Wearable Art That Empowers

Speaker 1: hi I'm Melanie bar welcome to the she builted experience with Melanie you're here because you want to experience the life and business that you crave 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 they built it and talk about everything from

Speaker 1: when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy so let's dive in Christina Marie has been an artist her entire life she does not recall a time when she wasn't drawing painting sewing singing or playing an instrument today instead of making her drawings come to life on paper she helps them come to life on people she is the owner founder and CEO of Workshop a clothing brand that is all about living your best life embracing your individuality and giving it all you've got she's also an eter sketch artist you can often find on Tik Tok live thank you so much for joining us today Christina please tell us more about who you are I am an artist and female founder I started a company called Eagle Rock Workshop the brand of active lifestyle apparel mostly leggings that features my original artwork we like to learn and know how you built it tell us how you grew your business into what it is today and what is is the most meaningful piece of advice that you can share for someone growing a career in business I founded Workshop via Kickstarter I Was preparing my Kickstarter campaign in 2013 launched it in December of 2013 and then it was funded in January so when I was developing my first collection for Kickstarter I'm entirely self-funded I would say bootstrapped is a dramatic understatement I started the company on an 18month no interest credit card so all of my sample fabric everything was on this one credit card and because of the kickstarter campaign I was able to pay off the card well before the 18 months and had a pretty good foundation to get going the campaign was wild I was working as a design director full-time for a men's denim company at the same time I was developing workshop and launch the kickstar I remember that December I was like at work all day and then checking my phone to see the pledges and see what the status was on Kickstarter every chance I could get and the kickstarter did so well I was able to leave my job and take a leap of faith and give Workshop 100% of my attention effective February 2014 so eight years exactly yes that's so fun that you didn't let any fear of not being funded initially hold you back cuz I can see how it could in some cases and hundreds of people gave to your campaign to support your business 760 that's amazing and explain to us about your apparel it's your original artwork tell us a little bit about your brand yeah so what we do is digital Die sublimation um right now 99% of our product is actually manufactured inhouse in my little studio in Monrovia California so I usually start with pencil and paper and so I'll just sketch my ideas on paper I'll transfer it into Photoshop finish all of the work in Photoshop and all of my leggings have a what's called an engineered print so the actual garment pattern is in my computer and I mask the artwork into every single size of leggings so that size extra small and size double X have the same scale artwork the placement is the same everything's the same no matter what size we print all my artwork out on paper and then it's a heat transfer process so we print it on paper transfer it onto the fabric and sew it all in house and we package it in house we ship it ourselves everything is done in Monrovia and just recently as of November of 2021 I started developing a small program with a new manufacturing partner in Colombia they have an entirely solar powered facility um it's again still all my artwork but everything is printed in Colombia using Yarns from America it's it's a really cool Evolution for Workshop yeah I love that and solar powered too yes I'm so excited about that and we're actually trying so hard to get the Recycled Fabrics going as well the collection was supposed to launch in March 2020 and I had my heart set on recycled fabric but it was a new development and we kept having quality control concerns and so at the end of the day I was like let's launch with what we can and we will introduce the Recycled when it's available that is the goal to be solar powered and recycled hopefully it'll happen this year we're working towards that I love that and you mentioned overcoming obstacles what's a piece of advice that you can give that you've learned along the way the biggest piece of advice I can give is don't give up no matter how many times I got knocked down you just have to get back up I know that's easier said than done but you just you have to keep going and you're going to have non-stop obstacles non-stop challenges and you just have to see your way through it I love how you say instead of your art coming to life on paper your art now comes to life on people how do you want people to feel when they wear your clothing and your art so I read this article a couple years ago about how the clothing that we wear affects our mood and performance and can make you more courageous the article I read was actually talking about clothing associated with intelligence and how if someone wears a doctor's coat or like a judge's robe it actually makes them feel and act smarter than they would otherwise when you're wearing clothing that truly expresses your personal it it makes you shine most of my designs they they speak to people the clothing I'm wearing right now is my new red panda design when I wear this print it makes me happy it makes me feel lighter and more playful it's not for everybody but for the people who resonate with the artwork it's special to them I want people to feel special and feel more confident in who they are coming out of Co I had one of those moments too where for a week I went out I bought a really bright cell phone cover and then I went out and was buying these really bright sweaters and things and I thought maybe I need color in my life so I see how the apparel can bring out that confidence in someone absolutely the apparel industry is not an easy one to go into what is your approach to leadership and building your teams so that you have continuous growth well the apparel industry is not easy for me as a team leader I like to make sure that everybody's voice is heard I have worked many apparel industry jobs tell us a little bit about that too oh I've seen the Spectrum probably 16 years ago I got a job as a design director for a denim company that's nowhere on my resume or history I think I was there for about six months only I was the entire denim Department because they were a startup and it was exciting there were two owners of the brand two guys one of them was really polite and nice and one day the nice owner put metal Trims on my desk when I was out to lunch buttons rivets zipper pools and I came back from lunch and I saw the Box on my desk and I went over to ask them what it was for because I'd already approved it from someone else like a week earlier right um long story short the mean boss got got upset picked up the bag of metal hardware and threw it at me he missed I didn't get I didn't get hurt but I just stood there it was the one and only time that I quit on the spot I just said I'm done I'm leaving but that was probably the definition of how bad it can be in the apparel industry it's passionate they don't respect employees sometimes I always like to treat my team like I would want to be treated I know it sounds simple it's the Golden Rule but I feel like that really does keep the office morale positive and keep everybody excited to come to work those last few weeks at that denim company I was dreading going to work and that's not a good feeling what roles have you held I was a fashion illustrator associate designer and design director and for a while I was the lead technical designer for Roxy Quicksilver and Tiny like Roxy youth what do you like most about what you do now and can you share with us a fun client success story my favorite thing about what I do is seeing my art come to life I call it Workshop in the wild when I see people wearing my designs either out in public or on you know Instagram there's nothing more rewarding than that that that makes me so happy my favorite customer success story it must have been a few years ago at the time I was only making Triathlon leggings which which are U performance compression garments that's what I started with for years I was only making Triathlon leggings and then I introduced casual atleisure leggings and then I introduced this new feather light from Columbia so it's been a slow growth a few years ago and I was just making the triathlon I got this email from a woman and she was so sweet the email I should have printed it out and framed it I loved it so much but she said that she was going through menopause and the life changes were a lot for her to handle I can imagine and she said that my Triathlon Capri leggings were the number one thing to make her feel good about herself because she said that she was gaining a little bit of weight and that the triathlon compression fabric like held her in and made her feel like she'd lost 5 lbs when she put them on in the email she said that she would that she could make a gift bag and ship to every single woman Across America going through menopause that had a pair of Workshop Triathlon leggings a bottle of red wine and a box of chocolates and it was just the way she wrote it was so awesome it was so sweet I love that it's so heartfelt and real yeah I never would have really imagined that it could have that effect on someone that I have never met her in real life having this little connection with a complete stranger over well through the internet and with my product it's it's really awesome so that's one of my favorite stories and you helped her life too she felt compelled enough to email you this beautiful email so it's really great you are also a ETA sketch artist and are often on Tik Tok live I have seen your cha sketch art it's amazing can you tell us about that I I love my ETA sketch for me it's like meditation there's something about putting your little hands on the dials and zoning out in the art and you can't be distracted because if you look away or you let go of the dials you'll forget where your line is on the screen right for me when I ET a sketch you know maybe 10 minutes maybe an hour at a time it's my chance to completely zone out from everyday life and stress running a business I'm sure there's never a dull moment and when you're mind goes all day long you have to have that one thing that really makes you relax it is not easy to do the ET of sketch art I see how when you say you have to stay focused it's very detailed I think I have undiagnosed ADHD I think a lot of entrepreneurs do where we wear many hats and juggle many plates I think that it's quite common because I'm I'm always doing 700 things at once so to just focus on one little thing in front of me that's a good break I'm going to ET a sketch tonight I need that yes if you haven't seen tellal us where we can watch you because it's amazing um on Tik Tok and my handle is Christina Marie with the Z you've had a lot of views too yeah yeah for a while there last summer Tik Tok was showing me a lot of love I was getting quite a few viral posts it was a lot of fun so maybe I can get that magic back this year that's great speaking of magic magic happens when we focus on on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy what is one way you make sure that you find and live your joy I do think that Joy is in the little things cuddling my boyfriend on the couch watching a movie that makes me so happy or if he's not over cuddling my dog against her will yeah I like to take the little things each day without them I just work 100% of the time so true it really is those little moments where when you look back I think we remember those little things the most and they're the most meaningful absolutely you have built an incredible business and thank you for sharing your gifts with the world it's coming to life within your art and within your etes sketch please tell our listeners how and where they can find you my website for Workshop w r k h o p so all things Workshop are on workshop.com Instagram handle is workshop and Facebook it's Eagle Rock Workshop and then Tik Tok which I do have a workshop Tik Tok account but I do spend more time on the Christine and Marie for the ET of sketching and Kevin Frick introduced us if you're listening Kevin thank you so much if you are new to Sheil it we'd love for you to join us we offer Community memberships masterminds Innovative virtual events and meaningful connections to entrepreneurs and corporate leaders please also check out our sheb built it shop curated products from women-owned businesses who put their heart and soul into their beautiful and Innovative products we offer Sheil it business Consulting and the Sheil it blog thank you to everyone around the world who joined today thank you to my editor Rich stalino please download And subscribe wherever you get your podcast and until next time together let's let nothing stop us from experiencing the life that We crave