YouSaid · the spoken record

Sarah LaFleur

lines on the record: 100
first: 2020-02-03
most recent: 2020-02-03
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Yeah, that's right. So, you know, the other thing that's scaring retail businesses is inventory, and because we only had $70,000, I didn't want to tie up my cash in inventory. And so we decided that we would do trunk shows and we would bring samples and we would bring one of every size and we would have people try them on. And based on that, we would place orders.”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Most factories are not willing to work with a no name because I mean small designers come and go and so I didn't realize like I was like well I'm willing to pay money and they're like it doesn't matter if you're willing to pay us money like we need sustainable businesses so if you're not going to be around in a year which was true of most fashion brands then we don't want to start this partnership and so you know we had to beg our first factory to make the dresses for us and at this stage they were just samples we weren't even doing factory runs but I think Miyako's experience was everything so they trusted us because Miyako was doing it and I was just the woman who signed the checks”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“In the garment district of Manhattan I didn't realize the extent to which manufacturing is still very much alive in New York. And, you know, just when I was working at Bain, I was working right in Times Square, and I couldn't believe that, you know, these factories were literally two blocks, three blocks south of me, and you open the elevators and it just rows and rows of sewing machines. And I just didn't even know this industry existed. But that is where we made our first run of dresses. And make it sound easy, but it wasn't at all.”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, that's, I mean, you put it perfectly. I just didn't want women to have to worry. Working women have to worry enough. About whatever it is that they're doing, the last thing I want them to worry about is the clothes that they're wearing. And I'm sure men can relate to this too. When you leave home that morning and you're not quite confident in whatever it is you're wearing, like Your sweater has a hole in it, or maybe your pants are a little bit dirty, or maybe they're not quite fitting, right? And it's always in the back of your mind a little bit. And I just wanted to do away with all that.”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, we had always three tests. One was called the taxi test, so if you're climbing into a taxi, can you jump in without ripping your steam? Right. The other one was the bendover test, which is if you bend over, can the person sitting opposite from you see your cleavage or your brava. Because that's strike two. And then strike three was can you see underwear lines? Every morning while I was working at Bain or private equity, I would always turn around and check the mirror to make sure that my underwear lines weren't actually showing through. Whatever I was wearing, and those were the three tests. And so with every garment that we were making, I said, I just want you to make sure that those three vases are covered. And so I would just move around in every single garment that she made to make sure that it met those things.”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was tailored, and I think most importantly, the fit was good. And when I say the fit was good, so I have since learned a lot about pattern making and fitting clothing. Most brands, if you're lucky, the designer will fit the garment on a real fit model once before it goes into production. If the fit on something you buy is off, it's probably because it wasn't fitted correctly or it went into production before all of the errors were corrected. Luxury brands can afford to do three or four fittings to really perfect the fit, whereas lower priced brands, they might be fitting it once or maybe never. They might just go straight to production. And, I mean, there are so many things that are involved in Good Fit, but that was really one thing that I wanted her to understand is the way your body feels when you're wearing a well-fitted garment”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, I did, but I was the scariest 24 hours of my life, where the 24 hours where I had those seven dresses in my possession in my apartment, I was like, what if we have a fire? But then I just started showing her. I was like, you know, this style, it's so beautiful. It would actually be perfect for work, but it cost $25,000.”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm embarrassed to say that I once bought 20 somewhat odd thousand dollars of clothing from a luxury department store, which really only amounted like seven pieces because each one was so expensive because I wanted to show Miyako the kind of clothes that I wanted her to design. And by the way, I did return it.”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Person who cuts out the shapes. Exactly, exactly the person who designs on a white piece of paper how the different pieces of fabric are supposed to be laid out and cut. And I thought patterned, she meant like floral patterns or checkered patterns. Yeah, exactly. I thought that's what a pattern micro was. So I was like, don't worry, we're just going to do like...”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Gonna need to find a pattern maker. And I was like, oh, no, no, don't worry. We're not going to do any prints. We're only going to do solid colors. She started laughing in my face because a pattern maker to the uninitiated in fashion manufacturing is like the architect of the dress. Yeah.”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Candidate, and he was like, No, no, just meet with her because I think you guys are gonna really hit it off. And even when we first met, and I, you know, I was telling her about the kind of women I wanted her to design for, I said, you know, don't you know those women? They walk to work in their flats and they have their heels in their bag and once they get into the elevator, they change out into their heels. And she was like, no, I've never met anyone like that. And I was like, wait, what world do you operate in? And she was like, everyone I know walks to work in heels and stays in their heels all day. At that point, like, I didn't even know what was involved in designing clothing. I share the story just to level set just how elementary my understanding of clothing manufacturing was. I remember Miyako early on said to me,”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I mean, I think. I mean, all of your questions are fair. I'm sure this could have played out very differently. I think the only way to describe it is that we had some sort of connection Is actually going to go with a different designer. I had met someone else who had been the head designer of another very famous brand. And I actually wasn't even going to meet Miyako. I told the headhunter, you know, I really like this other person. Like she feels like the right person. Like, you know, I don't really even care to meet with.”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I'm just irresistible in person. No, I'm totally joking. Every investor that I've ever spoken to, I mean, frankly, like anybody I have ever spoken to about this in any sort of detail, their follow-up question is usually like, what was she thinking? And why would she come and work for you? Totally fair question. I don't want to answer for her, but I think for her, it was, it just, it was so different. It was so unlike anything else that had ever been proposed to her, this idea of designing for a group of women that she didn't even really know about, working women, this idea that she always says, I never actually seen my clothes on a real person. That means a non-model. I've never actually seen my clothes on the street. You know, she designed Oscar gowns. I think she designed a gown once for Natalie Portman. You know, that was kind of the world she was moving in. But she said there was no practical element to the beautiful designs that I was making. And I think that was a big.”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, basically. She was like, what? You know, the way she described it to me is she says, I thought everything in the world that needed to be designed had already been designed. And I think she herself at that time was going through a kind of career crisis where she didn't really understand the point of design anymore because she thought it's all already been done. Like why bother?”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Miyako, at the time, do you think I had just left Zach Posen? She was their head designer. She was known in the fashion industry, and, you know, we were just in totally different worlds. I think that was actually my other kind of surprising moment. You know, I thought I understood what New York was about, but it was one of those moments where I was like, wow, I literally don't know anybody in the fashion world. And yet the capital of fashion is New York City. The garment district is in New York City. And our circles did not overlap at all.”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, that's right. And I think it's not only that I couldn't do it, I didn't want to do it. I wanted to design the most beautiful dresses in the world. And I have not trained as a designer. Yeah. And so it was really important to me that I had a high and fashionate designer. I had other designers who said, you know, why don't you just, you can do it yourself. Like you can just copy these designs at a sleeve, you know, add whatever and sell it. And I was like, no, nope, that is not what I want to do. I don't want to create more of what is already out there. I want to fundamentally actually create something different.”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Say it was more organic again. I didn't know anybody who worked in fashion, so I remembered that there was a woman who was a couple years ahead of me at college. She had gone to Risdy to study interior design, and I think textiles in interior design. And I was like, well, that's one step closer to fashion. So I reached out to her and I was like, hey, do you know anybody who works in fashion? And she was like, actually, I do know one person from Risdy who went into fashion. So let me put you in touch with her. So she was the one fashion designer that I knew. And she put me in touch with her five headhunters in fashion, most of whom had no time for me. You know, they're like, what, Bane, like, never heard of it, don't care. Like, please come back when you're serious. I've got Calvin Klein on the other line. Yeah. But one of those five headhunters decided to take a chance on me. He, you know, said, let me see if I can help you out with.”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it was, I mean, I couldn't even think about fundraising. Like, I knew. Through the grapevine, you know, the bonobos founders where we parker founders both worked at Bain. And so I think, I mean, in some ways they served as great role models. You kind of saw from afar that maybe it was possible to fundraise. And so I think in those initial days, it wasn't like, this is the business plan. Let's go raise some money. Let's go start this business. It was like, does anyone know anything about making clothes? Because if you do, I'd like to talk to you. Yeah.”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, it's going to last. Yeah, it doesn't go very far, which was the short story. My parents also made $35,000, so they said.”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Start this thing very little. I had about 35,000 dollars saved up, which is not very little, but in the context of starting a business, it does not get you very far.”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Think my big question when I was starting this business was why aren't there clothes like this for regular working women, the clothes that I was shopping for at the time it was always ill-fitting. It would rip a lot easily. I would always have to get it tailored. It would wrinkle easily. I mean, there's so many things that were wrong with it. And I was spending so much money trying to dress professionally for work. I knew exactly the kind of clothing that I wanted to create, which is really like I wanted to sell dresses that would sell for $2,000 for a fraction of the price. And I wanted to work with a luxury designer because I wanted my customers. I wanted regular working women to wear luxury quality clothing.”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Surprisingly, my vision for the product was very clear. My mom before she started her jewelry business had worked in high-end fashion, and so I think through her I got to see and touch a lot of these beautiful pieces of high-end clothing that she would bring home, not because she bought them, but as samples or as gifts. And I think she dressed also in that way incredibly tailored and polished.”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes. But then I also remember going on a run and stopping in the middle of the run because I had to cry for 30 minutes. And I think that was mid-July, right? So it was kind of a parallel process. It wasn't like, okay, now I'm done being sad and I'm going to go start my company. I was working through both things at the same time.”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I remember being terribly sad and depressed and unwell, and I also remember thinking I need to get moving or else I'm going to get stuck. And so I only remember this because I remember the dates that I signed certain contracts. I signed for a Weork office starting May 1, back when WeWork was still very small. I think they had like two buildings in New York. And then I officially registered as a LLC June one in Delaware. So I have records of those contracts, which makes me think like, okay, there was a part of me that That”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, I mean, I was just like, what fashion? Like, I'm not even interested in fashion. I just was like, but however, I am a consumer of clothes. I have to wear clothes every day. I care about looking good and gaining the respect of my peers and my clients, so I'm going to put effort into it. But God, it is so hard.”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, well, I should say always as in when I was working management consulting because I could never find good clothes. And so actually I remember at my HBS interview, they ask you, what do you want to do with your life? And so I said, I want to go work in refugee camps. And they were like, okay, well, if you had to go do something else, what would it be? And I said, well, you know, I really think someone should co-start. Workwear company for women because clothing out there is just terrible. And I remember the interviewer left and she's like, tell me more about that. I think a lot of women can relate to that. So I had always had that idea, I guess, since working at Bane and since needing those clothes myself.”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes. And I would say wood is a. That's a strong word. Like, I felt like I had no choice but to leave without a plan. I just needed to get out. I still remember that feeling when I took the metro north on my last day back into the city. You can see out in front the railway in front of you. And I just remember thinking, oh my gosh, freedom. I'm free again. And so, yeah, I left without a plan. I cried for a month. I had started seeing my psychiatrist about a few months into a couple months into that job because I was, you know, I was a nervous wreck. You know, I was spending a lot of time actually in her office. I think I was probably going to sometimes even three times a week just to feel normal again. Yeah. And that was around the time I had always had this idea for starting a clothing company for working women.”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I remember the first thing he said to me was don't you want to become vice president here? And I was like, that's honestly the last thing I want to do. And so you start to have real moments of doubt about who you are as a person. Up until that point, you're always like, Sarah, who goes to college, you know, Sarah who works at Bain, Sarah, who blocks. So much of my personal identity was tied up in the job that I had. And so to go from Sarah, who works in private equity, who flies on private jets to Paris to Sarah who doesn't have a job and is worried about how she's going to pay her co-rapporteur payment next month. That was a sucker.”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think my boss was surprised. I think private equity is filled with a bunch of people who are incredibly determined and want to climb the ladder. And here I was saying like, I've been here four months and I'm out.”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The breaking point was me just like crying uncontrollably and calling my friend being like, I don't want to go to work tomorrow. Just I generally felt like a loser. I mean, here I was. I spent three years at Bain and I moved to South Africa thinking that's going to be my thing. And then after a year I decide, okay, it's not for me, so let me give this thing a try. And I'm there for four months. The narrative I had written for myself was that I was a loser. And so it was really just a devastating time for me.”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, AM I loved the job, but short of it was that it was a terrible cultural fit for me. I was one of two female investment professionals, I think, out of... Dozens, if not hundreds. The company culture was hyper masculine, aggressive, swaggering, which all looks very cool on TV. And I'm sure there was a part of me that idolized it too. But the truth is it was terrible for me. I think I professionally had performed just fine, but internally, I mean, I started hyperphentilating at work. I developed a weird tick. It was just very clear, I think, from week one. I was like, oh, I made a mistake.”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I will start by saying this might be weird after saying that my dream was to work a nonprofit to say this was my other dream job, but it really was. I thought what they were doing was fascinating. And when I got the job, I took it and I started, gosh, January of 2013. And I thought this was going to be my dream job.”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Oh my gosh, totally. I mean, I don't even know if it's a badge of honor now. A lot of people are like, oh, you got to Harvard MBA, right? And I'm like, no, no, just I just went to college. Yeah, I didn't get in. Yes. And now I think I'm more comfortable talking about it, but I wasn't for a really long time.”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, yeah. So you can see how I ping pong in my career. You know, that was actually what a lot of my colleagues at Bain ended up doing. They were either going to business school or they're going to private equity. And I had gotten rejected from business school. I was on the wait list. I didn't really have a clear reason for why I wanted to go to business school. Maybe they saw through that, or maybe I just wasn't a good enough candidate. But either way, I was on the wait list and then they released, I think, the final candidates in August and they said. No, thank you.”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, actually, this was the moment where I kind of think that was the moment where I discovered nonprofit wasn't for me. It wasn't the mission of the work, the mission of the work is so important, and I find it to be worth getting out of bed for in the morning. But my personality was wholly unsuited for it. I think what irked me was the amount of delicacy and diplomacy that's really needed to push projects through in the nonprofit sector. It's a really admirable skill and you need to have it to be successful in that world. And it was not something that I naturally had.”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I worked for a nonprofit called TechnoServe, so that was started by a bunch of former McKinsey partners. And the idea was that South Africa had a really, really interesting challenge having gone through apartheid. You have this dual economy. You have the white economy and essentially the black economy and the two operatively differently. And the question was how can we get the Black South African farmers to plug into this incredibly successful supermarket economy? That was what I was working on. And so I ended up spending over a year with them, I guess.”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's so true. You know, I mean, I didn't know how to do really basic things. Like, I didn't know how to write a business email. I didn't know how to do PowerPoint. That's a life skill, but they whipped me into shape. Really, I think set a certain standard for me that I knew I had to meet if I wanted to be taken seriously.”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I was what was called an associate consultant, and you are working on a case, which if you are at a company like Bain, it's usually for a Fortune 500 company, and you are trying to solve a problem that the company presents to you, which might range from anything from or trying to enter a new market. How should we do that to we have to cut costs? How should we do that?”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“$5,000, $10,000 signing bonuses. And I just couldn't believe that was more than the money I had raised all summer. And it sparked some sort of curiosity, I think, for me. And then a mentor that I had who I've been with at the camp at the time. She was someone who had worked in investment banking, and she said to me, you know, Sarah, it's never a bad idea to go learn how to work with the big boys. Kind of hate that expression big boys. Yeah. Yeah. But But I knew what you meant, and the money. I just couldn't believe that you could sign a piece of paper and you could have $5,000 in your checking account.”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Daily, if not hourly basis, and it just fundamentally changes the way you see life. And I went with this nonprofit organization, and one day the leader asked me, okay, so we're short on money, and so we're going to have to make a trade-off. We can either continue to buy lunch or we can continue to spend on fuel. And I was looking at him being like, wait, we have to choose between lunch and fuel. What kind of a choice is that? Like, how are we supposed to work like that? And then I came back on campus the senior year. I had all these friends who were coming back from their investment banking internships with”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think if I can point to one life changing experience that I've had, that would definitely be the one. I mean, this refugee camp was, I think, like 10 hours from Lusaka, which is the capital of Zambia. So we would drive to the small town that was two hours away, and I would buy random pieces of furniture there, and then we would, you know, paint this building that we fixed. I mean, it was... Was basic stuff. It was basic stuff. But I think I also think simultaneously I realized the powerlessness of it of myself really being in that space, I would have People come up to me just as I was walking back to the dorm where we were staying. And he would say, I have AIDS. My wife has died. I have one kid who's dying. Is there any way you could help me? I mean, and this would just happen on a...”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I should take a step back and say, like, basically from the time I was in high school, I wanted to become a refugee camp officer. I wanted to be a logistics officer. And I started researching refugee issues, got really, really passionate about it. And I thought, gosh, that's what I want to go do. Summer between my junior and senior year, I had this opportunity to go volunteer at a refugee camp in Zambia.”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes and no. I think I never fancied myself to be this super smart person. I knew I was a really hard worker and my mom always used to say, you know, this is in Japanese Doyo Kano Sarachan, which means like, you're the kid who tries hard. And so my mom meant that in an encouraging way, but I never in my mind thought, well, you know, I'm going to be the smartest person in the room.”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Oh god, no No, not at all. I mean, she didn't hide how hard it was trying to start the business with her friends, having her friends leave the business all of a sudden out of nowhere financial struggles, just hard personal conversations that she was having with her business partners. And I remember as a kid, I would come down in the middle of the night to grab a glass of water and I would see my mom sitting in the armchair with a light above her head sipping whiskey on the rocks. And I just remember thinking, wow, it is hard.”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“She loved going to work, and I think that was a real inspiration for me and my sister. You know, we never assumed that we would not get jobs. That was the only thing we assumed.”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, she did. And I mean, really a huge inspiration. I mean, I would say the reason I started my business in many ways goes back to my mom. She is Japanese raised in Japan and very, very unusual person for someone of her generation. She worked throughout her life, continues to work today. She loves her job. She runs a business selling travel jewelry out of Tokyo, which she started because I think in many ways it's tough being a diplomat's wife. You have to move every three to four years. And I think the common assumption is that the wife usually gives up her Career so that she can be the diplomat's wife, host receptions, et cetera, but she always says, I can't wait for Monday, which is... You know, your kids are like, what? Excuse me? Like, how about us on the weekends?”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And so I think they were really insistent on that fact, but I think on a day-to-day basis, like I remember when I was in Tokyo, I really didn't want to use my last name Lafleur, you know, in Japan, your last name really signifies whether you are Japanese or not, so much so that Korean Japanese people are Chinese Japanese people, they will change their last name to signify that they are truly Japanese. And so, you know, I kind of hid my American last name. And then I would say simultaneously when I came to the US, I had the opposite experience, especially around college. I went to a school that was incredibly preppy and that prep culture I'd never seen before in Japan.”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Tough. The term that people use in Japan to describe biracial kids is half, I guess we say that too, half Japanese, half American, but my parents always said you're not half, you're double, you're both Japanese, and you're also American.”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Not only do we run out, it actually went into the negatives. Our bank account, I think, at one point said negative $2,000 or something, and I didn't know you could draw down beyond zero, so that was a wake-up call.”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We still continue to do trunk shows. We had revenue goals for the month, and so if we weren't meeting our revenue goals, then we would, you know, set up a trunk show, stats. But online, it was just a totally different story. We could not sell our dresses”
2020-02-03 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · M.M.LaFleur: Sarah LaFleur · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT