Uncharted Waters with Teresa Laughlin
[Episode 12] Teresa Laughlin is a woman of many talents. She is an actress, a fashion designer, a photographer, a publicist, a sailor, a woodworker and she may even become a race car driver in the near future. Teresa is passionate about a variety of things but what we found amidst all of her interests is her overarching passion for the excitement of new activities and experiences. She loves to learn and is fearless about jumping into the unknown. She thrives on the excitement of learning a new skill whatever it may be.
In looking back on our discussion with Teresa, her passion for learning seems to be focused in two areas. The first is the thrill of something new. We all remember when we first learned how to ride a bicycle. Those firsts are exciting but unfortunately they only come once. Riding a bicycle is still fun but it’s never like the feeling you get when you first learn to ride. Teresa loves those firsts, and who wouldn’t. She is an explorer of sorts, actively seeking new things to learn and experience.
There is also the meditative part to Teresa’s passion. She immerses herself into things so fully that everything else fades away for a time. The mental focus that comes from doing something with your whole heart and soul can be therapeutic. Our sense is that she finds tranquility in those times of focus.
May we all be as fortunate as Teresa in finding joy and fulfillment in so many things. We hope you enjoy listening to Teresa’s story.
Episode Book Pairing
Each episode the The Gray Matters podcast is paired with a book that complements the episode’s subject matter. Here is a title that Teresa talks about in the episode. We hope you find it as inspirational as she did.
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Explores a happy state of mind called flow, the feeling of complete engagement in a creative or playful activity. — Time
The bestselling classic that holds the key to unlocking meaning, creativity, peak performance, and true happiness.
Legendary psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s famous investigations of optimal experience have revealed that what makes an experience genuinely satisfying is a state of consciousness called flow. During flow, people typically experience deep enjoyment, creativity, and a total involvement with life. In this new edition of his groundbreaking classic work, Csikszentmihalyi (the leading researcher into ‘flow states’ –Newsweek) demonstrates the ways this positive state can be controlled, not just left to chance. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience teaches how, by ordering the information that enters our consciousness, we can discover true happiness, unlock our potential, and greatly improve the quality of our lives.
Get your copy of Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience from Bookshop.org.
About Teresa Laughlin
Teresa Laughlin was born into a film family in LA, and by the age of 18 had already appeared in five feature films. After a vigorous touring schedule and a TV series written expressly for her, she opted to leave the business, attend college, followed by art school in New York. Throughout her school years, she worked as both a photographer and a stylist for magazines as varied as Life, Seventeen, and Geo, before continuing on to attend Parsons School of Design.
After working for various companies on Seventh Avenue, Teresa decided to open up a private customer business in a room by herself, creating couture garments for increasingly high profile clientele.
Only a short time after introducing her collection of high end eveningwear on a wholesale basis, Teresa was embraced by key retailers for her luxurious, sophisticated yet incredibly wearable clothes. Her business grew at a meteoric pace and her acute business acumen drew the attention of investors, with David Letterman eventually becoming a business partner.
She established an impressive roster of private celebrity clientele in addition to the wholesale collection, which was sold in the very finest specialty stores in the country, including Neiman Marcus.
After an unexpected family event caused a forced hiatus and the eventual the closure of her company, Teresa was actively recruited to join a boutique PR firm. Because she had successfully handled her own PR for a decade with her clothing label, she hit the ground running.
Just as with her fashion label, her meticulous attention to detail, exhaustive follow through, powerful aesthetic sensibility coupled with her extraordinary aptitude to mold an aspirational branding message, resulted in an explosion of clients requesting her services, so she opened her own firm.
With a steady stream of referrals coming from editors of key magazines, Teresa is opting to take a very specific and modulated approach to growing her company. Turning down more business than she accepts, she selects clients with the careful deliberation of a curator, ensuring that all the brands are a good fit, and that she has a strong vision to help bring them to the next level.
Her down to earth approach, style and charm quickly puts her on the very short list of editors as soon as they’ve worked with her. When looking to hire a PR firm recently, a longtime friend of the Managing Editor of one of the top shelter magazines asked her who was really good in PR. She answered, “Honestly, there is only one…”