We had the good fortune of connecting with Luke Davis and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Luke, what do you attribute your success to?
From the beginning, we’ve always focused on our content + brand to be authentic. We’ve never taken shortcuts by using stock photography, follower gaining stunts, or using other people’s imagery — everything you see on our website and social channels was captured through real stories, trips, and settings. It has encouraged organic growth while fostering a real conversation between our customers and our team. I firmly believe that in order to build a brand, you have to be yourself and establish a consistent voice.
Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
At LIE + LOFT, we focus specifically on golf art and home goods. If you do a quick pinterest or google search on golf art, you’ll see why there was a need for a contemporary / authentic take. We are most known for creating course map prints in a modern fashion — art that a non-golfer would even let in the home. In the beginning, I drove from golf course to golf course with samples, meeting with buyers and pitching our products. By focusing on wholesale, we were able to establish a customer base while building a brand with a long-term focus in parallel. From the beginning, we’ve been very focused on the details. We did everything in-house to ensure quality + care: design, printing, framing, woodworking, and shipping. It definitely isn’t easy to manufacture yourself while running everything else in the business (we’ve shanked just about every mistake in the book), but in true start-up fashion, we made it until we made it. To this day, we still write by hand thank you notes with every order that leaves our door, and continue to design, print, and ship in-house. It’s created a real connection with our valuable customers.
Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Ah, Raleigh, the City of Oaks! There are plenty of wooded hikes, nature trails, lakes, and adventure to be had around town, or if up for the drive, the coast or the mountains await close by. Ashley Christiansen is a well-known chef with quite a few tasty establishments — the food scene is growing in Raleigh with staples such as Poole’s, Stanbury, and Crawford & Sons. There’s also a decent lil brewery scene in Raleigh as well as a growing art community. About an hour down the road is the Home to American Golf, Pinehurst, where a plethora of golf courses can be had.
Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Shoutout to the OG Shark Tank seasons — I was in the early years of college when the show began, during a time when I (like many others my age) had no clue what I wanted to do with my life. It was fascinating to be exposed to the stories of entrepreneurs from so many backgrounds, industries, and levels of success. For years, I kept a journal of crazy ideas I had, but didn’t really understand that entrepreneurship was a viable path until the show… it really got me hooked on the dream of doing my own thing one day.
Website: lieandloft.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lieandloft/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lie-loft
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lieandloftgolf
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lieandloft
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdWXFOoC7QSpakkNpt7-HGw
Other: portlandtopebble.com