Lauren Wallis is the Co-Founder and President of YOUME Clothing, a San Diego based nonprofit that exists to renew and empower communities through collaborative repurposing partnerships. YOUME Clothing turns rags into resources by providing new school uniforms to children in exchange for their oldest used piece of clothing. The tattered pieces of clothing are repurposed as patches onto YOUME branded apparel. The apparel sales fund the clothing exchanges and community projects.

Before co-founding YOUME Clothing, Lauren went to work for her father’s business after college. It was there that she unexpectedly learned lessons in sales, retailing and manufacturing that would aid her in ultimately running YOUME Clothing. Lauren never wanted to be an entrepreneur or even run a company, but it was YOUME’s mission that caused her to step out of her comfort zone and lead the organization.

In this episode, Lauren shares goals to scale YOUME Clothing as well as expand their mission and model to positively affect many other communities. Lauren also offers sound advice for anyone who is interested in finding ways to “fill the gap” in their community and shares key questions one needs to think about before launching a venture.

Lauren recommends...

Good leaders are good learners - Harvard Business Review

Creative Mornings

Basecamp

Google Calendar

Passion Planner

Please follow Lauren @youmeclothing on Instagram and Facebook. Be sure to check out YOUME Clothing’s apparel at www.youmeclothing.org.

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