A Broken Heel, a New Path: Carla Truitt on Building Eight Royale
Carla Truitt joins Audra Madison and Val Royal to share how she traded a career in the music industry for founding Eight Royale, her high-end women's footwear brand built for women who refuse to choose between style and comfort. Carla walks through the moment a broken heel in Manhattan cracked open a whole new path, and why that experience shaped her mission to design shoes, including her signature foldable flats, that let women move through their day without sacrificing either.
She talks candidly about listening to her "tribe" and letting that shape everything from product design to brand voice, the challenges she faced building credibility in a new industry, and why vulnerability, not polish, has been the real engine behind her growth. Carla also gets into mentoring other women entrepreneurs and what storytelling means for a brand trying to stand out.
This is a conversation about reinvention, about finding your voice in the middle of starting over, and what it means to stop shrinking and start owning your story.
"No more shrinking." –Carla Truitt
What to Take With You
Share your story to inspire others
Listen to your community for product development
Take risks and embrace vulnerability
Reinvention can start with the smallest, most unexpected moment
