Kate Blythe-Pearson has a seriously impressive CV. Having led the content teams at both NET-A-PORTER and MATCHESFASHION she’s now moving across the globe to brave a new challenge at Mecca Cosmetica in Melbourne as Chief Marketing Officer.

Ghizlan Guenez has grit. Not only for launching The Modist, but for having the courage to let go

We love your makeup; it’s super natural yet flawless. Could you share with us your gotos?

I start with Chantacaille face serum and day cream after cleansing, then I use Chanel Vitalumiere 30 foundation and 40 when I have a tan. I use Nars orgasm powder blush on my cheeks, then Charlotte Tilbury rockstar eye shadow on my eyes, some liquid liner and mascara. I can do my makeup in 5 minutes – it’s easy and low maintenance.

Do you think supplements can help boost hair, skin and nails and if so which to you personally like?

Absolutely, I take a whole host of supplements. Vitamin D in high doses, vitamin C, Vitamin b12, bioacidofolus for your gut. My Functional Doctor keeps an eye on my iron and ferritin levels for my hair and I take magnesium.

Sometimes just after my 2 year old has gone to bed, I will lie in my bed with a Mecca facemask on and just sit quietly. It won’t be long before my two daughters join me (and of course they like to have a facemask too) and we will watch a movie together. My bed is my most luxurious and peaceful haven!

Do you have any pre-bedtime rituals? What effect has social media played in the beauty industry and its growth?

There are a lot of apps now that change your appearance, which I think is incredibly damaging. I have never altered a picture of myself and would hate my daughters to do that. Real, true beauty is where it’s at and I see a backlash coming for overdone beauty that creates false impressions. Beauty is empowering, creative and exciting – I love the newness, the buzz you get from a beauty product and how it makes you feel. Social media has an important part to play in empowering everyone, wherever they are.

What advice would you give to your younger self starting out?

The advice I give to everyone is always be kind to people, engage with everyone from the intern up to the CEO and build long lasting relationships built on trust and honesty.

If you were not Chief Marketing Officer at Mecca, which other role would you choose career-wise?

An interior designer!

This is ‘The Bravery Issue’ – what to you is bravery?

Being brave is doing what is right for you, not what other people think is right for you. Everyone always says, “how do you have 4 children and work full time?” and I say because I love it. I adore being a mamma and I adore having a career – I will bravely keep challenging myself to be as good as I can be at both.

When have you been brave in business and in life?

Making the family decision to move our lovely life in London to Melbourne – as I said, I love a challenge!!

It takes great courage to launch a business; it takes even more courage to know when to close it. As the global pandemic proceeded to impact businesses around the world, Ghizlan Guenez, the founder of The Modist, made the difficult decision to cease operations.

Guenez was born in Algeria and grew up between Beirut and Dubai. She studied at the London School of Economics before working for 10 years in private equity at The Abraaj Group. Her love for fashion comes from her mother, but she became frustrated with how long it took to find a modest outfit and knew that many women were having the same problem. She started developing the concept of a luxury platform that caters to a conservative customer and after almost two years of preparation, the website launched in March 2017. Within three years, The Modist has not only been part of the modest fashion movement, it was the main driver. For those who have previously struggled to find pieces from luxury brands could finally shop from over 180 designers and discover innovative ways to layer and style those pieces. Farfetch invested, Guenez made the Business Of Fashion’s BoF500 list – the definitive professional index of the people shaping the fashion industry, was nominated in the Visionaries category and even launched an in-house label Layeur which has been worn and championed by the likes of Queen Rania of Jordan.

No successful entrepreneur starts a business without thinking it could fail, but Guenez does not see the closing of The Modist as a failure. In its short digital life, it has transformed the wardrobes of women around the world and enriched Guenez with newfound courage to take on the next challenge.

What have been your highlights from establishing and growing The Modist?

There have been many highlights in the journey but the ones that stand out the most and left an emotional impact have always had to do with the community that we harnessed as a business. Our launch garnered such incredible response from diverse women far and wide from America, Saudi Arabia, Australia and everywhere in between. We knew there was a need but we didn’t anticipate how much women wanted a platform like The Modist. Ironically, another highlight moment was when we announced our closure. The outpouring of love and incredible sentiments shared on social media platforms about The Modist was beyond anything we’d expected.

How do you feel The Modist changed the fashion landscape?

I believe that as a brand we succeeded in putting modesty with a fresh perspective on the fashion map. One of our values was to break stereotypes and celebrate our woman and we were able to show that through bringing a cool and fashionforward spirit to a concept that had long been associated with religion or an old-fashion sense of style. We did that whilst always championing the idea of choice and that exercising your choice be it to cover, or not, is the most empowering thing.

At what point did you know you had to close the business?

As you can imagine, we had tried to find a solution to continue to operate and save the business. There was a lot of potential still and a clear opportunity, but the odds were against us and the circumstances were very challenging. In March when COVID-19 escalated we had to do the responsible thing and pull the plug.

This was probably one of the hardest things to deal with emotionally. It’s very demanding on a founder because you have to be strong for your team, your colleagues, your community and then deal with your emotions on your own. It was especially difficult because The Modist was not a failure as a business, it was growing and had a glaring opportunity and potential, but at the end of the day, once you have honoured your emotions you must act rationally and understand that this is part and parcel of founding a business. Things may or may not work out and one has to take the good with the bad and continue moving.

My most difficult moment through the entire process was sharing the news with my team. It was a very heavy moment.

How did you stay strong at this time? What was the most challenging part of the transition?

So many lessons were learned. It’s ironic but I feel far richer as a person after this experience. The learnings, the emotional and mental growth that you go through and the resilience that you build are invaluable. I learned that failure is part of

What lessons have you gained through this experience?

the success and that we must manage its stigma and not be fearful of it. I also learned that whilst it takes a lot of courage and strength to be vulnerable, it is incredible how freeing it is to be honest and share your story openly. You move from trying to manage your ego to enjoying the strength that vulnerability gives you.

Absolutely! I’m a firm believer that you only reach success in life when you’ve gone through numerous failures. The key is to learn and not repeat the same mistakes. We are so obsessed with success that we don’t normally see or talk about what it took to get there. I read a book that left a big impression on me early on in my journey as a founder called “The Hard Thing About Hard Things” by Ben Horowitz, ones of the most successful venture capitalists in the world, where he talks about all his failures before founding one of the best VCs in the world. Nobody gets to the top without experiencing failure.

Without a doubt. I’m a very positive person and very driven and whilst this has been a very big learning experience I’m not disheartened as an entrepreneur. I love building a business, solving a problem, offering an incredible product, adding value and building a community. It’s my passion and what drives me.

Would you agree that to be an entrepreneur is to be brave enough to risk failure? Has your experience given you the courage to pursue another venture? What self-care do you invest in during challenging times to ensure you remain strong?

That’s been one of the upsides of quarantine for me personally. I had the time to sit with my thoughts, reflect and also take the time focus on my health, which had been impacted due to the mental and emotional stress. What people don’t know is that closing a business is almost harder than launching it as there is a lot of work involved and it is very draining by what it entails. Having said that, it’s been manageable and I’ve been quite disciplined about prioritizing looking after my physical, mental and emotional wellbeing. It’s one of the learnings that I’ve taken out of running a very demanding business for four years.

My family and very close loved ones are pillars of strength for me and I believe that’s so important when you’re going through adversity in life in general. I also believe so strongly in have one or more mentors that you trust and who have the right experience and knowledge to support you. I have however been fortunate overall to have received an incredible amount of love and support from the large community that The Modist built. It was so clear that all the passion and effort that we had put into it since we launched created a true authentic emotional bond between the brand and the community.

Who makes you strong? What are your most treasured memories from building The Modist?

There are so many that I treasure still today. Despite being a very young business we’d experienced many successes. We were chosen twice by Fast Company as one of the most innovative companies in the world, I was selected as one of the BOF500, we had incredible women wear our own brand Layeur such as Queen Rania on very special occasions. The highlights, however, have always been messages from women in our community expressing how much of an impact The Modist had on them and how they finally feel like they’re represented in the right light and an authentic way.

Which other businesswomen, designers and brands do you turn to for inspiration?

Sara Blakely is one whose journey truly inspires me. I’m also inspired by young entrepreneurs like Katrina Lake of Stitch Fix, Huda and Mona Kattan of Huda Beauty, Jen Rubio and Steph Korey the founders of Away.

I love working out and being active, reading, travelling and I’ve recently started learning to play the piano. I’m very passionate about growth in general and continuously evolving as a person at all levels so anything that fuels that is ideal.

How do you spend your personal time? What advise would you give to other entrepreneurs in a similar situation?

I would encourage them to try everything possible to keep their businesses alive, downsizing, pivoting, trying out other models and ways to generate revenue, staying closely in touch with their customers and so on, but if you clearly see that continuing to run the business may only create more complex issues and that you have reached a dead-end then pull the plug. You may be able to resurrect it down the line or start afresh. The truth is that when you start a business you have to accept that there is a chance to succeed and a chance to fail, but ultimately adopt a positive mind-set and do all you can to make it a success.

I post some of those on my Instagram account as and when I come across them. I like a few podcasts like “How I Built This” and “The School Of Greatness”. I also like books such as “Grit” and “Shoe Dog” as well as the one I shared earlier “The Hard Thing About Hard Things”.

Which motivational books or podcasts do you recommend? What are your top three pieces of advice for running a successful business?

One, be very clear on the opportunity and having the right product for the customer to meet the demand. Two, have the right team to deliver your vision and give them autonomy and accountability. And three, create a culture of learning and winning where the team feels comfortable owning their mistakes and sharing their learnings.

I’m not sure if there is one that I can single out but I believe always being in control of your emotions and being rational. A dose of emotion as a leader is very good and important, but when times are tough staying in control, composed and keeping a positive mind-set is crucial.

What is key to being a good leader?

Owning both your successes and failures and being strong enough to vulnerably share both.

This is The Bravery Issue. What is bravery to you?

THE FIRST EMIRATI WOMAN RISING TO FIRST OFFICER’S RANK AT ETIHAD AIRWAYS @pilotsalma

When have you had to be brave during your life?

When I made the decision to join aviation 14 years ago, when a woman having a standard driving license was already a big thing.

This is ‘The Bravery Issue’ – what is bravery to you?

To be able to let go. It’s one of the hardest things to do but you have to do it in order to move on in life.

If you could champion someone for being brave who would it be and why?

My champion is my mother. Being divorced at the age of 18 but still deciding to raise us without any support is incredible.

THE FIRST FEMALE VOTER IN SAUDI ARABIA AND CHIEF ADVOCACY OFFICER AT AL-NAHDA ASSOCIATION – A NON-PROFIT ORGANISATION FOUNDED IN 1962 THAT WORKS TO EMPOWER SAUDI WOMEN Twitter: @Salma_alrashid

When have you had to be brave during your life?

As a single mother of three, my bravery is tested on a daily basis. In my career, it is the moments when I have been given the task of representing women of my country and serving women around the world as the Women 20 Sherpa as it comes with great responsibility and honour.

This is ‘The Bravery Issue’ – what is bravery to you?

I often reflect on the concept of courage and bravery, and I feel I have a long way to go to consider myself truly brave. I do have courage however, which is an important step. In my lifetime, I have learned that bravery is to be comfortable with being uncomfortable, to know when it is the right moment to push, and when it is wiser to pull back. To become brave, one must be willing to be vulnerable, as Berne Brown says: “Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage. Truth and courage aren’t always comfortable, but they’re never weakness.” My favourite quote that summarises what bravery is: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly… who at best knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.” – Theodore Roosevelt.

If you could champion someone for being brave who would it be and why?

It cannot be one person, it is the women around the world who make up 70 per cent of the healthcare workers, the 740 million women in informal work and those who take on the burden of care, who do it with the utmost grace and dedication. Those who refuse to be defined by their life’s circumstances and dare to challenge the status quo.

When have you had to be brave during your life?

I was nine-years-old – my youngest sister was drowning in a pool, and I immediately jumped in. The lifeguard quickly told me what I should do in the water to bring her out so she could breathe. It all happened quickly, but I reacted fast to a critical situation – despite being young and unaware of what to do, but going ahead and doing it.

Bravery is doing or speaking up about something that is uncomfortable that leaves a positive impact on you, others and society at large – whatever that looks like.

This is ‘The Bravery Issue’ – what is bravery to you? If you could champion someone for being brave who would it be and why?

I believe everyone is brave in their own way, fighting their own battles or taking brave actions every day – big or small. It’s unfair to champion one person over another. Everyone in their life has had to be brave in one way or another.

THE FIRST FEMALE KICKBOXING AND BOXING TRAINER IN SAUDI ARABIA AND FOUNDER OF SAUDI ARABIA’S FIRST FEMALE BOXING GYM FLAGBOXING @flagboxing

When have you had to be brave during your life?

So many times in my life. In my professional career, opening the first female gym in Saudi Arabia at a time where being part of the sport wasn’t even legal. Training women in the sport and being on social media during a time that the country was changing, being a face of female empowerment. It was a scary time for me, but I knew I was doing the right thing and showing women that it can be attainable. I have a fear of heights, but I recently started climbing to overcome my fear. If I don’t overcome my fears, I won’t feel proud of overcoming them.

This is ‘The Bravery Issue’ – what is bravery to you?

Bravery is putting yourself in situations where you’re in extreme fear and you try to overcome them by facing fear instead of shying away from it.

If you could champion someone for being brave who would it be and why?

I wouldn’t champion one person. I would talk about the women that come to the gym. A lot of them were raised in an environment where physical education wasn’t available, and they’re still brave enough to walk into a boxing class. It’s something that’s really brave. I took it for granted before, but now I respect their bravery and wanting to change something.

AN EMIRATI AERIALIST AND AERIAL NIKE BRAND AMBASSADOR WHO AIMS TO BREAK DOWN THE GENDER STEREOTYPES IN SPORT @yasminsta_91

When have you had to be brave during your life?

I believe bravery can manifest in different ways for different people, but there’s a special type of bravery that emerges when you are required to step up for other people. I recall a time when a loved one had a physical injury that required immediate medical attention. The injury was quite graphic, and I remember feeling absolutely stunned, but was able to pull it together to get this person to where they needed to be in order to be ok. For me, the fight or flight response had never been so real.

This is ‘The Bravery Issue’ – what is bravery to you?

Displays of bravery vary in so many ways and on so many levels. It can be action during crises or emergencies, or adrenaline-based personal challenges like skydiving, embarking on a new career path, starting a family, or even public speaking. Bravery is about being vulnerable, whatever that means to you. Its less about “having it all together” than it is admitting that actually, you don’t always “have it all together” but you will take the step regardless. In order to justify being brave, we should reflect on the outcomes and ask ourselves how our actions will benefit us or benefit others. Own the difference our difference makes.

Life is in constant flux and obstacles come and are overcome. Being brave will therefore always be a necessity, but when we persevere despite we pave the way for others to be brave.

If you could champion someone for being brave who would it be and why?

There are so many! There are so many Emirati and Arab women who champion bravery and dispel stereotypes about capability and about the region in general. It is so empowering for the current times and for this part of the world. Arab women have worked hard to break the ice in politics, academia, business, science, sports, arts and to normalize the idea men and women can achieve if we are resilient. Mariam Al Mansouri is a classic example of this through her role as an Emirati women fighter pilot. Being a fighter pilot is scary and physically risky for anyone. She had the additional social challenge of entering a space dominated by men, gaining that acceptance as a capable and highly-skilled equal, and demonstrating leadership, strength and resilience. In doing so and in gaining exposure for it, she was a trailblazer for many others after her.

The first 30 minutes of the day are more productive. I usually wake up, wake the kids and then have a quick shower followed by breakfast.

I had never thought of aviation, but a long time ago, in my primary school, I saw a picture of the first Emirati female pilot, Captain Aysha AlHameli, and I said to myself, “One day I’ll be someone, something, in this country.”

During my studies in nursing school, I had a life-changing experience. My grandmother was admitted to the same hospital I was training in, and once she asked me to help ease her back pain, so I hugged her and asked, “Are you feeling okay?” She said,

What does your morning routine look like? What sparked your passion for aviation? How would you define bravery?

mates believed the opposite. It’s exhausting, but with the right support of your family, your company and a good understanding of the work environment, it’s possible.

I also spoke to Captain Aysha AlHameli, after finishing my three months in aviation school. She has been my number one supporter whom I learned everything from, including managing work, life and aviation.

It’s a huge responsibility, especially at critical times such as in bad weather, your adrenaline levels increase and you immediately focus on the passengers’ safety. I’ve learned to lean on my colleagues and ask questions – there are no stupid questions. It’s necessary to speculate what can happen and to mentally prepare for it. We also get emergency training every six months, which helps overcome stressful situations.

How do you feel when you’re flying? This year has been challenging, how do you approach challenges?

I’ve realised I want to do more, so I decided to complete my higher education in Aviation Management, this way I can balance being on and off the ground. I’ve also learned the importance of having savings – they provide stability!

Deciding to return to aviation after delivering my first baby. I tried office work, but I wasn’t happy and eventually, my husband encouraged me to go back. I’m happy as long as I’m behind the wheel of a plane.

What’s the bravest step you’ve taken?

“Yes, I feel like I’m flying. I wish I could see you flying someday, you will have your wings.” Two days later she passed away.

Later on, Etihad Airways announced that it was offering aviation scholarships, and I felt like it was a sign, so I left my job as a nurse and never looked back.

Taking a decision and following it through.

How did you overcome the mental obstacles along the way?

We get our mental obstacles from people around us who try to downgrade and discourage us from going ahead with things they’re not familiar with. People kept telling me aviation was not for me, or this field was only meant for men, but my batch

The first time I flew a plane was on my birthday, and I knew it was something I wanted to do for the rest of my life. It was just amazing.

It was my first time learning to drive anything; I got my driving license after my flight license. It’s been 13 years, but my passion remains the same.

How did you feel the first time you flew? Has flying changed your perception of life on land?

Yes. Experiencing Mother Nature’s power humbles you. For me, it’s not the same thing as experiencing it on land. Passing through clouds is not like looking at them, because every time you pass through one, you experience turbulence. Being in the sky also helps you clear your mind.