S01-E05 - Emotional Inclusion Transforming Profit & People

What if the secret to business success isn't putting profits first, but prioritising the emotional wellbeing of your team? Mollie Rogers, General Manager of Longchamp in Singapore and Malaysia, challenges conventional business wisdom with her revolutionary approach to leadership.

From an unexpected start on the shop floor of Longchamp's Madison Avenue, New York store to becoming a regional leader in Asia for the prestigious French fashion house, Mollie's journey demonstrates how understanding retail from the ground up shapes authentic leadership. Her pivotal moment came during COVID when she fully embraced "humanistic leadership," putting emotional inclusion into action as a core organisational value.

"There's no such thing as splitting our home selves from our work selves," Mollie explains, rejecting the Industrial Revolution mindset that still dominates many workplaces. At Longchamp, this philosophy manifests in tangible ways - from a "Zen Den" where employees can rest or meditate to a hybrid work model designed with employee input. When questioned about business impact, she quotes Richard Branson: "Clients do not come first, employees do. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of your clients."

Mollie's passion extends beyond her corporate role. As author of the book 'Emotional Inclusion" and founder of a not-for-profit organisation by the same name, she provides organisations with practical frameworks for prioritising emotional wellness. Her approach involves modelling vulnerability as a leader, creating psychological safety that empowers teams to bring their authentic selves to work.

Working within Longchamp's 4th generation family-owned structure has allowed Mollie's leadership philosophy to thrive without quarterly pressures, creating continuity in thinking and ethos. The company's values of authenticity and optimism perfectly align with her leadership approach, demonstrating how businesses can maintain their unique identity while serving diverse demographics.

Ready to transform your approach to leadership? Listen now to discover how emotional inclusion can revolutionise your workplace culture and drive sustainable business success.

Tune in for an inspiring conversation that will leave you equipped with the tools to lead with confidence, overcome obstacles and unlock The Power Within

email us at: info@motivuscoaching.com

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Transcript

Introduction to Molly Rogers

Keith Power 0:00

Welcome to the Power Within, the podcast where we explore leadership, personal growth and the dynamics that shape success. I'm Keith Power and each week, I sit down with inspiring individuals who share insights on leading with impact, building resilience and unlocking potential. On leading with impact, building resilience and unlocking potential. Through their experiences, we'll uncover the mindset and strategies that drive meaningful growth. Whether you're looking to evolve as a leader or gain new perspectives, this podcast is here to guide you. Molly Rogers is the General Manager for the prestigious French fashion and accessory company Longchamp in Singapore and Malaysia. As we explore more stories of resilience, growth and the power of determination Beyond a corporate leadership, molly is recognized as a visionary leader and community innovator who leverages her expertise to empower teams, drive brand growth and foster sustainable change. Her journey demonstrates how strategic leadership and creative problem solving can elevate both business and community engagement. Molly is an author, keynote speaker and founder of Emotional Inclusion, a not-for-profit organization where she advocates passionately for humanizing the workplace. Okay, good morning, molly. Welcome.

Mollie Rogers 1:32

Good morning, kether, good afternoon. Yes, it is oh my goodness.

Keith Power 1:36

This is the first time I've actually done a recording in the afternoon, so that's my bad.

Mollie Rogers 1:42

A lunchtime podcast. It doesn't get any better than that.

Keith Power 1:45

We should have gone live and had some canapes.

Mollie Rogers 1:47

That's right.

Keith Power 1:48

I heard in another interview that you literally started at the shop floor in Longchamp.

Mollie Rogers 1:56

Tell us about that. Yes, I did, and actually fun fact or maybe not so fun but I graduated during a time of recession and so I had landed in New York and was looking for a job and saw a post from Longchamp and Longchamp is dear to my heart because my first bag as a teenager was a Longchamp bag was an ocean bag and they were looking for someone to help them with customer service out of their Madison Avenue store and I thought to myself okay, you know I can do customer service. And I went for the interview and they were actually looking for a sales representative and I thought to myself all right, well, let's take the job. And I worked there for a year and asking myself pretty much every day what I was doing there.

Keith Power 2:54

This is in a retail environment, right.

Mollie Rogers 2:55

This is in a retail environment in the Longchamp Madison Avenue store, which doesn't exist anymore, unfortunately. It was a gorgeous store, but you know, fast forward to today, you know, as the general manager of Longchamp in Singapore and Malaysia, I can connect the dots. You know. I think in order to really understand the full circle of retail, you need to understand what it's like to be in a store's ecosystem and understand the dynamics that go on in order to really be able to lead properly in this arena.

Keith Power 3:31

Oh, I get that. What were your original plans before seeing this advert then?

Mollie Rogers 3:38

You know, I was a late bloomer and I graduated in languages, in Spanish and Italian, which have not served me in any capacity, you know, in this area of the world having been here for almost 20 years, I was open to what came my way and you know, I think, as a young graduate and as a late bloomer, I was just open as a young graduate and as a late bloomer, I was just open, which is absolutely the right way to meet opportunity face on, to be open.

Keith Power 4:12

Getting too fixed, too closed, too early restricts you and look where you are. But as I understand it, you didn't stay there, you had something in between and then you came back to longchamp and I'm not so good at pronouncing it as you know, you say properly.

Mollie Rogers 4:29

A lot of people say longchamp and so, no, you said longchamp, so that's perfect.

Keith Power 4:33

Oh my, french teacher at school. We used to have the language labs so they could hear you, but you couldn't see the teacher and she said keith. She said your pronunciation is perfect. Unfortunately, your vocabulary is so limited it will never be any use, and that's as true today as it was then back to you. So, after your uh experience at the retail end, the hard end of the business, uh, what were the steps before you came to asia with longchamp?

Mollie Rogers 5:04

so I moved to a company called Alès Group which has under its cupola three brands One is Lierac, which is a skincare French brand, a Fito, which is a hair product, and Caron, which is a beautiful perfume maison which needed a bit of a revamp. And I remember their Madison Avenue store too, and where you would have these beautiful Becquera urns with gorgeous, just natural ingredients perfumes. Everything was natural essences and and I was missioned to to zhuzh it up, and so I had fun with that.

Keith Power 5:56

That's not a word I'm familiar with, and it's to revamp it to zhuzh it up. I love, I feel what it means. Do you feel right?

Mollie Rogers 6:08

It was the beginning of my understanding of what business development was all about, and so I opened up accounts at Henry Bendel and Bergdorf Goodman and really elevated the brand in a way that was more fresh and modern and had a wonderful time with that, although it was trying in the beginning. You know I was replacing at the time a 40-year-old man thinking that that was ancient at the time. I don't anymore. Funny how our perspective changes right.

Mollie Rogers 6:44

Absolutely Really learning on Taron and that has been for me the greatest school, if you will, in terms of learning the strings of business, that it be in-store, understanding the dynamics of retail on Taron, once again, to having to learn the subtleties of business development, understanding how people work and, of course, understanding the industry. So that was a big learning curve and somehow sometimes I wish I learned more of it in school. But there's something to be said again about learning things firsthand.

Keith Power 7:35

Sure, I think I come from a sales background myself and I would say that all of what I learned in life really was based on my time in sales, understanding humans and psychology. So, despite that, perhaps not being your first choice, it's held you in good stead ever since and I'm sure you draw lessons from that all the time, especially the psychology and I do want to later on explore because I know that's an area close to your heart workplace psychology especially. But I also hear your perfect pronunciation of French brands. I recognize it. What's the story there? You, american or French, would tell me about you. Where am I from?

Mollie Rogers 8:25

Yeah, Well, I guess I'm a citizen of the world at this stage. My grandfather, my paternal grandfather, used to work for the CIA.

Mollie Rogers 8:37

And he was posted to Paris and so my father was born there, and so he's half French, half American and I and was later on in life posted to to oversee a Citibank in Paris, and so I grew up in Paris most of my life. My mother is American and so I'm French at heart. I went to French schools and then got shipped to boarding school when I was 16 to the US because I was becoming too French, and have been in Asia for the last 20 years.

From Shop Floor to Leadership

Keith Power 9:19

But your pronunciation is I love the French accent. I think most Brits have this love-hate relationship with the French, but everyone I know loves the French accent. And listeners here know this, because my second guest, Géraldine Gauthier, were talking about accents and how she'd like to lose it. I went whatever you do, don't lose that Don't lose it. Can you in your career, any part of your career, can you describe or think back to a transformative moment? And you recognized it as a transformative moment, and what happened? What was the story behind that?

Mollie Rogers 9:59

There have been many, but if I could think of one that was the most impactful in the last few years, it would be during COVID right, when we were all scrambling to keep the business afloat, morales were down and where I really put humanistic leadership into drive, into action, in a way that I had never before and I chose to put emotional inclusion basically is a core value. It goes beyond diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging strategies. By focusing on emotional wellness, it aims to basically shift workplace culture. Improving that, prioritizing emotional wellness is not only the humane thing to do, but it's also a smart business strategy and I saw the transformative impact that it had on my teams. And you know, look, I think we have, in essence, evolved so little since the Industrial Revolution, which was just 200 years ago.

Mollie Rogers 11:27

It's shocking to think that it was just 200 years ago, but that's a case where it was profitability at all costs and at the detriment of really including the humanity of the individuals we employ, of really including the humanity of the individuals we employ. And I always like to say that there's no such thing as splitting our home selves from our work selves. It's such a trite aphorism, isn't it, and also such a false dichotomy.

Keith Power 12:04

It's even more difficult. There were good and bad things from COVID. Maybe a strange thing to say, but it did start to focus on the human side more. But then, on the other hand, we got much more used to working remotely, being apart from people, and you're losing that anchoring that you have of going to the workplace. I'm interested in your thoughts on this, because there's now very divergent schools of thought on the ways of working. Some bankers in America get back to work, get in your office now. Others have said we've discovered this, it's fantastic, we're never going back. And then there's somewhere in the middle where do you stand? And where do Longchamp stand on this?

Mollie Rogers 12:50

I very much believe in taking the barometer of how everyone is feeling, and so, for our part, in Longchamp, singapore and Malaysia, I asked my employees. I said, well, what, what sits right for?

Keith Power 13:09

you.

Mollie Rogers 13:09

Would you like a day, or would you like two days of work from home?

Mollie Rogers 13:14

Um, and they all unanimously said we'd like one day, and so that was an easy sort of an easy sort of, you know, check off the list, and also, what I did is that I opened a new office, an office that feels like home, and that is very much uh uh, you know within the ethos of our new store design. Uh, so we very much enter into the world of Longchamp whilst at the same time feeling a sense of home, which is all about our store design to begin with, but I thought it was very important to make sure that our employees or that my employees wanted to also come back to the office and that they feel good there. And we have a little room called the Zen Den, which is a place for people to go to if they want to nap. We all know the science behind the power of naps cat naps.

Keith Power 14:26

Do you have guests? I'm there.

Mollie Rogers 14:29

Yeah, well, yeah, You're welcome anytime.

Keith Power 14:32

Keith.

Mollie Rogers 14:33

But you know, if an employee wants to do yoga or do some meditation, you know they can, we make sure that we have. You know they can, we make sure that we have. You know a host of you know treats you know readily available for everyone. So people, my team, enjoy being at work, they enjoy being in the office, but they also enjoy having that one day where they don't have to commute to work you know, and they can focus on their work without also being interrupted, because that's the other thing.

Mollie Rogers 15:09

right, when we're in office, we're always, constantly, which?

Keith Power 15:15

you know, working in an office, the interruptions are what makes it work, but you do need that time where you're focused as well. You really need that. Now I'm going to be devil's advocate here and and ask you it all sounds great from the employee's perspective, but what about the business? The impact on the business? Back to that old-fashioned profitability. How do they sit together for you?

Mollie Rogers 15:40

well, actually, if I were to quote one of my favorite business magnet of all time, sir Richard Branson. He once said clients do not come first, employees do. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of your clients and, effectively, of your business. When it comes down to profitability, we have it so backwards. We think that we need to focus on our clients in order to spearhead profitability. But unless you have employees that feel connected, that feel a sense of purpose, that feel that they are cared for, that feel that they are genuinely heard, the more they give it back to the business. I truly believe in that modus operandi actually to make results.

Emotional Inclusion in the Workplace

Keith Power 16:37

You really do walk the walk. So, from your TED Talk and your book, this is a passionate area for you. Take the opportunity. Please promote your book. Tell our listeners about your book. What it's about, because we've just described it basically in reality, but what's the book about in terms of trying to get other people to adopt this approach.

Mollie Rogers 17:04

The book was a true labor of love. I realized how much information there is out there in terms of well-being, mental health statistics, but what I realized was that there was a clear lack of roadmap in terms of how do we effectively, um, put emotional wellness into action?

Mollie Rogers 17:36

uh, in our workplace is a verb, and being emotionally inclusive of each other's humanity is really something we need to do. And I sound like a broken record at this stage, but it is a book for all of us, in the sense where it comprises stories of people who navigated hardship as we all do, because it's the school of life the grass is never greener on the other side yeah, we all go through our ebbs and flows and it comprises stories of the, of people who have navigated hardships and who could have benefited from a more emotionally inclusive ecosystem.

Mollie Rogers 18:18

so there are their, their stories, real-life stories of leaders, of people who are just beginning their careers again, people from all walks of life, and then it breaks down what emotional inclusion is and gives pragmatic steps of how to create a more emotionally inclusive culture and pillar within organizations. I always say that the number one priority companies have to instill within their organizations is making sure that they have a mental health policy or scheme in place because, again, when it comes to our overall health, we know that it's a mind body conundrum it's all connected.

Keith Power 19:13

It's all connected and, yeah, unbelievably so. I've been studying in the last couple of years hypnotherapy and was in the process of becoming a hypnotherapist, but that takes a back seat now. But that absolutely takes that principle of the mind-body connection and it's amazing that you can even have hypnobirth so you can give birth pain-free through hypnosis, because the mind controls the body, controls the messages that the body sends. It's really important. But taking that, uh, another step, how do you use that? Or, if you don't use that, what other methods do you use to inspire your team to perform at their best level? You ensure that they have this environment, which is comfortable, but how do you inspire them to step up the gears then?

Mollie Rogers 20:03

I make sure that everybody understands that it's okay to be vulnerable, it's okay to have good days and bad days, and I think that the leaders here and I put myself in that category.

Mollie Rogers 20:21

We have a lion's share of responsibility in showcasing what that looks like, Because we are so adamant overall of expecting our employees to behave a certain way to do things a certain way and when we ask them to be human, to be vulnerable, they don't necessarily feel comfortable in doing so, and I think if the leader does so themselves, or the leaders do so themselves, then at least it paves a way for employees to feel comfortable in opening up. You know, and I think that values here, um, are extremely important. Our values at longchamp are of authenticity and optimism. Uh, you know, we're a 77 year old family or family owned company still family, still family owned.

Mollie Rogers 21:13

We haven't been snatched up by a huge conglomerate, as most have most the time, most companies no, not planning on it either.

Mollie Rogers 21:21

The fourth generation is in and doing a phenomenal job, and so I think that Longchamp has this special ethos and culture. Where about it really values the humanity of the employees they employ, and I've been working for Longchamp for 19 years in Asia. I started my career, as we talked about earlier, in New York. When companies walk their talk, ultimately employees feel it. It creates engagement. It creates engagement, it creates retention, it creates richer recruitment, and I'm proud of the company I work for.

Keith Power 22:12

That's a fabulous thing to say, because they walk their talk.

Mollie Rogers 22:14

The employees feel it and I, in essence, just have to reaffirm what it looks like in the day to day and sharing my stories. You know when I got divorced, you know two years ago, and I was ready to talk about it and I shared. You know what I was going through with my team. Okay, I was met with such empathy and such compassion and in so many ways, it brought us even closer together, and so I think, when there's that deep-rooted humanity that is ingrained within the very fabric of our businesses, amazing things happen. And we're struggling right now as a whole because the markets are tough right now the resilience?

Remote Work and Workplace Wellbeing

Mollie Rogers 23:06

is there not the pseudo resilience people? You know, talk about and no, no, the real kind. You know where we're a team we stick together.

Keith Power 23:15

Defeat is not in our vocabulary you know we're on the sixth interview now that comes up so often in terms of resilience, just not accepting failure, not accepting defeat, and just saying that they are a lesson on the journey. When you have that mindset, you can can keep going. I want to go back to something you said about living it and being authentic so that the team can feel that they can be authentic and open themselves. You may be surprised to hear my first guest, colonel Eddie Maskell-Pedersen. He's the head of the defense staff in southeast asia. He described a time where the general, the very top guy, shared about mental health, about how he's felt, and that the way that reverberated down he said it just makes the job so much easier. It's much easier if someone then in a very extreme situation suffering post-traumatic stress disorder. They're trying to avoid it. They'll openly talk about it. Now they model what they want to happen.

Keith Power 24:28

Do you think that Longchamp is able to do this more because it's a fourth-generation family company and does not have that quarter-on on quarter which I was used to? You know you must fit Wall Street's requirements. Boom, boom, boom. It's like a drumbeat. Do you think that being a family owned company has allowed you to be this inclusive, this type of employer and create this kind of environment. Do you think that's part of that?

Mollie Rogers 25:01

Oh no, no question. I think that there is something to be said about family-owned companies, and certainly Longchamp, you know, sort of does things, and it's in their own time, you know the family takes mature decisions in their own time, you know the family takes mature decisions. There's a level of continuity in their thinking and ethos in terms of how they lead the business. And when it comes to, again, the employees of Longchamp, many have been in the company, you know, for decades, you know. So I'm no exception by you know, by a long shot, and so I do definitely think that it has an impact on the quality of the culture, the humanistic culture as a whole.

Keith Power 26:02

It also gives you confidence as a leader. You feel secure.

Mollie Rogers 26:07

I feel tremendously blessed for working for a company like Longchamp. There's no question about that either. The company has allowed me to deepen my work in this arena. Truth be told, I think I've, if I were to go back in time and had been given the choice to decide what to major in in college 20 plus years later.

Mollie Rogers 26:34

I would have chosen psychology, you know, and so, and there is something to be said about organizational psychology as well and and and how that drives the business in in in a deeper way and in a more profitable way. We still have things so backwards still today, you know, we're still in that archaic mindset of pushing profitability first and it's the other way around.

Keith Power 27:04

Profitability will follow.

Keith Power 27:06

If you get it right with your employees, undoubtedly, and I was lucky enough to spend 15 years of my career working for a very large family company called SHV Dutch company. What they were renowned for was being a bit more hands-off, trusting people to do the job, and they're now I'm not sure how big they are, 80 billion euro still a family-owned company and it's never going to change. I can tell you that. And I think the key point you mentioned earlier you skipped that scourge of the third generation. It's on the fourth generation. So it's safe because the third generation, if it's going to go wrong in a family business, is where it goes wrong right.

Keith Power 27:51

So I was just thinking if I were the chair, or whatever your leader is called, I'd be looking at Molly and saying, ooh, I love what they do in there. Perhaps your next job is a head office, ensuring that this becomes the culture of Longchamp. Perhaps this is a job interview for that now.

Mollie Rogers 28:13

You never know. You never know. I love my teams, I love what I do. I think that there are so many ways of driving emotional inclusion and I certainly do in, day in and day out, and within my capacity of my role, today and so. But you never know, how do you?

Keith Power 28:37

maintain your confidence through the obstacles that you come across COVID, as one example, recessions, et cetera. How do you maintain your own confidence? You always seem to me to be quite up there, quite confident, and I'll just let the listeners know. I've seen you in real life, like we're traveling on a plane to Kuala Lumpur. I spotted you, so I've seen you in reality, and you always stand tall, poised, elegant, but looking confident. How?

Mollie Rogers 29:10

do you?

Keith Power 29:10

maintain that confidence.

Mollie Rogers 29:12

Well, firstly, thank you, keith, and I'll say thank you because I'm not good at taking in compliments. I stay rooted in humility as much as I can and I practice a hefty dose of gratitude and I try and level myself as much as I can.

Mollie Rogers 29:38

When things are hard, level myself as much as I can when things are hard and I think having a morning routine is so important. So I wake up early, I do what I call my meditation and movement, so I go out and I either go for a run or for a walk, and it's a time where I am able to uh, re-anchor myself okay and I think we all are so, overall, afraid of um, or resistant of taking time for ourselves, being silent.

Keith Power 30:18

It's so important.

Mollie Rogers 30:21

And it's so important, and I have a friend who's a psychologist and he was just sharing these latest findings on a study where people would much prefer be on the go or even receive an electric you know, an electric shock, than to be in a quiet room with themselves, um uh to, to just be in silence and just be um, and I don't want to misquote where this the study was from, but it's it.

Mollie Rogers 30:57

But it's from a highly regarded institution, but I don't want to mess it up, so I won't quote the institution, but it goes to show that I think we are so much into our daily lives and we're on go, go go, we're on autopilot that we forget to just come back. We're on autopilot that we forget to just come back re-center in order to really recharge, and so I mean, I don't have any sort of magic secret, nor am I. You know, I think people always see you in a different light than you see yourself, and and I think it's it's, it's interesting, I, I, yeah, I, I'm someone who, you know, it's one day at a time.

Mollie Rogers 31:50

I don't know if that makes any sense.

Humanistic Leadership and Authenticity

Keith Power 31:53

It does make sense, but I'm going to call you out and say I don't believe that completely. I think that you're strategic in your thinking as well, but in terms of dealing with things we do one day at a time, you don't get to your position without having some foresight, some strategic thinking, et cetera. So, dragging that back then into the workplace in Longchamp, where does innovation come into play in terms of changing the market's changing fashion? An accessories market is rapidly changing. Even some a luddite like me can see that. How do you adapt yourself? Do you use innovation or what methodologies do you use to stay ahead, stay in the game?

Mollie Rogers 32:41

then yeah, so we definitely again, and it goes back to really putting in motion and practice our core values. Um, so that's something that is is really important for us. So, for example, we, you know we're in a market uh, stance, stance right now where locals are traveling to cheaper destinations, tourists are not coming in as much as they used to, or at least our Chinese at the tier ones are no longer coming in. We are getting our tier twos and tier threes, and so the market dynamic as a whole has shifted. So the momentum is really about continuing to cultivate our relationships with our local customers and recruit new customers, except it's more and more trying to do that. Based on what I just said. During COVID, the family really put their heads down and they reinvented, if you will, a new store concept of Rise.

Mollie Rogers 33:48

reinventing in-store experience is really meant to allow clients to come in and feel as if they are entering a beautiful Parisian home.

Mollie Rogers 34:06

We have removed all cash registers so that clients who come in don't feel like they are a dollar sign. Effectively, we have placed welcome tables at the entrance of all of our stores because we know that the first decisive moment, if you will, is that moment where the client enters and is met with a warm welcome greeting, and so that has shifted the overall visibility and brand image substantially. That has been very impactful. And then, of course, you know, we continue to make sure that we curate and deepen our ties with our customer, our local customers specifically. So we will engage in a lot of in-store events. We will do experiential dinners, like we just did one a few months ago in and around one of our new seasons theme and in this case it was all about the live green theme, you know and bringing in our key, you know, guests and friends of the maison and having dinner and enjoying each other's company in a way that is not product forward. It's there. The essence of these events is really to authentically once again be with our friends of the maison.

Keith Power 35:57

It's deepening your relationships Absolutely. And be with our friends at the Mizzou, but it's deepening your relationships. I can see that transition where you had travelers coming in primarily from China, the tier one cities et cetera. They're in for a few days. It's a very different relationship that you have with someone like that who's coming in quite key, brand driven, know what they want, get what they want and go in quite key brand driven, know what they want, get what they want and go. Yeah, whereas in singapore and in malaysia you now have to position yourself in a deepened relationship with these family members. That kind of how you see it. That's a very, very significant shift in the business, right.

Mollie Rogers 36:37

Yeah, and I think we've been in this, you know, dynamic for a while. It's just become, I think, more and more strategic and important for us to do that, you know, because the world is changing, the geopolitics at large are what they are. The maison is doing it beautifully and, and you know, longchamp is a brand that you will see in every cabin class on an aircraft.

Mollie Rogers 37:09

You know it caters to all ages, all demographics, all pocketbooks price points and all pocketbooks yeah that's right and I, truth be told, don't know of many companies that have that kind of niche.

Keith Power 37:25

It, and to me it, commands enormous gravitas and it hasn't lost itself in the process like we won't name other brands, but other brands that used to stand for something and now you just go. Oh you know, what we call in the uk chaff brands. They've become chaff brands. Longchamp has retained this that they can stretch right across the demographic and yet still maintain that gravitas that you spoke about. That's amazing to be able to do that, frank.

Mollie Rogers 37:54

Yeah, they've always walked their talk.

Keith Power 37:56

I lived in China for five years. I hate certain brands and we won't name other brands where they deliberately have big burly security guys, red rope keeping you in a queue and the store's empty. There's three or four people creating this artificial environment. I don't know much about fashion, but for me that's an absolute turnoff and I've gone to go in there to buy something for my wife for a significant birthday. I went. I'm not buying from this brand, I just walked away. I'm done. Perhaps I'm not their target audience.

Mollie Rogers 38:31

No, but the interesting thing of what you're just mentioning is that these brands no longer have those cupoles. Oh, okay, these brands no longer have those cupoles in order to you know, to usher in people as they see fit and to show the rest of the world that they have cues when they have two people in store. And no longer, if you've noticed, no longer do the luxury brands close their doors.

Mollie Rogers 39:06

The doors are all open now and that showcases again the fact it's a psychological shift, the fact that we're in a a market dynamic that is tough well, sometimes tough times bring out good solutions as well, so in your own leadership.

Keith Power 39:23

Do you have any specific philosophy in terms of your own personal leadership, leading your own team?

Mollie Rogers 39:32

don't go beyond that, just your own day-to-day well, one is to be bold and to be brave. Our uniqueness is our superpower.

Keith Power 39:46

Yeah, for sure.

Mollie Rogers 39:47

I love what Brene Brown said once. She said that comparison is the thief of joy, and we tend to compare ourselves so much with other competitors, with other people, with you name it. But it really is a thief of joy and one that I stand by day in and day out is be humble because tables turn. Always stay humble. Yeah, tables turn.

Keith Power 40:28

I came to Asia primarily to develop some humility, and then I ended up working for an American company where that was actually dissed that was out the window.

Keith Power 40:39

Oh goodness, I remember. I won't name names, I won't even name companies, but I was running Asia Pacific and a colleague of mine was running the Americas. He was struggling, really struggling. We had kicked all our goals. So I decided I'm going to be Asian and humble. So I just said, yeah, we're doing this, we're doing that. We just told the story. Let the numbers talk for themselves. He spoke and then he said yeah, we're doing that, we just just told the story, let the numbers talk for themselves. He spoke and then he said, yeah, we're doing this and that, and here's the pipeline and everything's lined up and it's going to look great for the rest of the area. And our boss went. I nearly slipped an amen, good job, I mean, keith. He said, why did you say you missed in vietnam? And I'm like how is that? You know I've kicked every goal possible. So working with an american company is difficult when you're in asia. If you're trying to adopt asian values and principles, especially humility, it doesn't go down no.

Keith Power 41:41

It really does.

Mollie Rogers 41:42

You should have worked for the French, I know.

Keith Power 41:46

Where are Longchamp headquartered?

Mollie Rogers 41:48

So our home market is Paris.

Keith Power 41:51

Right.

Mollie Rogers 41:51

But in Asia we are headquartered in Hong Kong.

Keith Power 41:55

Okay, so it's like a split. So the world is basically East and West split, essentially.

Mollie Rogers 42:01

Yes, so well. Hong Kong, the headquarters, are overseeing all of apac, and then we have our different subsidiaries across the pacific.

Keith Power 42:11

So where's your boss sit? My boss sits in hong kong okay, so you speak every day in english. Is that the?

Mollie Rogers 42:18

french and english, is it oh?

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Keith Power 42:20

goodness me, yeah, yeah, I'm a brit. We're absolutely useless at languages. I actually speak to an intermediate level Polish, but a little bit like your languages outside of Poland has not helped me in very good stead, but at least it was good that I knew I could learn a language. I was just too damn lazy.

Mollie Rogers 42:38

Well, it's hard. I've never learned how to speak Cantonese or Mandarin and I've been asked the question okay, do you speak and I don't? And I'm good at languages, but Cantonese and Mandarin are tough. And you need to sit down and put in the time, and so don't worry.

Keith Power 43:01

I did 100 hours of Chinese, of Mandarin and I can barely order a beer.

Mollie Rogers 43:07

That's the truth, and then my wife.

Keith Power 43:09

She's Malaysian-Chinese, now Singaporean, fluently English, mandarin, hakka, malay.

Mollie Rogers 43:16

Cantonese and just flips between them.

Keith Power 43:21

And that absolutely blows my mind, but I also see she has different personas in each of those languages. It's not just learning the language it's slipping and flipping then correct. So French and English are easy to slip for you correct Spanish and Italian then do you get much opportunity to practice those languages these days?

Mollie Rogers 43:40

no, I don't, unless I I go to Italy and I haven't been back, or Spain, and I haven't been back in a long time. But what's really interesting is that I don't unless I go to Italy and I haven't been back or Spain, and I haven't been back in a long time. But what's really interesting is that I don't think you ever lose a language. You know when I go back, when I've gone back or when I speak with my Spanish or Italian friends. You know, it all kind of comes back.

Keith Power 44:04

My schoolboy French returns when I'm in France, but, as I said earlier, my pronunciation is quite good. So a couple of words and then they start speaking wholly and I go. I don't understand anymore. So I have to be careful I should make it sound more broken than it is. I'm going to put you on the spot. I do believe when you say about humility, but I will ask you a question which you'll have to step out of your humility for a moment. What advice would you give to aspiring leaders who want to combine corporate success with meaningful community contribution, as you have done? So? I want you to show how can others do that? That crossover part.

Mollie Rogers 44:50

I think I invite them to delve a bit deeper within themselves and understand what their greater purpose is and whatever that might be, that they go out and that they action upon it, and to not in any way feel or think that they don't have the right or enough experience to do it. The right or the enough experience to do it, um, I know, for me, my greater purpose is bringing emotional inclusion to the world. You know, if I can allow our children and generations to come to be able to go to work and and bring their full selves at work, um, I can die happily, you know. And so I think it takes a while to figure out what our purpose is, but to take that time and to really think about it Because, at the end of the day, meshing our purpose with our, what we do in our daily lives, um, is what I truly believe is what makes us want to get up in the morning, and there is no greater joy than to be able to share that with people.

Mollie Rogers 46:19

Uh and um, you know, I it's a bit of an aparte, but you know it's a bit of an aparte, but you know, in a lot of the blue zones, you know the big component of why people live longer is community, and being able to share our purpose in a community driven way well, perhaps, would make us live longer too, you know, but that's really what I would recommend. Life is so short, it's so short, and I always quote this study by Gallup, which was a 2022 study, which found that 81,396 hours is how long the average person spends working throughout their lifetime, basically making sleep the one thing. We do more than work. And yet we spend the bulk of those waking hours pretending that we have it all together, that our lives are okay just the way they are. And it's sad, you know, and I think that we all deserve more. We all deserve a really great shot at this lifetime yeah, you only get one, only that's it.

Mollie Rogers 47:41

Only get one.

Keith Power 47:42

Yeah, I know different people have different beliefs about that, but certainly this life in this life, in this life you have really have to make the most of it, and I I found um now in my 60s that I realize I've done a lot, but I could have done so much more. But there's pointless worrying about that. Instead, I twist that to okay, what can I do now?

Mollie Rogers 48:05

that's right.

Keith Power 48:06

So in the last um four or five years, I trained as a barber, yeah, trained as hypnotherapist, trained as a coach, and if you talk about your calling, my calling undoubtedly is to coach and to mentor. And yesterday, caught in a downpour of rain, I spent an hour with a 30 year old who definitely at a crossroads in a career, in a career. We had this conversation. She connected to me on LinkedIn and she just said wow, you've pushed me to make this decision that I've been procrastinating over and you've inspired me. I went, oh, I almost cried when I read it, you know you've inspired me.

Keith Power 48:46

I went. Oh, I almost cried when I read it. You know, that's my thing, and the fact that I now do that as a job is amazing.

Keith Power 48:50

I just wish that I had found that a very long time ago. Molly, you're lucky that you found that intercession early and are riding it, but something else will happen now. Something else will come along. I wonder what that is for you. I'll probably give an insight, and I hope your chairman was listening, because you've got so much more to offer the organization. If you were to go back and speak to, let's say, a 16-year-old Molly, what advice would you give yourself with a little bit of knowledge of what you know now? But you're going back and you're meeting her, what would you say to her?

Mollie Rogers 49:35

I would say to her it's all going to be okay.

Keith Power 49:42

Relax, breathe.

Mollie Rogers 49:44

Yeah, breathe and be yourself. Don't be afraid to show up in the world as you don't dim your light.

Keith Power 49:54

So at 16 you were in, already in boarding school. Yes, so was that the way you spoke about? That sounds like you weren't the confident self. You are now at 16.

Mollie Rogers 50:07

Well, at 16, you know, I was in a, plopped into a new, into a new life.

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Keith Power 50:16

in many ways I'd never really lived in the US, new country, bored in, away from family, all of these things bored in, away from family.

Mollie Rogers 50:29

All of these things, yeah, no truth be told. Um, it took me a long time to find that sense of worth. Okay, and I'm not afraid of saying it because I think we're, all you know, trying to find it and nurturing that quest of worthiness, self-worthiness, and we're all too afraid to admit it, except I think it takes a lifetime yeah, it took me too much, too long.

Keith Power 50:53

And uh again, the what I was saying to this lady yesterday don't live for your parents, for your boyfriend, your friends, live for you, absolutely make your decisions for you, because if you cannot satisfy yourself and be happy, it's impossible to make anybody else happy and you can't be responsible for other people's happiness anyway. So I don't think that's self-indulgent at all to want more to love yourself and to want the best for yourself, and I think that anyone taking on that advice would do well, undoubtedly. So what's next for Molly? Anything you can share. And if you say what's next, I know week to week you're crazily busy, I know that but what's next in the next year or two for Molly?

Mollie Rogers 51:48

Well, I am going to continue the work that I do with emotional inclusion. There might be a second book. I'm thinking about it. I just literally birthed one two years ago, so giving myself a little bit of a breather, but I think that that's definitely in the works. I've squared off the two TED Talks, so I'm not going to do another one, but I think the work really continues in paving the way with other companies to breathe emotional inclusion within their organizations, to continue to breathe it in to the work that I do day in and day out at Longchamp and to continue in the path of divine surrendering.

Keith Power 52:40

Divine surrendering. I love that thought. And you mentioned earlier about a psychologist friend, perhaps a collaboration with someone, a psychologist, to bring a new aspect, a new angle, a little bit more academia to your work. So bring your real life experience with this and pulling them together. Yeah, we've written the book already right, yeah, that's right.

Mollie Rogers 53:04

This and pulling them together? Yeah, we are, we've written the book already, right? Yeah, that's right, it's that that's a, actually a ceiling that has been, uh, plopped into the soil already. So, okay, all right, so I'm jumping ahead there, molly is an absolute pleasure to have you here today.

Keith Power 53:18

This afternoon, as you've reminded me, I'm enjoyed all of the stories I love. Your career is is very different than most, but you accidentally started at the bottom. I don't mean that in a derogatory way, but you realize how that anchored you, how that prepared you for where you are now. So thank you for sharing everything with us today. I look forward to seeing you again probably not at the store.

Mollie Rogers 53:48

You never know. Yeah, you never know. Never know.

Keith Power 53:51

Your wife might need a hand I won't go into that, so I look forward to seeing you again. I wish you well. There's no third ted talk. That's the one takeaway. There's probably a second book and I've pitched you ready for the next elevation of the job, molly thank you.

Mollie Rogers 54:11

Thank you so much, keith, it's been such a pleasure.

Keith Power 54:13

You too. Thanks a lot. Thanks for listening to the Power Within. I hope today's episode inspired you to grow, lead and create the success you deserve. If you enjoyed the podcast, share it with someone who might find it valuable, and don't forget to subscribe and leave a review. Join us next time as we explore more stories of leadership and personal growth, and remember that setbacks are just stepping stones to something greater. Until then, stay strong, stay positive and keep believing in the power within.