Permission to Kick Ass

Turning an idea into a creative business with Emily Blumenthal

• Angie Colee • Episode 197

Share episode

For the first time in PTKA history, I'm interviewing a Handbag Fairy Godmother - Emily Blumenthal! Not only did she patent a handbag silhouette, write a book, teach at FIT, and start a handbag awards event... she's still growing and evolving even now. Emily's journey is a wild ride filled with hustle, pivots, and ‘figure it out as you go’ moments that'll make you feel right at home if you're an entrepreneur or just love a good success story. 

Can't-Miss Moments:

  • Things to do in your 20s: a handy checklist courtesy of Emily, including such classics as "date a DJ" and "launch a handbag line"... Check and check!

  • "That’s the worst idea ever!” Emily shares how she handled not-so-helpful feedback from her family as she embraced her calling to design handbags...

  • Stroke of genius: the thing Emily did as she was figuring things out the hard way that turned into major leverage (and street cred) later on... 

  • Who expects to meet a literary agent while on jury duty? Emily shares a serendipitous moment that led to her first book deal and the birth of the Handbag Awards...

  • The weird mental dividing line Emily had, even after successfully creating and patenting her handbag silhouette (this is something that holds a lot of entrepreneurs back)...

Emily's bio:

Emily Blumenthal, celebrated as the "Handbag Fairy Godmother" by the New York Times, is a dynamic presence in the handbag industry. As the author of "Handbag Designer 101" and a multifaceted figure encompassing roles as a professor, mentor, designer, and the founder of the Independent Handbag Designer Awards, she has made an indelible impact on the handbag industry with aspiring designers and handbag brands alike. Emily's dedication also extends to kidpreneurship, empowering children of all ages to embrace their inner "Savvy Suzanna." She resides happily in New York City's Lower East Side with her husband and three children.

Resources and links: 

Support the show

Let's collab:

Let's connect:

If you dig the show and want to help bring more episodes to the world, consider buying a coffee for the production team!

Angie Colee:

Welcome to Permission to Kick Ass, the show that gives you a virtual seat at the bar for the real conversations that happen between entrepreneurs. I'm interviewing all kinds of business owners, from those just a few years into freelancing to CEOs helming nine-figure companies. If you've ever worried that everyone else just seems to get it and you're missing something or messing things up, this show is for you. I'm your host, angie Coley, and let's get to it. And welcome back to Permission to Kick Ass. With me today is my new friend, emily Blumenthal. Say hi, hello. I think you are the first person that I'm going to interview on this show. Who does what you do? So I'm excited to dive on this show. Who does what you do? So I'm excited to dive into this. Please tell us a little bit more about your business.

Emily Blumenthal:

Let's see, I am known as the Handbag Fairy Godmother, which is a funny moniker to have. I've spoken to other people who have that quote unquote godmother title, but the New York Times gave me mine, so I'm keeping it my journey. I was an accidental handbag designer. I started my handbag line while I was going to business school, working in media with a DJ boyfriend. Everything tracks of things to do in your twenties and not to do later, and I kept very detailed notes on what I was doing and couldn't find a book, couldn't find anything Again. All this predates the interwebs, the socials, all that. It's kind of like go to the library, go to the bookstore and hope for the best, and everything was very much apparel driven and I thought that was a wild white space. So I figured, okay, if I'm doing this and trying to figure this out, I should be the one who does it and then owns that space. And I created this little handbag to hold on to when you go out. For no particular reason. I patented the silhouettes, which is also an interesting story, and that IP alone. It allowed me to license it out. It allowed me to license it out. The pro and the con of creating a silhouette. That is patentable is that it's an item, it's a novelty, and that makes it very, very difficult then to scale, because it's a one of one, which is great, for, you know, telling a story, but it's not good to iterate over and over and over again. So buyers didn't know where to merchandise, they didn't know which cat, you know which floor to put it on, but it was my, it was my journey to hustle, I guess you could say. And from there I started with a high end line and then I knocked myself off, orchestrated a bunch of licensing deals and then so many stories. And from there met a woman in jury duty who turned out to be a literary agent and, you know, sat next to her because you got to sniff out who's not crazy at everything you do, if you know you're going to be sitting next to people. And she said, oh, you should write a book about this. And I'm like, oh, I totally should. I'll be an author, I'll be famous, everyone will be in lines to meet me. Oh my God, oh my God. So, handbag designer author, I'm so amazing.

Emily Blumenthal:

And then my last licensing deal was almost like a divorce. It was so awful. Again, it's just file that under things. You learn when you're doing things yourself, and it's good to go through them, so you know what not to do. So you know what not to do. And I said to my agent, my literary agent. I was like okay, well, when is this book going to happen? Because I got all this free time. Now you know, now that this is going up in smoke, there's no way I have the energy to start another handbag line. I'm working with designers and, oh, I started teaching.

Emily Blumenthal:

I started professoring along the same time while I was getting my MBA, because someone found me talking about it. And then I just started teaching. And then I was at one school teaching fashion PR, and another. Then that led to fashion marketing. And I've been teaching at FIT for the past 10 years, teaching entrepreneurship. So all of this kind of amalgamated into.

Emily Blumenthal:

Okay, she said, no one's going to buy this book if you're out of handbags.

Emily Blumenthal:

And I was like shit, now what?

Emily Blumenthal:

I'm so tired, I'm so burnt out.

Emily Blumenthal:

So that's when I came up with the idea for the handbag awards, because I knew how media worked, I knew how packages worked, and then I just I knew, I knew there were more handbag designers out there than anything I'd done every trade show.

Emily Blumenthal:

I knew my market, I knew my customer, and what was interesting is because I taught, I thought, let me make my application process free because I know I'll get thousands of applicants, and it's true. But that's also became my downside, because you can't scale or sell something if there's no application fee, because then all came down to me for creating these packages and everything was all about me, me, me, which was great for me as a platform, but not good for me to sell, because nothing happens without you being involved. And that is what a lot of small businesses need to learn. They need to understand that it should never, always go back to you and that life lessons. And because if it goes back to you, then it can't run on its own, and if it can't run on its own, then you can't make money while you sleep.

Angie Colee:

So, that.

Emily Blumenthal:

that is a. That was another life lesson. So the handbag awards ran for 15 years and that was where I got that title. The book came out. It sold 50,000 copies. I've done talks, I've done you name it, I've done it. The awards was about to be acquired and then COVID hit and that was a hard pill to swallow. But I was creating sponsorship packages for brands that had nothing to do with handbags and brought them into handbags because it was novel and cool and fun. And that was before it had the term collaborations, because that's essentially what I was doing. So what I do now is I do handbag collaborations. I have a podcast about all about the handbag industry. I work with designers, I have a master class and I have a TV show in the works that's not been picked up yet. I'm working on a kid's book and I think we're done with the podcast. That is it so.

Angie Colee:

I was writing down so many things while you were talking. I was like we got like a crash course and probably what like 10, 20 years of entrepreneurship.

Emily Blumenthal:

Nothing else left.

Angie Colee:

Fastest podcast ever, I know.

Emily Blumenthal:

I believe in efficiency. You should see me getting ready in the morning.

Angie Colee:

Well, that's awesome. I wrote quite a few things down, so one I wanted to ask about the accidental handbag designer, Like how do you fall into something like that?

Emily Blumenthal:

You know, I think when you you know we were talking before we started recording a little bit about and I read about this that you end up organically following the path of what your parents did. It might not be what they did, but you were doing something along the line of what they did, like how they were, like my. My dad was a garmento and and was in the garment center. My mom was a teacher and, lo and behold, I was in. Now I found myself in the Garmin center and I'm teaching, and both things I never thought were part of my path, but I was doing handbags and also professoring. So, lo and behold, that kind of became my path.

Emily Blumenthal:

And when you come from a family of everybody has their own business. I mean, I was day jobbing and they were pretty impressive day jobs as far as I was concerned, because you work really, really hard to get in, to get this really cool job. And you know I realized, god, I'm really gonna get good at getting fired because I can't do this. You know, like there was just too much of me and you need people who can color in the lines and will just nod their head. And I have a big mouth and big ideas and let's do this and let's do that, and I get it. Now, being on the other side and having been on the other side like sometimes you have to and learning how to work with people is a very undervalued skill. Oh yes, oh yes. And you know, as I tell my students, with who are, you know of generation feelings, the big bad world. You go onto LinkedIn. Nobody cares how you feel. Yeah.

Angie Colee:

So we're talking this morning about where we've been and kind of our personas and something like this, and the story came up for me about the stuff that I've been unpacking right, because so much of business is personal development and they never told me this.

Emily Blumenthal:

It's so boring, I'm so over it Like. I'm done learning like enough, it's so old already. Like what else do I need to learn about myself? Like, come on, it's enough.

Angie Colee:

It's, and ever since I've known this, since I was a child that like give me a microphone Hello, you're listening to a podcast and put me on a stage and I'm in my happy place, right I? Don't know what it means to be scared to speak in front of people because give me the mic. What number?

Emily Blumenthal:

child. Are you One First Of how many Three? That's why. That's why I always ask my students what number child and I can always determine how they'll be presenting. Who's going to be the responsible one, who's going to be the coaster, who's the one who can't cope in front of people and you know you could, like it makes sense, you've always had to be the one in charge, who always got everything done, so why shouldn't you be doing this? You've been doing it your whole life.

Angie Colee:

Yeah, no-transcript, that know my heart, get the intent yeah.

Emily Blumenthal:

I think that was chef's kiss. I totally bought what you sold.

Emily Blumenthal:

It's amazing, I think it was great. So, to answer your question, everyone in my family always had their own business and I always felt like I think I was idea shopping, like what can I do? And I had a DJ boyfriend at the time. God bless him. You know again things you can do in your 20s. He was foreign, you know all that stuff. It made sense my responsible side of my brain was dying, but the other side was like this is what normal people do. I'm just way too uptight. Anyway, that's another story.

Emily Blumenthal:

But I was going to work, going to business school and then going out with him and then I became his manager because that's what I wanted to do. You know, of course, top of my list and that's when I came up with this idea. And I was doing what I didn't realize retail anthropology. Watching how people shop, watching how people interact, seeing the ceremony I mean, this is a few years back watching how people do that ceremonial dance around their bags. That doesn't really happen now, um, because this predated people carrying their phones in the way that they did and we had flip phones back then, so they're basically a cane and cable right now. It's crazy, um, but you know I, I said okay, and I think, had I not, had been with someone who was foreign and from Australia and Australians and I give so many props to him for this are fearless by trade because they're so far from everything that they just pack, you know, pack up and move. Why not? And I was telling him. I said, you know, it's weird, there is no little bag to hold on to when you go out, and I think this is what it would look like. And wow, and he said you should do it. And I said, okay, and to your point about parental figures, and you, mine are amazing, super supportive, but they are realists and they are responsibilists. I just made that into a word. So, in saying you want to become a handbag designer, they're like that's the worst idea known to mankind. They don't make money, you're not trained. You don't make money. You're not trained, you don't get. You know, go into the internet, that's where everybody's making money. Start a website. And I said, no, this, I get this. I, this is, I think, what I'm going to do. And this is exactly what I said Do not do. By the way, I'm sorry, one of my kids just buzzed there.

Emily Blumenthal:

I said get a key, jesus, anyway, and I, you know, kate Spade was still alive at the time and she had this detailed. She was, and it's funny, I just interviewed her partner a few months ago, who was absolutely amazing on my podcast, but she wasn't a designer by trade, she was an editor, a fashion editor, and she made her bags out of construction paper and then worked from there. So I did the same thing. So anything she did, I did, and again, not realizing that, you know, she had templatized how to be a handbag designer when you're not trained in design. But that's what I did, and I was working for a very sad little magazine at the time and I utilized that to make as many contacts as I could.

Emily Blumenthal:

I had a press kit. I was getting like I had a whole page of talking to editors just to get their feedback. Like that I was sending out. I'm like, oh, this editor says this, this editor says that. So I was sending out. I'm like, oh, this editor says this, this editor says that. So I was getting testimonials for a product that wasn't sold and I started going door to door to boutiques and had to like baptism by fire and learn about production, manufacturing and sales cycles and then said, okay, how long will it take me to figure this out? I think six months. I asked all these stores will they purchase it in six months later? And they all were like sure, so that's, that was.

Emily Blumenthal:

That was really the journey, and little by little it was, like you know, trying to avoid as many sunk costs as I could, and I just kept keeping, keeping notes about. Then I did this, then I did that, then I did this, and that became the template for my seminar how to launch your own handbag line, which I started hosting. I was asked to by the Learning Annex, which, a hundred million years ago, they had those little things outside, you know, pharmacies like, where you could learn a class. Like Donald Trump and I were on the same cover at once because he was teaching them. He was teaching real estate, how to be a real estate expert, and mine, in the tiny corner, was how to become a handbag designer.

Emily Blumenthal:

So I think, because I was in school and looking at it from a different perspective, I was giving handouts and how did you know people who were doing that? You were going to listen, but I'm like, no, if this is a class, here's a how-to, here are resources, and then by the end I had like three, four hundred people coming. I was making good money on this thing. I was just going on and on and on about um and then I realized like, oh, I guess those who are trying to do comma teach that's so.

Angie Colee:

the last um guest that I spoke to earlier today talked about that too, because he had a similar thing where he went into a set design industry right and then realized how much hustle is involved in that state side. He knew somebody from Europe that made a healthy living and like doing two shows a year, but that was not the case for him and he's like I guess those who don't do teach.

Emily Blumenthal:

Right, I mean it's funny, I never thought I'd end up teaching, but it's just kind of happened. And you know, I think, as someone who struggled with traditional day jobs, any job I got I always took. And I, I would say, if I was able to create a class, run a class. You know, at the time I was still young enough that people looked at me because I was only, you know, a couple years older than the students I was teaching when I started. It's been a minute, but you know, having three kids going through the process, oh, man stop looking at you as like hey, we're the same age.

Angie Colee:

I love that you were like well, I don't know how to do this. So instead of signing up for courses or asking somebody else like do what, can I even do this? I just figured it out.

Emily Blumenthal:

If I may interrupt, the funny thing is I asked everybody. I was mentor shopping, I was joining every organization I could find. I was like every female entrepreneurship, like you name it. I joined it and you know, it became the situation where you become over, underqualified, where the people you ask for help say you've done so much, what can I do? I can't help you. You're already doing it, but it's like I don't know what I'm supposed to do next. Can you help me? And they're like well, no, so I've heard these and I'm not a jealous person, I'm really not.

Emily Blumenthal:

But when I hear these stories about people finding a mentor and someone who was able to sit and talk and take, and I'm like, damn I was, I couldn't find them. Like I would have these lunches and I would sit there in monosation and they'd be like well, it sounds like you're doing great. I'm like, but I don't know what I'm supposed to do. Like now, like okay, so it kind of. I mean, this is this. This became the template to my book, which became the template to my masterclass, which became the template to the incubator that I ran and the template to how I run my entrepreneurship class with my students.

Emily Blumenthal:

So, for better or for worse, because I didn't get help from other people which I really would have loved. I begged. You know you name it. I mean, I was calling people at home. You know I didn't care. And you know entrepreneurship, which I think is a really loose word that a lot of people use, and it's kind of annoying when people use it. I know you agree with me. You don't even need to say anything, I just know you do. But it's a very bizarre drug that we go in blind, almost in a dark room with a blindfold on, and we don't know what we're doing, and we still keep going and going, and going, and we're walking into walls and in most cases we do it again and again, and again, and the goal is to try and turn on the lights so at least you can like get from one side to the other without hitting your head at the same spot. But yet we'd keep going. So it's almost like not asking for permission. It's like, well, what else am I supposed to do? I don't know.

Angie Colee:

You know what I mean. I trust myself to figure it out. That's why I thought it was cool. I wrote down the fact that you saw, it was Kate Spade, right, that made the construction paper handbags, which I thought was so cool and so innovative. Like, I'm also a creative person, but I've never designed anything three dimensional like that. I've drawn and I've sung, but I've never created anything like that, although I'm fascinated by sculpture. And the moment you said she made construction paper handbags, I'm like I can picture that visual in my head and go oh, oh that makes so much sense.

Emily Blumenthal:

I mean, and the funny thing is that, you know, history repeats itself so much and it doesn't take that long to at least I can only speak to the history of the handbag because I forced myself to learn it, cause I, you know, when you go into something knowing nothing, you're like well, I better learn as much as I can. And let me go back a little further and a little further and a little further, like to the point where trends are like history is quite literally repeating itself. You know, post pandemic, post Spanish flu, we had, you know, the flapper era. It was the time when things weren't allowed and deconstruction came about, having to be DIY because nobody had the money. So it's, it's. You know, trends are cyclical.

Emily Blumenthal:

So to see what she did, it was so novel and new. But if you were to look at what was going on, it just made sense. So I think the fact that what she did was really really great, but I think it just gave permission to other people and I don't know how many other people were affected by what she did, because all the designers I knew at the time at least had some inkling of what to do, how to sew, how to design and I was like, damn, I don't know what. The designers I knew at the time at least had some inkling of what to do how to sew, how to design and I was like, damn, I don't know what the hell I'm doing.

Emily Blumenthal:

I think this works, but again, I created a solution product. I wasn't creating a handbag line, and I guess there's that imposter syndrome that you were saying, because I was like, well, I'm not really a real designer, I'm more of an inventor, if that's anything. And well, I don't know. I mean, I only got this far, but other people got that far. So I guess I'm really not what I think I am. I don't know. You know what?

Angie Colee:

I mean, oh yeah, I think that's so funny how often we get these weird mental dividing lines. In a lot of ways, that's the impetus behind this show, because I had that dividing line at a business conference where I thought, OK, that person on the stage has it all together and I'm over here screwing up, not realizing that, you know, I can't see the messy behind the scenes, only what they're presenting on the stage. And so that's largely why this whole thing exists to remind you that, like the walls are in your head, you can tear them down anytime you want to. You can decide you want to be a writer, a musician, an entrepreneur, a handbag designer, and then go figure it out. It doesn't mean it's going to be easy, but you can figure it out.

Emily Blumenthal:

Well, as I say, smoke buys mirrors. So you know, I like that one yeah.

Angie Colee:

Well, and I loved oh, there's so many different directions I could go. There was one you talked about a patented silhouette and that just made me curious, because that's something I know nothing about. Tell me more about.

Emily Blumenthal:

Everyone I spoke to said, nah, it doesn't make any sense it's a lot of money and it was a lot of money I mean. I always tell people keep your day job if you're going to create something, because the learning curve and the sunk costs are so vast that you know the designers I deal with usually dump a minimum between five and 15,000 into just figuring it out, and that's normal, you know. To make one sample, I call it you know I've got so many names for it the green cost, the dum-dum cost, the idiot cost, whatever you want to call it. But you know sample makers and factories can sniff out a newbie miles away and they have carte blanche to basically charge you whatever they want if you don't know what you're talking about, because the time value of money they have to put up with you figuring it out with no orders against whatever you're doing, it's not worth it for them. So they'll put you on the bottom of the to-do list. They will charge you whatever because they know. You know, if she doesn't know, he doesn't know, I'm here teaching them. Screw you, I'm going to charge a lot more. So you know. With that said, in trying to figure all this out, it's one of those things that you really have to understand what you're doing within that space. You know what I mean it's.

Emily Blumenthal:

So to go back to the patent, I again I you know I'll give a very short. I was online and I wanted to buy something. I don't shop for myself very often and I saw a jumpsuit and I'm like you know what? I bet there's a coupon, I bet I can get a discount. So I just emailed the company. Is a coupon, I bet I can get a discount. So I just emailed the company. I don't have a recent discount coupon code. Can you share one with me? I don't care. A day later I got a discount coupon code for 35% off, so I bought something.

Emily Blumenthal:

And I think that's what a lot of people don't understand that if you just ask, the worst thing someone can say is no, but so many people just don't ask. First thing, someone can say is no, but so many people just don't ask. So I was asking around like does anyone have a lawyer that does patents? And then my friend at the time was like oh, it's called an IP lawyer. What's IP, intellectual property? Oh, okay, my friend works for a law firm. Oh, okay. So I spoke to her friend and it turned out to be like the most powerful IP law firm in DC that actually represented Nike, and I spoke to the guy who ran it, who was very, very nice, and I said do you have a discount for someone who is very, very new, doesn't have a lot of money, but it's very charming to talk to, and he was like, actually, we can figure something out and that's all I needed.

Emily Blumenthal:

So I got my patent and then I was off and whatever, I had had a patent number on it and it was a design patent, not a utility patent, which meant the shape and look of it was protected, not the function. They're two different things. And I've got so much IP. It's ridiculous. I actually just spoke to the US Patent and Trademark Organization, the USPTO, and I told them you really need me to be your brand ambassador because you need some good PR. I'm your girl. And they were like, oh my God, no one's ever been so excited.

Emily Blumenthal:

And I said but it's such a resource of research to see what's been done, how it's done, how things are made, how to protect yourself. So I said, like I think I can get some mileage out of this. And you know, I did it myself. It was really expensive. I did it by myself. I think five, six, seven years. I got it into every single major store. I delivered them myself. You know all these things and it's not new what I did. Like that's the story of what everyone did. I'm just still around talking about it. I think that's the difference. I was like a wild success, like Minkoff was, but I'm here talking about the journey because I'm now teaching, I'm responsible for the how to do a bit. And then I was like, okay, what am I gonna now? What that comma, like I've hit, I've gotten as far as I can. And then you know there's the story of dupes and knockoffs and I said, screw that, I'll knock myself off.

Angie Colee:

Nobody ever does that.

Emily Blumenthal:

Why don't I do it? You know Mark by Mark Jacobs hadn't come out at the time, but you know, by no means was I Mark by Mark Jacobs or any of those other brands or who was doing these Target collabs. But I figured I should do that because I have this unique item. I'm struggling to create real bags. I tried that it ate up all my money. And when someone said, do real bags, I'm like, okay, my learning curve for that was so big, made all these bags, so many mistakes, lost so much money. And I said, well, I have to restart. Can't get a day job, I'm stuck. Let me just do this and sell the IP and license it out. So that's what I did. And I got into QVC. I had to deal with Adidas. I got a licensing deal with a wallets company and then that wallets company licensing deal totally blew up in my face. But again it was a learning curve?

Angie Colee:

Yeah, is that the one that you mentioned at the start of the show? That was the last licensing deal. That was awful.

Emily Blumenthal:

Oh my God, it was a divorce. Yeah Well, I think you know the plus and the minus of coming in and being this one woman show and being this dynamo that people assume that whatever you're doing, you know you come in with this dossier. I've done this, I've done that, I've done this, I've done that, I've done this, but it's like you've only gone this far and now I'm with you. So I'm hoping, with you I'll go that far. But they see you as well. You can do everything by yourself. We'll just give you the resources and maybe you can. You know, and then you can get it everywhere. And I'm like well, I don't know how to get into Macy's or get into Belk, or I do, I don't know. I don't know what they're looking for. That's why I'm here.

Emily Blumenthal:

So it became this like mismatch and the sales reps never wanted to show my product during market week, because sales reps work a hundred percent on commission and they weren't about to jeopardize their salaries for taking on a risk. And then I was chasing down these buyers into taxis with my little T-stands, holding my bag, saying can you please try it, please do it, please do a test. And then I was going on tour and going to meet and greets of department stores across the U? S just trying to sell my stuff, and again it's. It's the wild West when you're doing it by yourself, but when you're in it you have no choice. Like that was my livelihood. This is what I was tied to by her. I was going to have to make it work one way or another. I was tied to by herkabai kirk.

Angie Colee:

I was going to have to make it work one way or another. I you know I see some parallels there between those guys and the publishing industry Right now. I'm not super thrilled with traditional book publishing because they do the same thing. It's like we're not going to publish you if you don't have an audience of at least X many people. Well, if I'm bringing the people and the intellectual property to you, to you, and all you're doing is printing, what do I need you for?

Emily Blumenthal:

Well, publishing is like a whole other bucket. I've been researching the self-publishing world and it's it, is it. I get it. But, like you really need to be a car with an engine and gas and a map and and cities and all of this mapped out, Otherwise you're literally digging it as you go along and it's so expensive, um, to go through all that. Again, I just look at things of learning curve and time, value of money. So I'm so on the fence. But my first book took six years to get picked up, six years. And, um, we she stopped because COVID hit, and it was one of those things. Like you know, if we're going to go back and pitch it, you need new things to be interesting, and going on. And I said, Well, I've got this, I've got that, I've got this, I've got that. And it's like, well, how far, how big, how this? Going back to the audience and I'm like, well, screw that, I guess I should do it myself.

Angie Colee:

So you know, we'll see. Yeah, oh no, I'm with you on that Because I went back and forth with my book, which it took me like five years to create, just just to write and get the draft done the way that I wanted it to. And that was a lot, you know, just like confidence and avoidance and being a first time author, right. But same thing I finished and my editor goes okay. So self publishing, traditional publishing, I only did a little bit of research before. I was like pitching agents. Then all of this process, then all of the reject, I just rather put it to print myself.

Emily Blumenthal:

Yep, I know, I know it's. It's definitely something I mean again, learning curve, that's. That's really the case and I I've been trying to decrypt it myself without having to do anything yet, because then it goes into like, well, if you put it out at the wrong time, you don't want to get into issues and you know, but my, my children's book, savvy Susanna and Her Amazing Adventures in Handbags it's an entrepreneurial story tied to handbags and starting business and all that good stuff and there's a gap in the market and it's one of those things like, if not, why it should be me? You know there's anyone to do it. That that's that's giving yourself the license to do it.

Angie Colee:

Oh, giving yourself the license to do it. Oh, yes, absolutely. Well, an interesting like okay, so we've covered a lot about your journey in the last little bit here, but it sounds like a lot of this came down to going okay, yes, I'm going to figure that out and then just going for it. Would you say that's accurate.

Emily Blumenthal:

I think you're kind of left with no choice. It really is one of those things in terms of you know, if you commit to it, you know, the way I see it, the amount of time it takes to find a day job, to pimp yourself out, to interview, the whole thing it's like are you going to be happy with working 24 seven for yourself and making a little, with the potential of making a lot, versus, you know, having a job where you're, you're, you're only going to get us to a certain point and that's okay. You know it's funny. I look at my friends who've had day jobs for those hundreds of years and I used to feel sorry for them, but at this stage in life I'm so impressed that they've been able to do it for this amount of time, cause it's, it is hard. Yes, you know, it is really really hard, but you know they have job security. But how secure are they really?

Emily Blumenthal:

They have money saved, but how long can that last? It really is all relative.

Angie Colee:

Yes. So I wanted to circle back to another little nugget that you dropped, and we just covered this a tiny bit in talking about publishing. But I love the fact that one of the reasons that you wrote a book was because you just happened to meet somebody in jury duty. What was going through your mind? Were you an instant like hell, yes, I'm going to write a book? Or was it more like all right, nice to meet you. And then it developed over time, or no, no, no, no.

Emily Blumenthal:

So I mean, God bless her. She look, she showed up and it was grand jury duty, so it was a month and there are a lot of wackadoos there but she showed up with a stack of bridal magazines and she wasn't wearing a ring and I was like, oh, she's industry, because no one carries around that much stuff, you know, for fun. I knew she was doing something and I said to her I said either you're shopping for a husband or you do something with this. And she said oh, I have an author that's putting out a bridal book. And I said okay, industry, we're going to be friends, we're going to sit together, we'll eat lunch together, let's become friends. And she was like cool, dope, fine. And so that was really it. And then we became friends. And then we were going to lunches and I told her what I was doing and she said, oh, you should write a book about that. And I said, ok, tell me, what should I do? And she gave me a template and I did the template.

Emily Blumenthal:

So we were just going back and forth and by the time I had finished it, you know, my, my licensing deal had gone upside down. And then I said to her. I was like, okay, so where's this book deal Like and where's my signing bonus? And is it going to be $300 million? Because I can't keep doing this, I might die.

Emily Blumenthal:

And then she was like girl, you have to stay in handbags because I can't sell a book about handbags how to become a handbag designer when you're not trained into design and to be the master of your own handbag destiny. If you're like that's it, I'm done. And I was like shit. So that's how I came up with the idea for the awards. And that was really it. And from there, you know, I just kept going and going and then every time I'm like, okay, you know she would send it out and say this is the feedback and send it out. This was the feedback. So it took six years for it to happen and, honestly, had I not started the handbag awards, I don't think the book deal would have happened. It really wouldn't have it made me an authority.

Emily Blumenthal:

And I think without having that authority title to hang your hat, it makes it very difficult to go out to say you're an expert, because everybody's an expert, truly everybody is.

Angie Colee:

One of my mentors actually described it that way too.

Angie Colee:

It was like there's such a thing as accidental expertise, right Like you can go through, and the example that he used was you could go through a really bad divorce and then suddenly, when one of your friends is going through it, they're coming to you going how did you? I'm so lost, can you give me advice? And so everybody truly is an expert. I absolutely agree with you, but so many people are afraid to like take it to that next step of authority, just like you mentioned, and put themselves out there. We're all afraid that, like, somehow the spotlight is on us the moment we take a step out and I am learning to take great comfort in the fact that no one's paying attention. The fact that no one's paying attention, like there might be a few people that are are Angie fans or that are Emily fans, that are watching a little bit of what we're doing, but for the most part, most people aren't watching what we're doing until we go out there and are brave enough to make a big old fuss over it.

Emily Blumenthal:

Yep, yep, I know, I know it's, it's totally true. I mean, that's the what I've told my kids. When they don't like something and they don't want attention, the last thing you want to do is make a fuss, because then everybody's going to be looking at you, but because everybody is so self-involved that no one's looking at anybody unless it serves them. So just do your own thing and move on. Use it to your advantage.

Angie Colee:

I mean, I had a blues band for a long time, and the beauty of blues is that it's such a like. It's not a popular genre necessarily, so people aren't memorizing words the way they would with like cardi b or something, um, yeah, and so when I would forget the words I just learned from ella fitzgerald a live recording that she did yeah, make up words.

Angie Colee:

And the only person that knew was my harmonica player's wife, who would lock eyes with me from the audience and be like I saw you, to which I would usually like throw up a bird and give her a salute. Yeah, exactly, yeah. So I mean, basically, if you get anything out of this episode, guys, it's all made up. You can figure it out as you go and decide and then just take the steps from there. I love this. This has been fantastic. Thank you so much for being such an awesome guest.

Emily Blumenthal:

Thank you for having me. This has been so much fun.

Angie Colee:

Oh yeah. So tell us more where we can learn about you, about the books, about the classes. We want it all.

Emily Blumenthal:

Well, I am at Handbag Designer for everything. That was someone. Someone taught me that a hundred years ago, saying if you're you like something, if you think that's your brand, get it on all platforms as fast as possible. And my brand is Handbag Designer 101. It's the book, it's the podcast, it's the masterclass. I'm Emily Blumenthal. So if you want anything handbag related, just type in Handbag Designer or Handbag Designer 101, like the class, you'll find me and my podcast.

Angie Colee:

Oh, yeah, I'm going to make sure that there are clickable links in the show notes so they can find you as quickly as possible.

Emily Blumenthal:

And thank you again, I appreciate you Amazing. Thank you so much, angie, for having me. This has been great.

Angie Colee:

That's all for now. If you want to keep that kick ass energy high, please take a minute to share this episode with someone that might need a high-octane dose of you Can Do it. Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe to the Permission to Kick-Ass podcast on Apple Podcasts, spotify and wherever you stream your podcasts. I'm your host, angie Coley, and I'm here rooting for you. Thanks for listening and let's go kick some ass.