Meet Corinne Bourget

We recently connected with Corinne Bourget and have shared our conversation below.

Corinne, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
I come from a family of 5 siblings. I was the second child and from my youngest age, I’ve always been independent, always wanted to do everything on my own. I’ve always pushed through every challenges, never had any money, just enough to get by. I always worked hard, while going to school or while started my own business on the side. I’ve never complained and always wanted to deal with my feelings internally thinking I was a strong woman by not showing any vulnerabilities. At some point in my life, I started to accumulate of lot of stresses and griefs. And the pandemic hits. I went through multiple miscarriages while trying to blend with my step kids, while being isolated from my friends and family. I never took time off. My business was what kept my going. My studio was my safe space when I needed to get out of the house. I felt lucky I could go there when so many people were confine at home. The grief was very hard to go by and got into a major depression. And at some point, my relationship deteriorated. My partner left me and 2 months later, my best friend who was also my business partner decided to quit the business. They both needed to move to different chapters of their life, but I was devastated. I moved house and my studio within 3 months. I barely remember any of it. I started running with my dog, listening to podcast, therapy, sleeping better, eating better, reaching out to friends and family… Opening up about my struggles was a huge step for me on my healing journey and now I believe it takes way more strength to show our vulnerability and it helps other people along the way.

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?
I was originally studying to become a scriptwriter. During my studies, I felt like it was missing something in the creative process, I wanted to have a tangible result at the end, something you can feel and touch and use. I discover the leather school and started a 3 year program. I didn’t know what I would do, I was just very curious about the material. I’ve never been a shoe or bag person, I just love to work with my hands, thinking about the steps, understanding the material, optimizing the process to do a production. My creative writing comes in a different form : I like thinking of the brand identity, the art direction of a photoshoot, etc… But I’m really good at resolving technical problems and finding 100 different ways to make something.

I finished school in 2009. I did a few internships abroad (leather good maker in France, shoemaker in Australia and entrepreneurship in Martinique) I worked in a couple small manufactures in Montreal where we did the production for local fashion designers. I started my first business on the side in 2011. After learning how to make shoes, I started HOTELMOTEL with 2 friends. It was important to us to keep the knowledge alive and to show people that you can use traditional techniques to create modern products. It was also very important to be transparent about the process, to demystify to the public all the steps behind the making of a pair of shoes. Even those that are made in big manufacture in Asia for exemple, they use more machines but it’s still real people doing all the steps. Customers don’t think about that, and only look at the price and performance of a shoe, but once they connect directly with the maker, they care so much more about their shoes, they see the hard work, they understand the fair price, etc…
Since 2022, I’ve been running the business by myself. I have one employee and my dog. I started doing custom work for businesses such as making menus for a hotel, corporate gift for Air Transat, etc…
I also want to start a non profit collaborative agency to gather many creative designer entrepreneurs to share ressources such as marketing agents, photographers, sells agents, exportation experts, etc… It’s expected for small business entrepreneurs that they should wear all the hats, but it’s so stressful and exhausting, so many give up or burn out. I think if we gather our ressources and we strenghten our sense of community, we will improve our chance of success and our quality of life.

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?
The 3 qualities that lead me where I am are perseverance, self-discipline and resourcefulness. Even if you don’t have the money to realize what you want to do, you can still do it over time, with effort and patience. It’s definitely not easy to start a business from nothing so it’s so important to have the inner strength to push through, the energy to work many hours, the adaptability and to be able to ask for help. Resourcefulness to me means not staying alone, look for grants, mentors, your love circle’s talents and knowledge, your community, etc… While these are great qualities, their downfall is exhaustion, it’s also very important to take time off and self care.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?
I love collaborating with other creative minds. I’m looking to find new partners, small independent shop owners who like to curated their store with products following the values behind the movement of slow living and slow fashion. I love customizing my products for the shop I collaborate with. I’m looking to collaborate with businesses who wants to thank their customers, partners, employees, etc with something unique, special and customized.

Contact Info:

Image Credits
atelierHOTELMOTEL Richmond Lam

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