Speaker 1: Hey guys, It's Sammy Jay and welcome back to this
Speaker 1: week's episode of the Letsbi Real podcast. I hope your
Speaker 1: day is going well. The holidays are approaching, and I
Speaker 1: just I'm very grateful for all of you. And this
Speaker 1: week I got to chat with the incredible Amanda Zuckerman,
Speaker 1: who is the co founder of dorm if I. She's
Speaker 1: Forbes thirty Under thirty and her story is really inspiring.
Speaker 1: And if you don't know, dorrify is it's essentially your
Speaker 1: one stop shop for everything college. We talk about building
Speaker 1: a business, being an entrepreneur, and so much more in
Speaker 1: this episode. I love you, guys, and thank you for listening. Amanda,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for taking the time to come
Speaker 1: on my podcast. I am so excited about this episode
Speaker 1: because I really want to talk about growing a business,
Speaker 1: being an entrepreneur, and also starting at any age, because
Speaker 1: I feel like that's something that's so accessible to us
Speaker 1: now in the age of Google. Um. But I haven't
Speaker 1: seen you in so long. How are you. I'm doing well,
Speaker 1: it's been forever. I miss you and hopefully we can
Speaker 1: see each other soon when you're back in New York.
Speaker 1: But I think they're good. Time is flying um when
Speaker 1: you are an entrepreneur on that topic, we always laugh
Speaker 1: because it's like dog years in terms of days over here,
Speaker 1: so every day just feels like it's times ten. So
Speaker 1: something that happened last week, we're like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: that a month ago. But oh, it's good. I'm very
Speaker 1: excited to have this conversation. I know you co founded
Speaker 1: dormifying what year. It's funny because it's it's a couple
Speaker 1: of different answers depending on how you want. It's life it,
Speaker 1: but technically in two thousand eleven, um, but I came
Speaker 1: up with the idea in two thousand nine when I
Speaker 1: was starting my freshman year, and then we really started
Speaker 1: to kind of like soft concept it in my sophomore
Speaker 1: year and then technically launched it by my junior year,
Speaker 1: and that was the year that I actually had dormified
Speaker 1: betting in my apartment on campus. Coming up with a business,
Speaker 1: I know, the main thing that's always important is to
Speaker 1: be passionate about the main topic that you're in. So
Speaker 1: how did you choose dorms and making dorms cute? Because
Speaker 1: it's a problem that has been going around for a
Speaker 1: while and you're the one that really took the step
Speaker 1: to make it a solution, So I appreciate that of course.
Speaker 1: Um okay, so a couple of things here, So it's
Speaker 1: not only about passion. Actually, I would start with like
Speaker 1: centering a business idea around solving a problem, because sometimes
Speaker 1: you might not be passionate about the business that you're building, um,
Speaker 1: in terms of the subject matter, you might be passionate
Speaker 1: about like solving that problem. So I think the common
Speaker 1: misconception in starting a business is you have to like
Speaker 1: love whatever that is. So I could have said, like,
Speaker 1: I'm not that passionate about interior design, but I love
Speaker 1: being creative. I love finding something that you can latch
Speaker 1: it onto. But um, I have seen a lot of
Speaker 1: successful people who are not technically passionate about a certain
Speaker 1: sport or an activity, but they see an opportunity that
Speaker 1: they're passionate about solving. For um. So without going down
Speaker 1: that rabbit hole, I can tell you about my own experience.
Speaker 1: And my experience is that I was shopping for my
Speaker 1: freshman year dorm room, like everyone gets excited to do,
Speaker 1: and back then, which was a different world than now,
Speaker 1: and it wasn't that long ago. No, I know, it's
Speaker 1: crazy though, but try to like think about a world
Speaker 1: where Instagram and Pinterest did not exist. In TikTok, social
Speaker 1: media did not exist when this was going on, so
Speaker 1: kind of like try to put yourself in my shoes
Speaker 1: there where you're going to physical stores. Online shopping wasn't
Speaker 1: what it is today. You couldn't just find like an
Speaker 1: etcy maker to find something very specific based on TikTok
Speaker 1: or you saw on Pinterest or whatever. Um So it
Speaker 1: was really challenging to find twin XL betting that's required
Speaker 1: for edge in styles that were really made for someone
Speaker 1: might age. And we meaning my mom and I quickly
Speaker 1: saw an opportunity and a white space in the market
Speaker 1: to totally like grab hold on because we were literally
Speaker 1: in bed back and beyond. I remember it clear as day. Um.
Speaker 1: I was in New York City shopping because I had
Speaker 1: one day to do it. I was a camp counselor
Speaker 1: and I literally, like on an off day, came to
Speaker 1: the city the shop from my dorm room and I
Speaker 1: was in the chelsea that up and beyond and looking
Speaker 1: at the shelves, I was like, this is crazy. Why
Speaker 1: isn't there anyone who's making cute betting for your dorm room.
Speaker 1: So I was kind of nuts, and I decided to
Speaker 1: crrate a look based upon pulling tons of different items
Speaker 1: from different places and really mixing and matching my future
Speaker 1: room look, which most people do today. It's just a
Speaker 1: lot more accessible to be able to find one thing
Speaker 1: from urban and one thing from dorm of by, so
Speaker 1: there's just so much more access. But I ended up
Speaker 1: mixing and matching a ton of stuff that I liked,
Speaker 1: and it all started with a Urban Outfitters pillow case
Speaker 1: that I was really drawn to, and I built the
Speaker 1: entire room around it, and it ended up being a
Speaker 1: really fun, easy ish process for my mom and I
Speaker 1: because we're both creative. But we quickly saw when I
Speaker 1: went to move in day that many other students and
Speaker 1: their parents were dealing with the struggles of how to
Speaker 1: set up a room and not only how to make
Speaker 1: it cute, but also like functionally, what do you need
Speaker 1: in your space? How do you rerange the furniture to
Speaker 1: maximize the space? What are your hacks? So we wanted
Speaker 1: to sort of bring what we knew we were good
Speaker 1: at two other students and other families that were struggling,
Speaker 1: and hence the idea for dorm if I was born. Um,
Speaker 1: but really it goes back to that shopping trip at
Speaker 1: the bath where I was standing there and I really
Speaker 1: said out loud to my mom, we should design our
Speaker 1: own line of that thing, and she was like, okay,
Speaker 1: let's do it. Um, so that's amazing, I know, like gravy. No,
Speaker 1: that doesn't always happen. But you might be standing next
Speaker 1: to a friend or like a classmate, and you see
Speaker 1: an opportunity to solve a problem and you're like, whoa,
Speaker 1: this is a horrible, horrible experience. Let me figure out
Speaker 1: how to make it better and let me solve it.
Speaker 1: And then someone figger with might say, oh, that's really interesting,
Speaker 1: like I'd love to think about that with you, or
Speaker 1: something along those lines. But happened to be my mom anyway.
Speaker 1: So um that was my freshman year. Then my sophomore year,
Speaker 1: we actually put a blog up of all things dorm,
Speaker 1: all things college. Um. It was students like myself, friends
Speaker 1: of mine, friends of friends who are writing for the
Speaker 1: blog so that we could have some online presence that
Speaker 1: gave us some credibility to be talking about dorm decor.
Speaker 1: And most importantly, um, this actually served as our proof
Speaker 1: of concept. Of course, we quickly saw that people did
Speaker 1: care about what the rooms looked like. We got to
Speaker 1: gather UM tons of great images from these brand ambassadors
Speaker 1: that joined the brand UM, and they ended up being
Speaker 1: a network of hundreds and hundreds of college students that
Speaker 1: I knew or were complete strangers to me, because it
Speaker 1: just became this viral like friends of friends of friends
Speaker 1: type of community, which was exactly what we were trying
Speaker 1: to do UM. So once we had that proof of concept,
Speaker 1: we started working on what that brand was going to
Speaker 1: look like, how we were going to actually make products,
Speaker 1: because neither of us had any experience in UM textiles,
Speaker 1: and we weren't just going to go find some vendors
Speaker 1: that we could buy products from and put it on
Speaker 1: a website. It didn't exist, So we had to go
Speaker 1: make betting ourselves. How do you go about making betting?
Speaker 1: No experience? So I can speak to some of the
Speaker 1: more like tactical ways that we did this, but more generally,
Speaker 1: it's about learning from experts in the space and immersing
Speaker 1: yourself in environments where you can really learn. So what
Speaker 1: I mean by that and how we did it UM,
Speaker 1: there's a few different trade shows that happen all over
Speaker 1: the country, but there's plenty in New York, and we
Speaker 1: just walked the aisles and started asking questions, getting contact information.
Speaker 1: We didn't even have business cards, I don't think at
Speaker 1: the time. But we were sharing the idea and selling
Speaker 1: the idea, and people were really interested in the fact
Speaker 1: that we were filling a niche and we're putting a
Speaker 1: brand around a very pivotal life moment, and um, there
Speaker 1: was a lot of interest because they knew that the
Speaker 1: back to school shopping moment is so huge, but no
Speaker 1: one was really owning that space. So UM, I think
Speaker 1: the takeaway here is even if you don't have anything
Speaker 1: formal to share with someone, they'll remember your story. And
Speaker 1: it's important to be like pitching at all times. So
Speaker 1: if you come across someone who could help you down
Speaker 1: the line, whether it's with an introduction to a future
Speaker 1: contact that you need to meet, or just like someone
Speaker 1: who has a lot of great historical knowledge on a
Speaker 1: certain subject matter, make sure that you're making those connections
Speaker 1: and you have a way of staying in touch with people.
Speaker 1: And we were just selling the idea, which is hard
Speaker 1: to do, which is a skill in an art in itself.
Speaker 1: What was your elevator pitch? Well, I think this all
Speaker 1: goes back to my original point of if you are
Speaker 1: not solving a problem, it's hard to get someone to care.
Speaker 1: So if it's kind of like a nice to have,
Speaker 1: like I believe in this because it's a nice to have,
Speaker 1: I'm totally generalizing, it's a lot harder to explain why
Speaker 1: someone should care. Um. Then if you like have identified
Speaker 1: a problem and you are creating a solution even if
Speaker 1: it doesn't exist yet. Um. So that's why I think
Speaker 1: the elevator pitch, to your point, is really really important
Speaker 1: because you have to grab someone's attention within I don't know,
Speaker 1: less than thirty seconds probably within the first ten seconds
Speaker 1: five seconds in what you're talking to them. Why should
Speaker 1: they care? How is this going to benefit them? And
Speaker 1: what does this look like? Is there a timeline? Is
Speaker 1: this real? So as you're building this company in you're
Speaker 1: in college, how did you balance the school work as well?
Speaker 1: As you know this is something it fills a need
Speaker 1: and it's you're creating a business and you can see
Speaker 1: potential with it, So how do you compartmentalize and be
Speaker 1: a student as well? If you talk to a group
Speaker 1: of founders. I'm sure people would have very different perspectives
Speaker 1: on this question, but I think it depends on what
Speaker 1: you're doing right. So there's lots of people who have
Speaker 1: started incredible businesses where they have to just move really
Speaker 1: quickly in order to not lose the opportunity to be
Speaker 1: the market leader in whatever they're doing right, So people
Speaker 1: might drop out. People might totally prioritize their business because
Speaker 1: if they don't do it now, someone's going to beat
Speaker 1: them to it. I wasn't in one of those scenarios
Speaker 1: where I felt like it was important to move fast.
Speaker 1: It was actually more important to build the brand slowly,
Speaker 1: take advantage of the fact that I was on a
Speaker 1: college campus, and like immerse myself in the audience that
Speaker 1: I was trying to connect to, being college was working
Speaker 1: for you, right, it was market research for me. I
Speaker 1: would never not take advantage of being on a college campus,
Speaker 1: and like my senior thesis was actually something that I
Speaker 1: totally based off of a future endeavor for the business
Speaker 1: that was all based on like the get back component
Speaker 1: of the business. So I tried to connect everything that
Speaker 1: I was doing on campus with what would help my business. Now.
Speaker 1: I think what would be important to share here is
Speaker 1: what I would do today, um if I were going
Speaker 1: to go back in time and redo it. Something that
Speaker 1: I um did not take as full advantage of that
Speaker 1: I wish I did was just making connections on campus.
Speaker 1: So building my network while being a college student is
Speaker 1: like the number one thing that I think no matter
Speaker 1: what you're going to do, whether you're starting your own
Speaker 1: business or going to work for someone else, Like you
Speaker 1: hear it all the time, but it's so real and
Speaker 1: having a mechanism to how's your contacts linked and just
Speaker 1: doesn't cut it for me, Like I don't have a
Speaker 1: way to mentally organize and LinkedIn all these people that
Speaker 1: I know. You can come up with your own system,
Speaker 1: whether it's just a Google sheet, And I have this now,
Speaker 1: I literally the Google sheet called Amanda's Network, And I
Speaker 1: have people that I meet their contact info who introduced
Speaker 1: me to them, Like I even have a dropdown of
Speaker 1: are they an investor, are they a founder? Are they
Speaker 1: an operator? Like I just record this for myself so
Speaker 1: that when I'm thinking, oh shoot, I need to call
Speaker 1: someone to help me with this, let me go reference
Speaker 1: my sheet and see who I could tap, because otherwise
Speaker 1: I will not remember these people, did you color code
Speaker 1: this Google sheet too? Oh it's not like that level
Speaker 1: of oct okay, because that's just not me. I'm actually
Speaker 1: really unorganized, but this is my attempt to be organized.
Speaker 1: It sounds pretty organized. It's functional. Yeah, it's definitely functional.
Speaker 1: But my advice to this group listening is do this
Speaker 1: as soon as possible. My point is that I didn't
Speaker 1: do it early enough because I started this in the
Speaker 1: last couple of years. Now, imagine if all of the
Speaker 1: connections that I've been building as a young founder have
Speaker 1: been captured in one place, I would probably have the
Speaker 1: right people to go to for every single problem that
Speaker 1: I need to solve. That's all really important. Have it
Speaker 1: to just get into at a very young age. That
Speaker 1: would be my first takeaway. And then other things that
Speaker 1: you can do on campus is just utilizing and leveraging
Speaker 1: the opportunity to test out ideas. I'm just thinking of
Speaker 1: my own university experience. We had a class where you
Speaker 1: could actually build your own business and it wasn't real,
Speaker 1: but it ended with a pitch and just take advantage
Speaker 1: of those chances on campus because you don't have that
Speaker 1: type of built in opportunity once you've graduated. So even
Speaker 1: if it's something that doesn't end up coming to fruition,
Speaker 1: at least you had the practice of like building a
Speaker 1: business plan or a pitch deck, and then you can
Speaker 1: apply that to something in the future. Absolutely, we have
Speaker 1: to take a quick break, but when we come back,
Speaker 1: I want to talk about burnout, how you created so
Speaker 1: many different types of products without any prior experience, the
Speaker 1: future of Dormify, and so much more. We'll be right
Speaker 1: back and we're back. Something that I'm going through and
Speaker 1: I don't know if you ever went through was being
Speaker 1: a student and you wanting to take advantage of all
Speaker 1: of those opportunities and stay creative and keep building, but
Speaker 1: also navigating burnout because you know, when you're operating on
Speaker 1: different deadlines for different people, like how do you not
Speaker 1: in this day and age. So I guess I was
Speaker 1: wondering if that's something you've ever gone through and how
Speaker 1: you've navigated that. I mean, it's definitely something that I
Speaker 1: still deal with today. So I'll put myself in the
Speaker 1: college environment for a second and I'll talk about how
Speaker 1: I navigate this in just my professional life. But in college,
Speaker 1: I think it's so easy to want to do a
Speaker 1: million things. You're literally told go try everything. This is
Speaker 1: your time to do all of these different things. You're
Speaker 1: never going to have the opportunity to get an opportunity
Speaker 1: to do it again, and you can struct yourself really thin. UM.
Speaker 1: I think that's fine to cast a wide net to
Speaker 1: at least understand like what the opportunities are. UM. But
Speaker 1: I do think it's really important to try to like
Speaker 1: hone in on one or two things that you want
Speaker 1: to focus on, because, especially when it comes time to
Speaker 1: reflect on your college experience in an interview setting, you
Speaker 1: don't want to say like, I've touched all of these things,
Speaker 1: but I haven't gotten deep anywhere. It's always more attractive
Speaker 1: when a candidate can speak to something that they really
Speaker 1: send their teeth into and invested their time and rather
Speaker 1: than saying like, oh, I just wanted to put all
Speaker 1: these things on my resume, so I tried all these things.
Speaker 1: I think balance is important and no one's expecting you
Speaker 1: to do it all. Have you always had the entrepreneurial
Speaker 1: bug at heart? Or did this come about when you
Speaker 1: were going to college. I don't really know how to
Speaker 1: answer that question, because I think could be subconscious, But no,
Speaker 1: I was not the type of person who said, I
Speaker 1: want to be my own boss, I want to be
Speaker 1: an entrepreneur. I want to figure out what I can
Speaker 1: do in order to do that. It happened just more organically.
Speaker 1: If there's a couple of different paths. So you might
Speaker 1: be someone who goes through the college experience, they go
Speaker 1: into a training program or you know, an entry level job,
Speaker 1: and they learned quickly I really don't like working for
Speaker 1: someone else. Like that definitely happens all the time, and
Speaker 1: they might say, Okay, how can I work for myself?
Speaker 1: That's one path. Then there's someone who is like determined
Speaker 1: to be an entrepreneur, and um, that person could be
Speaker 1: searching for an idea to pursue. So even if you
Speaker 1: are one of those entrepreneurial type people, you don't have
Speaker 1: to be the one that comes up with the idea necessarily.
Speaker 1: That's where your network comes in, because you need to
Speaker 1: be in the right environments or ecosystems to introduced to
Speaker 1: people who could use someone like you as a partner.
Speaker 1: All it takes is execution totally totally for me personally, Like,
Speaker 1: I grew up in an entrepreneurial family, so my parents
Speaker 1: owned a business together. Um, it's kind of second nature
Speaker 1: to me. So it wasn't as daunting or intimidating to
Speaker 1: me because I just had that own sin your blood.
Speaker 1: Yeah right, it's in my blood, That's how you can
Speaker 1: say it. I'm very curious about product development because okay,
Speaker 1: you guys have expanded and are creating a variety of things,
Speaker 1: whether it's betting, posters, lights. Yeah, what has that process
Speaker 1: been like? And how do you go about navigating something
Speaker 1: when you didn't have any background in it? It's a
Speaker 1: pretty crazy world. Um, we've learned everything along the way,
Speaker 1: um from great partners who have held their hands where
Speaker 1: when we didn't know anything. And I think that's really
Speaker 1: the most important point here is you develop relationships, and
Speaker 1: relationships are the most important thing in taking your business
Speaker 1: from one step to the other. Um. This manifests in
Speaker 1: so many different ways. Whether it's vendors that you build
Speaker 1: a relationship with that will help you when you're struggling, um,
Speaker 1: whether that's financially or operationally. And then you also have
Speaker 1: partners that will walk you through the ropes when you
Speaker 1: have no idea what you're doing, which was exactly the
Speaker 1: position that we were in. So the way that we
Speaker 1: did this, We actually um talk to many different vendors
Speaker 1: because we had to essentially knock on doors and explain
Speaker 1: what we were trying to build until someone said, like, okay,
Speaker 1: I'll take a chance and work with you. As you
Speaker 1: can imagine, we got a lot of nose. That's intimidating.
Speaker 1: We got a lot of knows Like we didn't have
Speaker 1: a webscape. Um, all we had was a pitch. And
Speaker 1: that's fine, Like, you can totally approach these situations like that,
Speaker 1: but it's the same way that you approach fundraising, Like
Speaker 1: you might not have many results that prove out your
Speaker 1: concept just yet, but someone's going to take a chance
Speaker 1: on you because they believe in you. And that's all
Speaker 1: about building relationships, selling your pitch and personality. Really, So,
Speaker 1: we had someone agreed to work with us, and we
Speaker 1: only worked with them for a year. They were not
Speaker 1: the right partner to take us to where we are today,
Speaker 1: but they at least got our foot in the door.
Speaker 1: So perfection is the enemy of progress. I know, comparison
Speaker 1: is the thief of joy, so progress would make sense
Speaker 1: for that one. I was thinking that phrase while I
Speaker 1: was trying to say it. But my point is something
Speaker 1: that I get on a lot of the time is
Speaker 1: we're not trying to be a perfect We're gonna try
Speaker 1: to perfect and it's all about making progress and actually
Speaker 1: getting things done. That's more important. Something that's interesting that
Speaker 1: we did is we didn't have money to invest in
Speaker 1: the product that we wanted to order inventory we wanted
Speaker 1: to order. So what we started it was a product
Speaker 1: line of posters where we didn't actually have to invest
Speaker 1: in inventory upfront. We found a printer that was going
Speaker 1: to just print the pieces on demand as they got
Speaker 1: ordered that we only had to pay after something was sold. Amazing.
Speaker 1: So that's a really great way to get started, especially
Speaker 1: in low quantities. Is um almost like testing a small
Speaker 1: quantity of pieces and having um someone who is willing
Speaker 1: to make like a small group of samples even just
Speaker 1: to get some product feedback. And you know, talking to
Speaker 1: customers at all times, especially in the early days, is
Speaker 1: really really important. If you didn't have that bed bath
Speaker 1: and beyond moment, Yeah, what do you think you would
Speaker 1: be doing now? I think that I would probably I
Speaker 1: think I would probably have gone into something in the
Speaker 1: hospitality world. Like I was always into creative and I
Speaker 1: was a graphic design and marketing major, So I already
Speaker 1: kind of knew that outside of Dormify, because I decided
Speaker 1: I was going to do these majors before dorm If
Speaker 1: I started, I wanted to do something that was creative,
Speaker 1: art oriented, and then I wanted to also back that
Speaker 1: up with like the business understanding, so that I wasn't,
Speaker 1: you know, just an artist or a designer, but I
Speaker 1: understood the business behind it. Um. But I've always loved
Speaker 1: like hospitality, meaning restaurants, hotels, like any sort of hospitality environment,
Speaker 1: bringing those spaces to life. So it is kind of
Speaker 1: similar to dorm ify in a way of transforming a
Speaker 1: space to create an experience. It is I would probably
Speaker 1: be doing something like that, or I would have taken
Speaker 1: over my parents advertising agency. That was definitely something that
Speaker 1: was intriguing to me, but I wasn't sure if I
Speaker 1: wanted to do it. Wow, it's it's so interesting how
Speaker 1: that one moment changed your entire life. I find that
Speaker 1: so fascinating. Can I add a fun fact because please,
Speaker 1: Even even though I was always interested in design, um,
Speaker 1: the truth is, when I was little, what I wanted
Speaker 1: to be I wanted to be a meteorologist. On the
Speaker 1: way to jail. That's so specific. I know I wanted
Speaker 1: to be like a storm chaser in hurricanes and tornadoes,
Speaker 1: and like I love the movie Twister. So why this
Speaker 1: is funny is because that's like my fun fact whenever
Speaker 1: people ask me what I wanted to be when I
Speaker 1: was little. Um But then when I was in college,
Speaker 1: the one like random class that I could take because
Speaker 1: I was a double major, I didn't have a lot
Speaker 1: of time for um like elective type classes. I took
Speaker 1: a natural disasters class and it was like exactly what
Speaker 1: I needed to fulfill that desire that I had. So
Speaker 1: in college, take the fun classes that like could just
Speaker 1: kind of satisfy any sort of interest that you have
Speaker 1: because it was fun. Yeah, random, We have to take
Speaker 1: one more quick break. But when do we come back.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't talk to you about the future of Dormify,
Speaker 1: the art of decision making, and so much more. We'll
Speaker 1: be right back and we're back. What are your goals
Speaker 1: and plans for Dormify in the future. How do you
Speaker 1: hope it to grow and expand and evolved. There's so
Speaker 1: much that we want to do with dorm if. I
Speaker 1: I think first and foremost being able to offer a
Speaker 1: wider assortment is kind of like yes, of course it's
Speaker 1: not like a huge idea, but we want to have
Speaker 1: more of a selection for um, for guys, for more
Speaker 1: of a gender neutral type of aesthetic. UM. We want
Speaker 1: to collaborate with more brands and with more artists that
Speaker 1: we really have the most unique and exclusive assortment of
Speaker 1: products that you can't find elsewhere. We also want to
Speaker 1: get back into the pop up shop world and be
Speaker 1: able to bring experiences in person to our customers. So
Speaker 1: whether that's in a store that's open for a few
Speaker 1: weeks or something that pops up for the weekend. UM,
Speaker 1: we really want to connect in person and ultimately, like
Speaker 1: where I want to take it is having like a
Speaker 1: shop and shop experience at a great retailer. So some
Speaker 1: of the ones on the top of the hitlist are Norade, Drum,
Speaker 1: the container store we actually partnered with last year, so
Speaker 1: that was a huge, like check off the list was
Speaker 1: a major accomplishment. That's a big one. Yeah, and we're
Speaker 1: continuing that partnership this year, which I'm really excited about.
Speaker 1: But to be able to be like a store within
Speaker 1: a store where a brand is featured in a huge
Speaker 1: retailer that doesn't have a big like home assortment that's
Speaker 1: dedicated to gen z that would be ultimate. There's a
Speaker 1: lot that's just the beginning. You're still at the beginning
Speaker 1: of it, and I'm so excited to see where dorify
Speaker 1: evolves and grows. And because frankly, learning about this and
Speaker 1: getting your thoughts and guidance on what your story was
Speaker 1: is super helpful, not just for me but for the
Speaker 1: other people listening, because it can be so intimidating knowing
Speaker 1: where to start or how to start, um, But it's
Speaker 1: really just finding a problem that you can fix and
Speaker 1: it starts there and knowing that it is super helpful totally.
Speaker 1: And also keep in mind the like bad phrase that
Speaker 1: I coined about perfection, I need to have a better
Speaker 1: way of saying it. But the more that you strive
Speaker 1: to be perfect or to get something done perfectly, the
Speaker 1: slower that you're going to move and time is money.
Speaker 1: You have to feel okay and secure about the fact
Speaker 1: that it's not going to be to your highest standards
Speaker 1: of perfection. Um, but that's just gonna hold you back.
Speaker 1: And what advice do you have for making decisions? That
Speaker 1: is something that I personally struggle with because I'm an
Speaker 1: indecisive person. Okay, I'm a very indecisive person too, So okay,
Speaker 1: that makes me feel better. I am a very indecisive
Speaker 1: Like I'm I'm telling you, when I'm out to dinner
Speaker 1: or something, I like really struggle to make a decision
Speaker 1: on what I'm gonna eat. Like that's how bad it is.
Speaker 1: But tell me more specifically, like where you struggle, and
Speaker 1: I can try to help impart some advice. I think
Speaker 1: it's the part of being confident within a decision and
Speaker 1: noting that that's the right one I could have made
Speaker 1: for that time, and not like not going back being like, well,
Speaker 1: that was that the decision. I think that's one of
Speaker 1: the things that I struggle with most. Got it. Okay,
Speaker 1: So you're saying that, like you might be able to
Speaker 1: make the decision, but you almost have like anxiety over
Speaker 1: whether you made the right decision correct, So then that
Speaker 1: flows you down from actually making a decision because you're
Speaker 1: so afraid of like what if it's the wrong decision. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean that's like a really important skill to work
Speaker 1: on throughout your early professional career because being decisive is powerful,
Speaker 1: very very powerful. Um and I think I've learned a
Speaker 1: lot about that over the last few years. But making
Speaker 1: the decisions equals progress. So overthinking something is just going
Speaker 1: to like weigh down on everything that's going on in
Speaker 1: your head, and so it almost like inflates the importance
Speaker 1: of the decision a little bit. Yeah, you just need
Speaker 1: to learn from your decisions. So make the decision, don't
Speaker 1: overthink it. Try to practice this with like things that
Speaker 1: are not a huge deal. So practice the quick decision
Speaker 1: making with things that aren't going to make or break
Speaker 1: something big. And then once you get like the easy
Speaker 1: stuff out of the way, then at least you're creating
Speaker 1: more brain space for the things that are more involved
Speaker 1: decision making. Um, think about the worst thing that will
Speaker 1: happen if you choose X over Y, and then if
Speaker 1: you're like, oh, the worst thing that's going to happen
Speaker 1: is only this, Like okay, then I can at least
Speaker 1: make the decision learn from that not being the right decision.
Speaker 1: But the more you kind of have that practice, you're
Speaker 1: gonna say, Okay, well I'm comfortable with the fact that, yes,
Speaker 1: I learned. Now, this decision might not have been the
Speaker 1: best approach, but I learned from it, and I'm going
Speaker 1: to move forward and I'm going to use that in
Speaker 1: my decision making down the road. That's very helpful advice.
Speaker 1: I'm glad. I just need to do the mini ones,
Speaker 1: the little mini trials to get me through the big ones, right,
Speaker 1: I have to all the time, all the time. Like yeah,
Speaker 1: And I think like if you're feeling stuck on what
Speaker 1: to do, like walk away from it, come back to
Speaker 1: it once you've put your hat a little bit. But psychologically,
Speaker 1: we compound so much stuff inside our heads just to
Speaker 1: start crossing things up the lists. I survive off of lists.
Speaker 1: You have no idea. I write m I write everything down.
Speaker 1: It's the only way it gets done. Well, I hope
Speaker 1: you um take my my networking Google sheet to heart
Speaker 1: and start that now. I am starting this on my
Speaker 1: way back to school. I am going to be working
Speaker 1: on this good and put me on it. I'm very excited.
Speaker 1: You're on my list. By the way, Sammy, you're on
Speaker 1: my list, Oh my good. First of all, I'm on it,
Speaker 1: and I am going to go the extra mile and
Speaker 1: color code and I will send you a photo. And
Speaker 1: I really appreciate you giving all this advice because I
Speaker 1: think mentorship is so important and having that guidance is
Speaker 1: so knowledgeable. So I really appreciate you sharing and just
Speaker 1: being so candid about everything. Of course, I mean I
Speaker 1: talked to college students all the time, and I just
Speaker 1: want to help in any way I can. And that's
Speaker 1: really I mean, when I think about what's next for Dormified,
Speaker 1: that's really where we want to take our ambassador program.
Speaker 1: So we have about nine hundred eight hundred or nine
Speaker 1: hundred ambassadors across the country, and I want to build
Speaker 1: this into a network where you're making connections at all times.
Speaker 1: So maybe you're a part of the dormachan and you're
Speaker 1: applying all these internships for the summer between junior and
Speaker 1: senior year, and you're trying to find someone who has
Speaker 1: a connection to X, And how great would it be
Speaker 1: if you could just leverage this community of people that
Speaker 1: are like minded, um but diverse, and you can find
Speaker 1: connections to the jobs, internships, uh, the contacts that you need.
Speaker 1: So that's what we're hoping to build. That's amazing. You're
Speaker 1: you're really building a community, and it's really cool to
Speaker 1: see just how it's evolving and how it's growing and
Speaker 1: how cute. It's all getting thank you, Thank you, And
Speaker 1: if anyone who's listening wants to join the program, um
Speaker 1: you can apply on our website and we'd love to
Speaker 1: have you go shop at dorm if I support them.
Speaker 1: They're amazing. You know, it's very full circle that you
Speaker 1: said that you made your entire room after that urban pillow,
Speaker 1: because I made my entire room freshman year around a
Speaker 1: dorm if I rug, so I did that exact same thing.
Speaker 1: I remember it well. Yeah, Sammy came into our show
Speaker 1: room and she was like, you's the centerpiece in my room.
Speaker 1: How do we build something around it? And we totally
Speaker 1: mixed and match things and creating something really fun and unique.
Speaker 1: And that's why it was so fun to work with you.
Speaker 1: And it was just like so memorable because you had
Speaker 1: such a distinct style and aesthetic and I love that
Speaker 1: is how passionate you are about it. So glad you
Speaker 1: liked your first freshman room of memories, and I'm excited
Speaker 1: to visit and hopefully see you soon in person do
Speaker 1: our catch up. I know, I know I'd love to
Speaker 1: thank you for taking the time. I know how busy
Speaker 1: you are with your schedule, so thank you. For making
Speaker 1: this happen. Of course, happy to do it, so good
Speaker 1: to talk to you.