The start to this year has been one of deep thought and reflection. If you're not new here, you may have heard me share that my mother passed away from cancer in January. Working through my grief has given me an unexpected gift — the chance to slow down and think about what truly fills my cup, what lessons and values I want to instill in my girls as they grow up, and where I am as a small business owner.
My mother was a talented interior designer and successful business owner — and honestly, probably the person I owe my entrepreneurial drive to most. She had many accolades, but what struck me most at her wake and funeral were the relationships she'd built in business. A floor refinisher I'd never met told me that the work she'd sent his way over the years was the reason he was able to keep and grow his business. I met contractors — painters, upholsterers — who had worked with her for decades. Decades. In a world where it's become so easy to move on to the next, cheaper option the moment someone raises their prices or makes a misstep, that kind of loyalty feels rare. I've seen it firsthand in the large companies I've worked for — outsourcing production to a cheaper factory to save a few cents was practically standard practice. And I get it. Every business needs to be profitable to survive, including mine. It's something I wrestle with daily. But I also understand the power of building real relationships in business.
I've worked with the same sweater manufacturer in Peru since we launched our very first sweater styles. They're a husband and wife team, and their daughter was my fit model in the early days — she happened to be exactly my fit size at the time. Over the years, prices have risen because of inflation, the demand for materials like organic cotton, political challenges, and more. But it's their love and care — for what they do, the people they work with, and the products they make — that keeps me coming back. These are the kinds of people I love doing business with. People with integrity.
This morning, I was taking my oldest to a doctor's appointment. On the way, she asked me, "Mom, what does 'take a shower' mean?" Not knowing whether this was from a song she'd heard or if we were about to have some kind of mom-daughter talk (yikes), I asked where she'd heard it. (If you caught my IG stories, you probably know I missed her soccer game this weekend — I was in the city at a pop-up — and I also missed her very first goal. Ugh. Cue all the mom tears.) Apparently, at the game, players from the other team had told her and her teammates to "take a shower" during the post-game handshake. It took me a moment to catch on, but I got there. She already knew it wasn't a nice thing to say — a coach had flagged it when another team said the same thing last season.
Honestly, I was a little floored that third graders are already talking like this in sports. I didn't quite know what to say. But as we drove, I pulled together the best impromptu mom-talk I could on sportsmanship and working hard. I hoped she'd walk away knowing that her dad and I are proud of her no matter what — as long as she gives her best and shows up with grace. Then I added one more thing: if she's ever on a team where her teammates start saying something like that to the other side, I hope she won't go along with it just because everyone else is. That integrity is a character trait worth building early.
These thoughts on integrity — in life, in business, in all of it — keep pulling me back to a moment in high school that has never left me. There was some kind of drama unfolding in our grade. I don't remember the specifics, but our principal (hi, Mr. Greer) gathered the whole class in the cafeteria. He said a lot of things that day, but the line I still play back is this: do the right thing, even when nobody is watching.
In business, I think about that constantly. Am I choosing the right manufacturing partners? Am I making products that are truly needed — or that leave the world a little better than I found it? With fashion, the honest answer is: do we really need more clothes? No. There are already so many clothes in the world. But people won't stop buying them, and if I can make something thoughtful — made with others and the planet in mind, built to be passed on for generations, and designed to leave as little footprint as possible when it's finally ready to go — then I believe we're doing right by you and your family, even in the ways you'll never see.
Because if we're not building a brand with integrity, what's the point? And if we're not teaching our kids about integrity, are we really raising them to build the right relationships — and to make the hard calls when no one is watching, or when everyone around them is choosing the easy wrong over the harder right?
xoxo
Megan
Founder of League of Friends