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[Music]
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Susan thank you very much for joining us
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today congratulations on your new book
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briefcase Essentials thank you very much
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um as a young woman you played tennis
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but you didn't like the unflattering
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short straight cut tennis dresses that
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frustration motivated you to create a
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dress that better suited your figure
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soon your friends asked you to make them
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dresses in the same style how did that
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set you on the road to start your first
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company well when I made the dresses for
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my friends I found out at the end of the
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day when I counted my money that I had
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less than I started with so I didn't
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think that was a good proposition to to
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be able to be making any more for my
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friends so I said well maybe I could
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sell these I could actually sell this
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and actually be in a business which was
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a shocking thought at the in in my 20s
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and so I said well let me just try it
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you know I just go see if I can find
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somebody it'll make these dresses on a
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mass production basis in small
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quantities for me and I called around
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and used the fancy Yellow Pages in those
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days that's what we had and it worked
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great and I found a a Russian immigrant
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who was welcoming told me to come to the
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his plan I told him I didn't have a
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business but that I was thinking about
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it and he was very hospitable and
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charming and spent a lot of time time
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with me and within two months I was in
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business what an extraordinary
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experience um what what did you learn
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along the way as you um were an
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entrepreneur for the first time well
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what I realized is that if a thing that
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natur women naturally do is they don't
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have a problem asking for help if in
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fact it's asking for something that has
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a purpose behind it and for example in
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business if you want to get started and
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you're looking for a manufacturer
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by asking somebody who is a
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manufacturer you know will you help me
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will you help me will you make my
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dresses and what else do I need to know
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well if you're going to offer him an
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opportunity perhaps to get some business
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from you then there's that's a good
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reason to ask them for help and he then
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sent me to a pattern maker and said you
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must have a pattern maker a fancy
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pattern maker somebody that's been in
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the business a long time that does it
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for mass production so and he he gave me
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the names of some material suppliers and
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he said these are the kind of materials
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I would suggest go on your way come back
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when you have it and without that I
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would not have gotten started in the
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right direction that's great thank you
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um although you had many successes in
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the in the first Venture ultimately you
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were forced to close the business what
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happened and how did that experience
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influence you in later uh business
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ventures permanently indelibly said
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never take a
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partner because you really don't know
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what a partner is until you live with
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them whether you live with them as a
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husband and wife or whether you live
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with them as a partner in business you
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they might look great on paper they
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might have great skill sets that doesn't
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show you how well they use their skill
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sets so you really don't know until
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you're into business with them so I have
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two rules now my rule in business was
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never take a partner and I never did
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never again but if you're going to take
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a partner you better have a honeymoon
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trial period with lots of good contracts
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written written lots of information that
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allows you an out that doesn't destroy
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your
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business in 1976 she moved to
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Philadelphia with your husband and young
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daughter and began law school two years
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into your education you convinced your
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father Leonard to to hire you as legal
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counsel for his business he was then
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owner of the Philadelphia Eagles
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football team as many know soon you were
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legal counsel vice president and general
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manager you write that although you were
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general manager and ran the day-to-day
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business it would not be made public
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what why was that and how did it
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eventually become public
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well it was kind of ridiculous to say I
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was the acting general manager but I was
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calling all the shots so I think the
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media came to that conclusion much
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quicker than my dad did my dad felt that
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being a woman in that business would be
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very negative for him as a macho guy and
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also for me because I would be subject
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to a lot of criticism and a lot of abuse
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but the truth was I got it anyway so it
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didn't matter and Philly fans are tough
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they're very tough and when you put into
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place you take a macho all male
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stereotypical business like football and
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you say okay now I have a woman who's
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managing the operation it doesn't go
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over well it just doesn't and the fans
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were very angry they really were they
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were they were frustrated they were
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angry and every loss was my loss and
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everything I did was my fault and
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eventually you figure out either I take
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it and I handle it and I handle it
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within myself or I get out and um my
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option was to stay and hang hang in
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there which I did until my dad sold the
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club that's right and to this day um
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you're the only General Manager who is a
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woman for an NFL team do you see that
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changing not unless there's a lot of
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dads who bring up business daughters who
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really are convinced they want to take
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the flak because it's a lot of flak and
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if you don't know yourself well if
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you're not comfortable with who you are
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you better not be in a place where
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everybody doesn't like you because then
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it's really going to make it you're
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going to have a lot of bad days
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thank you what was it like to work with
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your father and what did you learn from
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him um also how would you say he
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influenced you on your professional path
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well he probably got me into a
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professional path in spite of him
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because he was a typical father of that
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generation that said women should be at
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home and he always wanted boys he had
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two girls so we got exposed to business
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but not because he intended the exposure
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it just was there because business was
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all around us he was a businessman so he
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was always doing business deals so we
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would be like flies on the wall so we
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absorbed a lot of the information that
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he was sharing but not trying to share
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with us and I think that because he was
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not pro women in business that I was
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driven to be in business in order to
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kind of prove to myself that I could do
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that and so I think he was a very
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important force in my life and my early
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force of going into business just
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because I thought it was something I
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should do that felt right for me and the
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Eagles really came kind of in the back
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end I wasn't looking for a job at the
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Eagles I went to law school because I
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had a fight with my partner in my first
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business and said I'm never going to let
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that happen again I need to understand
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what I'm doing I need to understand the
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consequences of contracts if they're
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poorly written it can get you in a heap
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of trouble and I didn't want that to
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happen again so I went to law school to
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get the education so I could have that
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discipline but I really wanted to be
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back in business but at the time when we
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moved back back to Philadelphia because
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I went to Villanova Law School my dad
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was in the same neighborhood that I was
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we hadn't been together in maybe 15
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years and uh as a result of that I got
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to see him more often than I did over
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the 15 years not a lot but once in a
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while and I happen to ask him one day at
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dinner who was what law firm was he
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using and how much was he spending
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because the team was always losing money
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so he said I'm using a very the largest
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firm in town and I'm using the senior
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partner so I said that has to be a lot
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of bucks he said it is so I I said to
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him I'll do it for $50,000 a year he
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said fine when can you start how about
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tomorrow because I told him that the
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kind of law that was necessary at a
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professional football team was really
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very basic law it was something that a
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first or second year lawyer could do it
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wasn't complicated law because the big
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complicated lawsuits were handled by the
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National Football League so I was able
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to kind of bluff my way through that for
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a year or two and while I was there the
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business side of me really really kicked
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in because I was very interested in how
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he was running the business and what he
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was doing and how he was doing it so I
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did a lot of research and I paid a lot
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of attention to what was going on and I
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would go in and talk to my dad when he
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was in the office he usually came in
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late in the afternoon and say dad do you
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know that such and such is you're
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spending money for such and such and he
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never answered me and he never indicated
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that there was any issues with it I just
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felt he should know if he didn't know I
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wanted him to know even though maybe he
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didn't want to know and that one for two
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years I kept saying do you know about
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this expense and do you know about this
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one and he just kind of looked at me
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didn't say a word and I so I left but it
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didn't deter me I continued to do it and
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I was kind of like the pest on the wall
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that just wouldn't go away because after
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all it's my dad it's my it's the family
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business if you look at it that way and
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I wanted to protect it for the family if
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I could and one day he called me in and
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he said I just fired the general manager
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you fire everybody else so I figured
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once I fired everybody else I just
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stepped right up became something else I
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became a vice president and a GM so that
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was kind of an interesting day it was a
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kind of a a total surprise for me I
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didn't think about it I didn't yearn for
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it I wasn't looking for that job but it
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turned out I got it um after the team
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was sold you saw an opportunity to start
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a business complimenting the burining
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casino business ultimately you started a
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food distribution business which was
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outside of your experience at that time
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how did you ramp up your knowledge at
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that pace at the pace that was required
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how did you build trust among your
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clients and employees and what did you
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learn along the way I think the best
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lessons I learned were learned in my
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first business after my dress business
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and that was in the food distribution
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business you can take a business you
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know nothing about and if you're a good
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study and if you're smart and if you're
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driven and determined you can learn an
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awful lot about that business and that's
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what I did I studied every product that
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I thought would be possible to sell to
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the casinos and one of the buyers of one
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of the casinos gave me his purchase book
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so it was a couple thousand pages of
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what he bought and how much he spent and
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what the wholesale price was so it was
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like going getting a college degree in
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food Pro in food distribution so I
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studied it it took me about three four
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months to really study it and understand
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the items and then I kind of
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cherry-picked the items that I thought
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would be good for my business as a small
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supplier to be able to compete with the
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big guys and a lot of it was fresh
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product because the fresh product was
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harder to handle
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it was much you got much better margins
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because it's very hard it's very
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perishable if you don't keep the
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temperature in your truck right the
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stuff goes rotten on you so then it's no
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good nobody will take it so I ended up
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finding the vendors in Philadelphia for
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every product that I sold to the
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Atlantic City casinos and I would just
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walk in and introduce myself and say I
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have this little business it's I'm
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Distributing the the casinos do you want
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to sell them and they would say yeah we
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sure do and most of the people I dealt
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with were not not the owners they were
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either the supervisors the plant
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managers in most cases they weren't
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sales managers these were small
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processing plants so there was most of
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the business was done by the manager of
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the plant and they just gave me carp
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lunch to go take the product in and try
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to sell it and I did and then I got
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contracts with them to continue although
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they were kind of very loose 30-day
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cancel cancellations not nobody ever
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turned and went to after I built the
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business nobody ever turned and went
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somewhere else and left me behind so
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there was a lot of loyalty but when you
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make acquaintances with people in your
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business whether they're suppliers or
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customers and you make serious
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Relationships by really caring about
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them taking care of them they they
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maintain that loyalty I learned that in
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that business it's interesting one of
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the ways that you built loyalty I think
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in in reading your story was that you um
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sometimes challenge the way that um uh
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things have been done so so I think of
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when um a product had come in and there
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was a question about the weight you
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rolled up your sleeves and dived right
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in and um got the answers that you
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wanted and one of your colleagues said
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at the time you know but that's not how
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things are done or you don't want to
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offend this client but in fact um you
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weren't put off can you tell us more
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about that um well I think when you're
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an outsider in a business and you're
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determined to make it successful you
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don't take what the traditional thought
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is about what is possible what isn't
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possible you kind of check it out
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yourself because you it doesn't make
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sense to you if somebody says to me you
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can't weigh that because we don't have a
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big enough scale I then use a lot of
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little scales I mean it it seems so
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logical to me and because I was an
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outsider I was able to question it
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easier than somebody that had been in
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the business and said this is the way we
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always do it so I guess that's the way
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we'll do it I didn't know I didn't know
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the meat business so I came in as a
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complete novice and therefore I
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questioned everything everything and by
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asking asking the right questions I got
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the right answers and when I got no for
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an answer I did it myself um do you
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think that that workplace is still
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discriminate against women in terms of
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promotions penalties for taking time off
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for CH child rearing and so on
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absolutely unfortunately absolutely not
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every business and not every not every
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category of business but generally there
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continues to be The Stereotype of what a
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woman is in terms of a businesswoman
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what her skill sets are what her talents
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are her short points are and the word
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leadership never comes into play when we
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talk about women and that's one of the
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biggest problems that I see is why is it
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that men don't think that women can be
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leaders they can be but when men talk to
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me about what women's skill sets is they
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always tell me oh it's the softer you
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have the softer skill sets so I said
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softer what does that mean and what they
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mean by that is this is what they
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usually tell me Well women are multi
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taskers they can feed a baby they can
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make dinner and they can talk on the
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phone all at the same time that gets my
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blood pressure boiling because that's a
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terrible example that's a typical
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stereotypical comment from a businessman
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who wants to try to put women down and I
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don't take it I give it right back to
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them and tell them that's unacceptable
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that's not an accurate stereotype women
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can do more than one thing at once but
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it doesn't have to be feeding a baby and
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making dinner and cleaning the house
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there are other things we can do what do
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you think are the toughest male
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dominated Industries for women to enter
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um right now and why well it's
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interesting last night at a seminar that
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I did uh Arthur Miller who's a noted uh
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legal historian and
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lawyer uh said that he thought that now
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there's a Level Playing Field for women
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in the legal
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profession and uh me being the person
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who can't keep their mouth shut said I
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don't agree with you he said what do you
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mean mean you don't agree the a woman
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that was in my class in law school 40
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years ago is sitting on the Supreme
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Court I said great and how many female
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partners are there in the large law
00:15:08
firms in the United States he said I
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don't know I said how about
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16% that's not a real good number if
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we've leveled the playing field 16% is a
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heck of a long way from 50% so I think
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it's almost in every profession where
00:15:22
there's a Bastion of male dominance it
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is very slow for them to make a change
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and I think that's because they take
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advantage of women because women tend to
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be more passive much less aggressive
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much less outfront in terms of what they
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feel their skill sets are what they feel
00:15:39
they've accomplished and if you took a
00:15:42
male law student or and it could be
00:15:44
anybody and you took a female law
00:15:46
student and they both day one go to a
00:15:48
large firm on day two the male former
00:15:52
law student is on the door of the senior
00:15:55
partner saying look what I did today I
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did six of these I build this I buil
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that every day they're promoting
00:16:00
themselves what are women doing they're
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doing their work diligently and doing it
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beautifully and they're getting a gold
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star but that gold star doesn't mean
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anything unless they're in there at the
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same level pushing the same information
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and making sure that the senior partner
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knows the kind of work they're
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contributing they will not get
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partnership or anything else so that's
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really the message that I have for women
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is stand up let people know you're
00:16:27
around don't be AF afid it's not
00:16:29
bragging to say I've done this this this
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and this it's selling you're selling
00:16:34
yourself and you're selling yourself in
00:16:35
a positive light because if you don't
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sell yourself nobody else
00:16:53
will
