Tina Chen: Well,
good morning
Audience: Good morning.
Tina Chen: Well in case you
didn't catch it my name is
Tina Chen.
Aaron got that in at that
end and I'm just delighted
to be here to welcome
you to the White House.
I want to start by thanking
Jordan for opening us up.
Jordan, you know -- I may be
the executive director but
Jordan Brooks and Felicia
Desuse are where all the
work gets done
in the building.
I want to really thank
our Small Business
Administrator, Maria
Contreras-Sweet, who is a
dear friend, has become a
colleague in arms on this
issue and has been such an
outspoken advocate for small
business owners, for women
owned businesses, for
minority owned businesses,
thank you very much Maria
for everything you've done
and Aaron and your team.
And to Jane, we're wanted at
dermelogic and Natalie, I'm
so delighted to have you
guys here and to talk about
your new partnership and
agreement with SBA to sort
of focus on vocational
entrepreneurship.
I first met you guys, it was
a while back, and when you
hear what Dermatalogic is
doing you will
be inspired as well.
They're sort of what their
business model is, what that
means for the future of the
untapped resources we have
around the country, not just
women entrepreneurs but
women that don't even see
themselves as entrepreneurs
yet and how we can give them
the vocational training that
gets them into that space.
It's an exciting new way
that we are going to expand
the reach of women
owned businesses.
We've already done a lot in
this administration and I
want to take a moment just
to reflect on some of those
accomplishments over
the last eight years.
We know that today women
make up almost 29 percent of
US business owners
and it's on the rise.
I'm particularly proud that
within 2007 and 2012 that US
business ownership for
women rose by 27
and a half percent.
We also know from the data
that women owned businesses
increased their receipts
by 35 percent
in that time period.
They now produce 1.6
trillion in sales --
alright, let's just pause
for a moment -- 1.6 trillion
in sales by women owned
businesses in
the United States.
(applause)
Tina Chen: We, you know,
since the day we walked into
this building, you know,
almost eight years ago,
making good on the promise
that had been 10 years in
the making of increasing
women's, you know, small
business women's share of
federal contracting to the
goal at five percent, you
know, was a big part
of what we did.
We needed to change the rule
that had languished since
the Clinton administration
on making sure that women
owned businesses got a level
playing field when they
competed for
federal contracts.
I'm really proud to say that
that work paid off and that
this last year we crossed
that five percent threshold
for women owned businesses
receiving federal contracts.
Five percent may be a low
percentage number, it's a
contracting that goes on.
It was a huge achievement to
reach that goal and thank
you, Maria, for your
leadership on
getting that done.
It was terrific.
It was terrific.
Thank you.
(applause)
Tina Chen: But we also know,
you know, that only 10 and a
half percent of America's
women own businesses so this
still remains a huge
untapped resource.
This is how we create jobs.
We know that small business
are the engines of job
growth and we know that the
untapped resource of women
entrepreneurship, their
energy, their skills, their
drive, their talent is
all just waiting there.
And I am very very proud of
the foundation we have laid
in the Obama administration
on this work and you see the
fruits of that work in this
data and in these numbers.
But its more than just data
and some of you all in this
room represent folks who are
working with these women,
and advocate for these
women, and you are these
women and your stories, as
women who have been a single
mom and have now grown a
business, who now employs 30
people, you know, small
restaurateurs or the people
who are able to give paid
leave to their workers and
still have a business that
is profitable because their
workers are as invested
in that restaurant as the
restaurant owner is, you're
leading the way and those
stories are so important.
So I want to encourage
you to keep telling those
stories, to keep telling and
spreading the work about the
promise of women owned
businesses and how they need
to be supported and
how they can grow.
And when you support them
and you grow them, the
benefits accrue to everyone,
everyone in the community,
to everyone in our country,
I will say to everyone in
the world because when it's
entrepreneurship its global
entrepreneurship and it's
not just a promise that can
be fulfilled here in the
United States, it is a
promise that will make
progress around the world.
And we have built a
foundation that can continue
so I'm going to urge all of
you, as we leave our, close
out our administration to
stay strong on this, to keep
advocating for it, to keep
working with those women to
-- the best example of a
good idea is to make it work
and make it succeed and
it can succeed inside a
government and
outside of government.
So please continue
to do that work.
We stand with
you to do that.
And I also wanted to, in
closing; just acknowledge
all of you who have worked
with the counsel women and
girls for the
last eight years.
You know this was an idea
that was new when we started
it in March of 2009.
It was a -- could you just
do something without a
single office in
the White House?
You know, folks spread all
the way across the federal
government and I'm pretty
proud to say that I think it
did work.
I think we had -- (laughter)
(applause)
Tina Chen: I think we now
have demonstrated that
focusing on women and
girls, whether you're the
Department of Transportation
or the Department of
Defense, as well as
the Small Business
Administration and Labor,
and Health and Human
Services, that that accrues
benefits for everyone and
that we have changed the DNA
of the federal government,
as I used to say
when we started this.
That was our goal was to
change the DNA of the
federal government so
everyone always thought
about women and girls in
what they do whether it's
hiring and promotion,
whether it's in the policies
that they do, whether it's
in the grants that they give
out, and I think that has
fundamentally changed and
isn't going back.
So I am, once again, proud
of that work, proud of that
partnership with all of
you so I want to close by
thanking you, thanking you
for all the hard work that
you have done with us for
the last eight years, with
the work that I know that
you're going to continue to
do, and importantly, given
the nature of today's
conversation, the lives of
individual women that you
are changing today and
continuing to change so have
a wonderful session
this morning.
Thank you very much
for everything.
(applause)
Thank you so much.
Thank you some, Tina.
And to continue this
conversation I want to
invite Jane Rowan
and Administrator
Contreras-Sweet up.
Jane is the founder of
Dermatalogica and one of
those entrepreneurs who's
been in the throws and
really grown a company from,
you know, boot strapping it
to such a national, you
know, and international
sensation as it is today.
And then our leader
at the Small Business
Administration,
Administrator
Contreras-Sweet who really
has had an entire focus on
women since
she's been there.
I think really
understanding, you know,
women are the lynch pin of
society, they're the ones
that are really going to
help carry
this economy forward.
So with that, we're going to
have a focused discussion on
this very topic.
Maria Contreras-Sweet:
Alright, thank you Aaron.
Thank you, thank you.
How's everybody doing today?
Monday morning
and you're here.
This is women power!
I love it.
This is what women do now
is they organize
on Monday morning.
I'm delighted to welcome,
also on behalf of the
administration as a member
of the President's cabinet
and his voice on small
business at that table.
It's very -- just let me
say, when I say that -- you
know I can't see too many
women in the back,
can I just stand?
Is there a way to
do this, do this?
We make things
work, don't we?
But anyway, I wanted to say
this, as I've traveled now
the world, representing
President Obama, that just
what he did, putting someone
in his cabinet to represent
entrepreneurship is not what
you find across the world.
So this is something very
special, just to begin with,
just as a platform, so I'm
proud that the President has
decided to give an equal
seat of importance -- oh
listen, we're going to rig
this thing -- I like this.
Jane Rowan: Oh look at that,
that's an entrepreneurial idea.
Maria Contreras-Sweet:
I like this.
There you go.
There you go.
So, anyways, the point is
that I'm delighted to be
here to welcome you and we
do have a SBA so many, it's
just a plethora of programs
for women so I just want to
spend one minute
describing that.
Let me just say that the
onset, as Tina Chen just
said, the President did not
just put us on cabinet but
he also created this very
special office that works
with women across
the country.
And our goal at the SBA has
been, as we call a reframing
of what SBA is.
We call it "smart, bold, and
accessible;" What that means
to us is that we are
deploying every possible
smart tool that exists to
get more programs to you so
you can be successful.
For example, many women
across me told me that they
could not get loans.
They just couldn't get
access to capital so we put
up a tool we call
LINC, L-I-N-C.
I know we're not great at
names but the program works
and what it does is if you
come to the SBA website and
click on that we now ask you
to complete a very short
survey and we route your
answers to back that do have
an appetite for
that profile.
We're getting more women in
that way than ever before.
We launched a program
because we want women to
disrupt, to hack, to just
totally transform what they do.
I am waiting for a women to
come forward and create a
new mammogram
machine, for example.
Alright, you all know,
talk about pain points.
So anyways, there is so much
that we have yet to do.
My great lament when I took
office was that I saw that
2/3 of venture capital
concentrate in only 25 zip
codes across the country.
And you know where
those 25 zip codes are?
They're in California, New
York, and Massachusetts.
So we know we have
a lot of work to do.
So at SBA we launched a
program to make sure that
women got more
access to capital.
So the bold is about bolder
market making for women to
get more women to consider
the federal government as a
customer, to get women to
think about the corporate
supply chain, and to make
moves into
the international marketplace.
So we worked very closely
with the rest of the team at
the White House, including
Tina Chen, and we were able
to get, for the first time
in the history of the world,
first time ever, we now
have a chapter in the trade
agreement, the TPP, the
proposed TPP, whether it
passes or not, I know now
that you know that there's a
small business chapter in
it, and the first article
for women ever in the
history of a trade
agreement, we now know that
this going to become the
floor on which
you will stand.
We know that from now on you
will always make sure that
there was that kind of
inclusion in a trade
agreement going forward,
whether it's TTP at the UK
or elsewhere.
So we're committed
to that work.
The accessible is to make
sure that women are included
in everything.
Tina just pointed out that
when I arrived, believe it
or not, we had a
five percent goal.
We couldn't reach that goal.
For six years we hadn't
reached -- well, we had
never reached the women's
goal -- and Aaron and Bruce
Purdy and Tamika and
everybody at SBA said there
is no way we are going to
leave this town until we
complete this goal.
So we met with the
Department of Defense, we
generated a really tough
and mean scorecard, I still
remember a couple of cabinet
members saying to me, "wait
a second, I saw that on your
scorecard you're giving my
department a C or a D.
We're on the same team,
let's work together.
Come on, Administrator."
And I said, "Yes, we're on
the same team so
let's work together.
So get your numbers up."
And we did and I have to
tell you that I was so proud
to give the President at
the next cabinet meeting a
successful completion.
Not only did we meet our 23
percent goal, we exceeded it.
We got to 25.75 and every
percentage point means
billions of dollars.
The federal government is
the largest procurer in the
world and as I said we
finally reached the women's goal.
So all of this is
great success for you.
We could not have
done it without you.
It is your work, your
evangelism, you are the
disciples of change and we
want you to keep
going and doing this work.
So again, on behalf of
President Obama,
Let's celebrate the
globalness of women and the
things that we are
doing around the world.
I convened the first ever
Global Ministerial to talk
about these issues and to
try to get more countries to
lift entrepreneurship and
to put it in their cabinet.
We were just sharing with
Jane that we just came back
from the UK and it was just
wonderful to see they're now
taking a look at it.
We were able to turn
down and talk to the new
Post-Brexit administration
and they're taking a
very hard look at it.
We're able and now going to
Ireland Thursday so we're
continuing to do the work
until the very last day.
We will continue
to lift women.
Let me just, let me just say
what a delight it is to
have so many of you.
We all have a similar story.
We all believe in
entrepreneurship.
I don't want you to think
about growing small
businesses I want you to
think about
growing big businesses.
We want to get you started
then we want to take you to
scale and it has been my
great joy to see so many
women around the world, and
particularly in
the US now, scaling.
Here we have one great
example and this is so
exciting, Jane in the house.
So I'm going to drop this,
I'm going to back down, and
let her stand up and
just tell her story.
I'm going to ask her to
stand up because we have
very similar stories Jane.
Jane Rowan: I know.
Maria Contreras-Sweet:
Just do this standing up.
Jane Rowan: Yeah.
Maria Contreras-Sweet:
You want to do that?
Jane Rowan: Yeah totally.
Maria Contreras-Sweet: So
I have to tell you that we
have a story in common,
we're both immigrants.
Jane Rowan: Yes, yes.
Maria Contreras-Sweet: You
know, I came from Mexico at
the age of five.
Didn't know a
word of English.
And it was through
entrepreneurship -- my
mother couldn't get a
corporate or government job
so she worked in a small
business, a family owned
company, and I've done the
same thing and now I've
created three different
businesses and you have a
similar story.
Jane Rowan: It's amazing
that when we first met, we
had a (inaudible), we shared
our story, we were like OK
snap, well that's the same.
I know you're one of
six, I'm one of four.
I'm an immigrant from the UK
and came here in 1983 and I
came knowing English so that
was a big win to start with.
The second win was I had a
suitcase with me and in that
suitcase was my diploma
from beauty school.
And that was my ticket, like
Willy Wonka's golden ticket
in the chocolate bar, that
was my ticket when I came to
the states that I was
going to be able to work.
I was going to be
able to get a job.
I knew I was going to be
able to provide a service
and that I was
going to be OK.
I came with my boyfriend,
who then became my husband;
he's here in the room with
my today Raymond, with our
two daughters.
(laughter)
Maria Contreras-Sweet:
Raymond, stand up.
There's Raymond.
Jane Rowan: He's
right there.
Maria Contreras-Sweet:
Oh very nice.
Jane Rowan: With our two
daughters and we arrived,
blissfully unaware that
there was a 10.4 percent
unemployment rate in the
state of
California then in 1983.
So we set about deciding
what we were going to do and
we were going to be
entrepreneurs and start
our own business.
And I think the five words
that were most important
words that were said to me
in my entire life was my
mother who said to me and my
three sisters, "learn how
to do something."
And she knew that
very personally.
She was a qualified nurse
and she had to fall back on
that training when she was
widowed at age 28 with four
girls to raise.
I was two years old when my
dad died and so she would
say to my sisters and I,
"what would I have done
without my education?
Without my training?"
So I went from high
school to study skincare.
I became a skincare
therapist, an aesthetician,
as many of you might call
us, but at Dermatalogica
we're kind of rebellious and
we redefine our language and
we call ourselves
skin therapists.
And so we started off as a
family knowing that if we
didn't know how to do
something we wouldn't be
able to provide, literally.
So that became my ticket
and when I emigrated to the
United States, Raymond and
I started an educational
school, the International
Dermal Institute, we then
went on to develop
Dermatalogica.
And what's amazing about
that story was we started on
14 thousand dollars of
self-funding, we
were new immigrants.
We couldn't have thought
of applying for a loan, we
wouldn't of got a loan, we
wouldn't have got a bank
account, we rustled together
14 thousand dollars in
self-funding, we started the
company, we boot strapped it
up, we never took outside
funding, we never gave away
any equity, and we scaled
the business to last year a
wholesale turnover of a
little over 214 million
dollars in 107 countries.
Thank you.
(applause)
Jane Rowan: Thank you.
And we scaled the business
all the way through.
The reason being our
business model was to sell
to salon owners and the
statistic to salon owners
was 61 percent of salons
are owned by women.
It is the largest industry
for women business owners
and entrepreneurs in the
world and I'm really excited
that we have several of our
skin therapists in the room.
Cassio came all the way down
from New York, who went
through our vocational
training program, has an
amazing job in
New York City.
And four of our future
professionals who are, right
now, going through their
vocational training and they
will work behind the chair,
they will then work in their
own businesses, I'm sure,
because our industry puts
more women into their own
businesses so that's my
story and we both got
our start in California.
Maria Contreras-Sweet:
Well wait a second.
There's a big part of the
story that everybody's
interested in.
You didn't just create
movement, you
created a category.
I mean when I was growing up
cosmetics were cosmetics and
you were first one to come
in and to say, as you just
said it's a therapy, it's a
pharmaceutical, and created
this cosmeseutical category.
You were the
forerunner to that.
Tell is how you
thought about that.
I think that's
really fascinating.
Jane Rowan: Yeah so --
Maria Contreras-Sweet:
You were a disrupter.
Jane Rowan: Yeah.
Very disruptive.
Well, that wasn't
the word then.
We were just -- we -- I
remember the one time one of
our staff gave me a skull
and cross bones flag to fly
up the flag pole underneath
our, of course,
stars and stripes.
So, I was really proud of
that because we felt we were
rebels and rebellious and
now the word
would be disruptive.
What happened was when we
were looking at developing a
product line and training,
I had always felt that the
industry that I had been
trained into was called "the
beauty industry," at
Dermatalogica we call that a
beauty product because
we don't use it.
It's not about beauty,
it's about skin health and
wellness and really great
business opportunities, and
so we looked at the industry
and said we need to develop
a product that is a cross
between a cosmetic and
a pharmaceutical.
Am I rattling?
Jane Rowan: OK.
Thank you.
It's a cross between
a cosmetic and a
pharmaceutical but the word
cosmeseutical hadn't really
been made up then.
And so Dermatalogica and the
name and the packaging all
looked reminiscent of a
pharmaceutical but we
believed the future of the
industry was going to be a
lot more serious, a lot less
about superficial cosmetic
application, which is fine
but to me makeup sits in
that category and it's a
personal choice, but skin
health is really for every
single person from birth all
the way through.
You start off with a sun
block at six months old all
the way through.
That was our mantra was this
is about bringing your skin
to its optimum level of
health and condition and
that created a category and
I truly believe it created
an opportunity which was
a greater opportunity for
small businesses to scale
into that category because
suddenly it became
part of health care.
And this was 1986 when we
launched Dermalogic, it was
before the doctor brands.
Dermatologists were not
developing their own
products, they were
basically recommending
Crisco and ivory soap and
telling us that nothing we
did made a difference and
it was all creaming and
steaming and didn't
really do anything.
Boy, has the world changed
because now you can look at
any of the shelves of salons
or stores and see doctor
brands, but that
wasn't the case then.
We created this disruptive
category that so many
businesses then
got their start in.
And really excited to
say that 7,000 of those
businesses are salons in the
United States that we supply
and they've gone on, and the
interesting thing is that
right now, the category of
skin care products in the
salon industry has a 40,
four zero, 40 percent
projected job grown between
now and 2020 by the US
Department of Labor.
We are second only to tech
in the opportunity for
growth. Yeah. I know!
I said the same thing. Yeah.
Maria Contreras-Sweet:
Something else, Jane, it
wasn't lost on me when
you said that
you kept it private.
Jane Rowan: Yes.
Maria Contreras-Sweet: That
is an incredible feet.
I've started three different
businesses, I can tell you
now difficult that is.
My third one had
to go public.
(inaudible) so I really
(inaudible) knowing, because
everybody here wants to know
about finances (inaudible)
Jane Rowan: Yeah.
Maria Contreras-Sweet:
(inaudible) Could you take
us through the -- (laughter)
your capital
journey as well?
Jane Rowan: I will.
So we started on 14 thousand
dollars of self-funding so
how are you going
to scale on that?
What are you going to do?
The first thing was we never
spent any money on anything
unnecessary,
including clothing.
We -- not that we were
running around naked -- we,
Raymond and I
had a moratorium.
We weren't buying anything,
anything that we didn't
absolutely need
for three years.
We took 300 dollars a month
out of the business the
first three years, we
did not draw salary.
Raymond kept a job as a
sales rep for a skin care
equipment company, we lived
on his salary which was a
base -- a very low base, I
mean it was
1000 dollars a month.
We had a one bedroom
apartment in Marina Del Rey.
We had our sales manager who
had come, emigrated here to
join us that we'd worked
with before, slept on our
floor on a futon for
a year and a half.
We were frugal.
A big night out was, you
know, macaroni and cheese
that I made at home, so,
and, you know, boxed wine
which is never a bad idea.
So (laughter) we scaled
because we focused on only
spending what we needed to
and we focused on small
businesses that
everyone was ignoring.
The Harvard business review
in 2003 wrote an article on
us and, I don't like the
title but it was the cover
page, it was called
"Bottom Feeders."
I know right?
Kind of rude.
But the context of
it was interesting.
What they said was that we
had seen an opportunity in
very small businesses that
had pretty bad credit that
nobody wanted to supply
product to because they
wouldn't be able to offer
them credit and terms.
Well the salon professional
industry is a COD business,
it always was and it still
is, so we shipped everything
UPS COD and we were paid.
Our cash flow was
positive immediately.
We supplied small
businesses, often single
owner/operator that could
not get credit and they were
happy to pay COD and
everyone else
was ignoring them.
Everyone else was saying
they're not big enough to
really bother about; they're
only going to order a few
thousand dollars a year.
Raymond and I said we need
to shallow, like small
businesses, and wide,
shallow and wide.
Everyone else was going an
inch wide and a mile deep,
they were looking for
the big companies.
And when I hear people say,
"you know, I really want to
get into Whole Foods or I
really want to get into, you
know, Bloomingdales, we
avoided every single
business that require terms.
Our sales forms say we've
got a huge order for 25
thousand dollars from a big
spa in Las Vegas, Ray and
I would say no.
They used to say we were
the sales prevention team.
They say, "why not?"
and we'd say because 120
days we cannot carry the
debt, we're not
carrying the debt.
We never wanted to put our
eggs in a basket where
anyone had leverage on our
business and if they didn't
pay us we couldn't survive.
So we kept everything
cash on delivery, small
businesses we built
relationships with those
businesses, we trained those
entrepreneurs, their skin
therapists, we didn't just
train them in technique we
trained them in how to run
their business, how to hire
staff, how much do you
pay a front desk person?
Should you pay
them commission?
Do you pay them the same
commission as the skin
therapist in the room?
We trained everything from
source your trollies from
Target to cotton squares
from a medical supply.
We became the resource for
those small businesses and
we reminded them and thanked
them every day that if you
are not successful and you
can't scale then we can't
scale so we're
in it together.
We're going to drag you
kicking and screaming and
biting, if necessary, to
your optimum level of
success because if you don't
get there, we don't get
there, and we are
definitely getting there.
So it became this tribal
anthem that we because this
tiny, teeny, but not weeny
(laughter) we were small
businesses but
we were scrappy.
We were going to build our
clients and we were going
to keep them.
And I used to say to the
skin therapists, because I
am one myself, you need to
265 clients to have a
full book, 265.
Write it at the top of your
book every single day, every
single of client take care
of them, make sure they come
back, rebook them before
they leave, do not let them
leave, don't let them go
anywhere else, you must
secure them, and we
will teach you have.
I mean, it became --
we were like zeallarts.
We were out and we were
calling ourselves, we were
saying "how did
you do today?"
"Did you introduce
that service?"
"How fast can you
wax a bikini line?"
"12 minutes is too slow,
it's got to
be seven minutes."
I mean, I would do videos.
We would send them out,
teaching them how to do it.
We were relentless in making
those small
entrepreneurs successful.
And that not only built
our business, it built an
incredible industry that
all believed
in the same mission.
Maria Contreras-Sweet:
I -- another applause.
Come on, that was
phenomenal,
that was just phenomenal.
(applause)
Maria Contreras-Sweet: OK.
Now, what I found -- we just
interviewed, a couple weeks
ago, we had a similar
meeting with Kevin Plank,
he came to SBA.
No one believed that you
could put technology in
clothing and this young man
said "I believe it can.
I think we can disrupt
apparel," and came in and
asked us for a loan after
having been turned down all
over town here by everybody
and we funded him with 250
thousand dollars.
SBA did, a local bank.
And as a result, he is now
the founder of Underarmour,
so it is just incredible.
But you and he sound alike
in your passion as you, you
said, you're zealous.
It's a campaign, right?
It's just all out -- what
I want to know is -- and I
think the group would be
interested in knowing -- you
said "we're going to
succeed, you have to because
we are going to."
There was a sense
of exceptionalism.
There was a sense
of confidence.
You didn't blink, you didn't
let anything
stand in your way.
You knew your metrics and
you created the atmosphere
that you needed to
be able to thrive.
Jane Rowan: Yes.
Maria Contreras-Sweet: Now,
one of the challenges that
we find across the country
is that girls don't always
feel that way about
themselves so how you
were you raised?
Tell us what is was at home
that gave you this gumtion,
this sense of confidence.
Talk to us about that.
Jane Rowan: Well, as you can
imagine my mom was widowed,
she was raising the four
girls, she was working as
often as she could.
I mean, she was working the
night shift, she was coming
home at seven in the
morning, she was sleeping a
couple of hours, and getting
up about nine o'clock taking
care of me, my sisters
went to school.
At four she went to sleep
at four, slept for another
couple of hours
then went to work.
So it was a very high work
ethic, I grew up in that.
I also became a brownie, a
girl scout, went to an all
girls school so you might
say I was totally prepared
for a womens industry.
It never occurred to me that
women couldn't, and didn't,
and shouldn't do everything
because that was what I saw
modeled around
me all the time.
But I will say something
because I read and hear a
lot about "girls need more
self esteem, girls need more
confidence, they don't speak
up, we need them to step up,
we need to get them to
lean it," everything.
We're all familiar
with the rhetoric.
But I will say that I don't
know that you can actually
teach that.
I believe what happens is
when you learn how to do
something and you suddenly
realize, "wow, I
can do this.
I can earn money at this.
I can own this.
I'm going to be OK.
I can take care of myself."
I believe knowing how to
do something instills that
confidence and self esteem.
I think it's hard to say to
a young person who's really
struggling and wrestling
with what the future might
be, "you need to
be more confident.
Let's build up
your self esteem."
Where is it coming from?
We build on that self esteem
and I believe the foundation
of that is when you say,
"wow, I can do this."
I know when we teach in our
training centers -- we have
40 training centers.
We teach 100 thousand skin
therapists every year around
the world.
When we teach our skin
therapists and we teach
future entrepreneurs, future
professionals, and our
future professionals master
a technique and we see that
moment, that "uh-huh"
moment, where they go "wow,
I think I can do this."
It could be a movement, it
could be a massage movement,
it could be waxing, but we
see this moment of, "wait a
minute, I think I can do
this," and we go, "you've
got it!
You've got it!
You can do it!"
and they go, "wow."
There's an "uh-huh" moment
where we see in that persons
face, not only
"can I do it?"
"I like doing this,
I'm good at this.
I'm going to be
good at this!"
And sometimes it's her first
time they've really thought
"I can do it.
I'm going to be fine.
I'm employable.
There's a 40 percent job
growth predicted, 61 percent
of the salons are
owned by women.
This could be my shot."
That is when the light bulb
goes off and once that
happens that person
is unstoppable.
So, as crazy as it might
seem, I promise you that
when I walk around a new
city I sometimes say to
myself, "OK, if everything
disappeared -- heaven forbid
-- what would you do?"
And I know I could leave
this building now and knock
on the door of every salon
in the county -- by the way
I saw about 25 of them
in Georgetown yesterday.
I've never seen so many in
salons in a three block
radius in my life, right?
I could knock -- we could
knock on all those salon
doors and I promise you
that by the end of today or
tomorrow I will have a job.
I know that because I have a
very sellable skill, I can
wax a bikini line
in seven minutes.
(laughter) And those of you
in the room, you
know that's golden.
And as silly as that might
seem, as trivial as that
might be, I can't tell you
what that has always done
for my confidence.
I know how to do something.
And that's why for me,
skill-set driven training,
purpose driven education,
or in California now we've
introduced two years ago
a big vocational training
piece into high schools.
It got a big funding
opportunity of over 50
million dollars and the
premise was job driven
education and I have to
tell you in the state of
California, for those
students who have stayed in
high school through
graduation and persued the
job driven education track,
we have a 91 percent
graduation, which
is extremely high.
California -- LAUSD was
tracking a over 50 percent
drop out rate in
some of our schools.
This is huge because those
students graduate knowing
they know how to do
something, having a skill
set that they can earn money
on and potentially open
their own business.
Maria Contreras-Sweet:
You know I have -- yes. Yes
(applause)
Maria Contreras-Sweet: You
can tell why Jane and I have
become such good friends.
We have so much passion
for the same things.
I have to tell you, I was a
poli-sci student and I was
just trying to figure out
-- I was going to run some
education office because I
wanted to help other people
learn and that
was my intent.
And then this gentlemen
saw me in action at some
conference and came to me,
he was the president of
Westinghouse for the region
at the time, and he came to
me and he said, "you know,
I'd like for you to join our
company," and I said, "I'm a
poli-sci major, I'm running
a senator's office.
What am I going to do for
you at Westinghouse?"
He said, "Look at
what you do every day.
You are running a campaign
so you are trying to get
people who think, you know,
this way and you're trying
to move them over through
the process of campaign to
get them to vote
for your senator."
He said, "we get people like
red cans," you know, because
I was going to -- there
asking me to help them run
the seven-up division that
they had just acquired, "he
said we get people who like
red cans and move them over
to begin to like
green cans."
And he took me through the
process; he says "skills are
transferrable."
Jane Rowan: Yes.
Maria Contreras-Sweet: And
that was so powerful to me
so what you're talking
about, education, that I
thought, "Gee, I'm a
poli-sci major, I'm working
for a Senator, you know,
I'm working at a Senator's
office, this is what I do.
And he just helped
me think about it.
And I went home that night
and thought, "what are my
innate skills?
And how do I write down and
how are they applicable in
so many other ways?"
And so that for me was my
"uh-huh" moments and then I
went into the private sector
and I learned, you know, ISO
certification, ideation,
can-ven inventory; all the
processes and the metrics,
and then left with all those
skills to start my three
different businesses, the
last one of course
being a community bank.
But I found that, as you
say, now I have such
confidence about, you know,
I'm so comfortable with me
core skills that you can put
me in anywhere and I feel
I'm going to
rise to the top.
Jane Rowan: Yeah, you'll
navigate your way through.
Maria Contreras-Sweet: You
will navigate and I think
that for each of us it has
given us a sense of freedom.
So when I worked at
Westinghouse, as an example,
really big dollar amount
given the amount of federal
once I figured that out I
thought, "I don't really
need this job so I'm here
to contribute to them."
Because I'm so comfortable
with what I can contribute
and they give me more
confidence, a little bit
more ability to take risks,
and move the
forward for the company.
And they saw that and then
I became an officer and so
forth, an equity partner in
the business eventually.
But it's that sense of
confidence that really
does drive me.
And then, you know,
obviously, the Governor
called and asked me to run
the State Transportation
System in California, which
is a whole lot of fun.
(laughter) Yeah, right.
And then to be called
to serve, to run
entrepreneurship for the
country and, in some sense,
lead up the world, has
really been extraordinary.
So I say to you, you've just
said, Jane, is
so powerful to me.
I think that the more of us
realize that, that we have
to be comfortable with
our core skills and their
application can
be universal.
Jane Rowan: Yes.
Maria Contreras-Sweet:
And I think that's really
important to think about.
Like, what are your core
competencies and then how
you can apply them in
whatever field of endeavor
you're going to take --
Jane Rowan: Yes.
Maria Contreras-Sweet: And I
think that's very powerful.
How are we doing time-wise?
OK, she's telling me to wra
-- well, I have, because I'm
just -- I'm just -- now you
have had a successful exit
and this is what
we all want.
We all want a successful
exit and so you can proud
that now you've
built a global brand.
What I love most about every
interview that we get to do
around these, there was
QualPOM in San Diego,
another gentlemen who came
to SBIR now has been built a
global company, what I find
is they're
committed to impact.
It's not just about profit
and branding, it's about
having a positive impact in
change on the world in a
very positive way.
You're now carrying this
great program called FITE,
so would you tell us about
what your goal is and how
you came to that decision
and how people can
benefit from that.
Jane Rowan: Thank you.
Well, we at Dermelogical, we
believe that every single
brand, no matter what
category you're in, really
should have a social impact
and it should be baked
into the brand.
It shouldn't be part of your
HR or somebody who
handles the philanthropy.
It needs to be baked into
the global marketing
initiative and so in 2010
we determined that our best
social impact was going
to women entrepreneurs.
That was my story, it was
the story of our industry,
98 percent of all skin
therapists are women so this
is a industry
dominated by women.
It's a social and economic
powerhouse for women.
So we determined -- we set
about creating a social
impact called F-I-T-E, we
call it FITE, it stands for
financial independence
through entrepreneurship.
We made a commitment in 2010
to partner with KEVA, who is
the largest online funding
opportunity, to put 25
thousand women into their
own business in a
two year period.
We hit the 25 thousand
number in only 18 months and
so far we've funded over 80
thousand women around the
world so --
(applause)
Jane Rowan: Thank you.
But we've used our industry,
the salon industry, as a
blueprint for
entrepreneurship even though
those women are in many
industries,
agriculture to textiles.
And now we've become
very strong in thought
leadership, we focus on
education, and we are right
now, in the first part of
2017, we're launching a
brand new, what we're
calling a global
entrepreneurship
accelerator.
We've partnered with
Operation Hope and they are
writing a financial
literacy piece on us.
We're going to be working
with the SBA to put in a lot
of the amazing content and
information that we have on
our website at the SBA, and
we're going to be writing,
from our perspective,
how you build and run a
successful salon.
We're putting in all of that
education, and we've been in
education for over 30 years,
putting everything online.
We're going to make it free
and available to every
entrepreneur in the salon
industry, regardless of --
this has nothing
to do with product.
This has everything to
do with their business.
We're going to link our
entrepreneurs up so they
have mentoring and sharing
opportunities because we
know as a start-up
entrepreneurs that it is
important to have a camp
fire to come to and to be
able to share your stories
and learn from each other.
And we are very excited that
that's going to go live the
first part of next year,
completely free to every
salon entrepreneur and we're
going to put on all of our
effort and energy as the
number one skincare brand,
in getting that message out
and making sure that that
information -- all the links
get in the hands of every
entrepreneur that we can
possibly track down and drag
into the circle and
make them successful.
And I have to tell you that
right now, standing here at
the opening of global
entrepreneurs, we can
especially, in light of
every recent event, we are
even more determined to
make that mark for women
entrepreneurs because
without women entrepreneurs
we will not have a
successful future economy.
We need them.
It's the game changer.
Maria Contreras-Sweet: Wow.
(applause)
Maria Contreras-Sweet:
Fantastic, just fantastic.
Jane Rowan: Thank you.
Maria Contreras-Sweet:
How do we replicate you?
Jane Rowan: No.
I want to thank the
Administrator, too, for
really making this possible.
Thank you, Administrator
Sweet, and we're very very
sad and sorry to see you
moving on to other new
opportunities, which I'm
sure you'll be amazing and
we will be right there along
with you
with whatever they are.
Maria Contreras-Sweet:
Oh, thank you.
Speaking of, let me just say
just a -- I didn't get a
chance to introduce myself
more fully to some of the
new people, the new guests
that we have here today.
The reason we love each
other so much, as I was
mentioning, we both came
from other countries.
Through entrepreneurship
we've sort of made our way
through life in some way and
the values that you spout
are so incredibly
dear to me.
My grandmother -- I always
talk about my grandmother
because I think, you know,
for all of us it was always
our grandmother who
inspired us so much, and my
grandmother Amelia
was so much that way.
And I still remember when I
wrote her, we didn't have
Google or Gmail in those
days, and I wrote her and I
said, "Grandma, I became the
fourth grade milk monitor in
this country of mine," and
she said, "It's not the
titles it's what you do with
the titles that you
have that matters."
And I've tried in every
which way, however humble,
in some small measure to
help other people along,
founded a women's
organization, because my
passion is to get women to
be politically engaged.
And so mine was about how do
I get more women involved in
the political process?
Regardless of whatever party
you belong to, I felt that
it was important to have
people engaged to ensure our
democracy and I so still
believe that and still
encourage people that
whether you're running a
business, working
government, a nonprofit,
that you do be engaged in
the political process.
So that's always been sort
of my avocation all the time
that I was at Westinghouse,
and my own business, and
running the bank, to try
to have a voice there.
And I have to tell you that,
you know, it has served me
and I hope that now, as I
travel across the country
and I see women who have
graduated from that
institute it gives me such
a great sense of pride and
harkens back to when my
grandmother said -- and
although she had been a
migrant worker, she believed
that someday through
entrepreneurship, building
my own business, providing
for myself, and building a
legacy for my children, that
I might be able to someday
work in an office
and be a secretary.
And so the good Lord heard
her and allowed me to hold
office and be a
cabinet secretary.
(laughter)
Maria Contreras-Sweet:
That is the power
of entrepreneurship.
(applause)
Maria Contreras-Sweet: And
so I believe in this so
deeply, that through
entrepreneurship we can
expand democracies, deepen
them, expand the middle
class and be able to provide
for our families in ways
we've never mentioned.
So, I'll close with what I
think is my favorite quote
of the President and he says
that "entrepreneurship is
the most powerful force that
the world has ever seen to
lift people out of poverty.
We must, at this day, as
we kick our off Global
Entrepreneurship week,
dedicate ourselves, each of
us, collectively and
individually, to go out and
to change the world.
Remember, now, that when you
go to light up your website,
you are engaged in global
commerce so embrace it don't
run away from it.
Find your difference and use
it for the wind at your back
to connect with somebody,
whether it's somebody in
Peru or Canada or it's in
the UK, connect and build
new partnerships because
the global entrepreneurship
scenario, excuse me, the
global commerce is not just
for big business.
It's got to be for the
entrepreneur as well."
So I hope that you will come
to SBA to learn about our
Office of
International Trade.
I saw Tamika here, who runs
our counseling operation,
Aaron runs our women's
office, obviously, Antinella
(spelled phonetically) runs
the incredible network that
we have of women business
centers throughout the
country that I hope you will
partake of, and there's so
many people here from SBA
that will stand up and work
with you and give you
a sense of direction.
But I already know that
these women are empowered,
you wouldn't be here
otherwise but know that
anything is possible and
together we will and we can.
And we will
change the world.
God bless you.
God bless the United
States of American.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
(applause)
