Supra Endura: Creative Conversations

Welcome to our last episode of Season 3. For this 36Th episode I want to switch it up a bit and both take you inside my own business along with talking shop with Nicole Haddad of Lobo Mau on what it is like running a small business in the pandemic. I have been working on some initiatives within my own brand along with being in a reflective period of what it is like being a solo entrepreneur. This episode I talk about what it is like to launch a new product. I take you inside the process and thinking behind what it takes to bring a new product to market. A few years ago I fell in love with beeswax wraps and I wanted to find a way to make them with Supra Endura prints. I take you on my journey of sourcing, figuring out digital marketing and what it is like to enter a new product category: Kitchenware. Being an entrepreneur is such a thrilling/ terrifying experience and I wanted to impart some of the knowledge I have learned along the way.  Next, I digitally sit down with Nicole Haddad of Lobo Mau. Nicole is a close friend and a central figure in the Philadelphia independent fashion scene. I wanted to get her take on the pandemic and what she is doing. It was great to hear what has been working for her and where she had to pivot. I also love her positivity, it is what we need right now.  I hope you find this episode refreshing and real. And if anything I hope it is useful to you on your own creative journey! :)

For this weeks podcast I got to digitally sit down with Conrad Benner of the Streets Dept. This was an amazing and full conversations and I got to learn about how Conrad started his blog and how it grew into a platform to promote local artists and a tool for social change. Conrad is Philly native who started his blog just as a passion project but soon found himself forming relationships with the Philadelphia's prominent streets artist. As the years went on his blog grew in popularity and eventually he was able to focus on it full time. Benner was interested in finding ways that his platform could both be a part of the larger conversation about art in a public space and affect social change. He has worked on various projects like: #AmICutOut, a pop-up art installation created with Covenant House Pennsylvania to help raise awareness and money to end youth homelessness in Philadelphia, and Signs of Solidarity, an inauguration day public art protest in opposition to hate and in protest of any and all that embolden divisiveness. Conrad has also started his own podcast where he sits down with the creative minds shaping Philadelphia and beyond. He talks to everyone from street artist to local politicians and for the last season he was able to take the podcast on the road. I love his interview style and along with the local leaders he has interviewed. We ended the episode with me in full amazement of what Conrad has achieved so far and excited for his next projects.

am so excited for todays episode for Zen of Fason De Viv. Zen was born in Haiti and grew up in West Philly to entrepreneur parents. Zen eventually found her way into retail and eventually launched her own store/ online shop. She talked about being a single mom and deciding to go all in on her dream of creating a lifestyle brand and a future for her family. I originally met her when she had her shop in Old City and I loved it. She had a great mix of independent brands and works to showcase makers from all around the world. Zen is also deeply interested in community and works to help mentor minority owned business on how to thrive in the growing marketplace. It was great to hear how she has grown and how she continued to help fostering the community through mentorships and non-profits her and her family have set up.

We have an amazing guest on: Judy Wicks! I have been wanted to get Judy on for a while and I am so excited to have her! For those of you who don't know Judy Wicks is an author, activist and entrepreneur. Judy founded Philadelphia’s iconic White Dog Cafe in 1983. She was also a pioneer in the farm to table movement and a model in sustainable business practices. She has gone on to found Fair Food Philly, the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia and, nationwide, the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies. With her All Together Now project she is connecting Pennsylvania’s rural agricultural community with the urban communities to build a sustainable and resilient regional economy. Judy's principles of sustainable business practice started when she spent a year working and living in an Eskimo village and seeing how the indigenous population shared and supported each other. After that she and her former husband started the first Free People store, which was the beginning of what we now know as Urban Outfitters. She then started in the restaurant business and went on to open the famous White Dog Cafe. What I love about this interview is Judy really gives us a history of important parts of Philadelphia's culture. She went on to publish her autobiography: Good Morning Beautiful business all about her entrepreneurial journey and how to build a new compassionate economy that works with the planet. Judy is still deeply involved in the community and fighting social injustice, she recently when to DC to march in Jane Fonda’s fire drill Friday's and has been supporting and protesting with Black Lives Matter movement. It was great to talk to her and hear about how she figured out all of these things.

Today I want to bring you an episode with 2 friends of mine who are deeply creative and married, yes married. I have long been interested in creative couples who work in different mediums and them coming together to create something sublime. Our guest today are Issacs Tin Wei Lin and Melissa Choi. I knew Melissa from the fashion community when she cofounded the line Senpai Kohai with pas guest Pia Panaligan. Melissa has worked in many parts of the fashion industry as a designer, artist, stylist and more. She is a perennially creative person who always has an amazing sense of style and always a few different creative projects she is working on. Isaac tin Wei Lin is an artist who’s graphic and abstract paintings are buzzing with details of calligraphic, brushed and hand-drawn patterns. His work has appeared in a number of galleries and museum’s such as the Philadelphia Art Museum, Berkeley art museum and Fleisher Ollman Gallery. Earlier this year they decided to embark on creating a clothing line together: Choi Lin, this featured the artwork of Issacs and design sensibility of Melissa. The result is dazzling: pops of colors and buzzy prints along with a few beautifully hand sequins cartoon cats. They launched the collection with a pop up and art installation at the Room Shop Vintage studio in Philly and then did an installation and pop up in Tokyo. I am so happy to get to chat with them about their own art practices along with what it was like coming together and working on this.

I got to digitally sit down with Manpreet Kalra of the Art Of Citizenry. Manpreet is a digital marketing expert, social activist, and speaker. She launched Art of Citizenry to coach conscious businesses on how to maximize their impact through business development, branding, and strategic marketing. She has a background in venture capitol and start- ups and wanted to use what she learned in those industries to help small businesses interested in social impact. We had some really interesting talked about cultural humility and how companies in the ‘do-good’ space have to continual check in to make sure they are actually solving issues instead of creating them. Also a very fun fact: Manpreet anonymously launched and ran the first every digital lifestyle magazine for South Asian women: Kaurista. Kaurista was dedicated to creating a space where individuals from every walk of life are invited, encouraged, and challenged to speak their mind on topics that matter to them and their unique experiences. She did all this while still in college! Even as a college student she saw this viewpoint missing in the public space and wanted to explore these issues that were not being talked about in traditional media. If you have not gleaned this yet, Manpreet is super passionate, hardworking and looking to explore avenues of social impact. I loved our conversation and hope you will as well.

Today I wanted to bring you a really fresh conversation, I am so excited for my guest Jennifer Mota. Jennifer Mota is a Dominican-American Multimedia Journalist who focuses on topics relating to music, fashion, Latinx identity, and Afro-Latinidad. She got her start at People Chica and now writes for Tidal, Vibe, People Espanol, Hip Latina and many more online outlets. She also spearheaded the Urbano and Afro-LatinX stories during her time at people Chica and now has become the unofficial expert on Dominican Dembow. Jennifer is also deeply passionate about fashion. I met her while she was an intern at the Philadelphia fashion Incubator and saw immediately that she had a great sense of style and was deeply curious. I have loved following Jennifers personal style and see her as an influencer in Philadelphia fashion and music scene. Along with styling local artist she also had her own line of bathing suits which she makes all by herself. She is just at the beginning of her career but already has accomplished so much. I wanted to bring her on as I feel she has a very fresh perspective of figuring out your passion and I love sharing with you the route that she took.

I have an amazingly inspiring women on: Dylan Garner who is the creative director of Cohere and helps run the Philadelphia chapter of Ladies Wine & Design. The first things I want to say about Dylan is she is incredibly warm, she is the kind of person who wants everyone to feel welcome and that is an amazing quality. She is the creative director of one of my favorite creative agencies in Philly: Cohere and her linked in profile job description she writes: branding cultures and cities. Along with helping to craft some of the most iconic venues in Philadelphia and other cities, she helps to run Ladies Wine & Design which is an amazing national organization that connect women designers. I have been to a few of their events and just find it is a great place to connect and share. The LWD events really helps to bring the creative community together. We Definity nerded out on design things and she introduced me to the term Arthlete, which I am totally going to use in the future.

I was fortunate enough to digitally sit down with Em Sexton and talk about her extraordinary life and what she has learned along the way. I met Em a month ago at Alt Summit, her talk was radiating and I felt like it gave me the tools to tackle some of the bigger problems I was facing in my business. What I have always loved about her is she is both hugely successful but also open about her vulnerabilities. Em had found great success in banking and was one of the youngest VPs in her company, but she felt the urge to do something bigger. On her 30th birthday she left her job and began to create the Flourish Market: A one-of-a-kind shop that curates products with a bigger purpose. Em works with brands from all over the world that providing dignified jobs and fair wages to artisans in vulnerable communities. Along with running her super successful boutique, Em has also created a co-working space, incubator program and runs classes to help women step into their power. Her energy is contagious and she deeply believes we all have the power to go after and achieve the life we want. It was such a pleasure to chat her and get her advice on what we can do to get through these hard times.

Hi guys welcome to the 1st episode of the third season. On today’s episode I got to sit down with Hillary Super, the president of Anthropologie. I got to chat with Hillary about her career working in the fashion industry and how she grew to become one of the few female presidents of a major America brand. It was great to hear what she learned working in both the corporate and start-up world and how that influenced her thinking and leadership. We got to chat about her exciting initiative at Anthropologie to launch the plus size collection and have a larger conversation about exclusivity in fashion. I have deeply appreciated her candor and openness about being in a role of power and influence.

I was so deeply honored to get to do a live podcast interview with Carmen Maria Machado at the University Of The Arts. I was deeply moved by Carmen's first book: Her Body and Other Parties, and wanted to talk craft and what her journey to becoming an award-winning author was like. Carmen recently published her second book, a memoir called In the Dream House. She has been a finalist for the National Book Award and the winner of the Bard Fiction Prize, the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction, the Brooklyn Public Library Literature Prize, the Shirley Jackson Award, and the National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Prize. Carmen was a joy to chat with and I left feeling very inspired.

Welcome to our mid-season teaser. We recorded this episode live as part of Design Philadelphia. I had the pleasure of sitting down with Dora Cuenca, an amazing painter, and muralist. We chatted about Dora's vibrant childhood in Costa Rica. Dora took us inside her art-making and how it has helped her to process painful events. She shares what it has been like translating her art into large scale murals. We also talk about balance with creative life and family, Dora is the mother to three kids and shares how her kids have inspired her art.

I met Elena Brennan five years ago when I was just starting my own business. I was just beginning to understand the retail landscape and starting to think about brand identity, marketing, sales and everything else a fashion startup thinks about obsessively. I was a part of the Philadelphia Fashion Incubator and Elena came to talk with us about how she started BUS STOP. She was warm and welcoming; opening up to us about the initial years when she launched BUS STOP. I was in awe of how she just jumped into running a boutique but quickly learned how to create a shopping experience that resonated with her clients. Over the years I have watched BUS STOP grow and am so excited to see Elena design her own collection with BUS STOP X. I loved sitting down to chat with Elena about how she followed her dreams and started her beloved shoe store.

Welcome to the 25th episode of the Supra Endura podcast! We are so excited to have on Keith Lockerby of Oxford Street Furniture. Keith runs his bespoke furniture business with his wife, Lauren. Each piece is designed and handcrafted in their Philadelphia studio. I was amazed to hear about how Keith got started working at a talent start-up and working is way up to oversee the finances of the business. After that, he decided to strike out on his own and started his first furniture and fabrication business. He immediately found success and started to grow his business and his team. At the height of his success, he ran into one issue which subsequently let to the demise of his company. To get the full show notes, links and photos visit: https://www.supraendura.com/blogs/news

Today we have Melissa Hall, founder of The Emerging Designer and a brand strategy consultant. Melissa started her platform in 2012 after working with a variety of entrepreneurs and realized the opportunity for exposure, education and meaningful connections in the industry. Over the years I have found the Emerging Designer to be an essential resource for navigating how to run my brand. I met Melissa in 2014 when she visited the Philadelphia Fashion Incubator. She gave me great insight into my brand and we have kept in touch over the years. Melissa has worked on some pretty impressive projects like consulting with Design Entrepreneurs NYC, a mini-MBA program for top NYC emerging fashion companies. I got to visit her this summer and catch up on all the new projects she is working on.