Thinking about the beginning.

“Thank you for making this!” she said as our exchange came to a close.

Well, actually I’m thinking about an exchange I had with a new customer this past weekend.

“Thank you for making this!” she said as our exchange came to a close.

The single day popup was honestly so similar to my entrepreneurship journey so far - new and requiring quick navigation in the beginning, with a mix of sales to familiar people vs total strangers. Then a lull here and there, to be expected. Then a rush of sales from total strangers exclusively. My business is only 8 months old, so every win feels like a big win and every second I’m learning something new that totally changes how I approach everything.

At the very beginning, I just took the desired final product in my head and pretty much hacked my way to get to it. I taught myself to sew exclusively to create this one sample. After you do something once it’s pretty easy to do it again. I didn’t have anyone besides myself giving fit notes, but it checked all of my personal boxes. The sample in question? The first Stretch Waist Button Down, my hero product. Made from vintage men’s button downs, it combines the oversized and worn in look with an added row of elastic stretch along the back waist, and creates custom shape at your waist while keeping all of the chic aspects of an oversized button down at play. Of course this sample was lopsided kind of and didn’t have the same exact fit as today’s do, but the thought was there. I felt relief - this annoying styling issue of trying to make a straight up oversized men’s button down look good was gone. I’d literally solved it. Of course there’s about a hundred ways to make this happen, but my way — the way I’d envisioned it in my head — actually executed really really well.

It was ironic that that would be the same exact story the customer in front of me told me. The struggle of loving your outfit before you leave, oversized button down tucked just right; it sits nice and flowy with your outfit. Then a few hours go by and you catch yourself in the restaurant mirror only to discover you were really swimming in this button down - it was no longer reading chic or well-styled. Kind of frumpy, honestly. This agony as described by the customer immediately resonated with the beginning of Second Thoughts.

I come from two parents who are creatively charged in their own ways. Each with a side hustle or two, most of the time not even financially driven to do so but just an innate need to create solutions to problems. Their solutions. Entrepreneurship felt like something I would almost genetically inherit, and yet I’d honestly written it off a couple years ago. I was immersed in social media and news clippings (and the ever changing SoHo retail landscape) of young people creating these companies that were offering fresh takes on long-time existing products, and I couldn’t fathom how they believed so hard that what they were creating was the best and selling it to the world with their whole chest. I figured I wasn’t set out for entrepreneurship - there was no fix or no better option I felt like I could ever bring to the table. Not to mention, all of my skills were digital. I knew things about Shopify and marketing. I didn’t have a skill that fed into any of my tangible interests: sustainability, fashion design, personal style, curation, etc. Nothing was aligned.

So I threw myself into my full time job and figured I would just immerse myself here. Be the best and most inventive here. I’m not going to lie, even loving my full time job, I just craved more. I definitely felt more aligned, finally working for a secondhand business after 2.5 years in polyblend retail environments, and it seemed to be a step in the right direction. I envied my hardworking, badass bosses who could make decisions about their business like that, who had built something they got to water and feed and watch grow. Even with this small but mighty craving in the back of my head, I felt it was delusion. I had written off wanting to be anything other than a worker bee and kind of just moved on.

And then, maybe a year later, out of sheer necessity (that I literally didn’t think was possible) my first product idea was born and then suddenly I had a sketchbook‘s worth of ideas for a secondhand clothing line inspired by modern pieces and trends turned personal favorites. Entrepreneurship basically hit me like a truck. I switched business names twice. I viciously looked for any competitors and anxiously did market research fearful I’d find out someone was already well off executing the ideas I was having. Stopped binging Netflix and was constantly watching sewing videos on YouTube and Tik Tok. I went from getting through my days to not wanting to fall asleep - I wanted to do it all and I wanted it as soon as possible.

I was nervous I’d start it and then get bored. I was nervous I’d start it and then no one would buy. I was nervous sewing, a skill I’d literally learned entirely on my own. I was nervous to do outreach and put myself out there as a salesperson and a founder.

And then eight months later to be graciously reminded of the why, and hearing it from a literal customer in front of me, simply gave me a high that is a level beyond validation or successful market research. It’s honestly kind of indescribable. It’s just an internal glow.

So welcome to Shared Thoughts, the inner workings and scattered thoughts of being a 25 year old baby entrepreneur. Still full time employed, with one job in SoHo and one in my living room sewing studio. Keep up with Second Thoughts’ journey (and mine) right here, as well as on Instagram and Tik Tok.