Lydia Fenet, Founder and CEO of Lydia Fenet Agency
For my next Tiny CEO interview, I interviewed Lydia Fenet, the founder and CEO of Lydia Fenet Agency, an auctioneering company. She has raised more than $1 billion for more than 800 organizations! She is also the author of 2 books: The Most Powerful Woman in the Room Is You and Claim Your Confidence.
Can you tell me a little about a little bit about your early years at Christie's, when you were working behind the scenes?
When I started at Christie’s, I worked in the events department, planning the parties that gave people the opportunity to come in before the big auctions to see the artwork. So an auction house is basically a place where people bring artwork or jewelry or things that they want to sell, and then there's an auction, which is the moment where everybody comes into a room, and then they compete, or try to bid against each other to get the thing. Then the piece leaves the auction house, and it goes into somebody's home or into a museum. That's kind of what the auction process looks like. So behind the scenes, when you work in the Events Department, you're responsible for throwing all the parties for people to see the items before the actual auction happens. So about 3 days before, everything gets set up all over the building. Let's pretend it's paintings. There are paintings on every wall and every surface of the building, and people come in and have a drink and some snacks and look at the paintings. Then everybody goes back into the room a couple of days later, and bid on the things they want to buy. It's like you work in a museum that changes its art every 4 days. It's pretty special!
How did you get started as an auctioneer?
I started working for a company called Christie's Auction House, which is an auctioneering company, and while I was there they had tryouts to be an auctioneer. These are like any other tryout that you've ever seen before: You go into a room with everybody who wants to do the job, and everybody tries out in front of the coach. If you are selected, you get to become an auctioneer. The whole process took 4 days, but I tried out, and I made it! And I loved it from the first time I ever did it.
In your book, “The Most Powerful Woman in the Room is You”, you said you were not the stereotypical auctioneer. Can you tell me a little bit more about what that means?
When I first started at Christie's, almost all of the auctioneers were men, and they were a lot older than me, because I was right out of college. I was only in my early twenties, and it didn't look like there was going to be a spot for me, because I didn't look like anybody who was up on the rostrum. (That's what we call the big podium where you stand as the auctioneer!) And so that's what I meant. I didn't see any other young women up there doing the job that I thought I could do. It was kind of up to me to get up there and be that person.
Why did you decide to start your own auctioneering agency?
I became an auctioneer when I was in my early twenties, so I've been doing it for a really long time. A lot of times, people would ask me to take an auction and be the auctioneer, and I couldn't take it, because somebody else had asked me that night. Then people would say to me “If you can't do it, do you know someone who can?” And I would always give them email addresses of other auctioneers I'd heard about. But because I'm always on stage, I never really get to see other auctioneers.
One day I went to see an auction at a dinner I go to every year, and the person who was on stage wasn't very good. And I'd been sending people to him for a long time. I realized that if I was going to recommend auctioneers, I should not only have seen them, I should probably train them to do it, too! So I decided it was time to leave Christie's and start my own auctioneering agency. I’ve trained auctioneers who I trust, I know that they're good, I've seen them on-stage, and I can vouch for them, meaning I can give people my word that they're good at what they do. So that's how the idea for my business started. Now I have 10 auctioneers who work for me and 2 more who are training.
Since you raise money for different organizations, what is your favorite organization?
It's tough. I have so many that are right in my favorites! Today I went to see the New York Presbyterian pediatric ward at the hospital for little kids who get sick. Raising money for organizations like that makes me feel really good, because it's fun to raise money for people who are little; they need some help because they can't do it for themselves. I always like raising money for pediatric causes. I also like raising money for the Central Park Conservancy and the Hudson River Park. I live down in Tribeca, and there are all of those beautiful landscaped piers down in Tribeca. Those are all funded by private citizens of New York City, and we have a big opportunity to raise money for that. There’s also a playground that just opened with these massive fish that you can climb inside of. We raise money for things like that, so that’s pretty cool when I get to support things my kids can use!
Who is your favorite woman role model?
I think Melinda Gates is very cool. She's a big philanthropist, and she has been giving away money for a long time to causes that I believe in, specifically female causes. She's somebody who I think of as a role model because she's doing a lot of good with her money and not just spending it on frivolous things. She's giving it away to causes that she cares about, which I think ultimately will save a lot of people's lives.
What is your favorite part of your job at your auctioneering agency?
When I get to choose the auctioneers who take the auctions, because I like to figure out the perfect person to put on stage to help a charity raise money. It's also fun to train people, because it's teaching them to do something that they could be good at, even great at. Practice makes perfect!
What is the hardest part of your job?
I think that there's just so much I want to do, and I don't feel like there's enough time. I feel like I need about 3 to 8 more hours every single day to do all the things that pop into my head!
So do you have any advice for young girls like me, who also have small businesses?
First, I think that doing something like this is a really good idea!
One of the most important things to do with your small business is to get people to know your name, so that everybody knows “India, the Tiny CEO.” If you're doing your job and things are good, that's great. You also need to build your brand and help other people think of you even when you're not in the room, which is probably the most important part of having a company. You need people to be thinking about you and what you're doing even when you're not there, so that they're helping to promote you as well. So reaching out to people and having other people recommend you is always an important thing.
In your book, you talked about having to substitute something else for your gavel when you bang down on the podium at an auction. I was just wondering what was the most difficult situation when you had to make a substitute, because I found it really funny that you do that!
I love that question! One thing that was hard to use was a lipstick, because I banged it down so hard that the top split, and it actually ruined the lipstick! But I recently used a hockey puck because I was at a big hockey rink. Part of my gavel had snapped off because it’s really not meant to be banged so hard. There were maybe 5 of us looking for the piece, and we couldn’t find it. I was like, you know what? What else do you have around here? And they said, we have a hockey puck! So I used a hockey puck as my gavel for the night, and the crowd thought it was funny!