Danielle Robay Instagram – @thefemalefoundercollective keynote last week was ✨✨. I was in conversation with @WinnieHarlow, founder of @cayskin + CEO @karenbarner1 (fellow Chicagoan!) Winnie is 1 of under 100 black female founders who’s raised over $1m in funding ($4.1m), a remarkable feat (and also an upsetting statistic worth noting and changing). Discovered on ANTM, internationally recognized as a supermodel her life in many ways seems like it was sprinkled with gold dust. But it’s deeper than that + here was my takeaway from our conversation: 𝗦𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝘀𝗲𝗲 𝗡𝗢 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗯𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗱𝗲, 𝘀𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗲𝘀 𝗡𝗢 𝗮𝘀 𝗡𝗘𝗫𝗧 𝗢𝗣𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡. •When Winnie was diagnosed with vitiligo some of her family members would point to a new spot on her back, or kids at school would bully her. Her grandmother said, NO, you’re beautiful and blessed and you will live as such. She has 😊. •Winnie tried out for the VS fashion show. They said NO. She came back to audition the next year, and that show became a tentpole moment in her career. •Winnie applied for a job at Sephora at 16. They said NO. @cayskin is launching in Sephora Canada next week + she will be having an event at the same Sephora that turned her down. Half the battle is believing you can. The other half is executing. And that means not taking NO for an answer; it simply means NEXT OPTION. Swipe to the last slide for some ✨ 📚 from Winnie Rolling Greens Dtla