0:38

She's probably going to be like Mom you got

0:40

the days or the age wrong

0:43

, but I will go off memory here . So

0:46

it was at a very early age that

0:48

Emily found her passion for

0:50

snowboarding , when

0:58

she found out that there was a snowboard camp at Mount Hood in Oregon that you could

1:00

go to during the summer and

1:02

snowboard and ski

1:04

or ride with some of the

1:07

most well sought out professional

1:09

snowboarders . She had come

1:12

to her mom and dad and asked if she

1:14

could go to snowboard camp that

1:16

summer and I

1:18

had told her that I would be happy

1:20

to send her , but she would have to raise

1:23

a portion of that money and

1:25

at the time we owned a home on

1:27

a lake in northern Vermont

1:30

that we would go to

1:32

every summer , would

1:40

go to every summer , and she just came up with the concept of selling ice creams

1:42

on the lake to raise the money to go to snowboard camp . She worked with

1:44

her dad . They got a hand-me-down

1:46

boat in a troll motor

1:48

from her uncle and

1:51

they purchased a sign

1:53

that had all the different ice creams that she was selling

1:55

and she every

1:58

weekend would stop at a large

2:00

box store , a warehouse store , and

2:02

pick up cases

2:05

and cases of novelty ice cream and

2:12

then sell them dock to dock to the people that were up on the lake . And she did

2:14

that for about a summer and a half and by that

2:16

point she had raised the money to

2:18

go to snowboard camp . I

2:23

really think it was at that point I

2:25

knew that she was an incredibly

2:28

driven individual

2:30

and would achieve anything that she sets

2:32

her mind to . Well

2:35

, she came back and she thought it

2:37

was simply incredible . She took some great

2:39

pictures and shared them with me , with these

2:41

other women that were in on

2:43

the snowboarding industry . She

2:46

just felt as though that I

2:48

think she looked at them as you know

2:51

, mentors and people to aspire

2:53

to be . I think it was then

2:55

that she kind of saw that women

2:57

were just , as you know , could do anything

3:00

that they set their mind to , and they

3:02

were making names for themselves in , you

3:04

know , the sports industry . And it wasn't just a guy's

3:06

sport snowboarding . So

3:09

she came back , I think , more determined than

3:11

ever , started entering more competitions

3:13

. She actually went off to college

3:16

in Burlington , vermont , yeah . So

3:18

her junior year she

3:20

was studying abroad . I

3:24

believe it was a boyfriend at the time

3:26

she was dating who was a graphic designer

3:28

, and somebody else who had a swimsuit

3:31

company asked if he could

3:33

design a logo for her

3:35

, and she's like but

3:37

I'm just starting out , I don't have a lot of money , but

3:39

I could give your girlfriend a bathing

3:41

suit in exchange . So

3:43

Emily got the bathing suit , she looked

3:46

at it and she's like I could make these . She

3:48

came home one day and said mom , do you have a sewing

3:51

machine ? And I was like well , I have your

3:53

grandmother's . I don't really know how to use

3:55

it . I said , but here , go

3:57

at it . And she YouTubed

3:59

it , taught herself how to sew , and

4:02

just decided okay , this is , I

4:04

could get pretty passionate about this and , you

4:07

know , make a career out of it . It began

4:10

as a passion project . I believe I don't know

4:12

that that time she really thought it was going to become

4:14

a business . And then it

4:16

was after college when she decided

4:20

she wanted to travel and she wanted to go

4:22

live in Australia for a bit . And

4:24

she did some additional traveling Africa

4:27

, south Africa , spain

4:29

. She went to many places Morocco and

4:32

I . It's from there that she just

4:34

saw the fast fashion and

4:36

the waste and plastic and everything

4:38

that was impacting our world , that she kind

4:40

of wanted to take more of a sustainable

4:42

approach to that , and

4:51

that's really , I think , what just kind of catapulted her in the direction that

4:53

she is now with her sustainable swimwear company . So

4:55

my name is karen laplume and I

4:58

am the proud mom of the

5:00

designer and founder , emily

5:02

laplume , of saturday swimwear . I said that

5:04

backwards , but I would just say

5:06

to emily how incredibly proud

5:08

we have been through of her um throughout

5:11

this entire journey and just how you

5:14

know her tenacity , her innovation

5:16

and drive has just impressed myself

5:19

and her dad very much throughout this whole

5:21

journey of hers . It

5:23

was nice chatting with you too and , hey

5:25

, thanks for doing a feature on my daughter

5:27

.

5:34

I remember when I was a lad

5:36

Times were hard and things were bad

5:38

. There's a silver lining behind

5:41

every cloud . Just

5:44

four people , that's all we were Trying

5:46

to make a living out of Blacklander . We'd

5:49

be together in a family circle singing

5:51

loud .

5:53

It's been said that entrepreneurship is

5:55

not about ideas but about making

5:57

ideas happen , that entrepreneurship

6:00

is not for the faint-hearted but for

6:02

the brave , the patient and

6:04

the persistent , for the overcome

6:06

. On episode 56

6:09

of Ben Magazine's the Circling Podcast

6:11

, join me as I sit down

6:13

with Emily Hoy and Emily

6:15

LaPlume , two entrepreneurs

6:18

building outdoor brands here

6:20

in Bend , oregon . Emily

6:22

and Emily share their brand's origin stories

6:25

, some of the lessons they've learned along

6:27

the way and the value of good mentorship

6:30

. To begin , emily

6:32

Hoy shares her story of how the stepping

6:34

stones of life led a kid from Ohio

6:37

who dreamt of having her art hanging on

6:39

the walls of her local skate shop to

6:41

becoming the first female graphic designer

6:44

and art director at Volker , helping

6:46

shape the future and growth of the brand

6:48

and

6:58

color designer at Hydro Flask . Emily is also the founder of Ahoya , an outdoor

7:00

brand with its flagship product , the Ahoya River Tube , due out next spring

7:02

and , according to Emily , it's

7:05

the first tube that'll be your last tube

7:07

and with its focus on community

7:09

, it's expected to start a

7:11

river-lution With attention

7:13

to durability , functionality

7:15

and color design . And driven

7:18

by the can-do , will-do attitude

7:20

of Emily , ahoya was selected

7:22

to participate in the 2024

7:24

Bend Outdoor Works Startup Accelerator

7:27

Program , helping outdoor brands

7:29

achieve their wildest dreams . Joining

7:32

us , founder and designer of Saturday

7:34

Swimwear , emily LaPlume , shares

7:37

the story of her brand's organic beginning

7:39

and growth and how world travel

7:41

has not only inspired the brand's design

7:44

and functionality , but also

7:46

exposed Emily to the realities

7:48

that overconsumption and pollution

7:50

are having on our environment our

7:56

environment , inspiring Saturday Swimwear to become a leader in the swimwear space by

7:58

shifting the entire focus of the company towards being more

8:01

sustainable . Yo

8:03

, emily Brooke , emily Kate

8:05

, you two are awesome

8:07

and what you're doing is

8:09

awesome . Thanks for being on

8:12

the podcast . The

8:14

Circling Podcast can be found on Patreon

8:16

. Visit our page

8:18

and learn how a percentage of your financial support will

8:20

support local nonprofits and the continued

8:23

growth of local community podcasting

8:25

. Become a member and learn

8:27

about this unique opportunity at patreoncom

8:31

. Forward slash the circling podcast

8:33

. Lastly , remember

8:35

to stay tuned after the show credits to

8:37

hear from both Emilys as they contribute

8:40

to our Blank Canvas community art project

8:42

that explores the magic found

8:44

in art embedded with meaning .

8:55

Well played .

9:04

Come on , man , that's funny . If nothing else

9:06

, mic drop , yeah . Um , now I gotta see if I can control the volume

9:09

on this .

9:09

I've never heard of this band before really yeah , I never

9:11

either , since until last time

9:13

bridges and he did a collaboration

9:16

with Krungbin and it was heart

9:19

melting .

9:20

And they played here last summer .

9:22

Yes , yeah , dude

9:24

.

9:24

It was amazing . It was so good .

9:27

So Emily Hoy .

9:29

Yes .

9:30

I want you to get that mic way closer

9:32

. Yeah , yeah , so that thing's super adjustable

9:34

. Yeah , so get that so you

9:37

want like kind of a fist breadth . Feel

9:40

free to move these all around .

9:41

So if you get uncomfortable .

9:43

It can move with you , it's all it's

9:45

all I've kind of designed this to be leisurely

9:47

it is yeah , what

9:51

was the first concert you ever went ? To

9:55

at Les Schwab , I guess it's not Les Schwab

9:57

anymore .

9:58

Oh my gosh , I can't even remember

10:01

. I mean , that was . I

10:03

moved here nine years ago . Oh

10:06

my gosh , it was probably some free

10:08

Sunday thing . Do you remember when they used to do

10:11

the free Sunday concerts ?

10:12

I do .

10:13

I think that was the first time I ever

10:15

went to les schwab .

10:16

I'm trying to turn this down and I'm flailing

10:19

um so

10:22

in this , I think I've told this story

10:24

before on here , but in the

10:27

summer of 2001

10:29

I think it was my

10:31

roommate and I opened a produce

10:34

market down in the old mill , and

10:36

so you know where vanilla used

10:39

to be you know that little red .

10:40

Oh yeah , the little red barn , yeah , yeah .

10:42

So that originally back in the day

10:44

was across the street from what's now REI

10:47

and

10:49

it was like the summer of like oh two

10:51

maybe . My roommate and I rented

10:54

that place for 200 bucks a month

10:56

and opened up old mill produce . And

10:59

it was like this old this indoor outdoor

11:01

produce market . That's

11:04

awesome Badass I don't know how we got

11:06

on . Oh , that was the , that was the

11:08

summer , that um the

11:10

amphitheater got to open

11:12

cold play , first concert there

11:14

, which was a big act back

11:16

then , dude oh yeah , coldplay for sure

11:18

, yeah all right . Well

11:21

, where should we begin , ladies

11:23

? Actually , I'm gonna retract

11:25

that question just for the sake and normally I try

11:27

not to do this but since you both have the same

11:29

name , introduce yourselves so people can start

11:32

to associate who's who . Okay

11:35

, so go ahead , emily .

11:36

Hoy I am Emily . Hoy , middle

11:39

name is Brooke Emily .

11:40

Brooke Hoy Maybe I'll call you Emily Brooke

11:42

on this .

11:43

That's perfect .

11:44

All right , yeah , perfect , then we can differentiate

11:46

there . It is All right .

11:48

And I am Emily Kate LaPlume

11:51

.

11:52

Nice LaPlume . Laplume Is

11:54

that French Canadian roots .

11:56

Yeah .

11:57

You're from East Coast , yeah , yeah .

11:59

I think way back when it was like OG

12:01

French .

12:02

Yeah .

12:03

But it's kind of filtered through .

12:04

Canada Filtered through . Yeah .

12:06

Down to good old southern .

12:07

New Hampshire . Yeah , I like it . I used to

12:10

snowboard a lot with French Canadians .

12:12

Ooh .

12:12

That region's pumped out some killers

12:14

over the years .

12:15

Oh yeah , yeah , the East Coast .

12:19

Well , if you can snowboard on ice , you can snowboard

12:21

. Yes , usually , usually

12:24

.

12:24

Exactly , riding powder is a skill set

12:26

, though .

12:27

It's easier to learn , though , than riding ice .

12:29

Oh yeah .

12:30

And you like to snowboard ?

12:31

I do , yeah , I was pretty hyped on that

12:33

. In fact , we have a story , a shared experience

12:35

. I want to , you

12:38

know , noodle around with you down the road

12:40

a little bit , because I've

12:42

been excited for this episode . What

12:44

I try to do is find

12:46

some kind of commonality with

12:48

two people who have never met each other . And I've

12:50

never met you , emily

12:53

Kate .

12:54

I feel like I'm in trouble .

12:56

I know that's funny , that's actually

12:58

true . Emily

13:04

, kate , get down here right now . What do we have in common

13:07

? That's kind of relevant to what we're talking about today , which is , you know , broadly

13:09

kind of entrepreneurship , brand development

13:11

and mentorship , and you

13:14

guys are both at different points

13:16

in a similar journey and yet different journey

13:18

. And one thing that

13:20

I realized we all , I think , have had

13:23

experience with is the pitch

13:25

.

13:26

And you most recently , absolutely

13:28

. Share that story oh

13:31

my gosh , it was awesome

13:33

actually . I felt like it's kind

13:35

of what I was born to do in a way , and

13:37

that was the first pitch I've ever done . But

13:40

I've done a lot of presentations

13:42

in front of people , especially for my job

13:44

at Hydro Flask . I pitch

13:46

color and the story and the process

13:49

and the why behind it , so

13:51

I was kind of used to that . But except this

13:53

was definitely a bigger audience

13:56

and like my own baby

13:58

rather than someone else's so

14:00

. I'll tell you , we

14:02

worked so hard on it so

14:04

hard that I didn't even need notes

14:07

. And then I was just speaking from

14:09

my within story and

14:11

my passion and it just came

14:13

across that way and I just I could not

14:15

believe how well it went

14:50

. And I was just wiping my forehead after like

14:52

, oh my gosh , thank God it's over and

14:54

actually did really well . And Justin

14:56

, my husband , like supported me

14:59

and it's so funny

15:01

top secret , you guys he doesn't even like

15:03

floating the river that much , he's more

15:05

of a standup paddle guy , but that's how

15:07

much he loves me is . He's now supporting

15:10

me in this journey and this business and

15:12

doing all the financial stuff , the pro

15:14

forma , the spreadsheets and all that . So

15:16

it's been amazing to have him like

15:19

help me with my dream .

15:21

Yeah , I mean , like I said , we

15:23

could have a podcast episode on each

15:26

of you . But one thing I think I

15:28

don't want to miss covering this down the road

15:30

, is just how busy it is to

15:32

start up a business and be working

15:34

full time .

15:34

Oh my gosh , are you kidding me ?

15:36

Because I'm right there with you and I believe

15:38

I don't know about you . You're an

15:40

outlier . We'll get to that in a minute Like

15:43

I'm yeah

15:45

, there's some . You got some cool lessons

15:48

that I think people could potentially learn

15:50

from some of the decisions you've made and

15:52

that'll be fun . But tell

15:55

people , emily

15:58

Brooke , about kind of the context

16:00

of this pitch . You know , I mean we're

16:02

starting out and I think in the intro I'll explain

16:04

to people what you're doing

16:06

with .

16:07

Ahoya .

16:07

But I guess briefly , without getting too into

16:10

it , what was the context

16:12

of why you were pitching ?

16:14

Well .

16:15

I mean , it was an Edco event , right , it was an .

16:17

Edco event and they always have an ask

16:19

. Like , you get up there and you're not just

16:21

shooting the shit , you go up for

16:23

an ask , and our ask was follow

16:26

our journey on Instagram and

16:28

sign up for our newsletter . But also

16:30

I wanted to give something to the audience

16:32

as a chance of information

16:35

about floating the river and these

16:37

Intex tubes are kind of like the fast

16:39

fashion of the industry and

16:41

I hated seeing them end up in the trash cans

16:43

and therefore end up in the landfills and

16:46

then just the lack of durability . So I really

16:48

wanted to solve that problem around durability

16:51

some better functions , some

16:53

way better colors and design

16:56

. That's out there and just

16:58

you know , this is the first tube . That'll

17:00

be your last , you know .

17:02

I love that . Yeah , I have you come up

17:04

with that .

17:05

I did . I have a whole thing here I'm going to . I'm going to

17:07

tell you my mini pitch for Ahoya

17:09

. Okay

17:11

, ready , ahoya , making

17:14

serious float tubes for less serious adventures and way less serious

17:16

people , made for your ass , not

17:19

the trash . This will be the first tube

17:21

that you last Get ready to glow

17:23

with the flow and channel your inner tube

17:25

. Are you ready for the river-lution

17:27

?

17:27

Yeah

17:29

, that's good . Are you ready for the river-lution ? Yeah , that's

17:33

good .

17:33

Thank you .

17:36

That's the first time I've used the applause

17:38

thing , because normally I don't really

17:40

have context for it , but I felt like that

17:42

needed a little applause .

17:43

I love it .

17:44

That was awesome .

17:45

Perfect . Yeah

17:49

, I watched that online

17:52

. I couldn't make it . I like going to those pub talks

17:54

. I've learned a lot and met some interesting people at

17:56

them . But

17:58

yeah , that was exciting and we're going to get

18:00

into your story and talk

18:02

about where you're at with Bao and kind of some

18:06

of the people that you're working

18:08

alongside with with what you got going

18:10

.

18:10

But it's it's pretty rad .

18:11

People are excited about what you're doing . Yes

18:13

, you know , there's there's a consensus

18:16

around everyone who either knows

18:18

of you or once I explain

18:21

what you're up to it's . It's

18:23

kind of like oh yeah , that makes complete

18:25

sense .

18:26

Awesome yeah .

18:26

Heck yeah .

18:27

I love it .

18:28

All right , emily , emily , kate , you , you , you know

18:30

, and again , 30,000 kind

18:32

of foot view . But you , you have a pretty cool

18:34

pitch contest from your college days

18:36

, I believe .

18:38

Yeah , yeah , I did a couple

18:40

of them in college . So , backing

18:43

up a little bit , I started the company

18:46

kind of by accident , during

18:48

my semester abroad . I

18:51

had basically got a scholarship to

18:53

do a semester abroad and with it I had to

18:55

start a project that was showcasing

18:57

the places that I was traveling to and the people

18:59

that I was meeting and the experiences that I was

19:01

having , and so

19:03

with that I basically

19:06

kind of like found myself traveling

19:08

to all of these really rad coastal

19:10

destinations that you know . We

19:12

were surfing , we were swimming , we were cliff

19:14

jumping , we were doing all these activities . But

19:17

I was traveling around in a backpack

19:19

and I had very little

19:21

space for stuff and

19:23

for clothing and all that . And so I

19:26

found like a common problem that I was

19:28

having , I was bringing a swimsuit to hang

19:30

out on the beach and then I was bringing a different swimsuit

19:32

to surf and I was bringing a different swimsuit

19:34

to be able to wear . Rad , if I could

19:37

just have one that checked all my boxes , that

19:50

was my go-to for every activity

19:52

. And so in between semesters

19:54

I kind of had some downtime

19:56

and I was like I'm going to teach

19:58

myself how to design and sew . And so

20:01

I did and I started making

20:03

swimsuits . And the idea was just to create that

20:05

like one swimsuit that

20:07

was my go-to for every activity

20:09

, but that was functional , comfortable

20:11

, cute and that

20:14

I could wear in a variety

20:16

of different settings , from , you know , like

20:18

a crop top , to surfing , to

20:20

laying on the beach , to all the different activities . So

20:22

I kind of started making those

20:25

and then didn't really

20:27

plan to start a business . I was just

20:29

, you know , I was just making a product

20:32

for myself and then quickly realized that

20:34

I had a commodity

20:37

. And so when I went to my

20:39

second semester in New Zealand , I

20:41

had a 10-day spring

20:43

break and with it I decided

20:45

to travel to Indonesia . And I

20:48

was a broke college student

20:50

and I was like reached out to a friend of a

20:52

friend that was studying in Bali at

20:54

the time and I was like , hey , I don't have any

20:56

money , but I have these bathing suits . Like

20:58

, any chance , I can trade you bathing

21:00

suits for a place to

21:02

crash , like I can sleep on your couch , your floor

21:04

, your driveway , I don't care , I just need some place

21:06

to sleep . And she was like , absolutely

21:08

. You know , we spend six out of seven days of the

21:10

week in bathing suits . This is perfect . So

21:13

I was trading swimsuits for accommodation

21:16

throughout my travels and then

21:18

, slowly , the girls that I was trading

21:20

swimsuits with started sending

21:23

me photos of the different places that they

21:25

were traveling in these swimsuits . And

21:27

you know , I had some epic surf

21:29

photos , some like waterfall

21:31

shots in Thailand , like just

21:33

these crazy international

21:35

beautiful photos in

21:37

these swimsuits that I had just taught

21:39

myself how to make . And so

21:42

I decided to start an Instagram page just

21:44

to kind of like showcase the places

21:46

that Saturday was traveling to . And I

21:48

kind of coined it Saturday swimwear

21:51

because for me at the time

21:53

, you know , saturdays were

21:55

that reprieve , like it

21:57

was no school . On Saturdays

21:59

you get out , you go adventure and

22:01

especially like still studying abroad , it

22:03

was my opportunity to like go travel

22:06

and see the places that I was living . And so

22:09

Saturday was just more like it

22:11

was a feeling . And so I was like Saturday

22:13

swimwear just invokes this feeling

22:15

of like laid back , travel

22:18

, coastal vibes . And so

22:20

I started the Instagram Saturday swimwear

22:23

and started reposting the

22:25

photos that these girls were sending me . And

22:27

pretty quickly I was getting DMs

22:29

of people being like , hey , where can I buy

22:31

these ? I was like , oh no , I don't , I

22:33

don't sell these . You know , this is just a

22:35

fun little thing that I do . But

22:38

then I started thinking about it . I was like , why don't I

22:40

sell ?

22:40

these yeah .

22:41

And so I just started like basically

22:45

hustling swimsuits via

22:47

DM on Instagram in

22:49

you know 2015 and

22:52

sending out like PayPal invoices

22:54

for these swimsuits or like hustling

22:56

cash , you know , on college campuses

22:59

and stuff like that . So it happened

23:01

very organically

23:04

and kind of by accident

23:06

. And then , when I got back to

23:08

Champlain after my year

23:10

abroad , I had , you know

23:12

, developed this like Instagram

23:14

following very small at the time

23:16

, but it was still a thing that was growing and gaining

23:19

traction and then came

23:21

back and like basically gave this

23:24

whole pitch to the scholarship , the

23:26

scholarship that I had received , gave them this whole

23:28

pitch about like hey , this is the

23:30

thing I started . It kind of happened by accident

23:33

, but I think it's really cool . I was incorporating

23:35

designs that were inspired by the places that

23:37

I was traveling to , and

23:39

so all the pieces were reversible to

23:41

solid print or to solid and

23:44

then a print on the reverse side , so you

23:46

could kind of have a two for one type deal

23:48

. And then I

23:50

was , during my senior year

23:53

, approached by the

23:55

director of it used to be called

23:57

the BYO Biz Program , but it was Champlain's

24:00

Entrepreneurship Program and he basically said

24:02

I think you have something really cool . I

24:04

think you should , you

24:07

know , build a business plan , turn it

24:09

into a real thing . And I want to help you do that

24:11

. And so I was kind

24:13

of like , well , you know , I was kind

24:15

of on track to start working at Burton snowboards

24:17

and like working for some

24:20

like youth marketing agency in Burlington

24:22

yeah .

24:24

Where is Champlain ?

24:26

It's in .

24:26

Burlington . It's right in Burlington .

24:28

I've never been to Vermont . Yeah it's , it's gorgeous . There've never been to Vermont

24:31

.

24:30

Yeah , it's gorgeous . There's a lot of similarities between . Oregon

24:33

and Vermont , but it's a

24:35

very , very special place . Yeah

24:37

, that's where Burton was like

24:39

started and that's where their headquarters

24:42

are . And that was ultimately like

24:44

why I chose to go to Champlain . Because I was

24:46

just such a ski bum at that point

24:48

and I was actually on the

24:50

culinary track in high school and I was going to go to culinary school

24:52

and my mom's like you got to go check out the

24:54

city , burlington and I was like I'm not going to check out Burlington

24:57

, there's no culinary school there . And

24:59

she's like just see it , just

25:01

come with me , check it out . And she's like if

25:03

you don't like it , that's fine , I just want

25:05

you to see it . And so we go up there

25:07

and tour Champlain College and the

25:09

kid that's giving us this tour is like I'm interning

25:11

at Burton Snowboards right now Like

25:13

I'm going to work in their marketing department and I said

25:16

that's it Like . This

25:18

is what I'm going to do .

25:19

And you were a snowboarder .

25:20

Oh , yeah , yeah , I like had

25:22

dedicated most of my time

25:25

. I like quit all sports in high

25:27

school to get a job so that I could afford to snowboard

25:29

.

25:30

I love the story of how you bought your first or

25:32

went to camp . That's great . You

25:35

moved here in 2019 ? Correct

25:37

, and you're from Ohio

25:39

, I'm originally from Ohio . Where

25:41

in Ohio ?

25:42

Oh , my gosh all over , but I was raised on a

25:44

little farm in Southeast Ohio .

25:46

Okay .

25:48

Then I moved to Columbus area , went to

25:50

Columbus College of Art and Design .

25:51

Yeah .

25:52

Actually went to OSU , Ohio State

25:54

University for three years .

25:56

I want to pause you real quick . I need

25:58

you to clarify something for me . Why

26:00

is there so much emphasis on the

26:02

, the and the Ohio

26:04

State ?

26:05

University ? I have no idea .

26:07

Have you ever noticed that ?

26:08

I didn't even notice what I was saying .

26:10

I don't really ever watch football , but

26:12

it seems like for some reason

26:14

like when

26:16

players are introducing themselves , they

26:18

really emphasize the , the .

26:20

You know what else is the ? The is emphasized

26:22

. When I lived in Southern California , I moved

26:25

from Ohio to Southern California and

26:27

it's the 405 .

26:30

The roads are all the ? Don't even get me started

26:32

. I had never heard of it until I moved

26:34

out here .

26:35

My wife's from Southern California oh yeah , and

26:38

this was a concern

26:41

of mine when we were dating was

26:43

the the when it came to

26:45

, you're like drop it .

26:46

You're like we got to drop it . Yeah , I don't know this one

26:48

word , man .

26:55

There's actually , I think it's a Saturday Night Live or skit . There's some . There was some

26:57

comedy show back in the day that was . That was kind of a bit that was derived around

26:59

that or based on that , I think so too .

27:01

Yeah , it sounds familiar .

27:03

So , prior to starting Ahoya

27:05

, which is in the process

27:07

right now , but tell people a little bit about your

27:09

background , because you have a pretty , you have a cool

27:12

background .

27:13

I have , oh my gosh . Well , it's

27:15

cool because I have questions for Emily

27:17

, because I actually used to design swimwear

27:20

textile prints and repeats .

27:23

And it was awesome .

27:25

And that was for who ? Was that ? Manhattan

27:28

Beachwear ? Manhattan Beachwear , exactly

27:30

.

27:30

So I did all kinds of print repeats for

27:32

swimwear , and it was a blast

27:34

. I love it . So I you

27:37

know I'm born and raised in Ohio and at the

27:39

age of 27 , I got hired to be the very

27:41

first female graphic designer at Volcom

27:43

.

27:44

So I did all yep Volcom

27:46

Stone . I mean , I don't , you

27:48

know , yeah , Like , like , I don't know

27:51

if people so again

27:55

, this is worth , this is worth giving Volcom

27:57

credit where , where credit to do ? Yeah

27:59

, because there's kind of like the Volcom

28:01

of 2024 .

28:03

Right , and then there's like the .

28:04

Volcom of like 1994.

28:07

, Absolutely Right , Absolutely and .

28:09

And they're kind of . Well , they're not kind of To

28:11

me . They're very different .

28:12

Yes .

28:12

Volcom stones Absolutely . You know

28:15

and no judgment

28:17

, just different . It is different . Different Because

28:20

the culture changed .

28:22

You know , I think , what happened when I was there

28:24

. I was in the hype of Volcom . And

28:31

it was a dream job from 2003 to 2013 . So I was

28:33

in the hype of Volcom and the

28:35

whole skate industry blowing up

28:37

. So

28:44

, in my opinion , what happened is , after a while , the dads grew up , or the dudes the skater dudes grew up

28:46

and started having kids , and those kids don't want to wear what their dad's

28:49

wearing . I don't want to wear Volcom . They wanted to

28:51

wear Stussy and like Diamond

28:53

and these like more like street wear

28:55

brands . So it kind of the

28:57

whole surf skate scene kind of took a

28:59

little dip down . Even people

29:01

were skiing versus snowboarding , or

29:04

rollerblading instead of skateboarding

29:06

.

29:06

You know there's it's always cyclical

29:08

, like you were saying there is , there's something

29:10

about not doing what your parents do .

29:12

Absolutely and .

29:13

I think there's something like like , like

29:15

evolutionary , about that I've learned at

29:17

one point , but I can't recall

29:20

Like diverse I could be .

29:21

Yeah , I don't know what I'm talking about really , but

29:23

at some point that rings a bell you

29:26

know , there's a there's a reason why that is

29:28

yeah , yeah , absolutely .

29:30

So , you .

29:30

They hired you for their senior graphic

29:32

designer .

29:33

I was just a regular graphic designer .

29:35

Well .

29:35

I mean same thing Cause . I was the only female

29:38

girl there . So you guys , it was so

29:40

cool . I kind of had my own t-shirt

29:42

line . They really had their eye

29:44

on the men's brand and their focus

29:46

was the men's brand . So the girls , we kind

29:48

of got away with a lot of stuff doing

29:50

our own thing . I got to travel I've

29:53

been to Australia , Tokyo , Copenhagen

29:56

, you name it and all we did was research

29:58

art . We go to art shows , we

30:01

go to music shows and we go shopping . That's

30:03

awesome . How did you land that job ? You

30:06

know what I was ? Right out of college

30:08

I started working for Hollister

30:10

. I don't tell too many people because

30:12

I'm like it wasn't really my

30:14

people , but how much they were paying me

30:17

. Right out of college my dad's like you better

30:19

take that job . So I was like okay , so

30:21

I got great experience doing graphics , but

30:23

it was under Abercrombie and Fitch and

30:25

this campus in Ohio and it was weird

30:27

. I was there during the whole days

30:30

that it was weird . So anyways

30:32

I they sent me to

30:34

an ASR trade show out in Southern California

30:36

to do some research . I slipped

30:39

Volk in my resume like here you

30:41

go and my little mini portfolio

30:43

. Sure enough , she called

30:45

me . I flew out for an interview and after

30:48

I had that interview interview , I knew I had it yeah

30:50

, I was like I knew it . I used to go

30:52

to skateboard shops and snowboard shops

30:54

in Ohio and tell the guys

30:56

I go , my art's going to be on those walls one

30:58

day , my art's going to be on these clothes one day

31:00

, like that's how determined I was . I

31:02

was like . I was like you . I was like diehard

31:05

snowboard actually wanted to work for Burton

31:07

yeah in college all my projects

31:09

were based all around Burton like

31:11

oh my god it's . I know when

31:13

you were saying that I was like oh my god , burton , I

31:15

have such a love for them too . So

31:18

, yeah , it was .

31:19

That's awesome , yeah that's really awesome

31:21

yeah yeah , what was your first

31:23

kind of like creative outlet ? I mean , you were

31:25

so you were . You studied graphic design

31:27

, yes , but like what , what was your first

31:29

kind of point of contact

31:32

with kind of creating something graphical

31:34

? Graphical yeah , I

31:37

don't know if that's a word or not Graphic Graphic in nature

31:39

.

31:39

Yeah , Like .

31:39

Were you a painter , a photographer ? You know

31:41

what I was ? All of it , I was .

31:43

I did it all , but once I got

31:45

introduced to Photoshop and Illustrator

31:48

, I was like oh my

31:50

gosh , this is my jam . Like manipulating

31:53

photography , like because I did love

31:55

photography and I for that

31:57

, I actually could paint pretty well and draw

31:59

pretty well , but

32:09

something about the computer and the sharp edges and the lines in the modern context of that you get out of doing graphics on a computer , versus the organic . My personal

32:11

style is more like kind of geometric , so I think

32:13

it kind of really molded into

32:15

more computer . And then my

32:17

buddy I was drawing all these letters

32:19

. He's like you should be a graphic designer and

32:22

it just clicked . I was like , oh my gosh , that's

32:24

it , that's what I'm going to do , making

32:27

logos . To this day , I

32:29

love making logos and

32:31

just shifting shapes and creating

32:33

color and making something awesome

32:36

. Yeah , so I've

32:39

done art . I did art for Volcom

32:41

, but I also had some featured artist things

32:43

. I did a pair of Smith goggles , rad

32:46

. I did a pair of Moment skis

32:48

, stance socks

32:50

, even the Gap .

32:53

That's cool .

32:53

Yeah , so I got to do collabs , teva

32:55

sandals . I got to do my own

32:58

webbing strap for Teva .

32:59

How do those collabs work , like when I

33:01

see artists that I know or athletes that well , I

33:06

get the athlete part of it , but like artists , it's

33:09

not a lot , oh yeah , but it doesn't

33:11

seem like much is in that industry anymore

33:13

.

33:13

Yeah , it's more like oh you get

33:15

, you know your name with that company

33:17

which is kind of cool .

33:19

Yeah , yeah , that's cool . It is Do

33:21

you still do freelance ?

33:22

Absolutely . I do a lot of freelance

33:25

, you do .

33:26

And you're also the senior

33:28

graphic designer and color designer

33:30

at hydroflask . Absolutely , and that's what

33:33

you moved here for in 2015 .

33:35

No , actually I moved here with no

33:37

job in 2015 in 2015

33:39

and I was freelancing . I actually did

33:42

some good life can art for ? This

33:44

awesome crew , it's called crow

33:46

works . They're in town . So

33:48

I was doing like little . I , you know

33:50

, did some logos in town for people . I still

33:52

had some freelance connections in Southern California

33:55

but after a while I was like , okay

33:57

, the hustle of just trying to freelance on

33:59

your own was just like oh my gosh . So

34:02

I went to an outdoor retailer same thing

34:04

slipped my resume

34:06

portfolio to Hydroflask .

34:07

It worked once . It'll work again , baby

34:10

.

34:10

It did , there you go , boom done

34:12

so cool . Here I am .

34:14

I've learned and I

34:16

would argue , this podcast studio as a result

34:18

of it is if you

34:20

come to someone that

34:22

you want to work with or you're

34:24

interested in with the solution to a problem

34:26

they might not have even thought about , at the very

34:29

least you'll get a meeting . Right

34:31

and more often than not you'll get another meeting

34:33

, you know . So it's , I

34:35

think . I think people would do well to be a little

34:37

bit more proactive , like , if you , if

34:39

there's something that looks cool , like , do

34:42

whatever it takes to kind of position yourself

34:44

to have the best shot of making

34:47

the next step yep , you know I

34:49

think there are a lot of people that are are

34:51

scared of that leap , though oh , like , because

34:53

it's uncomfortable , yeah , and

34:55

I think it takes a specific type of person

34:57

to pursue entrepreneurship

35:00

but also to just like , do

35:02

stuff like that , like you're on a

35:04

business trip and you slip this perspective

35:07

. You know company , your resume and

35:09

that's just so . Like

35:11

some would say that's really ballsy , but

35:13

it's . I agree . Like if

35:15

you want something bad enough , I have

35:18

always been an advocate for just

35:20

do whatever it takes . But it takes a specific

35:22

kind of person to think that way . And I think a

35:24

lot of people are so comfortable

35:26

with where they're at that

35:29

, you know , in order to kind of

35:31

grow and to get

35:33

what you want , you have to like get comfortable

35:36

with the uncomfortable , absolutely .

35:38

Couldn't agree more dudes

35:40

.

35:41

Absolutely yeah .

35:41

I spent like the first two hours this morning

35:44

talking that through with I'm

35:46

a big advocate for mental health . Through

35:53

with I'm a big advocate for mental health . The Oregon I've never gone and sat with a

35:55

psychiatrist before in my whole life . But after COVID I'm a healthcare

35:57

provider licensed in Oregon . They had

35:59

like this kind of opportunity

36:03

for healthcare providers to go meet with a

36:05

psychiatrist and kind of just debrief

36:07

right , because that was a crazy time

36:09

for everybody , but in healthcare it was wicked

36:12

weird Wicked . You like that .

36:14

I did Wicked

36:17

man .

36:18

I worked with a guy that is from New

36:20

York and went to med school in Vermont , so

36:23

I've never been there , but I've kind of been

36:25

there by proxy . I don't know if I want

36:27

to pick it up .

36:28

It was really natural , yeah . So was really natural , yeah , so I

36:30

back it .

36:32

What was I talking about ?

36:34

Mental health .

36:35

Oh yeah . So anyways , getting

36:38

back to what you were saying , emily , about being uncomfortable

36:41

, like both physically but

36:43

emotionally , kind of you

36:46

can really only grow , I think , when you're uncomfortable

36:49

. Honestly . I'd

36:51

have to agree and I think more people in our

36:53

culture would do well right now to

36:55

maybe be uncomfortable , like sit with

36:58

stuff that makes you just like . Maybe

37:00

your instinct right now is to like just

37:03

go berserk , like sit with that for

37:05

a minute and just struggle

37:08

with it , because it doesn't mean you have to change

37:10

your opinion . Just learn how to

37:12

kind of be not

37:14

so reactionary .

37:16

My mom had this awesome quote during COVID

37:18

and it's just like my favorite

37:20

thing that she ever said If

37:22

you don't shake stuff up every once in a while

37:24

, all the good stuff settles to the bottom . I'm

37:27

like that's pretty

37:29

dang awesome . That is good .

37:31

That reminds me of my athletic

37:33

greens with hemp shade this

37:35

morning dude , All the hemp seeds

37:37

sunk to the bottom .

37:38

You got to shake that shit up .

37:39

You do got to shake

37:41

it up All right

37:44

, freelance . I

37:46

would argue there's a big difference between

37:49

freelance work and

37:51

entrepreneurship . What

37:53

are your thoughts ?

37:54

Yeah , because it's not really your baby

37:56

, it's someone else's baby

37:58

.

37:58

Yeah .

37:59

So I think , with the entrepreneurship

38:02

you wear many hats when the freelance

38:04

you're just wearing the one hat that you're hired for

38:06

and if it doesn't work

38:08

it's not your fault . You

38:11

know , with entrepreneurship if something

38:13

goes down , that's all . All

38:15

the weight is on your shoulder , shoulders of

38:17

everything , and I think for

38:20

that's what I'm noticing the biggest difference

38:22

of entrepreneurship is like

38:24

you have this permanent weight on your

38:26

shoulders that doesn't really go away

38:28

. You just got to find ways to balance

38:30

it or lighten it every once in a while

38:33

, because for me , there's always like

38:35

something I could be doing right now .

38:37

For sure .

38:38

I'm like , oh my gosh , it's a

38:40

bit overwhelming , yeah .

38:42

Yeah , there's trade-offs , for sure . Yeah

38:45

, I

38:47

also would . I would add to what what ? I agree

38:49

with what you're saying and I would add that freelance

38:52

work depends on your ability to

38:54

pump out the work Meaning if you're

38:56

not creating a design , you're not

38:58

getting paid . The goal

39:00

, I would say , in my opinion of entrepreneurship

39:03

is to kind of create something that with time

39:05

will create some degree of revenue

39:08

stream , regardless of your kind

39:10

of investing in it at

39:13

the moment or not . Absolutely , you know

39:15

which is I think you

39:17

know , whether that's a lifestyle brand

39:19

or a performance brand , but ultimately

39:21

I mean that's my goal right

39:24

. Is to kind of is to is to do

39:27

something as long as you need to do it until

39:29

you can get someone who's better at it than you

39:31

are and

39:33

like then you're moving . There you go , you know

39:35

like I don't want to create another job

39:38

for myself .

39:39

Yeah .

39:39

Ultimately , you know , because that's

39:41

you can do that .

39:42

Yeah .

39:42

You can create a job and then you're , you have a job

39:45

. But if you create something a little bigger

39:47

than what that job is , then

39:49

I think that's to me what's

39:55

really interesting with this whole entrepreneurship thing , whereas if you're a freelancer you're

39:57

kind of I guess , kind of creating a job . I guess that's what

39:59

I'm saying .

39:59

I think freelance is easier for me because

40:02

I can say yes or no to it , because it's not

40:04

my main source of income , which

40:06

is kind of nice . But my fault is

40:08

I love what I do

40:10

so much so it's hard for me to say no

40:12

, Like no , I

40:14

can't do a fun colorful print for

40:17

your black strap , freaking baklava

40:19

or however you say that , Cause

40:22

that's what I've been working on . That . And then

40:24

Rumpel with Abe , absolutely

40:26

.

40:26

He's been on this . Oh , of course he would be perfect

40:28

for his episode was great , I

40:30

can imagine .

40:32

I'll have to check it out . Um

40:34

, but yeah , for me it's so fun . My

40:36

, my husband's like , he's like , babe

40:38

, you're a workaholic . I'm like , can you switch

40:40

the word work with creative ?

40:44

That's fair . Yeah , Totally fair . What

40:46

is a Hoya going to be ? Is it going to be a lifestyle

40:49

business or is it like yeah ? Yeah

40:51

, I think so , or compared to what I guess

40:53

Like a performance business .

40:55

Like I guess .

40:56

I've been thinking through this . Like

40:58

build with Story Booth , like is this going

41:00

to be ? Like ? I heard this analogy

41:02

and it made sense to me . Like if

41:04

you're given a piece of property to build something

41:06

on it , do you want to build like your dream home

41:08

that you're going to live in for a while ? Or do you want to

41:10

build , like you know , a high rise

41:12

apartment complex that has maybe more value

41:15

, that you unload and like , what's your , what's

41:17

your goal with it ? Because to

41:19

me it seems like knowing that

41:21

from the beginning can help , kind of how

41:24

you position yourself . Absolutely

41:26

Like for me . I'm more , I'm more naturally

41:28

drawn to like a lifestyle business . And

41:31

that's you know . From my perspective , that's what

41:33

it seems like the two of you have

41:35

built and are building .

41:37

Right , I think I'm going into

41:39

it as I want to evolve

41:41

with it and see where I'm at

41:44

with it , but also starting

41:46

lifestyle . I don't think I want a massive

41:48

empire , like big corporation

41:50

thing , I just want to be happy and comfortable

41:52

in my life and just do a Hoya . So

41:55

I think that's the goal and this first

41:57

year is going to be very telling of like I

42:00

don't even have proof of concept . Like

42:02

what was cool , Emily , your story about

42:04

you know you selling just to friends and stuff

42:06

. It's kind of like dating you

42:14

guys were friends first and then you got married .

42:15

Yeah , for me I'm like jumping right into the marriage part . You're like no , like was that barely

42:17

testing ?

42:17

yeah , absolutely . I'm

42:20

like a 90-day fiance with the tubes

42:22

, oh man . So

42:25

yeah , I think , and that's what's scary

42:27

, but also exciting . You know , I'm like

42:29

, oh my gosh , yeah .

42:32

Skin in the game is good for you .

42:34

Yeah , I think there's a lot of value

42:36

in doing what you're doing , though , because I think

42:38

I I

42:40

had , you know , I dove in head first

42:42

but had to , like take a couple steps back

42:44

, you know , because I didn't have

42:46

a business plan . I didn't , I

42:49

didn't even want , I didn't even

42:51

know I was creating a product . You know

42:53

, I was just making

43:19

this thing that I was using that filled

43:21

this void in my life , whereas

43:24

, you know , looking back on it , I think

43:26

I would have had a way better to

43:28

. To have had a better framework

43:31

and a better foundation to be able to then

43:33

build on , I think would

43:35

have been really valuable . So , to

43:37

see , you know , to

43:39

see what you're doing and you're also building

43:41

hype around it , like you know , people

43:47

are talking about it and just even like seeing it in person and like getting a couple

43:49

out there and , like you know , doing this and having

43:52

some photos in bed magazine , I think like building

43:54

that hype and that anticipation around

43:56

it is really a

43:59

rad way to launch a product

44:01

, yeah , and I think that's going to pay

44:03

off in the long run .

44:05

I agree , especially with a product that I

44:07

mean , in this town , floating has become the thing

44:09

and it's a good problem that you're solving . I mean , floating has become

44:11

like the

44:13

thing , you know so , and

44:16

it's a good problem that you're solving , and

44:18

it's one that needed to be solved , absolutely yeah

44:20

. What is your vision for Ahoya

44:23

?

44:24

I have lots of visions , honestly . Swimwear

44:27

down the road or

44:29

just like river gear river ready

44:32

gear accessories . There's

44:34

so many things you can attach onto those

44:36

daisy chains that I have a list

44:38

of things I want to do . But everybody's like

44:40

whoa , whoa , whoa , whoa , slow down , focus

44:43

on the tube first . But

44:45

my creative side is just like . I want

44:47

to do a dry bag fanny pack . I want to do sunglass

44:49

retainer .

44:50

So it's a brand .

44:51

A brand .

44:55

And its first product is going to be just like heavy

44:57

duty , like lifetime tubes . Absolutely yeah , and maybe functional in winter

44:59

and yeah , maybe a dog

45:01

one down the way , a cat

45:04

one , yeah , I think I told

45:06

you I I was , I thought

45:09

for a while um in new zealand

45:11

they call like little igloo coolers

45:13

, chili bins oh yeah , oh yeah . And I was

45:15

like I've always thought that like if someone

45:17

had like a fun , colorful little

45:19

, cheap , cooler for the river and you call

45:21

it , and you branded it , chili bin by Ahoya

45:24

, absolutely . You would slaughter .

45:26

Yeah , oh man , that'd be so fun

45:28

. It'd be super fun . I'm down for all the things .

45:30

Yeah , when you get there , when I get there .

45:31

Yeah , when you get there , when I get there .

45:32

Yeah , tell me a little bit about at the

45:34

moment what your kind of , what

45:36

your current mission is Like . What are you working to kind

45:39

of get you closer to that , that

45:41

vision , you know ?

45:43

Yes , well , I just got a WeChat

45:45

text this morning from the factory saying

45:48

they're ready to ship out the tubes , so

45:50

hopefully that's sooner

45:52

than later , but definitely within the next

45:54

month I'll have the fourth prototype . So

45:57

we're going to test that this summer or

45:59

within the next month or so , as

46:01

quickly as we can to get it moving in

46:03

order to have 500 tubes

46:06

for our first PO that we will place , probably

46:08

in November , ready for spring

46:10

of 2025 .

46:12

Yeah , so this time next year , this

46:15

time next year , they'll have been available for a little while . Yes , 2025

46:17

. Yeah , so this time next year , this time next year , they'll have been available for a little while .

46:18

Yes , hopefully , yes , so we're still kind of figuring

46:20

out , you know pre-sale , when

46:22

that exact moment is going to be and everything . But

46:24

definitely spring of 25 , we're going

46:26

to be ready .

46:28

And are you going to be like direct to consumer

46:30

? Yes no-transcript

46:59

yeah .

47:00

Okay , bow is Bend Outdoor Works

47:02

and they are like a mentor

47:04

supported , but also you get peer to peer

47:07

mentorship , which is really cool

47:09

. So you're in this , you're in this group

47:11

with three other businesses

47:14

that have that . Are you businesses that are

47:16

entrepreneurs , I guess , that are growing

47:18

their business and scaling it , and we're all

47:20

at different levels . So we've

47:22

learned and all the mentors have had businesses

47:25

themselves and have their stake

47:27

in the ground here in Bend in the outdoor

47:29

industry for a while , for

47:36

a while . Like Gary Bracelet , he's just , he created this whole thing because he

47:38

was sick of seeing the tech industry taking over and everything's all about computers

47:40

and cyber , whatever he's like . What about

47:42

the outdoor industry ? So he's

47:44

so cool . He started the whole thing , brought

47:47

on amazing mentors , lo

47:50

and behold , one of the mentors is

47:52

Meg Chun and her and her husband

47:54

, dave , started Kiloa Paddles

47:56

and my personal

47:58

sup is a Kiloa and it

48:00

is my favorite sup . So I found

48:02

out Meg started this thing . It

48:04

is like , oh my God , how full circle , how

48:07

meant to be is this ? And she's

48:09

just been a wonderful human and a wonderful

48:11

support to the brand , and

48:14

she knows about inflatables and

48:16

her husband . So it's

48:18

pretty cool . So the mentorship

48:20

is a 14-week program

48:22

. You meet once a week for three hours

48:25

over Zoom , and then you

48:27

have three two-day in-persons

48:29

, so you're two days all

48:32

day back-to-back . So

48:34

that's six days you have full . But

48:36

now so that has ended

48:38

. Now we meet once a month and

48:40

then in October is a huge

48:43

pitch in October where we could win

48:45

a lot of money . People will come

48:47

, the public can come and vote for us .

48:49

I've been the last two years . Yeah , it's super

48:51

fun .

48:51

It is so fun . You should go next year , emily . Yeah , I've

48:53

never even heard of this .

48:55

It's during um . I

48:58

think , this year it's called Bend

49:00

Innovation Week . It used

49:02

to just be called Bend Venture

49:05

Conference and it was a two

49:07

or three days and now they're adding on

49:09

, they're starting to collaborate without

49:12

different sectors of startup , entrepreneurship

49:14

and industry

49:17

and they're starting , I think , with

49:19

Innovation Fest

49:22

, which is the . There's a my

49:24

buddy , kyle McLeod , started and

49:28

I participated in last year , which is like

49:30

that an open pitch , early stage

49:32

pitch contest at Deschutes Brewery

49:34

, and then the rest of the week there's BOW , which is like a bunch open

49:36

pitch , early stage pitch contest at Deschutes Brewery , and

49:39

then the rest of the week there's bow , which is like a bunch of different panel discussions

49:41

, and then you can go and they have the pitch contest and the crowd like crowd voting

49:44

for the winner , which is super fun

49:46

, but you just it's really

49:48

fun connecting with different people in the community

49:51

that are that are building things . And

49:53

, like you , learn so much and make connections

49:55

and , yeah , it's invaluable and

49:57

it's and I don't know cause all I ever

49:59

have to compare things to has been , but

50:01

it sets the bar high , but it

50:04

I'm told it's an incredibly unique

50:06

ecosystem of startups and entrepreneurship

50:09

that we have here in terms of support .

50:11

It's unreal . If you want to start a business , this

50:13

is the town to do it in . Yeah

50:16

, it just . I think it's because it's so

50:18

small that , like , when you move here , you

50:20

can't necessarily find the job exact job

50:22

that you want , so you create it . And

50:25

then there's all these people moving from big cities

50:27

. They're like well , I can offer

50:29

this help and I

50:31

quit Nike , so now I want to do consulting

50:33

?

50:33

for small businesses , because there are so many small

50:35

businesses here . Yeah , it's pretty cool

50:38

. Yeah , what

50:40

have you ? What have you integrated ? Like

50:42

, if you look back at your experience with bow at this

50:44

point , what have you learned that has

50:46

kind of like made its way into

50:48

Ahoya and and kind of redirected

50:51

or or shifted how you're

50:53

doing things the most ?

50:54

Yeah , honestly , brand voice

50:57

and value proposition

50:59

, your core beliefs . It's basically

51:01

like your North Star of the company , like

51:04

it just finding that voice of who you are

51:06

. Because we got in early enough and

51:09

I say we meaning my husband and I . He joined

51:11

this mission with me . It did start

51:13

off with me , but he's like I'm going to help

51:15

you and I was like , yes , but

51:17

yeah , before we even posted

51:19

to Instagram , I already had all this homework

51:22

, all these notes here

51:24

about brand voice and

51:26

clear and

51:29

concise words , even wordsmithing

51:31

to the exact words that you

51:33

want to say . So this whole little pitch that I read

51:35

you guys at the beginning , that was work behind

51:38

the brand voice and the value proposition

51:40

for Ahoya , yeah , and

51:42

keeping it a couple sentences , you

51:44

know , and streamlining it . That

51:47

has been amazing . But also learning . My

51:49

husband did a pro forma . Do you guys

51:51

know what a pro forma is ? Because I had no clue

51:53

before Val . It's

51:59

basically forecasting of how much money you're going to make . So , therefore

52:02

, how much money you're going to need now versus later , it's just , basically

52:04

nobody has a magic eight ball for anything

52:06

and this is the kind of the best way to do it . So

52:09

we put that into place . Also

52:12

, we learned about website auditing

52:15

, like I had no clue

52:17

there was so much behind the

52:20

website of just

52:21

little changes and where

52:23

you know your top of the

52:26

website page is where you click , people click

52:29

the most , and so moving things up there , just

52:31

like a little reorg , could totally change

52:33

your business yeah , I

52:36

think I , um , I don't

52:38

know how old you are , I'm 45 and

52:40

I think we're around the same generation

52:43

where , um it

52:45

I remember like ordering stuff

52:47

out of magazines , like we're , we're

52:50

unique because we have this foot on

52:52

either side of kind of this analog

52:54

, digital kind of shift in humanity

52:56

. And you know , there's

52:58

a lot of people it's

53:00

always been like that integrating business

53:03

and tech . But I'm

53:05

really bad at tech and I'm realizing that

53:07

because I'm trying to start a business that relies

53:10

so much on tech , you

53:12

know , relies

53:18

so much on tech , you know that's another . I've noticed as an participant in the audience at bow is that

53:20

they seem to have a lot of good community relationships with other

53:23

agencies in the area that specialize

53:25

in those things Like don't , they , don't they don't they do like

53:27

a deal with ? Is it Algalify

53:29

or ?

53:30

Algalify , absolutely Algalify

53:32

, were some of the mentors with us Absolutely

53:35

. I mean , we even get CPA

53:38

hours . Yeah , we get lawyers

53:40

advice like anything

53:42

and everything you need Branding

53:44

Gary Braceland's wife Jarell

53:46

she does marketing . So , you get all

53:49

these , like everything you need for your

53:51

business , yeah . It's pretty unreal

53:53

.

53:53

It's super cool .

53:54

Yeah , it's very cool .

53:55

Yeah , so

53:57

so much of what BOW is and you just mentioned

53:59

it is mentorship and

54:02

developing relationships with some of those mentors

54:04

and then leaning kind of what

54:06

they have to offer through their life experience

54:08

, and Meg being a perfect

54:10

example of that , and Dave with Kealoa yes

54:12

, they were on this , they were one of the first

54:15

couples that . I interviewed

54:17

. That's the first time I ever met Meg and since

54:19

then she's kind of stepped into

54:21

a mentorship role with me . What

54:24

I'm doing is outside , of outdoors , so it doesn't

54:26

really fit in that space , but there's so

54:28

much fundamental kind of business

54:31

development , basic thought

54:33

processes to learn and systems

54:35

to develop that she's been . She's amazing

54:37

.

54:38

She is like A plus

54:40

human right there , so like in

54:42

every aspect .

54:43

Yeah , yep . So I got her on

54:45

the phone and she was kind enough to chat

54:48

with me .

54:49

I first met Emily because

54:51

she came into my Opportunity

54:54

Knox group . It's a women's entrepreneur

54:56

business group and I'm one of

54:58

the co-facilitators of that

55:00

group business

55:03

group and I'm one of the co-facilitators of that group . Opportunity Knox is

55:05

really just a monthly meeting for business owners with facilitators

55:07

. There's some accountability but it's a lot of peer-to-peer

55:09

mentoring and what I saw

55:12

in Emily was that I kept giving

55:14

her homework , basically because she was starting

55:16

this brand and was interested

55:19

and I was like this woman executes

55:21

, so she'd get homework . I'd be like you need to go

55:23

talk to Jeff at Tumalo Creek . Boom , she comes

55:25

back next month . Here's the information I got

55:27

. So what I saw in her

55:29

was a person who was willing to do the work and

55:32

for BOW , for Bend Outdoor Works

55:35

, which is this outdoor accelerator that I work

55:37

with , emily is actually

55:39

really early stage . Typically we

55:41

take people who already have a product

55:43

developed and have sales , but

55:46

but when we all sit down to talk

55:48

about what's our ideal candidate , one

55:51

of the hugest things is people are willing to put

55:53

in the work , because we're putting in so much

55:55

time and energy into our participants

55:57

that we want them to meet us in

56:00

that our participants , that we want them to meet us in that give , if you

56:02

will . And I kept saying look

56:08

one she's local two . She's a woman and we're always trying to get more women in

56:10

our cohort . 50% of our 2024

56:13

cohort was women this year and I said , and she will do anything

56:15

we recommend she do , she'll

56:18

execute , she'll get work done

56:20

. And then , intelligently , she brought her

56:22

husband in , which was a great move because

56:24

Em works full-time and

56:26

Justin had some . You know , it's really

56:28

challenging to have a full-time job and

56:31

start up a business , so bringing

56:33

him in was a really smart move

56:35

and he helps her on the operational

56:37

side . She's a , as you

56:39

know , an amazing , um , uh

56:42

, color expert , graphic designer

56:44

, all around marketer and

56:46

she has exuberant joy

56:50

, love , you know , just this

56:52

positive vibe that just explodes

56:54

all over the place . Um

56:56

, so she got into bow

56:59

on her own merit , really , and

57:01

and ? But what her got her there was her

57:03

willingness to put in the work . Quite honestly

57:06

, she

57:11

, you know , went back home while she was already in development and she was floating , you know , in a tube

57:13

and she was like , oh my God , like this

57:16

is why this is why I

57:18

love this so much . And she kind

57:20

of came back and she's like , oh , I had this huge aha . She

57:22

sort of it was deep inside her

57:24

, but she didn't know that it actually

57:26

all stemmed from childhood memories

57:28

of floating with her , I believe , her sister , just friends

57:31

, relatives hanging out , you know , um

57:34

so , and you know she's

57:36

really community oriented and

57:38

so she's really wanting

57:40

to make floating

57:42

become a like , create

57:45

a community around this idea , not

57:47

just Ahoya itself , but the

57:49

the , the idea of floating in general

57:51

. So it's it's interesting where it'll

57:53

be really fun to see where she goes with all of this . I'm

57:58

sorry , I'm just laughing because she texted or she sent

58:00

me an email yesterday . You know she's always making

58:03

up names and things and her new

58:05

name for me is the Magnificent

58:07

. Yep , I

58:10

just am laughing because that's how she signed it

58:12

. When he wrote to me yesterday and it just

58:14

popped into my head , she had all these other names for

58:16

me , but this is the one she's currently locked

58:19

on . I know Alright

58:23

. Well , hey , if you need anything else , give

58:25

me a holler . I

58:27

think our work here is done . You

58:31

too , have a great day . Thanks Bye

58:34

. You are good , adam the magnificent

58:37

, it's fun .

58:40

I've fallen in love with playing these audio

58:42

clips for people it's so

58:45

sweet .

58:46

It's so sweet it's super fun

58:49

.

58:50

We got a good one for you . Yours is like

58:52

a podcast episode inside a podcast

58:55

episode .

58:56

I can't wait .

58:57

I'm excited to hear it yeah , I don't know anything

58:59

in there that Meg said , yeah , I'm excited to hear it . Yeah

59:02

, I don't know . I mean anything in there that

59:05

Meg said that like you want to kind

59:07

of share more about . I mean , clearly you're

59:09

a hard worker . I

59:13

think it's rad that you're in their

59:15

early stage , you know . I mean that

59:17

says a lot not only about you , but

59:19

about kind of how much they believe

59:21

in what you're doing . That's what it communicates to me

59:23

too .

59:24

It's so true .

59:24

Yeah , and then you

59:26

know , I mean , clearly you're , you come at

59:28

this with a you know

59:30

a really neat background and

59:33

story and you know this

59:35

origin story . And I'm , the

59:37

older I get and the more I see people do cool

59:39

stuff . It's usually because they

59:41

have this kind of stepping stone through life where

59:43

they've learned or met or develop

59:45

these , you know skill

59:47

sets or superpowers , that then the right time

59:50

opens up and you can kind of just you

59:52

know , apply them and maybe something

59:54

starts . And that's what it appears

59:56

to be with you , my friend .

59:58

Absolutely so . I'm excited for you .

1:00:00

Thank you . Yeah , it's going to be fun . It's going to be with you , my friend , Absolutely . So I'm excited for you , thank you .

1:00:01

Yeah , it's going to be fun . It's going to be super fun . What

1:00:04

is real quick ? And I think I understand

1:00:06

and we touched on it a little bit but this community

1:00:09

that Meg was talking about ?

1:00:10

Yes , so we call

1:00:12

it tube culture . We kind of

1:00:14

want to make a thing we want to have like

1:00:16

community events , like

1:00:23

bring in in , like do a sunday float or do something with the bend boarding babes

1:00:25

like we just did a couple weekends ago . Okay , um , do river cleanups

1:00:28

, get everybody involved and have

1:00:30

like a stoke event yeah bring

1:00:32

people together , connect um

1:00:34

. I've always said often , you know , when I moved

1:00:36

to bend , everybody's so outdoorsy , getting

1:00:38

up 4 am , going on mountain bike rides

1:00:41

or hitting the hiking the cone like

1:00:43

go , go , go . So serious

1:00:45

, we want to slow slow slow

1:00:47

and connect and more about with

1:00:49

people . So when she says community

1:00:52

, I think that's what it's about and just you

1:00:54

know , doing river cleanups and really

1:00:56

igniting the mission about having an

1:00:58

adventure but being conscious why

1:01:01

we're having these adventures of connecting

1:01:03

with people but also connecting with the water

1:01:05

and the river . That's what we're made up from

1:01:07

. And clean it as we go

1:01:09

and put loot the deschutes out of business

1:01:12

, you know no more digging up cans

1:01:14

or whatever they dig up out of the river .

1:01:16

Yeah , it's incredible how much stuff . I actually

1:01:18

want to get one of those guys on here

1:01:20

.

1:01:21

I was going to say they would be perfect .

1:01:22

I know they got some cool stories .

1:01:24

They have to yes , yeah , absolutely

1:01:26

.

1:01:27

Well , that makes a lot of sense . I mean , everything

1:01:30

about what you're doing is very genuine and

1:01:32

authentic , you know . So that's

1:01:34

huge . Yeah , awesome , awesome

1:01:37

.

1:01:37

Yeah , thank you .

1:01:38

Do you know the girls that do that

1:01:40

7 am dance party ?

1:01:41

around town , I know .

1:01:43

Yeah , have you been to it ? I have , I have

1:01:45

not . It's amazing . What is this ?

1:01:48

It's Zoe and Abby

1:01:50

. Yes , they throw . It's

1:01:53

called Rise and I

1:01:55

forget what it's called but it's an early morning dance

1:01:57

party .

1:01:58

No way .

1:01:58

At like 7 am .

1:01:59

Yeah , 7 am , they serve coffee

1:02:01

and it . Basically they just go

1:02:03

for an hour . They blast music

1:02:05

. It's usually on Thursday mornings and the idea

1:02:08

is just to start your day

1:02:10

a little bit different with community and energy

1:02:12

and just get outside

1:02:15

and move . It's

1:02:18

a ton of fun I would love to sponsor that event . I was going to

1:02:20

say some way to collaborate

1:02:22

with them . For sure , that would be really

1:02:24

fun .

1:02:25

That would be very ombrand for Ahoya yeah definitely

1:02:28

.

1:02:31

Okay , emily , kate , I guess we'll transition

1:02:33

onto your story here . We've

1:02:36

kind of touched on some of it . You grew up in New Hampshire

1:02:38

. You studied marketing and event management

1:02:41

at Champlain

1:02:43

College in . Burlington

1:02:45

. You thought you were going to be a Burton employee . What

1:02:48

kind of snowboard do you ride right now ?

1:02:49

I'm riding K2 . I've

1:02:52

got a good friend who is the global

1:02:55

marketing director for them and he

1:02:57

has been very generous , so I went

1:02:59

from getting free Burton to getting

1:03:01

free K2 . So I ride with

1:03:03

free .

1:03:04

Yeah , there's an old saying , if it's free , it's for

1:03:06

me Exactly .

1:03:08

You can't argue that .

1:03:16

I'm going to die by that getting together the record

1:03:18

about like a significant moment

1:03:20

that kind of shaped who you are and

1:03:22

I'm starting to kind of believe

1:03:25

that I read this book and

1:03:27

listen to this guy talk a

1:03:29

while back about . For most

1:03:31

people that go into some degree of

1:03:33

entrepreneurship or brand development , there's

1:03:36

usually some life experience that

1:03:38

happens between the age of 10 and 13

1:03:40

that gives people a sense

1:03:42

of empowerment for their first time and

1:03:45

there's this kind of connection with

1:03:47

that that I think ultimately a lot

1:03:49

of people are trying to reconnect with

1:03:51

through entrepreneurship . And

1:03:54

I can relate with you because

1:03:56

I grew up it sounds like very similar like I

1:03:58

wanted to go to High Cascade more

1:04:00

than anything in my entire life . I

1:04:02

think it was like 1991

1:04:05

or 92 . So I hustled

1:04:07

and made money . I didn't make enough

1:04:10

to go and then my mountain bike got stolen

1:04:12

and our parents' homeowner's

1:04:14

insurance covered the mountain bike . So wouldn't

1:04:17

you know ? The check I got for my mountain

1:04:19

bike was like , almost to the dollar , what

1:04:21

I needed to go to camp . Oh

1:04:23

my gosh , that's meant to be , and I was like

1:04:26

12 or 13 years old and

1:04:28

like it was kind of that

1:04:30

first you know moment

1:04:33

of kind of experiencing

1:04:35

something that you want to pursue

1:04:37

more , and I don't even think you know what it is at that

1:04:39

age , yeah . But so you share your story

1:04:41

of kind of going . You know what it is at that age , right , but so you share your story of kind of going to

1:04:44

camp and and cause . It's

1:04:46

a cool one and I think that through it we

1:04:48

can probably get a better sense of who you are

1:04:50

.

1:04:50

Yeah , so I started snowboarding

1:04:53

when I was 10 . My sister

1:04:55

, you know we started skiing when we were three

1:04:58

or four years old . It's like what you

1:05:00

do if you honestly

1:05:02

, if you can afford to , yeah , so um

1:05:04

which it was a lot easier back then

1:05:07

.

1:05:07

Yeah , it wasn't so exclusive .

1:05:09

Yes , true , yeah , and we were riding

1:05:11

a you know 400 vertical

1:05:13

foot hill . So it was just like

1:05:15

not not anything to write home

1:05:17

about , but so started snowboarding when

1:05:19

I was 10 . And I honestly think it

1:05:21

was about 13 when

1:05:23

I first found out about High Cascade

1:05:25

. Because I started snowboarding

1:05:28

, picked it up super quickly , very

1:05:30

, very quickly , realized that I was

1:05:32

good at it and that I loved to do

1:05:34

it . It was like all I

1:05:36

thought about , all I wanted to do every

1:05:39

day after school . I'd find

1:05:41

the right like a ride to the closest

1:05:43

mountain and just it's all I

1:05:45

could think about . And so when

1:05:47

I was probably 13 , I

1:05:49

heard about High Cascade and

1:05:51

I told myself , like I'm

1:05:54

going to , I'm going to go to High Cascade someday

1:05:56

and I'm going to become a professional snowboarder

1:05:58

and all this stuff . And so

1:06:01

I went to my parents with this

1:06:03

like newfound information about camp

1:06:05

and I was like , can I go to

1:06:07

camp ? And they basically said to me , like if

1:06:09

you can raise the money , you can go

1:06:12

to camp . And so I love

1:06:14

that man . Yeah . And you know , I

1:06:16

think , to be totally honest , I think

1:06:18

part of them like didn't think

1:06:20

I would be able to . To be totally honest , I think part of them

1:06:22

like didn't think I would be able to . You know , I was like this kid and so I

1:06:24

was like all right , like challenge accepted

1:06:26

.

1:06:28

What year are we talking ? Because I there's like there's camp

1:06:31

used to be expensive , then

1:06:34

it got expensive and now I

1:06:36

think it's really really expensive yeah

1:06:38

. So you're this is like this

1:06:40

is 16 .

1:06:41

How old am I ? I'm 29 . Okay . So

1:06:43

, this would have been 14

1:06:46

, 15 years ago , I think I was 15

1:06:48

or 16 when I first

1:06:50

went .

1:06:51

Yeah , so yeah 15

1:06:53

years ago , so early 2000s . Yeah , yeah

1:06:55

, okay .

1:06:56

Yeah , and so

1:06:58

, yeah , my parents basically challenged

1:07:00

me that if I could raise

1:07:02

the money then I could do it , and so I

1:07:05

started brainstorming different ideas . And

1:07:11

my dad is a very handy , very resourceful dude and he basically , you

1:07:13

know , we spent summers up on a lake house

1:07:15

at this small small

1:07:17

lake up in the northeast kingdom of Vermont every

1:07:19

year , and we would go up there every weekend small small

1:07:21

lake up in the Northeast kingdom of Vermont

1:07:23

every year , and we would go up there every weekend and there was , you know , uh

1:07:25

, a lot of opportunity . There wasn't any . The

1:07:28

closest grocery store was like 45

1:07:30

minutes away . There was no restaurants

1:07:32

anywhere nearby and I

1:07:35

came up with the idea , with the help of my dad

1:07:37

, to start an ice cream business selling ice

1:07:39

cream off a little dinghy boat and

1:07:41

I had this like five horsepower

1:07:44

trolling motor that I would just cruise

1:07:47

around that lake all day , every

1:07:49

day , from like sunup to sundown

1:07:52

, with dry ice in

1:07:54

this little igloo cooler and

1:07:56

I would get ice cream

1:07:58

in bulk from we

1:08:01

had Sam's Club over there .

1:08:02

It wasn't .

1:08:02

Costco . But I would go get like

1:08:04

the individually wrapped . You

1:08:06

know snow cone like all that

1:08:09

Totally nude . Yeah , and so I . For

1:08:11

two full summers I was

1:08:13

out there on that lake .

1:08:15

You were in the ice cream boat .

1:08:16

I was the ice cream boat .

1:08:17

It was called .

1:08:18

Looney Licks and I . We

1:08:20

spray painted the thing pink and blue

1:08:22

and I had this little boom box

1:08:24

in the back that I burned

1:08:26

like gangster

1:08:29

rap ice cream songs on to Like

1:08:32

do you know that ? Do your chain hang low

1:08:34

? Song like that mixed

1:08:36

with the ice cream jingle with the

1:08:38

ice cream jingle and I was just like bumping

1:08:41

that every day and people you

1:08:43

know , people like , learned who I was

1:08:46

very quickly . Like I said , it was a pretty

1:08:48

, pretty small lake relatively

1:08:50

, and I spent two full

1:08:53

summers every single weekend , all

1:08:55

day , every day , just like selling

1:08:57

ice cream .

1:08:58

I love several things about that , but one

1:09:00

is that it took two summers .

1:09:02

Oh yeah .

1:09:03

Like you know , a lot of people would be

1:09:05

like damn , I didn't make it this summer . I guess

1:09:07

it wasn't meant to be .

1:09:08

Well , I think I was just show . Honestly

1:09:11

, I didn't think it was possible , like I

1:09:13

didn't know how much money I was going to make

1:09:15

. I didn't know , you know . But I ran the numbers

1:09:17

Like I was like , okay , for every box of ice

1:09:19

cream if I sell it at two bucks ?

1:09:21

a pop .

1:09:22

You know I can make xyz

1:09:24

and then I'll have to reinvest that to buy in

1:09:26

more inventory and like margins

1:09:28

and over .

1:09:28

Yeah , you did a pro forma .

1:09:30

Yeah , exactly , and I was like you didn't even know it , yeah

1:09:32

and .

1:09:33

I was like , okay , you know I'm , I'm selling

1:09:35

five boxes of ice cream per

1:09:37

day per per weekend . If I do

1:09:39

this for eight , you know know , eight

1:09:42

weekends over the course of the summer , and

1:09:44

then it's going to take me two years . So I

1:09:46

think I went into it like kind

1:09:48

of thinking it would take me longer

1:09:50

than that , honestly . But I'd have days

1:09:52

where , like you know , the old dads

1:09:55

would tip me like 50 bucks on top

1:09:57

of their ice cream , and so I was like dude

1:09:59

, like I just got so much closer

1:10:02

to my goal and so like stuff like that

1:10:04

, and honestly , I think my parents

1:10:06

started talking about what I was doing and

1:10:08

why I was doing it , and so , like you

1:10:10

know , word spreads pretty fast , and so there's people

1:10:13

like more or less making donations

1:10:15

to me too , it was awesome

1:10:17

and you know , I think I learned . I

1:10:19

learned a lot from that summer , or

1:10:22

from those two summers . One

1:10:24

, I learned that I could force my best

1:10:26

friend into free labor that's

1:10:35

what friends are for and that

1:10:37

, you know , I it was such a tangible

1:10:40

like thing

1:10:42

for me that I was like , if I make this

1:10:44

money , I get this awesome

1:10:46

reward . And this is , like you know , at

1:10:48

the at the time , that was like my pinnacle . I

1:10:51

was like , if I get to go to High Cascade , that's

1:10:53

going to set me up for the rest of my life

1:10:55

. You know , that's that was . That was everything

1:10:58

I had like hoped for .

1:10:59

Had you been to Oregon before when

1:11:02

, before you wanted to ?

1:11:04

I don't think so .

1:11:04

How did you learn about High Cascade ? I guess

1:11:07

at that point , media videos

1:11:09

, internet , yeah , and I was just like

1:11:12

I said .

1:11:12

I was so committed to

1:11:14

the snowboard scene and

1:11:17

I was starting to compete at that

1:11:19

point . And just really I wanted to to compete , compete at that point and

1:11:21

just like really like I wanted to be a pro snowboarder

1:11:23

and like Gabby Viteri was like my idol

1:11:26

and just I was like so

1:11:28

down with the snowboard scene and like hanging

1:11:31

with the boys and that's what they were

1:11:33

all like , all talking about and stuff

1:11:35

. And you know , lucas Magoon was

1:11:37

going to high cascade and just that

1:11:39

whole like era of people

1:11:42

and so that's when camp was in Govie

1:11:44

still . Yeah , oh , yeah so .

1:11:46

I coached at High Cascade .

1:11:48

Oh , that's amazing .

1:11:49

For three summers , like 2001

1:11:52

to 2004 .

1:11:54

Okay .

1:11:55

And like , yeah , dude , I

1:11:58

mean , and all I wanted to

1:12:00

do when I was a camper was get back there somehow

1:12:02

. Yeah , Because it's especially back then

1:12:05

, it was magical .

1:12:06

Yeah .

1:12:06

You know you're on the glacier all day and

1:12:09

then you'd come down and skate all afternoon

1:12:11

.

1:12:11

Yep , you know , eat cobra

1:12:13

dogs Totally Well cobra dogs wasn't

1:12:15

there when I was there .

1:12:16

I'm dating myself . But , like

1:12:19

lava cones were .

1:12:20

Okay , l dating myself , but like uh , lava cones were lava cones . Lava cones , I think , is what

1:12:22

it was called yeah , those

1:12:25

are that's fun .

1:12:25

I can I , yeah , I mean , if you get it

1:12:27

, you get it yeah I think we all like if

1:12:30

you've been driven through govie in the summer

1:12:32

, it's just a there's fun energy there

1:12:34

because it's so beautiful yeah

1:12:36

and like yeah , so did you have fun

1:12:38

. Was it everything that ?

1:12:39

you were hoping it was gonna be . It was amazing

1:12:41

yeah , I remember colleen quigley was

1:12:43

my coach and I , just like you

1:12:46

know seeing all like seeing . It

1:12:48

was Joe Sexton and Jeremy Jones

1:12:50

, like some of those pro athletes , it was their

1:12:52

signature session . And I just remember , like you

1:12:55

know , meeting them and being like oh

1:12:57

I'm boys with Jeremy Jones now Like

1:12:59

this is . You know , I'm making it

1:13:01

and kind of it totally . I mean it just

1:13:04

it like was such

1:13:07

a pivotal moment for me because

1:13:09

I had worked so hard to get there

1:13:11

.

1:13:12

Like I was like I earned this .

1:13:14

It tastes even better .

1:13:15

Yeah , exactly .

1:13:16

Exactly , and there's so many like not

1:13:18

to knock it . You know I am

1:13:20

very privileged . There's

1:13:23

so many like not to knock it . You know I , I am very privileged

1:13:25

. I come from a very , very generous family . Who , you know , we , we , you know we're middle

1:13:27

class and that's so . We had a lot of

1:13:29

. We were very privileged as kids , uh

1:13:32

, but there's a lot of little brats that

1:13:34

went to high school like a lot of really

1:13:36

wealthy families that would

1:13:38

just send them there for like full summers

1:13:40

. And I was just like you guys don't get

1:13:42

it .

1:13:43

Well , yeah , and more often

1:13:45

than not those kids were sad .

1:13:47

Yeah , yeah .

1:13:48

I got to know several of them , yeah , and

1:13:50

some of them for multiple sessions , you know

1:13:52

, and there was a fair amount of families

1:13:54

and kids that would come back . And you

1:13:57

know , high Cascade was just one of several

1:13:59

camps that they would go through over the summer before

1:14:01

, like life , brought them back to a boarding school

1:14:04

.

1:14:04

Yeah .

1:14:04

And it's just . You know , it's a different

1:14:07

existence . Totally but it definitely exists

1:14:09

out there . So like , yeah , there and

1:14:11

you know when to your point

1:14:13

, there's something absolutely

1:14:16

real and true about work

1:14:18

reward . Yeah , you know like you just

1:14:20

can't replicate that yeah true about work reward . You know like , you just can't replicate that . And I think it goes back to

1:14:23

what we were talking about before . There's a certain

1:14:25

amount of it's uncomfortable to kind

1:14:27

of work for stuff , so

1:14:29

it derives more meaning and

1:14:32

I think that's a good thing .

1:14:34

Yeah , that's cool . Like I said , it was

1:14:36

a very pivotal time in my life and you

1:14:39

know I probably didn't

1:14:41

realize it at the time , but it definitely

1:14:43

paved the way for

1:14:45

for the rest of my life and for the how

1:14:47

I thought about like that work

1:14:49

and reward type mentality , and

1:14:52

you know it , it showed me what was possible

1:14:54

and I was like I'm just a you know , I'm just a

1:14:56

kid Like and if I just

1:14:58

a kid can do this like , what else can I do

1:15:00

?

1:15:00

Like , and if I , just a kid , can do this

1:15:03

, like , what else can I do ? Yeah , and

1:15:24

it was . It definitely like correlates with that time kind of freedom that then inspired and you saw

1:15:26

a problem and you know , it just kind of builds on itself

1:15:28

.

1:15:29

Yeah , definitely Totally . I have a question

1:15:31

Saturday snow . I

1:15:34

mean that could be pretty

1:15:36

good . Sun to snow , sun to snow , that is

1:15:38

pretty good .

1:15:39

Yeah , no , I like that that

1:15:43

is pretty good .

1:15:44

Sun to snow yeah , no , I like that . That is pretty good .

1:15:45

We're going to have to talk after this . I feel like we could do some

1:15:47

fun stuff . Yeah See , I love that .

1:15:49

Absolutely . I love that .

1:15:50

Yeah Well , I mean

1:15:52

, you've you've kind of shared

1:15:54

earlier about your you've had several mentors

1:15:57

. I think Robert Block is one of them

1:15:59

, but you've also , I

1:16:01

think your mom's been pretty instrumental to

1:16:03

you in your journey . And I actually tried

1:16:05

to get in touch with her , but I wasn't

1:16:07

successful . Because those are always the

1:16:09

best when you get to play parents . It's

1:16:12

like I need to bring some tissue in here .

1:16:14

Which I need anyways . Yeah , you should .

1:16:18

Oh , that's a bummer .

1:16:20

Yeah , it's okay .

1:16:20

I should have given her a heads up . She doesn't even know I'm doing

1:16:23

this , she doesn't no . I kind of wanted to

1:16:25

surprise them .

1:16:26

It's never too late .

1:16:27

Yeah .

1:16:28

I will say that . So let's work on that . Okay

1:16:30

, there you go .

1:16:32

I can get in touch with her and make her answer

1:16:35

her phone . There you go .

1:16:36

I love it . Yeah , but

1:16:39

I was able to connect with Robert

1:16:41

or Bob Depends on . I

1:16:43

feel like I can call him .

1:16:44

I feel like we can call him Bob .

1:16:46

Bobbert , bobbert , he's

1:16:48

. He's awesome and

1:16:51

, like I said , he he had

1:16:53

. I thought it would be fun to kind of hear

1:16:55

your story from

1:16:57

his perspective . Yeah .

1:16:59

Yeah , my name's Robert Block and

1:17:02

I had the pleasure of working

1:17:04

with Emily while

1:17:06

she was a student at Champlain College . While

1:17:09

I was there I did a little teaching , but mainly

1:17:11

what I did was ran

1:17:13

a little entrepreneurship program where I basically

1:17:16

provided one-on-one mentoring

1:17:18

to students who were

1:17:22

interested in entrepreneurship and usually

1:17:25

had some project or

1:17:27

business that they were working on . Before

1:17:29

I met her , I'd heard of her because she was a highly

1:17:32

regarded marketing student at the

1:17:34

college . In fact I think I knew

1:17:36

of her name because she had won this

1:17:38

prestigious marketing scholarship the

1:17:42

year before and coming into her senior year

1:17:44

. But anyway , so someone referred

1:17:47

her to me , I suppose , and

1:17:49

she came and first thing

1:17:51

I got the feeling that she was a

1:17:53

very determined young lady . She

1:17:56

told me about how

1:17:58

she had gone to study abroad in

1:18:01

New Zealand in her junior year for a semester

1:18:03

and then had

1:18:05

enjoyed it so much that she stayed

1:18:07

on and did

1:18:10

some traveling around the South

1:18:12

Pacific and that's kind of , I

1:18:14

guess , where she got her business

1:18:16

idea , because she was traveling

1:18:18

around to Bali and some of

1:18:20

the surf towns

1:18:22

up on the Australian Gold Coast and

1:18:27

like a good marketer , she was hanging out

1:18:29

with a bunch of young surfers , a lot of

1:18:31

women surfers , and she

1:18:34

listened to them . And she listened to them when they

1:18:36

would complain about

1:18:38

their bathing suits . So

1:18:40

she decided to try to fix that and

1:18:43

she'd never sewn . She

1:18:46

called home or wrote

1:18:48

home to her mother and said , hey , mom

1:18:50

, you know that old sewing machine

1:18:52

in the attic , why don't you send it out

1:18:54

here to me ? And so she taught

1:18:56

herself to sew and started designing these suits

1:18:59

, selling them to the

1:19:01

girl surfers on the beach and where

1:19:03

else , and came back to uh

1:19:06

, champlain in the fall with

1:19:09

this . Uh , you know , she meanwhile created

1:19:11

a website and she was selling them

1:19:13

online , selling them custom

1:19:15

made , made by hand herself

1:19:18

anyway . So she came to me

1:19:20

to say , well , what do , what do I do now

1:19:22

? And you know

1:19:24

she worked at it during senior year

1:19:26

and tried a couple of things and

1:19:29

found some new fabric . She kind of connected

1:19:32

with the whole idea of sustainable

1:19:34

products and , you know

1:19:36

, and gravitated to her current position

1:19:38

. You know where she provides . You

1:19:41

know she only uses sustainable

1:19:44

fabrics Come the spring

1:19:47

. I get this email from somebody

1:19:49

and it was about an

1:19:52

entrepreneurship pitch competition

1:19:55

for women college students and

1:19:57

it was at Smith College and

1:20:00

I had sort of . You know , champlain isn't

1:20:02

Ivy League , it's a great little school

1:20:04

, a wonderful school . But you know

1:20:06

, I don't know how I got my hands on this thing . But

1:20:09

I said , you know , emily , why

1:20:11

don't you enter this thing ? We'll go down

1:20:13

to Northampton , mass or

1:20:15

wherever it was Smith College , and

1:20:17

went down there . And so she went down there

1:20:19

and competed and all these

1:20:21

other female entrepreneurs

1:20:23

were , you know , some Brown and Cornell

1:20:25

and Yale and

1:20:27

wherever you know Stanford

1:20:30

, and wouldn't you know , emily

1:20:32

, she

1:20:35

didn't win the thing but she was one of the four

1:20:37

finalists and she did

1:20:39

a great job and it just kind of affirmed

1:20:42

to her that , hey

1:20:44

, you know , maybe this could be something and maybe I can really do this

1:20:46

. You know , she graduated

1:20:48

, she decided she didn't want

1:20:51

to crank it up right now and

1:20:53

she wanted to travel . So she

1:20:55

and her dad fitted up a sprinter van

1:20:57

to be a little , you know little

1:20:59

sprinter van you could live

1:21:01

in but also produce bathing

1:21:04

suits in . So she had her sewing table and her

1:21:06

machines and whatever , and

1:21:08

she did that for a while and I think then

1:21:10

she ended up in Bend with

1:21:12

you guys out there , and

1:21:15

he sounds disappointed , maybe

1:21:17

it could be more than this , and so

1:21:20

we've had conversations over the last couple of

1:21:22

years about , you know , scaling up

1:21:24

and , you know , getting beyond Her

1:21:26

limited . You know she and her sister and some

1:21:28

other friends were sort of sewing them

1:21:31

, you know , getting to finding a commercial

1:21:33

sewing

1:21:35

operation that could produce them for her doing

1:21:38

some more social media . She's very good

1:21:40

at that and you

1:21:42

know just sort of building the business sort of organically

1:21:46

to suit her needs

1:21:48

and as far as I'm concerned , she's done an excellent

1:21:50

job of that and has

1:21:54

really remained true to herself during this

1:21:56

whole process . One of the nice things

1:21:58

about Facebook is

1:22:00

, back when Facebook started I

1:22:03

didn't really know anything about

1:22:05

social media , but I started an account

1:22:08

, a school account , you know I figured maybe

1:22:10

to learn something about social

1:22:12

media , and I ended up friending

1:22:14

a lot of these students I worked

1:22:16

with and now it's so great

1:22:18

because you know they're

1:22:21

all moving on , getting on with their careers

1:22:23

, starting families , having kids

1:22:25

, and I'm sort of still

1:22:28

connected to their lives and it's very

1:22:30

, very rewarding as

1:22:32

I , you know , ride off into the sunset

1:22:35

to be able to have these relationships

1:22:37

, you know , with

1:22:40

kids like Emily and

1:22:42

others around the country that

1:22:44

you know , at a point in time , you

1:22:47

know we worked together and talked

1:22:49

about things and worked on some things , and

1:22:51

so I find that very gratifying . And

1:22:53

, emily , quite frankly , without

1:22:56

embarrassing her , I'd always say well , you know , you

1:22:59

have to decide that because you're the

1:23:01

entrepreneur , I

1:23:14

just get to give you free advice . But

1:23:18

your point , though , is

1:23:20

that one of the most important things

1:23:22

I found that I was doing was

1:23:24

just giving them encouragement

1:23:27

. Just being a cheerleader , you

1:23:29

know , when they'd come in and they'd try something

1:23:31

and nobody

1:23:33

wanted it whatever they were doing , just

1:23:35

to give them some encouragement , I

1:23:38

found was probably some of the most valuable

1:23:43

advice I ever gave them . I'd be interested in what

1:23:45

Emily would think about that , but

1:23:48

I think you're really right People

1:23:50

need encouragement . So , emily

1:23:53

, if you ever are listening to this

1:23:55

podcast , which I'm sure you will , I

1:23:57

just wish you all the best

1:23:59

. I think , as I told Adam

1:24:01

, you were one of my rock

1:24:03

stars and one of the people I really appreciated

1:24:06

working with , and

1:24:08

I just love what you're doing out there in Oregon

1:24:10

, and I love the way not only

1:24:12

your business , but just the way you

1:24:14

are going about living your life

1:24:17

, and with purpose , and with your

1:24:19

purpose , it's just a real

1:24:21

. It's an inspiration to me . I

1:24:23

sometimes try to learn from

1:24:38

you .

1:24:38

So I wish you all the

1:24:40

best , and it's been a lot of fun to

1:24:42

participate in this little podcast . So

1:24:45

that's all I got . But he , you know

1:24:47

he picks up on pieces that I

1:24:49

think I you know they're very important

1:24:52

in my story , but that

1:24:54

I don't tend to include

1:24:56

sometimes . And it's

1:24:58

always . It's humbling and

1:25:00

it's always cool to hear it

1:25:02

from somebody else's perspective .

1:25:04

Yeah , that's what I was hoping . It

1:25:06

would be fun , because I don't think enough of us

1:25:08

kind of hear our story from someone else's

1:25:10

perspective yeah . It's

1:25:12

really interesting

1:25:15

. It gives you a different insight into what you're up to , absolutely

1:25:17

. You know , which is super fun .

1:25:19

Yeah .

1:25:19

Yeah , that's cool . Yeah , he

1:25:21

was a pleasure to talk to yeah . I can

1:25:23

see why he was

1:25:26

good at that .

1:26:17

And then also , you know he's just salt of a problem for sure , but like I think you

1:26:19

know you are thinking it is a business for you and college kid or just like you

1:26:21

know , not really knowing what's possible in the entrepreneur space , but also like I had such a

1:26:23

such a plan in my head , you know , whether it was work for Burton or work in marketing elsewhere

1:26:25

, the events industry , and so

1:26:27

this thing kind of just like started

1:26:29

bubbling up on the side and he

1:26:31

was the one that really like helped

1:26:34

open my eyes to the fact that this

1:26:36

, this could be a real thing . And

1:26:38

then he , you know , we started

1:26:40

working on the pitches for the entrepreneurship

1:26:43

competitions and you know that

1:26:45

that one down in Massachusetts it was

1:26:47

, it was funny , I was so , I felt so

1:26:49

out of my league . There

1:26:51

was these women down there that were pitching tech

1:26:56

, and tech is just such a different space

1:26:58

.

1:26:58

You're either tech or you're not

1:27:00

. There's no fake in it .

1:27:02

Exactly and so I was competing with these women

1:27:04

who were you know , or these like college

1:27:06

kids that were designing devices to track

1:27:08

your you know , for diabetes

1:27:11

and stuff . And I was like I make bathing suits

1:27:13

. Like I just I felt so

1:27:15

out of my league and to like

1:27:17

be recognized as like

1:27:19

being a finalist in that was

1:27:21

a really like an aha

1:27:24

moment for me , that like , holy

1:27:26

shit , like I might just be making

1:27:28

bathing suits but like I'm , I'm

1:27:30

doing it well and I'm at least like presenting

1:27:33

it well and pitching it well

1:27:35

. And I did an elevator

1:27:37

pitch competition . Honestly

1:27:39

, I did the elevator pitch competition because my

1:27:41

professor at the time said it would help us

1:27:43

get like half a grade up in

1:27:45

our class . And I was like , well , now I have

1:27:47

this product and it's like easier to pitch

1:27:50

a product . So previously

1:27:52

, my freshman year of college , it

1:27:54

was the same deal . You got like extra

1:27:56

credit if you did this elevator pitch competition

1:27:58

. And it's like a big competition at

1:28:00

our school and there's multiple categories . It's like

1:28:02

internship

1:28:04

, so you're pitching yourself . There's

1:28:07

entrepreneurship , that you're pitching a

1:28:09

product or a business , and then there's also

1:28:11

like the not-for-profit space

1:28:13

, so you're pitching an idea or like a not-for-profit

1:28:16

organization idea , and you go into

1:28:18

this like hypothetical elevator and you literally

1:28:21

like have to click the button

1:28:23

and like step into elevator , and

1:28:26

I remember doing it my freshman year and it was the

1:28:28

scariest thing I had ever done .

1:28:30

Like .

1:28:31

I think I froze because I was at the time

1:28:33

I was pitching myself for

1:28:35

an internship at Fuse

1:28:38

Marketing , which is a youth marketing agency that

1:28:40

like works on the do tour and works with some really

1:28:42

cool like youth brands

1:28:44

, and I remember

1:28:46

just being like I am never doing that

1:28:48

again .

1:28:49

Like that was traumatizing .

1:28:51

You know , I left and just felt I was mortified

1:28:53

and I remember

1:28:56

the class coming up my senior

1:28:59

year that said , you know , you get

1:29:01

extra credit if you participate in the elevator

1:29:03

pitch . And I just remember thinking

1:29:05

like I got

1:29:07

that like gut feeling back from that freshman

1:29:10

year experience and I was like no way , like

1:29:12

way , like there's no way I can do that . And

1:29:14

then I started thinking about it again and I was like , okay , like

1:29:16

I actually have a product

1:29:18

now and I have a product I know

1:29:20

how to talk about and something that I

1:29:22

feel confident in . I'm

1:29:26

going to try it and I'm going to like really

1:29:28

prepare for this and like , really

1:29:31

, you know , give it my

1:29:33

all . And I ended up placing

1:29:35

third in the elevator pitch competition

1:29:37

and it was just like so validating

1:29:40

because I was just , you know , thinking back on

1:29:42

that freshman year experience and just like

1:29:44

that it just felt

1:29:46

full circle because I , you know , it was my freshman

1:29:48

year . I

1:29:52

was just like a young , scared , like freshman , and then senior

1:29:54

year coming around , being like not only

1:29:56

did I just like place in this competition

1:29:58

, but now I have this product and I

1:30:00

have this confidence and I have this like

1:30:02

ability to tell

1:30:05

this story now , um

1:30:07

, and that I ended up getting my first retail

1:30:09

account from that elevator pitch competition

1:30:12

and that first retail

1:30:14

, uh , client

1:30:16

was another like just little

1:30:18

shop in town who was locally

1:30:20

owned woman owned and

1:30:22

they sat me down or I

1:30:24

remember like reaching out to them prior to and

1:30:26

just being like , hey , full transparency

1:30:29

, I don't know how to do this , like I've never sold

1:30:31

my products wholesale , I don't know how

1:30:33

, like what I'm supposed

1:30:35

to give to you or bring to you , you know

1:30:37

, and like I said about

1:30:40

what you're doing , emily , is like you

1:30:43

are creating such a strong foundation

1:30:45

for it , whereas I was just like , like grabbing at right , you know , just

1:30:47

trying to figure it out as I went , and so I didn't . I didn't know how to wholesale . I , you know , just

1:30:49

trying to figure it out as I went , and

1:30:52

so I didn't know how to wholesale , I didn't

1:30:54

know how to create a

1:30:56

line sheet , like I didn't even know what a line sheet

1:30:58

was at that point , and so , looking

1:31:00

back , you know , it's really

1:31:03

funny to think about , but it's all

1:31:05

of those different steps that ultimately

1:31:07

helped me build that foundation , that ultimately

1:31:09

helped me build that foundation , and

1:31:12

it was that first wholesale account that like said to me , like oh , here's

1:31:14

examples of what other brands send us

1:31:16

, and that just blew my mind because I was like

1:31:19

they're just willingly like giving up this

1:31:21

information . Like it felt like a trade secret

1:31:23

, you know , and they were just willing to like share

1:31:25

it with me and they were willing to like help

1:31:28

me and teach me and like you

1:31:30

know , and I think there's , you

1:31:33

know , I think there's a different

1:31:35

stigma around , like helping kids do

1:31:37

it or like helping young adults do

1:31:40

it , because you know

1:31:42

.

1:31:42

They're young adults , we're young adults .

1:31:43

Exactly , and so it's funny like

1:31:45

being a little bit older

1:31:48

and like also still just like fumbling

1:31:50

through this , you know , totally Most of the time

1:31:52

I'm like I have no idea what I'm doing .

1:31:54

Absolutely . I don't think anybody

1:31:56

does .

1:31:57

That's like my life motto is like fake

1:32:00

it till you make it , because literally everybody else

1:32:02

is Absolutely , and so that has just

1:32:04

been kind of like a learning experience

1:32:06

to be like you don't know how to do it , figure

1:32:09

it out , yeah , pretend

1:32:11

like you know how to do it , because nobody like if you say anything

1:32:13

confidently enough , people will believe it .

1:32:15

Absolutely . And then you'll get these little boosts

1:32:17

like that , that pitch contest , where you your

1:32:21

confidence level levels up a little

1:32:23

bit . Totally , you know enough to give

1:32:25

you the momentum that you need to keep

1:32:27

the process going

1:32:29

?

1:32:29

Yeah , definitely , it's crazy

1:32:31

to think like I think sometimes having

1:32:34

other people believe in you makes you believe

1:32:36

in you so much more it's it's

1:32:39

really cool that the power of

1:32:41

that . Yeah , can I ask what your

1:32:43

pitch like ? How long was it

1:32:45

, like minute wise ? And then number

1:32:47

two , like what was your main story

1:32:49

, or ? Focus of the pitch

1:32:51

. I'm so curious .

1:32:52

You got a big one coming up . Yeah , I do .

1:32:54

Yeah , it was 90

1:32:57

seconds . It was basically Wow

1:32:59

, they figured out the math of like the

1:33:02

average elevator , like

1:33:04

from the ground floor to like the

1:33:07

16th floor . I don't know , remember what it was

1:33:09

. It was like the average height of a sky

1:33:12

rise in New York city

1:33:14

, like how many floors is it , and then how

1:33:16

long does it take to get from the first floor to

1:33:18

the 16th floor or something like that , and you , you

1:33:21

like have 90 seconds

1:33:23

to like give your pitch . Honestly

1:33:26

, I don't remember Well

1:33:28

there's .

1:33:28

There's a lot of like common structure , like

1:33:30

the hook , the problem the solution , the

1:33:32

market the growth the team , the ask

1:33:35

you know like those things

1:33:37

are , but then you can get creative in

1:33:39

how to do that . Yeah

1:33:41

, yeah , that's when I did my cause . I did my

1:33:43

first pitch last October

1:33:45

at that Bind Innovation

1:33:48

Fest for Story Booth .

1:33:49

You did . Oh yeah , I'll have to look that up

1:33:51

.

1:33:52

Meg helped me a lot . I

1:33:54

would videotape myself and then text

1:33:56

her and she'd critique it and

1:33:59

we had five minutes . But no

1:34:01

, there was no visual

1:34:03

aids , it was just all like

1:34:05

speaking and

1:34:08

, ironically enough , I do pretty

1:34:10

good like cut , like

1:34:12

people , but in front of an audience I get

1:34:14

much more anxious . So

1:34:17

that was really good for me to kind of like

1:34:19

get more comfortable with that . Um

1:34:21

. But it was like when it's like anything

1:34:23

like if you you know proper preparation

1:34:26

prevents poor performance , right , and then you

1:34:28

get into it and you're like actually that was

1:34:30

pretty damn fun yeah like so

1:34:32

high that you get after it . It's like

1:34:34

what do they call that type two fun where it's

1:34:36

kind of like shitty in the moment because you're terrified

1:34:39

, but after the fact you're kind of riding the

1:34:41

dopamine hit ?

1:34:42

for a minute or two . You know percent

1:34:45

yeah that's gonna be fun

1:34:47

.

1:34:47

I can't wait to come watch . Oh my , oh my gosh

1:34:49

.

1:34:49

I'll share what I learned with

1:34:51

my pitch .

1:34:52

I've been listening to all these TED talks

1:34:54

and like all these , like storytelling

1:34:56

Simon Sinek has made . Yeah

1:34:58

, oh , yeah , yeah Meg turned me on to him .

1:35:00

He's amazing . I still get a lot from

1:35:02

him , yeah .

1:35:03

Yeah , that's cool , that's really cool . When

1:35:05

I was looking at what you do , the things that

1:35:07

made you different from kind of other

1:35:10

things , it seemed like not only based

1:35:12

on feedback on your website , but also like

1:35:14

talking to Kelly upstairs and people who use

1:35:16

your product is like the comfort

1:35:19

and like that balance between you

1:35:21

know this feminine appearance , but also highly

1:35:24

functional , and like it's like

1:35:26

one swimsuit , like you said . Yeah

1:35:28

, but then also the materials

1:35:30

that you use .

1:35:31

Yeah , yeah . So that

1:35:33

was honestly like a later addition

1:35:36

to the company . So I graduated college

1:35:38

and basically kind of hit

1:35:40

that fork where I was

1:35:43

like , okay , I can either pursue this full on , kind of

1:35:45

like Bob said , or I can shut

1:35:47

it down and get back to like what

1:35:49

inspired it in the first place , which was traveling . So

1:35:51

I ultimately did that and backpacked around

1:35:53

the world for a year after I graduated

1:35:56

and ultimately ended up in Australia and

1:35:58

I was in Byron Bay for six months , which is just

1:36:00

like this super hippie crunchy surf

1:36:03

town , and very

1:36:05

quickly I realized that , like you

1:36:08

know , at the time , this was that

1:36:15

. Like you know , at the time , this was , this is 2017 , late 2017

1:36:18

and I there weren't too many sustainable swimsuit brands in the US like I , you know

1:36:20

, I did some market research and like realized that

1:36:22

there was like two in the entire

1:36:24

US , but in Australia it was so

1:36:26

commonplace and in Byron

1:36:29

specifically , if

1:36:31

you didn't have some sustainability

1:36:33

aspect to your brand or to

1:36:35

your business , you had no business

1:36:38

being in Byron and it was

1:36:40

just . You know , over the course of that six months

1:36:42

, I saw brands come and go and it

1:36:44

was so crazy seeing the ones that did

1:36:46

well and that were received well by the community

1:36:49

because they cared

1:36:51

and because they had some aspect

1:36:53

of sustainability , and it just totally

1:36:56

blew my mind and totally shift

1:36:58

the way I thought about consumerism

1:37:01

and about the power that consumers have

1:37:03

, and for me it just like

1:37:05

, like reignited something

1:37:07

in me and I just because I you know

1:37:09

I had shut down the company because I was starting

1:37:12

to burn out and you know , I was like just graduating

1:37:14

college but I was working an internship

1:37:17

, I was a full time student , I had a part time , an additional

1:37:19

part time job , and then I was also running this

1:37:21

business and I was working like 80 hour

1:37:23

weeks and I was just like this