We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jaie Tatum a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jaie, thanks for joining us today. Alright, so we’d love to hear about how you got your first client or customer. What’s the story?

This is a story so many have heard, but I actually love telling it. I have to tell the backstory first, though. So I had been a model for many other clothing brands and I wanted to develop something that was my own. I wanted to design my own clothing brand so I could be a constant walking model of something that I was proud of, that I created. I wanted that feeling that other designers felt seeing me in THEIR clothing line. I wanted to see MYSELF in something I knew I worked hard for. I had commissioned an artist to develop a logo for me just to get the ball rolling. While all this was happening I was still taking hosting jobs and bookings, so I was very busy. My logo just so happened to be completed right before I had a hosting gig that next week. My best friend took it upon herself to put my finished logo [that nobody had seen yet] onto a crop top and wear it to that same event as just a last minute thing. I was the only one who knew she was going to do this and honestly thought nothing of it until lo and behold, people saw it and started saying they wanted shirts! I was so caught off guard because I had no clue people paid that much attention to such details, but when they saw the logo had my name on it, they loved it! That day is when I received my first set of customers.

Are you happy as a business owner? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to have a regular job?

I am definitely happy being a business owner. Being a business owner is for sure stressful and overwhelming at times, but it is so rewarding in the end. As I stated before, the feeling of seeing people wearing your name and brand is something so wild and it makes me so happy and proud. Making the decision to be a business owner is basically entering into a field of non-stop work and a business is like a child… it requires a ton of attention. With that being said I actually still do work a regular job while juggling my own business. I 100% know what it feels like to do both things simultaneously and it’s definitely not easy, but it’s something I choose to do. I love my job, my boss and my business, so for now all of them are and will continue to play big roles in my day-to-day life.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Are you happy as a business owner? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to have a regular job?

I am definitely happy being a business owner. Being a business owner is for sure stressful and overwhelming at times, but it is so rewarding in the end. As I stated before, the feeling of seeing people wearing your name and brand is something so wild and it makes me so happy and proud. Making the decision to be a business owner is basically entering into a field of non-stop work and a business is like a child… it requires a ton of attention. With that being said I actually still do work a regular job while juggling my own business. I 100% know what it feels like to do both things simultaneously and it’s definitely not easy, but it’s something I choose to do. I love my job, my boss and my business, so for now all of them are and will continue to play big roles in my day-to-day life.

Any fun sales or marketing stories?

Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories- perhaps a time when you took a risk marketing wise or pulled off a sale where the odds were heavily stacked against you?

Whew…. This is a good question. So- that “amazing” story of when I got my first clients after a hosting gig that I talked about earlier, is quite literally the very situation I took the biggest risk ever and the odds were VERY MUCH stacked against me! So in that moment when everyone realized my best friend was wearing the then, “very first piece of my collection,” and asking for shirts and trying to pay me… I had to think very fast. I had no clothing vendor, literally no clothing pieces for that matter, no one I’d been working with vendor wise to print my logo on items, LITERALLY NOTHING. Some may call me crazy, which I admit I definitely was in that moment, but I just said a prayer and started taking people’s orders/requests. Yes, I was agreeing to supply a product I didn’t even have and this lit the fire in me to produce quality pieces in a timely manner. This was my dream pretty much slapping me in the face and it was everything I ever wanted and I knew I had no choice but to succeed. Although I wanted my pieces quickly, I knew I NEEDED good quality as my standards for something with my name on are very high. At first I ran into a big roadblock where my sample pieces were not at all what I wanted and the many odds against me looked like they were winning, but I kept my composure and everything worked out in the end. I was finally able to tie up some loose ends and perfect my line to what it is now. It is absolutely hilarious to look back on that moment now and laugh at how crazy it was, but I promise you in that moment it was so overwhelming and chaotic. I am very glad I can look back on my old self and laugh because everything has turned out so well for me. I am so happy now.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Definitely. Aside from the many roadblocks I faced with birthing the actual items of my brand, I faced a difficult journey while even trying to develop my logo before the items I wanted to create were even a thought. I had a specific vision in my head as to exactly what I wanted my logo to look like down to very small details and time after time the result I wanted wasn’t happening. I constantly had to tell myself that everyone has their own art, own art style and process. Art is something that is subjective and what one person might love, another might want to tweak. That inconsistency right there was the issue I was facing, but was something my resilience helped me get through. This is where clear and direct communication helped me, opening my mind to a world I was not used to helped me and where I was introduced to the not-so-fun side of the business life and industry. In short, staying positive when so many negative things happened, kept me going. There were times when my logo wasn’t what I wanted it to look like, when my actual finished logo didn’t take well on some articles of clothing and when I had to take the loss of many items because it wasn’t to my satisfaction, but I kept my head up, kept a smile on my face and kept it moving. Resiliency is something you must become one with when you own a business and I promise life in this industry will become much easier to deal with when you come to that realization. In the end, through everything… I’m so proud

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jaieboo.com
• Instagram: Jaieboo
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jaieboo
• Linkedin: Jaie tatum
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/jaieboo?t=CNIXTunP_7Fx2GagOKvd1Q&s=09
• Other: tiktok.com/@jaieboo