What happens when we trust our intuition and, despite obstacles, keep pursuing what it calls us to do? In my conversation with entrepreneur Sterling Lentz we explore that question—and the one “big ask” that carried him 8,000 miles from home. Sterling is the founder and owner of Fundamental Artifact, offering a variety of natural goods from global artisans.
PQ: Your website has a serene vibe. The language, merchandise, and photography are soulful and beautiful.
SL: Thanks. I’ve traveled a lot, and I love supporting an international community of artisans. I’m not Buddhist, but I lean toward the simple and the invitation to slow down, calm down, and be able to focus on the beauty of a simple object and see where it takes us.
PQ: That comes through in your website. What influenced your aesthetic?
SL: My father is a consummate outdoorsman with a tremendous connection to the natural world, and there’s an unbelievably serene quality in how he lives. He has these beautiful gardens and what amounts to a small farm, but no watering schedule. He says, “When I ask a plant what it wants, it tells me.”
He’s always had this sort of sixth sense where he was able to perceive things that were completely invisible to me. We’ll be out on a hike and he’ll say, “Look at that owl in the tree.” It’ll take me three minutes to see it, but he’ll just see it in his periphery.
PQ: It sounds like the special relationship indigenous people have with the physical world.
SL: Exactly. And I love to think that we can all have a relationship with the earth that is much more intuitive, and much more emotional. The world is such a magical, unbelievable, unexplainable, mysterious, wondrous place and we’re just seeing a snippet of it in our daily life.
PQ: Roger that! Sterling, were you always wired this way?
SL: No. I grew up poor, and so I later became incredibly invested in the material world, the world of money and logic and rationality. I worked in technology and found myself becoming kind of a machine myself.
I really took that lifestyle to its logical conclusion and saw its limitations. I experienced how people live in ways totally separate from nature, separate from the divine, from magic, from spontaneity—a worldview that’s not really human.
PQ: And I think we humans are simpler than the complex lives we construct. And simple just feels better. The mystic Meister Eckhart said the soul grows not by addition but subtraction.
SL: Yeah, and getting right to the essence, which is where we’re working with something pretty amazing.
PQ: So, let’s get to the central question. What has been your biggest ask related to your business?
SL: Initially, the biggest asks were the ones I asked myself. A few years ago, I felt a movement in my spirit that I couldn’t even understand or articulate at the time. It was asking me to do bigger things, to see my life in a bigger, more all-encompassing way and to have an impact on the world.
PQ: How did that impulse come to you?
SL: It came through relationships with some teachers and mentors I had who saw something in me and were imploring me to go out in the world and make something of myself. Because up to that point, I’d worked on some big projects and for some famous people but never wanted to draw any attention to myself.
And they [teachers and mentors] got me thinking, What if I choose to see life in a bigger way? What would my life be like if I did what I love to do all the time? And what kind of business could involve all of me, my interests and skills and life experience?
PQ: Soul searching questions.
SL: Yes. And slowly the answers came into view as Fundamental Artifact, which made me ask more questions, like,
Is this an interesting idea?
Could I really live in such a way that this would be possible?
Am I talented enough?
Do I have the right experience?
Could I pull this off?
Because it’s a difficult and expensive business, and if you don’t believe in yourself, it’s very hard to succeed.
But I believe once you set your mind to something the whole universe begins working to help you. I had the idea for Fundamental Artifact in Istanbul, to offer these natural handmade goods from all over the world. And the minute I made that decision tears came to my eyes. I could feel the power of the idea.
After that happened I started finding places, knife and ceramics and leather shops. And these places were speaking to me, like, Hey I’m over here — come look! And I’d go in and sure enough there’d be interesting things.
PQ: Intuition at work! So, at first, your biggest asks were internal. What about big asks you made of other people?
SL: In November of 2025, I was in Hanoi for three or four days. As I was walking around one night, I saw a linen clothing shop called Lo’s Corner and had the feeling, There’s something here — go in. I walked in and met Lo.
She was so humble and down to earth, and the clothes she makes are so beautiful and well made. I knew instantly I wanted to work with her.
The problem though is her business is very successful, and she’s approached by a lot of western businesspeople who want her to sell her clothes or have her team make their clothes, just like I did. And I started off like everyone else asking that, and she said no.
PQ: What reasons did she give you?
SL: She’d give me this whole carousel of reasons: I’m too busy or it’s going to take too long or I don’t have enough tailors for my own stuff or it’s going to be a hassle to ship it to the US and blah blah blah.
She also thought I was kind of a salesy figure. She’d say, “You’re too pushy”—which was true! And I said, Well I felt something when I went into your shop and there can’t just be a no because I don’t feel things for no reason. And so, I kept asking. And she kept saying no.
Back home, I started communicating with her on WhatsApp. I decided I was going to ask her again, in person, and let her know I’m very serious. Because she wasn’t taking me seriously.
So, in February I flew back to Vietnam and showed up at her doorstep. I said, “I really want to work with you—how do we make this work?” She was very impressed by that but she still said no. She said, “I don’t know if you’re that serious about this.” And I said, What!? I just flew all the way to Vietnam!
And she says, Well, I don’t know you, you could have been on another trip or something.
And I said, No, I flew here to talk to you! Actually, I did go to India after that on other business, but I’d put Vietnam on the stop so I could ask her.
Even though she said no, we were able to spend time together and share some meals and talk, and sort of became friends. When I’m meeting somebody, whether it’s a personal relationship or a business relationship, I’m trying to figure out what makes this person tick. I was just tremendously interested in Lo’s life. I’m really interested in how people work and how they see the world. It’s how I’m wired.
But from a business perspective you need to know how people think so you can know what moves them to action. If you’re going to be a leader or organize anything you have to understand what motivates people.
PQ: So, what did you learn about Lo?
SL: In our conversations on and offline I learned about her family, how she started the business, and what it was like for her as a female business owner to start her company from nothing. When she’d started the business, nobody believed in her. Family and friends told her she was wasting her time. And when I heard her tell me that, I knew what motivated her.
PQ: Which was what?
SL: When she sees somebody else passionately trying to do something that nobody else believes in, and who’s committed to succeeding, that’s who she’ll help. So, I said to myself, Ok, I’m just going to continue to demonstrate to her that I’m committed and that I have a vision worth investing in. I will keep doing what I can control.
Because when you’re asking it’s not within your control how the person responds. And when you’ve done your best, you can’t just keep beating a dead horse.
PQ: So, she’d rejected you on two different visits. What did you do next?
SL: The brand was in my mind and I was talking with people about it. For the next six months I started to do more clothing designs, write things, do branding and logos and design and collateral, and sharing it with Lo online. I didn’t ask her again, but I showed her I was serious.
PQ: And then made your third trip to Vietnam?
SL: Yes. The following summer I came to her and made a personal appeal. I said, Look, I’ve been at this for eight months. You see what I’ve done. I can’t do this without you because I can’t make these clothes. And I do not want anyone else in the world to make these clothes except you. There is something about you, something about the quality of the clothes, something about your spirit that makes it absolutely essential that we work together.
And she said, Ok, I’ll make your clothes.
PQ: Finally!
SL: Yeah, it was a huge moment for me and for the business, and for her and our business relationship. I asked her, Why are you helping me now? And she said, “Because you gave me no other choice.”
PQ: What did she mean by that?
SL: She said saw something in me and felt she had to help me, even though she thought I’d bring her problems!
PQ: How did it feel to finally get that yes?
SL: I was tremendously relieved, because the natural apparel is essential to my brand and business model, and I absolutely needed this to work. But I needed somebody to work with that had the right attitude and the right appreciation for natural handmade goods, which Lo did in spades.
PQ: I’ve enjoyed hearing your story not only because it’s an incredible ask, but because it illustrates a lot of the skills I write about in The Big Ask—clarity, persistence, making a personal appeal, emphasizing shared values, building rapport. You said you and Lo became friends. How important is friendship in business?
SL: I’ve always said the best business relationships are essentially friendships with a business component, especially early on. Because you’re going to have ask for help or need assistance. You’re not going to be able to convince somebody from a business perspective to invest time and energy in you unless they like you and see you as somebody they could be friends with.
Now we see each other as collaborators. She sends me all kinds of stuff from her business and asks my thoughts and has brought me into her side of the business. I designed a logo for her and also helped her out with some marketing stuff.
PQ: My book explores how the most successful asks result when we believe we’re worthy of what we’re asking and believe it’s possible to get it. And yet, if we don’t believe, we can act as if we do and ask anyway. Kind of, fake it ‘til you make it. In creating your business, did you always ask from a place of belief?
SL: The first year I didn’t totally believe it, but eventually I reached a certain threshold where I believed it enough. It’s interesting, “fake it ‘til you make it” is a term I’ve used a lot as well, but I don’t think the word fake is accurate.
Even though it may feel fake, the fact is that by asking you are taking action, and action shows you’re serious. I’ve always thought, like, I can feel any which way about an idea—but what are my actions? Because that’s what’s doing the speaking.
PQ: The action is the showing up and the speaking up.
SL: And being consistent.
PQ: Sterling, it’s been a pleasure. Best of luck with Fundamental Artifact.
SL: Thanks. I’ve enjoyed this.
Story photos provided by Sterling Lentz. Banner photo by Rowan Heuvel on Unsplash
For more information visit FundamentalArtifact.com
Paul Quinn writes The Big Ask Blog and is the author THE BIG ASK: Unlock the Possibilities in Your Work, Life & Dreams with Courageous Requests, available in paperback, digital, and audiobook formats.