Boss Mentality

This episode is packed with creatives who rose to the occasion and blazed trails. As they rose, they made sure their team elevated too. These people are the ones who leave a place much better than they found it, and that’s why we are glad they are making changes in the fashion industry. Thank you to our guests: Stiletto Award nominee Elizabeth Claros – Creative Director of Runway Buy, Style Me UP Nat guest Tanya Chisholm – Beauty Counter Rep, and Red Carpet Features Lisa Troup – Jewelry Buyer at Macy’s and Michael Rotimi – Founder of Offshore Agency. 

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Transcript

Natalie Trevonne  0:00  

I’m Natalie Trevonne,

Lissa Lo0:01  

and I'm Lissa Lo.

Natalie0:03  

And this is fashionably tardy

Natalie0:20  

where the podcast that bridges the gap between the disability community and the fashion industry by telling the amazing stories of some dope fashion creatives who are killing it in the game today. I am all about today's show, because we're talking about those creatives who rose to the occasion. Yes, they were not afraid to follow their dreams. They planned out a vision for themselves and executed it with style and grace. And we're calling this episode boss mentality.

Natalie1:08  

And this episode's nominee for the stiletto award is Elizabeth Klaros.

Lissa1:19  

The Stiletto Awards is our way of honoring those who show up and show out for their community using fashion to transform lives. Elizabeth is a perfect example of this. She is the co-founder and chief creative officer of a see now by now platform called runway by, which allows boutiques and designers to monetize their videos, while also focusing on the importance of giving back.

Natalie1:46  

If you’ve ever seen videos of models showing off gorgeous outfits on the runway, or the latest arrivals in boutiques, and you had to decide whether to stay on to click the link to purchase the item. Or keep watching the live video to see more. Then Elizabeth and her team have the perfect app for you. But before we jump into this great technology, let's talk some more about Elizabeth. She can't remember a time where she didn't love fashion. She used to cut her curtains up into new styles of clothing and dress up her dolls. She went to the fashion industry, school and NYC. And when she graduated, she went to college for fashion merchandising. In Miami, she met up with the director of next models, Ron Gerard, where she became a stylist on his roster. But after that, she decided that she would become an agent and did that for 20 years, she decided to stop and go back to an old love, photo production and media. And four years ago, she was approached to be the co-founder of runway by and of course, she said yes, how could she not. They love what they're doing over there at runway by. And I know that I can speak for most customers and say we do to

Elizabeth  3:14  

Approximately four years ago, I got approached by Mark Palmer. He's the founder. And he came up with the idea and vision in 2011 when he went to his first runway show and was like, surprised no one' was monetizing this, or everybody's taking photos, but what's going on with their phones. And he sat on it for quite a few years. And then he approached me four years ago, with his idea. And I was like I love it having been that I was in media and covering a lot of designers backstage and going to a lot of the shows from established designers to emerging designers and with his concept I was like we can be helping a lot of designers be able to monetize and really, you know, generate money. And one of the things was obviously what you see in the runway doesn't really go to market. Right? You know, a smaller designer would probably consider it if given the option. So, we started working on things. We have our team in Australia, Marcus here in the states and I'm in the states and it was a really great collaboration between all of us bringing all of our knowledge together to do see now by now. It is not a new concept. It's been around for a while.

Lissa Lo4:35  

What sets them apart from all others see now by now platforms is that runway by has an option to monetize videos in real time and even on live streams. And as you can guess the existence of COVID accelerated their initiative.

Elizabeth4:52  

So, it was March of this year and I was like well Spring, Summer showed in September. So there is inventory and there's product that had been manufactured and produced sitting in warehouses or in shops or waiting to be shipped or, you know, and I was like, that's merchandise that can be moving now via video because they already had done their video, they had shown their collection through a runway. And we just put everything on a fast speed. And, you know, we can do this, we can really push monetization of video content if it was from a runway show, Fashion Film or a a livestream with a boutique owner that's trying to live stream from another social media platforms trying to sell her merchandise. But, if I'm interested in that merchandise, I have to come off the platform, look for her website, look for that item. And most people will do it if they really have the time to do it, or they just don't. So, then she's not creating any sales or engagement of any sort. So we added a component that's called boutiques, which is to help the boutiques and do a live stream from their store and help them move their merchandise through the live stream and actually create sales in real time by saving it in a little shopping bag.

Lissa6:21  

In October, they will come out with their first beta version of the app, which will feature boutiques, designers and sustainable brands who have videos that they are monetizing sharing their latest products runway by is prepared to expand. In the future. Elizabeth hopes that they can also include beauty products. So if you're a designer wishing to monetize your videos or consumer wishing to know when such an amazing platform will be live, check out runway buy.com.

Natalie6:57  

Our first red carpet feature is Lisa Troup, a designer jewelry buyer at Macy's who's focused on market label brands.

Lissa7:08  

The beginning of Lisa's story reminds me of our previous episodes, red carpet features. We called that one diamonds in the sky, but we could have just called it from stem to fashion. Lisa fits right in because even though she really loved dressing up as a child, and even wearing those fake plastic heels around, she didn't actually start pursuing fashion at first. She really wanted to become a doctor. She didn't have to go super long down this path because in high school, she reached her breaking point,

Lisa7:37  

we went to dissect a frog and I couldn't do it. I was like, Okay, this is

not for me, what am I going to do? So I walked myself down to the guidance counselor's office. And, you know, this was when I was almost graduating and starting to look at colleges and things like that. And she said, Well, what do you like to do? And you know, typical teenager, I was like, I love to shop, but I'm from a really small town, and I didn't actually know that could be a job. And she told me Well, you can do that as a job. And I thought oh my god here I've been really racking my brain on all these really tough AP courses and, you know, everything, and I could have been doing you no art, school and fashion, how exciting.

Lissa8:31  

Lisa applied to the Philadelphia School of textiles and science, which is not really there anymore, with the intention of becoming a designer, but her parents wanted her to do more of the business side. And so, they reached a compromise, which was probably the best decision she believes she made at that time.

Lisa8:51  

But I went to school for fashion industry management, which again, is a combination of I thought I wanted to be a fashion designer. And my parents were like, absolutely not. And they wanted me to kind of go into the more of the business. And the great thing about the school was that they had this program that merged together. And it was a combination of design, business production, all of the aspects that can really go into fashion.

Natalie9:21  

Most of us had a side hustle in college, but how many of us can say that it set us up for a bigger opportunity. Lisa decided to work in retail. And she's so glad that she did because it taught her something so valuable about the fashion industry. And that's the importance of customers. Her resale experiences, in one job in particular helped her so that she didn't have to experience unemployment after graduation. Instead, it set her up for the opportunity to relocate to another city.

Lisa9:59  

I had worked with Hermes of Paris, which has been a pillar of a great company, from a very high-end aspect. I worked for them in Philadelphia, where I went to school. So, after school, I was like, this is such a great company. But I want to expand beyond Philadelphia. And I really wanted to move to New York. So, I took a job with them opening their Wall Street store, which was very exciting. 

Natalie  10:28

After that, she got a job at Macy's in the product development department. And let's just say things were a lot different. 

Lisa  10:38

It was very exciting. And it kind of taught me the exact opposite of what Hermes taught me, I joke about, you know, I was selling hundred thousand-dollar handbags. And working on products that was very expensive to negotiating over five cent buttons and how many of them was going to be on a shirt?

Lissa10:55  

Wait, so of course, the stuff at Hermes was super expensive compared to Macy's. But I also think it's really important to describe the culture at Hermes to paint a full picture.

Lisa11:08  

If you know any of their products, they are so well made, and handmade still. They actually run their company, really the way, you know, old school buying has been done in terms of the managers of the stores are the buyers for their stores. So they will take handwritten orders for each of their customers. So Mrs. Smith would like you know, this specific bag in this specific color in this specific leather. And it's really one of those great things that again, you not only know your customer, but you know them intimately. And you're buying directly for them, which is very exciting.

Natalie11:51  

This is quite different from her experienced being a product developer at Macy's, a product developer is responsible for enhancing an existing product or developing a totally new one that meets the customer's needs. In her new job at Macy's. Lisa had to think about the future always. And it’s this mentality that has allowed her to advance up the ranks at Macy's in a true boss nature.

Lisa12:20  

When I started about 12 years ago, I worked on the men's team for our private label brands. And what it really is, is working in combination with the design teams, and the buyers in order to develop products for our customers, specifically back then, when I first started, I was working as an assistant, you know, kind of helping out doing small parts of the label, things like that, in terms of maybe just a shirt category or a pack category. And then as I grew within product development across the company, you know, gaining more of that experience on total brands and having to have that total brand vision. So, you know, keeping in mind the small details of the negotiation in terms of the costing and what kind of fabrication does the customer love? What is going to really make an impact on the floor? And then also kind of in capturing that with? What is your customer really going to like in terms of newness? And how does that full collection come together. So just being at Macy's for 12 years, I have kind of grown into each of those roles while I moved around the company, which is very exciting.

Lissa13:35  

Just to put all of that into perspective. Here's her Macy's journey from the beginning until now.

Lisa13:41  

I started in men's. I went to women's ready to wear. I was in home for a brief period, I went into women's footwear. So that was all under the private labels that we developed for our customers. Then about two years ago, I got an opportunity to move over to the buying side of things. And now I'm a designer jewelry buyer. And I buy our market label brands for Macy's.

Lissa14:09  

Before we talk about her experiences as a buyer, we have to first talk about Lisa's time in women's shoes. Before she got here as a product manager, this department was struggling so much. But with help from Lisa and her team, they were able to turn this whole department around. And now Lisa considers this one of her biggest highlights of her career.

Lisa14:31  

I was brought in to kind of take a look at it and say let's fix this. Let's work together to understand… you know, what's wrong here? Is it the assortment? Is it the pricing, Is it the materials? What's going on. And it proved to be a lot of that which was really exciting because we could just wipe the slate clean and move forward and turning that business around and getting it to be the number one boot resource at Macy's. When I saw those numbers at the end of the year, that really hit me.

Natalie15:01  

Now we're going to get into her current role. After all the great work she was doing in the women's shoe department at Macy's, she kind of had a moment where she was unsure of her decision, kind of like the imposter syndrome. She didn't know if she would be a great buyer because she didn't feel like she had a whole lot of experience there. But she quickly found out that she had something even better to offer.

Lisa15:28  

What I came to find out very quickly is that Macy's needed a bit of a revamp within the area from my perspective, and we needed some new brands and some, fresh things on the floor. And that was one of the things that was easy for me to see, I knew what was out there in the market, I could kind of help to curate that. Even the brands that we did have that, you know, are phenomenal brands. They were overlapping on each other. Everybody had a silver hoop earring, why do we need a silver hoop bearing from every single brand that all… you know, sells the same. So it took those things that I learned in product and built upon and kind of added that layer on top of it. And then you know, being able to flex more of my strategic muscles as well in terms of negotiation with vendors and working through assortments and building brands with them has been a really great opportunity.

Natalie16:23  

We interviewed Lisa in early June right after the killing of George Floyd. She says her and her team were having those tough but necessary conversations. And she herself resolved to include more black jewelry designers in Macy's. This was also a few months into the pandemic. And Lisa had a great outlook on the future of fashion buyers. When the showrooms close, the designer started meeting with Lisa online. And she discovered that if she enjoyed looking at the video and photo presentations online, that the customers would too. All of a sudden, the idea of designers creating pieces just to be seen at showrooms just didn't make sense to Lisa anymore. She was happy to look at pieces online, which speaks to her adaptability and her positive mindset during this whole pandemic.

Lissa17:23  

These qualities have appeared so much in Lisa's story, especially courage and going back to this whole boss mentality aspect. Lisa has some really great advice for anyone also wishing to level up in their careers. And yes, that also involves a lot of courage.

Lisa17:43  

I just would encourage everybody to challenge themselves to do the thing that is the most scary to them. Every time that I moved along at Macy's and move to a new team I was absolutely petrified to, you know, get into something new. And was I going to be smart enough was I going to be creative enough and you know insightful enough to do this new job. And I feel with every move I've made I've learned so much more so I would just encourage everybody to do that thing that they are the most afraid of because you are going to learn a world of difference and how to challenge yourself in ways that you did not expect

Natalie18:24  

Hey, hey enjoying boss mentality? So are we! But we're keeping the party going next up on Style Me Up Nat 

 Natalie  18:39

 today, I am here with Tanya Chisholm and she's going to be talking to us about clean beauty. Hey girl, how are you?

Tanya18:46  

Hey girl, I'm good. How are you doing?

Natalie18:49  

Amazing. Tanya is an actress, and influencer and she's a beauty counter consultant. And so let's just jump into it.

Tanya18:59  

Yes, absolutely. So I personally like didn't really know much about beauty or clean beauty before I really tried beauty counter for the first time a friend of mine had introduced me to beauty counter and I loved the products I wasn't super concerned about whether it was clean or not clean or really knew what that meant. But then, in kind of researching, I was flabbergasted at how filthy a lot of the products in the beauty industry are. And so when we're talking about what's quote clean and what's quote dirty, what we're talking about is the ingredients and the chemicals. The toxic agents that are in certain beauty products actually in a lot of beauty products and personal care products from you know deodorant to lip gloss to you know eye cream. The ingredients in those products are often ingredients that are endocrine disruptors, hormone disruptors, carcinogens. So what we're putting on our body gets in our body. And when we talk about personal care products, you know, their products, we use, am and pm every single day basically, of our lives. So those things have a cumulative effect. So you know, we see a lot of people suffering from autoimmune disorders and from crazy hormone problems. And we don't realize that so many of the things that we ingest our food, our air, and now our personal care products are really loaded with heavy metals, carcinogens, toxins, all of these things. So that's where I kind of got very passionate about kind of spreading the gospel of clean beauty, it's a push to really regulate and make sure that the ingredients in the products that we're putting on our bodies are not harmful to us in the long run, which, you know, seems like it should be pretty standard. But unfortunately, in the US, we haven't had a law passed, a safety regulation passed in the personal care and beauty industry since 1934. And actually, the European Union has banned over 1400 ingredients from products that go into their beauty products, and the US is only banned 34. So as a beauty counter consultant, I am super like proud of the fact that beauty counter actually has a list of 1800 ingredients that are either harmful or questionable, or like we don't know that much about so we're not gonna be like here, put this in your mouth or on your skin or on your baby, you know. So we play it safe, and really make sure that the ingredients we use are sourced sustainably and  not going to harm you or your family. And really our number one goal is to do good. So, we actually are a B Corp, which is a coveted title for a company that basically puts people, the environment and their customers above profit.

Natalie22:28  

Can you talk to me a little bit about what products you guys offer and I would really love for you to really go into the fact that all the products are vegan because we know that that's a big thing for a lot of people, a lot of people are into healthy eating. And so I'm sure they will be even more excited about healthy skincare.

Tanya22:48  

Yes, absolutely. So um, a lot of our products are vegan. So some of our products are vegan, our products are cruelty free, some are vegan, some are organic, but not all of them are across the board all of those things because we have skincare so that means like your skincare routine, you know, cleansers, serums, masks, toners essences, all kinds of things. And we have three different lines. actually more like four different lines. One is a starter line, but basically all the lines have each of the steps in your skincare routine. And I'll just say that in case someone listening does not know the steps that you want to go through with your skincare routine, it's really important actually, those steps are cleanse, tone, treat, moisturize and protect. And so that's the order that you want to do your skincare in because of the chemical composition and the viscosity of certain products. You know, if you put on your oil before you put on your toner, your toner is not going to do anything for your skin because that oil is you know, blocking that barrier. So that's how our regimens or collections are set up in in steps. And so, we have skincare, we do makeup, our makeup is fabulous. We have a men's line, we have a whole line for body, shampoos, conditioners, lotions, sunscreens, actually, many of our products are Allure Best of Beauty winners. Our sunscreen is one of those. Yeah, so and we also have a line for all of your baby stuff. So basically, anything that you or your family could possibly put on your body, Beauty Counter has made a clean alternative to what you would probably find in a grocery store. And what I love about that is that usually you know when I kind of started this journey, if I tried something that was kind of green or clean. I felt like it didn't really work like it was great. I was not, you know, ingesting carcinogens. But at the end of the day, people need their skincare stuff to work. Like if you're trying to battle anti-aging, you know, you can just not use anything and get the same result with some of this stuff. So, what I was just so impressed with was the level of like how high performing beauty counters products were without, you know, sacrificing their customers health and wellbeing? 

Natalie  25:35

Well, okay, that's great. I'm interested in knowing what are some of your favorite beauty counter products? Like, what do you stand by?

 Tanya  25:42

my favorite beauty counter line is the counter timeline. So that's our anti-aging line. And it is the most luxurious, like, the ingredients are just so rich and lovely. And your skin just literally like glows after using it, you know, when I started, I actually didn't buy a whole bunch of products, I started with a few products at a time. And then slowly, I added more. And so now I have that whole entire line. And I'm like blown away at how effective it is. And that's what I really suggest to people too, it can be very overwhelming to hear all of this information about carcinogens and these things you're putting in your body that are going to kill you, you know… Overwhelming and expensive to start swapping out your products, which again, is why I love what beauty counter does, we have a list called the never list. And if you just Google beauty counter never list, this list will come up. And it's a list of the ingredients that we never use in our products. But also, we put it in a little card form that you can print out and keep it for yourself. So you can kind of compare the ingredients on the back of what you're using. And on the back of your cleaning products. And just all the products you have to see, you know what it is that are in the, products that you're using. And so you can make informed choices and start swapping things out slowly. Because you know, it's not always feasible to just do a whole revamp. But you know, things that I suggest starting out with is like your foundations, your lip glosses and lipsticks, the things that really soak into your skin and that you use all the time, I would, you know, put those as a priority of things to start cleaning up first. And then also I just want to mention that a really great tool is the Environmental Working Group. And that is E w g.org. And you can basically do a search on there of any product. And if they don't have the product in their database, you can just copy and paste the ingredients into their database and they'll tell you what ingredients in your products are harmful, why they're harmful, how harmful are they and they have like a scale so that's really helpful.

Natalie  28:7

Wow, so I don't know about the listeners but I'm about ready to go on the beauty counter website and start buying some stuff because this stuff sounds really amazing. I want to go back a little bit though because you mentioned that there's a men's line and so I kind of want to talk about it because I think it's important that the guys know like hey no, this stuff is for you too.

Tanya28:28  

Oh for sure. And I feel like you know women are like more aware of these things about like oh clean, not clean, whatever. Because you know my husband… Well when I look at like what we have in the shower there's like you know, Axe body spray that has like blue nine and like just all of this toxic stuff in it. And so, I love that they… that beauty counter is… Our whole mission is to get clean beauty into the hands of everyone so we have male consultants, we have a male line and that line consists of just a daily exfoliating cleanser I think most of the time guys primary skincare concern is pores. Most of them have not spent their life like really taking care of their skin so by the time they're an adult you know they have like larger pores, clogged pores and so the men's exfoliating daily cleanser is an amazing one It smells good but not like too good because you know guys just don't love scents like that. I think in general they'd rather not smell like anything than smelling like something they don't like so it's a very like mild scent, so we have that are a daily oil free moisturizer and a shaving cream. And you know it's just your basics right now they might be coming out with more soon, but I think you know in general; men are a little more low key than us. And so, I just love that they added that line, the men's line.

Natalie30:11  

I love that too, because it's so important. And that's funny. They do have like that ax and stuff. I actually hate ax.

Tanya 30:24  

me too, it's just loaded. I mean, it is loaded with chemicals. 

Natalie30:25  

if someone's interested, in learning more about beauty counter, even becoming part of your team?

Tanya30:33  

Oh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, you can always find me personally on Instagram at tan candy and you could shoot me a DM. And I can tell you all about it, you can also just go to beautycounter.com Follow beauty counter on Instagram, if I was truthful, like never in a million years did I ever, ever wanted to do any kind of like, direct to consumer sales, like, you know, I think we all have in our heads kind of that icky feeling you got from someone trying to get you on their team or trying to mail you samples of things. So, you can buy a, b and c, you know, but listen, again, beauty counter really stands out and stands alone in this business model as a company whose first and primary value is to do good. So as a consultant, I make 25% of my sales. And when those sales go up, actually, the percentage goes up, so 30% of my sales, and we make far more of a percentage on our sales than we do on our team sales. So, it's not like, you know, the concept is just get a bunch of people on your team. And then you can do nothing while the people under you work really hard. That is not how we are set up. You know, beauty counter has allowed me to have another stream of income as an influencer. I talk about other people's products all the time. And so, when I started beauty counter and I really genuinely was very passionate about the products, you know, 25% of the sales I make is way more than I'm making. I'm you know, influencing for you know, one time for a brand. And so I really jus love how they allow you to take ownership of a really well made product that is servicing people so I don't need to sell beauty counter to anyone because if you try the products, you will fall in love with them. And if you don't, that's fine. You know, not everything is for everybody.

Natalie32:49  

Oh my gosh, this was such an amazing style me up Nat everything you said is a yes. 

Tanya 32:57

 Yes, yes.

Natalie  32:59

 I’m so happy that you joined the party at ft. Can can’t wait to have you back on. Thank you so much. Tanya.

Tanya33:08  

You're so welcome. And I just want to encourage everybody if you get nothing out of this, just go to beauty counter, or Google the never list and just get yourself a never list. You can also DM me on Instagram and I can send one to you. It's going to really help you.

Natalie33:32  

Our second red carpet feature is Michael Rotimi, founder of the offshore agency based out of New York City. Michael was one of the first people to show interest and fashionably tardy when we legit thought it was just going to be a blog. And outside of having an amazing personality. We know that Michael really believes and what we're trying to do here at Fashionably Tardy, because he knows the power of small beginnings.

Lissa34:01  

To be a great agent, one has to have two qualities, the ability to scout and the ability to manage people. Michael knew he had the management part down packed because he spent a lot of time informally managing his friends rapping career. As for scouting, he realized that he had the eye for these things when he would walk along the streets and see a beautiful woman who he thought would be a great model. When he would ask her if she had this experience thus far, she would always respond. Yes, a casual realization then turned into an actual career goal. And Michael realized that he could actually start an agency. he researched, and planned, and planned to research until one day one cold winter day, he got a job.]

Natalie34:49  

If you were thinking that he went straight into the fashion industry and worked his way up as an agent, then you would be incorrect. He actually got a job as a mailman. in Philly,

Lissa35:01  

if we want to get technical, this job could be considered helping the fashion industry. I mean, mailmen do deliver the sales announcements and the magazines, and other promotional materials for some of the brands that we know and love.

Natalie35:19  

Okay, no, girl, you tried it. And I really don't know why, because Michael didn't even like that job. He really couldn't get down with all the weather changes, and I can't blame him. I'm California through and through. And so even though, I'm looking forward to moving to New York, someday, I am not going to be out in the cold, more than I have to be. But outside of the weather, Michael had an even bigger reason to hate his job.

Michael35:49  

The one thing about being a mailman is that you just spend so much time alone, I was just miserable and depressed. Like, you know, every day doing the same thing. I almost felt like a robot. I had like coworkers that were like pushing like 60. And they were like, yeah, 10 years in and you'll have your own route. They were talking about 401, K's and pensions and old, systematic stuff. And I was just like, I'm not looking forward to that.

Natalie36:20  

At that point, he already knew that he was good at scouting and managing. So he decided to dive deeper into research. Every night he would go home and plan new ways on how to break into the fashion industry. One day, his friend invited him to move to New York. But Michael knew he couldn't move without a plan. So when he felt confident enough, he quit and made the move.

Michael36:44  

I was a personal assistant for this, like interior design firm, for the founder there. And yeah, while I was there, I was like continuing my research. I scouted to models on Instagram. And from there, I was just kind of like talking to different casting directors and brands, sending those like, models out to them. I was like developing them as models. I was like sending them on test shoots. And yeah, after that, it just kind of like, snowball effect. You know, like, I got like one job for the model and like another one came. And then I just kind of started you know, scouting more people. And yeah, once I figured out the, like, the blueprint or the formula for it. Yeah, that's when I just kind of like, never looked back. You know,

Lissa37:32  

the first model he had was named Aliyah. And from the beginning, he set a standard of openness and transparency.

Michael37:41  

I just reached out on Instagram. I told her like, what I was like starting, we linked up. Yeah, we just kind of had a meeting about it. And I just let her know that I'm starting this agency. And I really like see potential in her, I was just kind of like brutally honest, I told her that, you know, I didn't have any, you know, experience at all. But it was something that I was passionate about doing, you know, and yeah, I think from that conversation, she believed in me. The brands, I was saying, aligned with her visions as well. So, yeah, she believed in everything. And she, she just, you know, gave it a shot.

Lissa38:21  

When he added the second model, his friend came up with the name offshore. And Michael loved it, because he felt it best described his mission.

Michael38:31  

I wanted a name that stood out, of course, but like that kind of defined, or have some definition of like being like, different away from the norm.

Lissa38:42  

The name works because Michael chooses to manage black indigenous people of color. This is because in his research, he found a whole bunch of agencies managing white people who didn't look like those he saw on his commutes daily, he resolved to create a space to embrace the diversity he wanted to see in the fashion industry and to stand apart from what people have come to expect in agencies.

Natalie39:07  

Within six months, Michael got the confirmation that he was on the right track. One late afternoon, he got an email from Vogue.

Natalie39:15  

At the time, I only had maybe like three, three or four models. And at this time, I was kind of still developing, Off-shore,  it was not known, you know, at all. But yeah, one day, I get an email Pretty like late in the evening actually, you know, the end of the day, and it was Vogue Yeah, they wanted to use two of our models for this photo shoot. And I was just like super ecstatic because it was so early, you know, and like Vogue is just such a household name and like Vogue is kind of like that like top tier place that you want to be in and for them to reach out to me so early. I knew then, I had something. And also, that there was like something lacking in the industry as far as like representation. When that happened, Yeah, I honestly almost cried. I called my sister. I was like, yo, Vogue reached out like it was amazing.

Natalie40:21  

To be clear, he had four models. But up into that point, none of them had been getting paid. That one huge opportunity was all he needed to know that he could keep going. Since then, he has done a lot more shoots and has booked more of his models and talents. And although he's grateful for all his opportunities, there is one that sticks out to him the most.

Michael  40:47  

Recently, last year, I cast a H&M campaign. And it was for like a collab with Ruth Carter. She was like, you know, a legendary wardrobe stylist, that has a lot of years in the game, like, very well respected in Hollywood, she works on so many movies. Yeah, I got to cast that entire campaign. And it was, you know, an all-black set. Just to be in that space, it was just incredible. And it was, you know, for a pretty big project.

Natalie41:22  

Today, he manages about 20 models, some stylists, photographers, and even a plant-based chef, his services are more in demand now that brands are looking for more diversity. And even though Michael loves new opportunities, he will not send a model to a brand who doesn't genuinely have a dedication to diversity. He refuses to let money speak louder than the need for racial equality.

Lissa  41:55  

That's powerful. And I really admire his consistency. Another thing I like about Michael and the whole offshore agency is that for them, personality is key. They want people who are great with making connections and who are authentic. Also, people who don't mind doing the work and not making the agents do all the work for them. Within a short amount of time, Michael has had a lot of success. But we would be lying if we said his road was super easy. He did a lot of research before jumping into an agency. But that didn't mean he was prepared for everything that he had to face. For instance, he learned real quick that people are not as willing to teach new people things. And so when he was able to find those professionals, who shared gems with him, he was so grateful. There were other people out there who really tried to take advantage of the fact that he was new to all of this. And he had to work really hard to make sure that his newness was not viewed as a weakness.

Michael  42:58  

And just different challenges. As far as like negotiating rates. I think a lot of people try to take advantage of me and my talent, because I was like, so new and didn’t really know much. So, I think that was a big challenge. And like just getting the respect. And of course, like, you know, I guess you have to like work for that respect. But that was definitely a challenge as well, just getting people to like, you know, come correct.

Natalie 43:28  

But clearly, he earned the respect that he needed and so much more. But before we go, we want to share Michael's advice for anyone with a boss mentality.

Michael  43:38  

Don't wait on nobody. Go out and get what you want. Invest in yourself. And yeah, don't let anybody stop you from doing what you want, like, nobody's gonna believe in your idea? until it's done. Nobody thinks like us. Nobody…  Don't expect everybody to understand your goals or your dreams.

Lissa  44:5  

We have come to the end of yet another episode here at Ft. And we realized that one thing these guests have in common for this one is that even though they are all amazing leaders in their own rights, each one of them emphasized the importance of team. I know we heard that cheesy phrase as a child like there's no I in team, but these creatives are great examples of how that really plays out within the fashion industry in a healthy way. We are sending a special thank you to our guests, Elizabeth Claros, our stiletto Award nominee and our red-carpet features Lisa Troup and Michael  Rotimi. This show would not be possible without our five-star team. Natalie Trevonne creative director, me Lissa Lo, producer, Gabby mendonca social media coordinator. A special thank you to Jeremy Jeffers. He is super talented, and we're grateful to have him on our team as well. We would love to keep the conversation going. So, join us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter at ft on the scene. also go to fashionably tardy.com. To join our email listserv to get all the updates and articles on the amazing guests we've had thus far. You can give us a call at 202-618-1708 or shoot us an email at Hello at fashionably tardy.com and we will be here to answer any of your questions.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai