(By Sophie Vaillancourt)
I don’t know if most of you guys are aware, but I work for the biggest book company in Canada: Indigo books & music. At the beginning of the month of June, our CEO, Heather Reisman, went on tour and stopped in each major area of the country. The last stop, but in no way the least, was Montreal. So last week of June, we were gathered at the Scotiabank Theatre on Saint Catherine Street for an official meeting with our CEO. How many of you can say that they’ve met theirs? Not many, right? That’s what I thought.
Anyways. We’re sitting in the theatre, eager to know what this meeting’s all about. And then she appears on the stage, in a cute lilac dress, high heels on, perfect blonde hair. Heather Reisman is really a beautiful woman. And the more I look at her, the more I see it. She is the Indigo brand.
So we’re listening to this woman who has her face everywhere within the company. I’m sitting in the back row thinking : that’s the woman who built the most profitable book company in the country. She is, from now on, my idol. I will do whatever I can to resemble her, professionally speaking that is. That’s when it became clear in my mind that I wanted to be a businesswoman and not an employee anymore. It became clear that I wanted to be a leader, to be someone people look up to.
Mrs. Reisman showed a leadership that was so contagious that I’m sure every person in the room that day thought the same way I did. Everything that woman said made all of it sound so easy. I guess when you have the right team, it is easy.
Truth is, it is not a simple thing to start, or even take back, a company. I’m not telling you anything new here. But listening to that woman was inspiring in a way I didn’t think was possible. Her speech raised my hopes. Hope that, one day, I’ll have my own publishing company. Hope that I’ll be able to help emerging authors be published.
I’m quite far from that objective, though. I’m only 23, no experience in editing, no contacts, no money to invest… How could that possibly work out for me? I have no idea if my dream will come true one day, but I’ll do everything I can to make it happen.
I will probably need your help at one point, people. I’ll need your honesty, your needs, your desires. You will probably be the readers that will buy the books I’ll publish. I want to listen to my readers as much as my writers. Will you be there to help? I hope so.
Till then, wait for me.
By the way, I rode down the escalator with her and talked to her a little. She really is a lovely person!