Failure is not an option — here's why it's time to recommit

Yesterday marked the culmination of our year-long Tory Burch Foundation Fellowship — a pitch to advisors that the Foundation selected from their powerful network.

We were asked to create a 3-minute video presentation and accompanying slide deck with one specific question that these carefully selected advisors could help us with.

When watching the video presentations by my other Fellows, I was in awe of their brilliance, accomplishments, founder stories, and moxie.

"Crap," I thought after the first series of videos. "My presentation sucks compared to these."

I quickly sent a Slack message to my Branding and Operations Manager.

She asked me to dig deeper to figure out why I would be feeling like this — and how this was helping me.

Fear often takes a circuitous route to protect you, doesn't it?

Because right after my video went live, here was the response:

They might've been responding to what a former client, voted one of People Magazine's Latina of the Year, Nathalie Molina Niño, said after working with us:

“Judy and her team at Wild Hearted Words came in to pinch hit when we needed it most as we were getting to launch Known on a global platform via prime media coverage.

They ramped up quickly in a niche industry to support our content marketing, and their responsiveness and ability to adapt to our needs led to a greater collaboration, including a brand aesthetic redesign.

Known cares about representation, and I appreciate that we were able to work with a content marketing agency founded by a woman of color.”

When I got into the breakout room with my three advisors, one of whom created the largest woman-owned digital marketing agency in the country, I asked what kept these founders going when the inevitable hardships of owning a business started popping up.

"Failure was not an option," Gay Gaddis, owner of T3 said.

I knew about her agency, because I saw that sign almost every day of my commute home from work when I was living in Austin, Texas. How wild to be talking to the founder years later.

The other two founders echoed her sentiment.

"There was no failing as a divorced mother," Whitney White, founder of Equity Commons, shared in the last two minutes. "Not for someone who had to take care of my child, of myself."

Domonique Townsend, TEDx speaker and innovator, nodded in agreement.

"You've got this," she said.

And YOU'VE got this, too.

If you need help, Office Hours are tomorrow (Wednesday), 9-10am PST.

We're focusing on content creation and live workshopping what you need for your business.

Look forward to seeing you there!