We were lucky to catch up with LaDrea Moss recently and have shared our conversation below.
LaDrea, appreciate you joining us today. The more we talk about good leadership the more we think good leadership practices will spread and so we’d love for you to tell us a story about the best boss you’ve had and what they were like or what they did that was so great?
Honestly it’s kind of funny because technically I am my little sister boss. However due to my lack of retail experience I made her the store manager so she’s kind of my boss. My sister Ciahna has been a retail manager and she made my brand hersI have no experience in retail she’s also the manager of my store. I’ve never had any retail experience so
because this is my brand but having a store now and having no retail experience I gave my sister the position of manager which basically made her my boss lol. Kind of. I’m her boss and she’s mine. She runs the store. I go to her when I’m having issues, when I need help with anything regarding store and even the brand.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is LaDrea Moss owner and designer of Mindless Thoughts Clothing. I have been in the business for 10 years now. I was introduced to the fashion industry by 2 former partners. I’ve been into art for as long as I can remember and they asked me to make them a logo for their clothing line. I agreed and fell in love with the fashion world instantly and ventured off to start my own.
We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.
My cofounder and I have been best friends for 20 years. We started off as rivals for we were the best players on our basketball teams (they never beat us haha) we ended up at the same high school where we began our unbreakable bond. Fast forward 10 years later she was the first person I told I wanted to start a clothing line, the first person to believe in me and the person that gave me the start up funds to start my brand. Due to her lack of knowledge in the business and her rising careers she declined to be my partner. As time went by she realized she had to be apart of this journey and agreed to be my partner and I’m so happy she chose to.
Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.
When I started this I don’t think I contemplated what the future would be for it, I didn’t remember having an end goal i was just enjoying my new love. Selling clothes all day out my trunk, doing pop up shops in different cities, promoting the brand it was such an adrenaline rush that I never wanted to end. It wasn’t until 5 years in when I realized I wanted this to be my career. And for 2 years now it has been just that. I quit my jobs and opened a store in my hometown, New Haven, CT. Some people thought it wasn’t a good idea since it was the start of the pandemic but I didn’t care I felt good about it and I am proud to say we are doing very well. The pop up shops were very beneficial to getting more people aware of the brand. We had a few in our city where we had special guest rappers to bring more people by. We did them in different states as well New York, Atlanta, and our most recent one Vegas. Vegas was a huge show and also had their special guest who was at the time Soulja Boy. When I found that out I had to get close to him and get my clothes in his hand. It was actually pretty easy and he was a cool dude. We took pictures together and he posted us on his instagram. He was also seen on several other occasions rocking our brand. We’ve had a couple celebrity sightings in our brand and it has brung in more customers. Social media has worked wonders for us, bringing in so many customers who never hesitate on telling us how much they love the brand and that’s all we want is to get people hip to the brand and make the world mindless
Contact Info:
- Website: www.havemindlessthoughts.com
- Instagram: @Mndlessthoughts
- Facebook: Mindless Thoughts
- Twitter: @Mndlessthoughts