20 Questions With Nicole McCasey, President, Bravado Designs

Nicole McCasey is the president of Bravado Designs, a Canadian brand of quality nursing and everyday bras. She’s also a Women in Retail Leadership Circle (WIRLC) member! In this member spotlight, we asked McCasey a series of questions about both her professional role and personal life, including the woman that inspires her, her leadership style, her advice for the next generation of female leaders, and much more.

1. What’s the best book you’ve read recently?

There are two. The first is one of the best books I’ve ever read (ever, not just recently) and it took me on an impactful learning journey: “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” as told to Alex Haley. The second is a great story of the deep conversations between a mother and daughter: “Honey, Baby, Mine” by Laura Dern and Diane Ladd.

2. What is a tip you have for productively leading a WFH or hybrid team?

Take advantage of the in-person time that you do have; it provides the opportunity for people and teams to share energy, engage in what everyone is working on and communicate openly. At Bravado we design, develop, and manufacture finished goods so it’s really important for us to use the time to also touch and feel product while in person to make sure we’re getting to the best end result.

3. What’s a mistake you made early on in your career?

I imagined leadership had one persona only, and it was male-driven, somewhat aggressive and loud. Growing up professionally in the sporting goods industry, it was all I saw and experienced early on, so naturally I tried to model those behaviors even though they were completely unnatural to me. There were few or no women in leadership roles at that time and those that did lead, all tried to lead like the men they were surrounded by. It took time to build my confidence and my own leadership brand around who I was, and still am today.

4. What’s the toughest part of being in charge?

The combination of fearing failure personally, yet working to create a safe space for my teams and people to fail. Feeling entirely responsible to the employees of our company, I fear letting them down by making a wrong decision, or steering the business in the wrong direction. However, I know we’ll get to the best result when our people are in a space where it’s safe to test and learn new ideas or ways of working, without fearing failure. Finding the balance between modeling the behavior and making the right decisions all the time can be a challenge. And yes, I know logically that making every single move perfectly is impossible 😊.

5. What’s the best way you motivate team members?

I listen, learn and work to understand what motivates them. From there I adapt to their needs, centered around how they like to work and be led. I don’t believe there is one perfect approach to motivate teams. Being consistent and predictable in actions, clear in strategy and communication, and defining our “why” has been important as I’ve taken over Bravado. These foundational pieces weren’t in-place prior to my joining and has been a game changer in terms of giving me space to then work with individuals.

6. What woman inspires you right now and why?

The women I work with at Bravado and those in the mom and baby/lingerie space are incredible. The unwavering commitment to finding and building better solutions for moms, whether she’s a first- or fifth-timer, is so exciting to watch and be a part of.

7. What are you looking forward to the most for the industry over the next year?

I am looking forward see how brands wholly embrace sustainability and integrate their strategies into the value chain. It’s relatively simple to introduce one, niche product that uses sustainable yarns, materials, processes, etc. and use that as the hero story. It’s much more challenging to transition an existing and entire product range to sustainable.

8. What is one thing you look for when interviewing a potential candidate?

An always-learning, can-do attitude (outside of meeting most functional requirements). I’ve seen this positively translate into passion for the work at hand and a fresh take on how things can be done.

9. What’s something that you learned about yourself in the past year?

That I am highly capable and qualified to run a company. This is my first role as president, and I had doubts when I took it on. The first 16 years of my career were in sporting goods in progressively larger roles, and I moved over to the new-to-me intimate apparel industry when I returned to work from maternity leave with my first child. It’s been a lot of newness, emotion and adjusting in a short time.

10. What’s your favorite podcast?

Controversial answer … I don’t listen to podcasts. Other than the Economist World in Brief each morning. I consume news and content through other channels. Open to suggestions😊.

11. What values are most important to you as a leader?

• Teamwork. This has been engrained in me from a young age playing team sports through to my career where I’ve had the good fortune of working on incredible teams, and as importantly, the opportunity to learn from working on dysfunctional teams. I love the quote “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
• Passion. When people are passionate about what they do – inside and outside of work – it means they care. Without this element foundational to making things happen, results will never come.

12. What’s the most important thing people should know about you?

While I’ve had incredible opportunities to travel, work and live in different parts of the world, my number one job and title is mama to my son George.

13. What practices or boundaries have you implemented in your personal life to create more work/life balance?

I schedule my time accordingly and stick to it. It starts with a 5 a.m. run almost every morning, before the set schedule has a chance to go off-track with unforeseen demands. The hours of 5-7 p.m. are pretty sacred – no phone, no work, just family time. Once my little one is down, I can go back to cleaning up the work day.

14. How would you describe yourself in a single sentence?

I am a tenacious goalkeeper. (This is my leadership brand; requires more than one sentence for the elevator pitch!).

15. What’s your favorite app?

I’m on the tail end of being a Millennial, so Instagram. And Storypark, it’s the app I receive daycare updates from throughout the work day.

16. What do you do to recharge?

Explore. Seeing new people, places, things, and letting the childlike curiosity takeover gives me energy. It can be as simple as finding a new bike path in the town I live in, or walking around a city close to home or far away.

17. What is your biggest accomplishment?

Besides becoming a parent, I recently earned my six-star medal. This is achieved by running all six of the World Marathon Majors.

18. What advice would you give to the next generation of female leaders?

Don’t let fear hold you back. Fear of not fitting in, not being able to be yourself, not being qualified or having the right experience, whatever it may look like. You really don’t know what success looks like until you try, or what empty space you’re able to take up.

19. What gets you up in the morning?

My two-year-old, literally. Him and the 5 a.m. alarm to get that run in.

20. What do you like most about being a member of Women in Retail?

The access to a diverse peer network. This is next to impossible to find anywhere else!