Meet #LeadingLady Renee Warren: Founder And CEO Of We Wild Women

As a group of women working towards common goals for STYLE Canada‘s brand and business, we understand the value of peer support in the workplace. So, after our last Supper Club at Soho House, we decided to bring like-minded women in business together and feature them in an ongoing series: #LeadingLadies. Learn more about #LeadingLady Renee Warren below. 

Photo: Renee Warren

Renee Warren – Founder and CEO of We Wild Women

SC: Tell us about yourself. 

RW: I’m an award-winning entrepreneur, a seven-figure business starter, and the founder of We Wild Women, a business dedicated to helping women launch their dream business.

A mother to Irish Twins, the wife to a serial entrepreneur, a published author, and CrossFit athlete, I have my hands full in managing motherhood, entrepreneurship, and all the little things in the messy middle. I am also host of the Into The Wild Podcast, where I discuss the essential skills to launch a successful dream business. 

SC: What obstacles have you overcome to get to where you are today? 

RW: The biggest thing, hands down, even with the women I coach, is mindset, especially around imposter syndrome. When I first started my last agency, which I grew to $1 million in revenue, every day during our team standup, I would jokingly say, “I don’t know what I am doing.” But underneath the humour, I was right – I had no clue what I was doing and feared that someone would uncover all my weaknesses one day. I felt like they were all on to me.

It wasn’t long before I started feeling more anxious, as our client load increased and our pricing went up, that I knew I needed a massive mindset change. These thoughts weren’t serving me, my team, or my clients. According to them, it appeared as though I had my sh*t together. They were all looking to me for answers and results. I needed to change how I thought about my ability.

The moment I told myself that I knew what I was doing and that people are relying on me because they believe in me, it changed everything.

Photo: Renee Warren

SC: What social issue are you most passionate about? 

RW: Women empowerment. We need to have more women in positions of power, as CEO, in politics, in their current job, or as entrepreneurs. Women bring forth different perspectives, more empathy, and need to be at the table, making those world-changing decisions too. Since I know what it means to be an entrepreneur, that’s my vessel. 

2020 has undoubtedly redefined how we parent and run businesses. There was something like 1,500,000 million women in the U.S. who immediately lost their jobs during the lockdown and became full-time parents and teachers. The unfair displacement of women in this particular situation shows that there is still so much work to do even though we have made progress in equality. When women become entrepreneurs, they are put in a position of power and can more confidently pursue their dreams, global pandemic, and all.

SC: Who or what has been a strong influence in your life?

RW: My parents. They always encouraged me to try harder and move forward faster without being tormented. I don’t think I ever disappointed them (at least they made me feel that way), which made me always want to honor their support. 

Secondly, my older sister has been an enormous influence. She did way better in school than I did and was always there to help tutor me, support me, and push me beyond my comfort zone. She had me on the high school mountain biking team, running track and field, and eventually got me into ultimate frisbee. At 40, she was the captain of her Women’s Masters Ultimate Frisbee team, which she led to both national and North American gold medals. She proves that age can’t stop her.

Lastly, my husband. He took my comfort zone and stretched it so far out into the universe that Saturn’s rings look tiny. His go-go-go energy and you-can-do-anything attitude not only raised me higher but made me feel like I’ve already won. He is my rock and my punching bag. 

Photo: Renee Warren

SC: How did you come up with the idea for your business?

RW: The idea came to me like a download from nature. Not to get all woo-woo, but, as Vishen Lakhiani explains in his book The Code of the Extraordinary Mind, nature signals ideas all the time and does not discriminate on who they land. It takes the ones who are the most motivated and inspired to follow through with the idea. I jumped on this path when nature said, “Here you go Renée. Don’t f*ck it up too much”. 

I didn’t, and within the first three months of my program going public, I had already reached 50 per cent of my annual sales projections. Now that’s validation.

SC: What advice would you give your 18-year-old self?

RW: You don’t have to be the richest, smartest, or most beautiful person in the room to succeed. You just need to be the person who can make others believe in themselves to make a lasting impact.