Lanai Moliterno founded Sozy, a women’s clothing brand specializing in soft and cozy casual wear for everyday style.
The brand is committed to the betterment of women and the planet by being a carbon-neutral business and donating 10% of its profits to survivors of sexual violence.
In this section, Lanai shares insights into her entrepreneurial journey, how she stays productive, and her strategies for growing her business.
Where did the idea for Sozy come from?
Lanai’s inspiration for Sozy came from a play on words – Soft + Cozy. She wanted to create a brand that conveyed the feeling of comfort and coziness.
What does a typical day look like for Lanai Moliterno, and how does she make it productive?
Lanai Moliterno works tirelessly and takes incremental breaks to walk her dog, eat, and watch one episode of Master Class. She uses Asana and Airtable to stay organized every day.
She separates tasks based on urgency and tackles the most important tasks first.
How does Lanai bring ideas to life?
Lanai Moliterno creates a hybrid of 2-4 pieces of clothing that she likes and combines them to create what she believes is the best of all.
She takes the feel of the fabric from one item, combines it with the hem of another, the collar of a third, and the body of a fourth with some adjustments.
What’s one trend that excites Lanai?
Lanai is excited about the trend of comfortable clothes that are still flattering and never frumpy.
What is one habit of Lanai Moliterno that makes her more productive as an entrepreneur?
Lanai never leaves things for later and separates tasks based on urgency.
She reviews things a second time before moving on to the next project and only checks off that task when it’s been reviewed.
She uses Airtable and Asana to stay organized and make sure she gets everything done.
What advice would Lanai give her younger self?
Lanai would advise her younger self to work hard and not worry if she didn’t know what was coming next.
She would tell her to take advantage of every free moment and do her very best at whatever the world throws at her.
One of her favorite quotes for when she has free time is “the time you enjoy wasting, is not wasted time.”
Tell us something true that almost nobody agrees with Lanai on.
Lanai had nothing to share at this time.
What is the one thing Lanai does repeatedly as an entrepreneur and recommends everyone else do?
Lanai recommends reviewing things a second time before moving on to the next project and only checking off that task when it’s been reviewed.
What is one strategy that has helped Lanai grow her business?
Asana and Airtable have been integral to keeping every single project organized.
They help Lanai keep track of projects and share each step with team members so things can be successfully executed daily, weekly, and monthly.
Creating easy-to-follow and repeatable systems like this helps her scale while staying organized and focused.
What was Lanai’s failure as an entrepreneur, and how did she overcome it?
Lanai struggled with taking negative comments or reviews personally.
She hasn’t completely overcome it, but she uses the negative reviews to improve every aspect of her business.
She believes that anything and everything can always be improved and that kindness breeds kindness.
What is one business idea that Lanai is willing to give away to our readers?
Lanai is willing to give away the idea of a motion-censored temperature-regulated shower head that conserves water.
The shower head would only turn on when a person is underneath it, maintaining the same temperature that a person originally set the water at.
What is the best $100 Lanai recently spent and why?
Lanai spent $100 on Master Class, where she loves learning from the best in their field.
She believes they have a wealth of knowledge and their life journeys are fascinating.
What is one piece of software or a web service that helps Lanai be productive?
Airtable, Asana, and Slack are Lanai’s go-to software and web services.
Asana helps her keep track of daily, weekly, and monthly tasks. Airtable is like turbo spreadsheets, perfect for any project aspect, and Slack is great for staying in touch with her team daily.
What is the one book that Lanai recommends our community should read and why?
Lanai recommends The Lord of the Rings series. She loves stories in which hard journeys come to happy endings and good trumps evil.
She believes that there are too many stressful things in the world, so if there is a chance to read a book with a happy ending because the positivity is a good food for the mind.
What is your favorite quote?
“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Lanai Moliterno emphasizes the importance of creating scalable, systematic processes for business tasks, highlighting the need for personal mental well-being as crucial to effective management.
“Prioritizing immediate action over procrastination and leading with kindness are also key to success.”
Lanai added.
