Hook

Their other posts in the index, biggest breakout first.
Excuse me. Quick question for you. Are you a business owner by chance? What do you do for your business? I'm in the shoe business. I'm going to go now. I'm not part of the School of Hard Knocks team. We have a Hard Knocks Women's channel. We talk to successful women like yourself to give advice to the younger generation. Can I chat with you for 60 seconds about your business? Is that okay? Okay. How'd you get into that? I was an undergrad, and then I needed a job. What's the biggest challenge so far you're facing in your shoe business? There aren't too many right now other than importing. When did you start this? 1993. What's the most amount of money you've made in a single year with this company? Oh, I certainly wouldn't divulge that. Seven figures? I wouldn't give any hints, but it's a good business. What is it called? René Mancini. You've been in this business for a long time. Give me your best advice on how you've been pivoting so far to stay successful in 2026. I would say, honestly, the best thing is look ahead. Keep looking ahead because there's somebody on your heels every day. Competition is high right now, right? Very high. How are you staying unique right now? We offer a product that nobody else does. We're in the alligator business. It's a hard business. Not many people want to do that business. Has anyone told you no? Yes, all the time. And what do you do? Don't listen. Go around them. Were you ever afraid that you might fail? Not exactly. No, I was afraid I wouldn't succeed as fast as I wanted to. You keep working hard, you keep pushing yourself, and it gets better. Do you ever deal with imposter syndrome? No. Really? You just knew you were going to do it? Yeah, I did. I did. Have you always been like that then? No. How did you build this confidence? Education. Education is most important. There's a lot of entrepreneurs that would say otherwise to skip school and to actually go into business. That wasn't me. If there's a woman right now who wants to start entrepreneurship and maybe she's too afraid to, what would you tell her? Study hard.