When we say that we learned what it’s like to build a company and a brand guerrilla style, we mean it. We learned by doing, taking on tasks that perhaps we were not quite ready for, but we took them on and learned, and thrived in these situations. One of those PR bootcamps we happily (and perhaps a bit crazily too, but hey, de poetas y locos and all that) decided to put ourselves through came in 2009, when we began collaborating with Auralis on her brand.
Boy was this a bootstraps operation. Why? We’ll let Auralis explain it herself, “Here is a little confession: I almost did not produce a spring 2011 due to lack of funding. However just the day that I was getting ready to throw in the towel until next season Eric Dorfman from The Green Shows called me.” This was a month before the show and perhaps more level headed minds would have declined the offer to show at The Green Shows. Yet, as we would find out time and time again in our work, we thrive on these kinds of big challenges. What’s the secret? We unabashedly share with others and are not afraid to ask for help when we need it. Thankfully, Auralis shares this spirit, so the decision to do the show came easily. When the phone rang, we were there alongside Auralis, ready to take on securing funding and supporting with PR efforts for the show.
To pull off an entire fashion show in a month, we relied on all our friends, and families, and even on strangers. This meant putting ourselves out there even though we may have been scared poopless to do so, and to make a mistake. We flew family members from Puerto Rico to help in the enterprise and the result was an utter success. Auralis’s show was covered in sustainable magazines from Ecouterre and industry giants such as WWD. In Latino media, she appeared in both Telemundo and Univision, amongst others. Often times, we are afraid to share ourselves vulnerably and authentically (note that authentically does not mean irresponsibly) with others, with the media, with our clients for fear of not being sheer perfection, or not looking good. Yet, in a world of rapid and saturated communication, depth and authenticity rises.