Cristina Lynch, Founder and CEO of Mi Golondrina, joins ChedHER to discuss how she's empowering over 600 artisans from Mexico, what inspired her brand, and advice for female entrepreneurs.

chedHER

How This Female Founder is Giving Work to Women in Mexico

joining us now is Christina lynch founder and ceo of Mega Londrina Christina. Um You partnered with over 600 artisans from all over Mexico. I am curious how did you find these artisans to work with and how do they benefit from this? Yes, of course. Thank you so much for having me. This is such a privilege. Thank you. Thank you. Um So my mother was born and raised in Mexico and um I was fortunate enough to go to Mexico with her all the time when I was younger and I didn't realize that at that time I was also learning so much about traditional art from Mexico. My mother has been collecting Art from there since she was 18 years old, so I would always meet the artist behind the pieces. Um so that's really how I started to learn about the artisan work and then um lived in new york for a bit and moved home and was excited to read more about artisans and I think what's so incredible about all of this embroidery and all of these different techniques is a lot of these women are truly masters of their crafts and are featured in books. Um so that's exactly where I started, I started reading about them and started meeting with women who are masters of their craft and grew from there. Um and really how it benefits them is One, these are techniques that have been around for over 200 years and they're truly techniques that I think need to be preserved. And so I'm so excited that to work with artisans partner with them and continue their traditional techniques, it's also an additional source of income for their household. Um so what's so neat is a lot of these women are actually doing the embroidery in their homes and they're able to support their their family in that way. You know when I was two years in I think what really made a difference to me um and really changed my whole perspective on the company was a woman actually was telling me that now she was able to send her child to school and her child can now learn spanish because actually a lot of these communities, they speak more of my languages. Um so it is so neat to see kind of what a small, you know small thing can turn into. Um and then it changes the lives of their family potentially here in the case of them being able to send their child to school and to learn a language that's critical for them. I'm curious your work has been admired by celebrities in the works of these women have been admired by celebrities like Mindy Kaling, can you tell us a little bit about that and about kind of you know your favorite pieces um that you've designed and what trends you're watching closely right now. Yes, for sure. So I think one of the neatest things about design when it comes to me with Londrina is we're truly collaborating with artisans. So if you think about somebody who's been embroidering their whole life working with this beautiful set of colors, they really know how to put color together. So I feel like over the years I've learned so much from the artisans we work with. And um we also really listened to our customers. So our offices right next to our store here in Dallas and any time a customer wants to sleeve added to something or they think there should be a ruffle. I mean we, we take that instantly and because the main goal is to provide more work to the women we work with and we're not afraid of color, which is a lot of fun because it's supposed to be a happy fun feminine brand, especially as we go into the season, what kind of color pops back into our wardrobe or most for most of us as opposed to be wearing like black and white right now? Um you know, and you look so beautiful and like the blue colors that you've got going on there with the pop of orange. We know that Megan Londrina was founded in 2013, right? That means it was founded before the pandemic and you had to weather the storm that so many businesses, whether during the pandemic, can you talk to us about the kind of challenges you encountered encountered during the pandemic? And then just even as a founder and how you were able to overcome them. Absolutely. I mean, you know, I think the pandemic was tough for everybody and I think um something I feel you know, I feel very fortunate that this business has a very like a very um it's just so basically I think what got me through, sorry, was just the fact that this business there are close to 800 women now that rely on this business, so even though that we have challenges and everything, they seem small and um because I know that we need to provide work to them no matter what. So I think the hardest thing honestly was right when the pandemic happened, we had to close all of our stores. Um so we pivoted to become more of an online business and now I think we're better for it and we've definitely learned from it, but that was really, really challenging and I always tell people when they're starting businesses, it's so important to have a very clear mission because when you have to do things like that it just makes those decisions much easier. Well I was just gonna ask you, you know what advice do you have for other women out there who are female entrepreneurs are looking to become a female entrepreneur. Yes, you know, I feel so fortunate that I love what I do um I started working on this when I was 23, and I think the biggest thing I would say is um to most women I speak to um you know you you think and you think you think about it and I think sometimes you just have to get started and and start to see what shape your business will take and and listen to your customers and be willing to pivot. I mean we started actually, we were aligned with a company called Peacock Alley and they helped us sell bedding as well, and then the clothing took off and, and really we decided to to grow a clothing business and um, but if I hadn't gotten started that soon, you know, that helped a lot and now you're an inspiration for other women out there, we're gonna have to leave it there. Really appreciate your time, Christina, lynch founder and ceo of Megan Londrina Jpmorgan Chase is committed to supporting women owned and women run businesses at all stages of the business journey. So to learn more visit Jpmorgan Chase dot com slash W O T. M.