Breaking the Rules & Doing Your Own Thing with Michelle Cordeiro Grant, Founder of LIVELY

Michelle Cordeiro Grant is the founder & CEO of LIVELY, a
community and brand that inspires women to live passionately and
purposefully through experiences and products like bras,
bralettes, undies, and so much more. 


Michelle grew up with immigrant parents, thinking she wanted to
become a doctor or a lawyer, but her true passion lay in working
with products and building brands. At the end of a long and
extremely successful career at brands like Victoria’s Secret,
Michelle came to the realization that the $13 billion lingerie
category was being dominated by a single brand and had a very
narrow point of view.


This led her to go out on her own and create LIVELY with the goal
of being a brand that strived to reflect real, authentic,
everyday women like herself, who craved the feeling of being
confident and comfortable. Michelle launched LIVELY in 2016 and
has since opened four stores and fostered a network of over
140,000 brand ambassadors. She grew the business from its concept
stage to a recent $100 million acquisition in just three years,
beating the odds that many female-founded companies face. 


In this episode, you’ll hear from Michelle as she describes the
tactical steps she took to leave her career and build a company
that she was passionate about, what it takes to build a brand
from concept to acquisition, and how she built a community of
140,000 ambassadors.


In this episode, we’ll talk to Michelle about:


* Learn more about Michelle’s childhood in an immigrant family in
rural Pennsylvania. [3:11]


* Why Michelle says that being unique is a superpower and it
should be celebrated. [5:14]


* How her early days in corporate America informed her decision
to create her own brand. [6:57]


* Hear about her ‘aha’ moment; not wanting to choose between a
family or a career. [8:38]


* The resistance she encountered during that transition and what
it taught her about applying the fundamentals she had learned in
corporate. [10:48]


* What Michelle’s turning point was before starting a brand in
the ‘Leisurée' category. [12:10]


* The driving force behind pursuing this passion: building
something totally different. [13:52]


* Find out when Michelle decided to leave her career and go all
in on building LIVELY. [14:09]


* Michelle talks about the list she created of all the things she
didn’t know and her advice for other entrepreneurs facing
uncertainty. [16:08]


* What it looked like to create a community by building a brand
and not a corporation. [18:00]


* How an email marketing strategy inspired by Harry’s launched
the company. [20:36]


* Learn why Michelle thinks the email referral program was so
successful; the emotional hook that drew women to the brand.
[23:27]


* The strategy behind building a community of 140,000
ambassadors; finding women that demonstrated the same values as
the brand. [25:43]


* Michelle shares her experience of fundraising for LIVELY while
pregnant with her son. [30:12]


* Pushing through anxiety as a first-time founder and defying the
odds by doing it differently. [33:58]


* Find out about LIVELY’s growth trajectory; when they started to
focus on retention. [36:23]


* Engaging with the community to dictate product pipeline;
launching a swimwear line. [37:40]


* Building a business from concept to acquisition wasn’t about
the exit; it was about building a strong, long-lasting, and
viable brand. [39:30]


* Michelle tells the story of Wacoal, the Japanese company that
acquired LIVELY. [43:00]


* Her advice for living in beta; the more risks you take, the
better you’ll be at taking risks. [44:29]


Follow Michelle:


* Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_michellegrant


* LIVELY Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wearlively/


* LIVELY Website: https://www.wearlively.com


Follow Yasmin:


* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yasminknouri/


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