I’m so incredibly honored and humbled to have gotten the opportunity to conversate with Estefania Lacayo. Not only is a true dynamic force she is such an agent for connection and collaboration. When I saw Estefania in La Prensa a few years ago during annual family holiday to Nicaragua I knew I wanted to interview her. I’m so happy to say this bucket list item is off my list. Enjoy!

Thank you so much Estefania for taking the time to talk with me – I am truly honored and humbled … Oh, I am really honored as well, it is very kind of you.

How would you introduce yourself to maybe someone that is unaware of you…

I consider myself an advocate for creating change, in many aspects. I want to give access to other people that haven’t been given the access and the opportunities that I have been given… I love that an agent of change.

I saw your Podcast with Elena Cardone, the conversation that you discussed how you got your internship at Vogue; it was bold and ballsy. I thought oh wow that is probably why she answered me when I contacted you and thank goodness you didn’t think I was crazy. No, if you wrote to me…my feeling is that why would you, your platform (for an interview) be any less important to me than if Time magazine wrote to me (for an interview). No, I find yours equally important.

I have an interesting approach to things. Sometimes I will talk with people that might have thirty followers. Yes, if I can help someone why not? That is the purpose of my life.  No, I think that is so kind though... everyone is equally important.

What sparked you to have the type of tenacity that you have? It was tenacity that sparked you to contact Vogue for the internship. Were you born with it, or were you somehow lead to developing that tenacity …

No, to be honest I think I was born with it. The initiative that I took in my life that was very ballsy, I was young in my college dorm in Boston. I had never applied to any internships or to any jobs. Now twenty-five, twenty-seven years later I think that moment was defining, and I have had many of those in my life.

I think the best way to describe it is when I talk to entrepreneurs, I tell them that they need to ask that person to become their mentors. You should ask that investor to potentially become your investor. Because if you don’t ask, how will you know if they say yes, or no.

All they can say is, no. It is just the way that I think, and it is my approach to everything in life now.  Example we are raising capital for the first time in six years, I take all meetings. I believe even if I don’t think that they are a good fit for me, I believe that meeting will lead to another meeting and to another meeting, that will be ultimately a good meeting for me.

At that moment when I was in my dorm, I had the same mentality. How will you know if you do not approach it? Yes! I love that mindset. Especially for entrepreneurs, let’s say that you have your heart set on that one interview, or raising that capital with that one investor. And you do not get it. Then if you are sensitive, like me, it can hit you. I will eat some ice cream and then reset.

For some people they deal with a lot of what can turn into negative self-talk, like ‘am I not good enough’? ‘is my idea not good enough’?. So, I really love the fact how you say that ‘no’, can lead to something else. That is the best outlook and approach.

You mentioned something very interesting, look being an entrepreneur is not for everyone for many reasons. One being the ones that you just mentioned. You must build really thick skin. Not only in raising capital, debts, loans, or whatever you choose; it is the ability to take the ‘no’s’ that you get daily, and to keep going. When you are operating a business, there are so many downs. You have to build such thick skin to be able to stand up every day after all of the obstacles and do it over and over again.

And to still be nice, positive, and upbeat. No one wants to deal with someone that is grouchy, or rude. Oh, yes one hundred percent. If you were privileged to be born with that chip that you have that thick skin, that will never go away … it is very beautiful.

LAFS is in Miami, in the scope of America Latins were not thought of in this realm (of fashion). What made you decide to showcase the amazing talents of Latins. I think in the American consciousness the only Latin designers that are mainstream we think of is Carolina Herrera, and Nancy Gonzalez. Then you said ‘no we have more than two designers, we have many more people.’ What made you decide to showcase that…

Working in New York is a luxury space, not in Latin America even though I was born and raised there. I always go back to my home country, Nicaragua a few times a year, to see my family. I also married someone that is from Latin America as well. I have always been close to my roots.

However, all my career has always been created in New York. So, I started noticing around 2016, 2017 a lot of Latin entrepreneurs. When I say Latin entrepreneurs, I mean Latins living anywhere around the world. I mean Latins living in the United States; Europe; Middle East; Hong Kong; and Latin America. So, Latinos in general.

We knew very few of us had high positions in New York at that point from Latin America. I was being approached more and more with the same question – I want to pivot, and I want to go wholesale. Or I want to launch my project now in the U.S. after so many years operating in Latin America. I talked to a lot of them, and they had great projects, products, or a great platform. However, they were not scaling because they did not have access to the right people.

So, they were just outlaying money over and over in the wrong places and being ripped off by everyone and their mothers. I was like this is ridiculous. I thought if they just knew the right leaders, and experts in that field, they could have really successful businesses. They were producing and doing amazing things, as well I knew the amazing things that was coming out from the region (Latin America).

I decided to create a platform. I have never done anything like this in my life. This was not my background at all. To be honest I did not put together a business plan, or a financial model. I did not even do my homework on how other people were doing it.

Although, I had a very clear idea on what the mission and purpose was; to let’s create change and let’s create real opportunities. How was it being done? It is being done through fashion shows. I don’t understand how relevant a fashion show can be for someone that is just starting. Of course, if you are Carolina Herrera, and you have this large marketing budget … then of course do three to four fashion shows a year.

If you are start-up, I can tell you so many other places that you should be allocating $50,000.00, that can help you scale your business. It started as a conference once a year, and it immediately scaled into a platform that now we do two conferences a year. We do one that is called Raíces (by LAFS), which means ‘roots’, the word means going back to your roots. That is a product that rotates in different countries around Latin America. Oh! that is very cool!

And they are two totally different products. Raíces it is a property that we sell to a governmental institution.  As well Raíces can also be in a city, it can be in Houston, and in Dallas. It could be in any city that can host us. Now we know the amount of tourism and the economy that we bring into the city that hosts us for those three days.

What is the difference between Raísas LAFS in Miami? Really about bringing about the cultural aspect of the city that hosts us, and so much tourism in the city. Last year we did it in Santo Domingo in Dominican Republic the food was very Dominican, we used the artisans from the country to decorate everything in the Summit.

Miami is a global summit. Miami is for anyone; Miami is for the Black, Arab, Asian, American, and Latino community. It is for everyone. Any entrepreneur that wants to be inspired, to network and to be inspired with other entrepreneurs because they want to scale their businesses.

I believe in and am a huge believer and speaker on this topic, the power of networking. Things won’t come out if you are in your houses. I tell this to young entrepreneurs all the time. I attend approximately six to seven Summits a year. You can scale your business so much faster.

I go to the Aspen Institute, I’m going in the next two weeks to Vegas to Shoptalk 2024, I go to Latitude. What! is it because you are naturally a people person? So, it comes naturally for you to network. Because I do feel that my generation and younger… Not really, these conferences that I go to there are people there that are completely out of my network. I do not know anyone there. Vegas where I am going in two weeks is 22,000 people, and I do not know anyone. It is on retail.

It doesn’t matter because I am putting myself out there and to hear the up-to-date things that they are telling us. You just have to keep yourself informed and informing yourself; so that I can bring better content to my community. Most importantly I need to go and network with other entrepreneurs doing wonderful things.

To find ways to collaborate, because that is the only way for us to scale our businesses together. I believe strongly in the power of collaboration; it is so much easier to scale businesses when you are collaborating with other entrepreneurs, then when you are by yourself.

How did Tribu, which correct me if I am incorrect, it is the adjunct, or sister of LAFS. I looked at the website it is a perfect platform to get your business out there…

No, Tribu is a totally digital platform. It was launched in the Pandemic, we noticed that our community needed access to great content and we needed them to keep connecting.

So, my business partner and I with no experience in the digital space put together this digital platform in six months. The best way to describe it is the LinkedIn for the ecosystem of retail. So, you pay a membership of $295.00 a year, approximately $150.00 for students a year, or you can pay monthly at approximately $19.00.

What this gives you is access to this entire world, once you are on the platform you are immediately connected (no one has to accept you like LinkedIn). We also have weekly Webinars, and we do them on how to put together a Profit & Loss Statement. We do webinars on a weekly basis. We have a platform that you can upload an event that you are having, or an article that you have done on the platform. If you are a designer, you can upload your collection.

This is amazing because it is a built-in network… yes, it is a built-in network.  Example, if we are having a Summit in a particular State, Tribu members will get the first invitations that we send out.

We have just started this year something new it is called Tribu Meet-ups. Every two months we are meeting in New York and Miami with our members. We are looking to grow to Texas as well, we have members all over the world. We hosted our first about three weeks ago, some of the members are top CEO’s, Lawyers, and Tech Innovation Platforms.   

To put things out there (into the stream of commerce) and to have it resonate so positively with people…does that not make you feel amazing, or does it make you hungrier…

To be honest with you I have not even thought about it, because I just love connecting people. That is the way that I see it, it comes very natural for me. I believe that everyone can bring value to something. There is so much magic when you connect people together.

I remember you saying that you go back and forth down to Nicaragua…so does my family. We have a home in Managua, and I have seen you in La Prensa multiple times. When I was younger, I saw you in the paper and I said that I was going to interview you. We would spend our summers there…yes! That is so wonderful.

What can we expect you have already said that you started the Tribu Meet-ups, so what more can we expect? I also know that you are also in the midst of raising capital for your business…

Yes! And I am in the midst of raising capital. I choose to be open about how we built our business, LAFS. We built our business by not raising any capital. My belief is that you must go out there and prove your model and see if it works. To make sure that it is viable, and once you have a provable concept – then you know that you really have something.

Then you can go out get the funding to elevate LAFS to the next level. We can now expand it, and we need strategic money.  It is important to share this because this strategy can be replicated for all business models.

For me it is a big priority for Texas and California (to take LAFS there).  I am hoping that we can grow that now.

Now I know that Tribu was created during the pandemic. I often say catastrophes breed ingenuity. Now LAFS seemed like something that you thought about and wanted people to connect. What have you found through this… do you like to organically grow an idea, or do you feel most success when you recognize a problem, there is a roadblock, then you develop a solution to solve the issue(s)…

I think the best thing is that when you see a problem, and you have a lot of people coming to me with these problems. Then I am like I have a solution for these problems. I recognize that the world has changed a lot, everything is digital.

So, a lot of the services in Tech, Financial Services, Fashion Companies, Law, and Institutional Banks started reaching out because they wanted access to a community of high-spending power people in Miami.

All of a sudden, they were saying I do not want to hire a P.R. Firm, we want to hire you guys. You have a network of people. We then hosted two events; this was a new venture for us. Suddenly it became a domino effect; we started getting hundreds of brands reaching out to us wanting to come in as partners with us. They not only wanted to join in the Summits with us, but we also want five events – one in Miami, New York, Hamptons, Mexico City, Brazil, and Bogota…so we launched an events production company.

And that came out of a problem where they said I do not want to hire a P.R. Firm where they are going to bring us an article and editors, and we do not want that anymore. They knew that they wanted an experience and access to our potential clients.

So, we started hosting events. A whole venture based on this problem was created LAFS Experiences. We have partnerships with Google; Mastercard Priceless.com with LAFS Experiences.

It is now a big aspect of our business, and it really came out of a problem. Also, Tribu was developed out of a problem. Mostly what we have launched has come out of a problem.

I would say that it is like four to five businesses under one umbrella – you have LAFS, LAFS Experiences … yes, it is Tribu the digital platform, and now we have the Meet-ups. The LAFS Experiences which is vertical – we have The Summit, which we have two Summits. One is Raísas which is a global Summit in Miami, and LAFS Agency.

LAFS Agency also came out of our community reaching out saying we need an Accountant, a Lawyer, a Fashion Stylist, and a  Graphic Designer. And all of a sudden, I realized my team and I were spending so much time just connecting people. Then it became Governments contacting us for connections. I realized then that it was time for us to monetize on this. It was becoming too time consuming for my team to just be connecting people non-stop.

Yes, at the Summit, and Tribu people can meet organically. However, if people reach out to us outside of those avenues…we now have an umbrella of people that we collaborate with that I know do a good job. It really works like Uber! We connect people and they give us a finder’s fee. Whoever we put out there I am starting a relationship with, it is not just anybody. And I know that they do a good job.

What do you do to get re-centered and grounded…

My family, my family really ground me. I mean if you want to stay grounded just have children. They keep me humbled. I am at a point in my life that I surround myself with people that lift me up. I am 43 years old, I am building, scaling a business and I have two young kids, and a husband.

I really give priorities in my life. I do not have to go to everything like I use to when I was in my twenties and early thirties.

I did not create this platform to be recognized or to be famous, I did it because I wanted to create change. Little did I know that it would come with other things. The hustle is real and is real all the time. Remember nothing is real that you see on social media. Oh yes nothing is real (on social media).

My last question is what is on your current playlist, what gets you going and amped…

You know what is so funny I am not a big music person…what!!! how could you not be a big music person ... I know it is funny, but I am not. I do like classical music. I am also a big Podcast person, I am super into Podcasts that are about Longevity, Biohacking.  We also have our own Podcast that we launched in 2020, and we have the Podcast every Thursday.

Oh, we have also implemented payment plans for the Summits, the Miami Summit. They are not all on fashion… we have conversations with successful CEO’s, Tech people, Fashion Designers, and Health and Beauty is a new category for us. The early bird special ends in a month, if they buy a ticket in the next month, it is $100 off. Everything is in English too. We just want to provide tools to our community to enrich their lives.

I thank you for your time, I enjoyed this so much! Yes, this was so nice...bye!