Meet Lindsay Droz

We were lucky to catch up with Lindsay Droz recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Lindsay with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?

Lindsay: I grew up in Seattle, WA with my parents and my younger brother, Chase. I am beyond blessed to have been raised by loving, encouraging parents that instilled kindness and belief that my dreams were possible. The friends that I have to this day stem from girls I played soccer with when I was six, met in middle school and grew up with. While my brother and I were always provided for in items that we needed, my parents encouraged us to work for items that we wanted. If I wanted something, I needed to earn it and pay for it myself. When I was 15, I was obsessed with clothes and couldn’t get enough of them. The GAP was a luxury brand in my mind at the time. I got a work permit, and was accepted to work for the GAP. Because the GAP could only give me 10 hours at a time due to my age, I went around the mall and picked up a couple extra jobs so that I could afford the expensive clothing items that my parents didn’t think were important.

Kristi: I was born in Billings, Montana, the middle child of two siblings and later two step-siblings. My parents divorced when I was in elementary school, and when it came time for high school, I opted to move with my dad to White Salmon, a small town in Washington state. Dad was a full-time teacher and an avid outdoor enthusiast, so I was on my own a lot of the time. This lifestyle afforded me plenty of freedom, but I was also expected to take responsibility for my own schedule, transportation, and finances. I landed my first job as a dishwasher at age 14 and worked various other jobs throughout high school, from food prep to front desk clerk at a sports club to accounting work at the local insurance company. I was a hustler, working two jobs my senior year so I could afford gas to get around and the clothes I wanted to wear. I learned early on how to figure things out with little guidance—skills that are mission critical to where I am today.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

Lindsay Droz and Kristi Lord, founders of L’AVANT Collective, are on a mission to create high-performing, plant-based cleaning products that are safe for families, pets, and the planet in thoughtfully designed, countertop-worthy packaging. Not satisfied with the status quo of choosing between harsh cleaners that do the job but are harmful to people and the environment or plant-based cleaners that lack performance and aesthetic appeal, Lindsay and Kristi set out to create a new generation of hard-working, eco- and design-friendly household products. These executives-turned-entrepreneurs decided to leave their jobs, invest their savings, and take a chance on a second career path that would provide people with better options—one sustainable choice at a time.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Lindsay
1. Belief in myself – and that what I dream is possible, can happen.
Ex: I knew that L’AVANT could create the highest performing plant-based cleaning products on the market. I believed that it was possible and that Kristi and I were going to be the ones to create this brand and change the perception of eco-friendly cleaning products in the minds of the consumer.
2. Positive attitude.
-I have always been of the mindset of finding the positive in any situation. In life, there is always something that might not be going my way or the outcome that I was working towards, did not happen. It is easy to get down on yourself and pull out all the negatives that happened. Remaining positive is hard and can be challenging at times. In the end, I always find that there is a way to work things out to find the desired outcome.
3. Surrounding myself with incredible people:
– I never wanted to be the smartest person in the room, but I certainly wanted to sit next to them. From early childhood to college, career and today – I have tried to surround myself around people that I admire and want to be more like. I can attribute my success in life to learning from those that led the path before me and being humble enough to say I don’t know and be quiet enough to learn.

Kristi:
Discipline. Once I set on a course, I’m head down and focused. Unexpected setbacks and distractions will inevitably pop up along the way, but I deal with them and never let the noise disengage me from the task at hand.

Goal Setting. At a young age, I learned the value of defining goals and setting priorities. I may not always get the end result I shoot for on the first go-round, but I know how to define the steps that will take me there and don’t waver from that path (there’s that discipline again).

Problem Solving. I was described by a boss early on as possessing the skillset of “knowing how to get things done.” Well, that sounds a bit dull. I didn’t have an appreciation at the time for the compliment (or even think it was a compliment!), but I’ve grown to realize that it was high praise. That get-things-done approach has been essential to my success, especially with the launch of this new enterprise.

What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?

Managing the team

Contact Info:

• Website: https://lavantcollective.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lavantcollective/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsaydroz/