Jacq Tatelman is the first to admit she didn’t know what the heck she was doing when she founded STATE Bags (let’s be honest, how many of us actually do?). STATE Bags is a mission-driven family bag company offering high-quality backpacks, bags and more for the whole family. Co-founded with her husband Scott in 2013, STATE was born out of the duo’s work with disenfranchised youth and the need to provide even the smallest gift of confidence (like a new backpack) for the school year. Drawing on her experience in product development at companies like Saks Fifth Avenue, Henri Bendel, and Scoop, Jacq is now the Co-Founder, CEO, and Creative Director of STATE, leading the creative vision, business development and growth of the brand as it continues to evolve.

Throughout this conversation, Jacq and host, Lindsay Pinchuk, will discuss:

• How your mission should fuel everything.
• Knowing and prioritizing your entry point when creating your product.
• Finding the thing you love so much that it will carry you through the lows.
• Keeping your philanthropic efforts small and local.
• Surrounding yourself with people who believe in your vision and complement what you do.
• Knowing when to turn off.

Quotes:

• “What we try to do and what we say is that we don't necessarily go national for what we do. On the philanthropy side, we look at very small pockets of communities, and humans, and we say, ‘How can we make their lives better? What can we do to actually change their lives?’” (14:45-15:01 | Jacq)

• “Talking to our customers where they were, marketing ourselves for the first time in the right way, and having the right product at the right time really changed everything. It was like flipping a switch.” (24:35-24:48 | Jacq)

• “Team is everything.” (30:00-30:03 | Jacq)

• “Listen to all the advice, but choose what you actually put into action with the advice that people give you. You can't listen to every app and do what everyone tells you to do. There are going to be a lot of people who are going to tell you, ‘Oh, you should do this. You should do that.’ Okay, thank you. Thank you. Listen, listen, listen to everyone, have as many conversations as you can. And then you need to kind of sort out what you believe is right for you and your brand and take action on those things.” (43:17-43:44 |Jacq )

Connect with Jacq Tatelman:

Instagram | http://www.instagram.com/statebags

Website | http://www.statebags.com/

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