Meet Liz Detrow | Founder of clothing brand ilysmkinda

We had the good fortune of connecting with Liz Detrow and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Liz, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
Starting my own business was driven by a desire for a fun and creative outlet. I was 19 when I launched ilysmkinda, and now, four years later, it’s amazing to see how far it has come! Time has flown, and the journey has been a tremendous learning experience. I’m really excited to be putting out new pieces this fall, and I’m eager to continue growing ilysmkinda with all the knowledge I’ve gained from both successes and failures.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
It was definitely not easy, haha. I had to learn a lot of lessons the hard way. I started ilysmkinda for fun right after high school, making hoodies during COVID, and it organically grew into a full brand. I was growing and learning about life, having a career, and running a business, and ilysmkinda grew with me. The past four years were crucial for my learning, and now I feel extremely prepared to take the business to the next level. Instead of learning everything before starting, I learned as I went.

Having a company looks fun and exciting through social media and the outside, but there is a lot of work and challenges that people don’t see. I have faced extremely tough challenges and times when I really wanted to give up. Now, I am grateful for those experiences because I now know what not to do and how to proceed forward through every challenge.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
It is honestly inspiring to see how many young people are starting their own businesses on social media nowadays. There is so much opportunity now, especially with platforms like TikTok, to start your own business, learn from others, and reach new audiences that you would never be able to before. I think it is such a great time to start a small business, no matter what you want to be doing. There is so much opportunity and information available to us.

I want to give a shoutout to small business owners! I’ve learned so much through them sharing their journeys on social media. It’s pretty cool that everything I know has come from researching and following other people’s experiences. Their insights and stories have been invaluable to my own journey and success.

Website: https://ilysmkinda.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ilysmkinda/