Episode 131: Don't Try to Milk a Bad Idea with Ski Shop Owner Lee Keating

Welcome to this episode of the Million Dollar Mastermind. I'm Larry Weidel, and let's get started. I'm excited this afternoon because I'm talking with one of my longtime best buddies in Aspen. She's the one who has advised me on probably 80 to 90% of all the clothing, especially ski wear and boots and jackets and everything since I came to Aspen in 2000. Well, who knows when. But she and I have been big buddies. She's seen me go through good times and bad times and always, always is positive. And she is so welcome. Lee, thanks for taking the time. I know you're busy.

Pleasure, pleasure. Happy to, happy to be part of this.

And I know you're running out tomorrow. You got a. You're running out on buying trip or where you headed tomorrow.

So actually Saturday is when I'm leaving and I'm going to Milan to work on my ski collection for next year.

And you do this all the. I mean, this is your annual. Part of your annual pattern to your year, right?

Correct. Correct.

Yeah. And let me re. Let me just let people know a little bit about you. Lee is known and she's in the magazine. She's got write up as Aspen's most celebrated tastemaker and she became that. She and her husband Tom have owned their. Started as a ski boutique and expanded from that 32 years ago. And she.

33. 33.

33. Wow. And she's got her own design line and that. What does it say? You resuscitated it in 2008. Is that Authier?

So the, the name of the brand is ota.

Ota.

And it originated. Yeah, it's ota.

I'm not a good French pronouncer.

Originated as a ski brand in 1910 and during the wars they made airplanes. And then in the 50s, it was probably the most celebrated ski. And then some Italian guys kind of. It was originally a Swiss company took control of it. They started making apparel to merchandise with the skis. And then in 2008, 9, when everything kind of fell apart, the Italian that was left owning it, owned it with a big, big AFA group, big fashion group. And they didn't want to be in the ski wear business anymore. And our partner Gustavo was not sure what he wanted to do. And I said, well, why don't we do it together? So then in 2010, a hundred years after the hundred year anniversary of the company, we relaunched the brand as a luxury ski apparel line with influence from ski nostalgia, with all the modern fabrics and fasteners and look of Today.

Yeah. That is fantastic. I'm familiar with the plane for some.

Reason, but yeah, it was the vampire. It flew in the mountains, it could maneuver the, the giant, you know, the like narrow passages through the mountains and stuff. I guess it could dive really fast. I don't, I don't know all the particulars I should probably learn about it.

But yeah, so to say that correct. Right, that's rda, Is that right?

No, ota.

Ota.

But it's spelled A U T H I E R. But it's. Yeah, it's like O T A, but ota A U T H I E R. Okay.

Thank you for that. I'm learning something. But everybody needs to know. You know, you have all of these, you know, Aspen is a real down to earth town where you have this thing, celebrities and everything, the wealthy people are here. But you never know. I mean, you could never tell really who is who. But the ladies are different. But the people who live, if you wonder where the people who live in these mansions on the hill, the 15, 20, 25, 30 million dollar homes where they get their clothing, it's Lee. They go to Lee. In fact, they said in the magazine 80% of your clients are regulars and for most of them, Lee's the first person they call when they're playing and again, not the plane commercial. When their plane lands in Aspen, Lee's the first person they call. So it's just a little bit of background on Lee. And plus she's just so much fun and has fun with what she's doing. She got. Let's not, let's not bypass Tom. Tom Bowers, her husband and co owner. The store is a former World cup ski racer. So if you come into Aspen, you want to see Lee for your clothing, but you want to see Tom and get your helmets and your skis and your poles and all of those things, you know, you're dealing with the best. And so after listening to the podcast, you're going to be an Aspen insider. Now you're not going to wander around. You're going to go straight to, towards the gondola and look for performance ski. It's right on the corner, can't miss it. And go inside and ask for Lee and Tom and you're going to feel like a local because you know, you don't have to ask around the stores and go in all the other stores to find out where to go. You'll, you'll be in the spot. And so Lee, when you started out, when you think back when you started 32 years. It had to be a little bit scary. How did you come to be this person? You know, how did you get up the guts to give this thing a try?

It was just by accident. So in. It was 33 years ago, actually, and my husband Tom had just retired from the US Ski team and a friend of his was starting a ski shop. And Tom was. Well, it was actually the last. His last World cup race here in Aspen. And a friend said, what are you going to do when you're done? And he said, I don't know. And his friend Jan said, well, I want to start a ski shop. You want to do it with me? And Tom said, sure, I don't have anything better to do. So he started the ski shop with Jan. Shortly thereafter. I was out here. I had known Jan. I was a customer of his when he had a shop with his parents. And I met Tom and Jan, and within a year, Jan decided he really didn't like doing this. Tom and I started dating and it was just. It just kind of happened. It was not anything that was planned that, oh, I'm going to. Moved to Aspen and started ski shop. In fact, for seven years before we were married, I commuted back and forth from New York and worked at the ski shop and did my job in New York. And then we got married. And then a couple years later, we had a daughter. And then I think it was two years after she was born, I finally moved to Aspen and started working at the shop full time.

Okay.

But it was. It just was by accident. It was not a plan.

Yeah. And I saw your daughter more or less grow up in the store and your. I. I didn't know which one. Your daughter or your son was the oldest. So your daughter's the oldest?

Yes, she's the oldest.

And there did. She seems like she did ski racing because I remember she and I were next to each other on tables getting rehab one time over here at that place where it's across from the museum now. But she did ski.

Yeah. Aspen sports medicine.

Yeah.

Yes, yes.

But she's not doing that anymore, is she?

No, Both children ski raced. She's now at UCLA finishing up. And my son is in Austria right now training, and he is still actively ski racing.

Yeah. And what a stud he is. I mean, you just stand next to him and you realize this is a physical specimen. But he comes by it honestly with his dad, the ski racer. It's probably hard for Tom not to get on the plane and go out there and watch him train.

Yeah, no, he likes watching him train, that's for sure.

When you got, when you got this thing started, was this similar. Were you in retail in New York?

No, no, no. I was a financial printer. My only experience with retailing was I like to go shopping. So I had absolutely zero experience. And I was, I would travel out to see Tom and I would just naturally help people in the store. So it just evolved and I really enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun and, and just one thing led to another, but I had 0, 0 experience in the retail world.

Give me, you know, there's rights and wrongs. There's a way to be productive and non productive. But what stuff. What would you. Can you think back what stuck out to you as doing things the right way versus doing things the wrong way? As you came out from New York, got in a new town, you were in a new type of business, you had to have your antenna up about how. Because you know, you're looking around seeing how people do things and what stood out to you, what lessons did you notice right from the beginning that you feel like has stayed with you all the way through?

It's hard work. It's all about working hard. There's no easy way and you have to just go with what feels right. Like what's. I see what people do. I look more now at what competitors do than I did back then. Back then, I don't even think I ever looked at a competitor. I just got here in the store and people would come in and I would try to dress them up in the best ski outfit. And my feeling was always to make people look really good. Like, don't send them out of here in something that looks bad. And it just was all about hard work and being friendly and being helpful. There's like, no, that's what it is. Working hard, being friendly, being helpful, selling somebody something that they're gonna love, not something that you want to get rid of. And I think that's what's made us successful. It's not any secret. It's not a secret recipe.

But did you see people not doing that?

Oh, my God, yes.

Yeah.

Just go into any store. I see very few retailers that really do a good job.

Yeah, because you had to carry those lessons with you from your shopping experiences in New York too. Right? I mean, it's a lot of stores. You walk like, you feel like you walk into a gallery. It's like, you know, how dare you come in here, you know, and we've got better things to do than talking.

There's all different. You Know, there's all different things. Like, you walk into a store and there's fingerprints all over the glass door and the hangers are crooked and things aren't zipped up properly. If you don't have pride in the merchandise that you're selling, how are people gonna think that what they're buying from you is special and beautiful and quality? I mean, that's. That's the first. That's the first thing.

Yeah. Have a pride in what you're doing. And as you. Where did you get your lift off? Where was the biggest gamble? Let's just say that you guys took. You know, it's like you have success.

My husband will tell you, every step is a gamble. Every day, every step is a gamble. We have no formula. We don't show up to buy with spreadsheets. We buy from our gut. What we think is, what we feel at that moment is fantastic. Like, so many buyers show up at a showroom and they have the spreadsheet from last year and say. And they say, we buy ten sweaters, six skirts, four dresses, and five blouses. Well, if the skirts and sweaters and blouses are all ugly and just the dresses are fantastic, then just buy the dresses. But they feel like they have to go with the formula. So sometimes, like, we'll make a. We'll take a big risk and we'll see something we love and we'll buy a hundred pieces. And 90% of the time, it works. Sometimes I do make a mistake, but it's all about going with your gut.

But, I mean, that's how you learn and that's how you progress. And so what would you say early on, when did you get to the point where, what's the biggest risk or biggest gamble that the first one that you can remember that sticks in your mind that you really had to struggle with?

Well, it's never for me. It always has to do with how much money we spend. And so when we made a million dollar order at Prada, my husband just about had a nervous breakdown. I'll still remember standing out on the street waiting for our car, and he's like, oh, my God. Oh, my God, we just spent a million dollars on jackets.

And. But it paid off, right? You guys became. We all love Prada, but you guys became the biggest. You know, and at that time, would I think. Don't you. Would you say that was the ski boutique size store you were in at that time, before you moved to the corner? Is it like a ski boutique?

Yeah, it was 900 square feet of Retail space. It was very tiny.

Very tiny. But out of that tiny space, you sold more Prada skiwear than any store in the world, as I remember it.

Yes, that's correct.

Yeah. And not just for one year. I wasn't like, a lucky year, right?

No, no, no. I think we sold Prada from first year. They did the sport collection, which was maybe 1999 until 2009 was our last year doing the sport with Prada because they. Well, A, they stopped doing the sport, and B, they also kicked us out because they didn't think my store was nice enough.

Yeah, they flew in. They had new corporate. You know, we, all of us, who have been in the corporate world have had to deal with new CEOs who. Who feel like the world was created the day they got in charge and that nobody knew anything up until they got there, and they have to change everything. And so they wound up building the big Prada store in town and say, your store just doesn't measure up to their standards for some stupid reason. And that didn't slow you down. The people who came out, the losers in that. You know, I wonder how much product, how much ski wear and how much they sell at that big, expensive store they have around the corner now. But that didn't slow you down at all? What's that?

Yeah. No, no, no. After. After that next season, the following season, they stopped with the sport, and we were. That was actually pretty devastating, both. A, it very much hurt my feelings. I felt terrible. But also, suddenly, we had a buy of over $2 million that I didn't know what I was going to fill it with. And it just so happened that, like, a few months later, I was in Italy, and our friend Gustavo, who had the OTA brand, was trying to figure out what his next step was gonna be. And it just. As luck would have it, I'm like, we need a brand to fill the hole that Prada's gonna make. So that's when we started the ota.

Yeah, I remember living through that because it was traumatic for really, all of us, because, you know, we like Prada, and we got our Prada from you. You know, we had lots of it, right? And there were a bunch of us that even wrote letters to the president of Prada to get him to reconsider.

I know. They didn't care.

They didn't care.

Yeah, they didn't care.

They didn't care. And so, you know, it's almost like divine intervention in your career, because had they not gotten out of the way, Oda wouldn't have happened. Right.

I mean, you know, that's 100% true. I would say that's 100% true.

And so you would have been bound to the corporate thing. It would have been hard to make that decision on your own. You know, that would have been like crazy just to drop Prada for a new idea. But since they took care of that problem for you, bam, you were right in position to take advantage of. And how is that. How has that turned out for you?

Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable.

And you've even gone through the last. The COVID situation. You know, you basically refused to back down. And probably better than any retailer in town came through the COVID lockdown, shutdown, panic, pandemonium, paranoia. Better than any other store in town. And you took a lot of criticism for that.

Yes, exactly. Exactly. But, you know, you just. You just can't sit around and feel sorry for yourself and wait for somebody to do something for you. You have to just wake up in the morning and go and make it all happen.

Yeah. Because there's always people out there got a better idea about how you should run their. Your business. And when their ideas don't turn out, you're the one who's got to clean up the mess. And so if it's your business, you got what you did. What I see in that situation, Lee, is you went with your gut just like you do always.

Exactly 100%. I mean, it was a risk. Like I said to my husband, when everything went sideways in March and I saw people liquidating merchandise, I said, I think we need to hold tight. I think that Aspen is going to be a nice place for people to be. We have beautiful things. They will be discounted, but they won't be liquidated. And I'll bet you we'll end up okay. And we kept everybody working. And because we've always, you know, they work hard for us, so why not? And it's been fantastic. People have been incredibly supportive to us, meaning our customers, our employees have been fantastic and so grateful that during the whole quote unquote, shutdown, that they were still receiving a paycheck from us and not having to deal with the hassle of unemployment. And it's all worked out really, really well, but it was a lot of work. Our guys worked so hard.

I've got a bunch of things I want to ask you, but we've got to wrap this episode up. I. I want to just point out, the thing is, like, get your comment about this. Follow up to a statement you made that every step is a gamble. And if you want to be in business for yourself, it's going to be a lot of hard work. It's going to be hard work beyond what you think hard work is. Now before you, you take that leap. And if you're friendly, you're helpful, you put your customers first, you, you take pride in every aspect of what you're doing, you've got a chance to take those gambles, those risks and make them work, because most people are not going to work. I learned that. I learned that a long time ago. You beat 50% of the people just by working hard. And Lee, any last, any last comment you want to make about the fact of, before we go, about every step being a gamble?

No, no, no. You just have to stay committed.

Yeah. Yeah.

Because you have to believe. You have to believe you're doing the right thing. But when you mess up, you got to say, okay, this is wrong and let's move on.

Yeah. Yeah.

Like, you can't try to milk a bad idea. That's for sure.

You can't try to milk a bad idea. I love it. Thanks so much, Lee. This has been great and look forward to having you get back with you and talking about these things some more.

Okay, perfect. Thank you for having me.

Thanks for listening to this episode of Million Dollar Mastermind with me, Larry Wydell. If I've helped you in any way, leave us a five star rating and review on Apple podcasts. For more information like this, listen to our other Million Dollar Mastermind episodes and check out my Wydell Academy YouTube channel and visit us on widelawnwinning.com I'm the million Dollar Mastermind. And until next time, go, go.