Cecile’s story: “Mentoring benefits everyone”

Cecile Reinaud has always been passionate about empowering women. She started her maternity wear business, Seraphine, to help women feel stylish and confident during pregnancy. The brand was a huge hit, selling in multiple countries and being worn by some of the world’s most glamourous pregnant women.  Cecile wanted to use her experience as an entrepreneur to support other women’s business ventures. She became a mentor in our Mentoring Women in Business programme and was matched with her mentee, Chokey Wangmo, a café owner in Bhutan. The pair worked together to generate new ideas for Chokey’s café and strengthen its back-end operations, paving the way for massive success and expansion.  

“When I was 30, I had quite a lot of friends and colleagues who were becoming pregnant. At the time,  there weren’t many fashionable or elegant clothing options for pregnant women. I wanted to fill that gap in the market. So, I decided to quit my advertising job and create my maternity wear brand, Seraphine. Over the years, we’ve gone from selling our clothes in London and Paris to distributing in over 30 countries around the world. We’ve even been known to dress celebrities and royals. You might have seen our clothing on the Duchess of Cambridge during her three pregnancies!   

After eighteen incredible year, I decided to sell the business and devote more of my time to charitable work. I remembered meeting Cherie Blair CBE KC at an event the year before and hearing her speak about the Foundation’s work with women entrepreneurs in low and middle income countries. The Foundation’s mission was obviously close to my heart, since I had been an entrepreneur myself. I knew that even though I’d faced challenges in my business journey, there were many countries where women entrepreneurs faced additional barriers and discrimination. I wanted to support those women to overcome their business challenges and achieve success. I started by donating to the Foundation’s work, but my contributions didn’t stop there—I also donated my time and expertise as a mentor in the Mentoring Women in Business programme!  

This all happened during the height of the pandemic, when everything had to be done remotely. The Mentoring programme’s design was kind of ahead of its time in that way. It had been delivered entirely online from the very beginning, years before the pandemic hit. Mentees and mentors met through video calls, participated in webinars, and accessed virtual resources to guide them through their journeys. I mean, how visionary and ground-breaking to have been working that way pre-COVID, right?  

My mentee was Chokey Wangmo, who owned a café in Bhutan. I didn’t know very much about Bhutan when we started, so I got to learn a lot about the country through her. Despite being in different industries and countries, we found that we had a lot of shared experiences as women in business.  

Entrepreneurship can be quite lonely. Unless you have a business partner, you’re driving the business completely by yourself—making decisions, managing problems and bearing all the risk alone. For women entrepreneurs, there is an added layer of pressure because we have been socialized to doubt ourselves and play it safe. We often suffer from imposter syndrome, lack of confidence, and other invisible barriers that hold us back from reaching our full potential. Having a mentor to guide you, offer new perspectives and ideas, and provide moral support makes a huge difference. They help you break down those barriers so that you can progress your goals. I had mentors who did that for me and I’m glad I could do that for my mentee as well.

Chokey started her business about four months before COVID hit Bhutan. She was still quite new to entrepreneurship and had to navigate the uncertainty and stress that came with doing business at a time of global crisis. There came a point when the lockdown restrictions made it difficult for her to commute between work and home, so she decided to live in her café for months. She spent that time practicing her coffee making and learning new ways to strengthen her business. She turned this enormous setback into an opportunity to make the café even better than it was before. It was incredible to be part of that process. 

I threw myself into mentoring, offering support and encouragement and giving guidance when she wanted it. My experience in retail was particularly relevant to her, as I was able to share lessons I’d learned about managing stock, tracking profit and loss, negotiating rent, and running strong marketing campaigns. I even helped her research fun recipes she could try. There were some things I would see in my local cafés that I’d suggest to her, things that might not be as common in Bhutan that could set her café apart and provide a unique experience to customers. We had the best discussions. Every time we had a video call, she would take me through the café to show me all the new things she was doing. 

When the lockdowns ended, she reopened her café and finally got to enjoy the success she’d worked so hard for. People loved what she’d done with it. One café turned into two and eventually three! She’s got a full-on empire of cafés in Bhutan and has even adapted some into restaurants as well. 

Chokey told me that without my mentorship, she would have lost that first café and never would have gotten to open a second or third location. I’m so proud to have played a role in her success, but she made it happen for herself. She had all this tenacity and ambition. She had a vision, and she made it a reality. It’s like she was planting a garden and she had all the seeds that she needed already, but I got to share tips and tricks for making it bloom. It was very satisfying for both of us. Mentoring benefits everyone!  

After participating in the programme, I was so convinced of the value of mentoring that I wanted to get even more involved in the Foundation’s work. I joined the Accelerate Circle to help spread the word about what the Foundation does and get more people supporting it! 

As for me and Chokey, we keep in touch to this day. I feel like she’s a friend that I’ve been on an incredible journey with. I’m even hoping to go visit her in Bhutan sometime and see her cafés in person.”