IAM491- Entrepreneur and Digital Content Creator Runs a Designing eCommerce Business

Emily Duong is a 22-year old entrepreneur and digital content creator and a recent college graduate from Chapman University. Growing up on the East Coast, she was a competitive elite-level figure skater and USTA ranked tennis player and at the age of 18, she packed her bags to pursue her dream of living in Southern California. With 10+ years of competitive skating experience, she found a niche and love for designing her own dresses and at the age of 17, created her own eCommerce business Elite Skate Wear. Today, she continues to scale the business, as well as writing weekly on her lifestyle blog and growing her podcast, Young & Ambitious.

• CEO Hack: Two books – Principles by Ray Daylio and The Daily Stoic
• CEO Nugget: Being strategic about how you approach your business and keeping your eyes on the ball
• CEO Defined: Living life on your own terms

Website: https://emilyelizabeth.blog/

Podcast – Young & Ambitious Podcast
Business – Elite Skate Wear
Blog – www.emilyelizabeth.blog

Instagram – @emilyeduong
@young.ambitious.podcast
@eliteskatewear

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Transcription

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Hopkins values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is IAMCEO podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:29

Hello, this is Gresh from the IAMCEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. Emily Duong of Elite Skate Wear. Emily, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Emily Duong 0:38

Thank you so much for having me.

Gresham Harkless 0:40

No problem. Super excited to have you on and what I want to do is just read a little bit more about Emily so you hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. Emily is a 22-year-old entrepreneur and digital content creator and a recent college graduate from Chapman University. Growing up on the East Coast, she was a competitive elite-level figure skater and USTA-ranked tennis player at the age of 18.

She packed her bags to pursue her dreams of living in Southern California. With 10-plus years of competitive skating experience. She found a niche and love for designing her dresses at the age of 17 and created her own e-commerce business Elite Skate Wear. Today she continues to scale the business as well as writing weekly on her lifestyle blog and growing her podcasts young and ambitious. Emily, are you ready to speak to the IAMCEO community?

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Emily Duong 1:26

I'm ready.

Gresham Harkless 1:27

Awesome. Let's do it. So I wanted to kick everything off with what I call your CEO story to hear a little bit more about you and what led you to start your business your podcast and all the awesome things you're working on.

Emily Duong 1:36

Yeah, thank you. So as I mentioned, I started my business around the age of 17. So I was a junior in high school. And at the time, I was still competing. And I just always was drawn to doing things myself. And I think that kind of set the foundation of my entrepreneurship personality. And so when it came to my dresses, as I got older and more competitive in the sport, I realized that I felt connected with the musicality of my routines, as well as just putting together the finished costume myself in terms of design, and just the overall look and vision.

And so later on, I always got comments and praise on my designs and my dresses, and I kind of realized that it was a good opportunity to just try it out as a business. So I initially started on eBay. And I had a few designs up there, and it picked up pretty quickly. And as I went into college, my college years, I kind of brought that business along with me and started to seriously scale, I'd say around the junior year of my college time.

And from there, I started working with retail partners, in pro shops throughout different rings in the US. From there, I have expanded to about 10 stores in the US and continue to work on that.

Gresham Harkless 3:01

Nice. I love that. And I know there's probably a lot of people listening to this that are wanting to be able to just do it as you kind of been able to do and you said you and I think it's one of the I guess maybe secret entrepreneurial skills you kind of have to have were just wanting to try to do things and go out and just put yourself out there as far as creating things. So it sounds like that's been something you've been able to do and to master sounds like?

Emily Duong 3:25

Yeah. 100%.

Gresham Harkless 3:27

Absolutely. So I wanted to hear a little bit more about Elite Skate, where can you take us through exactly what we'll find when we go to your site?

Emily Duong 3:35

Yeah, so Elite Skate Wear is quite a niche product and a very niche industry, especially if you're not a figure skater or you're not familiar with the sport at all. So I think that's kind of been a nice selling point for me, especially just as a blogger and entrepreneur in combination. It leads to a where I essentially work with customers and skaters on designing custom dresses for them.

So these are the dresses, you kind of see, on TV in the Olympics, I'm just custom dressed, I kind of think of it like wedding dresses where people get them customized, it's to their exact measurements. So for my customers, they're sending in their measurements, their torso, waist everything, and a specific design, whether they chose directly from our website, or I worked with them to kind of alter a previous design we've done just to kind of fit their needs more.

Everything is just being custom-designed for them. And then a typical turnaround is about four to six weeks. And then that gets shipped out to them and I do all of that shipping and packing, etc. So that's more of the product and service side. But on top of that kind, a key differentiation for Elite Skate Wear is that it is a brand and also a community within the figure skating world, which we've been growing especially on social media, Facebook, and Instagram.

And that's just been nice for skaters to enjoy with us because everyone in the industry is not only competitive, but it's typically more, selling a dress to a skater and kind of leaving it at that. We are making a community out of it on Instagram and celebrating other skaters within southern California where we are based, or even on the East Coast, wherever we are celebrating skaters on their wins and their accomplishments. And we're engaging with the community. So that's another big factor within Elite Skate Wear

Gresham Harkless 5:38

Nice, absolutely love it. And I don't know, definitely correct me if I'm wrong if that has been or one of the reasons you've been able to build and grow and be successful at building that community is because it has been a niche kind of focus that you have. And it kind of already sounds like, of course, you were a part of that community. And you still are a part of that community just in a different way. But you understand it a lot more. I don't know if that's what's been your perspective.

Emily Duong 6:05

I would say so 100%, I would say that my ability to understand the skating community in itself well has allowed, the brand to grow in strength, and just in general be able to kind of stand out among the crowd of other dressmakers, whereas we are coming in more of as like a brand kind of like Lululemon or Nike, where skaters just naturally want to be a part of that community and just buy from the brand because it's something that they're a part of, not just that they're wearing if that makes sense.

Gresham Harkless 6:37

It makes so much sense. And I think that's great about the brands, Lululemon and Nike that you mentioned in your brand, as well as that a lot of times you feel as if not only does the brand kind of, can you connect with a brand, but you also feel as if the brand speaks for you in a lot of kind of shape, and fashion.

Because a lot of times, we're all kind of looking for our voice, we're all looking for our opportunity to belong. And I think when that community doesn't exist, to be able to have one or to build one, as you've been able to do, definitely allows that opportunity for us to have a voice but also have a platform to some degree.

Emily Duong 7:09

Exactly. And I would say yes, 100%, it has helped skaters feel a part of something rather than just, seeing each other as competitors. As you know, the sport and most sports are very competitive. So it's sometimes hard to remove that competitive thought when you're dealing with our skaters. So I think this community we have been growing and building has allowed them to kind of alleviate that.

Gresham Harkless 7:35

Yeah, absolutely. And this might be, your secret sauce. And I know, you already touched on it a little bit, but do you feel kind of like that competitive background that you were doing for so long? And at a young age and able to do that consistently, do you feel like that helps you out as far as, your business, but also your podcast and growing all the things that you have?

Emily Duong 7:55

I would say that my background in skating and just as a competitive athlete has allowed me to maintain my competitive spirit and, my self-discipline in having a business as well as a podcast that has helped me in all aspects.

And I think that perspective, as well as just really understanding my way of thinking when I was younger, and as an athlete has, I'm able to translate that and relate to those who are my age or my age when I was competing as well. So that has allowed me to build a true human relationship and connection in both my podcast as well as my business.

Gresham Harkless 8:40

Absolutely, and it makes so much sense that I think in this day and age like there's so much kind of accessibility, for brands and for, influencers and people that are doing phenomenal things that it doesn't just stop it like, okay, this person or this brand has this product or service, you get to delve in, you get that connection as far as you've been able to do with with a blog and a podcast, that you get that deeper relationship in that community as you've been able to grow.

Emily Duong 9:05

Yeah, and I would just add one more thing too, is that I find that that is just a huge selling point for, in terms of how to just differentiate yourself from others.

And I think that, with social media and technology growing I think we're kind of losing a little bit of that human touch and I think that's why, my ability to understand, consumer thinking and the way that what makes them tick in a way like what makes them drawn to a brand or drawn to whatever I'm working on it's it's truly that genuine human connection.

And, it's really important to have as technology continues to grow.

Speaker 1 9:45

Yeah

Gresham Harkless 9:45

Yeah, absolutely. And I think I read like a quote or something that said that it's crazy with all these ways we have of connecting. And, you have Facebook, you have Instagram, you have text messages, you have WhatsApp, you have this you have so many different things that we can connect that sometimes we feel like we're more disconnected than ever before. But it's weird because we have so many different ways.

But I guess, I don't want to put words in your mouth, are you saying that is just also how you approach and what you do on these platforms to build that connection, it's not just the platforms in and of themselves.

Emily Duong 10:17

I would 100% that, and I would just say, as well, I think that's a big key ingredient in the success of everything I've worked on. So my blog, my podcast, the business, is just being able to understand, like the community effect and understand the consumers as like humans and people and almost as friends, rather than just business to consumer, because I think that's where, especially nowadays, a lot of consumers lose you because they don't, they don't feel that connection.

And, in my understanding of just general human psychology, just that aspect is really what pulls people into any brand and anything that they haven't met yet or talked to in person, but when they feel like they have and they can feel that relationship and, and that that growth, I think that's what has at least helped me in my success.

Gresham Harkless 11:13

Yeah, absolutely. I think that a lot of times, you can tell, when you're you're working with a business, or you're, buying something from a business where you feel like you're more of a metric than a human being, you can feel when people, take the time to build that connection, build that relationship, you can also see that a lot and the content and information that they have as well.

So I appreciate you for doing that. I appreciate you for expounding upon that as well, too. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit. And I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be an app or book or a habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient.

Emily Duong 11:48

Okay, yeah, I would say there are quite a few out there for me, I'd say, in general, there are two books that I've read, especially since it was around the time I was pivoting, to expand into retail stores and work with, wholesale partners. And to those books are one being “Principles” by Ray Dalio and the second one being “The daily stoic”.

Gresham Harkless 12:12

And so now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO, nugget. So this is a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. Or if you can hop into a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Emily Duong 12:23

Well, I think a few things that have helped me in the past few years in, growing my business, and just being able to manage life as an entrepreneur, while I was in college, especially, I would say, being able to be strategic and have a good strategy and kind of how you're going to approach your business and like the steps to get there has helped me.

So, taking it into my example, while I was in college, I was a junior in college, and I knew I was,  graduating in two years. And I always asked myself, where do you see yourself,  after you graduate, my goal was always to be able to choose my path instead of having my path chosen for me, because I think the problem is, is when you don't have a specific vision, and on top of that don't have a strategy to get to that vision.

I think that's where the line and the path towards it,  you can get lost. And I think that's just a huge piece of advice I'd give to any entrepreneur and business owner to consistently have your vision out there and really keep your eye on that vision, I kind of bring it back to tennis, even just keeping your eye on the ball.

Emily Duong 13:34

Awesome.

Gresham Harkless 13:34

Awesome. Well, so now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is a definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different, quote-unquote, CEOs on the show. So Emily, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Emily Duong 13:45

I would say being a CEO means to me, being able to live a fulfilled life on my own terms. And I always have viewed being a CEO, as not just a CEO of a business, or of all my projects, but simply just a CEO of my own life, and that I'm in control of my actions and my choices, and essentially the ultimate outcome of my life.

And so, my personal goal has always been to live a fulfilled life on my own terms, and really be fulfilled in everything I do. And so, just essentially being a CEO really means for me is, living life on my own terms.

Gresham Harkless 14:28

I love that. And I love that word that you use fulfillment, because I think so many times, we get lost in again, we keep going back to kind of metrics or numbers or it has to be this there has to be that but fulfillment is really, of incredible importance and understanding that it's not, it's being a CEO as a podcast host not being CEO, as somebody that owns an e-commerce site or somebody that has a blog or somebody that owns a home improvement store.

It could be all those different things, understanding that they're not necessarily one. They're all online and they all make us who we are and know, things that we can kind of be CEOs from.

Emily Duong 15:01

Yes.

Gresham Harkless 15:02

Awesome. Well, Emily, I appreciate that definition. Appreciate your time even more. What I want to do is pass you the mic so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional. You want to let our readers and listeners know and then of course, how best they can get a hold of you. Find out about your blog, subscribe to your podcast, and all the awesome things you're working on.

Emily Duong 15:18

Yeah. So I have quite a few, I guess platforms. My podcast is just a young and ambitious podcast. My co hosts is Sienna Mirabella. She's known for her YouTube creation. I'm also writing on my blog weekly, I talk a lot about mindset and kind of just kind of going back to my team living a fulfilled life. I share my insights on that at www.emilyelizabeth.blog my business Elite Skate Wear is just eliteskatewear.com and I am on Instagram @emilyeduong

Gresham Harkless 15:54

Awesome. And we will make sure to have those links and that information in the show notes as well too, so that everybody can follow up with you and see all the awesome things you're working on. But again, truly appreciate your time not just for today but all the awesome things that you're doing and helping out as far as writing is to build a community and keep that human-centric focus as well. But again, appreciate you and help you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Outro 16:15

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co IAMCEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes, Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, And leave us a five-star rating. Grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the IAMCEO podcast with Gresham Harkless Thank you for listening.

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