Not Just a Bag: The Woman, the Book, and the Shift That Built OLEADA
From million-dollar deals to real purpose, this is how a book, a bag, and one extraordinary woman redefined everything I thought I knew about power.
Back in 2018, while working in private equity, I picked up Aesthetic Intelligence by Pauline Brown, the former North America Chair of LVMH. At the time, I had been trained as an electronic engineer and was brought into the firm to work on TMT (technology, media, and telecom) deals. Fashion wasn’t my assigned coverage. But one day (a story for another time), I got bold enough to raise my hand and step into an industry I genuinely felt drawn to.
I’ll admit—at first, I had my doubts. Was fashion just a superficial business?
That book changed everything.
I cold-emailed Pauline in 2021. A year later, before OLEADA had even launched, I sent her my very first design: the Captain Sleeve. She told me she loved it—called it “a supremely aesthetic gift.” That meant a lot. Over the years, I stayed loosely connected, attending events hosted by her Aesthetic Intelligence Lab.
Then, in the summer of 2024, Pauline texted me—completely out of the blue—to congratulate me on OLEADA’s Wall Street Journal front-page feature. I was shocked she still had my number... and even more shocked she’d been quietly watching my journey all this time. (That WSJ feature came out of nowhere, by the way—but that’s a story for another day.)
Fast forward to that fall: we sat side by side at the OLEADA Lounge in New York, co-hosting a fireside chat on aesthetics, authenticity, and leadership. She even told me she still uses her Captain Sleeve often—and loves the laptop stand function. My jaw dropped.
As I prepped for the event, I realized just how deeply Pauline had shaped my own path.
Still back in 2018—the same book, the same private equity version of me. Titles aside, I was quietly questioning everything. Even after closing million-dollar deals, I felt powerless.
So I started looking for answers.
I went to a bunch of women’s empowerment summits… but they all felt the same. Rooms full of sharp suits, frustration, and fire—but no real solutions. Just venting about inequality in the same system we were told to conform to. Loud, yes. But healing? Not really.
To me, if empowerment requires dressing like men, acting like men, and fighting to preserve the same rigid mold of power… that’s not empowerment. That’s compliance. And that’s exactly how I felt every day in private equity. I also don’t believe we gain power by tearing others down.
Then this line from Pauline’s book stopped me in my tracks:
“In reality, my biggest breakthroughs—both personal and professional—came when I had the courage to stand out and to showcase the one and only thing that I actually do better than anyone else in the world: to be Pauline Brown.”
That rewired something in me. This is the woman leader I would love to look into.
I realized true power doesn’t come from mimicking. It comes from claiming your own.
Power comes from within.
That idea eventually became the foundation of OLEADA—and my personal north star:
Live freely. Lead authentically. You have to become yourself first. That’s when people start to follow—not because you have something they want, but because you’ve become someone they want to learn from, connect with, and be inspired by. That kind of influence is real. And it’s organic.
And the truth is, in this evolving world, there’s no longer one stereotype for what a woman leader should look like.
That’s our advantage.
We’re fluid. We’re dynamic. And by being fully ourselves, we’re shaping a new version of leadership—one that feels more human, more honest, and more whole.
It reminds me of that iconic Bruce Lee quote: “Be like water.”
“You put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle.”
Water doesn’t force its way in. It flows. It adapts. It holds its power in softness—yet it can carve through stone.
That’s exactly what OLEADA stands for.
We’re not just designing bags—we’re designing what women’s power looks and feels like. The freedom to move, to lead, to show up exactly as you are. Our pieces are made for the multifaceted ways modern women work and live, but they also carry something deeper: the belief that authenticity is power. That softness is not weakness. That presence is more compelling than performance.
Like ocean waves—OLEADA’s namesake—we don’t need to be loud to be strong.
We just need to be true.
After the Lounge, my team kept asking me: “How did you get someone like her to stand with you?”
And honestly, the answer is the same one Pauline shared onstage with me:
“Authenticity is essential because people can sense when someone is being inauthentic. So you have to either own who you are, or be exposed for being deceptive. That’s your choice. There are many good performers out there. But lives are long. Careers are long. Real relationships are long. And leading with deception doesn’t build strength. It doesn’t build long-term power. So I don’t even look at it as an option.”
The most powerful relationships are long-term. They take time to build. And they’re built on integrity, authenticity, and decency.
That’s how I choose to operate—both as myself and through OLEADA.
Read the full fireside chat recap HERE.
A beautiful conversation on redefining leadership, through aesthetics and authenticity.
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