Entrepreneur.com / Real Talk

If you walk through the women’s section of a high-end department store these days, it’s not uncommon to come across the Rebecca Minkoff brand, which sells everything from handbags to apparel.

However, before she and her brother grew their multi-million dollar fashion empire, Rebecca Minkoff was an early adopter to use social media which she credits to aid in the success of her early days when she had to max out her credit card to create her first bags because nobody would give her a business loan.

Today, Minkoff not only has built a brand that competes with other fashion giants such as Coach, Kate Spade and Tory Burch, but she’s also actively the face of her brand digitally to the tune of over 800,000+ Instagram followers who not only get to interact with Minkoff daily, but shop directly within the Instagram mobile app — one of the first fashion brands allowed by Facebook (Instagram’s parent) to do so.

On the latest episode of Real Talk, which you can see above or on Facebook Watch, I sat down with Minkoff for a candid discussion around how she’s grown her company over the last decade. During the interview, Minkoff shares how easy it is for anyone today to start a direct-to-consumer fashion brand of their own using Shopify and why influencer marketing has been critical for business growth.

To expand her brand’s reach outside of social media where she has an active presence as its face, Minkoff has a podcast called Superwomen where, each week, she interviews successful women from all walks of life ranging from CEO’s to artists. Minkoff credits staying in the know with tech as a big part of her rise as well as remaining connected to her target audience which is female consumers.

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