Giovanna Santiago is an entrepreneur who prides herself on her personal style. She strongly believes in the idea that an individual’s look can influence and impact their performance. In her interview with Marc Esannason, she quoted A.I.: “Look good, play good.” Santiago not only embraces this motto in her personal life, but she also uses it as the basis for her own entrepreneurial venture. Giovanna is the creator of Salut. According to Ms. Santiago, Salut is a “lifestyle brand highlighting the underground demographic of chefs, bartenders, and people who work overall in the culinary scene and nightlife industry.” The company accomplishes this goal by bridging the gap between personal style and professionalism. Salut strives to marry design and functionality in order to not only bring out the unique fashion sense of hospitality and culinary workers, but to also maintain professionalism within the workplace. Santiago accomplishes this by providing a service that allows for the creation of uniforms that are unique and exclusive to the workers themselves as well as the companies they work for.
Now, who is Giovanna Santiago, and how did she come up with this idea?
Giovanna is nothing short of a hard worker. She has labored in a variety of jobs and has done a substantial amount of research in order to develop her idea. She has worked within the fashion world, working as an intern for a Viacom show for five months. During this internship, she gained a lot of insight into what happens behind the scenes of the fashion world. She dealt with manifests, making sure all products that they received were returned to the companies that sent them, communicating with local designers, and general work behind the runways. After this phase of her life, she moved into the hospitality industry. She began working at The Wing (a private members club for women in New York City). During her time with this business, she worked as a barista for the cafe portion of the club, and she also worked as a bartender. In addition to gaining these two skillets, she met with a lot of powerful and influential women in New York. Due to the nature of her job, she was able to pick the minds of these elite women, and she gained a lot of valuable insight into the business world. After her time in New York, she decided to return back to her hometown of Prince George’s county, MD. Here she went to work at Maketto, which is a Asian restaurant with a streetwear store in the front. During her time at Maketto, she saw that the fashion and the culinary industries could be combined in order to create something different; however, she also saw how she personally could influence both industries in a completely new way. As a result, she decided to combine all of her experience into her own business idea, and, from that point, she began to formulate Salut.
Where does MakingABrand™ come into play?
Giovanna’s skillset and vast experience have allowed her to cultivate such a standout idea. The work she has done beforehand not only feeds into her knowledge about how to run the business but also how to diversify it. Even though she has all of this knowledge and passion in regard to the conceptualization of her idea, she ran into a wall when trying to figure out a tangible plan for her business. This ultimately led her to seek the help of Makingabrand™. From that point on, she used MakingABrand™ as a resource to develop her business and transform her concepts and intentions into a legitimate business plan.
