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photography by allison shirreffs

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Grace Lim n w wmen,

ls f cmfy shirs and

a hefy dse f kick-ass

aiude.

the cmpanys bes-sellingt-shir has w wrds n i:

Defy medicriy.

Bh Alyson Bruu and

Kristine Fichera, c-

funders f Livn ou Lud,

a casual clhing cm-

pany based in Hampsead,

N.H., live ha philsphy

a t. on he surface, he

w wmen sell clh-

ing wih slgans ha are

inspirainal (Be smenes

mmen) and sassy (Mine

are brass).

But what they have discovered is that their

small companyrun rom their 218-year-

old armhousehas become much more

than just another cute T-shirt provider;

Livn Out Loud has become a way o lie

or like-minded women, who insist on

deying mediocrity and being someones

moment.

Many o the other popular shirts speakto the empowering nature o both the

business and its customers:

If you judge me, know the truth

about me.

Im not beautiful like you. Im

beautiful like me.

Become your own hero.

Indeed, its that oten in-your-ace em-

powerment that bonds the two-year-old

company to its customers, who eagerlyshare their own livn out loud stories,

ranging rom training or a frst marathon

to fnally quitting a uninspiring job to bat-

tling cancer. Many o the stories are post-

ed on the companys online community

orum. Bruu and Fichera send personal-

ized emails to each customer and regu-

larly correspond with more than a dozen

women with whom they celebrate suc-

cesses (going back to school, a daughter

entering college) and share pain (divorce,

the loss o a loved one to cancer).

The casual clothing line is sold online

(www.livnoutloud.com) and in a handul

o stores including Big River Trading in

Mendocino, Cali.; Healing Spirit Bou-

tique in Tucson; and the Childrens Hos-

pital Git Shop in Boston.

Kathy McStay, 53, o Baden, Pa., credits

the co-owners with helping her cope with

her aunts battle with breast cancer and

subsequent death. Aly wrote to me every

t

t

t

week and asked me how (my aunt) was

and how I was. I have riends who didnt

check in with me as oten as Aly had.

McStay says her aunt in her nal days

was also touched by Livn Out Loud. The

last thing I gave my aunt was a Livn Out

Loud shirt that says, Hey cancer . . . you

picked the wrong broad! My aunt loved

it. She put it on and said it make her eelstronger, says McStay, a teachers aide.

Thats what Aly and Kris do they send

out the most positive and loving energy.

(Livn Out Loud donates a portion o sales

rom the T-shirt to the American Cancer

Society.)

L i f e a n d d e a t h a n d L i f e

Bruus own livn out loud story took

place in August 2004 in a Manchester,

N.H., hospital. She had gone in or rou-

tine surgery to remove her right ovary. It

was supposed to be a non-issue in and

out the same day, she recalls. But the

pain ater surgery kept Bruu in the hospi-

tal overnight. The next morning, Bruus

system crashed, and a CAT scan showed

that she was hemorrhaging badly.

As she lay dying, Bruus mind pinged

with what she calls the 10,000-oot ques-

tions: How was my lie? Was it mean-

ingul? Did I live it happily? Did I mean

something to the world? Did I matter?

The gurney ride rom her hospital room to

the operating room took, maybe, fve min-

utes, Bruu recalls, but elt like a lietime.

Ater a nearly our-hour operation, doctors

nally ound the cause three tiny bleed-

ers in her diaphragm.

A week later, Bruu was back in her arm-

house in Hampstead, where she lives with

Fichera, her partner since 1994, and their

two Yorkies. There, Bruu began to assess

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her lie. Career-wise, she had already

walked away rom a high-prole, high-

paying job as an executive vice president

or a flm production company in 1999 to

start December Marketing, her own stra-

tegic communications agency. Still, Bruukept thinking: I lived or a reason. What

was that reason?

The answer came our months later in

the orm o a simple cotton sweatshirt.

Just beore Christmas o 2004, Bruu

and Fichera were vacationing in the White

Mountains o New Hampshire and stum-

bled into a small shop that carried sou-

venir sweatshirts. Bruu, a sel-described

cotton reak, ell in love with the material

and bought a rainbow assortment. Two

days later, Bruu looked across the kitchen

o the armhouse, realizing she had ound

the answer to her 10,000-oot questions.

We have to build a company around thisclothing, she told Fichera. I Im salivat-

ing over this rich gorgeous material, oth-

ers are going to as well.

Neither woman had experience in

clothing or retail; Bruu was a marketer,

and Fichera had spent two decades in cor-

porate sales, most recently in the technol-

ogy feld. But the enthusiasm snowballed.

Within an hour, the pair drew up a busi-

ness plan and secured the Web domain

name, www.livnoutloud.com. (Other in-

carnations o the phrase had already been

taken.) Our two brains meshed together

and ormed the concept o this company and it was to put inspirational, moti-

vational and empowering statements on

gorgeously rich and 100 percent cotton

clothing, Bruu says.

The pair decided to use their own mon-

ey to und the venture. I this is going to

be our company, it had to be our com-

pany. It was our leap o aith, Bruu says.

We went boom, boom, boom. There was

an urgency, a buzz, an energy orce in our

kitchen that day.

They both knew that a business is notbuilt with only a domain name and an

idea. They had to learn all about e-com-

merce and retail rom the ground up.

They needed suppliers, printers, a Web

site. They set o to do much o it them-

selves. Fichera, whose computer expertise

had been limited to simple word process-

ing, learned HTML, Web graphics and de-

sign, and built the companys Web site.

Every single thing we can do ourselves,

we do, says the 40-year-old Fichera, who

in March 2005 let her six-gure-salary

job to work on Livn Out Loud ull time.

Many times, its 1 a.m. and Im just n-

ishing olding 400 shirts that just came

in.

Meanwhile, Bruu, who handles the

marketing and public relations, emailed

100 riends, amily and business associ-

ates, asking, What does livn out loud

mean to you? She received 99 dier-

ent responses. Someone wrote back, It

means Im in my backyard, Im having a

party with riends, Im having a cold beer,

looking up to the heavens and thankingGod or this wonderul lie. Another

wrote, It means being who you truly are

without being araid. Everyone elt the

term livn out loud meant something di-

erent, which is great rom a marketing

perspective because then you know you

are going to hit all kinds o people.

Giddy with the responses, they orged

ahead and in May 2005, Livn Out Loud!

Fischera and Bruu near their 218-year-old farmhouse.

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have someone o a certain prole to be

seen in it.

She called on a childhood riend, ac-

tor Alec Baldwin, sent him a T-shirt and

asked him to send her a photo with him

wearing the shirt. Not only did Baldwin

do that, he sent back a note saying, Aly-

son and Kristine have come up with agreat idea! I hope everyone will support

the Livn Out Loud product line and em-

brace the reedom o the Livn Out Loud

liestyle.

From that photo and testimonial,

Bruu was able to create the much-need-

ed noise in the media. I know how im-

portant press is because one press begets

another begets another, she says, add-

ing that Livn Out Loud has been ea-

tured in more than a dozen media outlets.

The media coverage caught the atten-tion o the two giting companies that

wanted Livn Out Loud goods to help ll

celebrity swag bags; one company han-

dled the git bags at the Sundance Film

Festival held in Park City, Utah, in Janu-

ary, and the other awarded git baskets to

all the nonwinning nominees o the top

ve events at Academy Awards in Febru-

ary. We were hoping that Brad Pitt would

be nominated or Babel and lose so An-

gelina could get into our clothing, Bruu

says impishly.

Livn Out Loud turns two in May and

has yet to make a proit, but Bruu and

Fichera are not discouraged. They know

that their company is more than just

about making money; its about embrac-

ing lie and taking charge.And they see that phenomenon take

place within themselves and with such

customers as Brenda Reid, 53, o Hen-

niker, N.H., who walked into Livn Out

Louds booth at a womens expo in Feb-

ruary and walked out a changed woman.

I have never heard o them beore, says

Reid, a production worker or an emer-

gency medical supplies company. But

when I saw the shirt that had I would

rather be disliked or who I am than loved

or who Im not, I elt like I have oundthe missing piece in my lie. I put the

shirt on and I elt goose bumps. I used to

live out loud. I can live out loud.

Bruu says her heart just lls with joy

when she hears such stories. She recalls

how she elt the day she almost died.

When I was being wheeled into that O.R.

with my heart pounding out o my chest

and thinking, Did I? Was I? Could I? I

am now saying, Yes. Yes. Yes.

Grace Lim is a writer based in Oshkosh, Wis., where

she lives out loud by running for doughnuts and world

peace. Her blog can be found at www.runningfordo-

nuts.com.

Tips from Alyson Bruuand Kristine Ficherafor jumping into a new

business: Have an innate pas-

sion for what you are

setting out to do. Have enough money

to see you throughthe rough start. With-

out that, you might betempted to walk awaybefore your sales cangain traction.

Dont dawdle. Toomany good ideas dieon the shelf. Write

your business plan.Do it now.

Make noise about

your brand. Take everyopportunity to sendout a press release,

because one piece ofpress begets another.

Get your product inthe hands of your

demographic. Givethings away. Alignwith a charity. Themore feel good

things you do, themore viral marketingwill happen.

Develop a strongcustomer and pros-pect opt-in data-

base (people who askto be on your mailinglist) and email them

regularly (but not toomuch) with new prod-uct news, discounts,specials anything to

keep top of mind rec-ognition of your brand.Be sure to link theemail to the shopping

page of your site so itis convenient for themto purchase from you.

s t a r t i n g a B i z o u t L o u d

Whats yourmottKristine Fichera?

Adversity doesnt buildcharacter . . . it reveals

Whats your

mottoAlyson Bruu?

Defymediocrity

Clothing Co. launched with a deaen-

ing silence.

Bruu and Fichera learned their irst

lesson o entrepreneurship. I you build

it, they will not come, Bruu says with a

laugh. We expected that once we pulledthe trigger that we were going to sit back,

and the orders were going to fy in. We

got two orders one rom my cousin and

one rom my sister.

c e l e b r i t y h e l p Bruu realized

she needed to create buzz. I knew that

in order to make something, particularly

clothing, legitimate and hot, you have to

2007may/june | motto