May 23, 2020 · 17m · how-i-built-this
How I Built Resilience: Live with Sarah LaFleur
gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this episode of How I Built This: Resilience Edition, MM LaFleur founder and CEO Sarah LaFleur discusses how her womenswear brand navigated sudden retail closures through product repositioning, virtual community building, and empathetic crisis leadership.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Guy holds 26.5% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
speaking balance: gold is Guy, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
In a very cordial interview, LaFleur provides a subtle premise correction by emphasizing that MM LaFleur was never strictly a workwear brand, but rather a brand dedicated to working women.
Hardest push from Guy ▶ 10:35 Probing potential corporate identity transformationGuy Raz presses LaFleur on whether permanent disruptions to office work will force the brand to become an entirely different type of company.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 3:00 Masterclass in crisis inventory repositioningLaFleur details the tactical pivot of rebranding formal 'Origami Suiting' pants as 'Origami Joggers,' demonstrating how recontextualizing existing stock rebounded sales from 8 to over 100 units.
Guy holds their own ▶ 1:28 Connecting peer founder experiences on retail inventoryRaz leverages his interviews with fellow founders Jen Hyman and Marcia Kilgore to frame the macro challenges of extended zero-revenue periods and inventory overhang.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Guy as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Guy pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Onset of COVID-19 and Unprecedented Retail Closures | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Guy Raz brings in comparative insights from recent conversations with founders Jen Hyman and Marcia Kilgore regarding zero-revenue scenarios and inventory overhang. Sarah LaFleur agrees and explains MM LaFleur's approach to repositioning evergreen inventory into casual work-from-home items. | |
| Crisis Decision-Making and Prioritizing Mental Clarity | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Guy Raz relays listener questions about coping with executive stress and navigating leadership in crisis. LaFleur speaks candidly about prioritizing mental clarity, building a supportive senior executive team, and learning from past corporate restructuring. | |
| Innovative Customer Engagement: Community Slack and Virtual Appointments | 2 | 4 | 1 | 0 | Raz asks about creative pivots to reach customers, prompting LaFleur to make a key distinction between being a workwear brand versus a brand for working women. She details how their community Slack channel and virtual styling appointments replaced lost retail store revenue. | |
| Mid-Episode Break and Topic Preview | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Guy Raz demonstrates domain familiarity with MM LaFleur's early D.C. legal clientele and probes how the shift to remote work will reshape the core business. LaFleur notes that their casual line was already growing pre-pandemic and now represents the majority of revenue. | |
| Realigning Marketing Campaigns for Stay-at-Home Realities | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Raz channels audience inquiries regarding marketing adaptations and the disproportionate economic toll on women. LaFleur details adapting ad creative around quarantine uniforms and cutting long-payback channels. | |
| Enduring Lessons in Leadership and Equanimity | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Raz asks a concluding reflective question on leadership takeaways. LaFleur references Rudyard Kipling's poem 'If' to describe maintaining equanimity in the face of both triumph and disaster. |