Multi-Hyphenate Blake Lively’s 5-Step Playbook On How To Claim Ownership

Blake Lively has no interest in slapping her name on projects she’s not involved in creating. But the multi-hyphen says it took time to find the courage to make her voice heard.

From her breakout role as Serena van der Woodsen onwards gossip girl to founding the non-alcoholic mixer line Betty Buzz, Hollywood has watched Lively add new titles to her portfolio since her first major acting career The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants in 2005. Your last role? Mom of four: Lively embraced it forbes’ Red Carpet in New York on Thursday to show off her baby bump and revealed for the first time that she is expecting her fourth child. She and her husband Ryan Reynolds have three girls together.

Lively, 35, is one of five children herself and says the family drives all of her endeavors, from motherhood to acting to being a business owner.

“I love to create — and as women, you don’t often get the authorship,” Lively said at the 2022 forbes Power Women’s Summit talks to Moira Forbes, President and Editor of ForbesWomen.

According to Lively, one of the factors driving is that men make the everyday products used by women, who account for 85% of household purchases across all categories.

“That makes sense [women] Creating things that we want to consume,” she says, “be it physical products or stories.” And as Lively makes new films, expands her beverage line, and more, the entrepreneur said creating opportunities for others is just as important .

Here’s the advice Lively gave at the Summit on building brands and claiming authorship:

Believe in what you create and stand behind it.

“It takes so much work to start a business, you have to really believe in it,” says Lively. “Then you have to be able to stand behind it when people say no to you.”

Create something that’s lacking in the current market that matches your values ​​and invest in the quality to stand behind it, she said.

Prioritize quality and conviction.

Lively said it’s all about the details. According to Lively, when you go to business partners, retailers or consumers, all you have to rely on is whether your product or service is of high quality. “I admit that having the entertainment industry as some kind of mic or nudge to promote my business gives me a massive, unfair advantage, but if the product isn’t great, I can only sell a bottle,” she says .

Since launching Betty Buzz in September 2021, the company has sold more than 4 million bottles to date.

Lively advises other entrepreneurs to learn from mistakes and failures and to address red flags and problems as they arise. It’s hard to catch up when you launch a product that’s broken. Although focusing on the details can make women appear falsely difficult or difficult to work with, she says, “It comes down to quality and conviction, and that’s difficult sometimes as a woman, because you wonder if They’re difficult or too hip your head.”

Work with people you identify with.

A successful business requires collaboration. Lively’s advice? Don’t exhaust yourself with the “assholes”.

Choose people who feel they have a voice to foster a collaborative environment and people with values ​​you want to live by in yourself as well. That doesn’t mean there aren’t challenges, confrontations, or friction, “but when you work with people who have mutual respect, it frees up so much time emotionally.”

When Lively decides on a job, she says, she asks herself if her time is valued and well spent, and the metric for that is the people on the project. “I’m lucky to be in this position because I wasn’t always,” she says.

Be your uncompromising self.

When it comes to new or potential jobs or projects, Lively advises it’s best to be open about your needs — though she also admitted that getting the job and getting what you want can be difficult. “Sometimes you lose your job, but if you made it and still didn’t find fulfillment, it wasn’t worth it,” she says.

Her early acting days consisted of “showing up, looking cute, and being on a little pink sticker.” Now she’s pushing for more authorship in her roles — something more fulfilling, she says.

Build others along the way.

Part of creating content, businesses, and products is creating opportunities for others, Lively says. In one of her recent efforts, the multi-dashes said she works with Grameen America, a nonprofit that provides microcredit to women living below the poverty line to help them with their business.

“It’s not just for women to pave the way for other women,” Lively said. “It falls to men to help create those opportunities.”