An Executive by 24 — and She Drinks Her Wine W/O Apology Pt. 1-6

The Best 5 Minute Wine Podcast

Victoria Peltier shares her remarkable journey from working in a hair salon at age 11 to becoming a C-suite executive by age 24. She discuss

Key takeaways

• Victoria began her professional life at age 11 managing front desk operations in a hair salon.
• She achieved her first significant leadership role as an assistant manager of a shoe store at age 14.

Main topics

• Early career and work ethic
• C-suite leadership and M&A

Notable quotes

I knew that I wanted an education and I knew that that I wanted a vocation that would allow me to have more flexibility than my parents had.

Conclusion

An inspiring look at how early responsibility and a growth mindset can

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:04) Welcome, welcome to the best five-minute wine podcast with Forrest Kelly. Speaker 2 (0:17) Hi there. I am Victoria Peltier, a corporate executive, a professional publisher, and an author of five books with my newest one coming out this September. Look forward to speaking. Speaker 1 (0:29) Hosts tend to shy away from pronouncing your last name. So let's just... Speaker 2 (0:34) I know, I know. Speaker 1 (0:36) It gets butchered. Let's just tackle that right away. So your last name is spelled P-E-L-L-E-T-I-E-R and it's pronounced... so suavely. So let's get into your background a little bit, reading that you were a voracious reader, which I was as well. And you rode bikes as a child, which I did. It was over a hundred dollars. I got a Schwinn bike and it just set me on adventures because the book and reading books, I always wanted adventure. And so can you tell us what it was like for a 10 year old or however old you were riding your bike and going around your neighborhood? Speaker 2 (1:11) Oh, yeah, I wish kids were doing more of this today. You know, for me, I was an only child and somewhat loner. I was like a gifted kid, which at a time where... I'm up for it. I think it's embraced now. And so I found myself alone a lot and I enjoyed the solitude, but it was also the opportunity to explore new parts where I might, you know, meet some new kids as well. So I went all around the neighborhood and beyond. And of course, following the rules that when the streetlights went down, that's when it was time to get back home, given that no cell phones back then. Riding my bike isn't where I made my money. I did start working at 11, however. I worked in a hair salon. So the riding the bike was... exploration, my ability of sightseeing. And I've always been an avid people watcher. So, you know, doing that even from a bike at that point, I took those lessons and what I observed in my made up stories of the people I saw to bring them into the real world. Hair Speaker 1 (2:06) salon. How did you get that job? Speaker 2 (2:09) It was the hair salon that my... So first of all, I'm 5'8", which isn't crazy tall for a woman, but I did actually hit this height by the time I was 10 or 11. I looked so much older and mature, and I was. And so they were looking for someone to help with booking appointments, doing cash, everything except for hair. So I did everything. You know, managing the front desk, the cash, the appointments, sweeping the floors, doing the laundry of all the towels. That was my first Speaker 1 (2:37) job at 11. Running the place. Can you imagine an 11-year-old doing all of that stuff? Yeah, I think Speaker 2 (2:42) child labor laws would probably not allow that today, but I did it back then. I remember I was also babysitting. That paid me $2 an hour. Speaker 1 (2:51) You know, what a jump on everybody else waiting until they're 16 to get a job. You have some chops. Speaker 2 (2:57) Yes. First leadership role came at 14, mind you. Your Speaker 1 (3:01) personality that you said you've described yourself as turtle shell outside, marshmallow inside. Somewhere between don't mess with me and do you want a hug? So you're developing that, this leadership role at 14. What happened? Speaker 2 (3:14) Yeah, you know, I would say that the turtle is a description that came later in life. I think I've always been like an empathetic leader and kind, not, you know, not someone that people wouldn't want to work with or for. But I thought I had to be all business all the time, you know, so like super focused when I maybe not when I worked in the shoe store at 14, I became the assistant manager to people who were like decades older than me. And so that was more of a fine line. in balance in terms of how to coach and get the direction versus my first executive role. I progressed through university. I worked in, you know, in a bank and progressed up into leadership roles. And then it became an executive at 24. So that all business all the time, wear a mask. you know, don't show the emotions I learned later in life. So that's where the turtle, I'm extremely resilient, tough on the outside, gone through significant trauma, challenge and adversity. But I really do allow vulnerability and empathy to come out. That is what builds trust and connection with people. Who Speaker 1 (4:10) directed you to for college when you obviously somebody in your circle, your parents or somebody? realize that, you know, this gal is, she's going places, so she better get a great education. I Speaker 2 (4:21) was adopted when I was four, and my adoptive parents, loving, I'd come out of a pretty horrible first few years of my life, yet lower socioeconomic. My mom was a secretary, my dad was a school janitor. As I mentioned earlier, I was gifted in school, so I did very, very well academically. And I remember my mom said to me, I think I was 10 or 11, she's like, Tori, you need to do better than us. And she meant... education, vocation, but she did not need to tell me that because I was determined to be better than either my biology or the circumstance in which I was raised. I knew I was destined to go to post-secondary education. Speaker 1 (4:55) That's so off-putting to people sometimes, better than them. They take it in a snooty way, but that's not the point. Speaker 2 (5:04) No. Yeah, no, I mean, better than where I came from. So I'm born to a drug addicted teenage mother who beat the crap out of me. So I knew I wanted a better life for myself than she chose for herself. So it's not about being better than people. I knew that I wanted an education and I knew that I wanted a vocation that would allow me to have more flexibility than my parents had. There Speaker 1 (5:26) were no extremely Speaker 2 (5:27) limited vacations. There was no money for me to go on my high school graduation trip. So that's what I mean when I say better than. I wanted to be better than the circumstances I was born and raised in, not better than any individual person. Speaker 1 (5:40) Yeah, flexibility, that's a key word too. I'm going to grasp onto that. Speaker 2 (5:44) So where did you go to school? I'm from Canada originally, which your listeners might hear. generally only by a couple of words I say out and about. I grew up in Western Canada in Calgary. I somehow let my mom convince me to go to University of Calgary. I'd been accepted to other schools, but I graduated at 16. And so she said, you know, at that age, even though I had a scholarship, she said, stay at home, you know, then your room and board is paid for. So I did stay, went to University of Calgary. Funny enough, I moved out on my own in my first semester. So I really could have and should have gone somewhere else. But that's where I went to school. And then I got relocated. right out of university to Toronto. So Toronto is where I spent a lot of my adult years before I was relocated to the U.S. Speaker 1 (6:25) So then you graduate at 16. You're already, you're still accelerating way past everybody else. So before you even get out of school, I'm guessing that you might have had some jobs lined up. Speaker 2 (6:35) Oh, I did. I worked throughout all of my university career. So I had never not had. one, two, or even three jobs. So as I said, I had moved out on my own. I was living with a boyfriend at the time, but I bought my first house at