We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Steven Reyes a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Steven, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
I think I get my work ethic from the environment that I grew up in and the different challenges and adversities that I’ve had to face throughout my life. I would have to credit both my dad (Mike Reyes) and my mom (Maribel Reyes) for the kind of resilience that I have. We all share the same quality of just simply never giving up and doing what has to be done to get it done. I’ve brought this up before, I grew up in a broken home so that meant a lot of alone time and a lot of observing since a young kid. With that being said, I got to see a lot on both sides.
I want to start with my dad, I was able to witness my dad grow and build his AC business from the ground up to what it is today and he did a lot of that physical labor alone. I used to think my dad was Superman to be able to go into attic and take off and replace heavy air conditioning equipment all by himself. Not to mention the harsh elements you have to face working in HVAC with attic heat and hot temperatures. I mean the guy would literally take my brother and I to job sites to get the job done on weekends we were with him. We didn’t know any difference, to us that was spending time with our dad, we worked or watched him work. So seeing that as a boy made me realize something, nothing was impossible and that I had big shoes to fill. I can’t tell you how many challenges and problems that came up that anybody else would just throw in a towel, but not my dad, my dad always find a way to make it happen. Anything.
Next my mom, man oh man. You want to talk about a powerful woman that has been able to overcome anything?? That’s my mom right there. I grew up with her, she’s the one that raised my brother and I. I got see her overcome so many things. Divorce. Money struggles. Working 3 jobs at one time to make sure my brother and I had clothes on our back and food on the table, cleaning homes to make ends meet, fighting cancer, going through chemo having to raise 2 boys by herself still, I could go on and on but these are very hard subjects for me to talk about. It really brings back a lot of raw emotions that I had as a kid. Long story short, my mom is amazing and the most resilient woman I know, whether she knows it or not. I got to witness her go through all sorts of things and still come out okay on the other side. No matter what she went through no matter what she faced one thing she ALWAYS made sure my brother and I knew is that she loved us. What more can you ask from a mom?
For me, resilience comes from how you approach and respond to situations that are or aren’t in your control. So much of who we are and what/how we experience things on a day to day is based off how we react and respond to the things that happen in the course of our 24 hours. The one and only thing we have control over is ourselves and that’s it. It’s a simple but hard thing to accept but when it clicks, it clicks. When things get rough, when things get hard, or if it seems like that light will never start to emerge from the end of that tunnel, you just literally have to keep going and take it a day at a time. Never give up. Easier said than done, but that’s resilience.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
My life currently revolves around 3 main things. 1) My Daughters, 2) Rugs and Art, 3) Heating & Air Conditioning.
To me, my main focus is being a father to my daughters above anything else. I told myself that my main goal is to build my work around my kids, not my kids around my work. And that is a challenge all on its own. Being a father is the most important thing in the world to me. I truly believe it is my duty to show my girls what all is possible in this life. I’ve been a father since I was 19 years old. It forced me to grow up quicker, rightfully so. Parenting teaches you a lot, and I’m still learning something new about it every single day. One thing I’ve noticed is kids DO NOT listen when it comes to their parents, they watch. I don’t want to tell them anything in this life is possible, I want to SHOW them that it is. Give them stories, give them memories, instill qualities, ethics, how to maneuver in the crazy world we live in. I’m still trying to figure it all out myself. My ultimate goal as a parent is to not be needed when they get older, rather to be wanted. That starts with what I do today.
The Rug Laboratory… this right here is my kid away from my kids. The Rug Laboratory means so much to me and especially to my oldest daughter Elena. When I started this I was in a very dark time with myself. This craft has taught me so much about myself, my abilities, instilled confidence in me, and has been able to create so many amazing opportunities, like this interview, for me. Each rug is a different time capsule for me. I know what all went down behind the scenes of each of the pieces I’ve made, I’m not just talking about the craftsmanship behind the piece, but the life that happens in between the production of the rug. This is my creative outlet, my way of expressing myself, getting through hard times, etc. I’ve made pieces through almost every single emotion. And each piece just teaches me something else about myself and what I am capable of. The long term with this is to have a brick and mortar shop, not just in my living room, but to create a one of a kind in person experience for people. I have A LOT of exciting stuff coming up with The Rug Laboratory. I’m currently focusing on the little details, the process, the packaging, extra goodies, stickers, a website, etc. I don’t want to give away too much, but just know, something’s coming. I’m excited just trying to build towards it. Y’all will see what I am envisioning one day, god willing.
Lastly is Heating and Air Conditioning. This is my full time job, I do the rugs on my own time. But right now I am currently operating my dad’s business alongside with him, Mike Reyes Heating and Air Conditioning. This is again a HUGE challenge all on its own. Working with you dad has its own set of challenges that I can get into a different day. But right now this is a lot of fun for me. I work in the field and the office so there’s days where I’m running service all over DFW, doing an install, or managing an install, and then back in the office looking for opportunities, answering emails, taking calls, learning, etc. As you can tell I’m kind of just all over the place. We are currently in the growing phase of the business. With this I am trying to build one of the best AC companies ever, making sure the customers gets a one of kind experience, and making sure that whoever works with us gets treated with the upmost respect and are taken care of. I am able to exercise a lot of business ideas that I have in this field and get to apply them to The Rug Laboratory so that makes it even better.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I would say the biggest qualities and skills to develop or try to inherit would be, confidence, patience, and a willingness to learn. I think all 3 of these things are important for anything you want to do, not just with art.
Confidence was probably one of the hardest ones for me to develop, but this is done by trying anything you can think of. Confidence is throwing yourself into situations that you’re not 100% sure you’d come out the other side on but have a feeling that you might and then actually coming out of it and knowing that you challenged yourself to do something out of the ordinary. Then you realize whatever it is you had wanted to do wasn’t even that scary and then you apply that to the next thing and so on. Confidence is that cycle of proving to yourself what you are capable of, not by words, ideas, or thoughts, but by actions.
Patience, now this is the HARDEST thing for me to get down. Even to this day I struggle with patience. This is a skill that if you already have, don’t let it go. You don’t know how far ahead you are if you have this already. When there are a lot ideas and things floating in your head sometimes you just want to do it all in one day. I got hit with the reality that it can’t be done in a day, but that’s okay. To build a weak foundation, you build it fast, next thing you know stuff slips through the cracks and everything you’ve built comes falling along with it. If you take your time building the foundation, you build it strong and steady and what you build can weather any storm. It’s okay if things take a little longer than it needs to. I’d rather take longer to learn to do something right then work on the process after than to rush a project and the quality be affected. Rushing gets you nowhere really fast.
Lastly, a willingness to learn. You have to learn and develop the ability to be able to sit back and be a student sometimes. My dad always told me “a job is a job, but your knowledge and skills are something NOBODY can take from you, but you can take anywhere.” My pops couldn’t be more right. We can literally learn anything we want to, we have access to so much information nowadays and can connect with people who are willing to teach you anything you’d like to learn as well. If there is something that peaks your interest and you can make the time to try and learn it, go for it. Skills and knowledge are everything, it’s the best investment you can make. That’s how I was when I started making rugs, I didn’t know how to do anything. What got me to be able to make the things I make today is my willingness to learn and challenge myself and countless amounts of trial and error.
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
As cheesy or cliche as it may sound, my biggest challenge and obstacle I face is myself. I am very hard on myself. I don’t feel like anything I do is enough. Not just in this craft but in life in general. Which brings me back to that point I made on practicing patience. To me the biggest factor I go against is time. I never know how much time is left and sometimes that scares me. I always try to do as much as possible in my 24 hours but because I want every day to count. Every day I have to do at least one thing that builds towards my vision. Sometimes I can’t get it all done the way I want to, and that weighs heavy on me. It’s tough with everything I’m juggling at the moment. I feel a lot of pressure a lot of the time in so many different aspects and there is a lot of uncertainty on whether or not I’m stepping in the right direction. Sometimes I feel that I am a little delusional with the way I think. And I have no one else to blame but myself. These are choice that I’m making. This is just who I am. I throw myself at a lot of different things at once and that can be pretty overwhelming. It is very important to control that inner narrative and try to keep as positive as possible. It’s something I am practicing every day. And when I make it to where or what I envision in my head, I know that I will look back and appreciate all these hard and heavy things I feel sometimes. I have faith that these feelings will clear up one day but until then it’s a day at a time for me. Faith over fear.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theruglaboratory/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheRugLaboratory/
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@theruglaboratory
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