Karen Millen OBE on building a fashion empire from £100

Conversations of Inspiration

Holly Tucker MBE

Education, Society & Culture, Entrepreneurship, Self-improvement, Business, Personal Journals

5.0 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 16 October 2023

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Karen Millen OBE started her iconic brand with £100 and 100 metres of cotton. Hear how she built and sold a thriving fashion empire against the odds — before being declared bankrupt and getting divorced. How did she learn to embrace her future once again and do what she loves? Find out here…

WHY YOU WILL ENJOY THIS EPISODE

Learn about getting comfortable with embracing failure and benefiting from its teachings.
Discover how it’s never too late to listen to your inner voice and follow your dreams.
Hear about the grit and determination it takes to live your passion and build your own business.

If you enjoyed this episode, we think you’ll love Holly’s Conversation of Inspiration with Trinny Woodall, founder of Trinny London.

Plus for more unfiltered insight, subscribe to Holly’s weekly newsletters on our website, where she shares small business inspiration of all kinds, exclusive nuggets of wisdom from her and her guests, plus offers, creative ideas and topical, 'ungoogleable' business advice.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Oh my goodness, Karen Millen OBE, a complete heroin of mine and someone that has got a special place
0:08.8	I know in so many of our hearts. Like all businesses, Karen started up her brand,
0:14.5	lit she from that kitchen table with a hundred pounds and my goodness, she tells the story
0:21.1	of building this worldwide empire. But what was very special is how vulnerable Karen was.
0:29.6	Speaking about the highs, but really the lows of that roller coaster.
0:35.4	She went to places within this podcast that I know were very, very tough for her.
0:41.1	But this beautiful combination of her wisdom and insights as she shares this
0:47.9	incredible journey and the reflections of what all of this has meant. I know this is kind of
0:53.9	be a conversation that really sits with you, makes you think about things, something that will come
0:59.7	across will be, why do we feel so guilty us women? Karen's story epitomises that found a story,
1:07.9	that ebb and flow, that energy, the gut instinct and I am so happy to be back talking to the one
1:16.8	only Karen Millen. Enjoy. Hi, I'm Holly Tucker and welcome to my podcast, Conversations of Inspiration.
1:33.2	I founded my first business not on the high street at 28 with a newborn strap to my chest.
1:39.9	Nearly 20 years on, he's all grown up and I'm running my second business, Holly and Co.
1:46.4	I've learnt so much about taking risks, running a business and some extraordinary life lessons along
1:53.0	the way and I know others have too. Yet despite the wealth of experience we have between us,
1:59.4	lessons like this are often left unheard and it can feel like we're traveling our path alone.
2:05.7	So I've reached out to founders and those who simply inspire me to share their hard earned wisdom
2:12.4	with you. My hope is that collectively these remarkable realisations will help you on your own
2:18.8	journey. I like to think of it as inspiration for life. If you enjoyed this episode might I
2:25.7	ask you to share it with a friend and to like, subscribe and review it so that together we can
2:31.8	ignite people's passion across the UK. Now let's begin this week's Conversation of Inspiration.
	...

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