Laura Eva Brindley Sylvester

I probably attribute my success to my parents. They were both trial attorneys when I was growing up, and observing their hard work during my formative years gave me the drive to work as hard as I could to make the world a better place. Now that they're retired, I get to see them enjoy life and be happy in their Palm Springs house amongst other retired lawyers who play golf in their spare time. My parents built great legacies, and I want to do the same. Their inspirational and formidable legacies made me want to build the same for my cats, my husband, and for our niece and nephews.

Trust your instincts, remain adaptable, and don't be afraid to pursue opportunities that align with your passions, even if they require stepping outside of your comfort zone.

Go for it. It's scary, there may be a lot of drawbacks, you may get a lot of criticisms from friends and family who say, "Really? You want to go into this industry?" But, you're only young once. Do it. If it fails, you can go back to your comfortable job, pursue more education, or change course entirely. At least you can say you put forth the effort to truly pursue your passion.

The biggest challenge right now is that Arizona summers are very slow in retail. As such, we have not had as many customers come in as we would like. Our social media campaigns have been fantastic and we have great people on that front; but ,summers in Arizona are not great for brick and mortar shops. To combat this, we are formulating ways and planning events to bring people in to ModPop. On the opportunity side, the Phoenix fashion scene is so big, and there is so much talent here. The fashion designers in Phoenix are relatively untapped by the major brands.. Having all these talented designers nearby meant I was able to find people to work as ModPop designers quickly. In other cities, I likely would not have that luxury; but, Phoenix is such a hotspot for talented people, and that has been a pleasant and positive surprise as ModPop has started and grown.

Diversity is probably the most important value for me, both in work and personal life. One of the first things I look at when I chat with a designer to work with is: Is their stuff exciting? Is it unique? Will it sell? And then I look at their backgrounds. Generally, I favor women designers and designers of non-white backgrounds. Transparency and honesty are also really important to me. I'm very open with my designers about what I expect from them. As far as information about ModPop's profits each month and the performance of each designer's pieces, I don't hold anything back from the designers., I'm very transparent about how they're getting paid each month, what sold, what went well, what they could do better next month.