Melody McCloskey quotes: advice from the StyleSeat CEO.
“Tenacity and resiliency are the two most important factors to becoming a successful founder.”
“Stop overthinking everything. In the beginning, I was overwhelmed by the idea of starting a company as I did not have a background in tech. I could have moved so much faster if I took all the energy I spent doubting myself and put it toward thinking about what’s possible and building it.”
“Believe in yourself more and move faster. I remember being filled with a lot of doubt in the early days. It took me a while to do major things. I had a lot of fear in the first six months and needed validation. Talking with mentors really helped, but I wish I had truly believed from the first second because it could have saved me a lot of time.”
“I was working at CurrentTV and I read a quote online that said something along the lines of, ‘You’ll regret the things you didn’t do, not the things you do,’ and it changed everything for me. I quit my job in the fall of 2009 and didn’t look back.”
“One day I realized, I’m working until 11 p.m. every day for someone else. I could be doing this for myself.”
“I definitely would not have wasted so much time doubting myself. Eventually, I turned that doubt into the fuel I needed and began moving forward.”
“The most effective way to do it, is to do it (Amelia Earhart).”
“Talk to other founders and partner with mentors. Get a mentor, or several, who will not just help you, but are truly invested in your success. Second, be confident. Women can get really thoughtful and think through the details and get in their heads and lack confidence—turn all of that off. You are going to fail or succeed. Know that going in. Live in the future. Turn off insecure thoughts and lean in.”
“Find an amazing advisor who has walked this road and done it before and can give you their time. Learn from them.”
“Go find badassess who are supportive of you and are going to help you and really rooting for your success and keep you on it and kick your ass a little bit. But they’ll give you the best possible advice. And then I think the third thing is do something that you love.”
“In my opinion, the best time spent is with someone who is wildly different from you, because you’re going to learn from each other so quickly. It’s also incredibly important to have a connection with a mentor/mentee relationship. Work with people you like, who you click with, and who inspire you; because inspiration is half the reason you’re spending time together. If it feels like work then you’re going to treat it clinically, and no one is going to get much out of the effort. These relationships have the potential to be lifelong, and life is too short for boring projects or boring people.”
“Keep a good group around you, and use them! The support I’ve received from mentors, advisors, friends and family was critical to being able to put so much work and love into this company, especially in the beginning. Through the years I’ve always had an advisor I work with intensively, and those advisors change over time as my and the company’s needs change.”
“Throughout my life, I’ve been fortunate to have the guidance of inspirational mentors and powerful sponsors who’ve completely altered both my professional trajectory and my life, through their generous help and insight. Sometimes just a few words can change your life and put you on a new track to amazing success.”
“Make sure you deeply, deeply love whatever it is that you’re building your business around.”
“There are so many things that go into a successful business beyond a great idea.”
“My best advice: know your industry, know your numbers, and be ready to work your ass off! Starting a company is a challenging, time-consuming endeavor so it’s best to know that from the outset. The other critical piece is not compromising on hiring. Your team becomes your company so trust your gut when it comes to hiring and don’t compromise on quality or fit, even when (or especially when) the pressure is on to grow.”
“Best piece of advice I’ve been given is to hire people who you would want to work for and who make you better at your job and as a person. That’s an insanely high bar, especially when things are moving quickly and you just need a person in the role, but I think it’s the difference between exceptional companies and the others.”
“Hire slow and hire well. The people you hire are your business. If you rush it you’ll end up having to let them go, which puts you back further than where you were to begin with. Our top hires have helped drive some of the biggest and most impactful product and business decisions. It’s frustrating to take the extra time to find the right person but it more than pays off in the end.”
“It is teaching your team to have ownership and accountability. Teach people how to think by asking questions and letting them come up with their own answers—this will empower them to find solutions themselves.”
“Have a strong online presence and make sure it represents your business and your art. You can also learn a lot from others in the space, and by following industry news and trends, professionals can gain access to the latest marketing techniques and consumer-driving apps.”
“All of the crazy successful people I know positively channel their energy into making things work. Failure isn’t an option for them. Because of that attitude, I have been able to ride out the ups and downs pretty well.”
“You have to lean into the pain and chaos and get good at solving problems.”
“I’m not a patient person, and I have so many ideas for what StyleSeat can be. I think about them all the time. It’s very hard for me to live in the present.”
“What excites me the most about my job is I love that it’s different every day. I’ve done almost every single role at the company over the years. In the beginning, it’s a lot of customer development, marketing, and support. Now I focus more on strategy and people, but my role changes constantly.”
“I get to spend my day building products for female business owners who are all over America and living crazy different lives who are all badasses, and I love it, it builds me. When they win, I win. That makes all the late nights and the hard decisions worth it if you love what you do.”
“One of the reasons why I started this company is because I love helping the underdog. When you think about people that choose to start their own companies, it’s risky. There’s all these things that are barriers; there are so many reasons not to do it. But they want to build their lives around doing something that they love, and they want to help other people.”
“I think there’s a higher volume of startups that are truly disrupting previous models and building real businesses. We’re seeing unprecedented mobile adoption, which means consumers are spending their money in completely different ways than before and that has created some big businesses.”
