On Board | Episode 5

Transcript

Kendra Davenport:

Hi, I am Kendra Davenport, President and CEO of Easterseals, and you're listening to On Board with Transparent Leadership, an Easterseals podcast where I speak with leaders from some of the country's top organizations. Together we explore how transparent leadership can impact communication, trust-building, and foster a culture of openness and accountability. I hope that our conversations offer you practical insights and tools to positively impact your organization.

In this episode, I'm joined by Mindy Scheier. Mindy is the founder and CEO of Runway of Dreams Foundation. Prior to launching the nonprofit, she spent more than 20 years working in fashion as a key member of the design team for the International Concepts Collection, and as a stylist for Saks Fifth Avenue in New York City, Mindy was inspired to start runway of Dreams by her son Oliver, who has muscular dystrophy and dreamed of wearing jeans like everyone else. After using her design skills to adapt a pair of jeans that met his needs, she went on to conduct extensive research to develop modifications that would meet the needs of people with disabilities.

Following its launch, Runway of Dreams partnered with Tommy Hilfiger on the first mainstream adaptive clothing line for kids and continues to work with many mainstream brands such as Kohl's, Target, JC Penney, and Zappos. Founded on the basis that clothing is a basic human need, Runway of Dreams develops, delivers, and supports initiatives that broaden the reach of mainstream adaptive clothing and promote people with disabilities in the fashion industry. Due to the overwhelming amount of requests Mindy received at Runway of Dreams from a multitude of brands and industries for connection to people with disabilities, in 2019, Mindy created Gamut Talent Management. Gamut is rebranding the way people with disabilities are viewed, marketed, and represented in mainstream America. I am so excited to talk with you, Mindy, really appreciate you being here.

Mindy Scheier:

Thank you. I'm equally as excited.

Kendra Davenport:

I learned about your transformational work with Runway of Dreams Foundation and Gamut Management after you invited some of our Easterseals staff members to your 11th fashion show since 2016. When it comes to impacting disability inclusion, you've talked about Runway of Dreams as the “why” and Gamut, as the “how.” Can you talk a little bit more about that because I love that and I want you to unpack that for our listeners.

Mindy Scheier:

When I started, which is wild to say, but we're about to celebrate our 10th anniversary of Runway of Dreams. There were zero mainstream brands in the adaptive space, and to be honest, because I came from the fashion industry, I never heard of the word adaptive. I didn't know what it meant, et cetera. So when I started Runway Dreams, it was really to raise awareness in the fashion industry as to why creating adaptive products was so important for the 1.8 billion people on our planet that identify with having a disability as well as the fact that people with disabilities are consumers too. Like most things, when you are starting and convincing and helping brands understand, it's always the “why.” Why do they need to get involved in it? And then after the success of our partnership with Tommy Hilfiger, it became very clear that we needed another company, Gamut Management, to really be the “how” of working side by side with companies to help them modify their products and services with people with disabilities by their side. And that's really a key part of Gamut is that we don't do any work with companies without having people with disabilities, all types of disabilities, really weigh in on every step of the value chain.

Kendra Davenport:

I love that. Basically you're a serial entrepreneur and you make this sound much easier than I know it is. So can you talk a little bit about engaging these brands? When you say Tommy Hilfiger, a household name, how did you do it? How did you entice them? How did you get them to understand your ethos is to only work with companies that engage people with disabilities? That's a tall order.

Mindy Scheier:

It is a tall order, and I am grateful that you mentioned — believe me, it is so far from easy in any way. But it definitely helped that I came from the fashion industry. So I did have a lot of contacts and utilized every last one of them, which is what ultimately got me in front of the team at Tommy Hilfiger. But it took quite a few meetings to help dispel myths that I think were deeply embedded in the fashion industry as well as many other industries that, number one, the population of people with disabilities is a niche, small population. Number two, that people with disabilities don't care about how they look. And number three, that this is not where they're spending their money. They're just not spending money on clothing. Once I dispelled all of those myths with hard data, doors started opening and the biggest one really was Tommy Hilfiger and really put us on the map.

Kendra Davenport:

That's terrific. And I have to tell you, I was recently — we have 70 affiliates nationwide, Easterseals affiliates. And I was recently at our Delaware affiliate and I went into this room, they call it the Resource room I think, and it is a room where it houses all kinds of equipment and clothing and tools and supports that people with disabilities and their families and caregivers can use. And on the wall was a whole line of clothing and they said, oh, that is from Tommy Hilfiger. They've been a super donor. So that adaptive clothing is making its way and Hilfiger is just a super company. So, I wanted to put a plug in for that because I just lit up when I heard that. Hilfiger might've gotten you started, but you're breaking even more barriers working now with Victoria Secret, which I just love because they set the bar really high in terms of expectations on what women should look like so that they've crossed the Rubicon and are now making an adaptive line of clothes for people with disabilities. I had to explore that a little bit with you today and talk to me a little bit if you can, about how you got that done because that seems an even higher bar.

Mindy Scheier:

Honestly, it really was an amazing coup in that this is almost two years in the making and a great example that Victoria's Secret works both with Runway of Dreams and Gamut Management. So they really are living the why and the how, and they, as a brand, realized that they were missing out on a huge part of their population and that was women with disabilities as consumers. And what I really have to share with the audience is that they went into working with Gamut, very transparent that they just didn't know who this woman was. They just needed educating. They needed to understand what her needs were. They needed to get to know her, and they needed to understand the various differences of disabilities and how they could help develop product that could work with so many disabilities. They took their time, they put their energy in all of their teams ranging from HR to product development to customer service in really engaging and understanding women with disabilities before they even developed product.

So, it is really the gold standard, which is why they launched with the Gamut Seal of Approval, which is the first certification mark in the adaptive space because they just did it right, and the product was vetted and approved by a third party of women with disabilities, PTs, OTs and experts in this space that said yes, they really did this authentically with women with disabilities by their side. So, it serves as a fast pass to women with disabilities and to be honest, who wouldn't want a magnetic front closure??

Kendra Davenport:

[laughing]

Mindy Scheier:

And have the straps be able to be adjusted forward, not backward? It's brilliant! And this is something I have no doubt is going to have crossover market value to our mainstream marketplace as well.

Kendra Davenport:

Thank you. I think that's a terrific example. Many times technology or products are developed with disabled people in mind, and then those products and services become much more useful to the entire population and humanity, disabled or non-disabled. So love that. Is there a company you're not currently working with that you would love to work with and if so, why and who?

Mindy Scheier:

I love that question and I'm going to give a lofty answer. I really don't have a specific company because I want every company, in every budget, background — from low-budget all the way up to luxury should have options because not only are people with disabilities, the largest minority in the world, and I know I'm speaking to an audience that understands this, but also an estimated $13 trillion is being left on the table. So this is the greatest definition of social good that has business impact. And what I love about what you just said, people with disabilities are natural innovators and have come up with brilliant ideas that could be worked into our mainstream world. So I feel really comfortable saying that there isn't a product or service out there that could not be modified in some way to make it easier for everyone. And so that's why I say it's every brand. Every brand should have adaptive options.

Kendra Davenport:

I love that you mentioned the buying power because I think — I've only been in this role 17, 18 months and it's been a really steep learning curve. I didn't come from the disability community, it wasn't engaged in disability programs prior to this. But what I will say that I just don't think we're touting enough is “the buying power is why.” Yes, in terms of gamut and runway of dreams, it's retail, it's clothing, it's adaptive clothing, but there are so many other industries that are just not paying attention to the largest minority in our population. 61 million Americans, a quarter of the population identifies as being disabled and they're consumers. So I love that you touch on that because I really think we need to change the paradigm from the cost of doing business with people and for people with disabilities to the value of doing business with people who have disabilities. So love you that you mentioned that. What is, when you think about it, how much you've achieved, and I know you started out saying this has been a 10 year journey, this isn't happened overnight, but what's on the horizon for Gamut? What is in your sights? Because as a serial entrepreneur, I know there's more you want to do that you haven't gotten to yet.

Mindy Scheier:

Absolutely. From the Gamut perspective, we are truly on the precipice of change and making real change happen. And I think that is evidenced by Victoria’s Secret, a global brand that nobody in a million years would think that they would have gotten into the adaptive space and had models with all different types of disabilities. And I think that is the real gold standard that changes here. So moving into, as you mentioned, so many brands in the beauty, lifestyle, fashion space, that can have a major impact on how our world views people with disabilities as consumers — from a marketing perspective, from a pop culture perspective. And I really see that ripple effect happening and Gamut being a key part of that change. And again, it's really because we are powered by people with disabilities. It is not something that team internally does in a vacuum. It is truly including the population into every decision that's being made.

Kendra Davenport:

Thank you for that. Let's backtrack a little bit and talk about Oliver, your inspiration for this. And as a mom, I just love that because as a working mom, if you can manage to engage your children in what you do, even in a minimal way so that they understand and appreciate the sacrifices you are making, the things you miss, that's a win. But to have your child be so pivotal to the success of a company you are building — companies — I think is really incredible. So talk a little bit if you can about Oliver.

Mindy Scheier:

Oliver's now 18, which is hard to believe.

Kendra Davenport:

Sobering, right?

Mindy Scheier:

Oh my gosh. And he is a freshman at Tulane University and Kendra, I say this with true full transparency and will try to say it without crying, but we really didn't know what 18 was going to look like for him. The fact that he is at college and a college that is thousands of miles away from where we live and that he has to take a plane to get to is so beyond my wildest dreams. But as I say often, Oliver has proven to be more of our teacher than our son sometimes in that he has shown us as a family, but my husband and my other two kids, about real belief in yourself and what you can do and breaking glass ceilings and finding alternate ways to be able to do what you want to do in this world. And I think that is the true foundation of what he taught me at a very young age of his. There has to be another way to do things and that really was what started me on my journey that I said, you're right. There has to be another way to put jeans on than the typical way, and that is something that I hope my other kids really learn and take from…that it’s always being curious, always questioning why something has to be done a certain way because ultimately there's just always a way to accomplish what you want to accomplish.

Kendra Davenport:

I love that you answered that question from the heart. As a mom, as a working mom, I think a lot about the fact that my children, just like Oliver and your other children, I'm sure are doing their thing. You work so hard to give them the confidence in the wings and then when they use them, that's the hard part, right? Because I'm constantly trying to draw them back. So we'll have to figure out a way to work with our Louisiana affiliate and when you're down there, I never miss an opportunity to go to The Big Easy. So, hold that thought, Mindy, and —

Mindy Scheier:

I’m in!

Kendra Davenport:

We’ll reconnect. [laughing]

Mindy Scheier:

Any time you want! I’ll hop on a plane, believe me.

Kendra Davenport:

We'll reconnect on that one. We've talked about Oliver, we've talked about the companies. I'd really like to talk about you and what keeps you charged. You said you're highly caffeinated, ready for this podcast this morning. That's something I also relate to, so you and I think might just be kindred spirits, but talk about what keeps you going because you've been successful in cracking the code with some of the biggest retail brands and names in the industry, but I know as we've said, that is not easy. So talk a little bit about what keeps you going personally, you, Mindy.

Mindy Scheier:

I definitely don't want to ever perceive that it's been rainbows and unicorns the whole time because the reality is it hasn't and there's definitely days, and guess what? I had it yesterday – [days] that are really tough and really hard to have that moment of picking yourself off the floor and saying tomorrow's another day. But I would say that there's two driving forces for me. Number one, this is highly personal. No matter what I do, if I move that boulder up the mountain, even just a millimeter every day, that's a success. And it doesn't have to be solving it all in one day, it's just making a little bit of movement every day to reach your goal. But also, and this took some time to really digest, but failure is just feedback. Failure has such an intense negative connotation, but when you take a step back and you look at it from, okay, that didn't work, why didn't it work and how can I move around that wall? That just was put up and that came with definitely from a lot of doors that did not open. Like yesterday, I had a couple doors that closed and it's really taking that moment to shut it down and think about, okay, what do I do now? Because that path is not working, so I need to find another one. This is a quote from Thomas Edison, which I think is so wonderful and perfect for this question specifically is that “when you have exhausted every option, keep trying.”

Kendra Davenport:

Is there anyone you look to for support in terms of anyone you think of as maybe a mentor, someone you seek out, you seek guidance from, you seek advice, or you just seek to be in their company because it recharges you or makes you think more creatively or outside the box?

Mindy Scheier:

I've been so blessed to be able to be a small part of so many brilliant people's lives, whether they have a disability or not, as hokey as this sounds, I really go back to Oliver and its exactly what happened yesterday. As I mentioned, I was definitely having a challenging day and I called him and I said, you know what? This is a tough day. When I share transparently and from a vulnerable perspective, with Oliver specifically, who just when he gets out of bed every single day has incredible amounts of challenges and just putting his shoes on and getting dressed and all the things…it really helps to level set me and why I'm doing it, why we're doing it, and why this is so important and tomorrow's another day. So I go back to the basics and the roots of where I started.

Kendra Davenport:

As a leader, I think things are different for women. My team knows that. I don't mean any offense to my male counterparts, but I think women… I really believe we have to work harder; we have to work smarter; we have to do more. And I’m constantly reminded of that by my family. I have all grown children now, but my family still calls me The Glue and if something's wrong with The Glue, then ain't nothing working right.

Mindy Scheier:

I love that [laughs].

Kendra Davenport:

But even at our most confident, I like to think I'm coachable. Are you coachable?

Mindy Scheier:

Extremely coachable and welcome it. To be honest with you, I have an extraordinary COO at Gamut Management. Her name is Molly Kettle, and she actually was for a while, a professional coach from a corporate perspective. If we've had a meeting that I felt like I wasn't the best, I didn't show up the best or maybe I could have rephrased something, I always go right to her and say, hit me. What's the feedback there? What could I have done better or what am I not thinking of? I really believe in, especially as women, if we are not growing and evolving and listening, we're going to remain stuck. Unfortunately, I definitely had women in my professional career that took the stance of competition versus support, and I feel like when you are open to being coached or feedback or what can I do better? We are climbing that mountain together versus shoving one down so that they have to start all over again. So I will always be open.

Kendra Davenport:

When you commit to being a lifelong learner and you're open to feedback — good, bad, indifferent — it can only be helpful. And to your point about women not always sending the elevator down, I think that's born of insecurity and I think it's born of the competition women feel. We're constantly, as I said earlier, working hard, climbing, scrapping, and so sometimes I think even the best of us think, oh, I'm going to keep that to myself or I'm not going to share that. And to resist that and share your knowledge and tap into it, I think is how women ascend. It's how we do better. What you said I think is a nice segue. I wonder — and this is something I think about a lot because I think it's hard to identify role models, people we admire. When I was growing up, there were people in public policy, there were actors that I really admired, and yet I feel, in a way, that there aren't as many people that don't have feet of clay in the public forum. Is there someone in any realm that you admire who is a public figure and that you pay attention to or that you seek knowledge from or strive to emulate, or do you just do your own thing?

Mindy Scheier:

There are many public figures that I think are extraordinary and have made such change happen in our world. I always defer a little bit more to people that I know personally as what I hold in high regard because I don't know the people that are public figures and I don't know them as humans. Hopefully they are who they are in their public persona. But I think I definitely relate to people that I know personally as those that I hold very high regard to and who I seek guidance from, which is probably why I cited Oliver as an example, because I know who he is at the core of his being and certainly my other two children and other family members. But I think that's maybe unique to me that I do want to emulate people that I really know.

Kendra Davenport:

If someone was to Google you, we know what we'd find. We've talked about that..but give us a factoid about Mindy that no one would be able to find on Google.

Mindy Scheier:

Oh my gosh. I want to say one that probably somebody if they really dug, they could find, but it's just a fun little funny fact that I was on the show “What Would You do?” Which is a social experiment show where a real life situation you are being filmed and you don't know you're being filmed and then they surprise you at the end. So certainly somebody could find that, but this is definitely something that you couldn't find on Google — that I am crazy for learning and listening to podcasts and I'm crazy for How I Built This [with] Guy Raz. He's on my vision board that I'm desperate to someday be on the show, but I love listening to others' success or failures or feedback, how they move forward. But also at the same time, from a personal growth perspective, I am deeply in belief of manifestation and possibility thinking, positive thinking, all of those things.

And sometimes it drives my kids crazy, absolutely crazy, that they're like, why can't you just say “that sucks?” And it's very hard for me because it's not a comfortable place for me that I always want to try to find the well “what if” or “how this” and good, bad, indifferent. It's just a comfortable place for me. One of my favorite books is the Energy Bus. I highly recommend it to anyone, both from a personal and a professional perspective. It's a very easy read and it definitely puts things in perspective about who you want on your bus, who you should kindly ask to get off your bus, and who maybe is on your bus that don't know that they really should get off your bus. And it's really helps you see life from a different perspective.

Kendra Davenport:

That's terrific. And as an avid reader, I love that because I'm always looking for some book that someone else feels — that I admire and I certainly admire you — was helpful, helped you clarify or find purpose or focus. I also love your point about manifestation. My youngest is very spiritual. She's a yoga instructor. She's very in touch with the physical as well as the spiritual. And she will constantly say to me, because I'm probably the ying to your yang, I tend sometimes to say, ah, that sucks. And my daughter will say, no, it doesn't. You're not looking at that the right way. Flip it on its head and manifest what you're going to get out of that or how are you're going to materialize that!

Mindy Scheier:

I think I’d get along very well with your daughter.

Kendra Davenport:

Yes, absolutely love that. I do think I'm pretty positive, but yeah, I could use some work in that area sometimes. Talk to me about a leadership quality that you are working on. I'll give you an example because we're asking you to be vulnerable, which I don't think you have any problem doing, but I am constantly working on listening. I'm a talker. I tend to fill time. I tend not to give people enough time to talk. That's why this podcast, as my youngest told me, this is good for you mom. You have to actually listen to people. And I love listening, but that's something I'm constantly working on. Is there something as a leader, a woman who's a leader in your field, is there something you work on personally? Some quality?

Mindy Scheier:

Definitely two. One is similar to yours — that I tend to get very excited about an idea or something that I'm thinking about, and I need to let the other person finish what they were saying before I —

Kendra Davenport:

I relate!

Mindy Scheier:

—jump in on them and say, “oh my God, I love that!” Or I need to take a beat and a pause to hold back my excitement or energy. That's number one. And number two, in a similar vein, taking the time to really investigate how this issue happened versus tackling the issue, taking that a little bit extra time to say what led to that, because a lot of times the knowledge that you get from the path that happened before the issue happened helps to solve it versus attacking the issue head on, which I have definitely learned and are still working on, that sometimes takes that extra time to do some due diligence.

Kendra Davenport:

Last but not least, look three years down the line, what will be success for you? Is it maintaining? Is it growth? Is it doing something totally different? What does it look like? And do you even think of your future in that way? Do you plan that way? I guess that's a two part question. Are you looking ahead constantly or are you more focused on making the most of what's going on right now?

Mindy Scheier:

I try so hard to just get through the day…to say at the end of the day, you know what? I think I accomplish everything that is humanly possible to do and/or think about how I could do it better the next day. But I am a futurist by the surveys that you take to find out about your talents and your qualities. So where I see this is absolutely growing in both the nonprofit and the for-profit. On the Runway of Dreams side, we will absolutely cross the pond and we will be in Europe and other fashion weeks because people with disabilities are everywhere. And we need to show up and do what we do here in other places. And for Gamut, I see us being the go-to consulting company for industries far beyond the fashion industry and the Gamut Seal of Approval being the gold standard, being the good housekeeping Seal of Approval for all things adaptive.

Kendra Davenport:

I can't wait to see you go international and be a part of it!

Mindy Scheier:

Yes, come on!

Kendra Davenport:

So, hold that thought! We like to end our episodes with an Ask us anything segment with co-hosts from the Easterseals podcast series. Everything you know about Disability is wrong, so stick around for that. But before we go to that, I just want to say, heartfully, thank you. This has been such a nice conversation. I was so excited to meet you and I hope this is the first of what will be many conversations to come. Mindy, you are doing it. You're just a lightning in a bottle and I can't get enough of your energy. So I meant what I said about Louisiana. Let's get down to The Big Easy together!

Mindy Scheier:

Love it. Thank you. I love, I'm so grateful. Thank you Kendra, and thank you to all the listeners because this really helps us make change happen together.

Kendra Davenport:

Couldn't have said it better. Thanks, Mindy.

Kendra Davenport:

Erin and Lily, I am so glad you can join me today as leaders in your work and as co-hosts of the Everything You know About Disability is Wrong Podcast, what do we have for today?

Erin:

Hi, Kendra, thanks for having us on.

Kendra Davenport:

Hi, Erin. Hi, Lily. Great to have you.

Erin:

So I had a question. As somebody who has anxiety and overthinks literally everything, how do you handle decision making, especially in high pressure situations?

Kendra Davenport:

Thanks for the question. That's a great question, and I'll tell you that the God's honest truth is that some of my biggest supporters as well as my detractors would say, I make snap decisions. I make decisions on the fly. I make them too quickly. And I've thought a lot about that because that's a criticism that I've had to take into account for as long as I've been making decisions. And I am someone who makes a decision, I think on the fast side because I know almost immediately I get a gut reaction. I trust that reaction and I tend to act on it. But with age comes experience and I try harder now to seek out the opinions. I've always gone to mentors for opinions when I'm making a tough decision or when there's a lot at stake, high pressure decision. I'm really blessed. I have a stable of mentors and I'm human.

So I go to the ones that I know I think are going to give me the response I want. Although all of them are pretty honest. But as I said, as I've gained more experiences, I've sort of ascended the professional ladder, if you will. It becomes more important that you pressure test those decisions because they're going to come back to roost. If you make the wrong call and you're the leader, it's your responsibility, right or wrong, you have to take responsibility for that. And I don't like getting it wrong. I like to be on the right side of right. So I try to read a lot. Erin, I read a lot about leadership. I read a lot about management because I don't think you ever get to a point where you're absolutely comfortable a hundred percent in your skin as a leader. And I think the reason for that is that the business world, the world we live in, the nonprofit sector, is constantly changing.

It's a fluid environment. And if you don't make sure that you know what you're doing all the time and that you're using best practices and that you are considering all the facts and that you have sought out the advice and recommendations of people you respect, then how do you know you're moving in the right direction? That I think is even more important here at Easterseals because we are a federated model, meaning I operate and lead the National Office. We have 70 independent affiliates who are led by independent CEOs. And so virtually all of our big decisions are democratized in so much as we want to know what our affiliates think before we make them. Ultimately, if it's a National Office call, it will be my responsibility to make the decision, but I want to make sure on most things that I've accessed input, I've actively sought input from our affiliate leaders.

And I can tell you they don't always agree with me. They definitely have opinions of their own. And oftentimes navigating that and seeing my way clear to a decision that I know isn't going to be maybe embraced by all of our affiliates is a tough thing. So I think it requires a lot of soul searching and really forces me to look at all sides of the coin and maybe modify, maybe not come out so strong, maybe not make a snap decision. And so that's something I'm working on. That's definitely something I'm working on. Hope that's responsive.

Erin:

Yeah, definitely. It's so important to have other people to bounce ideas off of because that will definitely lead to success. And as you said, also educating yourself on your job, on everything that surrounds, it definitely helps. So thank you so much, Kendra.

Kendra Davenport:

Thank you. Let me just say one more thing on that, Erin, because you said something that made me think about it — educating yourself. I am often asked by people much younger than myself, even on our team, I've been asked by people, what should I do to help myself advance professionally, not necessarily here at Easterseals, but in life. And I know it sounds like not so sexy, and it sounds like just a basic answer, but I really believe to my core, the best thing you can do is read and read everything. Read people's work that you're not really drawn to read, things you disagree with or you're going to disagree with before you read them, because that helps you test out your own theories. And I don't think any time spent reading — well, I mean trash stuff you read at the beach, okay, maybe that's a waste of time, but you could probably put that, that might come under the auspices of self-care or work-life balance. But virtually anything you read in terms of self-help or biographies or the newspaper or reputable magazines, the economists, Harvard Business Review, the Atlantic, even Politico, that's only going to help you. It's going to make you a more well-rounded professional regardless of your profession. So thanks again. Thanks for the question.

Erin:

Yeah, absolutely.

Kendra Davenport: (Commercial segment)

You may not know that Easterseals has been trusted by families nationwide for over 100 years. At Easterseals, we share a commitment to the people we serve, and each of our locations offers a variety of important services to meet their community's needs; services like early intervention to help young children achieve their developmental goals, adult day and in-home services, community mobility options, behavioral health and wellness programs, caregiver and veteran services, and much more, so that all people of all ages and at all stages of life can have all the access they need so all people with disabilities can feel empowered and included, and so all families continue to receive support they can trust. Learn more by visiting easterseals.com.

Kendra Davenport:

That concludes our episode. Thank you so much for listening. If you like what you heard, be sure to write a review, like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And join us next episode as we discuss how we can all get on board with transparent leadership.