Meet Steven Reyes | Rug Artist & Entrepreneur

We had the good fortune of connecting with Steven Reyes and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Steven, we’d love to start by asking you about lessons learned. Is there a lesson you can share with us?
Time is everything. Money comes and goes. The value of a dollar can always change, but the duration of a minute will always be a minute. You can make the money back, you can’t ever get your minute back. Although it is easy, don’t get so lost in trying to build your business that your forget to build a life outside of that. Being aware of how you’re spending your time, who you’re spending that time with, and what you are doing with that time is everything. Just make sure your time is being spent on things that align with who you are, the people you truly love, and where it is you’re trying to go. You are the only one that has to feel your minutes.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
The Rug Laboratory was a project I started coming out a shoulder surgery. This was back in December 2020-February 2021. That was a very hard and dark time for me for a lot of personal reasons. I was just not in the best place mentally and really just in search for a way out of my head and a way to be able to express myself. I just wanted to have something to work on and work towards. I found that by diving into my creative side. It was very hard for me to make my first rug, and get a hold of things. Granted, this is during my shoulder surgery recovery. It took me like 3 weeks straight of trail and error and talking my way out of not returning my equipment to finally get some traction. Then I made my first rug… and it was terrible. But right in the center of that terrible rug was a patch of a perfectly tufted area. That was my beacon of hope. I saw that patch and knew I could do something with this. So I got after it and started making rugs. I made 3 of them that I was proud of and from there I started offering making customs for people and just went with it. Each rug was a different opportunity to try something different, get out of my comfort zone with different methods, tweak the process a little, etc. Getting to the point with rugs that I am today has not been easy at all. It’s taken some very long nights, some burnout, over coming waves and waves of self doubt, stress, etc. but with that came learning to breathe through the stress, confidence, creative freedom, happiness, really cool projects, etc. The biggest thing I’ve learned during the duration of this business is that life is going to throw all kinds of stuff at you, it will try and bring you down, it will try and hold you back, all that is inevitable. You have to be able to adapt to the inevitables and you have to just keep going. So although it hasn’t been easy, the rewards and lessons of all the challenging things I’ve had to face have been worth it. That’s what this whole brand is about and built off of. The ability to see a challenge and face it as opposed to turning the other way and running. Staying resilient in the face of challenge will teach you more about yourself than running ever could. You learn something every time you try something new, even if it’s scary. That’s what I want The Rug Laboratory to represent.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
First place I would take them is the Water Gardens for sure. I loved that place growing up and the it’s just a place I used to use to reset my mind. So peaceful there. Get some wings and pizza at buffalo bros downtown. Nice little beer. Magnolia street is also a really cool place to check out. Plenty of restaurants and bars out there. But if it’s nature, I would see if they can rent a kayak, let them borrow one of my fishing rods and go kayak fishing. Modern Art museum is also another cool place to check out.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
The first shoutout I want to do is do my 2 incredible and beautiful daughters, Elena Gray and Ella Sol. Everything I do, I do for them. I just want to show them what is possible in life if you’re willing to go for it and work for it. They are my motivation, the reason I wake up in the morning, the reason I work as hard as I do to make sure I give them a life full of happiness and memories for as long as God allows me to. Also want to shoutout to my daughter’s mother, Korina Reyna, thank you for working with me when it comes to the kids and my busy chaotic schedule/life. I also want to shoutout to my parents, Maribel Reyes and Mike Reyes for being supportive in the things that I choose to do, whether they agree with it or not, they support and that’s really all I can ask for. They both showed me what hard work and working towards something can really do for you in life. I’ve seen both of them conquer and get through soooo many tribulations in life. They just keep showing up and they keep showing love. I’ve learned so much from the both of them.

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