A 91大黄鸭 business鈥� CEO and founder is on a mission to help emerging women entrepreneurs break into the beauty industry.
For her work shining a light on other women brand owners, Julie Michaud received the BDC Woman of the Year Award from 91大黄鸭 Women in Business on Sept. 16.
Through her skincare and makeup retailer Portia-Ella, Michaud established a 鈥渂usiness incubator鈥� program, providing management, mentorship, and shelf space so other women who have a focus on clean and low-waste beauty can have a start in the industry.
鈥淚t鈥檚 really special, actually, to work with so many women that are absolutely driven to want to make this industry something and really switch how things have been done,鈥� she said.
As she works on opening doors for fellow entrepreneurs, Michaud also advocates for mindful consumption and moving people towards a more holistic view of beauty. She said Portia-Ella鈥檚 goal is to make clean beauty accessible to everyone and to change the mentality that clean and organic beauty has an unattainable cost.
And being named the Woman of the Year because of her work is an honour, as well as a humbling experience, especially as many other business owners continue to try to change and evolve during a challenging year.
鈥淭hat was really special because I feel that when we work on our purpose, we get so passionate about what we do and we want to go ahead and make these changes.鈥�
鈥淎nd we forget. Sometimes in the midst of all the work, we forget the impact and we forget how people鈥檚 lives change (because of what we do),鈥� Michaud said.
As for others who are juggling many roles in their lives like herself, Michaud has a few words of encouragement.
鈥淒on鈥檛 let your ego get in the way of the decision you need to make鈥� I find that quite often, we鈥檙e so proud and we want to offer something big and we have this vision, but the work to do in order to get there is not always pretty and we have to be ok with that.鈥�
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