Have you ever felt like you were in the right place at the right time? For one reason or another you happened to be someplace and something good happened, and it was just enough to catch your attention at a later point and time to make you think, "man, I'm really glad I was there". People attribute this to many different things depending on their personal beliefs - luck, fate, chance, or divine intervention. This is where my story about Lisa Shea Custom Shoes starts.
I met Lisa the other day when we sat down for our interview and I was struck very early on by how soft spoken and humble she is. This Louisville native, and teacher by day, explained that she has always been very aware of fashion trends, but has also always strived to create her own within those trends. Taking plain shoes and customizing them for herself for years, Lisa told me that she was always getting compliments and people telling her that she should be creating shoes for a living. She had always wondered about these comments in the back of her mind, but it really came into fruition when Lisa attended a party that she almost didn't attend. After a long day at work, and feeling rather tired, Lisa contemplated sitting out the get-together that would change her world, but decided to soldier through and attend. During the party one of her friends took the bull by the horns, grabbed a custom made shoe off Lisa's foot, and began showing it to everyone at the event, explaining that Lisa had designed it. She left the party that night with orders to fill and it has blown up from there; that was September 2011, and four months later Lisa is fulfilling order after order, including one that was ordered by a customer in China.
Lisa takes her customer's wants and needs very seriously. She explained to me that when she receives an inquiry that she meets with the customer, when possible, to ask them very detailed questions about their style, the event they plan on wearing the shoes for, how out-going or conservative they are, etc. After this consultation she sets out to find the perfect shoe, looking for ones that are as plain as possible to begin with so that everything about the shoe truly becomes custom. Once the shoes are located and purchased Lisa explained that the customization can take anywhere from 4-6 hours and is all done by her hand. Looking at each pair of shoes as a blank canvas, she went on to explain that she can picture the finished product in her head before the first adornment is ever set. She eventually wants to have her own line of shoes with her name in them and is in the beginning stages of sourcing ways to make this happen along with getting some of her one-of-a-kind creations in boutiques now.
It was truly a pleasure sitting down with Lisa, and I explained to her that this might be the most positive entrepreneur story I've heard to date of the handful I've written. Right place, right time, right idea and now Lisa is doing something that she truly loves doing. She hopes to have enough continuous business to be able to concentrate on customizing shoes full-time by this summer. Talk about a whirlwind, but its one that she is happy to be on. Here is to wishing Lisa continued success, and just think Louisville, we might see some of her creations in the major fashion capitals of the world someday, and we can claim her as one of our own.
To connect with Lisa Shea Custom Shoes:
website: www.lisasheacustomshoes.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Lisa-Shea-Custom-Shoes
Twitter: @LisaSheashoes
