An International Women’s Day Message From Co-Founder Leigh Keith

Co-Founder, CEO, Sister, Mother, Mentor, Leader. These are just a few of the titles that Leigh Keith, Co-Founder and Chief of Brand & Mission, has compiled while shaping Perfect Bar.

In honor of this International Women’s Day, Leigh sits down to share reflections on her journey creating a beloved brand & majority women-led team. 

We could not be more grateful for her courage, grit, and leadership. Let’s let Leigh take it from here!

From the desk of Leigh… 

As I sit down on this International Women’s day as a mother of three young daughters and the Co-founder | Chief of Brand & Mission at Perfect Bar, I can’t help but exhale with grateful emotion for the wild (almost) 18-year ride with this family, team and brand. 

While our bar has always been, well, (humble brag) perfect, the journey to where we are today has been a tremendous trek. 

18 years ago, as young teenagers, my oldest siblings and I gathered to wrap our heads around a terrible scenario. My father was rapidly declining from cancer and my 12 siblings (with the youngest being 3) faced the real possibility of separation.

Left with nothing but a sincere sense of love and responsibility for our family, I will never forget the pact I made with my eldest brother Bill, “to give everything we had to this Perfect Bar until our youngest sibling graduated from high school.” And to our promise, we did just that.

For the last 18 years, my siblings and I have poured every ounce of heart, soul, blood, sweat and tears to Perfect Bar – a brand born with the simple, yet profound vision of providing for our king-size family at a time of crisis. 

While the journey has been far from breezy, the joy, memories and learnings attained along the way have not only made our legal length of grind and time worth it, but the experience has been one of the greatest rides and honors of my life. 

As not only a female leader, co-founder, and one of 9 sisters to four brothers, women not having a voice was never a possibility when we started Perfect Bar.

This year as I pass the baton as CEO to another incredible female CEO, Cara Liebrock and step forward as Chief of Brand and Mission with three young daughters quite literally looking up to me, I am so proud of not only my entire female majority leadership team, but for the purpose of this International Women’s Day, I am both hopeful for the future of female and tremendously grateful for the past and present impact that my female team members have played and are playing in our business. 

When asked as a mother and leader what advice I would give to the future generation of women? Making sure to enjoy the journey is always one of the first things that comes to my mind. Now especially with my three young daughters, I have a newfound understanding of how quickly life passes. The destination isn’t five years from now, all we have is right here, right now. 

Finally, to my team at Perfect Bar, thank you for all you have done and are continuing to do to pave a path for the future that supports one another. It is up to us to withhold our values of community, humility, integrity, entrepreneurship, and family. These are not just words written down on a page, rather, being a conscious caregiver, humble leader, doing the right thing, being a creative thinker and risk taker and nurturing a culture of warmth and belonging is our responsibility in leaving our team, company, and community a better place. 

Thank you and cheers to the future of female,

Leigh