Stephanie True didn't plan any of this. She graduated from college with a double major in history and sociology, moved to Charleston because her parents had retired there, and was basically just figuring out what came next. Then her mom — a serial entrepreneur who spent her career buying businesses, building them up, and selling them — found some screen printing equipment and pointed at Stephanie. "You'll run this." And that was that.

What followed was 31 years of doing it the hard way: learning graphic design on her own, burning screens, coating screens, packing orders, managing people she'd never managed before, and figuring out what kind of boss she actually wanted to be. Stephanie talks about all of it — the credit cards that kept the lights on for the first decade, printing straight through her first pregnancy, walking into meetings where men asked to speak to her boss (spoiler: she is the boss), and what COVID forced her to finally get right about how she compensates her team. She's built Charleston Cotton Exchange into a 31-year-old screen printing, embroidery, and promo company with 25 people and a production manager who's been with her for over 20 years. None of it came easy. And she wouldn't have it any other way.

01:00 — Welcome and introduction: Stephanie True, Charleston Cotton Exchange
01:30 — What Charleston Cotton Exchange does: screen printing, embroidery, promo, events
02:00 — 31 years in business — and she never planned to be here
02:45 — The origin story: mom the serial entrepreneur, the equipment, the nudge
04:30 — How the company got its name (a Yellow Pages story)
06:00 — Staffing as the number one challenge in any small business
07:15 — Culture fit over credentials: "Can they giggle with my girls up front?"
09:00 — Creating manager-employee boundaries — when befriending staff goes wrong
10:15 — Her husband works for her part-time — and she's clear about keeping separation
11:00 — Doing everything herself, burnout, and learning to delegate in order to grow
12:30 — What it feels like at 50+ when the adrenaline finally runs out
14:30 — Why she stayed in printing every time she almost walked away
16:00 — The creative pull that kept her: inks, threads, fabrics, making things
17:30 — Why the custom-only model works and why she never wants to carry inventory
19:00 — Being young and female in the South — the real challenges
20:00 — "Can I talk to your boss?" — and it still happens today
21:30 — Why being visible in the weeds earns a different kind of respect
22:30 — Earned confidence versus the false confidence of youth
23:30 — Mom guilt, work-life balance, and printing through her first pregnancy
25:00 — Leaving the business in someone else's hands — and what can go wrong
27:30 — COVID: paying employees during shutdown and moving to guaranteed hours
30:30 — Credit cards and the financial truth of the first ten years
33:00 — Closing question: what advice she'd give her younger self
34:00 — Ask questions. Stop being afraid. Give yourself grace.