On November 14, Jessica Alba had an insightful conversation with Marie Claire editor-in-chief Sally Holmes at MC's 2022 Power Trip Summit.

During the discussion, the founder and chief creative officer of The Honest Company told the audience of her "really, really not easy" road to taking her company from private to public in 2021. 'It was a really brutal experience. They really try to throw as many banana peels at you as possible. And who better to navigate the banana peels than a woman in business?"

"We get these things thrown at us right, left, and center. And we motivate our team to get the same amount of work done. It's a brutal workload."

The entrepreneur also opened up about her experience as the youngest Latina to ring the NASDAQ bell and her strategies in leading a public company. Highlights of the conversation between Alba and Holmes are as follows.

On Alba's relationship with her business after more than a decade: [I used to be parallel to my business, but over the years, as I developed a deeper connection to my humanity, my inner self, my soul, my identity became less connected to the health of my business. But over the years, as I developed a deeper connection with my inner self, my soul, my identity became less and less tied to the soundness of business.

She continued: "So basically, the lesson was to partner with people who were as sincere as I was. I thought that was interesting. When you think about business or life or whatever you want to do that you really have to partner with someone, even if it's friendship, you can bring your authentic self to the table every day. I've been hard on myself for a long time, but at some point you just have to be able to give yourself grace. There is only so much you can do for yourself. You can't make up for the lack of others.

"I used to be terribly averse to taking in anything good until not too long ago. I thought it was a waste of time. Especially since we make up 50 percent of the population, but few of us hold many positions of power in the business world. We can't look at ourselves and feel like maybe we don't deserve to be there. It is a conditioning that we are used to, that we grew up with, that we have to unlearn. It was a wonderful trip and very fulfilling. It's cool to see all the different waves that come in as you grow up."

On guiding the strategy of an expanding public company:

"What is the strategy as a public company: a private one. It's about looking at market share and saying, is this going to be a $2 million business or is this going to be a $50 million business?" [Because] if you're going to put the same effort into it, it's better to go after a $50 million business than a $2 million business, because the ROI is better in the end. And can you really differentiate yourself, can you really compete? Is there a real reason to be there? And can you make it affordable? Because there are a lot of things you can do with a million dollars, but if you are trying to make it accessible, it's about being able to scale the idea.

On what it was like to do an IPO:

"I would say that if you have a peaceful, relaxed life and sleep well at night, you should not take your company public. But no one does. No, I'm kidding. No, I am joking. Listing a company is actually important. It's necessary: between 2013 and 2020, more than 2,000 companies went public, but only 18 of them had female leaders. That is absurd. Why is this happening? What year is it now? What year, what month, what day. What is happening? And (the answer is), oh wait, all the power is still there. So the only way we can change that is for us to be in a position of power."

She continued: "I guess it's hard to believe that this is how people, companies go public. You have to attract really great young people who have so much energy that they lose sleep, you have to attract really creative, very intelligent, creative people. But it's really, really not easy. The process is so wild and has not been updated for too long. It's like the Electoral College; it's really outdated."

On how it felt to ring the opening bell:

"This is not where I'm most comfortable," Alba said of the opening speech she gave at the bell-ringing ceremony when The Honest Company celebrated its initial public offering in 2021. 'I love it when someone gives me a line. I remember that line and I can put a little emotion into it to keep the emotion alive. But in that moment, I realized that [the speech] was a kind of call to action, but also a way to show up for a community of people who, for the most part, have never been on that stage."

On the future of direct-to-consumer sales:

"I felt that launching a DtoC brand gave me more control over my own destiny. This is because there is no such thing as ownership. Imagine you have a flagship store online. If you take care of it, no one can take it away from you.

"But ultimately you have to be where the consumer wants to be. If the consumer wants a physical store, then get that location. If the consumer wants to be in the retail channel, make sure they are there. Frankly, I don't think we should stick to any one model. Frankly, I think social commerce is 10 years behind where it should be. In any case, social commerce is probably headed in that direction. But the more control we have over our consumer relationships, the more power we have, the more we can test and learn. We don't need to rely on others for innovation."

On Alba's advice for leading a male-dominated team:

"It doesn't matter if it's a group of men or a group of women. You need to make them want to work with their best selves every day. And I don't think micromanagement is a good idea. I've been guilty of that, but they all pile up all these challenges in front of you and you keep solving them. But the more you allow (your team) to learn as they go along, the more you can encourage them to learn from their mistakes without punishing them for making them: ...... In those cases, I don't think gender matters."

She continued: "I'm not going to lie and say that I don't always deal with masculine things. Mansplaining and all that... It's all laughable now, though. I used to certainly hurt my feelings every time I did it. Then, through meditation, I began to feel more tenderness in their experiences and in knowing that they literally know nothing. They were... They grew up among machismo and toxic men, or men. And that was kind of their upbringing. And they have relationships with women who, for whatever reason, have decided that they are not going to be equal breadwinners in the family. So they can't help but do that. So I don't have to get so angry every time they do something annoying.

On how to introduce yourself:

"I am a poor speller. I am an amateur cook. I dream big. I am a dreamer and I believe in people. And I believe in goodness and hope. My job is probably to unleash that as much as possible. Whether that be telling stories and entertainment or telling stories through my products. And a very imperfect mother. But my children still tell me their secrets.