Megan Duckett, Founder/president of Sew What?, Rent What? & Put What Where?
Originally hailing from Melbourne, Australia, Megan Duckett has lived and worked in the U.S. since the early ‘90s and is the founder and president of an ever-expanding entertainment support services empire beginning with soft goods manufacturer Sew What?, followed by Rent What? And recently adding Put What Where? and now Odyssey 21, all based in Los Angeles, CA. She started out as a lighting technician in Melbourne right out of high school in the mid 1980s working on Phantom of the Opera as well as work at the Victorian Arts Centre (now called Melbourne Arts Centre) on opera, ballet, comedy shows, and more. She met a lot of touring crews while working on theater and concert tours that came through Australia. In fact, it was during a Billy Joel tour working as a production driver that the crew told her to move to the U.S., that she could get work. “A few months later, I got on a plane and came to the U.S.,” says Duckett. I’m still here!” We spoke to her about how she went from looking for jobs to running her own businesses.
PLSN: What was the aha moment that then led you to start Sew What?
Megan Duckett: When I got here [to the U.S.], it wasn’t quite that easy to get on a tour and there weren’t that many girls on buses. It was a different time, and the opportunities were different. People would come up to me on a gig and tell me the singer just split his pants. Could I fix them? Somebody’s patch came off their jacket and they’d find me. Even though I was on the lighting crew, they saw this as a traditionally female task. I was getting a lot of requests. I thought, ‘Well, nobody else is doing it. Maybe that’s what I should do.’ So, that’s really where the sewing business concept came from. From ‘91, I was pretty much sewing nights and weekends on my kitchen table. I didn’t incorporate and go full time until 1997. From ‘92 to ‘97, it was a side job. Then it turned out I was making more money doing that than with my day job. So, I jumped ship and incorporated, and the rest is history.
You have Sew What? where you manufacture drapes; Rent What? is your drape and drop rental company. A year ago, during the height of the Covid pandemic, you opened Put What Where?, your storage solution. Tell us how this unique and fascinating business concept has fared during the almost 17 months of this extended intermission.
Actually, it’s been quite fabulous. In under a year, I’ve already filled my storage business — 38,000 square feet. So, it’s a reasonable size. It’s certainly not massive, but it’s been really interesting and exciting because I’m working with my same clients, but in a different way. It’s been a great experience buying that property. Purchasing that second building has enabled me to do a lot of improvements and set the place up really nicely. It’s clean, it’s organized, and it has a lot of amenities. It’s a comfortable place for people to come visit and deposit — or collect — their storage. It’s also a very safe place because I’ve got it done up like Fort Knox with fencing, security systems, and cameras. I think that provides a really comfortable environment for folks to bring their important products for storage.
We’ve recently just incorporated the final entity, which is named Odyssey 21. It is a small location for film, TV, and commercial shoots or as an event space. We’re off to a flying start with that already, with a national magazine doing a photo shoot. It’s a great mid-century modern 4,000-square foot environment, and perfect for after-parties, record release parties, show parties, or photo and video shoots. It’s really a neat space — everything is mid-century modern design; the architecture is very unique. The building is in the same complex as Put What Where?.
Over the course of your career, what have been some challenges you faced both as an entrepreneur, but also as a businesswoman?
Well, there’s never a shortage of challenges, right? Mostly I think for me, in the early days, challenges were finding and hiring the right talent. It’s very difficult. That continues to be difficult as I find manufacturing and crafting and building things from scratch becomes less and less appealing to the younger generations. What we’re seeing now is kind of a shift in the age of people that have an interest in manufacturing, especially manual manufacturing. The age of the average seamstresses, male or female, is creeping up. It’s less popular as a career. The more technology there is, the less these hand craft, hand-operated industries appeal to the younger generation. I think keeping manufacturing alive, keeping it here in the United States, showing people that it can be a good career is another challenge. That’s part of my job now, because I think it’s important.
What’s a piece of advice you got early on in your career that you still find applicable today?
Definitely it would be, “You’re only going to get out what you put in.” I try to be at 110% all the time. I personally translate that to meaning, make your work a passion, produce a good product and needing perseverance. If you’re not passionate about it, you won’t succeed. If you don’t have a good product, you won’t succeed. And if you aren’t willing to persevere, you won’t succeed. And all three of those have to be balanced, because if you’re all passion, but your product is not good, it’s not going to work for you. So it doesn’t matter what I do in life, I remember I have to balance all three P’s — passion, product perseverance.
Is there a piece of advice you would give to somebody else?
Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty. Don’t be afraid to take some risks.
What do you enjoy most about your career?
I was born to build and create. I live to see a sketch or a diagram or hear a description from a client; Immediately my mind kicks in to figure out ‘how do I convert this into a three-dimensional textile artwork?’ I just love it; it’s super exciting. I get to be a little bit of a designer. I get to be a colorist. I get to be a sculptor. I get to be a seamstress. It’s challenging because no two days are the same. Everything’s custom. I’m delighted that I didn’t get into the widget business.
For more information, visit www.sewwhatinc.com.
