Fashion Meets Travel: Vogelle’s Founder Story

Speaker 1: [Music] everything that's happened to me has been because I took a risk and in my situation was curious about another culture and another place being open to the world and other places but also taking initiative and allowing yourself to have those experiences hi I'm Melanie bar welcome to the she builted experience with Melanie join me as I talk to women who have successfully built it a career and business that they love we dive into the topic of how built it and talk about everything from Having the courage to make career leaps to the details of how to lead effectively create successful teams Implement strategies for growth and Infuse Tech Innovation magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy so let's dive in welcome back to the Shelt tip podcast thank you for joining us Laura you are the founder of Vogel tell us what caused you to launch your business and share with us what you've created I started Vel when I was 21 years old I was studying abroad in Milan Italy before I went to college I was a model and I got scouted at a Walgreens in my hometown outside of Denver and from that experience and getting into that industry I was really exposed to the fashion industry on the super deep behind the scenes level the business of fashion different people that work across the industry I got to see different jobs different possibilities and I got to model internationally so it was a really immersive experience I already knew I loved fashion but I fell in love with the business of fashion and the people in fashion I always had that mindset and being a model showed me that I had an entrepreneurial side because you really are running your own business and managing yourself and working with different entrepreneurs and Freelancers when I went to Italy I was studying international business always knew that I would start a business eventually but I never imagined it would be at 21 before I was even done with college but I was in Milan every time I took a trip or even just went from my apartment into the city I needed a small purse that I could have on me that would allow me to be handsfree so I could be on my phone and see where I was going and scan the Metro ticket and have my hands available but it also needed to be secure because of the pickpocketing situations and stuff like that and I was taking note of what the other women were wearing and they were all wearing these smaller fashionable really minimal Chic bags like from moreo designer brands that were out of my financial reach in my budget but that design was starting to come back at the time and they had similar designs available at Zara and H&M but I really wanted something that was going to last and take me through the trips and take me through the next few years the idea started spinning especially with all of the leather stores that are scattered throughout Italy every town I went to there were all these different leather stores and handbag stores and I was like how hard could it be to meet somebody and even just Tinker with the idea of starting a business and in a perfect storm of events I met a really high-end manufacturer in Italy just before I was supposed to leave to come back to Colorado and in the moment I drained my entire savings account and told him I was going to go for it and sent him prototypes and designs and then we worked together on the prototypes and from there the business started out of that leap of faith and risk-taking yeah I was just going to say it's so amazing that you took that leap and so many women that I talked to I love talking to women who say I sold my car and I just had this desire and I just knew I was going to make it happen and going back to your modeling days that's the dream of any model of being discovered in a Walgreens or somewhere and as I was listening to you tell the story I thought wow you hear those stories but that really happened to you so that's pretty amazing yeah I never thought I would model I'm 5'11 I'm slimly built but I was always an athlete and this woman approached me when I was buying a birthday card and she said I know this might be weird but I'm a modeling agent here's my information take this home to your parents and I've always been told oh maybe you'll model one day you're so tall and I took the information home to my parents we have no one in our family that's in the industry so it was all very foreign to us but my mom vetted it we zoomed with the agents we talked with everybody it was a very legit thing a few weeks later I was in Hollywood Hills doing a shoot and the rest is history it's very much one of those things that just happened and it ended up working out you are building a brand around travel curiosity and simplicity what led you to create this vision for Vogel with the designs it's all about Simplicity the European fashion and the style in Europe is so simple that was what I loved every time I would go over to Europe I've been an opair I've modeled internationally so I've had different International experiences the style of the women in Europe and in ity is so minimal and it's not loud and it's the epitome of elegant fashion that's where my inspiration came from with the Simplicity piece of it and it could appeal to different age groups and go with every outfit but then when it comes to curiosity my whole life from that scouting incident in Walgreens I've gone to different cities I've gone to different modeling jobs where I don't know anybody and I just walk in and I have to do the job and I don't know what I'm wearing I don't know what I'm doing but that's what I signed up to do at 17 I moved to Mexico City to model so that was another situation where I didn't know what I was getting myself into but I went and did it and ended up being the best experience of my life full of so much growth and then going to Italy and having that experience so I always say that everything that's happened to me has been because I took a risk and in my situation was curious about another culture in another place and that has opened so many doors for me and level build up my career in so many ways I have so many people my age asking how do you do all this by yourself how do you travel how do you go to these different places and I always encourage my friends to take these leaps and do a solo trip or do a study abroad semester because it opens up your world so much and so the Curiosity piece comes from that being open to the world and other places but also taking initiative and like allowing yourself to have those experiences I love that and even reading about you and your bio makes you want to travel as I was reading it sitting here in Los Angeles that I thought where can I go yeah whenever I do travel I make such a statement to stay in a hostel or stay with a family and have an immersive experience it's my happy place the fashion industry is not an easy one to master tell us about a challenge that you were able to overcome or something that you learn that surprised you I came into this with the experience on the modeling side and I also spent a handful of years working at Nordstrom in women's fashion learn the layout of the sales floor and how different brands sell to customers and customer Behavior so I had that experience but I had zero experience with manufacturing and designing from the day that I met my manufacturer I had designs in mind I had a Pinterest board of different bags that I loved and different styles but I had no idea I've never gone through a design process before and he didn't know that he didn't know that I was faking it in that situation he said we can bring any of these bags to life he showed me different prototypes that he's made for different designers and then we went through the leather selections and he showed me all the swatches I knew what I wanted but I still didn't know if what I wanted would resonate but his statement was once you get home to Colorado send me your designs and we'll start prototyping and I was like okay great that's what I'll do as if I knew how to do that at all and so went back to the United States and I started ordering all the bags on Amazon to try to figure out how they were made not that I was going to copy any of them but I wanted to see how they were actually assembled so I could design and draw that out I was ordering bags trying on different bags to see what I liked wearing them throughout the day seeing if I got compliments from the shoulder bag design that I envisioned I started sketching it out and I literally went to UPS on my college campus and mailed him a drawing and a few different swatches from different bags that I had cut up and I sent it to him and I said these are my designs and just said it with so much confidence and a few weeks later he sent me a video and an image on WhatsApp of the first prototype so it was learning how to do it I had no one to ask I had no one to consult with and so just went for it and did my best and had that confidence that I already knew what I was doing and that has gotten me really far and I feel like the manufacturing process is a lot easier when you have a really good manufacturer which I had the privilege of being there to build an in-person relationship with him which I know has taken me miles further than if it wasn't in person and I love that you had the confidence to say I'm going to go for this and I'll learn along the way yeah definitely I said yes without even knowing what I said yes to and your bags are so beautiful I loved in your video all the different colors of leather and the leather looks so soft and then the inside design has a pattern which makes it so fun what was your vision for design when it came to the inside of the bags so the whole first year of Vogal all of the bags were black on the inside and I didn't even really think about the inside too much because every bag I've ever owned had a simple lining on the inside and it went back to the minimal design that I wanted and then on my oneyear anniversary of Vogal I launched a limited edition collection which was the first time I ever tied in that interior lining and the interior lining on all the bags brings in the color of the external Leather So if you get a green bag the inside has a green interior with white and it always matches what the outside is and that was the first time I ever did that so I had this vision of Coastal Design and mosaics and like the limited edition collection was a spring collection so I was thinking of the Italian coast and the water the way the water moves and reflects and the different colors that were on the buildings and that was my inspiration and then he had whole plethora of different designs that he's done in the past and built upon that and collaborated my sorority sister designed all the logos she does his graphic design and I was able to bring her back in to design on the lining it says Vogel patterned throughout the design and my sity sister was able to come in and add that piece into it so it's very personal that's so fun from when I looked at the picture I just thought oh I love that design but I didn't know that your name was woven through it and it's so fun because you could show someone the inside of your bag or you don't have to so it's kind of that fun surprise element when you open up your bag that makes it a little more fun I totally agree it's a surprise element and it's signature because when you order the bag to they come in a dust bag that is the exact same as the lining and the lining is actually made in Como Italy KO is where silk is from the leather is from Milan made in Milan the silk is sourced from KO I'm a partner of a travel company in Lake KO so it all ties together but it's really fun to have everything be centered around Northern Italy where I've spent so much time it's so fun yeah what do you think is the most important element of leadership when scaling a business the first thing that comes to mind is Clarity I've worked for different people I manage people now you can only move forward if you have a clear vision and that's internally I don't know what I'm doing if I'm not clear on what I want but no one else knows what I want if I'm not clear on it I also think it's counterproductive to tell someone or tell a team to do XYZ and then a week later you've changed your mind on everything I think that's a downfall of so many entrepreneurs because our minds go so quickly and we have all these different ideas and that's what we do but at the same time to Be an Effective leader you have to be really clear on what you want and where you're going and of course there will be bumps and different factors will come into play and you'll have to Pivot but your team can only progress if everyone's aligned and working on the same thing so I would say that's the most important and that's getting harder and more difficult because there's so many new platforms and AI platforms and everything's popping up and then you want to know how that works and so that's becoming more and more difficult and I don't know about you I'm having to step away from technology completely sometimes to find that Clarity because we're distracted all the time I'm on my phone and on apps and like you and everyone listening I have to put it away in order to find that Clarity sometimes cuz otherwise you're so distracted that it doesn't really come into your mind like it should totally agree it's so overwhelming because personally I want to watch the content to see what other people are doing and what's going on and be familiar with the platform but then it can become so overwhelming so quickly because there's so much going on and you don't know which platform to prioritize you can get more followers here but this will give you more longevity and it's so hard to navigate and I agree stepping away and taking the time off it just gives you so much Clarity and it gives me a refreshed mind when I come back to it but it's just a cycle I love that you say where will your Vogal bag take you what are you looking at in your future and what do you hope is next for you where will your Vogal bag take you is such a statement because obviously it's the literal meaning of traveling and having exper is even if you're just staying in your state or your country like getting out and putting yourself in places where you can be seen and meet people and have those opportunities on your lap but personally I would really love to grow Vogal and have storefronts and be in major retailers I worked for Nordstrom through college and that would be the biggest full circle moment if I could have my bags in Nordstrom having a really good team around me is something I Envision a lot when I'm like sitting down and really thinking about it the people that are around me and I want to continue to see the world and open myself up to different experiences and stay on this entrepreneurial path in my specific situation I graduated college and most of my friends went straight into a corporate career and I didn't and comparison really is the thief of joy in that situation because yeah I'm starting a business at the time and it's so cool but I wish so much for that stability that my friends had or oh maybe I'm falling behind or I'm not on the right path but then they thought what I was doing was so cool I've been out of college for almost four years now and I still deal with looking to the left and the right of what people are doing even though I've found so much success in my own self so getting rid of that comparison and just getting to a peaceful place and growing the business and staying creative within bogal and seeing where it can take me and partnering with other brands would be a dream too and I think social media does that to us it's so easy to do the comparison I that's another reason why it's okay let's just put the phone away it's so easy look at your beautiful bags and think about everything that you've created and all the traveling that you've done that a lot of people don't get that opportunity I'm so grateful that I've had the opportunity I always like to clarify that I've worked so hard for that every paycheck I got I went or it was a modeling thing or I was an opair so it's not something where my parents took me on trips all the time it was something that I sought after and saved up for and figured out how to do and I love to talk about budget travel and hostiles and all of that stuff it's not impossible to take these trips and have those experiences magic happens when we focus on the part of our business and ourself that brings us joy what is the one way that you make sure to find and live your joy I have been trying to get better about this because I'm such a workaholic and I have a really hard time unplugging but in my business finding creativity and getting inspired and pulling away from the admin and the day-to-day and taking time to get inspired with design and patterns and travel in my life though I have the most supportive boyfriend and we moved out to LA recently and there's so much to do outside and there's so much to do to explore so I feel the most at peace and quiet in my mind which is hard to do when I'm out by the water and I don't have my phone and I can just breathe if I'm with someone or not it doesn't matter there's something about being next to the water and the waves and the beach it quiets my mind and lets me breathe and I can just freely think so having that time and then Fitness I always prioritize getting to the gym a few times a week too and as someone who lives in Los Angeles there's so much to do in this city so it's so fun that you're exploring it all yeah I'm so happy to be here thank you so much for joining us today and for telling us all about your entrepreneurial journey and Vogel please share with us how and where we can find you thank you for having me all of my bags are sold on velcom super easy and then Instagram is @ Vogal so you can follow along there thank you for joining us today I'd love to hear from you reach out to me at hello Sheil it.com on our Sheil it website or at Sheed on social thank you to my editor Rich draino who always makes us sound good until next time let nothing stop you from experien expc in the life and business that you crave [Music]