119 - From Seamstress to CEO: Abbie Garcia-Tunon on Building GT Stitchery, Growth, and Family First

Host Mark McNees welcomes Abbie Garcia-Tunon, founder and CEO of GT Stitchery, after her Five Under 30 talk at the Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship. Abbie shares how her Miami-based embroidery business evolved from seamstress work started in 2013 into primarily one-off custom embroidery (with some bulk orders) using three 10-needle machines. She discusses influences from her hardworking parents, her upbringing in Maine, including an all-girls summer camp, and her athletic background as an FSU swimmer with an ACC postgraduate scholarship. Abby describes balancing entrepreneurship with raising three sports-loving kids, how COVID-era mask making helped her business take off, and lessons on slow growth, delegation, saying yes to opportunities, and saying no when family must come first. She also highlights routines like early workouts and gratitude journaling, and future goals to hire help, expand event embroidery, and invest in multi-head machines. 00:00 Podcast Welcome Guest Intro 00:45 GT Stitchery What They Make 01:13 One Offs Vs Bulk Orders 01:46 How The Business Started 02:07 Early Influences And Mentors 03:23 Growing Up In Maine 05:11 Family Summer Camp Life 06:03 Swimming Scholarship To FSU 06:33 Marathon Training And Qualifying 07:21 Host Ironman And Swim Stories 09:36 Post Grad School And Sewing 10:43 First Job Seminole Boosters 11:20 Meeting Javi Garcia 12:50 Family Life in Miami 13:44 Masks Spark Business 15:49 Slow Growth Lessons 17:18 Mindset and Gratitude 19:29 Scaling and Delegation 23:30 Work Family Tradeoffs 25:46 Advice and Wrap Up