DISCLAIMER:
The following output was transcribed from our audio recording.
Although the transcription is largely accurate, it may be incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors.
It is posted to aid in understanding the interview but should not be treated as an authoritative record.
Mindy Cohn 00:01
Hey everybody, Christian and I welcome you back to another episode of Mondays with Mindy everybody.
Christian Brescia 00:06
Welcome back to the show.
Mindy Cohn 00:07
Today's episode features a conversation with Lizzie Tisch. Lizzy hails from Long Island, New York and earned her ba from the College of literature science in the arts at University of Michigan. She started her career in the insurance and baking industries before focusing her efforts in the fashion arena. She's a member of Vanity Fair's international Best Dressed list Hall of Fame and a contributing editor to town and country was a co founder of the beloved membership base shopping destination sweet 1521. Her latest endeavor Lizzie Tisch discoveries which is a fashion and art event consultancy Ltd brings exciting collaborations and unique products to design lovers like myself, Ltd infuses shopping with an excitement and sense of discovery by offering limited edition products and exclusive experience some of my personal faves that I have actually participated in Ashley longshore bunny eyes flower shop Lisa Eisner jewelry and lingua franca ongoing Ltd events showcase the best in art, beauty, design, fashion and travel. She is passionate about a number of causes he works with and supports many nonprofit organizations, including serving as a member of the board of city Meals on Wheels. And as a member of the Board of Trustees for New York Presbyterian Hospital and the town school. She's also actively involved with the Hudson Yards multi disciplinary Art Center, the shed, as am I. Lizzy lives in New York City with her husband john and her daughter, Mason.
Christian Brescia 01:37
Amazing. I'm excited to get to know her. I know our audience must be as well. Ladies and gentlemen, let's welcome to the show. Lizzie Tisch. Hi, and welcome.
Lizzie Tisch 01:50
for having me. I love this
Mindy Cohn 01:52
course. Oh my god, you look so glamorous. It's like the infusion of like New York glamour, fashion and adorableness that I need in my life.
Lizzie Tisch 02:01
I mean, I just feel like after six months of forgetting how to get dressed, I checked into my closet. I was like, Oh, I remember you.
Mindy Cohn 02:13
I know. They're like Mother, please. But it's on me shoes. Yeah, everyone. Yes. Okay, so we start each episode where I'm gonna pick like five random questions, and we'll just like give it a give it a go. Okay. Okay, Miss Lizzie, what's your favorite place to travel to and why?
Lizzie Tisch 02:37
Paris? I wish we were it was our anniversary last week. And we had a
Mindy Cohn 02:43
happy anniversary.
02:44
Thank you very much. And we had booked it back in April with fingers crossed. And of course we'd be able to go, right? Yes. No, I said I was at unions. I was at Union Square cafe. Whatever. 16th Street, which was lovely. Better than nothing.
Mindy Cohn 03:02
How many trips? Have you had to cancel since March? I'm very curious.
Lizzie Tisch 03:06
Let me see. Five.
Mindy Cohn 03:09
Yeah, that's it. Yeah, hurts. I know. We're traveling heard.
03:13
We're travelers. And I'm a planner. And so this is actually been a nightmare for me. I mean, we are the people that you know, plan six months in advance, we know where we're eating. I mean, other people might find it a little annoying. But once that was like, type A personality perfect. No, it's 100%. And my husband's just as bad if not worse. And so this has been the biggest struggle for us is the lack of being able to plan we don't know, what do we do? I mean, more, wrote to me and said, Are you going here for Christmas vacation that?
Mindy Cohn 03:48
I don't know, I know. Who knows? Exactly. Who knows? I said the same thing. I'm like, I'm gonna let you know, last minute.
03:56
And on top of the fact that our passport is worth, you know, less than or toilet paper. So there's a little bit
Mindy Cohn 04:04
we hope to change up soon. That's all I were going to say on that. Speaking of which, when was the last time you cried? Sorry, I didn't need to be so crass. Well, it's usually like, are you a crier?
04:18
I'm really not a crier. I used to be a crier. As a kid. I was a crier. My older brother used to say I wouldn't cry over spilled milk, I'd cry over the possibility of milk spilling. I was a very sensitive, delicate child and flip the switch as I got older, and so I'm not a huge crier, but I will say during this quarantine period, there were moments of hysterics and breakdowns and we all had them at different times. So that was helpful. always helpful. It wasn't a triple meltdown, because that wouldn't have been good. Yes. But for the most part, I haven't cried recently, other than it like silly commercials and stuff like that.
Mindy Cohn 04:59
Yeah. So that's always delayed. Ready for this kind of crisis? A 17 year old looks like this for you? Is she back in school?
Lizzie Tisch 05:09
Correct. She's back in school on a modified schedule two days on today. Okay, but at least she's going in person and She's so happy to be in first.
Mindy Cohn 05:17
Oh, she and her friends must be I can only imagine.
Lizzie Tisch 05:20
They all are. It's too much in front of a screen. Yeah. Agreed. What do you do when you're stuck either creatively or for an idea? Or what do you do to break up your to like, clear your mind? I know, this is also really weird time to ask this question.
05:36
I mean, it's funny, it's like, normally, it's an interesting question, because I don't usually get stuck. My problem is too many ideas running around in my brain that like, I need to kind of control the madness a little bit.
Mindy Cohn 05:49
So how do you do that? How do you put the list? I always love this visual for me, it's like put the list instead of horizontally, vertically.
05:55
Yes. It's like the pro con list and you'd like figure out what is it for me, it's the thing that's going to drive me crazy if I don't do it. So I take it from the Oh my god, okay, I've got these three ideas. Let's say this one is like the Bugaboo in my brain. And if I don't do it, I'm going to totally regret it. And it's going to drive me crazy. And I happen to have had that over the summer. I've had this great concept for an idea, and then some family stuff and some COVID stuff. things kind of came together. I had to cancel it, but it's still sitting there and I'm still trying to figure out how to make it work.
Mindy Cohn 06:28
Is it for Ltd? Or is
06:30
if it's for it? Well, it's a combination was for Ltd for No Kid Hungry so it was had a fundraising component to it. And it had my favorite now exercise class Isaac boots, which became a thing for me during quarantine because I hate to exercise, but I was gonna go down a very bad rabbit hole if I didn't do Isaac's class became like, I make fun of my husband who goes to soulcycle seven days a
Mindy Cohn 06:59
week. Gosh, but I also got to understand that he has to be made fun of because he is he's an addict. It's totally
07:07
fine. And he is totally fine being made fun of he understands his position. But now I the tables have turned and he thinks I'm in a cult and oh my god, no getting made fun of and you know what? I can take it I totally fine with it. I am embracing.
Mindy Cohn 07:28
Yeah, listen, of all the addictions you could have. That's okay.
07:31
Yeah. So just to go back to answer how to get unstuck right now. It's Yes. of the just trying to figure out what really can be done in this moment of time. And then kind of taking it I usually go on like a very fast pace and get things done quickly. And so now it's like, Alright, we're gonna test the waters and try to figure out what can actually happen under the circumstance.
Mindy Cohn 07:51
Yeah, it's slowing down is not always a bad, a bad thing for people who move quickly.
07:56
No. And sometimes it's like, you know, makes you pause and think of things and kind of, Oh, you know what, maybe this is a good moment to pivot and regroup. But I'm just not used to stuffing so it's been an adjustment
Mindy Cohn 08:08
now. I bet Lizzie Who is your favorite relative and why? Oh. In the moment, we won't hold you to it. You won't get in trouble. Let's take like you getting in trouble or getting like, okay, yeah.
08:22
Children and my husband aside.
Mindy Cohn 08:25
Why not? Like, just don't get yourself in trouble.
08:28
It's really hard. I'm what I'm one of five. And I like my siblings. I'm probably my mother. My mother
08:39
can't go wrong with the mother card you know? Never it's a loser answer but
Mindy Cohn 08:48
it's not a loser answer. Well, not my battery. Um, what's the last thing you binge on? Or what are you currently obsessed with? Right
08:54
right now Criminal Minds I feel like murder police you know, situational drama problem like okay, I go to background noise like at any moment if you walk into my where I'm sitting now there's a TV and if you go anywhere if you walk in at any time it's either like Chicago PD law and order SBU. Okay, Blue Bloods there's some procedural drama, The TV like my relaxing like some people have he on all day long I'm keeping up with the Kardashians are the real housewives like to me all of that stuff is my go to so I I had seen a couple of episodes of Criminal Minds and thought maybe it was a little too dark. Then I really got into it. And just that there's only
Mindy Cohn 09:47
we want to talk about a vortex There she goes.
09:50
So keep me busy. Like the spa has Gigi so I will bring the
09:55
laptop and you know there Yeah. Did you gravitate more towards like a fiction stories that that nature do kind of like Doctor documentaries and stuff.
10:03
I do like we during quarantine. I watched so much TV that I put up an Instagram meme at one point that I had finished Netflix like and now what?
Mindy Cohn 10:12
You know, that was one of my favorites. Yeah,
10:14
I mean, I did a lot of different things like I we watched unorthodox, which I loved we were really good, great with L fans. It was hilarious.
Mindy Cohn 10:25
I loved now, yes. If you have not watched I'm obsessed with Ted last Oh, okay. on Apple, you need to just jump in. It's probably one of the best things I've seen. Okay. And
10:38
like, then I went a different direction watch like that. Listen to the Elizabeth Holmes podcast that Rebecca Jarvis did and read. Which was amazing yet, so it's like, I mixed it up a little bit.
Mindy Cohn 10:51
Yes. All right. So I don't know if it's, we're so big Christian, that it's not that everyone understands our backstory yet. But um, you know, Krishna and I kind of created this podcast because the one thing during this time that I was missing personally was just connecting to creatives. And you know, this, we know this about each other. We're very social, and an I get my energy and I get inspired by talking to other people and being around other people. So how do you define your creative process as you see it and what is inspiring you right now, if there's anything or inspired you before,
11:25
I always say that the creativity that I possess, like Mr. Jean, like my mother used to make handbags. Mason is a budding photographer, and is like, she's reading Dante's Inferno right now. And part of their classes, they have to draw out and visualize the candles. And she's showing me the stuff that she was drawing. And I literally looked at her, I said, I don't understand how you do that, if I tried to put a pen on a piece of paper, it would end up looking like a pain man stick figure. It's so embarrassing. And so I say that it missed the gene. So the way that I think I'm creative is just the way I visualize things. And the way I put together things and sort of how the Ltd had the Ltd process came about was this idea of like, I've always loved being a hunter and a finder of new brands, and finding what the what's exciting finding what's new, finding what's hard to find, which is not so easy anymore. You know, now with the Internet, and every store in every city, it's not as interesting. And so I kind of want to figure out how to clear out the clutter. And by doing that, and editing things in a certain way, whether it was you know, books to read, or beauty products to buy, or clothes or accessories,
Mindy Cohn 12:39
I think in order to be a patron of the arts in all forms, and being an artist yourself in a creative yourself. That's how I figured my dad's a businessman. He's one of the most creative people that I know whether it has to do with marketing, or just aesthetically his taste level. So I sort of have a broader sense. They go
12:57
hand in hand, I mean, john, who tell visitors and even though he's Chairman and CEO of the company, he's still like, his favorite part is the design of the hotel and how to really use public spaces. And so you know, we actually like we would bounce ideas off of each other. And so he would always come with me to, to show rooms it would go to shopping, you know, different stores to see, like, what does that customer experience like? Because I think, you know, whether it's going out to eat at a restaurant or going into a style or traveling, it's all combined hundred percent.
Mindy Cohn 13:27
Yeah. So what or who inspires you the most? I mean, do you need to be out and about and looking at things? Are you a dreamer? Like,
13:34
what's your mo and I definitely think being out and about and seeing just people I think are, you know, I think people with the best style are the ones that just exit you know, it's not anybody you've ever heard of, it's not a famous person with a stylist. It's just somebody on the street corner. I mean, there was a woman who worked with me in my old business, and I would look at she would come in, you know, she was not spending a lot of money on her clothes, but she would walk in every day. And I would just look at him, like Lacey. How did you do this? And it was amazing. And everything she wore just was so perfect, and was so happy. And anyone else put this together, you like to have mirrors in your house, you okay? You can dress in the dark, whatever. But so I really find that people in various environments inspire me, I will say that Instagram has been a huge kind of visual, you know, amazing place for me to find things. I found some really cool stuff, just kind of going deep diving into different accounts and following people that I think are, you know, really creative and interesting. Yes. And I think even now, even though it's hard, I think there's plenty of things to be inspired by and I think just sort of this moment of kind of taking a step back and thinking okay, you know, maybe I'm not going out as much or maybe I'm not shopping as much but you know, it's the sort of hopefulness that we're gonna will end eventually we'll get to that place. And I think at that moment, people are going to be ready to go.
Mindy Cohn 15:03
Yes. Well, that's the one thing for me outside of talking and connecting with people is for me traveling, I get incredibly inspired, grounded. I feel spiritual. And I travel and it's the one thing I truly cannot wait to get back to. I missed it. I think the most out of anything. I couldn't agree more. I
15:21
mean, it's like the energy. So when you go someplace new or someplace that you love, it's just, you know, the air smells different and the textures and the colors. And I mean, I agree I, I said to john, the second that Paris opens, I don't care what he's doing.
15:39
I love that.
Mindy Cohn 15:39
Yes, that's a good way. I like that very much. So have your latest obsessions then obviously given your you know where you've been? Have they been on Instagram? Or what are you currently like obsessed with right now? Is that Is there something or a company or a person or something? Well, I
15:56
mean, I would say our mutual friend Jill has gotten me through some of this with Dan, do you know?
Mindy Cohn 16:05
First of all, I'm so obsessed with Suzanne talking about john and his soulcycle addiction
16:10
is funny. She doesn't speak to me the same way and
Mindy Cohn 16:15
makes me cackle but yes, I am. And now, the latest one milania is
16:22
bedspread. God, I can't
16:25
Yes. When I first saw the first character and growing up in the five towns in the south shore of Long Island. I mean, my daughter Mason only wants me to talk like that all the time she thinks is the funniest. Like, is that, can't you?
16:43
Apparently you can.
16:43
Yes. It comes right back
16:46
to me after one more Dini and you know, in the oz don't sound as clear anymore. But yeah, I went to college in the Midwest, and they didn't take kindly to my Long Island accent. So I had to clean it.
Mindy Cohn 17:01
Kind of like when it kind of disappeared is when you were
17:03
in your freshman year in college.
17:07
The Midwesterners didn't care for. Little did they know. Yes, exactly.
Mindy Cohn 17:13
So tell me a little bit about your I don't know, however much you want to talk about it or not that your trajectory from like finance to what you
17:21
Well, now, it's funny when I was in college, I should guess I should go back I had a couple of internships. One was working at a PR firm that specialized in fashion. And that was the first summer job I had I had worked in stores also in high school, right. But this was my first kind of foray that office was in the garment center. I probably walked over to the Fairchild thing I was at WWDC, every day, it was the worst job of my entire life. And I can say that I was an insurance broker for six years. So I know what I speak. So I hated the people. I hated the environment. I hated every aspect of it. But I always was interested in fashion and design. And when I graduated and was unemployed, we graduated may and by Labor Day, my parents kept saying, you know, it's Labor Day.
18:10
Yes,
18:11
you might want to start looking for a job. And at that point, I really didn't know what I wanted to do. I had worked a couple of summers on the trading floor at Smith Barney and another job working for their brokerage arm. And I just was sort of at a loss and you know, was vacillating between something and fashion working for a magazine. And my mother looked at me and she says, do you want to be able to afford the gloves or work for the people that are making wear? Oh, okay. Does that mean you're not buying them for me, and so ended up working at Smith Barney in their meeting planning department, which back then this is 1994. I started in November. And this was sort of like the wild wild west of Wall Street. You know, I don't even really think we had like teenies and receipts. And people, you know, investment bankers, were getting cocaine and hookers, and everyone was having a grand old time. And we would organize all of these trips, whether it was for the research analysts or the bankers or reward ships for the salespeople. So I was traveling to all these places, which was super fun. But then after two years, and then I thought, I don't want to sit in a boardroom or a ballroom. And when I'm sitting at overlooking Pebble Beach, and I'm like, I want to be the one who's getting rewarded. I don't want to be the one planning these places. You can imagine some of the people you worked with were charming. I can imagine very, very charming. And I had a crazy boss. So it was a whole thing. And while I was thinking about what else I want to do, they created a department that was called target marketing. And it really came out of the need that Smith Barney's clients they were researching and they found they were basically middle aged white men who any female client they had were these men's widow right and they started to say Oh, well, in 15 years, we're gonna have no clients left unless we start targeting and very different demographic than what we're used to. And I ended up working in this department, it was my boss and myself. And we created the first high net worth women's initiative within Wow, bang. And that kind of been led to other demographics. And I did that for several years. And I loved it. I mean, it was the first time that Smith Barney had an ad in vogue. And we were working with really interesting women. And we were like, no one's ever talked to us, you know, they always call on me, my husband. And it was a really interesting experience. And it also sheds light on a lot of things of mistakes that women make, you know, they don't think to put a credit card in their own name, then when you need credit, if something happens, you can't get it. Or if you're getting divorced, you get attached to the house, sell the house, you buy a new one my bad memories. Anyway, the bad juju really
Mindy Cohn 20:53
like advocating
20:54
for educating and teaching women to advocate for themselves and ask them questions, you know, when you get your statement, don't just let them tell you what's on it. And I think it was a really important lesson, and I love doing it. But it was sort of I'd already been there for about seven years, it was 2000. And I was like, I'm too young to be at this job. And I just gotten married for the first time and I was like, I want to work@a.com or something cool. And I ended up going to this marketing company, which to their credit, they were like one of the first people to put celebrities with products like Jessica Simpson and redken hair products when she was not particularly famous. So know that it was an interesting concept. But I mean, it was so funny, because I thought it was everything I was going to love. I could come to work in jeans, and we started at 930. And everyone was hated it. So much like nobody inmates are running the asylum. People are dressed in sweat pants. Yes. So it was an interesting discovery to realize that I need structure. And you know, there's part of me that likes being told what to do and where to go and what I'm responsible for, you know, and I think that's a very good lesson to learn when you're looking for a job and you're realizing you know what, maybe I'm not ready to do my own thing. Maybe I don't want to be responsible.
Mindy Cohn 22:13
Now there's something to be said for the worker bees. I tend to be a worker bee. Even though I'm a creative, I same. I like a boss, whether it's a director or producer, but I work well like that I
22:24
follow the rules really well. I always say that's my I like baking, but I don't like cooking. I'm very good with direction. All right. It's a great analogy, too, ya know, so and then I and I really hated this job. And then I subsequently got fired after 911 because nobody was spending money on these kinds of things. Yeah. And I just remember being so upset, and my father was like, you're just mad that they fired you before you quit?
22:52
Yeah, fine. Yeah, the point.
Mindy Cohn 22:55
But still, that's great. Whoever did it. It got you out.
22:58
It got me out. And I think getting fired is also a really good, humbling lesson of the great, you know what, okay, better to go and then stay too long. And yeah, so that was that. And then I was unemployed for about a year and I was redecorating an apartment and then started down a rabbit hole of watching General Hospital with my former mother in law every day at three o'clock in the afternoon. And my mother took me to lunch, and she hands me a business card. And she says, tomorrow you will be going down to the Willis group down near Wall Street. You will you have an appointment with this woman. She's the head of HR and you're going to get a job. It will go mom time for you to work. Like I always liked having a job. I was not good with idle hands. I think it gets you into a lot of choppiness for me, so I marched down to Willis. And it was the weirdest job interview I've ever had. Because most of the time you're selling yourself Why should we hire you? What makes you so fast? these interviews where why would you want to work here? No one ever wants to work in insurance. Could you not get a job any place? incredibly bizarre, but it worked out well and what my original position was supposed to be and what it morphed into was the bottom line is that I'm an excellent salesperson. So even though I didn't know like the real weeds of DNO and casualty and life and whatever, I could talk my way enough to get the client meeting, bring the experts and a few years later, I was at one of these reward trips that I used to amazing so for me, and I did that for about seven years and met all kinds of goals and even tried to get john as a client and he actually spoke at one of our events and said she didn't get me as a client but I married my insurance broker. So
Mindy Cohn 24:45
I know that story
24:48
that's so funny. Funny, so very cool. Work worked out well. And then after that, I said, You know what, I think it's time for something like completely different. john and i just gotten married in my office was all the way downtown. We were uptown just became sort of an annoying commute. But
Mindy Cohn 25:06
can I just interject something, Lizzie, because I think your story for me has so much power and things that my parents and I have talked about over the years, which I think a lot of people don't talk about enough, which is the courage to leave something that whether it's safer to paycheck, or whatever the courage you've had, or whether it's done for you, or you do it yourself to go into something new. There's something else I find that more people don't do that that should that realize they're unhappy, and it's 30 years too late. And I just applaud the fact that you just kept deep diving into what's next. Again, a very creative personality trait, my darling, that is That's right. It's a little Gypsy, it
25:47
is great. Says for jobs, I think that says for relationships, like when you do wrong, and you know, the fear, I mean, I remember when I was getting divorced, my mother looked at me and thought I was crazy into what if you never get married? Again? What I said, I don't care. I said, I just you know, you know, when something's not right, you know, when something's working, did I feel brave in the moment also scared the shore, but I just felt like, you know what, I'll figure it out. It'll work itself out one way or the other. And I wish more people that I totally agree with you. And it's almost like when something like that happens, whether it's with a job or a relationship, and then you start to see almost other it's like the blinders come off, and you start to see it with other people. And you kind of want to like, take them by the you got to keep going, you got to keep moving. I mean, that's part of what I'm a little having problems with during this pandemic. It's like, you can get stuck. And then you're like finding yourself not you know, doing anything until 11 o'clock, and you're like you couldn't I can't even really go out for lunch. All of a sudden, you feel like you're doing the same thing.
26:49
yesterday. Yeah.
26:52
So you look, I totally get it with doing this podcast. I think it's great. And it's a great way to get everybody connected. I think it's amazing. Yeah,
Mindy Cohn 27:00
I also just think people need outlets. Some people don't even realize they needed one.
27:05
Yeah, it's
27:06
like,
27:07
well, that's a little bit how my Instagram has been for me. I mean, I was always a little snarky and sarcastic, but
Mindy Cohn 27:14
you are, you are seriously, I'm going to say my top 10 in my top 10 that I follow, because I have a smile on my face with every post. It's fantastic. So for those of you who aren't following, you're missing out get on the bandwagon, which
27:29
has been I mean, people have dm they're like, seriously, where do you find? And then, you know, I try to like not make my family too much the budget, but sometimes they're just really easy.
Mindy Cohn 27:43
Well, especially now. So let me ask you this. Are you going to, at some point in the near future? Is Ltd going to? Is there a time frame you have for your next collab or your next anything? Are you allowed to
27:56
tell me you should ask me that I was on the phone with that today. I mean, the last few years, I've done some great things around the holidays. Yen is sort of been the holiday house, if you will. And it's been around travel or just things that I like that are amazing for gifts. And the goal is to be able to do that. Again. It's a little challenging. And I'll say, Oh, I had done it at the Regency Hotel in New York, which is closed for the moment. So we're trying to figure out if maybe we're going to do it in virtually mazing mind because I do have a website. So we're done. We're in the process of because I do think I made as much for me personally, I love in store shopping. You know, I appreciate the convenience of Amazon and not a forte and all of those things. But to me I love the the experience of it. The seeing it the hunting for it.
28:46
Yeah, I mean, I'm tapped out what if this issue kills it? You win by looking at it? Yeah. Right.
28:52
So when you're buying like, even if it's gifts and not for yourself, it's like the whole concept of like you discovered it someplace. Yes, doing that online. I don't think it's as much fun. Again, appreciate the convenience that maybe it comes wrapped also. But I just think that there's still this need. I mean, I did something over the summer to kind of test the waters with Levine. And Kenzie Leto, who designs Well first of all, has been designing amazing masks, and he does great jewelry. And I did it in in our house in the Hamptons in our backyard. And we had 50 people over the course of a day which in under the circumstances was Yes, I was pleasantly surprised.
Mindy Cohn 29:32
A raving success. Yes, people were
29:34
just so excited to get out of their house to see other people.
29:39
Yes, you know,
29:40
I think goods Yeah, and but buying stuff honestly was like almost secondary to everything. Yeah, just the Greek. Oh my God, thank you for giving me an activity. Thank you for letting me see people, you know, and it was very different. Everyone's coming into math. We're taking temperatures, saying I mean, I feel like you know,
Mindy Cohn 29:57
well that's the protocol. It's what you listen. It's not that big. forever but like you do what you have to do same thing I'm experiencing it, what
30:03
do you got to do? And you got it? I mean, I don't think it's a big deal like if you know if you walked into a restaurant and says no shoes no service, you know you don't get offended. Right? Exactly. You put your shoes on right your shirt on like you don't walk through the hotel lobby naked. I mean is
Mindy Cohn 30:23
when the massive thing early on, people were making it an issue. And I just thought, y'all remember when seatbelts. It wasn't the law. And then it was and it took a couple months. But eventually, we all just click it, like, just do it. You understand? Now, I'm obsessed
30:42
with these personal protections, everyone. So
30:46
you had doubts about me? I can tell. But
Mindy Cohn 30:51
I want to ask because you've had so so many diverse, different things. Is there one or two? I don't like to call them failures. But Have there been things where you kind of went, Oh, my God, and yet it's turned into the biggest gift or it's pivoted you in some way? Like, Can you recall, like something that you can share with us?
31:11
Yeah, look, I had three businesses ago, my old business partner, and I created something sort of out of pure fluke, because the market tanked in 2008. And yet, it felt a little bit like now in terms of people weren't shopping, the world was sort of upside down, people had a real sense of uncertainty, it wasn't considered, you know, politically correct to be walking down Madison Avenue with shopping bags, and one of a designer that she used to work with called her and said, you know, no one's buying my stuff, I have this showroom, maybe you can get some clients to come up to my showroom, and I'll give them a discount. But we've got to keep it quiet, because we don't want the department stores to know etc. So we're talking about this and like, we got to keep it top secret. So we created this idea called shop secret. The concept was we sent out this very long, I mean, the first email was so ridiculous. I can't believe anybody even read it. It was like, three pages long. Don't tell anybody make an appointment, keep your mouth shut, by the way didn't tell you not to tell anybody. Over the course of a week we had, you know, a decent amount of women coming I bet show when we probably did $200,000 worth of sale designer and slowly but surely that kind of turned into this crazy business where the original idea was that we were going to only work with designers that had showrooms, nothing on on Madison Avenue directly. But I think probably because at the time, we've maybe two of the best consumers in all of New York City that the store managers, you know, were asking what we were up to, and we told them and this was kind of like back then presale wasn't really a thing that happened. I
Mindy Cohn 32:48
was just gonna say yes, this is before it became like consignment and all that stuff would get.
32:53
Or you would get an email like, you know, every week telling you it's gonna go on sale, it's gonna go until it was really right for that. And it was really before the internet had taken off. Like I think netta portait existed, but very few other things. So if you think about the designing cycle, people who are diehard fashion people buy fall collection starting in August, okay? Right. Okay. And then resort comes out somewhere around December, and sales happened right after Thanksgiving. So if you're assuming your best customers and those who have to have it, they don't care if it's they're not price sensitive. And I must have a God forbid, because if it goes away, like and they waited for it to go on sale, and then they're so upset. So you figured you'd get all those shoppers by the end of September, not later. So you have this weird window of sort of the last week of September to the second week in November, because once it hits November, the second week of November. So you have like a six week period where nothing is moving. There's no new merchandise in the stores. And it's just sitting there. So we kind of created the pre sale concept. So we would have our members or whoever we invited come into the store, we'd literally sit in the store and like nod and glance at sales person. And that's one of ours, that's one of ours. And when they got up to check out their discount would be there. And sometimes they wait six weeks to charge them. Sometimes they do it. But it ended up being like a wave or
Mindy Cohn 34:18
something.
34:19
Yeah, exactly. And so this was on. And then we started working with all these young designers out of Europe who didn't have porn in stores yet. And all of a sudden, I woke up at like three in the morning. Oh, well, I should backtrack and say all of a sudden we started getting these emails and it was like a very low budget operation. It was like, here's your email from at shop secret and you would just RSVP we'd have a list. And one day all of these emails kept coming in. My business partner was like What is going on? We've been hacked she responded to somebody and said, Where did you get this email? Yeah. The person wrote, Oh, you were in some like it was like a daily candy type of thing or site and
Mindy Cohn 35:07
the cover was blown.
35:09
And actually,
35:10
Marjorie had given this interview and it said, it's like for sale. It's just like it's like a secret sale and you don't know when it's coming and you get
35:22
a man and then you get a discount.
35:25
So we started freaking out, we change the email, we shut down my thing, we were like, a board mission. Whatever we managed to, like, get going and save, but it was like, a few weeks later after that moment, I said, I can't and it was a business concept. But I said, I can't deal with a business predicated on a secret like it's gonna blow up in our faces. And it's just I can't do it anymore. And I said, No, yeah, people are coming because they're getting a discount is that I really think people are coming because they're getting access to things they can't That's right, they haven't seen before. And that really led to the creation of my old business which was sweet 1521 which we have
36:06
several years which was also
36:07
great. Great. And I think if we hadn't done that we never would have gotten there and you know, and then that to was time to just be done because I mean, I said after that the logistics of getting these clothes here and I had to go I had to drive one day to Long Island to get a fish and wildlife license because somebody marked off that something had ostrich feathers I mean you can even imagine and then dealing with like UPS and FedEx I said I could do like a customs broker by the time I'm done with all of this you know life is too
Mindy Cohn 36:37
short for that Come on,
36:38
you know and so all these other things started happening I was like it's time to hang up
36:44
and then that's when
36:45
Ltd evolved right?
Mindy Cohn 36:47
It seems like each thing led to the next line.
36:51
Yeah, and Ltd became this more of like, you know what, I don't want to be stuck in just the retail part of it. I think there's so many others fundings. And I think that's sort of the thing that is missing and retails like you don't want to walk into a store and be stuck with one category anymore. You want it to be not quite like a department store, which is very big and overwhelming, but the concept of being able to find you know, your socks and your brawls and your wedding gown in one place.
37:16
Not so bad. But I also
Mindy Cohn 37:19
like the cross pollination that Ltd does which is you know, different artists, different venues, different kinds of fashion with photography or fine art with jewelry. I don't know I i love that. I just really think that's so unique. You
37:33
Yeah, it's fun. Yeah, yeah, no, it
Mindy Cohn 37:35
really is to cross pollinate like that. I just think was very inspired idea. I love it.
37:40
Thank you so much. You're welcome. It's been fun. I will say
Mindy Cohn 37:45
I want to thank you so much
37:46
for being on
Mindy Cohn 37:48
fabulous episode. You are.
37:50
I mean, I'm so glad I didn't get beat one.
37:53
So I'm so proud of myself.
Mindy Cohn 37:56
I'm gonna have to get beat somehow some swear word escapes me. I'm
37:59
sure I was making.
38:02
Yeah, I mean, it might be the longest I've gone without using the F word. My daughter will be so proud.
Mindy Cohn 38:11
Well, thank you so much. And I can't wait to see you soon.
38:15
Somewhere Soon.
38:16
Soon. We're here.
Mindy Cohn 38:19
Safe travels when enough.
38:20
Thank you. Thank you.
Mindy Cohn 38:22
Thank you. Thank you. And I agree. Okay.
38:24
I enjoy you. Lovely to meet you, Christian.
38:27
Well, they meet you ladies and gentlemen, the magical Lizzy Tisch
