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

Hi Natalia, thanks for joining us today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

The Lines by Natalia began the way many meaningful businesses do, as the intersection of experience, unmet need, and timing.

For more than a decade, I had been leading and scaling multi million dollar apparel businesses in the mass market space. I worked closely with buyers, creators, and founders, and I saw the same pattern over and over again: incredible ideas, but very little structure. So many aspiring brand owners were overwhelmed not because they lacked passion, but because they lacked access to the operational know, how that actually makes a fashion business work.

That insight sat with me for years.

The Moment I Decided to Build Something New:

In early 2024, I joined a women’s mastermind, Rocketship Mastermind, as an investment in my own development. During one of our sessions, someone asked a simple but direct question: “What business would you build if you removed fear and excuses?”

My answer came immediately:
“I would help founders launch apparel brands with real retail strategy behind them.”

That was the clarity I needed.

The next day, I sat down and mapped everything I knew from my years in corporate world, strategy, sourcing, development calendars, POD workflows, retail expectations, launch planning, consumer experience. I quickly realized that what felt intuitive to me was not documented anywhere for early stage founders.

Within a week, I had the outline of a repeatable framework.
Within a month, I had the bones of what would become The Lines Academy a structured, step by step roadmap for launching and growing an apparel or print on demand brand.

Because I was still leading a $25M+ division in my 9–5, I had to build in the margins. Evenings, weekends, early mornings. I created curriculum, developed tools and templates, drafted guides, and started quietly consulting founders 1:1 after work hours to validate the process.

That validation was key. Early clients were seeing clarity, traction, and real wins and that told me the need was not only real but urgent.

Once the model proved itself, I expanded:

-A full flagship course
-A consulting mentorship
-Templates, guides, and tools
-Email marketing and content systems
-A strong brand identity for The Lines by Natalia

Everything was built with the same intention: to make the brand building process accessible, strategic, and actionable for new and emerging founders.

When I finally launched publicly, I wasn’t expecting much but the response exceeded every expectation. Founders, creators, and small businesses quickly recognized the value of having retail level strategy translated into simple, visual, digestible steps. It became clear that this wasn’t just another business; it was a gap in the market that I was uniquely positioned to fill.

What Ultimately Moved Me From Idea to Execution

It wasn’t a single moment. It was a series of strategic decisions:

-Identifying a real problem in the market
-Leveraging my existing expertise
-Testing the concept before scaling it
-Building frameworks that were modular and repeatable
-Creating a brand ecosystem that could grow with the audience

Today, The Lines by Natalia supports founders not just with education, but with empowerment giving them the tools, clarity, and confidence to build brands that last.

And it all began with one honest answer to one important question.

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.

Natalia Hodgson is an apparel industry executive, brand builder, and educator who bridges the gap between creative vision and real world retail and e-commerce success. She’s spent over a decade leading $25M+ wholesale businesses in mass market fashion while simultaneously building her own digital education ecosystem, The Lines by Natalia. Through courses, templates, content, and community, she teaches aspiring fashion founders how to launch print on demand brands with confidence, clarity, and strategy, all while making the process fun, visual, and approachable.

Beyond education, Natalia leads a robust consulting arm where she partners with established and scaling brands on everything from product strategy and merchandising to pricing, positioning, retail expansion, and omnichannel growth. Her consulting work gives founders and leadership teams access to the same operational rigor, market insight, and creative direction she has used to scale multi million dollar divisions throughout her career.

At her core, Natalia believes creativity becomes powerful when it’s paired with execution. Her work blends aesthetic storytelling, practical frameworks, and hands on support to help entrepreneurs turn ideas into working, profitable brands. She is driven by helping others feel capable, inspired, and supported at every stage of their entrepreneurial journey.

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

A lesson I had to unlearn was the belief that building something of my own wasn’t “for someone like me.”
For years, I held onto this quiet, limiting narrative that said: “You’re great behind the scenes. You’re great doing the supporting other businesses. But your own thing? That’s different. That’s risky.”

The backstory is simple: I grew up working hard, staying focused, and doing what was expected. I built my career in corporate fashion by delivering for other people, other companies, other founders, other visions. And while I was proud of that work, there was always a part of me that wondered if I had the ability, or the right, to continue to do it but on my own terms.

Every time I thought about starting The Lines by Natalia, I’d find myself thinking:

-Who am I to do this?
-What if it doesn’t work?
-What if I fail publicly?

But the moment I joined The Rocketship Mastermind in 2025 , everything shifted. Someone asked me, “If fear wasn’t a factor, what business would you build?” And I answered without hesitation, which told me the truth was already there. The idea wasn’t the problem. My belief in myself was.

So I unlearned the idea that I needed permission.
I unlearned the idea that I had to be fully ready.
I unlearned the belief that only certain types of people get to build brands, platforms, or communities.

Once I let go of that, momentum happened fast.
I created my first offer.
I launched my course.
I started consulting founders.
And slowly, the evidence replaced the fear.

The biggest lesson?
Your limiting beliefs aren’t facts, they’re just old stories. And once you rewrite the story, the opportunity expands. Unlearning that has been the foundation of everything I’ve built since.

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

Yes, manufacturing has been at the core of my career from the very beginning. I’ve spent 15+ years in the apparel industry in sales for multi million dollar apparel manufacturing businesses, which means I’ve been deeply involved in every step of the process. I’ve been blessed with great teams that did the sourcing factories, approving samples, negotiating costs, managing timelines, and solving issues when they come up. However, for me it was always imperative that I learned about the entire eco system of apparel, so I learned by doing, asking questions, and working directly with production teams and factories around the world that did a great job at mentoring and teaching me.

When I launched The Lines by Natalia, that manufacturing background became one of the biggest strengths of my business. Whether someone is working with traditional cut-and-sew, small batch, or print on demand, my clients are still manufacturing something. And most new founders don’t know how to navigate that. They need guidance on timelines, quality, pricing, vendor communication, tech packs, and how to avoid costly mistakes.

That’s where I come in. I help founders understand:
-how to choose the right vendor
-how to evaluate samples
-how pricing and margins actually work
-what timelines are realistic
-how to communicate clearly so production runs smoothly
-when POD makes more sense than inventory

Key lessons I’ve learned along the way:

-Clear communication prevents 90% of issues.
-Cheapest is rarely the best option.
-Great samples lead to great production.
-Strong vendor relationships matter more than speed.
-Start simple; scale once demand is proven.

Today, manufacturing, whether POD or traditional is still at the heart of my consulting. I help founders take their idea, translate it into a real, manufacturable product, and ensure they have the systems to bring it to market confidently. I am always open to chatting more about this since it’s something I’m deeply passionate about. Feel free to reach out!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thelinesbynatalia.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nataliavhodgson/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nataliavhodgson/

Image Credits

Katherine Scott Photography www.katherinescottphotography.com