Fashion With Passion: From Corporate To Designing Sustainable Petite Clothes For Women With Susan Gomez

Today’s guest found a niche market for her fashion brand through petite clothes for women using sustainable fabrics. But how did Susan Gomez go from a corporate job to a blooming career in the fashion industry? Susan is the Founder and CEO of Sugopetite. She joins Yanet Borrego to share her successful entrepreneurial journey and career shift. She answers questions on how she found clarity and what pushed her to go from corporate to fulltime entrepreneurship. It’s all about mindset. Get an inside look at how she maintains a healthy mindset and positive outlook throughout the ups and downs of her business. Plus, Susan shares valuable insights and lessons for any and every entrepreneur. Stay tuned!

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Fashion With Passion: From Corporate To Designing Sustainable Petite Clothes For Women With Susan Gomez

We have a very special guest. Susan Gomez, the CEO and Founder of Sugopetite. Susan, how are you doing?

I am fantastic. Thank you so much for having me, Yanet. This is amazing. I love seeing you achieve your dreams as well.

You're the sweetest. You have been someone that's since the beginning of my entrepreneurial path, you have been there for me, every single time.

It's been a long journey. It’s been many years.

Susan, to start. Tell us your background. Tell us where you're from. How did you make it here to the US? How was your journey?

Originally, my family was involved in the fashion industry. Not necessarily the way I'm doing it. My dad was a tailor, couture and all his brothers do something related to that field. Either they do tailoring, they have a clothing store, fabric store or sewing materials. That was my world. I grew up in that industry. It’s completely different to what I'm doing because I'm more on the scaling side of it. I have the skill. They were very vocal. We learned those things here in the US. I guess my dreams are way bigger than my uncles and my family. It just depends on what you're exposed to. Since I was little, I always had big dreams. I love what they do. I love what my dad did as a tailor. I loved the dresses and all of the suits he made. It was beautiful. I always wanted to do the same thing but I always thought I'm going to be better. it’s a blessing.

 He was amazing. I always thought I'm going to do bigger and better things in the same field. At a very young age, I had that hunger. I was born in Guatemala City. We moved away from the city when I was six years old. We went to live in this very rural area of Guatemala. It was all farming. There was nothing there. We didn't have any cheesy where I grew up.

I lived there for six years with my family. They send me back to Guatemala City because they wanted me to continue with my education. I lived with my aunt since I was twelve years old. It was a different experience. It's very rough when you leave your family very young. Even though my aunt was the best and also, she was such a great example for me.

She taught me a lot of things that I didn't learn in my house. She's almost like a second mom to me but it was still very difficult. I grew up very fast because of that, being away from my family. It was a great experience. Back in the moment, it was painful but now, I am so grateful for that experience because it gave me a lot of wits and I had to push away the fears.

Everything is mindset. It all depends on your mood, what’s on your mind.

I was going to tell you that. Even in my own experience, I have to walk away from my family when I was nine years old. My family has been the biggest driver for everything I do. I'm sure your experience hasn't been so different from theirs. It is painful.

Ever since a very young age, we all have fears. From a very young age, I've learned not to listen to that voice. I've been very brave since I was a kid. I've learned to be very brave. I finish my career in Guatemala City as a Fashion Designer. I was the very first person to graduate college in my family. It's so funny because all my uncles are entrepreneurs. They all started at a very young age to do their own thing but they never focused in education. I am huge in education. To this day, I always speak my mind in my fields or all the areas that will help me to be a successful business owner and better designer in every area of the business. If you have a business, you have to know all the areas that you have.

You got to learn everything. Mainly at the beginning, you are delegating the layers. You're more responsible for many projects. You got to know what's going on. What a beautiful gift that your family had the foundation already of the industry that you are in. When for the first time you felt like that was it for you? That was your purpose or the industry you wanted to be in.

It was actually when I moved to Houston. In Guatemala, that was my world. I grew up doing that. I've seen my family doing that. That's all I knew. My aunt had also a fabric store so I would go from there, do some errands for her and it was all fabrics-related or sewing-related. She had different seamstresses. She would send me to drop fabric to pick up garments and all of these things. It's being ingrained in me. When I moved to Houston in 2007, I had big dreams. I migrated to the US and I'm going to become a fashion designer.

You always knew that was your dream, even coming to the US.

However, I got here and it was a completely new world. I didn't know anyone in the industry. I was in shock. I was like, "What am I doing?" I left everything I grew up with and I come here, I don't know anyone in the industry. How do I do it here? The business model that my family had in Guatemala didn’t work here. Here, it's the consumer mindset. Over there, it's different. People still enjoy getting their garments done custom-made to this day. If you have a wedding, you go to get your dress. If you have an important meeting, you go to the seamstress or to the couturier to make a special dress for that event. Here, that doesn't exist.

However, I still did about five years of custom-made clothes in Houston. I finally decided, "I have to think this through. I need to come up with a different business model that will work for this space and country." I didn't know because I didn't have anyone to guide me. I found a job. I entered the corporate world. I worked there for seven years. It’s nothing related to fashion. It was a completely different market.

At that time, were you still working on your side business?

I did it for a long time. I did it for five years. Once I went into the corporate world, I completely quit because what I was doing wasn't exactly what I wanted to do. I enjoyed it but I wanted to reach out to more people and I didn't know how to do it. I went to work for so many years for this company that I loved with my heart too. I left my second family there for seven years. I loved working there. I would come to work and in my mind, I was like, "How am I going to achieve my dream of becoming a fashion designer and serve a market that would know my designs?

I keep asking questions. After I met you, maybe around 2015, 2016, I finally decided, "Let me start at least blogging about it," just to stay in touch with it so I started blogging about it. As I entered that world, then I started those questions answered little by little. I would meet someone and they would guide me this way. It was so big for me because it's where I found so many answers with blogging. I grew up on that field a little bit and I decided, "I'm finding my route." This is almost where I want to be.

You came here in 2007. You spent five years doing customized clothing and you're like, "This is cool. I love the industry but I'm still not there." You jumped into your corporate, you're like, "Let me continue experimenting." After seven years, you were like, "I want to reseal my passion," then you started blogging.

During the seven years, I still had it in the back of my mind. I was working full-time for this company but I would always have that little voice behind me like, "How are you going to achieve your dream?" I keep listening to that voice.

It was until you start taking action and experimented. You continued gaining clarity. Sometimes, people think clarity is like a thing that will come to us and then we'd know the exact steps we need to take. Those take time. Those take action, trial and error and experimentation together as well. I love that you are describing every step of the journey.

In blogging, it was completely out of my comfort zone. For that, I had to be my own model. I like to model my styles and my taste. I created pieces for women to wear. I also created many dresses for myself as well. If I went to a wedding, I will make my own dress but you're not in front of the camera. It opened up a lot of different experiences for me. It opened up my mind in so many ways. In the writing part of it, you're pushing yourself to do something different. English is my second language. I was always afraid of making mistakes when I write until this day. I'm like, “It's fine.”

Fear always attacks when you’re tired.

It doesn't stop you. It's like, "I'm going to do it and see what comes out of it." You said in doing blogging, you got a lot of your questions answered. Was that through you seeking information or people interacting with you? How did that happen?

Both, me seeking information and also asking that the people that I thought would be able to help me or answer those questions, if that makes sense. It's like you have that intuition. You know who to ask. Sometimes you get it wrong but it's okay.

It's part of the process. It's meant to happen.

If you don't learn one thing, you learn something else. Some things are useful and some things are not. You try to think about what is useful and what is not.

I love this quote. It's one of the presuppositions of NLP and it says, “There is no failure, only feedback.” Feedback is your data. You incorporate it in order to get closer to you’re the goal or desire you want. You talk a lot about your intuition. Tell me more about it. Tell me when you started realizing that that was something you could trust.

I've always listened to my intuition even since I was a kid. It's something very important to me. I don't recall an actual moment where I said, "It saved me from this. I didn't listen to it and I ended up doing something wrong." I really trust it especially with people. I felt so grateful because I always get the right people to help me or to support me in different ways. It's just listening to that voice and energy.

You trust that. You don't want to overthink and you just go with it as long as it makes sense with you broadens your mind on everything.

It's the same for business. I listen to my intuition all the time. If I want to do something, I think about it and whatever I feel what's the outcome, what am I getting from this or what do I want to achieve, I always listen to that inner voice. Sometimes we just doing it wrong. If you listened to that voice, you'll know.

There is learning there. If that's not the right path, there is definitely learning to apply moving forward. It's so interesting with intuition, for example, I jumped from a 60-year-old corporate job to my full-time entrepreneurship and coaching passion. Sometimes, mental logically, that may not make sense for a lot of people but just trusting that this is the path for me and having that faith that things will work out. I think that's such an instrumental part of the journey. That sometimes whether intuition tells you, it may not make total logical rational sense. At the same time, you know that is the right thing for you.

I feel like that is always a fight between fear and intuition. You have that comfort zone when you're working at a company. You rely on that paycheck every couple of weeks or months. You have that inner peace that, "My finances are great. I don't have to worry about anything. I just need to work and then have fun." It's that fight between your intuition, in my case, is I have this dream and it's going to take all this effort to build it all these years.

It's so much. This is not like, "You launch your business and you're out." No, there is a huge path then there is that little voice behind you all the time like, “Why am I doing this?” There's always that constant fight. When I am at peace, when I find that silence and I listen to my inner voice, I know I'm doing the right thing. I don't listen to fear. It disappears from my mind. I know that doing what I loved to do regardless of the outcome. At least I have that feeling of fulfillment.

Sometimes when you experience that fear because as you want that, that will happen. Do you have a routine or do you have a recipe for yourself to get back on the path of love rather than fear?

Yes. It's funny because that fear always attacks me when I'm tired.

Previously, I said the same thing.

I know that when I am tired, fear wants to take over my brain. I always try to be very loyal to my routine because it keeps me sane. I can listen to my gut rather than to that fear voice. By this time, I know that that's one of the biggest causes of my fear trying to get in my head. I've learned to deal with it. Whenever I'm tired, I'm like, "I'm not going to listen to you because you were just bugging me because I'm tired."

To me, one of the biggest learnings that I got when I started my entrepreneurial journey. I realized that late at night when I'm so tired, my self thought what's negative. I'm learning for the first time. It's like, "This happens and when I'm tired." I did exactly the same thing. It's funny you brought that up. I separated that out. Sometimes I would go to bed and the next day I would feel totally refreshed and ready to go.

You're excited to start your day. I do have some books that I love to feed my brain when I am having those negative self-talk. I am like, "This is not good. Let me go to Tony Robbins.” He's amazing. I bought his books. Sometimes I do it very early in the morning. If you don't get a good night's sleep. The first thing you wake up, it's negative self-talk.

The one thing I always do is I love to go work out first thing in the morning. I always have my cup of coffee before my workout. The first thing I do is I'm like, "I'm not feeling great now. Let me listen to some positive books. Get my mind right. Go to do my workout." Honestly, after I finished my workout, I'm like, "I'm ready to go." Even though I'm tired, I'm ready to go.

Everything is a challenge because as an entrepreneur, things change all the time.

Wake up, have coffee, work out, listen to some positive and ready to start in the morning. Is there anything you do at night or it's mainly in the morning that you're preparing for your day?

I do prepare the day before. As I said, my sleep determines how my day is going to be. Everything is a mindset. Focus or the TV. It all depends on your mood and what's in your mind. For me, it starts the night before. I make sure that I'm going to bed early enough to get a good night's sleep. Even what I have for dinner, I watched because if I don't eat early enough, it would affect my quality of sleep. I'm very much into nutrition as well. I pay a lot of attention to all those things.

You're right, everything is in the mind. Even seeing yourself, everything starts here in your brain. Every single thing starts in the brain. It's important to take care of that.

I'm a complete believer in listening to your body. Sometimes certain foods don't sit well at night and they affect your sleep.

The first time I realized how important it was to take care of nutrition was after I read Unleash the Power Within by Tony Robbins because he speaks all nutrition. Before that, no one had ever talked to me about vegetables. I'm not exaggerating. That was in 2013, 2014. Isn't that crazy that we don't get it right a lot of times? Good nutrition is important.

I am so strict with my nutrition. My brother always makes jokes with me because I eat a lot of greens and mosquitoes always bite me. He says it's because I eat greens. The mosquitoes bite me because I smell like greens.

You love reading books. That's something we both share in common. I list some great books and knowledge. What are some books you would recommend to our audience to take care of their mindset?

I have a couple of favorite books. I have a nice list. One of my favorite books is Think Big. I can't remember the author but I love that book.

I have that. I haven't read it but I have heard great things about that.

I love that book. The one that you've recommended to me was Believe It. It was such a great book. I love Tony Robbins books. I have several of his books and they're just amazing. They get your mindset all the time. Those are a few of my favorites. I honestly have a long list of favorites. I don't recall it. I have them for different fields. Sometimes I have books for marketing that I'm like, "I need to go back to this book because I had something valuable and I need to feed on it again." I also have business books. It depends on what my need is for the occasion or what I need for the day. You'll go back and forth. I'm not necessarily good at recalling the names, to be honest with you. I just got certain books and those are the ones that I cared about the most because they get your mind to the right places.

Going back to your journey, what you did in corporate and you making the job. You’re full-time entrepreneurship, which is a big decision and an important one. How did that happen? When did you know that was the right moment for you?

I worked on my business for almost a year while I’m still doing the corporate job. I was still in the learning process but it's still work because you're working towards developing the designs and I’m still working with the company. At night, I would come home and work on the designs and sourcing fabrics. I have to learn where to source in the US or outside the US but in bigger quantities.

How to get it shipped to me, to the manufacturing and find the right manufacturers we work with. All of those things I still did while working. I got to the point where, "Am I serious or would I want to just continue doing this little by little?" You don't have a lot of time left when you have a corporate job.

What lead you to ask yourself that question if you were serious or not?

I think it was because I was getting tired. I was getting tired of those long nights of after-work. I felt like I was not enjoying other parts of life because I was trying to get my business up and running. For me, it's very important all the time to ask questions. I listen always to how I feel. I was feeling tired. I was feeling exhausted and you know how it happens that a lot of things are going on. You can't go here. You can't do that. You're a trainer. I was like, "How serious am I with this?"

I have to make a decision eventually to jump into it. I thought about it for months but I was always asking that question. It was good because it made me think bigger of it rather than staying where I was. That was one of the bigger pushers for me to make that decision. I was like, "If this is the empire say that I want to build because I do have big dreams for super petite. If I want to get there then I need to be more serious and dedicate more time than be full-time doing it because it requires a lot more than what I'm doing.”

I have a couple of coaching clients that they're having entrepreneurial aspirations. I always tell them, “If you want to be in the top 10% of the population here, you got to behave the top 2%. You got to show consistency and have discipline.” I love that you have those big dreams that lead you to behave that way.

Know exactly who your customer is. That’s how you are going to make money doing your business.

I was like, “If I can't take action. I'm not going to go anywhere.” What was preventing me from taking action to expand was time. I tried to have a balance so I never jeopardized my health for work. That's never been a choice for me. My health is first. I would always wake up early to work out and to cook my healthy meals. That was not negotiable for me and then you go to work. I only had a few hours to work in the evening.

 I was like, "If I just continued doing this path, it's not going to go anywhere." You can start doing things but the amount of work that you need to put into when you're serious and if you want to achieve something is a lot. It's not like, "Let me send that email here." You have to do many emails to see who's responding.

A lot of it happened in the background. We see these beautiful dresses like you're wearing.

It's a lot of work, sourcing fabrics, talking to manufacturers, deciding on designs and what design goes with this fabric. My design's inspiration starts with the fabrics. I first have to find the right fabric and then inspire from that and we make it the design. Designing is a very creative field. You can get inspired by anything. I make it to the point that I want to get inspired through the fabric. For me, it's important that the customer gets a quality fabric. That's where the crosses start with the fabric.

You made the jump. How long have you been a full-time entrepreneur?

Since December of 2019, which was a rough start because then the pandemic hit in 2020.

There are a lot of beautiful and fulfilling things. There is also the other side of the coin, which is challenges. Tell me your biggest challenges.

I have to say, I feel like everything is a challenge. As an entrepreneur, things change all the time. You don't have a set schedule. Certain things have become normal on a daily basis. Everything needs a challenge like sourcing fabrics, especially, I'm very focused on sustainability. Finding fabrics that speak to that side of sustainability is not that easy. The fashion industry is still very not involved with sustainability. Start from there, everything is a challenge. The designing process is a little bit of a challenge too but we know those are the easy challenges.

The bigger challenge is, for example, when the pandemic hit we were about to start with the production process for our Summer Collection 2020 and everything shut down. We got stuck with our fabric in customs in Guatemala because we're producing with Guatemala. It sat there for months because everything was closed.

I have to say that in a bad, there's also always something good. Gladly, we didn't even start production so I was able to cancel production. We didn't produce that year because, by the time they started to work again, it was away to summer. We put everything on hold for summer and just did it for the following year which would be in a better position in terms of planning. You know that the bag is also good. In the fashion industry, you have to plan ahead. That's how the business model is, unfortunately. You have to plan ahead your designs, your productions and get your fabrics, all of that. It was way ahead of time so it puts us on the advantage for the next year.

What kept you going through that tough time?

Thinking that this is going to go away. If it doesn't, we'll find a way to live with it. I was just determined. I was like, "It's okay.” I kept working and in the back end of it and we’re learning more about more marketing and more in the education side of it. I’m still sourcing fabrics. All of that is still working in the design process for different seasons.

It was great because, in 2020, we already had summer because we didn't run the production for 2020. We had that ready for 2021. We develop the fall of 2021 on 2020 so they worked out. We didn't have a product to sell but we worked in the next year. This puts us in a good position because, in 2021, we already have our Summer Collection for 2022. We already have that developed. We just have to run production on it when it's the time to do it. We're way ahead of the game.

A lot of these things that we consider a challenge at the moment may be a blessing in the near future which is the beauty of your experience.

That's exactly what happened. I'm like, "We didn't have the power to sell in 2020 during the summer but we're in a great position for 2021 and 2022 as well," which I was super stressed though because when I launched, it was my very first piece, very first everything. Everything was delayed. Customs was difficult. Everything was an experiment. We were super late for the launch. The timing didn't work the way I had it planned and It was okay. It was an experience. We learned from the process and we've gotten better every single time. We've gotten so much better.

Let's talk about entrepreneurship and finances. That's also in the mindset that you're going to shift when you shift your career towards entrepreneurship. I don't remember if I had to make the decision of switching to entrepreneurship. It was closed around that time. You gave me such great advice about finances. I remember coming here, I was being excited. I wanted what you recommended, I read it. I think you are a great person to talk about these. What are some of the beliefs you have around finances?

I love the topic though. It's also funny because people don't think about money this way. When I think about money, I think about love. The way I see it is that I love money and money loves me. I have so much respect for it as well. You have to be very mindful of how you use it and how you spend it. Also, I have so much gratitude for it as well.

Ask questions all the time. Even when you get the answer, question your answer.

Those are my three beliefs about money. I love it, I respect it and I'm so grateful for it to come into my life. To be able to use it also in positive ways to help someone or to do good chances in life. I do see my business as something different than the majority of the products in the market because I'm very involved with sustainability. It's very hard. It's not an easy market to be in because people are still not very informed about sustainability. They don't understand the price ratio compared to something that is not sustainable.

You’d like for them where the price is a little bit on the high-end. It's only worth it for the environment employment and everything else.

If you care for your health and the environment, for sure. For me, that's a non-negotiable even if it's going to take a little bit more effort for me to educate people and all that. It all comes from the money perspective even if it's harder to find customers that believe in sustainability as well. I just don't see it any other way. If I'm not adding value to the planet, to my customer's life, to my business because it also adds value to my business the way we build it, then what am I doing?

In terms of if there is someone that is thinking about entrepreneurship and maybe shifting their path, what kind of advice would you give that person about finances and just entering that journey of entrepreneurship?

I think I gave this advice to you as well. Know exactly who your customer is and how you are going to make your money doing your business. You have to have that very clear.

I remember you told me, “Think of different ways where you can bring money.” I have in my one-note list of brainstorming ideas, projects I can do or how I can create passive income with coaching. I always think of you because you were the one who inspired me to think. If I have money, I'll be able to help a lot more people and I'll be able to be on business for hopefully I don't need the time. That's what's keeping you. That's part of the foundation.

That's the most important part. When you have clarity of your path where you will find the ideal customer then you're in business. You can have all the other pieces of the puzzle but if you don't have a clear idea of who are you trying to reach then it's not that going to work out.

What is the book you recommended to me?

You Are a Badass at Making Money. I listen to it often. I still go back to it because it talks about mindset. She just talks about mindset.

What is money? A piece of paper. It is a mindset and the frequency that you have that is going to help you track that.

Your attitude towards it as well. What is life without money? Nothing. We have to love it. I love it.

When you're going with the quality of service or even the quality of the product, you feel great asking for money because you're giving back the same or even more. That's why you're getting paid. That was a big lesson for me too.

That's exactly my approach. I tried to always add value in every aspect of Sugopetite, not just with the product and customer service but also in which other ways I can help. We have different partnerships with different organizations to help people with hunger and also with sustainability. You have to add that value.

As we approach the end of this interview which I'm sure more will come, tell us some key advice you would give someone entering the entrepreneurship journey. In terms of mindset or anything you want them to know. The key things that helped you.

I have two. One of them is ask questions all the time. Even you can get the answer, question your answer. Keep asking questions. That's one. The second one is, think bigger. If you have this idea, it can be bigger than that. What's the biggest you could go? Even it’s completely out of your mind. If you don't plant that seed, it's not going to be big enough. You have to plant that seed of being big. You can start asking more questions on how to get there.

I think that question is for all the people and for yourself. Sometimes, we don't question ourselves on what do we want?

Speaking of clarity, I think one of the biggest challenges, not just in the entrepreneurship world but in our lives is finding clarity. For me, the way I have found clarity in different areas of my life is by asking questions, even to yourself.

I was reading a post on Instagram, which is pretty much aligned with what you’re saying. It said, "Direction is so much more important than speed.” How do you guys plan your work? Your presence is on a different side and you're not heading towards somewhere.

Clarity is everything but you won't find it until you will seek it. The way you seek it is by asking questions

One step at a time. Tell us more about Sugopetite and what's next for Sugopetite. How can our audience find you on social media and the website? Give us all the information you want to give. We are ready to receive.

You can find us at Sugopetite.com. On Instagram, @Sugopetite and Facebook as well. The next big event for Sugopetite is going to be at the Georgia Brown Convention Center on September 25th and 26th, 2021. We are going to have a booth there for the Ultimate Women Expo in Houston. It'll be our first expo. We are hoping that we're going to have our best outcome there. Even if not, there is a learning. I have a good intuition that is going to be a good place for Sugopetite to be. That's the next step. Very soon for Sugopetite. Our fall pieces are coming up also early October 2021.

Thank you so much, Susan, for being here. It was such a pleasure and honor to interview you and knowing your inspiring stories for me and for everyone else reading.

Thank you for having me, Yanet. I love you and I'm so proud of you.

Thank you so much. Have a great day.

Important Links:

• Sugopetite
• Unleash the Power Within
• Believe It
• You Are a Badass at Making Money
• @Sugopetite - Instagram
• Facebook - @Sugopetite 

About Susan Gomez

In a world of trendy, cheap and dirty “fast fashion” that relies on impulse-buying of cheaply manufactured clothing that often ends up in the trash, at the expense of the environment, Sugopetite is at the forefront of the “slow” and more sustainable fashion movement, committed to make a positive impact in every soul they touch, and to our planet, from design process, partnerships, to production practices.

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FREE Resources:

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