We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Laura Treas a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Laura, 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?
Having attended 13 different schools because of transient parents, I learned early on how to adjust and pivot! You are also forced to learn how to walk into a room full of people you’ve never met and make friends, over and over. I have the same skill sets as army brats. My upbringing also taught me that mistakes are not that serious because I was always moving and looking forward because it didn’t do any good to look backwards. I’ve acquired a knack to be very zen during stressful times because I know the difference between long term stressful results versus “is this going to matter in a few days/weeks”.
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?
I help clients launch their sewn products, which might be an invention, not just apparel. I’ve had 5 clients get approved to pitch for Shark Tank as a start-up. They need prototyping, patterns and samples made to prepare them for production of multiples. During this process I provide coaching, marketing for their product and industry content for websites and social media, such as, how to talk about sustainability as it pertains to their product etc. I hold their hand all the way to launching and beyond!
I’ve started a group for my clients I call “Peer Support For Launching” and provide information that helps them with their brands. Wether it be something simple like which current hashtags they should use to how to export if they get that big. Our friends don’t want to keep hearing about our process and “what is taking so long” 😉 so the group fills that need to share information and hear others’ stories.
Many objects are sewn by humans using sewing machines, and we need more domestic manufacturing. Some items are very doable for beginners. I mentor people who want to build their own micro factory to become an independent sewing contractor and am starting a YouTube channel to share my knowledge about Small Batch Manufacturing.
I have my own brand of compression wear as I am trained in post-surgical garments and that is how I got started with small batch manufacturing. My brand consists of gender affirming undergarments and shape wear plus many customs. Because I know how to manufacture I offer my services to the public and run 2 companies simultaneously.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Your journey is based on relationships and making connections. Looking back, the thing that haunts me the most that I wished could be different, is that I would’ve told more people early on what I was doing but I held back because I was such a small company. I had the ear of some famous people and my friends would urge me to tell them what I was doing and I didn’t have the confidence to share my journey when we all love hearing about each others dreams. I urge all start-ups to not be shy about sharing their stories because one connection leads to another and people actually do love to help. I overcame this challenge and now regularly go into networking events where I absolutely know not a single person, which can be intimidating, and it takes practice to talk about what I do so that it sounds interesting to others. Sewing is not sexy or interesting to people that don’t sew. I purposefully thought about how to talk about it so that others could understand the importance of it. Like, “I promote reshoring of American made goods” which leads to “What is reshoring?” “It’s bringing back manufacturing to the US” and that always sparks conversation where I usually learn something from the other person. The other conversation starter I have for my compression line is ” I provide confidence” instead of ” I make compression garments”. All of this took lots of thought and practice but was worth it because people’s interests are piqued instead of bored. Everyone needs connections to get where they want to go.
Also, having a friendly face that makes you approachable, even if and especially if you’re nervous, and starting with small talk, like the weather, usually results in a conversation that leads to the place where you get to ask each other what you do. I don’t hesitate to ask the simplest question about what someone else does just to keep the conversation going to make the other person at ease. Which makes me at ease at the same time. Asking how someone got into their field is the best starter. The more you get to talk about your journey, the better it sounds. All of this practice has come in handy as I’ve gained a wider audience and am getting more kudos. I’ve been featured in books, articles, videos and received some nominations just in the last year.
Lastly, I am very good at turning over every stone before I take the next step. You can’t be lazy about research. It literally is never a waste of time because knowledge is power. Every time I have gone out of my way to check out something, meet someone, or learn about something I didn’t know, it has been useful at a later date. It’s easy to tell yourself you don’t need that information right now but your future decisions could be coming from a more knowledgeable place.
What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?
My parents were very permissive. We could jump on the bed, stay up late and our cousins’ favorite place for sleepovers. I grew up believing there were no limits. I always had a lot of creative ideas and my parents accommodated them, even my many schools always let me produce my ideas. I had to develop my own version of discipline. This was the groundwork for my entrepreneurial life. I’ve never had any fear of starting something new. What’s to fear? Failure? That’s just learning what not to do.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.fashiontechkansascity.com & www.affirmawear.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauratreas/ & https://www.instagram.com/a_f_f_i_r_m_a_w_e_a_r/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/laura.treas/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-treas-93984216/
Image Credits
Tiffany Buckley
