The CEO and founder of a Kelowna company wants to help aspiring women entrepreneurs enter the beauty industry.
For her work highlighting other brand owners, Julie Michaud received the BDC Woman of the Year award on September 16 from Kelowna Women in Business.
Through her skin care and makeup retailer Portia-Ella, Michaud has set up a “Business Incubator” program that provides management, mentoring, and shelf space to help other women who focus on clean, low-waste beauty enter the industry can find.
“It’s really special to work with so many women who are absolutely motivated to make this industry something and really change the way things were done,” she said.
While working to open doors for co-entrepreneurs, Michaud also advocates mindful consumption and moves people to a more holistic view of beauty. She said Portia-Ella’s goal is to bring clean beauty to all and to change the mindset that clean and organic beauty comes at an unattainable cost.
And being named Woman of the Year for her work is an honor and a humbling experience as many other business owners keep trying to change and develop themselves in a challenging year.
“It was really special because I feel that as we work towards our goal, we get so passionate about what we’re doing and that we want to make those changes.”
“And we forget. Sometimes in the middle of work we forget the impact and forget how people’s lives change (because of what we do), ”said Michaud.
As for others who, like her, juggle many roles in their lives, Michaud has a few words of encouragement.
“Don’t let your ego get in the way of the decision you have to make … I find that quite often we are so proud and want to offer something great and we have this vision, but the work we have to get in order to get there it’s not always nice and we have to agree. “
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Twila Amato
Video journalist, Black Press Okanagan
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