Tommy Irish Jr. leveraged his talents in content creation and trend forecasting on social media to pursue a new venture in fashion design.
Why did you choose to pursue an entrepreneurial internship?
I chose this internship because I wanted to challenge myself. I could have easily found an internship for a company that I have connections with and done that for class credit, put it on my resume, and been done. But I wanted a challenge; I wanted to force myself to do something I have been thinking about for years, but never had the guts to do it. It is scary trying to start up and run your own business, and failure is scary. But I wanted to try, I wanted to fail, and I wanted to learn. Failure does not exist unless you fully give up, and I told myself I will never quit. I am grateful that I chose this hard path and I would not have done it differently.
How did you get your internship?
I got this internship by creating a personal brand online and growing an audience on social media to leverage to create a customer base. This internship was my baby, and I controlled everything about it and I continually had to ask myself things like how much time to put into it and what tasks I needed to do. I used reselling websites, including Depop, Facebook Marketplace, and even Shopify, to ship the products across the country.
What kind of work did you do?
I did a lot of different work during my internship experience. I designed clothing pieces, researched popular clothing trends, and fulfilled order deliveries. I was able to enhance my communication skills as I reached out to fellow entrepreneurs for advice and ideas. I was able to work on my time management skills by designating specific times to work on designs, listing items, and selling items. I was also able to work on my overall leadership skills since the entire business depended on me.
What did you find most challenging about your internship?
The most challenging part about this internship, without a doubt, is time management and project management. There are a lot of skills that this internship enhanced and made me realize I did not have. The two biggest skills that I had to develop as fast as possible were time management and project management. It is easy to lose track of time working on one project and never getting to another, especially when there is no team around to initiate that shift. This was especially hard since I am finishing school, working two other jobs, and maintaining a social media presence. Along with time management, learning about ways to fund the projects was also another difficult part of the internship.
What is the impact of your internship experience?
I hope the impact of the internship and the company was to make people happy. The whole purpose behind the brand and the designs was to make people feel proud to be themselves. The words "ego eimi" mean “I am”. The goal was to empower others to think “I am me, and I am enough.” Along with this, the impact of the clothes is to simply make people smile. There is no better feeling than rewarding yourself by buying a new piece of clothing, and this provides that feeling for others.
How has your internship experience influenced your plans for your future?
This internship has completely changed the course of my future and my goals. I am now dedicated to scaling this brand into a full-blown clothing empire one day. Even though I faced a multitude of trials and tribulations during this process, I became obsessed with the purpose and I believe it has the potential to make a true impact on the community. This experience has changed the way I view business owners and entrepreneurs. I have a newfound respect for these people and wish to learn from them to improve myself.