The dialogue between Jaclyn Strominger and Julie Cole illuminates the remarkable entrepreneurial journey of Cole, who transitioned from a legal career to co-founding Mabel's Labels, a company dedicated to providing effective labeling solutions for families. The conversation delves into the inception of the brand, which was birthed from the practical needs of mothers struggling to identify their children's belongings. Cole articulates how the absence of suitable products in the market motivated her and her partners to innovate. This narrative is not merely a recounting of business success; it illustrates the resilience and adaptability required in entrepreneurship, particularly for mothers balancing family responsibilities. Throughout the episode, the speakers address the importance of community involvement, mentorship, and social justice, showcasing Cole's commitment to issues that resonate with many women today. The episode is rich in insights and serves as a testament to the power of recognizing and addressing market gaps while simultaneously nurturing a supportive community.

Takeaways:

• The Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight podcast features influential leaders sharing transformative insights about leadership.
• Jacqueline Strominger welcomes Julie Cole, a successful entrepreneur and co-founder of Mabel's Labels, to the podcast.
• Julie Cole discusses her journey from law to entrepreneurship, emphasizing the importance of addressing market gaps.
• The episode highlights the significance of empathetic leadership and the value of diverse communication styles within teams.
• The importance of mentoring and developing future leaders is a recurring theme as both hosts emphasize its significance.
• Julie Cole reflects on the challenges and rewards of leading a family-run business while maintaining personal boundaries.

Links referenced in this episode:

• mabelslabels.com
• mabelslabels.com/juliecole
• instagram.com/juliecoleinc
• linkedin.com

Mentioned in this episode:

Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight - Welcome

Welcome to the podcast

Thank you for listening

Thank you for listening. If you have enjoyed this episode please give it a 5 star review.We would love to have you be a subscriber, don't miss an episode!

Welcome everybody to the Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight podcast where we hear from influential leaders and their game changing insights. I am Jacqueline Strominger, your host and today I want to welcome my amazing guest, Julie Cole.

And I have to tell you, I could not wait to have her on and I'll tell you guys why in a second. But let me just first introduce her.

So Julie is a recovered lawyer, mom of six, co founder of Mabel's labels, and she is an award winning entrepreneur, a great s bestselling author and sought after speaker mc. She is obviously no stranger to the media, having appeared on the MB on NBC, the Today show, oh my God.

Raising America, Breakfast Television, MD Dennis Show, CP24. Oh my God. These are things that I like. Oh my God.

Great.

And she's had articles that have appeared in the Huffington Po, Huffington Post, Today's Parent, Globe and Mail, Private magazine, got a Working Mother magazine, which by the way, I worked at, was my first magazine that I worked at. Really? Yep. Cool, cool, cool.

And when she's not juggling her busy family and professional life, she is engaged in the community, serving on boards and volunteering. She is passionate about women's issues, mentoring young entrepreneurs and social justice. So welcome to the podcast.

Oh, I'm so happy to be here. I'm so excited to chat with you. How fun.

I know, it's so fun. So as we were just sharing beforehand, so I have to let all my listeners know that I have purchased Mabel's labels because I had young kids.

Well, they're not, they're now grown and we use them on everything. It was like going to camp school.

The insides of their jackets, you know, because you're supposed to label everything when you're, you know, so absolutely love them. And then as I just said, shared my first foray into magazine publishing.

I worked at Lang Communications and we worked at Success magazine and then I got thrown onto Working Mother magazine and this magazine. So what a coincidence.

You know, it's interesting you say, I'm so happy to hear that you're a, a customer.

And I know that, you know, we just so that your listeners know what's special about this is that these are dishwasher microwave safe and they go through the washer and dryer. And particularly for mamas like you who's an allergy mom, we do have medical labels like allergy alerts and things like that as well.

So yeah, it's been quite a journey since we launched our first product 21 years ago. 21 years ago in the basement. Yeah. And it's been quite a journey. So maybe we'll talk a little bit about that too.

Yeah, so I definitely want to hear about that. And I'm curious so how you started and where, where are you now with like size of company.

Right.

And people that you have.

Okay. So, yeah, it has been a journey. So 21 years ago, Mabel's label started. I started it with my sister and two of our friends from college.

And it came about for a couple of reasons. One was that there was a product missing from the market.

We were moms with young kids and we were using things like masking tape and permanent marker to label our kids stuff. And we're like, there's got to be a better solution out there. And there wasn't. So it's good. Entrepreneurial mothers. We came up with an idea.

Um, and I say that to people all the time. Like, how do you come up with an idea? I'm like, go through the day, find something that pisses you off and fix it. So that was reason number one.

And the, the second reason was really as a result, you know, you said in, in my bio about how I'm a recovered lawyer. Recovery is going very well, by the way.

That's good to hear.

Yeah, yeah. 12 step program. So my eldest child, Mabel's label started.

My eldest child, who turned to 25 a couple of days ago, was three and he was diagnosed with autism. And I didn't think that the traditional workforce was going to suit me any longer. I needed to be able to advocate for him, set up programs for him.

You know, that whole mother gig just kind of changes a lot. Lot. And let's face it, he already, like, he just turned three and already had two younger siblings. And I do have six of them.

So it's a bit of a gong show at the best of times. So that's when I said to my partners, what do you think? We've had this great idea. Should we do it?

And so that was, yeah, 21 years ago, we started in my sister's basement and you know, we put our kids to bed, then go to my sister's house, make labels till 2am, get up in the morning with the kids at 6am, do the do again. Some of my partners were juggling Matt Leaves or full time jobs or both. We had, we had a lot going on. So it was busy times in those days.

And I do often warn people not to romanticize entrepreneurship because it's, it looks a lot like making labels in a basement until 2am when you're pregnant with your fourth child. Right. It's not like I' like TED talks and book deals. So yeah, let that be your morning. And then as you all know.

And then so we outgrew that basement and we made a couple of hires and we couldn't have them in that basement. And eventually, you know, we actually at that point we told my sister to buy a bigger house with a bigger basement. So she did.

And then we outgrew that basement quite quickly as well.

50 employees that typically 5.

0. Wow. Yeah, it's quite a, you know, from basement to.

It's quite a little, you know, success story when it comes to especially like just being such a well loved brand in the parenting space.

Oh my God, it is such. Yeah. So listeners, if you have not purchase Mabel's labels, like just go to the website.

Check us out, Check us out. Yeah, it makes sense. And that's the thing, right? Like people are like, how, how did you know you were going to do okay? And like we didn't.

But you know, we had some early indicators. Like people like you would see the labels and be like, I need these. Like it made sense.

Which is interesting because often when you bring a product to market, you have to convince the market they need it. We didn't have to do a lot of convincing market. All the moms were like, heck yeah. Finally, right?

Oh yes.

And because I mean, even now it's like, I think I was thinking about it the other day, I'm like, oh, I need to go and order some more because my son, like with basketball, things get lost, you know, and all that and all that great stuff. So. Okay, so I have to ask. This is like a burning question I've got to ask. So do it. So your leadership, we're going to get into that.

But okay, family member, right? Like you're working with a family member. How did, how did you.

And let me expand on that. So not only was it a family member, but I was just trying to be brief.

But the two friends of ours from college ended up marrying my brother and my young uncle. So we were all four related. Right.

So yeah, look, I think the pros and cons, like from a leadership perspective is that we had, you know, Four different brains at the table, four different skill sets. I think that did contribute to our early success and, you know, being.

Being able to launch because one person could take care of like, oh, let's research machines. Another could be writing press releases. Another, we could do all the things right and not, you know, the. The work of a solo entrepreneur.

It's also very lonely. So for us, we had the support of each other and we had each other, you know, as.

As cheerleaders, but of course, you know, also very different personalities, feisty conversations, all that. And I think from when you speak about leadership, I think one of the things that we did was, you know, we really had to learn about how each other.

We needed to practice that we needed to get better at that. We needed to, you know, and when we messed up, we're like, okay, I've learned from that, and next time we're going to approach it this way.

And I think the best quality leader can have is. Is to learn and, and to move on and apply those lessons.

You know, that is that I probably. You just said it so eloquently. You know, one of the big things in my framework that we talk about is leveraging communication.

And that is first and foremost so important and, and so kudos to you. To you and for. For doing this with a fan, like, obviously with a blood relative and then married in laws, like. Right. You know, that is. And.

And I will have to ask, like, do you guys all still get around the. The holiday tables and talk to each other?

Right. Yeah. So, you know, like my. It was one of my kiddos birthdays. We had cake last night.

And one lives one of the partners down, but the other two were over with their kids having cake. And, you know, you also have to make sure you have those boundaries.

You know, that when you, you know, leave that boardroom table that you walk out, you're gonna be like, okay, who's bringing the potatoes to Thanksgiving? You know, you have to be able to put up those boundaries and, and make sure, you know, you're not taking things too personally.

Everybody's on the same team. We're all on the same page. And we might not always get it right, but, you know, there's.

There's many different styles of leadership and, and styles of running a business that work. And we have to remember kind of sometimes to leave your ego at the door and know that your way not isn't the best way. It's not the only way.

Other people's. Ha. Other people have ways as well that are just as Effective.

I'm learning more and more about like empathetic leadership and I'm just so impressed with it and, and leaders who, you know, I think like also I interviewed somebody about introverted leaders and the value that they bring. You know, we all have this idea that leaders are just that person who can be like, rah, rah, rah. And this, this, this an extrovert.

And there are so many skills that different types of leaders can bring to the table. And I think it's about time we started raising those leaders up, encouraging those leaders and putting things in our organizations to elevate them.

Yeah, that's, that's great. So, so thinking of that, what are you doing in your organization?

You, you obviously went from, you know, the, the four of you, your partners to now to 50 employees.

Right.

And so how have you led that charge?

Right. Okay. So obviously along the way there's lots of like growth stages.

I always say get comfortable being uncomfortable because as soon as you think you know what you're doing, you have to hire more people and then you don't know any hr. You need to know about that. Like there's stuff along the way all along.

Now we had been at the in business for 14 years when we were approached about an acquisition.

And we ended up going through that acquisition which was really an incredible experience because at the 14 year mark, you know, we were sort of operating as co CEOs kind of that four headed horse and siloing a bit, which isn't good for a business. But people do get protective of what they are. You know, you're going to be protective of the people who report to you.

You're going to be protective, be like, wait, my, my departments need more budget. So we're kind of navigating that space which could get a little bit awkward.

So we're like, okay, we need maybe one person in charge rather than the four of us. So we were trying to decide what we wanted to do and how we wanted this company led.

And we honestly felt a little bit like, okay, we've taken it this far, maybe we need to bring somebody from the outside in to kind of, you know, maybe we need an external CEO to come in. And sometimes you do, right?

So anyway, we went through the acquisition and eventually like right away, two of the partners left, one stuck around for a little while as a general manager and then left after a couple years.

And so we actually now as our general manager have somebody who has been with us a long time and they at the time were our marketing director and have stepped beautifully into this role because sometimes too, as founders and owners, you can be a little bit too close to it. Right? So sometimes like I, there's nothing like, I feel like we have the perfect person leading this company right now. And it's not me.

I mean, I'm the senior director of pr, I'm the spokesperson. I'm still out there. I'm spreading the Mabel word everywhere I go.

But you know, we have a general manager who has got a very, very different role and a very important role and her leadership style is just beautiful and just what this company needs.

So first of all, again, kudos for acknowledging and understanding that.

And I think that's important.

I think that's a good point because, you know, like, I think knowing having like self awareness and knowing when to let go of something is so important. And leaders often fail in this area. And I can tell you one of the struggles we had was when we first hired people.

So we hired people and it was great. We hired worker bees to make labels and ship out the stuff and we were fine with that.

But then we hired managers and that was tough because we had to let go of some of our power, of some of our authority. We liked to think that we knew how to do it.

And if you don't give your leadership leaders the time in the space to make their own mistakes and to do things their way, your retention is going to be bad. It's bad for business. The reason you brought them in is because you needed somebody in that role that is maybe smarter than you.

Hopefully that is, hopefully you hire somebody. Like, I don't need a bunch of Julies around here. I need people of different skills who are smarter than me or better at different things than me.

You know, tired to your own ego is just pointless for your company. So I think leaders have, and entrepreneurs have a hard time letting go because it is our baby and we do think we know best and all of that jazz.

But I think that can be our downfall. So a lot of self awareness can do your company a lot of good.

I love that. And, and so when you're, when you're sharing that and, and you're talking about your team and the, and growing. How, how do you share that?

Is there a philosophy or is it in your mission that you share that you are able to, you know, that you do want to bring people in who are smarter? I mean, you know, Dale Carnegie says that all the time.

He talks about, you know, you want to hire people who are smarter than you and that you also Want them to rise up?

Absolutely. I, there's nothing more than somebody that used to report to me, being my boss right now, it's the perfect thing.

And to see people in your company grow and get promoted and stay is just. I, I just find it so incredibly rewarding having humans. To me, like, it felt like the big responsibility.

You know, these people are feeding their children now, they're setting their kids to college all on like, we have to do well, we have to succeed. And to me, that responsibility weighed quite, quite heavily. I think we do it in a few ways. Chocolate, like through our core values.

Hiring and firing by our core values, by leading by example, but also by doing things within the team to try to understand each other better and value our different personalities. We actually just went through. You probably know about it.

I didn't know about it, but we went through disc where you learn about like kind of people's different communication styles and their different personalities. And it's been so interesting because, you know, I'm a very direct. I was like a direct. I'm an extrovert about whatever.

And so, you know, sometimes now when I go to email somebody who's very different to me, I'll be like, oh, I better just maybe cushion this a little bit instead of saying, dude, you know, are you going to throw that thing on my desk? I've been waiting for it, you know, which to me, when people communicate to me that way, it works really well because I'm busy, I've got lots on.

I'm just tell me what you need, I'll do it. But then you realize, oh, for some people, they need a different approach.

So by kind of being able to see where everybody fits, it really does help our communication styles and it honors their personalities.

Yeah. No, and that's actually. And I think it's really important to be able to, to do that because then people also feel valued and heard.

I mean, communication is, is, is how we communicate with others is so important and how we also communicate to ourselves.

Right. And you know, you hear often that people don't quit companies, they quit managers. Yes. That's how important leadership is in a business. Right.

So and just to the bottom line of like profit, if you're having a high turnover because your leadership is bad, that is costing this company a lot of money. Retention is the very best.

So maybe that means, you know, you reward your, your team members in different ways or maybe you think outside the box in your leadership style. But if you want your company to do well, you want people, I mean, Just from a corporate culture perspective too. Right. Like, I want people happy here.

I don't want people miserable. My best brand ambassadors are the people right around here at Maple's right now. You know, and that's actually something that.

I think that's also really important for people to also recognize as a, you know, as a leader, to remember the people that you employ. Your. And I don't. I, like, there's two words that I think that should be.

Get to be destroyed out of the English language, which is number, like manager and employee. Because there should be team members and leaders. Right. Like our team members.

But those team members are your biggest brand ambassadors, as you just said.

Like, if they're going to speak, if somebody walks out the door and they're happy, they're going to speak so highly about the company and where they're working. And it, it extends to the whole brand.

Absolutely. And that's the thing too.

Like, you know, we started this company and when we did, we realized, you know, we could be highly productive at weird times and weird places. We kind of joke that we're doing business plans on play dates and that sort of thing.

So part of the culture too, is here is like, honoring people to be productive in ways that they are most effective. Like, so I don't really care if somebody's got their butt in a chair here from nine to five every day.

Like, if you're being productive and getting your work done, that's the most important things.

So again, by creating a culture, you know, that's one of the beautiful benefits of being that person who starts a company is that you get to create a culture in a workplace that you function bested and. And want. Right, Right. So why would I go and. And create another, like, patriarchal system that doesn't favor working moms? Why would I want to do that?

Right.

Right. Yeah. You get to create it and you get to do it the way you want it, and hopefully you create. You create an environment and a culture.

And I think that's one of the big. You'll hear people say, you know, leadership is not about telling people to do. It's actually about helping your. The people that are. That you're.

That you're with. Lead and, and grow themselves.

Yeah. I mean, what's the point of, like, being a leader is creating more leaders. Like I said, there's nothing more satisfying.

Our marketing assistant is now our like, brand manager. She was. She came out of college, like, marketing assistant, like, packing up boxes to send to shows and stuff.

And she is now that girl bosses me around all the. And I, and I'm here for it. Right.

And that's great because you're actually, you know, people also want to be able to put in a, be put in a place or have a place where they can grow and they're not just, you know, pushing a button or just as, you know, like in her case, just I'm going to keep packing boxes.

Right.

You know, you, you actually recognize, you know, to me, you know, what you've done with your company is that you've recognized the strengths of people and help them rise up.

And look, this is, this can be challenging, particularly with small mid sized companies because the fact of the matter is like we're not going to have a GM position again until that GM retires and that's not going to be for a while. Or like we were, we're not going to have a marketing director. So you don't, you don't often have a lot of positions that people can grow into.

So you need to really manage that. You need to make sure that you're doing things as a leader that will keep them.

And you know what, giving them a raise is going to be cheaper than getting somebody new and training them and yada yada, yada. So you know what, maybe give them a reason. We go through this exercise every year at our strategic planning where we look at our team.

We're like, who do we need to stay and are they a flight risk and what can we do? So maybe there's not a position they can move into right now. What else can we do? Can we turn their position into something else?

Are they an assistant now? We can make them a coordinator and throw in five grand extra. What can we do to lure them to stay?

Because we want them in our business outside the box, especially for companies where there isn't, there aren't a lot of positions to move into, but you can be flexible and good leaders should do that.

Yeah. And that's, that's actually, that's really, really brilliant. So it's like, that's a huge thing to, for listeners to take, take note of.

Yeah.

So let me just kind of go back a little bit because obviously your leadership style and what you've learned. Where did, where did this come from from for you? Was it, was there something, you know, in the, in the recovering attorney lawyer.

Right.

That it was like, oh or.

Right.

So.

So interestingly, I do think people are born of certain talents. Right. Like some people are good at music, some people are entrepreneurs by nature. I don't think I'm an entrepreneur by nature.

It was something I learned. I would thought I was going to be a family law lawyer all my life, right. So. But I do think I'm naturally a people leader.

And, you know, there' very early indicators my mother could tell you about. You know, I just, I was that kid who was always like, you know, got the leadership roles, was voted by peers to be the valedictorian.

Like, I just was. I. And I think a lot of it was because I don't mind speaking my mind. I'm inclusive. I treat people with respect.

Like, I didn't have, like, I don't know, like, I don't treat people anyway. So I think it just for me came very naturally. And then so I kind of leaned into who I was.

But then also I would see kind of leadership styles I didn't like, and I would be like, okay, this is by default, but I am not going to do what that person did. And. And I think I naturally did that anyway.

So for me, maybe it was like just my personality combined with some like, default of what I didn't like when I saw certain leaders.

And keep in mind, like, I'm in my 50s now, so I saw some, you know, some stuff like years ago where it's like, ooh, that's really how you're going to do that? Yeah, that doesn't sit well with me. I didn't want to just be like the leaders that we were exposed to, whether they were like, men or whatever.

Like, I'm like, I don't need that. I can just be me.

Right? No, that's actually absolutely fantastic.

So, all right, so thinking about, thinking about this and where, you know, your, where you are and some of the things that you saw, what is something that you're working on now as a leader and that, you know, you know what's so interesting?

So what I'm. I feel like I'm doing now as a leader is more mentoring.

I'm, I'm like at an age and stage now where, you know, like, I've won tons of awards and all that, and somebody just nominated me for this big entrepreneur and I'm like, I'm not even gonna have somebody fill out the nomination form. I don't need the kudos, I don't need titles. I don't need more. More of that right now. I would rather role model leadership.

I'd rather talk and maybe inspire somebody to be themselves in their leadership. So I think right now I just like what I'm working on.

Is just others and like hoping that I could be there and be authentic, be true, be transparent and, and be helpful.

That's, that's, that's right. So what are, what are some of the next things with Mabel's labels?

Well, world domination is a full time job, I'll tell you. So you know what, we just have so many new products rolling out. We've got such a great team here.

We're just in the midst right now of all of our Black Friday Cyber Monday nonsense. And then we'll got into all our stalking stuffers. So I mean it's just really exciting. I love my role here because you know, I was in LA last week.

I'm speaking at Create her and Prego Expo. I go to a lot of events where I get to still connect with moms and community and that is really, really the most fun.

Our customers are the most important thing to us.

Talk about great brand ambassadors and so anytime I can connect with our customers or with other mom products and collaborations and folks like you, that's my jam. It's my jam.

That's fantastic. Okay, so this has been absolutely amazing. How can people find you and obviously Mabel's labels.

Okay, so kind of one of the same. So mabelabels.com app obviously to see all of our labels and our product offering and all that good stuff.

But for me if you go to Mabel's labels.com Julie Cole there you will see where you can buy my book, where I'm going to be speaking, some of my other stuff by blogs, wherever and all of that jazz. And of course you can follow me on Instagram at Julie Cole Inc. And follow Mabel's labels of course too. I'm easy to find.

But Mabel's labels.com Julie Cole that's, that's where you're gonna find this mama.

Awesome. Okay, so listeners please, please connect with Julie. Follow her, get her, get, get her book, get the go and buy Mabel's labels.

Because I don't care how old your kids are, even for yourself, they labels are amazing because see on my phone.

I've got one on my phone right now and my kids are at college. All their like chargers are their tech, their stuff that goes in the communal bathrooms.

Everything's labeled their laundry detergent because if they leave it in the laundry room at college. So yes, definitely. And also I did want to mention too because people are listening or in the leadership space. Hang out at LinkedIn, man.

Find me on LinkedIn. There's a lot of good conversations that go on about this topic, women in entrepreneurship, women leaders, leadership in general.

So, you know, find me on LinkedIn as well.

Awesome. I so appreciate it. So thank you all for listening to the Unstoppable Leadership Podcast.

And if you have a leadership story, or you have, or you are an amazing leader and you would like to be a guest on the podcast, Please go to LeaptoYourSuccess.com and fill out the podcast application. And thank you all for listening, and thank you so much. Julie, I was so happy to meet you.

Oh, it's so great to meet you. Thank you for having me.

You're welcome.