This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Mo Brady: You're listening to The Ensemblist, the only podcast that shows you Broadway from the inside out. Welcome, I'm Mo Brady.

[0:22] Mo Brady: This week, I got the chance to speak to Tamika Lawrence. She's a veteran of the Broadway stage, having performed in the Book of Mormon, Matilda the Musical, If Then, Come From Away, Get in the Band Back Together, and will be seen this spring in Caroline or Change as Dottie Moffitt. However, in this time of coronavirus quarantine, she's also created a new apparel brand, Ready Set Wear. I asked her about how she got the idea for Ready Set Wear, and how she transformed it from an idea to a real live business. Here's our conversation.

[1:13] Mo Brady: Would you introduce yourself and tell us where you're calling from today?

[1:16] Tamika Lawrence: My name is Tamika Lawrence, and I am calling from the Bronx, New York.

[1:21] Mo Brady: And you are the creator of an apparel line.

[1:25] Tamika Lawrence: That's correct. My apparel line is called Ready Set Wear Apparel.

[1:30] Mo Brady: And what is Ready Set Wear Apparel?

[1:33] Tamika Lawrence: Ready Set Wear Apparel is a clothing and jewelry company. I call it conscious clothing because 90% of the clothes have a social mark on them, whether it be in the clothes themselves, what they say and what they represent, or the money that's donated to particular organizations with every sale. So I want to make sure that what I'm making is also helping our social and human climate.

[2:04] Mo Brady: So are you a person that has always been interested in fashion and creating wardrobe? Or is this kind of your first foray into that world?

[2:12] Tamika Lawrence: I've always been interested in fashion. My mother is an artist. She's a visual artist. And she was very much into fashion, even though we didn't have a lot of money growing up. She still, you know, would sew me clothes and show me how to put things together that were more classic looks than what was trendy. And then when the Spice Girls came out, that was like where fashion and feminism, even though I didn't know what exactly that was the name for it, that's where they sort of met together. And I was 10 years old. And I was like, Oh my gosh, what is this? And that's when I started getting into how can you make statements with your fashion. And I've been obsessed with that ever since. During my career on Broadway, I've also had a side hustle as a stylist, styling other people for photo shoots for their cabarets for just anything that they needed that was related to press.

And it's been during that time, I've had a career for almost 10 years here, that I've been dreaming about having a clothing line. And I shared that with my mom. So this time during the shutdown was the time that I could actually put that dream into action.

[3:23] Mo Brady: So many of us have ideas, you know, of things we could be doing of side hustles we could be creating and it sounds like you had, you know, quite a few steps already as a stylist and kind of inspired by your mom's hustle as well. How do you take this idea of a thing? I want to start an apparel line and actually make it real in the world.

[3:39] Tamika Lawrence: Um, good question. I am a smartass. And I've liked clothing with sayings on them, but always thought like they were some are like cool and to the point and some are kind of corny. So I was like, ah, I want to like, see stuff that actually like goes there says, you know what people are feeling when the shutdown happened. But knowing my mom knowing that, you know, I wanted to somehow create a clothing line. She was like, now is the time to do it. Stop being depressed. Here are YouTube tutorials on how to get printers. She was like, you're funny, and you're creative. So all you have to do is, you know, put those together. Here are the graphic design apps and resources that you can use to design your stuff so that it's easy for a printer to source it.

And then here's all you need to know about e-commerce. Here's all the stuff. So she sent me these YouTube tutorials, and I just started eating it up and eating it up and then just started working from there from those directions. Started putting it together.

[4:52] Mo Brady: Oh my gosh, mom really paved the way for you.

[4:58] Tamika Lawrence: She did and she like Jedi mind trick me because she's like, she did. She's like, so this is going to be our company because she knows me. I'm OCD anyway. So I obsess about projects. But when my mom gives me a task, because it's her asking and I love her, I will go, you know, even harder for it. And so she was like, this is our company. So I started doing it quick, fast and in a hurry because she was like, it's our company. And then once I got it to a place where we could kind of look it over and find two things, and I was like, okay, mom, we're ready. And she was like, Oh, I just said that to say it is actually your company. So glad you got it together.

[5:45] Mo Brady: Oh, yes. She's fierce. Oh my gosh, that's great. She gave you she gave you like, tough love and like kind love all the same time and helped you make it happen. So what is the timeline for all this? I mean, you have lots of products available online, you've gotten some like great press already, like, and it's been six months, which is not which feels like a long time and start an idea and turn it into a business. Has it been the entire six months? Has it been the last three months?

[6:13] Tamika Lawrence: So I started in March. So it's been just six months. And I know that that is a really short amount of time. I started in March. And it started with first just designing stuff, and then getting those designs to printers. The thing that took the longest was making sure that Etsy works with the printing companies that I use. And then designing stuff is actually pretty fun. And that's the easy part. Because it's just like whatever I'm feeling that day, like whatever I want to say, I have a thought in my head and I design it and then see if it works if it translates on a tee. But it's it's Yeah, it has been very short. And that's why I'm still trying to remind myself to work slowly and methodically because things kind of fell into place. I think the the wrong thing to do would just be like over expand. I still have a lot more ideas and a lot more designs that I haven't uploaded yet. I just want to make sure that I'm being conscious and methodical as I go along.

[7:19] Mo Brady: How do you cull through those ideas that you have? If you have lots of ideas? How does one sort of make it to the top of the pile to go into production?

[7:29] Tamika Lawrence: Good question. I'm a songwriter. So I'm all about like, that helps me to get ideas in short sentences or short lyrics. So I spend the morning journaling what I'm feeling. And then from that journaling, seeing if there's anything in there that really like resonated and resonates with me and might resonate with other people, and then pulling that out, and then seeing how I can shorten it to make it funny or memorable. So that's the first part of the process. And then thinking of colors or designs that I think will pop and that's been growing over time. I think the first clothes that I uploaded and made were sort of more plain and now I'm getting more creative, giving myself a little more creative license but the wording then goes over to graphic design and like how can I make it pop out or how can I make it funny and palatable and then looking at it like a mock-up on a tee and making sure that it sticks out and it's good and then getting the samples from the printer to make sure everything's copacetic before finally uploading it to Etsy.

[8:44] Tamika Lawrence: I mean, I think it's fascinating that sort of the journaling can produce art in a variety of medium.

[8:51] Tamika Lawrence: Yeah, totally. I think journaling is great for, like I said, like for songwriting, for writing plays, for writing pieces, and also for like any sort of creative design when you're dealing with, you know, power statements. I think that just streams of consciousness and then cutting out what hits home in those streams of consciousness is super powerful.

[9:14] Mo Brady: So you talked about Ready Set Wear being conscious clothing. How did you find the companies that you wanted to work with to make this a reality?

[9:26] Tamika Lawrence: I found them through YouTube tutorials. I found one through just going through YouTube tutorials and DTG printing and printers.

[9:34] Mo Brady: Wait, what's DTG printing?

[9:36] Tamika Lawrence: So it's like, you know, from their computer, from their printing computer onto a shirt and that's how they sort of mass-produce t-shirts.

[9:45] Tamika Lawrence: I looked at what their reputation had been, this was around April, what their reputation had been in terms of dealing with COVID. But that's why I didn't launch quickly when I had all my stuff together because I wanted to see how printers were dealing with COVID and making the sacrifice of, okay, well I'm going to go with printers who seem to be doing things more safely or are in areas that are not hot spots in order to make sure that my line is not being detrimental and being transparent about printing times too and saying like, you know, because those printers are working at 30% capacity in order to be safe, it means that the clothes are going to come in a little later. As things have kind of gotten up and running and people have figured out their product lines and processing and stuff, then being able to speed things up as well. So I'm trying to be conscious not only in what I'm selling, but how I'm selling it and who I'm working with too.

[10:53] Mo Brady: What's the hardest part?

[10:54] Tamika Lawrence: Going slow.

[10:56] Tamika Lawrence: Because I have all these ideas and, you know, I have a desire to make this company profitable and make it also make it a company that can give to justice organizations, social justice organizations. And so the hardest part is going slow and making sure, okay, my samples look good. I don't like the way that this shirt feels. Let me order these on other shirts and see how they are. And even in the shooting and editing of my own, I shoot and edit my own products or me in the products like model them, which is feels icky, but people have to see it on people. But then just going slow with that too, and making sure that it looks good and the editing is done well. And things are just the products look as good as possible. And people are satisfied with what they receive and how they receive them.

[11:52] Mo Brady: What's your favorite item in the store right now?

[11:56] Tamika Lawrence: I have two. One is the In Loving Memory of 2020 shirt. Just because every day I wake up and I feel like there's another reason to like mourn this year and be ready for next year. And the other one is the I Matter necklace. That means a lot to me. And I think it means a lot to the people who have gotten theirs and purchased theirs. And they seem to wear it with pride. And I think it's a good reminder in this time that black people matter and all people matter, but black people, you know, really, we matter in more ways than just the right to live.

[12:33] Mo Brady: So how can people find all of this great apparel, the shirts, and the jewelry and the swimwear?

[12:41] Tamika Lawrence: They can find it on Etsy. Ready, set, wear is all one word. And you can find us on Instagram. Ready, set, wear apparel. That's our handle.

[12:54] Tamika Lawrence: I don't, I just, I want people to vote. Because we had all done our due diligence and voted back in 2016 and voted during the Obama years, you know, and took seriously voting for senators, voting for congresspeople, voting for our governors, our mayors, our, you know, attorney generals, our sheriffs, everyone.

[13:24] Mo Brady: Special thanks to Tamika Lawrence for sharing her stories with us today. The Ensemblist was produced today by me, Mo Brady. There are two great ways you can be helping the Ensemblist right now. One is by leaving us a rating and review on Apple podcasts. And the second is by becoming a Patreon member, which you can do at patreon.com slash the Ensemblist. Please follow the Ensemblist wherever you listen to podcasts, on Spotify, on Apple podcasts, or at bpn.fm, the home of Broadway Podcast Network. You can also follow us on Instagram. Thanks for listening. Until next time.