Going From the CIA to CEO: How a Near-Death Experience Inspired This Founder to Launch a Luxury Pajama Brand - Emily Hikade, founder of Petite Plume

Behind Her Empire

Emily Hikade is the founder and CEO of Petite Plume, a luxury sleepwear brand made with the highest quality fabrics.

For over a decade, Emily worked for the CIA, serving overseas in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. During this time, she was also a mother to four young boys, none of whom knew about her career. Everything changed when she was on a mission and the plane she was in nearly crashed, almost taking her life. The thought of her children growing up without their mother was unbearable, and she knew she had to make a drastic change in her lifestyle. In 2015, while still living and working abroad, she bootstrapped and launched Petite Plume. Since its launch, Emily has grown the business into one of the most well-known luxury pajama brands, with a cult following and celebrity fans like Jimmy Fallon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin Hart, and Prince George, to name a few. This self-funded brand has doubled year over year since its inception and has been profitable since its first year.

In this week’s episode, Emily takes us through her journey from growing up in Wisconsin, where her fascination with travel and passion for languages began, to her remarkable career as a CIA officer, navigating war zones and negotiating with affiliates of terrorist organizations. She shares about starting Petite Plume as a side hustle in East Africa and navigating challenges like horrible Wi-Fi on location, self-funding the business, and creating awareness with no connections in the retail space. Emily also talks about her strategic approach to business, emphasizing the importance of slow, organic, year-over-year growth, and how she avoids burnout while leading a growing business and being a mother of four. She discusses the biggest lessons she has learned running Petite Plume for nearly a decade, and so much more.

In this episode, we’ll talk to Emily about:

* Emily’s childhood and her fascination for travel. [02:54]

* Working in the White House and starting a career with the CIA. [03:05]

* Emily’s pivotal experiences as a CIA Officer. [05:36]

* The origin of the idea for Petite Plume. [15:46]

* Building Petite Plume as a side hustle in a foreign country. [18:42]

* Getting into 200 stores during the first year. [21:13]

* Being self-funded over the past nine years. [23:37]

* Prince Charles wearing their flagship product, the pajamas. [27:44]

* Emily’s transferable skills as a CIA Officer to entrepreneur. [33:48]

* How Emily prevents burnout. [35:70]

* Perspective on stress as a CIA Officer and entrepreneur. [42:10]

* The surprising aspects of building Petite Plume. [47:26]

This episode is brought to you by Beeya:

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Follow Yasmin:

* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yasminknouri/

* Website: https://www.behindherempire.com/

Follow Emily:

* Website: https://www.petite-plume.com/

* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/petiteplume/

* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emilyhikade/

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