 Honoha Boy's varsity tennis team for 22 years and we're fortunate to win 22 consecutive state championships. My book Beyond the Lines is about leadership, creating a superior culture of excellence, and finding greatness, which is what this show is all about. My special guest today is someone that I've known for many years and she's one of our state's top designers in fashion. She is Allison Izu and today we are going beyond the business. Allison. Hi, Rusty. So good to have you today. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited. Well, you're so successful now and I know I've seen your success just grow through the years, but let's start from the beginning. Okay. I know you went to Sacred Heart School. Mm-hmm. How was your experiences there? I love Sacred Heart. I mean, it's an all-girls school. I think that's what kind of pushes you to kind of go beyond kind of being restricted and kind of having that competition with boys for the classroom. You know, a lot of times girls can't speak up because they're afraid the boys in their classroom or they're louder, the boys are louder or more vocal, so I would say that's kind of why I am who I am. I'm a little more vocal. I'm a little more outspoken and I think it's because of Sacred Heart. Now, what kind of activities or sports did you play there? I was a paddler and a cheerleader, so like the two ends of the spectrum for sure, but I loved gymnastics and I loved to dance, so that was kind of my cheering background. And I love to yell, so. Oh, yeah. And then what college did you go to? So after Sacred Heart, I went to UH for a little while and that's kind of where I discovered my love for fashion and that fashion design could be a profession. I thought it was going to be a psychologist, psychiatrist, and then I found a fashion design class, which actually pushed me to want to go away for school, design school. So I went to FIT in New York. Oh, I think she would have been a fantastic psychologist as well. Yes, I do psychology and fashion weeks together. Now, Allie, I want to ask you, what was the first job that you ever had that got paid money for? Paid money for. No, I come from a family of entrepreneurs. I worked family business for a really long time, but my first real job was working in a gift shop in Hoi Kai, Kokumarina. It was a family friend. He had this gift shop and he kind of left me to my own devices, which is a good and a bad thing. So I think I learned a lot about managing a store, how to change out windows, merchandising, marking down products that feel a little older. So it was a fun experience for me for sure. Wow. OK, now let's talk about your family because young, your husband has been a huge support for you through all these years. Yes. So tell me about young and your two kids. So, yeah, young and I have been together. I say I've been with him more years than I've been without him. Yeah. And he's been such a huge supporter of this huge dream of mine. And he's kind of the guy who won't let me stop and won't, you know, won't let me give up on those moments that you kind of want to give up and throwing children into the mix definitely gives you a different purpose to kind of push harder, set good examples for them for sure, to show them that anything's possible, especially having a daughter. So I think that's kind of my motivation every day. Is your daughter like you? No, very quiet, kind of reserved, but very focused. So I don't take all credit for her. No, Allison, let's let's talk about how your brand, Allison Yuzu began, how did it all begin? It began out of a personal need. You know, I'm sure I'm under five, two. I was at school in New York and I was designing for this model who was like five, eight, five, ten. And I would realize when I would take this clothes home to kind of work on it or sew it and I would put it on my body that it looked horrible on me, being five, two, and amazing on her being five, eight. And it dawned on me, like, why am I creating clothing that's already out there for these women that, you know, if they're a very small percentage of the population of women are five, eight. Yeah. And being from Hawaii, I realized that most people here are my height. So that was kind of the catalyst to to make me realize that I could start a clothing line that was focused on a shorter woman. Yeah, because you start off with all the petite. Yes, yes. And denim, too. Yeah. Yeah. And now you, you know, with your Alison Yuzu brand, you have, like, a letter for the sizing. It's for so now we focus a little more not just about being short, but kind of how women have different body shapes and how you can kind of understand your body shape. You can dress better and kind of feel a little more confident, kind of. So we call it liver better. OK. And it's all the letters of my first name. So A-L-I-S-O-N and those all stand for different body shapes. And you want women to just feel proud of their bodies. Yes, you're not trying to be something else. You know, you are in a shape, love that you're in a shape and you have smaller hips and smaller shoulders. But how do you dress so you feel better and more empowered? So Alison, tell me what were some of the challenges that you faced early on in your business? Because, I mean, being an entrepreneur, that's that's not easy to do. Yes, how long do we have? Challenges in my middle name. I mean, I think the biggest challenge for me in the beginning, even before I launched my clothing, was, you know, I was doing all this marketing, telling all these people about this great the deep denim line that I was going to start. And when I received all of the actual product, two thousand one hundred pairs of jeans, they were all completely wrong. No way. Yeah. The quality was horrible. I mean, it wasn't even the fabric I sourced. It was nothing. It had my name on it, but it was nothing of what we had discussed and developed over almost two years. So what did you do when that came in? I cried. I drank some wine. And then that was like a defining moment for me. I think it was like, are you going to give up right here and now? Or are you going to like push through this and kind of figure it out? And, you know, after a lot of crying and drinking wine, I figured that I was going to push through. I flew to LA. I found another manufacturer and we ended up pushing out five hundred teams from that and kind of fulfilling my orders. And and it was actually a really good success. So yeah. Wow. OK. Your team of employees. Yes. Is they're all a reflection of you. Now, what do you look for in employees to really represent your your brand, Allison Yuzu? I think, you know, putting together a team is so important. And when I meet somebody, I think just I have to feel connected to them and feel like they're somebody I want to hang out with. And people always tell me I laugh a lot. And so it's funny because I think my team members laugh a lot as well. And we have a lot of fun. And that's kind of what I want customers to feel when they come to the store. You know, I want them to feel like we have fun. We enjoy each other. We enjoy having and talking to customers. And that's kind of what I look for first is energy. Well, you're definitely fun and you have a fantastic personality. And you know, when I walk into the store, I mean, it's that's what I feel. I get that. So it's it's really good when you have the intent and the follow through. Yes. Yes. That's the hardest part. You know, sometimes it's hard to find quality employees and hard to kind of figure out what their best position is to within your company. Allison, tell me about how how it is being a fashion designer and a successful businesswoman in your whole company. Yeah, that's that's a hard part. I think, you know, a designer is somebody who's more creative and they're driven by kind of their own creative whim, whereas an entrepreneur has to really use information, you know, from past sales or information from customers and understand what is doing well. So for me to kind of match that together has been an interesting journey. I'm a middle child, so I think I do well taking two polar opposites and fishing it together. But it's a good balance. I think at the end of the day, I always say I'm not the best designer and probably not the best business person, but I'm the best at what I do for my own business. And that's problem solved. I think I just try to solve as many problems that I see out there in the fashion industry. You're definitely a good problem solver. Thank you. Now, talk to me about micromanaging. Were you ever micromanaging your employees and how are you now? I don't know. You would have to ask them. I think it's hard. I used to always call my business my first child, which is probably not a good thing to call it because you get very possessive of it. And it's hard to let people in. It's hard to delegate and then it's hard to step away after you delegate. So I'm still learning how to do it. Sometimes what has worked for me is not to be in the store in the office every day, Monday through Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And so I try to have my own creative time and allow them to kind of problem solve and step up and manage. And then I can be a little more creative. And those managers, they want to have that responsibility and they don't want to let you down when you're giving them, you know, the power to make decisions. Right. And I think they don't get the opportunity to succeed if I'm always hovering over them and kind of looking over their shoulder and making sure they're doing it correctly. All right. So Allison, now, how do you balance your business with your family life? Yes. So I think only within the last couple of years, I found a really good balance. And I think it is a testament to the team that you put together and the trust that you build with them. And, you know, for me, I will tell them, I'm going to get out of here by three. All of them have some class or whatever. And they make it a priority to get me out by three and really support me in my quest to find that balance with my family. So Allison, in my book Beyond the Lines, I talk a lot about, you know, leadership and environment and, you know, resiliency and character. Your store at Alamoana has a fantastic environment. Tell me why you're so happy to be at the Alamoana location now. I mean, for me, it was such a big step to go to Alamoana, but it allows myself and my brand and my team to be exposed to more people and to help more women find clothing that makes them feel beautiful and powerful. So, you know, although it was it's a big jump from where I was before. I think when I can focus on how many more women we can help, I think that's what makes it all amazing and worthwhile. What was going through your mind when you had two locations, your Kyma Key store, and then you open up the Alamoana store? And then what caused you to just, you know, stop the Kyma Key store? I think, you know, everybody's kind of vision of success is open as many locations as you can, you know? And I wanted to do that in the beginning. I thought I would have Kyma Key and Alamoana and kind of manage that. But you realize that, you know, when you're holding two stores, it takes more energy from me, managing more staff, putting more clothes out there. And I realized I wasn't focusing and I wasn't able to do Alamoana really, really well and go all in. So it was a hard decision to let go of the Kyma Key store. And it was an emotional decision, too. I left behind a different team and, you know, I put all my eggs in this one basket. So it was definitely scary, but I'm glad I did it. So being, you know, how many months after closing Kyma Key has proven to be a good decision. Well, it was a calculated risk. Yes. And, you know, in the book, I talk about complacency versus taking calculated risks. And the most successful people take risks. Yes. Give me another example about you taking a risk. So recently, with the Alamoana store, we've been doing a little more numbers and selling more products. And I've always wanted to take my manufacturing a little bit bigger and to LA. So to take it to LA, it's 300 pieces. We're here in Hawaii, I can make 100 of the same style. So it's a big risk. But it was something that I knew I would have to kind of push myself to do. And it is calculated, you know, I run numbers all day long. I'm ready. I'll say yes. And then I'll like, OK, how am I going to do this and figure out the budget and kind of stare at numbers all day. So it was a big risk, but I think it's been very beneficial. The product has been something that we can depend on and we get it on time. So it's different things that happen when you take a bigger risk like that. Give me an example, Allison, about failing. Failing. I'm good at that. I think something has happened to fail, right? Like you have to hit like rock bottom to figure out, OK, that didn't work. Now, how can I do that better? And, you know, I think every event that I've done, you know, there's been those failures where nobody has come to my booth and that sticks with you. And then you think, well, the next time I do this event or another event, how many more people to my store or my booth? And so failure is mixed into success and how you become successful. I think for sure. And then you learn how to adapt and adjust and you keep moving forward. Exactly. Exactly. So, Allison, I want to ask you, what do the best leaders do? Oh, I don't know. I mean, what do you do? I know I think for me what I try to do is is find time for myself in the morning before I go to work. So, you know, a lot of it is just being quiet with myself and finding, you know, what do I want to achieve today? How am I going to do it? And finding that mindfulness that I can keep throughout the day, especially sometimes you get inundated with so many people asking questions or customers coming in and wanting to see you. And for me, it's really being centered and understanding what what do I want to accomplish? Yeah. So it's prioritizing your priorities. It is. It really is. I mean, I want to talk to every customer that walks through the store. That's my probably my bad habit. But there is a point where I'm like, OK, they can do that. That's what they're for. And I have to finish this budget or, you know, make these phone calls. So knowing where to stay in your lane. Yeah. Well, you know, for me, knowing you for so long, it's been exciting watching, you know, you the process of how you become successful. How how do you define success? That's a good question. For me, I think success is finding the balance. You know, before work was everything to me. I would like eat, sleep, breathe it. You know, I would talk about it to all of my friends, just my my business. And I realized finding the balance is really, you know, finding time for friends, finding time for my family and finding time for myself, you know, where I can have just a few minutes to breathe and be with myself. Watch some Netflix. I don't know, whatever it is for me, it's cooking to a lot of you. So just that makes me feel successful when I can do those other things and not just 100 percent my business. Yeah. So what are some of your most proudest accomplishments? Besides my children. Besides the kids. I mean, I think now that I have all of Moana, when I look back, you know, it's been a year that we've had this store. It's a moment that sometimes I have to force myself to be quiet with and be like, you did that, you know, and I think it's something that I don't always allow myself to do is like pat myself on the back and appreciate the process and how far I've come. So I'm definitely is a proud moment. And looking back, you know, from where we started to even opening Kamiki, that was such a huge risk and that was such a proud moment when, you know, we could cover red and make a profit. And so all of those steps along the ways, I think there's a lot of problems that sometimes I have to force myself to appreciate for sure. Yeah. Yeah. I like hearing that. Yeah. Now, Allison, what what's been a big adversity in your life that you have to overcome? I think for me, it's trusting myself. I think, you know, there's a, you know, you work with other people or you team up and you collaborate. And sometimes you can allow the other person to have a stronger voice or I just want to be a people pleaser or whatever it is. In the recent years, I think listening to myself can kind of push me to adversity, because really, at the end of the day, you made the decision, you have to live with it. It's your responsibility. So that's kind of when I could finally come into that my own intuition and trusting my gut. And I think that makes it all so much more amazing and able to go through adversities. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I know that a lot of young people are very inspired by you. I want to know who inspires you. My customers every day they come in and I think I love hearing how, you know, clothing can kind of transform their lives. I'm inspired by that. Like how, you know, people think fashion is frivolous and kind of just an outward appearance. But when you feel good in clothing, it transforms how you feel inside and it transforms how you kind of go about your day. So when customers tell me those kinds of stories, that inspires me to keep doing what I'm doing and challenging, you know, design aspects or trying new designs. And yeah, that's always inspiring for me. What's a what's a valuable lesson you learned in life so far? Not to give up. I think, you know, we were saying before people think like instant success, they see social media that people just came out of nowhere and they're super successful. I think everybody has a story and the story is just kind of going through the adversities and kind of always pushing yourself to take that next risk and kind of pushing through. And for me, it's being your own cheerleader. That's what I call it. Nice. And having young your husband supporting you. Yes. And my kids, you know, it is truly a family business that we run. They come to the store. They sleep up. They like space out the racks. So it's it's inspiring to see that and and being that kind of example for them as well. That's that must be fun. Yeah, yeah, it is. Sometimes we don't get a lot of work done by us. So Ali, what is the what's some of the best words of wisdom or best advice you ever received? I think it is to to follow your heart. I think, you know, people say that and you don't really understand what that means until you're actually faced with choosing yourself over maybe another opinion or another path. And for me, it's words that I live by now is to follow my heart and really, you know, try to listen to what feels good to me and making that decision for myself and myself. Now, when you know, let's talk about your team, okay, your team of employees, how how what are you doing to just to enhance the team to build the team to really make everyone trust and respect each other more? Yeah, that's a good question because trust is a hard thing to build with like strangers that you're basically putting in a room. And for me, you know, we try to set like outside meetings where we can be a little more social, have lunch and kind of chitchat. We also do a lot of, you know, more fun things outside of the store where I try to take my managers and, you know, we did a beating project one day and, you know, we they all like to do crafts. So it's really making that connection outside of the store. And also we try to communicate as much as possible. I want to create an environment where they feel comfortable giving me maybe the worst piece of advice or maybe highlighting something that they see that I haven't seen. So I try to create that atmosphere as well as they can tell me anything, you know, even if it's something horrible about myself. And then my first, I think we have that trust and respect for one another where we can say it where it doesn't sound horrible or negative, but we can all learn from each other. Yeah. What are your thoughts about, you know, making mistakes and how do you deal with that with your team when they make mistakes? I think I try to lead by example. And when I make a mistake, I try to own it and we talk about it. I don't ever want to like put it under the brush under the rug and pretend it didn't happen. We talk about it. OK, we messed up. I take responsibility. I should have done this and how do we make sure this doesn't happen again? And because I can do that with them, I feel like they feel more comfortable. We're like, I messed up. I did. And then we're all like, it's OK. How are we going to fix it? And then we move on. We don't do well on why do you do that or why don't you catch that? You know, it doesn't matter. It happened and we can fix it and move on. I always told my team that, you know, making mistakes, that's fine, but it's not OK to make the same mistake twice. Sure. If you want to have a superior culture and elite team. Yes, because you make mistakes so that you can learn. You kind of understand how to not do that again. And for me, it's taking ownership. Like I appreciate that my team can take ownership of the mistake that they made too. Yeah, and we can all grow. Now, you I know you have a great culture of excellence and at your store and with your company, you're trying to create that superior culture of excellence. Yes. So how what are you doing to try to get to that higher levels of culture? I think goal setting is huge to kind of always like push yourself further than what you did the day before or the year before. And then my team, amazing as they are, set their own personal goals. And so it proves to you. It's kind of like a mindset, right? Once you accomplish that bigger goal that you kind of didn't think you would be able to accomplish, then you can kind of look further and make your goal a little bigger than next time. So it's amazing to kind of set goals and kind of push for superiority, like you say. Yeah, I like her answer right there. I always say, everyone's capable of doing so much more than they think they're capable of. And that's so true. It is the other thing I would say is you can do 99 things right. But if you do one wrong thing, everyone's only going to remember that one wrong thing. So you better not do that one wrong thing. Allison, I want to ask you, what's something that you want to do, whether it's personally or professionally, that you just haven't done yet? I mean, I think I always want to expand my reach and my collection. So for me, you know, I love being based in Hawaii. I love that I have such a strong support system here in Hawaii as far as customers. But I do, I'm still looking a little further, taking it to the mainland US or internationally, whether that's through websites or wholesaling into bigger department stores and stores. So that's something I always have my sights set on, for sure. Do you have any other like big future goals for you and your business? I mean, I think I see my brand always, you know, five, ten years down the line as a bigger brand that kind of encompasses everything within your life. I'm kind of toying with the idea of doing like undergarments, swimwear, shoes. Like there's always something that kind of, you know, when I wear somebody else's shoe, I'm like, this could be better. When I wear somebody else's swimsuit, I'm like, I wouldn't want it to be like this. I think that's the designer in me and the problem solver in me. So kind of always wanting to expand and try these things and challenge myself as well in a different design area. So how do you keep out doing what you've done because your success, you know, keeps building through the years. And again, like we talked about earlier, it's not about being complacent. How do you keep out doing what you've done? I think that's my personality. I always say I'm not a competitive person. Like when we play board games or whatever, I'm not a competitive person with other people. I'm the most competitive with myself. I'm proving to myself that I can kind of push that, feeling that I set for myself and go beyond that. So I think that is something that I always keep with myself is, okay, how are you going to set a bigger goal for yourself? And I don't tell anybody to go, I keep it to myself. And how do I accomplish that goal? Well, you do have a fantastic personality. You make my cheeks are sore from laughing already. People can hear my laugh like in another room and they're like, oh, Allison's here. Oh my goodness. Now, Ali, I want to ask you about, you know, a real big disappointment that you had and then you being resilient in coming back. So turning like a negative into like a major positive. So a few years back, I got into a national department store called Balmour and it was a huge order. We delivered to seven stores across the Midwest. And then all of a sudden I was the last brand in. So I was the first brand out. So when times got tough and the economy, they kind of were like, okay, we're not going to carry you anymore. But being that we're in fashion, we're always ahead of the schedule. So all of the clothes are made. Ali, I want to thank you for being on the show today. I mean, it was such a pleasure having you share your insights and everything. Thank you. So I want everyone to go and visit Allison's store. Visit us, yes. Thank you, Ali. Thank you. And thank you for watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii and a special thank you to my clothing sponsor, Ilani Incorporated. For more information, please visit rustycomory.com and my book is available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. I hope that Allison and I will inspire you to create your own superior culture of excellence and to find your greatness and help others find theirs. Aloha.