker because of it? Now, my staff will tell you, they're probably all laughing as they're hearing this because I am the king of that mistake. I will initiate everything I possibly can, but that's the lesson I'm learning is to tailor it back to what I know that we can manage. I'm really proud of you.

You're a new friend, but hopefully a friend for life, and I'm so proud of you. You recently were honored as GQ leader of the year. Two things. I know you're a humble guy, but tell us a little bit about the award. and how it came about. And then I'm going to do a follow-up question.

I'm going to ask you a leadership and a people question. But first, tell us about the award and all that great stuff. Well, it was fun. GQ speaks of fashion and design. And I don't know if there's going to be a picture along with this podcast, but you probably can't tell that I'm five foot six. I like hanging out with you. I feel very tall.

A lot of gray going on. I do a lot for yourself with Dean Ken. But that was not why I was honored. It had to do with, they have. have an annual benefit where they recognize people around the country. There's actually five leaders of the year nominated and awarded with this leader of the year. And they look around the country and they say, who's having an impact in the space of philanthropy? And for us, I think what was most pleasing with fashionable is that this was the first social business that had been recognized by GQ. And from my understanding,

And so what they had done to that point has worked with philanthropic 501C3 organizations, which are awesome. And when you spend time with those and you got to see what these men and women were doing, they're phenomenal. But for us, it was a recognition of what we were trying to do in solutions to poverty through economic solutions. So that's what was really encouraging to hear. All right. So here's the leadership people question. And it's not because you figured it all out. But talk to our men and women who are listening.

here that are leading teams and they're going fast because it's a cause that, again, should be done. What are you learning about people and making sure that you're pouring into them, that they're not getting overworked? You know what I mean? Just keeping that hustle and the passion going, getting the right people on the bus, but making sure you're all staying on the bus. What are you learning from a leadership people perspective? More than thinking about what I'm doing with my staff. It's more about what I'm learning that I have to do upwards. I need mentors. Yes. Deeply. And so working that strain on staff is still something that we continually work through as we just talked about as opportunity comes in. But for me, it's about getting good mentorship.

Because within myself, it is not my natural bent to manage people. My natural bent is to give me a ball and let me go run with it. And so mentors, not. only helped me practically look at the business and think about who we need in the business in order for this thing to grow. And it was quickly identified that I'm not the person to manage operations. And so we would have gone through a lot more pain than we had had I not had a mentor that helped us see in a business structure what we needed. And then also just in the mentorship, the vulnerability of being able to share my fears and my concerns and what I think my strengths are and what I feel like my weaknesses are

and having that kind of a person hone me in on what I do well and helping me resource everything else has been critical. So it's really been about mentorship for me. Final word. One of my favorite questions that I get to ask when I sit down with men and women

who are accomplished and are doing great things. I want you to speak either from your head or your heart or both to our audience to the people who need to be encouraged. they know what they're doing is right, but maybe it's not clicking yet. Maybe it's not going exactly how they'd like it to go. It's not happening as fast as maybe they'd like it to happen.

And maybe there's a lot of doubters out there, but they still believe Barrett, even with a small scintilla for some of them that are discouraged right now, that they should be doing what they're doing. What would you say to them to encourage them? Yeah, wow. I mean, that is a big question. question. As someone who has been encouraged oft by people, you know, for my situation,

the thing that I have to draw back in is, for me, it was a moment of faith that started fashionable. And if I look at present challenges and circumstances as the reason why I should have joy, I'm going to be a very frustrated person at times. I'll have high highs and low lows. but if I can go back to why I started this and believe that that was even for myself a divine moment, then I can pull my Y back in, I can gain my center, I can look at why I decided to work with women, and I can think of the women that I met, and then I can push through whatever that next challenge is. Because there will be no shortage of challenges. You know, one woman that I met runs a company,

called Escapada Living. And I just appreciated her level-headedness so much about I was telling about all the production challenges we had and how market didn't meet our expectations in the last market. And she just looked at me with this most peaceful attitude and most encouraging attitude and said, oh, yeah, you have production challenges? Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. We do too. Yep, yep. Oh, market didn't go the way you wanted to? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That happened to us, too. And I said, hold on, you're invalidating my emotional challenges that I'm facing. And instead, what she was exactly doing is saying, no, that's a part of the rhythm of running a business. So do not expect to have a trajectory that is easy all the time.

But instead, expect to stay on mission and purpose and evaluate every step you take in your business based on your mission and your purpose. Go back to it. Remind yourself of it. You have to. Good words. He is Barrett Ward. The company is fashionable. their website live fashionable.com.

Barrett, I know you're busy guy, you're hanging out with celebrities, and then when you come hang out with a shrimp like me in our Entree podcast studios, please. It's always a great pleasure. Thank you, brother. Thank you, man. I appreciate it. Well, I hope you were inspired as I was.

I know Eric, the producer and I both came away from the conversation. Very inspired, and we're very grateful for Barrett and him giving of his time. All right, I mentioned the special Christmas offer, so here it is. This is great stuff. Barrett Ward is offering to you, the Entree Leadership audience, 30% off any item on their website. These are all their items. That's everything from scarves to these amazing tote bags that will blow the woman in your life away. There's clutches.

They even have a new men's wallet line, which, by the way, Barrett gave me a brand new wallet. And I'm sporting that today, Eric, the producer. I'll show it to you later. And so here it is, 30% off. Here's how you do it. You go to live fashionable.com. The coupon code in the store is Entree. So whatever purchase you make, when prompted, put in the coupon code Entree, E-N-T-R-E.

You'll get 30% off now. Make note, this offer ends 1231. It ends 1231. So make sure you take us up on this great offer. LiveFashionable.com. 30% off. Coupon code is Entree. Well, folks, this is our last podcast before the Christmas holiday.

And I would be remiss if I didn't say to you that we are wishing upon all of you a very, very Merry Christmas, as you begin to get ready to celebrate this most wonderful time of the year and also begin to take an eye towards 2015. Can I just say to you that I think it is important that in your own unique way that you do some reflection time? Whether it be spiritual, physical, mental, professional, reflect on it all. ask yourself a couple of really big questions as you look back on 2014. This is a wonderful time to do that. Take assessment of your year. Where did I win?

Why did I win? Where did I lose? Why did I lose? Where do I want to go? How do I get there? Now, you can just pause, rewind, and go back to those questions. Those are simple questions that I have asked for many, many years at this time of of year. Simple on purpose because they will inevitably create more questions, but ask those questions

as you reflect. We are so very grateful for you. We'd love to continue to connect with you. We love the emails. Just email us. Podcast at entreleadership.com. We'll read your questions, comments on the air. You can also tweet us. The mothership is at Entree Leadership. I'd love to hear from you as well on Twitter at Ken Coleman. As always, anything you need. Check us out online, Entree Leadership. com. And I want to say this on behalf of Eric the producer and everyone on the Entree Leadership team. We wish you a very Merry Christmas in 2014. We thank you for listening and we'll talk with you again very soon.