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CAMILLE JAMES: Hi, my name is Camille James.
I'm from the family programs team here at Google, and we're
very excited to have Kathy Ireland with us here today.
So on behalf of talks at Google, we'd like
to welcome you all.
We're going to watch a short intro video before Kathy comes
to the stage.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
-So Dorothy, just in time for this year's "Sports
Illustrated" swimsuit issue.
You have our interesting cover for "Forbes" with Kathy
Ireland, who it turns out, is a bit of a mogul.
How'd that happen?
-That's right.
When you think of Kathy Ireland, you really still
think of the swimsuit model, the gorgeous young girl from
the cover of the magazines.
But the truth is that in the time since she stopped being a
swimsuit model, she's been building a very big, very
legitimate business.
-Hi, I'm Kathy Ireland.
At Kathy Ireland Office by Bush Furniture, we're finding
solutions for people in business.
Our design--
-How come we don't know more about that, though?
From what you said and what you reported, she actually
sells more merchandise than Martha Stewart does.
None of the same publicity around it.
-Yeah.
She keeps it under the radar.
I mean, she said herself that she is glad that she's been
able to build her company under the radar.
But part of keeping it under the radar means that she's
selling some things that a lot of people don't think about.
She sells flooring.
There's about $400 million in replacement windows that are
sold that are Kathy Ireland replacement windows.
-People buy Kathy Ireland replacement windows?
-Yeah.
I mean, who knew what a replacement window was?
-Looking in this vignette, lightning, upholstery, window
treatments, rugs, and more is all available from our Kathy
Ireland collections.
-But on top of that, she also has a big bridal business.
She has villas in Hawaii and in Los Angeles where you can
go and have a wedding.
She does wedding dresses.
She has tableware.
She has jewelry.
I mean, almost anything you can think of around that,
there's a Kathy Ireland branded product that you could
use in your wedding.
-So how big is this business?
You spent some time with the numbers, and I know that
they're a little opaque about them.
-Yeah.
They don't love to talk about the numbers over at Kathy
Ireland Worldwide.
It's a private company.
I mean, that's their right.
But we did crunch the numbers.
-And how much of that does she own?
-She owns 100% of the company.
-So Kathy Ireland, while not a billionaire, and probably not
any time soon, in terms of top earners in and around
Hollywood, how is she doing?
-At "Forbes" here, we look at people who
earn billions of dollars.
So by some of our rich list people it's not so big.
But when you look at the Hollywood world, they don't
earn hundreds of millions of dollars, generally.
So for her to be worth even half a billion dollars is an
impressive achievement.
-So how did that happen?
-It started with a line of socks.
Someone came to her and said, would you
model a line of socks?
This was in around 1993.
She was coming to the end of her modeling career.
She said, you know what?
I don't want to model your socks, I want to go into
business with you.
I want these to be Kathy Ireland socks, and I want to
have some ownership in this company.
From there they moved into
sportswear, eventually swimsuits.
She was very specific she did not want to start with
swimsuits because her feeling was, of course people are
going to buy swimsuits with my name on them.
Will they buy stocks?
If they can buy socks, then I see that there's going to be a
legitimate business here.
-So how do we get to replacement windows?
-She had a line of clothing at Kmart for a long time.
She came to the realization that home goods are a little
more stable.
They don't change as often.
You could start to make inroads in there.
Her first thing that she did in home goods was floors.
Very unsexy.
But her feeling was we started with socks as the foundation
for our clothing line, we'll start with floors as the
foundation for our home goods line.
And from there it grew, And she realized that in this very
unsexy business of furniture, there were no brands.
And if something says Kathy Ireland, it's just that little
thing that makes people buying furniture
say, oh, Kathy Ireland.
I associate that with something.
With some kind of glamor or some kind of assurance more
than this name that I've never heard of.
So maybe I'll get the Kathy Ireland one instead.
The brand is powerful in the furniture business, which most
people don't know much about.
-So you go up, you visit her at her house.
You sit-in on a business meeting and something catches
your eye there?
-Yes.
I was sitting in her living room and there's an Oscar in
her living room.
-As far as we know, we've never seen her in something
Oscar worthy.
-No.
I mean, she certainly has had an acting career.
But she herself will admit that she was not the best
actress out there.
It turns out the Oscar was a gift from Elizabeth Taylor.
And it turns out that Elizabeth Taylor and Kathy
Ireland were very, very close.
When Kathy Ireland talks about Elizabeth Taylor, she talks
about her in the present tense.
She can't talk about her as somebody who's passed.
That's how close she was in life.
She learned a lot about jewelry from Elizabeth Taylor.
Elizabeth Taylor, of course, had this mammoth, $50 million,
maybe, collection worth of jewelry, and she taught Kathy
Ireland to look at jewelery.
Kathy built herself up her own collection of jewelry
-And her people say it's worth?
-They say it's estimated at maybe around $25 million.
But it's not kept in her home.
It's kept in a safe in Los Angeles.
And they felt it was very important that
I point that out.
The more you talk to Kathy island, the more sort of
strange details start to come out about her and her company.
She was very influenced by Warren Buffett.
So she has furniture at the Nebraska Furniture Mart, which
is owned by Berkshire Hathaway.
She does flooring with Shaw Furniture, which is also owned
by Berkshire Hathaway.
She really looks up to Warren Buffett as somebody who she
wants to emulate.
And in fact, her company is becoming a wide conglomerate
of lots of different kinds of businesses, almost in the same
sort of way that Berkshire Hathaway is, but at a much
lower valuation.
[END VIDEO PLAYBACK]
CAMILLE JAMES: Now, for a quick intro.
Launched in 1993, Kathy Ireland Worldwide is the 25th
most popular, powerfully-licensed brand in
the world, ranking higher than Martha Stewart, Tommy Bahama,
and Polo Ralph Lauren.
As chair, CEO, and chief designer of an entity that is
now $2 billion--
I'm sorry, now a $2 billion industry according to
"Forbes," which sells over 45,000 products in over 50,000
retail stores in 50 countries.
No wonder "Forbes" has named Kathy a Super Mogul and the
first lady of flyover country.
Fairchild Publications named her one of the 50 Most
Influential People in Fashion.
Kathy resides in Southern California with her husband
Greg and their three children--
Eric, Lily, and Chloe--
balancing her responsibilities as a wife, a mother, a
philanthropist, and an entrepreneur.
So ladies and gentlemen and Googlers, welcome Kathy.
[APPLAUSE]
KATHY IRELAND: Thank you, Camille.
CAMILLE JAMES: Thank you.
KATHY IRELAND: Thank you, Camille.
Hello, everybody.
It's so great to be here At Googleplex.
This place is incredible.
And being here in beautiful Mountain View, it makes me
very mindful we are in the heartland of great leaders.
And those great leaders include your very own Sergey
Brin, Larry Page, Eric Schmidt.
And they're great leaders because they lead an
incredible team.
And that's all of you.
There is incredible awareness about Google, about this team,
about all of you.
If people are aware of me, it's usually fragmented.
If you didn't blink, you might have caught my very brief
twirl on "Dancing with the Stars" before
I got the big boot.
I'm looking around here.
Maybe your parents might remember me as that model
person from back in the last century.
And you have incredible people come and speak with you.
So when you found out you got me, it's likely that some of
you might have thought, Kathy Ireland?
Oh, come on.
What's she going to do today?
Dig up as old pose and teach it to us?
Well, OK.
If you're interested, all right.
After a really big meal-- and you guys have great food at
this facility--
turns sideways.
Suck it in.
Twist at the torso, and you create the
illusion of a waistline.
It's all an illusion.
And then, after indulging in desserts, which I love to do,
get yourself a really good photo retoucher.
Mine is a woman named Paulinda.
Today with Photoshop, anything can be done.
It is wonderful.
Those are my biggest secrets of modeling.
You can see with that pose, I was OK as a model.
Certainly, not super.
Always knew I belonged on the other side of the lens.
Design and business were my passions.
And I was more interested in designing the red carpet than
walking it.
The truly supermodels who worked in that industry when I
did included Cindy, Cheryl, Christie, Naomi, Heidi, Tyra.
These supermodels were and continue to be seen and heard
everywhere.
I was occasionally seen, very rarely heard.
Yes, my job description was shut up and pose.
When I had the rare occasion to speak, a critic said that I
had a voice that could kill small animals.
Not a real confidence builder.
Criticism can be a gift, sometimes wrapped in a really
nasty package.
And in order to discern if it's noise that needs to be
tossed away, turned off, or if there's something we can learn
from it, we've got to open it.
And I had to admit.
I was 25 years old.
I couldn't even order a pizza.
I had a really high voice and they thought I was a kid
making a prank phone call.
So that criticism was a fork in the road for me.
It forced me to decide if I would let the cruelty of those
remarks forever silence me or if, despite the criticism, I
would speak out on issues of importance.
And I'm so happy to be here with you today.
It's mind boggling to be here.
We had a fantastic tour today.
I mean, everybody has been so kind, from Cliff to Mike,
Matt, Gobi, Abigail.
Just amazing.
And your history, it's so inspiring.
From 1842 when this was a Mexican land grant divided
into Mountain View and in Sunnyvale.
And to think, I'm excited with your stewardship what the next
5 years, 10 years, 50 years are going to look like.
We know that this town, its growth was attributed to
agriculture.
And those seeds, they continue to germinate, to flourish.
But instead of turning into plants, those seeds are the
ideas that are flourishing and that are
serving people globally.
And for that, we thank you.
You are truly amazing.
And it's exciting what's happening.
I'm going to share with you just a little bit about our
family dynamic, so you'll understand why modeling didn't
rank high--
the achievement level.
My husband, as well as being an emergency room physician,
is a commercial fisherman.
When he's not saving lives, he's killing lobster.
Mom worked as a nurse.
My dad worked with labor relations with the farm worker
Cesar Chavez.
So great people.
My husband would come home from work and talk about a
life he helped save.
And I'd come home and it's like, well, I came
up with a new pose.
And you all saw it.
So you know what I mean.
It was a really pathetic time in my life.
I mean, I'm telling you, I had a full-on pity party-- the
cake, ice cream, hat, the whole works.
I had the arrogance to expect that I ought to receive all of
my fulfillment from my work when all I had to do was open
my eyes and extend my arms.
There are needs all around.
And with Google.org, you understand that.
And we're all so grateful for the incredible work that you
do, everything for working to eradicate poverty, to serve
people through education.
What you do to help the environment--
amazing.
There is so, so much that we need to learn from you.
And something that I had to learn during that time was to
get over my hubris and to learn to be a
servant and a student.
I love to learn.
Being mentored and mentoring, those are passions of mine.
And through Google, we can be mentored by people in the
present, the past instantly.
In the video, I talked about Elizabeth Taylor.
If you Google Elizabeth Taylor, you'll learn about her
legendary film career.
You'll see gorgeous images.
You'll learn about her work with ***/AIDS.
What cannot be contained, even in the pages of Google, is her
enormous heart.
And what a privilege to be mentored by this woman in the
'80s when the AIDS epidemic was just reaching us.
She was frustrated that so little was being done.
Why isn't anybody doing anything?
One day she looked in the mirror and she
said, wait a minute.
I'm somebody and I can do something.
When she called her friends to ask for help,
they hung up on her.
She received death threats.
Her business associates pleaded with her to just let
this thing alone.
She didn't let any of that stop her.
She boldly moved forward and established the Elizabeth
Taylor ***/AIDS Foundation and amFAR.
And there is so much that she did that we will never know
because some of it wasn't even legal.
But she wouldn't let that stop her.
And she continues to be the Joan of Arc of AIDS.
And her work continues from heaven today.
Being mentored is powerful.
And as we get that opportunity, then to give back
and to mentor, to be able to share with others a little bit
about our journey, that is a joy for me.
Most of my lessons I've learned the hard way.
I look at failure as education.
In that respect, I'm very well educated.
And I hope there's something from our journey that can
benefit yours as well.
Today, many women are called mompreneurs.
Are there any moms here today?
Anybody out here?
Oh, you, too?
Yes.
How many kids do you have?
AUDIENCE: Two.
KATHY IRELAND: Two.
And what about you?
AUDIENCE: Two.
KATHY IRELAND: Two.
And what are their ages?
AUDIENCE: Five and eight.
KATHY IRELAND: Five and eight.
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE].
KATHY IRELAND: And you never stop being a mom.
I mean, it goes on and on.
When I was a kid, something that frustrated me is when--
my mom's, when her career was being a mom, that people would
say, well, you don't work.
I was like, what?
Are you kidding me, that's the hardest job in the world.
And all moms work whether we get paid or not.
I can't think of anything more challenging or important than
raising children.
And I think sadly in our society, because a paycheck
isn't attached, that the career of being a mom
oftentimes doesn't receive the empathy and the respect that
it deserves.
But I am so happy to be a mompreneur and to share with
you our journey from the beach to the board room and beyond.
Something I love about Googleplex is you are
passionate people.
And I love that 20% of your time is
devoted to your passions.
And out of those, of that time, the innovations are just
astounding.
I mean, from Gmail, all of it.
It's incredible.
And my passion have always been design and business.
My first job was a combination of both.
I was four years old, sold painted rocks from my wagon
with my sister Mary.
Mary being three years older, designs more sophisticated,
sold hers for a dime.
I sold mine for a nickel.
And even at that reduced rate, I did really well.
I learned at a young age that my customers
appreciate a good value.
And I've got to admit, I was tempted to market my rocks,
buy two of mine for one of Mary's.
But I realized that would be unfair competition.
And it's much more fun to celebrate our differences and
to work in partnership together.
From there, when I was about seven, started designing
handbags and jewelry to coordinate with the 1970s
halter dresses that my mom sewed from our home and we
sold at beach fairs.
My first serious job, though, was a paper route.
11 years old and my dad kind of gently shoves a newspaper
under my nose with an ad that read newspaper carrier wanted.
Are you the boy for the job?
So dad knew what kind of reaction that was going
to get out of me.
I wrote to the newspaper and I said, no, I'm not the boy for
the job, I'm the girl for the job.
I can do this route just as well as any boy.
I deserve a chance.
First day, New Year's day, papers are extra thick and I'm
a really scrawny 11-year-old thinking, what have I gotten
myself into?
I'm peddling up this really steep hill and I notice this
man standing at the end of his driveway.
And as I got closer, it was very apparent that he was
upset about something.
The veins were popping out of his neck.
His face was beet red.
And as I handed him his paper, he began yelling at me.
What are you doing here?
This is a boy's job.
You have no business being here.
You are never going to last.
And I didn't let him see me cry.
But to this day, I'm really grateful to that man.
There were a lot of days I wanted to quit.
I wouldn't give him that satisfaction.
And I couldn't because what about the girls
coming up behind me?
And what would that say to the person who wrote that ad that
I rejected in the first place?
And I'm curious, anybody here at any point in your life,
have you ever been discriminated against?
You're too young?
You're too old?
You're too this color?
Too that size?
Yeah.
All right, some of you.
It stinks.
It really, really stinks.
And I encourage you not to ever let
anyone else define you.
Here at Google, you think outside the box.
And in order to think outside the box, you can never allow
anyone to put you in a box.
I'm too odd-shaped.
I don't fit in anybody's box.
And I'm grateful for the lessons that I learned on that
paper route.
My dad taught me, Kathy, give 110%.
If the customer expects the paper on the driveway, you put
it on the front porch.
And that was the foundation of my learning to under promise
and over deliver.
And more than 30 years later, still the girl
with a paper route.
Modeling was not part of the plan.
Ended up being a great education.
Entire time I worked in that industry, I was trying and
failing at businesses before we started our brand in '93
from my kitchen table with a single pair of socks.
Now, when I modeled, people teased me.
They said, you're so cheap.
Why don't you buy some better clothes or drive a nicer car?
At least pay for valet parking.
I was investing in people.
The way people are treated is far more important than any
profit margin.
And I love sports.
I love the idea of working towards a common goal.
And we have a wonderfully diverse team.
And I know that you do as well, at Google.
And I love that.
If everybody were just like us, it would be so boring.
And we have some great debate.
And that's awesome.
And I love it.
It keeps us growing and thinking.
I know my strengths, and I'm very well aware of my
weaknesses.
I believe in always learning new things, always growing.
Yet, to be efficient, to focus, to develop those
strengths and work with people who are strong in areas where
we are not.
So someone with a great eye who would become our creative
director, an art director, someone with strengths in
production and marketing, a vision strategist.
And I was actually offered the opportunity to model
this pair of socks.
Not quite as glamorous as it sounds.
It was a really tiny budget, no exotic locations, and no
much needed photo retoucher.
But it was a job.
And it was at a time when not a lot of job offers were
coming my way.
Still, I felt if I didn't close the door on that chapter
of my life, I might not live my dream
of design and business.
And I liked the people.
And as you here know, life and business,
it's all about people.
It's about relationships.
And I thought this would be a great place
to start our brand.
Some say it's counterintuitive, but for me
it made perfect sense.
If women embrace something as basic as a pair of socks, what
could our team bring as far as innovation, design, fashion?
If they embrace that, we might be onto something.
So the work began.
We conducted family-based focus groups, surprise factory
inspections.
You learn a lot when you show up unannounced.
And it's a practice we continue today.
Thoroughly research these potential new partners.
Took out the first in a series of loans.
And John Carrasco, our genius creative director, he and I
loaded up our backpacks.
We hit the road and presented our socks to retailers.
And the doors slammed in our faces.
You're not good enough.
Love the socks, but who needs you?
You can't start a brand with a pair of socks.
It's never been done.
As you all know, it's never been done does not mean that
it can't be done.
That's noise.
And in order to succeed in life and in business, we have
to turn off that noise so we can move forward with the
plans for our life.
One of the greatest gifts of that long ago modeling
career-- and I didn't realize it at the time--
it was all the rejection.
Because when people said no and slammed doors, it didn't
destroy me.
I was used to it.
It was OK.
It's like, OK, at least we're talking.
We'll come back tomorrow.
Maybe your circumstances will have changed.
Or maybe you'll be in a better mood.
And that gift of rejection, it really leads to perseverance.
And it doesn't feel like it at the time, but please, when
you're facing rejection, know that it can be a beautiful
gift later on.
In the early days of our brand, there were times when
we slept in airports in an effort to save money.
And some people think of sleeping in an
airport as a big deal.
It's not a big deal.
What ever material things we have to give up to live our
dream, it's not a sacrifice.
It's a bold investment.
And that bold investment made it possible for us to sell our
100 millionth pair of socks.
In the early days, we sold our socks in a handful of sporting
good stores, including Big Five.
Then a major mass retailer started carrying our socks.
And one day, CEO calls me in to inform me that the socks
are a blow out.
And we had just had our first baby in
diapers, so blowout had--
you moms know, had a really different meaning.
But he assured me, no, this is OK.
It's a good thing.
In fact, they asked for exclusivity at their channel
of distribution.
And our brand grew.
It grew to include a complete line of apparel and
accessories.
As our brand grew, so did our spending.
Bigger, fancier office spaces than we truly needed.
Airport sleepovers, those days were long gone.
But our banks, our financial advisers, assured us that our
sending was far below the norm for a company of our size.
Besides, we had a contract that guaranteed security for
years to come.
Then one day, I get a phone call.
A little more than surprising.
It seems that this retailer was having a few challenges.
Next?
A crashing avalanche of reality.
This retailer was filing bankruptcy.
What?
A $40 billion giant bankrupt?
No way.
Way.
Next, I get a call from the bank to set up a lunch for
what they politely referred to as the situation.
And I had enjoyed lunch with a bank on several occasions,
always sharing our business plan, keeping them up to date.
But this time was very different.
This time it was crystal clear that I was going
to pick up the check.
With this retailer underwater, our bank was reacting to
change instantly.
Not going to spend another dime on them.
And while reaching for the credit card, one of the kind,
fatherly bankers smiled and said, you know, you and your
partners are personally responsible
for the entire liability.
If this doesn't work out, we can take away all your homes.
His smile was chilling.
I should have known better.
Particularly since we had 37 team members with families on
our payroll, it was the largest
bankruptcy in retail history.
And my heart still breaks for the thousands of people who
lost their jobs, insurance, benefits, stock.
But today with new management, that retailer is a healthier
company, and we are, too.
But those days were pretty grim.
We scrambled and scurried 24/7 days.
And we still do that.
And it makes me think of what you all do at Google.
When I look around--
and some people talk about these days of
being days of challenge.
Clearly, you see them as days of opportunity.
When businesses are closing, how life-changing that people
can go to Google.
They can get connected with others
around the world instantly.
You bring opportunities and you make it a reality.
And that is enormous.
Before the bankruptcy, our internal plan was to move to
the independent channel of distribution.
We felt that being dependent upon one retailer was not a
solution for our customer or our team.
The bankruptcy slowed our clock.
I'll never walk away from anyone during their most
difficult time.
When it was clear they were going to be healthy, we
implemented that plan.
Again, people said it's impossible.
You can't start at mass and go up.
It's never been done.
For years we were able to operate our
business under the radar.
And as a private person owning a private company, that suited
me just fine.
One of the reasons we were able to be beneath the radar
is because typically independent retailers don't
have large ad budgets.
So while others were buying awareness, we were building
relationships one at a time.
And that's what you do.
You connect people.
And you help build those relationships.
And that's exciting and that's powerful.
And bringing your technology to our retail partners, to
family businesses that have been around for generations
that will not survive without it, that is exciting.
And I thank you for that.
"Forbes" outed our business for its growth.
And others in the media commented as well.
And that forced me out of my shy and selfish shell of
quietness to connect and share with others.
And as I mature, I realize that it is so not about me.
And that my comfort is absolutely irrelevant when
there are needs everywhere.
And I'm so grateful for what all of you do because you make
it possible for us to fulfill our personal, our
professional, and our philanthropic goals.
And you make it possible for us to do this instantly.
So thank you for that.
Sometimes people ask us, what are your secrets?
And to us, they're pretty simple.
Consider others as more important than yourself.
Never stop auditioning.
Bring value.
Be creative.
Be honest.
Be of service.
I love your non-official mission of don't be evil.
I love that.
It speaks volumes of you.
And I think something that we share in common as your
company is about connecting and that's so much of what we
do as well, and we've got to get ourselves
in order to do that.
We can't get in our own way.
We all have these epiphanies at different moments in life.
I prefer to think of them as breakthroughs, those
crystalline moments when life just hits us.
And we either fall apart, collapse and break down, or we
break the bonds that seek to destroy and defeat us.
We get back up and we break through.
Some personal examples of breakthroughs in my life
include breaking through health challenges, an accident
that tore my nose from my face, smashed my teeth, left
me unconscious, and my face unrecognizable.
My physician husband fearing I'd be brain dead.
A disaster at sea that nearly took my husband's life.
I spoke to you about that brush with bankruptcy from our
then only retail partner.
The loss of loved ones.
A miscarriage that our family still mourns.
A life-changing misdiagnosis and a diagnosis of down
syndrome for the youngest member of our extended family.
Each one of you here have or is currently facing equal or
far greater crises.
And yet, you are here.
And you are a shining example that you don't break down, you
break through.
And you inspire.
You encourage.
In spending time here on this campus today, getting to see
how you work, it feels like a family.
And I love that.
And getting to talk with some of you, it's been an exciting
experience.
Because each one of us, we are our own brand.
And you might be thinking, she's crazy.
She's talking about her brand, and then she's
saying I'm a brand.
I'm not a brand.
I'm a person.
Yes, we're people.
And we are brands.
And every experience with us is a lasting brand impression.
The question is, what kind of a brand are we?
Are we innovative, creative?
Are we solution-oriented?
Do we get along well with others?
Do we consider showing up five minutes early being on time or
are we perpetually late?
Are we complicated and cranky?
Do we bring our drama with us everywhere we go?
And we are all works in progress.
Unfortunately, every day we get to make the choice if
we're going to break down or break through.
And brands succeed because they simplify
the selection process.
They build upon an existing relationship.
Will a brand or a service succeed if the product or
service is inferior?
Absolutely not.
The quickest way to destroy any brand is poor quality
merchandise or service.
Generally speaking, men will buy products
and women join brands.
There's that loyalty, that relationship.
And when there is a product of comparable or lesser price
versus a well-branded product, the well-branded
product will succeed.
And this is particularly true during economic uncertainties
and societal changes.
Women shop where they have that trusted relationship.
We've got to earn that trust.
And we've got to get it right.
But building that relationship.
And again, that's what you at Google do.
You build relationships, and you connect us, and you make
it possible.
And that is powerful.
Google is an iconic brand.
Other examples of iconic brands--
Disney, Coca-Cola, Nike.
Iconic brands are known as much for how they make us feel
as for what they do.
Iconic brands trade in the world of emotion where
measurements cannot apply.
And the consistency is so important.
Your bold, beautiful Google logo, that
is recognized worldwide.
And it's powerful.
And we know what we're getting when we go to Google.
When we're drinking our Starbucks coffee, if that
circular logo were suddenly dropped to the bottom with no
notice, we wouldn't trust what we were drinking.
So with our marketing, with our branding, with ourselves
it's so important that we are consistent with who we are and
what we're all about.
And I love your name--
Google.
It's awesome.
When our youngest child Chloe was in kindergarten, she came
home from school one day and she told me she loved me
Googleplex.
And I just love that.
I love it.
And before I close, I've got to shout out to the women.
Not to neglect the guys.
Love the guys.
And girls, we have so much to learn from the guys.
We really do.
You are really good at delegating.
And when you have your priorities, you're good at
putting yourselves on it.
And we need to learn from that.
We just go to this guilt thing if we try to spend any time to
take care of ourselves.
Frequently, women will ask me, how do you do it all?
And my answer is, I don't.
And oftentimes, I do it really badly.
I was 40 years old before I learned that no
was a complete sentence.
No thank you was better, but no works.
It's OK.
And oftentimes, we've got to say no to good things in an
effort to be able to say yes to great things.
When I flew out last night to come be with you today, the
flight attendant said, in case of emergency, put on your own
oxygen mask first, and then take care of those around you.
And it made me think, what if we did that in a
prophylactic way?
And I had the privilege of speaking at a conference that
included some amazing women--
Dr. Maya Angelou, Barbara Walters--
and the topic came up, can women have it all?
And Barbara Walters said, no, I don't believe
women can have it all.
And respectfully, I disagree.
I think we can have it all, but not all at once.
Our lives come in seasons.
And at each season of our life, we've got to
prioritize our time.
For me, it's my faith, family, and then being of service
through our work.
And the minute those priorities are out of order,
I'm a disaster.
Coping skills are out the window.
Stress is unmanageable.
I'm floundering around on the floor trying to get from point
A to point B. It just doesn't work.
What I love about Google is I see that there's so much
protection for you.
I see the opportunities here.
I see the child care.
And just making it all possible.
And that is fantastic.
And I encourage everyone, if you haven't already, to think
about, what are your values?
What's important to you?
And it's so important that you have conviction for your
values to really know why you value what you value.
And to put boundaries in place to protect them because they
will be challenged.
In our business, something that we do, we're constantly
working with new people, new relationships.
And we go through our legal process.
We get everything out in the open.
Potential concerns all in writing.
Everything is signed.
And then we take those contracts, we put them away in
the drawer, and we start treating one
another like family.
I never had a family business.
But today, we have a business family.
And I believe that when you treat your family
members the way you--
when you treat your business family the way you would want
your family members to be treated, there's no limit to
what we can accomplish together.
And you were certainly a family here at Googleplex.
And there is no limit to what you will accomplish.
And in speaking of family, just a shout out to some of
our team members--
Selena, Miles, and Chris.
And Christopher Spencer, who is our Google expert--
and he keeps our business all things Google.
Just so wonderful.
We're so grateful for that.
You're an amazing family.
And I imagine that it's going to take a few hundred years
for you to fully realize the return on your investment in
the Klingon interface.
You guys are incredible.
And you make me realize that there are no limits.
I'm encouraged and inspired by all of you.
And in closing, I'm going to share with you something--
it's not my own, but I believe it to be true.
I've learned that all that you give is all that you get.
So give it all you've got.
Here's to life and every joy it brings.
Here's to life and dreamers and their dreams.
May all your storms be weathered.
May all that's good get better.
Here's to life.
Here's to love.
Here's to each and every one of you.
Thank you, and God bless you.
[APPLAUSE]
KATHY IRELAND: You're so sweet.
Thank you.
Does anybody have any questions?
AUDIENCE: Are there businesses that you've entered and then
had to shut down later?
Or ones that you decided not to enter?
For example, there's, as far as I know, no such thing as
Kathy Ireland Fine China.
KATHY IRELAND: I'm sorry, you said as far as you know, there
is Kathy Ireland Fine China?
AUDIENCE: There is not.
KATHY IRELAND: Oh.
Yes, coming.
And what is your name?
AUDIENCE: Neil.
KATHY IRELAND: Neil.
Neil, thank you for that.
Kathy Ireland Home by Gorham.
It's coming out.
No, it's been in development.
Yes.
One of the things that really helps us is our mission.
We have it in bold letters, in English and in Spanish in our
headquarters.
Sometimes people think our team is a cult because we're
confidently reiterating it.
Most of us, we've been together over 20 years.
Our mission began with finding solutions for families,
especially busy moms.
We've expanded to finding solutions for people in love
and finding solutions for people in business.
So when a team member has an idea for a new product, we go
to that mission.
OK, it's a great idea, but where's the solution?
How does it maker her day better?
She's going through life and it is hard.
When I became a mom for the first time, a
shower became a luxury.
And going to the store.
Even how we choose our retail partners is critical.
She's got car seats, diapers, temper tantrums.
She makes it out the driveway, that's a victory in itself.
So we've got to make sure it's a good shopping
experience for her.
And it's time.
It's a getting to know you process.
When all the other elements are in place, we also have
four promises for all the products
we design and market--
fashion, quality, value, and safety.
They have to be in place.
You asked if we ever had to walk away from relationships?
Yes, sadly.
We do our homework as much as we can, but
things in life happen.
There was a partner who felt that because they were in the
legal limits of safety that it was OK.
But they were not at the highest standard of legal
limits for safety.
And with that mission statement, serving families,
safety being one of our core promises, we walked away for
millions of dollars.
We gave our banks heart attacks.
It's one of the reasons I love having a private company.
Because it allows us the freedom to do that.
But the getting to know your process is critical.
Kicking the tires.
And we invite people to kick the tires with us.
We try to be as transparent as possible.
Find out everything you can do about us, so we can-- we look
at it as a marriage, a long-time relationship.
That's what we're looking for.
AUDIENCE: Thanks.
KATHY IRELAND: Thank you, Neil.
AUDIENCE: Hi, my name is Albert.
Just started two weeks ago.
This is a perk that they didn't tell me of beforehand.
KATHY IRELAND: You're a Noogler?
AUDIENCE: Exactly.
My question to you is, so you had an extremely successful
supermodel career.
So you had an extremely successful supermodel career
that you could have easily said at the
end of it, I'm done.
I've had a wonderful career, and kind of sailed off into
the sunset.
What made you want to start your own business?
What gave you that push to say, this isn't
enough, I want more?
KATHY IRELAND: The pity party that I mentioned.
allowed me to take my eyes off myself and look around.
And see that it wasn't just about me and having
my own needs met.
But there were so many opportunities.
And that was a critical turning point in my life.
I entered the modeling industry as a
business person already.
I really thought it wasn't part of my plan.
I thought I might be able to save some money for college or
to start a business.
The reason it went on so long is because I failed at so many
other businesses.
It took me a long time to get started.
So it was always a passion of mine.
And one of the things I learned the hard way is when
you have a business, you've got to be passionate about it.
And then, it's not work.
I don't imagine--
I can't imagine ever retiring.
I imagine shifting and changing focus here and there,
being true to those priorities.
As we talk about moving beyond, I see my pivot just
going to honor those priorities.
And I see what you all do as Google as a huge facilitator
to make those dreams a reality.
AUDIENCE: Thanks.
KATHY IRELAND: Thank you.
AUDIENCE: I guess my question kind of had to do with women
in the workplace and how you would approach that.
Before I came to Google, I was working at a law firm and we
handled a lot of gender discrimination cases
on behalf of women.
And it seemed to me that something that happened quite
often, especially for younger women, was that they kind of
fell into the stereotype of being the pretty young thing
around the office.
And I was just wondering you, as a business woman, did you
feel like beauty was something that was an obstacle for you
to go past for people to take you seriously, or did you feel
more like it was something that you could capitalize upon
to improve upon your business?
KATHY IRELAND: Thank you.
And while you're sweet to put me in that category.
But I often still feel that many times if I were--
because women will say to me, well, it's easy for you.
You had this modeling background, so it gets you a
foot in the door.
I really believe that if I would show up at a business
meeting with my business plan and my sketches in hand, my
ideas as a CEO would be taken seriously much more quickly
than having that baggage of that perception from that long
ago career.
And what a woman who doesn't have that has,
she has a clean slate.
So she gets to invent her brand however she wants.
And that is the gift.
And as far as your question about what's expected in the
workplace, how women are perceived, I
continue to see it.
One of my first in the home industry--
I went to a meeting of salespeople.
And it was all guys.
I was like, is there a meeting or where's all the women?
They didn't have any women.
I was like. you guys, who's buying the furniture?
Can we have a little balance?
And it takes time.
I just encourage women to fight
against that, to persevere.
And with love, we can teach.
And it's powerful.
I'm very rebellious.
And I think I encourage people to rebel
against negative things.
And to be strong.
There's so many things we need to rebel against.
But for years, I only wore like full-on business suits
because I wanted to be taken seriously.
And it was Elizabeth Taylor who gave me so much grief.
She just said, you know what?
You don't need to do that.
Wear what you want to wear and let them
deal with their stuff.
You be true to yourself.
And if you feel like wearing the pantsuit, fine.
But don't feel like--
I think I was allowing other people to shape me.
And we just be true to who we are.
And we do our best.
And it becomes their problem, not ours.
AUDIENCE: Thanks.
KATHY IRELAND: Thank you.
AUDIENCE: Hey, Kathy.
I just wanted to thank you once again for coming out here
and talking to all of us.
I had a quick question about your business side, and how
you talked about you had a family business.
And kind of more of a business family and whatnot.
If you ever thought about going public or kind of your
views on that?
Because I know you brought up how you're private right now
and you're very happy with the structure of that, just kind
of want to hear your two cents.
KATHY IRELAND: I cannot imagine going public.
I wouldn't go public in a titular sense.
I've been accused of being a control freak.
But I'm passionate about what we do.
Every area.
And so I can't imagine giving that up.
Would we ever work with public companies?
Yes.
I mean, there's ways of doing that.
But for our company, I enjoy the privacy.
If we want to give our banks heart attacks and give away
more than what we--
we can do that.
We have that luxury.
I mean, just this week, we've had team members--
one of our dear team members, his father died.
And he needs to go away and be with family.
And I see how Google--
from what I see, how everyone is treated, I really love it.
I mean, I don't know everything.
But it just seems like a really great company.
You're taken care of.
But in this point in time, I love the privacy.
Wall Street looks for a really quick return, and that
frightens me.
Because when we're building relationships,
we're looking long-term.
I don't know how to make a quick buck.
When people do that--
we've never done it.
It's built over time.
And it's by cultivating those relationships, so I don't
think I would be very good at a public company.
But thank you.
AUDIENCE: Awesome.
Thank you.
KATHY IRELAND: Thank you.
Anybody else, any questions?
Thank you all so much for coming out.
It was really great to spend this time with you.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]