INSPIRING MINDS: Building a Conscious Brand with kaio swim
As humans we are wired to preserve energy and choose the path of least resistance. How come then, there are some who choose a unique path, one in the pursuit of something important, meaningful but definitely not easy? We call them Inspiring Minds.
In this new series, every month we will be speaking with those who have veered off the path of least resistance in the pursuit of more.
In this interview we are speaking with Joanna (J) and Chollada (C), founders of kaio swim, a sustainable swimwear brand creating timeless pieces made of regenerated fibres. We speak about fears, doubts and imposter syndrome when starting your own business, their biggest challenges in the creation of a conscious brand and their biggest learnings.
1. Why did you decide, that despite this being “a harder path” it was one worth taking?
C: For me, I think the answer to this question is quite straight forward. The point when I started the project, I was not thinking about walking in the park or how beautiful the park would be. I just wanted to do it. I started it with my full passion and with my full inspiration, but not really looking or really thinking far ahead.
J: Five years ago, after having my first child, I started wondering if I was on the right path. Could I look at him and tell him that I was proud of what I was doing? The answer was “no, not yet”, so even if I was already working in the sustainable development field, something was missing.
I could not express all my possibilities in the corporate world and I felt I needed to act in a more direct way. This was the first step towards a complete change of career.
2. What was the tipping point when you realized maybe it was more of just a project and it was something you wanted to pursue in a more serious capacity?
J: If I started it, it was to become something serious. I would have been scared otherwise that I would not get involved enough and do what it takes to make it work.
C: This would be the continuation of what I said before as well, about starting with this naive outlook. I just started by talking to the suppliers, got prototypes from them, started talking to different organisations or friends and colleagues. I started to slowly realize that what I dream of it's not just a dream anymore.
3. I think most of us at some point will have had a business idea or something that we wish we would do. But I say one of the main reasons why a lot of us don't actually pursue it is because we fall victim to imposter syndrome. It's this feeling of; who the hell am I to do this? I've no idea what I'm doing, I don't even know where to start. My question to you would be, did you ever feel this at the beginning stages and if you did, what did you do to overcome it?
C: I had a lot of fears in the beginning. A major one being at that time four years ago, I did not speak a word of German while trying to start a business in Switzerland. It was also that I had never started a business before. I had done business school, I had worked in business, I worked in marketing and sales, so I knew the things from textbooks… But I still had no experience in starting a business of my own. There was a lot of fear there but going back to the first two questions, I think I just took that naiveness and said “let's just try, let's see what it brings.”
J: I'm kind of a dreamer and I've dreamed a lot in my whole life. And I dreamed about a lot about things that I never undertook because there was so many reasons to not do it. I was always very critical towards myself also comparing myself too much. You can always find someone who has more experience than you. So imposter syndrome accompanied me for a long time. So on one hand what helped me to overcome that feeling was to take another class, to get some credibility in the fashion industry. Taking that class gave me the tools to know what I'm talking about to feel comfortable.
There was also the point where I just had to recognise that I don't have all the answers. When you really get started you realize that no one really has the answers. Every business is different and if you want to try something you ask around everyone has a different answer. I mean, even something like shipping or taxes, even if you ask the authorities, they might have different answers. So in a way you realise okay, nobody really knows. All you can do is do your best.
4. What would you say has been your biggest challenge in creating your own conscious business?
C: Everybody knows that starting your own brand is not easy, especially in the fashion industry, it’s already a big challenge…and then being conscious on top of it, you add the challenge on top of the challenge. It's just something that we have to be aware of from the whole time is that no matter what we do, no matter which decisions we make, especially the major decisions, like; what’s the design? What is the product? What is the material? Even the logistics and administration... It just adds on of what regular business would do.
We constantly ask ourselves: “what can we do to become more conscious?” We want to call ourselves a conscious brand, a sustainable brand and we just don't want to call it for a marketing purpose. This is our vision, our goal, in our DNA and everything that we do. So the challenge is that in the decisions we make, we have to think twice and you have to ask ourselves: “okay, is this conscious enough? Are we being honest to ourselves? Are we being honest to our customers?”
5. You mentioned this question of: “are we doing it well enough? Are we doing it consciously enough? Are we doing it sustainably enough?” It can never be quite enough or quite perfect enough, right? There has to be a limit to some extent…has that limit changed? How have you defined that limit?
C: That's actually a really good question and it’s something that we also discussed in the beginning that, as you said, we can never be perfect. We decided that for us, sustainability of being conscious is a journey. You have to start somewhere and if out of 100 and you can accomplish them 70% and that's the level that you get because of your resources, your time, your effort and other limitations then okay. It's a journey that we have to keep in mind that we want to go to that 100 milestone.
We do what’s conscious, what’s sustainable, but not necessarily perfect but we keep working on it. In the past few weeks Joanna has been working extensively with another company on circularity. This is an example of what we’re doing to be better than yesterday. I read once - I don't remember the source exactly - but it say something like to be sustainable you don't need everybody to be perfect in being sustainable, you just need everybody to want to do something little, to improve on yesterday and that's how I'm you create a more sustainable world.
J: I think there is no business on earth who is to the truly sustainable, that would mean we don’t leave any trace and that would mean we don't do any business... I think that we are very honest and we have very high standards. So probably for us, a challenge is being aware of what is happening, what is the next opportunity and figuring out if can we afford to take it or not. How do we integrate that in the business? How do we integrate that in what we already have with the products we already have? And that's not always easy because if we had all the means in the world, we could do much more than we are doing today, but I think what we're doing today is already pretty good. Touching on what Chollada mentioned, one of our big objective now is to become fully circular, which would mean that not only our swimwear is made with regenerated fibres but we would also close the loop - meaning we would like to offer to our customers to take the swimsuits back and then to reuse the fabric. There is a company which is going to launch very soon called iCEEP. That they offer is helping us in the collection of the pre-loved items. We are really excited to have found that partner who can help us in that area to help us go one step further.
5. You’ve recently launched the For All The Women In You campaign. Can you tell us a little bit more about what that campaign is really all about and what the objective is?
J: Nowadays we have somehow to manage it all, especially, women with families, for example. It's a challenge to somehow be perfect in all aspects which brings with it a lot of pressure and a heavy mental load. What we wanted is that our swimwear, with its little contribution, to allow to relieve this pressure and make it easier. So you don't have to think twice if you have to wear your swimwear for swimming or playing with your children, or if you want to go surfing , or if you just want to be at the beach and look great in the sun…and that's the idea behind the women in you.
C: We also want to remind ourselves as well that we are creating swimwear for women, not just to make them look beautiful, but we want to create a swimwear for women feel delighted, to make them feel that they are proud of their body to make them feel that they are comfortable and confident in their swimsuit…
6. Going back to your respective business journeys, what would you say for each of you has been the most important thing that you you've learned so far?
C: For me would be to be brave, to embrace the journey, to acknowledge the mistakes that you have done in the past, to embrace them, learn from them and to go forward.
Doing a business…you will fail.
It doesn't mean that you will lose your business or your business will go bankrupt, but you will make mistakes at some point of time because you are not perfect and because you are trying to do something new, therefore you will make mistakes. Ultimately, fail fast, but fail forward.
J: To stop overthinking everything and just trust my instinct…and do not try to do everything perfectly because it just takes more energy than it’s worth.
7. If you had a word of advice for someone who would love to pursue a passion project, they feel exactly the way that you guys felt when you were starting, but they're overwhelmed with doubt and they don't know where to start… What would you say?
C: I don't want to say that you have to take the same path as I did, but I think sometimes that naiveness helps you to move forward. If you have the passion to do something, just do it, try it out and try to talk to a lot of people. If it works out then it works out and if it doesn't work out, then at least you can tell yourself that you have tried. You need to start somewhere because otherwise you will be questioning yourself every morning when you wake up; thinking what if I have done it? Put your foot into the water, take that step and try it out. Iif it's too cold, then just take your foot out and then maybe that water is not for you and maybe you can find other passionate project that would suit you more.
J: Trust your gut. If you know that's the thing you should be doing and you’re not starting because you're comparing yourself then try to stop doing it because there is very likely someone somewhere who will like what you're doing because you are doing it with love and passion. So just start and you will find these people around you who will also support. The second aspect is that yes it can be overwhelming, remember that there are people around you who can also help you. If you want to do it all by yourself, it's going to be super difficult and maybe it's not bad to start by getting some support when you can.
You can listen to the full Interview on Podcast here:
