S1E8: On embracing heritage through fashion - East Meets Dress
Jenn and Vivian teach us the art of balancing friendship and business, learning to say no, and how to turn a lofty idea into something more tangible.
About this episode
Jenn and Vivian run a bespoke fashion store called East Meets Dress. They create and develop cheongsam dresses in the hopes of bringing back traditional garb but made for the modern woman. What makes their story amazing is that they didn’t come from a fashion background. They grew up in a typical Asian household and had originally wanted to become doctors and go into finance. However, they came across the idea of East Meets Dress through their own need when planning Jenn’s wedding. Through sheer hustle and good work ethic, they turned this idea into a thriving business.
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN:
- How road blocks and challenges during travel is a great indicator of whether you and your bestie can go into business together
- How our very own need is a signal to a problem that others also need solving
- What it means to be patient when starting a business and how your chief best friends allows you to keep going
- How to balance spending time together and maintaining friendship outside of work
- How being friends create trust that is crucial in starting a business together, as well as bypassing the ice-breaker stuff that allows for more honest conversations
- How to create a spreadsheet to figure out which tasks to assign and distribute with your chief best friend
- How to put yourself in your customer’s shoes in order to maintain quality and experience that truly serves them
- How to pursue a lofty idea by focusing on creating impact by focusing and helping one person
- How to see the path to success as not a straight line and not to be afraid to create your own path
While sometimes I can do things that might annoy her, at the end of the day, I know that we're family and that's a strong bond we have together.
Episode resources
- "We don't sell saddles here." - Slack Founder, CEO, Stewart Butterfield (Article)
- The Untethered Soul - Michael Singer (Book)
- The Founder's Guide to Discipline - Lessons from Front's CEO, Mathilde Collin (Article)
- Sandra Oh (Read this piece on her by Shonda Rhimes in Time)
- Zapier (Productivity Tool)
Connect with East Meets Dress
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