Join host Lorie Jones as she welcomes fashion AI trailblazer and CEO of AIUTA, Maísa Benatti, to this week’s episode. Expect a refreshing exchange that shatters the tired myth that women must choose between their professional dreams and motherhood.
Maísa shares candid insights on forging your own blend of career success and family fulfillment—minus the guilt and imposed boundaries. She highlights what it means to thrive as a woman in international tech and harness niche expertise. You’ll discover bold takes on embracing support in both work and life, letting go of perfectionism, and confidently enjoying your well-earned success.
This is your invitation to reconsider the definition of balance and pursue what truly matters to you—confidently and fearlessly. If you’re ready to rethink what’s possible, this one’s for you.
Show Highlights:
- Insights from top book picks, Culture Map and Start with Yourself. [03:38]
- Discover exciting advances in fashion AI and virtual try-on. [10:10]
- Does niche expertise limit your career or boost differentiation? [14:44]
- Why returning to work after childbirth is a uniquely personal choice. [18:10]
- Lessons on allowing personal support and hiring specialists. [27:15]
- Is taking a pay cut worth a better career path? [33:40]
- The power to ignore eye rolls as women in male-dominated fields. [36:22]
- How to build confidence and set norms through results. [38:27]
- The importance of normalizing money talk as females. [41:24]
- Should young women wait to “feel ready” for opportunities? [47:59]
If you enjoyed this episode, please go to Apple Podcasts and leave a review!
For more information about Lorie Jones, go to https://fearlessfinancialadvisors.com/fearless-females.
00:02.26
Lorie Jones
Good morning, fearless females. So we are here today with Maiza Benati. She is CEO of IYUTH. And i she she’s going to laugh, but I practiced that three times before I introduced her. so So I’m pretty proud of myself for getting it right. Thank you so much for joining us, Maiza.
00:20.41
Maisa Benatti
Thank you so much for having me, Laurie. It’s a pleasure to be here.
00:23.80
Lorie Jones
So my first question is always my favorite. am a reader. I love reading. Tell me about your favorite book.
00:31.10
Maisa Benatti
So I think, you know, favorite book usually changes every, you know, quarter or every year. I would say in the phase that I’m in right now, it’s a Culture Map by Erin Mayer. i don’t know if you’ve heard about about that book, but it’s a book that talks about um working in different cultural environments. So when you have different cultures working together, either, you know, a global organization or a specific organization in ah in a country, how what it takes in terms of how communication changes, how, you know,
01:05.88
Maisa Benatti
leadership style changes and especially when I joined IYUTH, that book became so important, ah mostly because, you know, when I was working with with bigger organizations before and when they are global, you kind of mute down your own culture.
01:13.98
Lorie Jones
Thank you.
01:22.89
Maisa Benatti
And I’m Brazilian myself. um When I joined IYUTH, most of the team was Slavic, so very, very, so Russians and also Ukrainians and other other countries that that had Slavic culture and that book helped me navigate a lot of issues that we had in in in communicating or our understanding of, you know, um hierarchy, even that changes quite quite a lot, culture by culture, I would say. So that book helped me help me see that that better. And I love it. I usually recommend. and And then another book that I’m looking forward to reading, and maybe you’ve heard about it, is also Start With Yourself from Emma Gray.
02:05.97
Maisa Benatti
It’s a book that she’s doing a lot of PR in in the past um few months around. And she talks about motherhood. And I’m actually quite interested in reading that to understand her concept of the three-hour motherhood ah concept that she’s she’s, it’s all over social media. So it’s another book that I’m looking forward to reading. So I’d say those two.
02:27.38
Lorie Jones
Oh, yeah, that’s really interesting.
02:27.98
Maisa Benatti
Yeah.
02:28.47
Lorie Jones
And, you know, i i know that we have some issues sometimes working in the culture of the team. And it it never really occurred to me, i guess, because I work so, so much, so insularly inside the national inside U.S.
02:44.14
Lorie Jones
that like having an outside, having a ah culture where you have to think about not only your, you know, United States culture, American culture, But you have to think about like Russian and, um you know, and Chinese or like just all these different.
03:03.31
Lorie Jones
Not only do you have to worry about your team, but you have to worry about like a whole different way of thinking of of who you are in a whole different culture that that would be complex.
03:15.22
Maisa Benatti
Let me give you an example so you understand why i think this book is so special. So the Americans and Germans, for instance, they have what is called low context way of communicating, meaning that you will state the obvious to make sure that people are on the same page before you jump into a specific topic. Right. Asians, Slavic culture, also Brazilians, they don’t have that. they Their perception is if they state the obvious, they believe they’re insulting you because they believe you cannot follow basic you know understanding of things. And that’s just a cultural perception. There’s nothing wrong with either way. But what happens is it’s when you have a high context culture, which is the case of Asians or which is the case of Brazilians or Slavic culture, which is you know most of of the nationalities of the Utah, it’s great when you share the same
04:10.46
Maisa Benatti
cultural context, meaning that what’s obvious is obvious for everyone because you were brought up in the same way. So you have, you know, the same cues and the same understanding of what’s obvious. But when you don’t, which was the case of me joining IYUTSA in a completely different, like both of us had low context type of communication style and culture.
04:30.86
Maisa Benatti
There’s a lot of misunderstandings. So I jumped into the company. ah we moved the formal language to English. That was a challenge by itself. ah Then second of all, I was jumping in straight away and people weren’t really understanding what I meant because I wasn’t setting that, you know,
04:50.20
Maisa Benatti
low context stage. And so it was painful in the beginning. And most I was probably one of the only ones that was realizing that because I was the one coming from the outside. Then we had a book club type of situation where we all read the book.
05:06.04
Maisa Benatti
We discussed the differences of how we operate. And then we improved our communication by bringing a little bit more, you know, low context type of communication. So making sure that we are all on the same page. that we all have basic understanding of a specific topic to then move on. Now we have loads of Americans. We have people from lots of different European countries as well in the team. So that’s no longer a problem. But when I joined, was a huge issue. And that book helped me understand that it wasn’t a performance gap.
05:35.40
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
05:35.45
Maisa Benatti
Because sometimes I thought, um are people not understanding me?
05:35.56
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
05:38.53
Maisa Benatti
But it wasn’t a performance gap. It was just, you know, the way we communicate across different cultures, business settings is different. And I love what Erin does in the book. She really, she creates really interesting frameworks for us to use in, you know, in our jobs um based on on different cultures we work with.
05:56.88
Maisa Benatti
So it’s amazing.
05:58.07
Lorie Jones
That’s so interesting. I wonder if it would even be helpful inside the United States, because there is such a difference between working with someone from California and working with someone from New York and working with someone from deep south, you know, like the west, even like there’s just differences in the way that we communicate and the way our cultures are, even though we do have kind of a same similar cultural context.
06:19.45
Maisa Benatti
But you know why? That’s why the US, s she categorizes the US as low context culture is because there are so many different, you know, mixes of cultures are already in the United States. So you have to set the context before you start any topic anyway. Otherwise, there’s just so much room for misunderstanding, um which, yeah, I believe even within within the US is is definitely quite quite interesting to look into that.
06:44.70
Lorie Jones
h
06:45.26
Maisa Benatti
For sure.
06:46.30
Lorie Jones
So tell me a little bit about your journey. Like tell me how you got started. if you always knew what you wanted to do, what you’re doing now, just tell us a little bit about you.
06:55.80
Maisa Benatti
Yes. So i have a product and and tech background. um Currently, i’m I’m CEO of Ayuta. Prior to joining Ayuta, I worked at Farfetch and also at Amazon. So Farfetch is a global luxury marketplace, but also platform. And then Amazon, I believe, doesn’t need any introductions. um And i’ve been I’ve been exploring, I’ve been trying to help people shop online in the same way they shop in person. So bridging the gap between what a product looks like physically with when you want to you know try and recreate that shopping experience online. And e-commerce hasn’t really changed you know since it was invented. So in my past few years, I’ve been exploring loads of innovations on how we can bridge that gap. And that meaning either building those innovations from scratch in these companies, both Farfetch’d Amazon, partnering with startups that are doing an amazing job in this space. So I worked also into M&As in this space as well.
07:59.00
Maisa Benatti
And yeah, so very exciting challenges, mostly visual. So virtual try on. um Also, you know, how can we, when once you start shopping for something online, usually you don’t look like a model or at least for me, I’m not tall and skinny. So it’s really hard for me to understand how something is going to look on me. So how can we help shoppers understand that better? So that has been my my obsession in terms of problem space and what I’ve been focusing on solving. And then I help, yeah, product, titles in into those companies. And I studied fashion and technology, also a little bit of economics, international business. So, know, a little bit of everything, but it all converged into into the fashion AI space. And then here the Utah, what we do now is we build this AI infrastructure layer for for companies that operate in the space, meaning that
08:52.94
Maisa Benatti
Let’s say if you are either a fashion brand or a fashion platform, um, and you want to apply AI for. Innovations or for visualization or for better personalization, usually building it from scratch doesn’t compensate or is very hard. So partnering with, with a company that could consult you or could help you scale that, um, that helps.
09:16.38
Maisa Benatti
it it helps quite a lot. So that’s basically what we do, what we do at the youth, this infrastructure layer of AI for for visual fashion. Thank
09:23.96
Lorie Jones
I think that is so awesome because I am one of those women who like, I hate shopping for clothes. I hate it so bad and I don’t, but I can’t shop online because you don’t know what it looks like on you. So like you’re fixing that problem for me.
09:40.15
Maisa Benatti
Yes, you know, i think one of the first experiments online for virtual try on was probably six years ago. It was us at Farfetch partnering with with startups doing that. Now the technology has finally reached a stage where the way people shop and interact with products is going to change drastically.
09:57.79
Maisa Benatti
We’re working on so many exciting things.
09:58.87
Lorie Jones
Okay.
10:00.63
Maisa Benatti
um And I think because I was the customer before, so because I was the business trying to partner with companies like Cajuta before, there are so many cool things we’re doing to solve the the problems of scaling this type of technology. Because you saw, maybe like if you read the news, you see once in a while small pilots of trying quotes online and you know a few thousand products enabled. This is now changing, so so very soon you will be able to be your own model in every every platform you shop or select the model that looks like you if you don’t want to be the model as well. So that’s that’s really what we are we’re excited to solve and and help reduce returns as well in Fashion eCommerce.
10:47.19
Lorie Jones
Yeah, that’s kind of cool. And it’s interesting that you have such a eclectic background. You know, you’ve got fashion, you’ve got tech, you’ve got like those are two fields that don’t feel like they belong together, but they do.
11:00.28
Maisa Benatti
They do so much, especially this year that has been so much capital being deployed as well in this space. There’s a, you know, it’s a $1.7 trillion dollar industry. Everyone gets dressed, right? So everyone, everyone eats, everyone sleeps, everyone gets dressed. So those are like three things that, um that will always move money. and And here really looking, really looking into that, there’s just so much space, even though You know, it’s such a big industry, it’s not a very um it’s not a very, I would say, modern industry as well.
11:38.49
Maisa Benatti
um E-commerce came to change that, but still very slow. So there’s just a lot of innovation, space for innovation in in this space, for sure.
11:47.99
Lorie Jones
hmm. Exciting things. So tell me, what is the best investment you’ve made in yourself? As you kind of look back over your journey, can you think of something where you’re like, oh, my goodness, I’m so glad I did that. It just made a huge difference to who I am today.
12:02.76
Maisa Benatti
I think it connects to the previous to the previous follow-up question that you asked, which was picking a niche. ah For me, really you know obsessing about the space and just being the best I could in this very niche space really opened so many doors. um you know Like you said, fashion and tech, it doesn’t seem like they belong together, but they belong so well together in my strategy that it just made made sense for me, especially if you think now around you know AI, anyone can be a generalist.
12:33.02
Maisa Benatti
Anyone can use any type of theory, but in reality, your experience is what is really going to differentiate you. And when I look back, for instance, I remember when I was ah interviewing for Amazon, had super long interview process.
12:46.60
Maisa Benatti
In total, I think I had around 13 interviews. They were looking for someone with a lot more experience than i had, but a lot ah with many more years of experience that I had at the time.
12:49.82
Lorie Jones
Thank
12:57.11
Maisa Benatti
But because I had such niche experience in the problem space they wanted to focus on, I got the job. And same thing with the Utah, you know, with Utah, I didn’t I didn’t found the Utah. I actually I’m a hired CEO. I’m a subject matter expert CEO. So again, I was hired for my subject matter expertise. So when you obsess about something, when you find really the niche that you’re passionate about and it doesn’t feel like work anymore, that’s when when magic happens, because I can spend hours, I can spend all my free time thinking about this problem.
13:33.11
Maisa Benatti
you know, studying about it, researching about it. and and And then I just, it compounds the hours of work and experience I have compounds. That puts me in such a unique position then. Then, of course, it limits some of the options, but then the options I have are really high worth options. And so I would say 100% picking picking a niche to focus on.
13:55.83
Lorie Jones
Yeah, that’s really interesting because i you do hear a lot when you go into the you know marketing space there, I was trying to say niche down and and it it feels counterintuitive. Like you said, it feels like maybe that’s limiting you, but I find it interesting that it it actually expands because you you’re getting to do what you love to do and you get to dig into it and really get deep. And, and the whole time you love it.
14:21.37
Lorie Jones
You, you like love the, it’s like me. I, I love working with women. It’s just, it fills my bucket. It makes me so happy. And, and so like niching down and working in that space with those people just makes me want to, want to work harder and work more. I, that’s interesting.
14:38.94
Maisa Benatti
And there are so many great people in the world, right? And so many people doing great things. And sometimes, you know, especially when you are competing for a role, competing for a client, it will come down for this like to this 3% of energy and and you know this 2%, 3% of differentiation.
14:55.20
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
14:58.35
Maisa Benatti
And sometimes the niche will be that. So I remember the hiring manager at Amazon, she said, oh, we were down to two candidates. One had a lot of experience, but you know you have such relevant experience in this space that we had to go with you because it was…
15:13.43
Maisa Benatti
you know, really nailing down the specific problem space they were looking into into addressing. And sometimes it’s really that one or two, 3% that will make a difference between you and some and someone else. So I, yeah, I double down on on that.
15:28.92
Lorie Jones
I love that.
15:29.77
Maisa Benatti
Great.
15:29.91
Lorie Jones
What is the worst advice you’ve gotten, Myesha? did you get Did you ever get some really bad advice?
15:37.35
Maisa Benatti
I think we all we get all ah that all the time. i wouldn’t say i don’t think it’s like a specific person that gave me this advice, ah but it’s more like, ah you know, expectations that people have around how you should react to specific moments of your life. So I just had a baby three and a half months ago.
15:57.02
Maisa Benatti
And it’s funny because like I’m back to work for over a month already. And I’m so excited and energized and I can talk a lot about about that decision, too. um But sometimes people look with PT like, oh you’re back to work for things.
16:11.72
Maisa Benatti
No, actually, like made this conscious decision. I’m so excited to be back to work. And and people expect you to take a break or, you know, because you had a baby now you should just focus on this time like in this moment of of your life and and pause your career.
16:22.75
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
16:29.46
Maisa Benatti
And I think this is terrible advice, um especially living through it. I think it really depends on who you are and what drives you. For me, work, it’s something that gives me so much energy. I get so much energy out of what I do. I love what I do. My days are so exciting that removing that angle of my life because of motherhood would make me completely miserable. So, um,
16:59.99
Maisa Benatti
I have obviously, i’m I’m very privileged. I have an amazing support network. I created that support network for myself with advice from great people I have around me. um So i’m I’m super privileged to have that.
17:14.65
Maisa Benatti
but But, you know, i would say you don’t have to choose. ah Here, the worst advice for me is you have to focus on motherhood once you have a baby. No, absolutely disagree with that.
17:25.80
Maisa Benatti
you should do what’s right for yourself. Even if that means, even if if you’re in Europe and you have one year maternity leave, which is the case, I think in Canada is also the case, right? So just because you have the right of taking time off, it doesn’t mean that’s going to be right for you.
17:34.67
Lorie Jones
Yes. nice
17:40.82
Maisa Benatti
um and And sometimes people just go into that, you know, almost automation of, I have the right, I will take this time. And I was talking to some friends of mine, we’re all going through like similar similar phases in life and they took longer maternity leaves than me and they regret it. They said, well, you know what, if I knew what I know today, maybe I would have gone to work earlier, but it’s just expectation that we take the time off.
18:06.74
Maisa Benatti
And yeah, so I mean, I can talk about this forever, but let me pause here to see if there’s anything that you want to. um
18:15.13
Lorie Jones
but No, I find that really interesting because it for you, you’re saying that that that advice just didn’t work. Like you you would rather, if I’m understanding you right, you just would rather um change your work life to incorporate the new experience, the new child, right?
18:35.58
Lorie Jones
Rather than um stopping both because, you know, I was a stay-at-home mom for
18:38.27
Maisa Benatti
I
18:43.49
Lorie Jones
Gosh, 10 years, 15 years. And I loved it. I did love being home with my kids. But man, there is not a whole lot of intellectual stimulation. It’s
18:51.97
Maisa Benatti
respect you. honestly respect who chooses that. I think it’s incredible. I think it’s very tiring. It’s very complicated to take care of a baby full time.
18:59.16
Lorie Jones
hard, huh?
19:02.14
Maisa Benatti
I feel this will be different for everyone. So my sister also just had a baby and she’s spending full time with with her baby. i was going to stay two months away from work.
19:13.56
Maisa Benatti
Six weeks later, I was back. I was ready to be back. I had full energy. And I feel like for me specifically, I’m a better mom because I did that. Because I don’t think I would have the patience I have with my baby if I had to spend the full day with her.
19:21.28
Lorie Jones
Yeah. Yeah.
19:27.18
Maisa Benatti
She’s she’s cute. She’s amazing. But I just feel like after 6 p.m., because I got so much energy from work,
19:29.88
Lorie Jones
yeah
19:34.82
Maisa Benatti
I’m going to be the best mom possible um once I’m back home. And then I look forward for weekends and I love the time I spend with her. But when I was full-time, like being a full-time mom, end of day, I was just, oh my God, I can’t do this tomorrow anymore. And it’s again, the same thing. and And I don’t think this means I’m a bad mom or my sister is a better mom or I’m a better mom. No, it’s just different for every person. And what helped me…
20:03.58
Maisa Benatti
Realize that was my I mean, if you’re a founder, if you’re CEO, you need to have a good therapist. I think that’s like number one thing. like This was great. She she was the one who told me, think about what makes sense for you, because contractually I could stay longer. My investors were supporting me, my investors and my board.
20:22.04
Maisa Benatti
They are the best people ever. They said. Maiza, if you need to take time, we will support you. Take as much time as you need. They didn’t put like any specific limit. They told me to guide ah with how much time I needed. So they were great. I didn’t have any pressure there. And then I was really just thinking about myself. What does it make sense for me?
20:40.85
Maisa Benatti
Is it to take long? Is it to take, you know, maybe shorter time? And for me, taking shorter time work worked best, of course.
20:49.12
Lorie Jones
Yes.
20:51.77
Maisa Benatti
Again, I’m privileged. I managed to create a structure to allow that to happen. So I have an incredible husband that supports me a lot. I have an amazing nanny that it’s more than I could ask for. Like she’s she’s great. My baby loves her as well.
21:08.47
Maisa Benatti
And I meant I can work from home, which also helps so I can stop, you know, every other meeting, see my baby. Maybe if that wasn’t the case, I’m not sure I would be so ready to be back. ah So soon, maybe that situation would be different. So obviously I have great, a great structure, but I was also mentored for that.
21:27.77
Maisa Benatti
So one of my investors, David, actually, when I was, I think, around eight months pregnant, he said, have we looked into nannies? Because it looks like you want to come back to work soon. Do you know how hard it is to find one? And so.
21:41.08
Maisa Benatti
i i I feel I had the right advice and the right people that helped me, you know, be in the position I’m at right now. And mentally, I feel much stronger ah now because I feel like I’m able to do both and I’m happy about how I’m doing both things as well.
21:59.98
Maisa Benatti
um Yeah. So I think.
22:02.71
Lorie Jones
I love that. I like that. did Just really think through some of these norms or ideas and think if that works for you or if your situation is nuanced. And and i I do like the idea too that that there’s no ah guilt associated with doing things differently.
22:21.59
Lorie Jones
Like if you, like your way isn’t wrong, your sister’s way isn’t wrong, nobody’s way is wrong. It’s just right for you.
22:29.91
Maisa Benatti
and but And I think for women, when they reach this stage, You know, in terms of do I need to pick between you my career or our kid? First of all, no. I think that’s… I feel I’m a better professional because I’m a mom. And I feel I’m a better mom because I, you know, I get energy from work. So I don’t think there’s like a choice. Like usually people may consider or may think about. And maybe I delayed being a mom because I had that fear.
22:58.33
Maisa Benatti
I think…
22:58.62
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
22:59.06
Maisa Benatti
like I’m a late mom, but I delayed that process because I had the fear that that would stop my career. And I feel now that I’m leaving, I thought I should have had a kid maybe much earlier. um So for for sure that and and really reflecting on on your on your own trajectory and not what’s expected and what you have the right to. Because ah yeah the fact that you have the right for a longer maternity leave doesn’t mean you need to take it. I think that’s another another misconception that people usually, especially in Europe, people people usually take that pretty serious. And then I think the other angle was my own mom. She was an entrepreneur and but she didn’t have the choice like I had.
23:39.67
Maisa Benatti
So she was an entrepreneur. She had the three girls. She had to go back to work. She didn’t have an option. For me, was different. I had my investors and and my team were supporting me if I needed to take longer.
23:51.92
Maisa Benatti
And I just made a conscious decision on what made sense for me specifically. But I don’t think less of my mom. On the contrary, I think she’s an incredible example.
24:03.64
Maisa Benatti
um So the fact that she took us to work with, but but though after one month, um one month postpartum didn’t make, I think, a huge difference in the way it was brought up.
24:06.84
Lorie Jones
Thank you.
24:14.66
Maisa Benatti
On the contrary, I think it was an amazing example of, you know, strong leadership um and yeah, and combining motherhood wi with business.
24:25.53
Lorie Jones
So what about looking kind of back along your journey? um are there Are there any situations where you’re like, oh my goodness, I’ve learned so much. I know so much better now. Like if I could go back and do that again, I’d do it differently. Okay.
24:40.38
Maisa Benatti
and There are so many moments in time that that happened, but I do think that the biggest learning moments that I had in my career were for sure by working in a, in a startup because everything’s just so much more intense in a startup than when you’re having a corporate life.
24:58.74
Maisa Benatti
A corporate life is much more linear in a startup. There are so many ups and downs and, you know, the ups are very high and the downs are very low when, It’s ah it’s a roller coaster.
25:10.78
Maisa Benatti
And um when I think about what I’m living right now, i think trying to do too much myself was probably one of my biggest mistakes with Ayuta.
25:21.55
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
25:22.80
Maisa Benatti
So when I joined, we were in the middle of a pivot we pivoted the business model we then in after one year of focus we went from zero revenue to about half a million revenue um which was like pretty successful and quick um so we were quite excited about that but I was everything. I was doing product. I was doing sales. i was thinking doing like our managing our LinkedIn, everything you can think of. Plus, obviously the tech team. And then I had our CEO o with us and someone from HR. But all the other departments was basically me, even client demos, operations, everything. And I thought that was the…
26:03.83
Maisa Benatti
right thing to do because of the stage we were and also because you know i wanted to have end-to-end view of everything that was going on in the company but i feel that that became a huge bottleneck and i think i didn’t realize how big of a bottleneck that was until i had to stop to have the baby so i actually had to pause and you know stay away from the business for a few weeks and the team had to step up and we had to hire and we had to create different departments
26:03.90
Lorie Jones
Thank you.
26:30.01
Maisa Benatti
And then when we did that beauty, like magic happened, um I started seeing, you know, our pipeline grow so much more. i started seeing our, you know, all the bottlenecks we were having in the product evolution ended the you know, disappearing because conversations were moving faster because because I was a bottleneck and I had so many hours in the day, the progress was also slow.
26:53.13
Maisa Benatti
And I think I wasn’t really realizing that.
26:55.59
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
26:55.65
Maisa Benatti
And then now coming back, And I saw, OK, what happened? Obviously, there were some things that we still had to adjust when they came back, but I came back to a very different ah very different reality, much more exciting growth where I’m no longer the the bottleneck. So I feel sometimes letting go and having and accepting help, um it’s super important.
27:19.64
Lorie Jones
I think that you can take that advice too into your personal life as well, because as women, a lot of times, especially, you know, as as heads of company and stuff like that, we tend to think that we’re responsible for everything and we are the bottleneck in our own lives and and like getting the help on everything.
27:28.23
Maisa Benatti
Thank you.
27:38.92
Lorie Jones
you know, the nannies or the the personal assistant or the whatever we need to do in order to make ourselves um more productive with less burnout.
27:50.58
Lorie Jones
Like, I think those should be things we concentrate on.
27:54.24
Maisa Benatti
A hundred percent. And I think this is very self-imposed and women tend to do this so much. just think that everything needs to run by my husband keeps making this joke it’s like it’s horrible to work with you because you need to do everything in the way that is in your head and you just have to let go explain what you need and i will help you tell me how like what and and that’s and that’s true like accepting that uh and i think this year for me was really the year of the breakthrough of of this do it yourself do everything yourself But in every angle, like you said, in the personal side of things where now I have a nanny, ah you know, I’m letting my husband do a lot.
28:33.88
Maisa Benatti
Like even the other day he made decoration decision that when I came home to I was like, what?
28:40.69
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
28:41.65
Maisa Benatti
here, but I have to let go, I have to let him make more decisions. um And the same in the business, same in the business. And things are just looking incredible. And and I think from a business the business perspective, right, even though I have very niche knowledge in this industry, I’m not an expert in sales. I’m not an expert. I can consider myself an expert in product, which is my domain area of expertise. But there were lots of other things I was doing within the business, which is a niche business.
29:10.30
Maisa Benatti
that um were using my generalist knowledge, right? And a little help of AI like everyone uses nowadays. And by hiring expert help, you see you see things just you know flow so much more. So for I’ll give you a very specific example. We had a beautiful website. it was beautiful. It worked.
29:32.63
Maisa Benatti
At least in my head, it was great. um And because we were, i mean, we were who were I would say word because now things are changing, but we were a small startup.
29:44.38
Maisa Benatti
um I was only considering, you know, um outbound. I wasn’t even considering that we could get inbound because I didn’t even think in my head that we were already known for brands to come to us. And I wasn’t investing in marketing at that point yet. I was really working…
30:00.76
Maisa Benatti
in trying to find product market fit. So our website was not very optimized to get inbound. We had some call to actions, but we just was not optimized for that. We then hired an expert person in go to market, an expert person in marketing. And she was like, okay, this there there are some very basic things we need to fix here. We fixed it in the same week.
30:23.29
Maisa Benatti
I can’t mention the names, but we got the biggest, ah two of the biggest luxury houses in the world.
30:25.55
Lorie Jones
Thank you.
30:30.26
Maisa Benatti
doing inbound into our product. So actually coming to us and asking for more information. I couldn’t even think that in my wildest dreams, those companies were actually going to come um to us because we had never really invested in marketing, but we have such great product market feed that they heard about us you know through word of mouth and they came they came to us via inbound. And it was almost like a blind spot for me. So when you hire experts,
30:56.18
Maisa Benatti
you you start unlocking so much more. ah And again, going back to the niche, I think niche is so important. And so this is really what I see. And and no longer be by removing myself as the bottleneck, I’m not only allowing things to flow, but I’m also allowing these teams to become, you know, to own their space and and to grow the business much more. So, yeah, I think definitely, yeah,
31:26.30
Maisa Benatti
You can do as much as much as possible, but try not to become like, try to not become the bottleneck of of of your life or or the company you’re running.
31:36.15
Lorie Jones
Yeah, I like that. And it’s important advice and something you should test probably often, you know, to to make sure you’re not the bottleneck going on vacation. yeah
31:45.91
Maisa Benatti
Exactly. Exactly.
31:48.95
Lorie Jones
So if you could high five yourself for one great past financial decision, what would it be?
31:56.44
Maisa Benatti
I think every financial decision, um that there is one financial decision I made, which was career, connected to my career. But I think it’s an advice that goes for every financial decision, which is not all over optimizing for short term, right?
32:10.02
Maisa Benatti
So not thinking about your reality now, but where your reality, where you want your reality to be.
32:12.69
Lorie Jones
Thank you.
32:15.02
Maisa Benatti
And that’s for everything, for how you how you handle money, but how you handle how you think about your life. um For me, the that specific moment was,
32:25.85
Maisa Benatti
when When I finished fashion school, I wrote my thesis about technology and fashion, and I wanted to find a job in technology and fashion. And at that time, I had a high paying job in another area. So it was like very different area than than fashion. But I wanted to enter fashion. I wrote my thesis about it.
32:44.95
Maisa Benatti
And then I got a job that was entry level. much lower salary, much, much lower salary, very like not technology. It was in the customer excellence team.
32:56.97
Maisa Benatti
um And I remember so many people confused by me accepting that job and actually, you know, changing my career completely.
32:57.12
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
33:04.74
Maisa Benatti
But that was like the best thing I’ve ever done because I managed to get the foot in the door into an industry that I wanted to work on. And it just gave me a super solid foundation going from the ground up. I managed to grow much faster. i don’t think I would be in the place I’m at if I had stayed in my higher paying job at the time. So I had to take a step back financially. I had to accept, I think was one third of the payment that I was receiving terms of salary at the time.
33:32.89
Maisa Benatti
I had to take that compromise to actually reach the goals that I ended up reaching later on, which was to actually work with technology and fashion. So I was very intentional about that. And and again, and I think this is this is an example about my career, but it could go into any any really investment decision. When you think about money, you shouldn’t be thinking about about your short-term reward or your your current business.
34:00.28
Maisa Benatti
situation It’s always the potential or where you want to head. And sometimes you will have to do the hard thing or the thing that it doesn’t sound so rewarding in the short term in order to get the much more rewarding outcome later on.
34:15.01
Lorie Jones
Yeah, that’s so true. And it’s like my entire career, like talking about um long term and thinking about long term future you. I’m always talking about what does future you think about this decision today? So, yeah, it it it it does span a lot of different. It’s not just for you, you know, during that one decision. It really does span your whole life and a lot of different lives, too.
34:40.18
Maisa Benatti
Yeah, exactly.
34:43.22
Lorie Jones
What scared you the most when you started your career, Miesha? Uh-huh.
34:50.23
Maisa Benatti
Well, I think thinking of what other people are thinking about you. and I think especially i think this is worse for us as women. We care way too much and honestly, it doesn’t make any difference. Like it makes zero difference, actually. about what people are thinking of you. um So long as you know where you’re heading, so long as you have, you know, the data to back whatever you’re stating. um And sometimes not even that, you don’t even that, you need conviction.
35:17.75
Maisa Benatti
um Yeah, i would I would say that what scared me the most is what what are other people thinking? Nowadays, like many times I even get eye rolls and they don’t, bother me anymore like they would when I started.
35:29.83
Maisa Benatti
I mean, I work with tech, so most of the rooms I sit in, I’m either the only woman or the few women in the in the room.
35:30.03
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
35:39.36
Maisa Benatti
um And many times and also I have a very spontaneous way of communicating that doesn’t always will resonate like it won’t always resonate with everyone.
35:49.83
Maisa Benatti
And and yeah, I was much more you know concerned about about eye rolls or what people think. And now it’s just, ah yeah, I don’t care about about them anymore. and And I do think that if you seek external validation, you just won’t move.
36:06.84
Maisa Benatti
You just won’t move. Your motivation to do things need to come from within. And I think there is um there’s actually a very interesting quote from Steve Jobs around this, which he says that around motivation and around, you know, having people around you do work. And he said that he never once made someone work, someone that didn’t want to work hard, work hard, because, you know, motivation will never come from outside. It needs to come from within. And so, yeah, thinking about what other people are thinking about you won’t help you get anywhere, honestly.
36:42.46
Lorie Jones
So did you, how did you get from where you were worried about what other people thought about you to like, this is not something I need to waste my energy on?
36:52.95
Maisa Benatti
I think once you start getting the results, right? And for me, was probably this moment, I i think it came in some of my first roles in fashion tech. I remember was terrified of coming to engineers with a new initiative because they would push back and and it’s their job to push back. That’s like the the way that product and tech work. It is like that product will come, will but google explain the the the user need. What is the solution? Engineering will say, this doesn’t make sense. This makes sense. And then at the end, we will have you know a solution to ship.
37:25.27
Maisa Benatti
And I was terrified because I wasn’t an engineer that I would come and say, this is what we need to build for fashion people. And this is what they expect. And they will say, no, we cannot build that.
37:37.14
Maisa Benatti
And then, you know, with time, I realized, you know what, but engineers are great at engineering, but they don’t understand the customer. And I was in the customer excellence team and I would talk to customers and they would tell me what were the problems that they were facing. So i realized I was actually the expert and, and, you know, we then started AB testing ideas that I had based on the problems I knew. And we started getting very good financial results for the company. And then I started building up the confidence. So even when people would challenge
38:12.25
Maisa Benatti
I would bring in results and then those results will speak for itself. And then even if I didn’t have sometimes the the right answer, or the conviction of, okay, this is the this is the area we’re moving forward.
38:23.54
Maisa Benatti
We always work with hypotheses and then you can test them and you will see who’s right or wrong. And even if you’re wrong, you learned something. So I feel that, you know, it it was, there wasn’t a specific moment in time.
38:36.42
Maisa Benatti
It was, i realized that I actually had something to bring
38:37.54
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
38:40.92
Maisa Benatti
more than than I expected I had once I started seeing the results. And then I also realized that even when you’re wrong, there’s nothing wrong about that because you’re learning and everyone is learning along with you.
38:53.50
Maisa Benatti
No one has, you know, the clear answer. So, ah yeah, i would say that was the moment was also, I think, maturity time. It teaches you to to be more more confident on your ideas.
39:04.18
Lorie Jones
More confident. Yeah.
39:05.32
Maisa Benatti
Yeah.
39:07.22
Lorie Jones
um Did you face any unique challenges along this path because you were a woman?
39:14.67
Maisa Benatti
I think tech, again, like I said most rooms you sit, you are one of the only women. So it takes a little bit, it might take a little bit longer for you to prove yourself.
39:27.22
Maisa Benatti
um But I think a lot of the limitations are more in our heads. That’s why I’m looking forward to reading also the book of Emma Great, the one start with yourself that she just launched this week, because she talks a lot about that, about sometimes us as women,
39:37.60
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
39:41.62
Maisa Benatti
Of course, there are limitations and of course we have a lot a lot more, let’s say, um challenges that we have to face because the the world was designed, the business world was more designed for men than for women.
39:56.76
Maisa Benatti
But I do think that big portions sometimes of these limitations are in our in our own heads and this connects with the other question where you were asking me around challenges that the challenges that the the challenges that I faced and, and you know, me thinking that, um sorry, I think we have to cut that.
40:19.27
Maisa Benatti
I’m sorry. I just wanted to, I’m sorry.
40:20.01
Lorie Jones
That’s fine.
40:21.11
Maisa Benatti
Sorry about that. Let me just go back. Can we restart this one?
40:25.55
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
40:26.78
Maisa Benatti
Sorry. Apologies.
40:28.28
Lorie Jones
No, no, no, that’s fine.
40:30.20
Maisa Benatti
Sorry.
40:30.39
Lorie Jones
So did you face any unique challenges because you were a woman?
40:36.89
Maisa Benatti
So first of all, I think the business world is mostly designed for men. Right. And so we do we do have challenges every day that we that we face, um that we face as women because of the way the way that the the system is structured. So, for instance, capital raising. Right. I’m a CEO.
40:55.64
Maisa Benatti
Most investors I speak with are men. Like I would say more than 80 percent. Most of them don’t understand very well the industry.
41:00.51
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
41:02.78
Maisa Benatti
So I do need to explain a lot more. i do need to spend a lot more energy ah into setting you know the ground for a conversation to start. Second, I do think I need to prove myself a lot more. I need the the credentials. I need to explain what was my experience, what I learned. And sometimes if I were a man, maybe I could have i could be able to just jump straight in. But I do think that a lot of the limitations are more in our head than they are real.
41:31.64
Maisa Benatti
And that’s why I’m looking forward to reading Emma Grade’s book. She talks about that. She talks a lot about money and generating wealth as a woman and how men start with money and women start with purpose. Like women want to first talk about purpose and then money, almost like it’s shameful to talk about money when you’re a woman.
41:50.84
Maisa Benatti
um And we just need to do this, like, disconstruct this thinking in our head, like completely change ah change our perspective. so Part of it, I think, is self-imposed limitations, but also ah but also some limitations. Some limitations are real.
42:08.06
Maisa Benatti
Now, unique, unique challenges would say tech. When I worked in tech, I was, again, now fundraising, but also tech. Usually one on one of the only women in in the room. But I happen to be in a good position where I’m operating in an industry where I’m i’m an expert in. So I always have this, like,
42:28.66
Maisa Benatti
this almost like this money that I can exchange with, with other people that yet don’t trust me. So yeah, I, there are challenges I would say, but most of them are are self-imposed and you can try and, and work in your own head to, um, thought for yourself.
42:48.16
Lorie Jones
Eliminate them a little bit or make them easier. Yeah, that’s so interesting.
42:52.12
Maisa Benatti
Exactly.
42:52.31
Lorie Jones
Yeah, i i was um it was interesting that you said something about, you know, we we think money is like a shameful and we start with purpose. um I was just ah talking with someone or reading something that said that women are less likely to talk about what they make with, with people. And whereas men are like, they actually have a really good, um networking system set up. So, you know, you, you go, you chat about, well, what should I be making? You know, like, what are you making? What, um, and, and i think that that idea of,
43:32.92
Lorie Jones
Money is shameful. It’s something that I run into all the time, especially with older clients who just aren’t willing to to talk about it. But that idea of like um salaries and money and talking about that openly with other women in positions like ours or higher it can it can make a huge difference in you you know what you should be paid because you know what other women are being paid in that space. You know um what your what your talent should be worth and what you should ask. And um like if, are you on track for retirement? Are you on track for your future savings? Are you on track for where you want to be as far as um you know, salary and future and family. I i think that i I really love that you brought that up, that that women don’t talk about that as much. Actually, we really should.
44:24.76
Maisa Benatti
Exactly. and And it’s okay to put money at the center and not only the ah only purpose. when you And that’s something that I’m learning with some of Emma Gray’s content. and And I want to see what she’s writing about this in the book, because, you know,
44:40.73
Maisa Benatti
in what And in my my moment my moment in life right now, which is I’m constantly fundraising. You’re founder of a startup. You’re constantly fundraising, trying to grow the business. ah And you know there’s just so much about the business around the purpose and why I’m excited about it. But in reality, this is a business that needs to make money.
44:59.10
Maisa Benatti
ah And this is what I need to start with when I’m fundraising, right?
45:02.16
Lorie Jones
Thank
45:04.01
Maisa Benatti
So this is a problem that I have in the industry. This is how much money I can make. And this is the profit for you. But many times the way I talk about it, and this is something I need to always teach myself also, you know, to to change the perspective. Many times I’m like, well, we’re changing the world by making, you know, shopping for fashion much more inclusive. It’s true. We’re solving that problem. It’s a real problem.
45:27.90
Maisa Benatti
And I get so much joy from solving that problem. And that’s my purpose. But in reality, from a money perspective, like that, like it’s a problem that it’s being solved and that will generate money and we need to be able to talk very openly about it. And I’m proud that I am generating money and I’m proud that ah that business is going to become extremely profitable in short period of time.
45:51.46
Maisa Benatti
Right. So and that’s for women sometimes like having the confidence to say that ah it’s not for some reason.
45:52.19
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
45:59.48
Maisa Benatti
And I don’t understand why. For some reason, it’s not that easy, like for men and maybe like they could be much further away from profit and would say we’re very close from profit. um And yeah, so that’s interesting world we live in and we learn and and, you know, it’s a constant I would say it’s a constant learning and We need to almost like hold each other accountable for being proud about talking about our achievements and about making money because that’s something positive and not something to be ashamed of or hide or not talk about.
46:31.74
Lorie Jones
Yeah, I like that. i think that’s I think that’s a really good point to bring up. So what is the thing you are most proud of?
46:43.95
Maisa Benatti
It’s for sure taking the company from zero to revenue while growing a human in a very complicated pregnancy. So, yeah, I think doing those two things at this at the same time, I’m so proud of of what I was able to achieve last year and and looking forward for this year. But I think last year was just Just like very personal moment on, I had a high risk pregnancy. So on the first trimester of my pregnancy, I had to see the doctor every other day ah in person, ah go to actually physically to this appointment that was about one hour away from home. So one hour away from home, back and forth every day.
47:26.04
Maisa Benatti
Nobody knew, continued to run the business. um We were able to really go from zero to half a million last year in in revenue. And yeah, I managed, you know, and I think we’re so strong. i think we take strength out of you know, nowhere sometimes. and And I’m very, I’m very proud of, proud of myself.
47:48.41
Maisa Benatti
And especially now seeing my baby and she’s the cutest and she’s out here and, you know, and the, and the business is thriving and I’m, you know, I’m, I’m so happy. And it felt very lonely when I was going through it, but it felt, it just feels very lonely when you’re going through like a hard moment. And I thought that I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to actually, you know, carry the whole pregnancy through, know,
48:11.48
Maisa Benatti
at like but until the end wasn’t sure if i the business was going to make it and actually both things worked so I’m yeah i couldn’t be happier
48:22.04
Lorie Jones
Any advice for a young lady who’s kind of just starting down this path um that could help her be successful like you?
48:31.61
Maisa Benatti
I think don’t Don’t wait until you’re ready. When I was hired at IOTA, I was hired as subject matter expert product leader. So I was mostly going to run the product department.
48:44.22
Maisa Benatti
And then our investors, they approached me and they wanted to appoint me a CEO. At the time, my answer was like, I don’t think I’m ready. I told them straight away, like, I’m not sure I can i can make it.
48:59.13
Maisa Benatti
And We had long conversations and i was more than ready. i was more than ready. I had all everything that was necessary to actually go down this path.
49:08.63
Lorie Jones
Thank you.
49:09.48
Maisa Benatti
I now have track record that I managed to do a successful job. um But at that time, it just felt so daunting. I was like, no no, no, no, no. I’m not ready for this. And in reality, no one will ever be ready for anything.
49:21.80
Maisa Benatti
Like you just have to live through it and you learn. It wouldn’t change these past years or the fact that I accepted something that I felt I wasn’t really ready for, for the world, because the amount of things I learned along the way were immense.
49:37.66
Maisa Benatti
And also not only the amount of things I learned along the way, but the amount of things I learned about my strengths and myself and how much I could actually handle. um were also immense, were incredible.
49:50.06
Maisa Benatti
And you can you can do a lot more than you think you can, actually. And in this case, I needed external validation because that didn’t come from within at the time. So I really needed someone else to say, you can actually do this.
50:02.10
Maisa Benatti
And so I did it. But honestly, that even needs to come from within. Like you can you you can do a lot more than you than you think.
50:11.06
Lorie Jones
Yeah. Yeah. And tell yourself that, like maybe put a little note on your mirror. Like you can, you’re bigger than you think you can do more than you think you can just try. Yeah.
50:21.11
Maisa Benatti
Yeah, you don’t have to ready and you don’t have to feel ready.
50:21.30
Lorie Jones
I love that. I love that message.
50:25.62
Maisa Benatti
I think if you feel like 65% ready, that’s that’s more than enough. More than 60% will be more than enough for sure.
50:34.41
Lorie Jones
Well, Maisa, thank you so much for your time today. I really appreciated this conversation and i appreciated all your your insights. I really got a lot out of it. So if I have a young lady who wants to reach out to you and ask questions, how does she do that?
50:48.88
Maisa Benatti
She can reach out to me on LinkedIn, Maiza Benati. And yeah, I’ll be happy to continue the conversation, help. And thank you so much, Laurie.
50:58.56
Lorie Jones
Oh, thank you. I really appreciate it.