The Mindset Shifts That Built a Billion Dollar Brand — TheRealReal's Julie Wainwright on Reinvention & Leadership
Finding Mastery with Dr. Michael Gervais
Dr. Michael Gervais
4.7 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 18 June 2025
⏱️ 89 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What does it take to rebuild your life after public failure — and bet on yourself again?
This week, we sit down with Julie Wainwright — a trailblazing entrepreneur who went from the CEO of Pets.com during the dot-com crash to building The RealReal into a billion-dollar luxury resale powerhouse… all in her 50s.
Julie was one of only 23 women to ever take a company public — and she did it after facing national scrutiny and setbacks that would have ended most careers. Instead, she started over with clarity, grit, and heart — redefining what leadership and reinvention really look like.
In this conversation, Julie shares:
- How to lead through failure and chaos without losing yourself
- Why reinvention starts with self-honesty, not confidence
- The mindset that helped her scale The RealReal from her kitchen table
- How to use setbacks as fuel — in business, relationships, or life
- The inner dialogue and frameworks that kept her grounded and growing
If you’re navigating a challenge, career pivot, or new season of life — this episode is packed with hard-won wisdom you’ll want to carry forward.
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Transcript
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| 1:28.4 | I had to completely change my mindset. |
| 1:31.8 | I had to say I am not going to let that define me or let others define me. |
| 1:37.2 | How do you rebuild after public failure and then find the courage to bet on yourself again? |
| 1:42.9 | Welcome back. |
| 1:43.9 | Welcome to the Finding Mastery |
| 1:45.2 | podcast where we dive into the minds of the world's greatest thinkers and doers. I am your host, |
| 1:49.8 | Dr. Michael Jerva, by trade and training, a high-performance psychologist. Now, the idea behind these |
| 1:54.8 | conversations, it's really simple to sit with the extraordinarily to really learn about how they |
| 2:00.5 | work from the inside out. |
| 2:02.3 | And this week's conversation is with Julie Wainwright, a trailblazing entrepreneur who built |
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