MARYANNE GRISZ
President & CEO, Fashion Group International, Inc
MICHAEL & DIANA WILSON
Founders, Saints & Sinners
BRAND BIO: “Luxury Performance, No Bad Stuff® brand, Saints & Sinners provides award-winning haircare without the toxic ingredients found in inferior, fast beauty products. Proprietary formulas developed for safety and performance. Saints & Sinners founders Michael and Diana Wilson recently received Fashion Group International’s Rising Star Award for Beauty Entrepreneur. Product awards include NewBeauty Magazine’s “Best Moisturizing Shampoo”, “Best Hair Mask” and “Readers’ Choice Favorite Best Deep Conditioning Mask” as well as Beauty Launchpad Magazine’s “Best Hair Oil”, “Best Shampoo”, “Best Dry Shampoo”, “Best New Launch” and “Best Thermal Protectant.” Saints & Sinners is available at www.realsaintsandsinners.com, Holt Renfrew, Amazon and select luxury salons and spas throughout Canada and the United States.”
WEBSITE: https://www.realsaintsandsinners.com
ASSOCIATION TO FGI: FGI Rising Star Winner
Q and A with FGI President and CEO, Maryanne Grisz
What city were you born in?
MW: Los Angeles
DW: Winter Park, Florida
What is your star sign?
MW: Sagittarius
DW: Leo
What were you obsessed with when you were a child?
MW: Math
DW: Leo, Horses, horses and horses.
What do you value most in a friendship?
MW: Loyalty
DW: Loyalty
What’s your proudest moment?
MW: Holding each of my three daughters for the first time.
DW: Becoming Mrs. Wilson
What’s the best part of your job?
MW: Working for myself and with my wife, Diana.I spent the first 25 years of my career building brands for other people. I learned a lot but wish we had launched our own brand sooner.
DW: Getting to work alongside the most amazing human on the planet, my husband Michael.
What’s your biggest fear?
MW: Wasting talent.
DW: Regretting the shots I never took, the adventures I never had..
What’s the best meal you’ve ever eaten?
MW: Diana chartered a yacht for my 50th birthday in the Bay of Banderas in Mexico. Humpback whales travel from Alaska to give birth there. Several whales swam beside our boat while we enjoyed an amazing evening. It was just the two of us and it was magical.
DW: I come from a long line of Southern cooks so rest assured any one of those meals would qualify. And of course, sweet tea and biscuits every time!
What’s next for you in your career?
MW: Choosing a brick and mortar retailer for Saints & Sinners.
DW: It’s the sinner life for me, 24/7 and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
What’s the last thing that made you laugh out loud?
MW: My daughter Camryn makes me laugh daily. She has a corny sense of humor, just like me.
DW: Our most recent press release.
Who or what in your life brings you the most joy?
MW: Diana and our daughters.
DW: Undoubtedly my husband Michael and our three amazing daughters.
How do you spend your day, or what does an ordinary day look like for you?
MW: I wake about 3am and have coffee while checking emails in the hot tub. I work until midafternoon and then go to the gym or spend time in the sensory deprivation tank. I’m addicted to the tank. It’s like meditation on steroids.
DW: Intravenous coffee followed by the office and a trip to the stables to see my horses if I’m lucky.
What approach would you take differently if you had to build a business from scratch today?
MW: We would have embraced an omni-channel distribution strategy earlier.
DW: We launched Saints & Sinners using the distribution model that had always worked for us in the past. We would launch entirely differently with a novel set of partnerships.
What is your favorite quote of all time, and why?
MW: “As it begins, so it ends”. People give hints of who they are early in relationships, even when they’re on their best behavior.
DW: “I’m looking California but feeling Minnesota” from Chris Cornell. I sang it with him at one of his last concerts and it really sums up how to be zen with the world while looking fierce in it!
What books will you recommend that everyone should read once in their lives?
MW: Everyone should read As a Man Thinketh by James Allen. Every entrepreneur should read The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber.
DW: Wuthering Heights. And then learn the dance.
How do you maintain a work-life balance?
MW: Leaving work at a set time has been a breakthrough for me. Of course, there are days when it’s impossible, but those days aren’t as frequent as they once were. Because I start my day so early, I’m able to leave work about 2:30 and still work 60 hours each week.
DW: You do the best you can but when you love what you do it permeates every aspect of your being.
What are the biggest challenges you faced in your career and how did you handle them?
MW: Big challenges are blessings. The ones that knock you on your butt force you to change direction and lead to your destiny. I look forward to them.
DW: There are truly so many challenges we as entrepreneurs face but disengaging from a toxic partner in a previous business was by far the most challenging. It is so refreshing to be free of the unproductivity and I’d encourage everyone to measure ten times and cut once when it comes to choosing a partner.
What is the best advice someone ever gave you?
MW: Trying to fix weaknesses is a waste of time. Spend your time perfecting your talents and become extraordinary in those areas.
DW: To stop and notice the beauty that surrounds us every day, even in the smallest, most innocuous places. The world is truly a magical place.
Who inspires you the most and why?
MW: Diana’s focus on detail inspires me. I’m a big picture person and she’s a detail person. Everything matters to her. From the font used on a bottle to the way she wraps Christmas gifts. Nothing is unimportant to her. She approaches work and her personal life the same way.
DW: My husband and business partner Michael. He is perfection.
What’s the next thing you’re going to do in life?
MW: I’m excited to attend Burning Man for the first time.
DW: There’s so much of the world left to explore… that’s where you’ll find me!