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

Alright, Mabel thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Was there an experience or lesson you learned at a previous job that’s benefited your career afterwards?

The New York City fashion industry is a dynamic and multilayered ecosystem, driven by its status as a global fashion capital. The industry’s complexity is fueled by its fast-paced nature, seasonal collections, and the constant demand for innovation and trendsetting. There are several moving parts, including design teams, technical teams, manufacturers, shipping, buyers, and sales. The process from a design inspiration board to consumer must be done quickly and accurately with a very sharp attention to detail. There are many things that need to go right and there are even more ways for things to go wrong.

As a Senior Product Coordinator managing over $30M in product sales annually, I was responsible multiple inter-office teams, my clients, as well as the production/factory teams overseas. I spent over a decade in the pre-production to delivery cycle and learned many lessons. Throughout the day, you must be flexible and wear many hats. You must also know when to seek help especially when making important decisions that affect the entire company. At the same time, you must have the confidence to make quick decisions under pressure. As a leader, you celebrate wins with your team and you must also take responsibility if the team faulters. Don’t be afraid to do something new or try a different approach. As long as you are passionate about the work you are doing, the ideas will flow and you can overcome any adversity.

Life in NYC was high stress and high reward and moving to Orlando in 2019 (along with a global pandemic) allowed me to slow down and really focus on what matters to me the most. It led me to my roles at the Orlando Museum of Art (OMA) as the Community Relations Manager and currently as the Marketing Director of a local restaurant group.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a first generation American born and raised in South Florida. My parents immigrated from the Philippines with my mom’s registered nurse visa. In college, I studied Art Education and worked at the first Bento Cafe in Gainesville, FL for 4 years. 20+ years later, there are over 15 Bento locations across Florida. After college, I moved to NYC and worked in Fashion for 12 years, but still kept in touch with the Bento management team. My current employer, Chef Sean “Sonny” Nguyen partnered with the Bento Group to create Domu Dynasty. When the Marketing Director position came up, Sonny was impressed with my work at OMA and offered me the role. My younger brother, Manuel (who also worked at Bento) is the Director of Culinary of Domu, so it was a perfect fit.

Another Bento alumni is Chef Lordfer “Lo” Lalicon of Kaya, a casual fine dining Filipino restaurant. I was still working at the museum when I started helping Lo and co-owner Jamilyn Salonga-Bailey with pop-up dinners before opening the restaurant. I’m very proud to share our culture and cuisine and be part of a team that is making strides in not just what a restaurant can be, but what it means to be Filipino. Kaya received Florida’s first MICHELIN green star for sustainability and is currently nominated for Best New Restaurant in the U.S. 2024 by the James Beard Foundation.

In both life and your career, you have to find your people – the ones that you connect with and who share similar goals and values. When you can be your true self, that’s when the growth really starts and the opportunities seem endless.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

At the Orlando Museum of Art I managed the 1st Thursdays Instagram account. It was a monthly event highlighting local artists based on a theme. After each event, I would post all the artist’s work that was in the show. It provided exposure for the artists via a museum adjacent social media account and it built awareness for the event. I grew the account by 120% and drastically exceeded event attendance numbers. By focusing on the artists and vendors, it helped build community and the brand.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

After 6 years of working in Fashion Sales at a Missy tops company, I moved to a company in their Junior’s department. I came with all this experience and knowledge and thought I knew it all. I soon realized I did not. I spent months re-learning processes I thought I already knew. When moving to a new company, I recommend listening first, learn the processes before trying to improve upon them, and learn what everyone’s role and responsibilities are. From there you will become a better leader and colleague.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.domufl.com/team
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mabel_jean
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mabelsalazar/
• Other: https://maps.google.com/maps/contrib/100656878815247678894Google Maps contributions: 1,293 photos with 16,828,403 views

Image Credits

Airam Dato
Lee Mahal
Raphael Loquellano