Meet Dawn LaFontaine

We recently connected with Dawn LaFontaine and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Dawn, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
My mother has an oft-repeated saying (that we sometimes like to tease her about), that people don’t learn from their failures; they learn from their successes.

While I think there’s something to learn from all life experiences, including negative ones, when you’re talking about resilience, it takes achievement to develop this particular skill.

I say “skill” because I think resilience is a learned ability. People aren’t born resilient; it’s something you have to learn about yourself, and then actively lean into.

I was lucky to be born into a family that loved and supported me, but also had high expectations for me. That started with school: I was expected to perform to the best of my ability academically. I was a natural student, and I quickly learned how achieve in school.

That kind of early success breeds a certain brand of confidence into a person. I became, early on, a someone who believed in herself. I have an internal monologue going on all the time that goes something like, “I’m sure I’ll figure that out,” or “If they can do it, I’m sure I can do it, too,” and “Maybe it hasn’t happened yet for me, but it will.”

I think that’s my definition of resilience.

When I started my business, Cat in the Box, I knew nothing about running a small product business. I had no idea how to get my product idea manufactured. I’d never built a website and didn’t know where to start. I knew nothing about marketing, social media, or bookkeeping. And I made a lot of mistakes.

I know a lot of people who start businesses quit as soon as they hit their first roadblock. Roadblocks come up fast when you undertake a project like this one.

Resilience is the ability to see around the roadblocks.

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 founded a company called Cat in the Box.

Cat in the Box designs products for cats that meet their biological and psychological needs, as well as the desire on the part of their guardians for products that add, rather than detract from the decor of the home.

I started out designing cardboard-box playhouses for cats. Cats are strangely obsessed with cardboard boxes — anyone who has a cat, probably has an old Amazon box lying around the house for her, too. There’s actually some pretty serious science that explains this bizarre infatuation with boxes, but suffice it to say, it’s a loving thing to do, to provide your cat with a box.

Unlike old shipping boxes, Cat in the Box products are fun and attractive and designed specifically with cats’ needs and interests in mind. They’re a little bit pop art (like my giant milk carton), and a little bit conversation piece (like my gingerbread house for cats). Cats love them, and their guardians don’t mind leaving my boxes out for display in their living rooms when company comes over.

I’ve recently begun expanding my product line into other cat items. My latest product is a wool mouse with a six-foot-long tail. This product is made for me by my World Fair Trade-certified partner in Nepal from 100% pure New Zealand wool.

Cats really enjoy wool, which is a natural, renewable material, and they go crazy for the long tail.

I’m proud to say that this product not only helps cats, but it helps people, too. Felt artisans get a living wage, health and retirement benefits, and even incentives for keeping their daughters in school when they make this product. It helps real people support their families and plan for their futures.

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?
I came to my journey with very few applicable skills or knowledge areas related to ecommerce. So, if that’s how you’re feeling right now, don’t let that stop you.

But I engage in three behaviors regularly that make all the difference for me:

1. I found people who know more than me. There’s no reason to reinvent the wheel. Chances are there’s already somebody who has been where you’re headed. Seek out courses, find mentors, identify people who know what you need to know, and get to know them! People want to help other people. Become the kind of person people want to help and don’t be afraid to ask questions, or ask for help.

2. I joined everything. The more people you meet, the more people you meet. Sometimes a group is a dead end, but most of the time, knowing one person leads to knowing another person, leads to knowing another person, and so on. I can’t begin to tell you the multitude of product ideas, solutions to problems, and even access to financial awards that have come my way because I opened myself up to every opportunity that I stumbled upon. I even developed some really meaningful friendships this way! Say yes to everything, especially at the beginning.

3. I read. I read everything from magazines and newspapers, to cereal boxes. I haven’t gone to bed at night without reading at least a few pages from whatever book is sitting in the stack on my nightstand since high school, actually, probably since third grade. Being curious, having a hunger for knowledge is the key to everything. If you’re in the habit of reading, you’re in the habit of self-educating, and that’s the only way to go from no skills and knowledge, to surprising yourself with all of the skills and knowledge you’ve managed to accumulate.

Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?
The most impactful thing my parents did was love me.

One of my best friends is a therapist and our kids are about the same ages. We were a great support system for each other when they were little.

Recently, we were reminiscing about that overwhelming time in our lives, when we were so worried about doing everything just right as mothers. I said to her, and she agreed, that we probably could have done a lot more wrong than we did, so long as our kids knew that we loved them.

My parents loving me was a gift. Even though my mother was not necessarily on board with the idea of me starting this business (my father had passed by then), she had already given me everything that I needed to take the risk required anyway.

Knowing you’re loved as child gives you faith in yourself. If your parents — those all-powerful forces in your early life – love you, you must be worthy. Feeling worthy gives you the self-confidence to be self-reliant, which is important when you’re figuratively jumping off a cliff.

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