AMA with AMA

How do you come up with an idea? Or start a community?

Dear AMA:

Hi Anastasia! Perhaps you’ve written about this elsewhere or maybe plan on getting to it in the future, but I’m wondering how you came up with the idea for Kula Cloth and, more so, how you decided to make it into a community?

If you haven’t read the last four weekly posts - I’d recommend going back to look at those, since they go into EXTENSIVE detail about the ‘how’ of Kula Cloth. But I love this question and I thought it would be really fun to dig a little bit deeper into a more broad question… HOW do you come up with an idea (not just for Kula Cloth) …. and HOW do you build community?

If you haven’t read the weekly posts… I’ll abbreviate a version of how my product, Kula Cloth, came into existence. If I could write it in a poem, it would look like this:

I spent most of my life
Wishing things could change
The more I didn't like
The more I would complain

I loved to spend my time outside
In nature I could really feel
The beauty that was inside of me
The love I knew was real

And in the midst of a very long hike
I was given a little gift
An idea came to me for this piece of gear
One night on a backpacking trip

I saw that gift and looked away
It's too scary to pursue
I'm not good at things like that anyway
It's stupid to start something new 

But then one day I saw
My life flash before my eyes
What am I so scared of?
What would happen if I tried?

And so I started taking steps
I didn't start with giant leaps
Gratitude, appreciation and love
Were the promises I would keep

I focused on the good
It began to grow and bloom
Soon I looked around and saw
That it filled up every room

And you know what happened next?
That gift came back to me
Reminding me that it was there
For all of eternity

I took that gift and made it real
And it became a piece of gear
A tiny little square of fabric
That, to me, is very dear

Not just because it's useful
But really because it means
I finally stopped believing
I wasn't worthy of my dreams.  

An idea is born

My mom told me that when I was a kid I told her, “Mom, I only need one idea. Someday I’m going to have that one idea.” As it turns out… I had LOTS of ideas as a kid and as an adult. The problem was, I didn’t do anything with any of them. This is a list of all of the ideas I’ve not pursued throughout my life:

My typical cycle would look something like this:

1. Find a creative flow - usually while hiking, spending time outside or playing music - and have an inspired idea.

2. Get very excited about said idea.

3. Do some initial research into the idea.

4. Get scared of pursuing the idea because ‘other people were doing it’ or ‘I can’t afford it’ or ‘this won’t work’.

5. Quit and walk away, thinking it was destined to failure.

6. Fail to realize that I didn’t even try to begin with.

This was the story of my cyclical idea process … again … and again. I’d get some momentum… and then talk myself out of things because I didn’t know what to do next.

I am willing to guess that you’ve had ideas and that you’ve done something very similar as well. And that’s OK. Not all ideas are meant to be pursued - some of them might just be leading you to another idea… which is wonderful. But, if you find yourself feeling frustrated in the process - it could be because limiting beliefs and/or worrying about imaginary/future unknowns are putting the brakes on your creative process.

Ok, but let’s backtrack a little bit here… how do you even find the idea to begin with? Well, that’s the fun part - because you don’t need to really look for it. In fact, when you look for it - sometimes it can be more challenging to find. So, what I would suggest is that you begin by being open to ideas.

One clarification: when I say ‘ideas’, I’m not only talking about ideas to start a business. I’m talking about anything that you might want to create or pursue in your life… maybe this is a new hobby, or a change of career, or a place you might want to live, or something new you might want to try - any ‘unknown’ thing can be an idea… and the less that you try to find it… the easier it will be to find. It’s counterintuitive… but trust me on this.

When I started observing other people who were doing really fun, creative things for a living… I honestly thought that they must have gotten some secret ‘lucky code’ that I didn’t get. I would study and analyze everything that they did - and I couldn’t figure it out… until I realized that they all seemed to be doing something that they really loved and felt passionate about… and that somehow that thing that they loved had led them to an abundant path. Weird, right?

So, I asked myself: What do I love? Well, I really really love hiking and backpacking - so I kept doing that. And the more that I did it, without any expectations that I was trying to ‘get anything’ from it - the more fun I had. And then, suddenly, without warning - my ‘gift’ arrived… the idea for my pee cloth design popped into my head without warning. My idea had been given to me.

In the beginning of this process, the best way to start is by simply being open. I have mentioned this before, but it bears repeating: when I first started the process of wanting to create something new in my life, I had no idea what that was going to be. I would drive around in my police vehicle (because I was a railroad police officer at the time) and I would say out loud to myself, “I have absolutely no idea what I’m going to do in the outdoor industry, but I’m really excited for it and I can feel that it’s coming!”. I would say it over and over again… and you know what? I really started to believe it and know that it was coming. And it did.

So, here is my secret recipe for allowing an idea to arrive:

Keep in mind, this is a very simplified version of a process that we’ve already talked about - and one that we will continue talking about… but if you are looking for an easy way to get started, this is a great place.

Q: What do I do if I don’t have anything that I love to do?

First off - that’s OK! My husband felt this way when he began asking himself questions about what he wanted to ‘do’ with his life. He liked doing a lot of things… but he honestly didn’t even know where to begin. My advice to him (and to you) was simple: just do something that feels even slightly good and/or interesting. You do not need to know any answers right now (phew!). You don’t have to be brimming with excitement over this thing. It can be taking a bath… or laying on the ground and looking at the sky… or painting a picture… or signing up for a calligraphy class… or just doing one tiny little thing that feels slightly new or interesting.

Q: What if you do know what you love to do… but feel guilty spending time ‘having fun’ because you should be focused on being responsible?

Let’s imagine a scenario where you are feeling stuck in your life, but you really enjoy hiking. It would be very tempting to put the hiking on the back burner while you ‘figure things out’ in your life. It is human nature to want to ‘fix’ things. However, it’s very possible that the answer to your query about, “What should I do next in my life?” might be a closer match to the feeling that you’ll experience sitting on the summit of a mountain looking out over an alpine lake. While I’m not recommending avoidance of responsibilities - I am recommending that you explore the possibility that doing things that make you feel good will put you in more direct alignment with the ideas and opportunities that will ultimately create whatever it is you are looking for.

Creating community

The second question in today’s AMA is about how to create community. When I started Kula Cloth, I knew immediately that I didn’t want this company to be ‘just’ a piece of gear. As I was in the process of creating the product, I did a lot of visualization about what I wanted this experience to look and feel like. One of the things that I very specifically saw and wrote down on a dry erase board in my office was this:

I wrote the words down on a whiteboard long before anybody knew what a Kula Cloth was. In fact, I wrote these things down when I was still making prototypes in my guest bedroom. There were probably less than 50 Kula Cloths in existence in the world, and yet, I had already started to envision something bigger.

If you are staring at exactly ‘what is’ - you will create more of ‘what is’. Which means, that if I had simply looked at the 50 Kulas that I had made, and if I had told myself that selling millions of Kula Cloths would be impossible and that I shouldn’t get ahead of myself… well, that would have been a pretty limiting way to look at building the community. But, instead of seeing a lack of Kula customers - I could honestly and truly sense and feel the thousands upon thousands of people who would one day be clipping this tiny piece of gear to their backpacks. I simply knew that they were real and out there… and I allowed myself to feel the goodness of all of those humans (this includes you - by the way).

So, if you are somebody who is wanting to create a community… it is very easy, especially in the beginning when you are just getting started, to look at the lack of people. You might be tempted to think that you have to go ‘get’ people. But what I’ve found is that when you can focus on your vision … you will be inspired to do the things that will ultimately help your community grow and bloom in an organic and natural way. Simply put: people will come and find you, not the other way around.

Another helpful tip that was shared with me by my dear friend Lloyd at Garage Grown Gear was this: “Anastasia, you don’t need to create an audience from the ground up. Your audiences already exist… you just need to find tiny ways to let them know that you are there.” Namely: big clumps of audiences already exist. So, instead of trying to go out and ‘get’ 10,000 people to follow your new company on Instagram… what can you do to work with one company that already has a perfect audience for your customers… so that you can grow together? What can you do to make your community newsworthy? What can you do that sets you apart so that you begin to attract the humans who genuinely want to be a part of your group?

Keep visualizing your community… focus on the people that you do have… not the people that you don’t have. Pour your love, kindness, genuine gratitude and heart into their lives. Uplift them every chance you get - and mean everything you say. Be genuine and kind and make a difference in the lives of others. This is what matters, and this is what will bring people to you. Make people feel like they belong - because you really mean that they do belong.

At the end of the day: serving others must be your priority. If you are in this for notoriety, fame and fortune - you are going to be on an endless, unsatisfying chase for ‘more’ … and each time you reach the next step on your journey… it’ll never be enough. For me, I discovered that while the gear is fun and running a business is rewarding… it is uplifting others, connecting meaningfully and bringing goodness into the world through each step of the business process that really matters.

The word ‘Kula’ means community. That isn’t something that I take lightly. It’s a big responsibility to have a product that is also intertwined with people’s personal lives in some way. Throughout the past few years of running Kula and hosting book clubs and Power Hours and all sorts of events - I have laughed, cried, wept, danced and sang with people that I’ve met while running this business. I have heard very personal stories - and I have shared some of my own very personal stories too. While I believe that the idea of Kula Cloth was given to me as a gift many years ago - I believe that it created an even larger gift - the community that Kula Cloth has fostered. This is a gift that I do not take for granted - it is a gift that I cherish in each and every moment. It is my greatest hope that people can find Kula Cloth for the idea that it is… and that they will stay here because it helps them to discover something more meaningful about who they are.

Friends - I hope that this AMA was helpful for you. If you have an idea… have had an idea… or want to have an idea… it is NEVER too late for you to pursue whatever you want to do in any area of your life. I am absolutely here to uplift you and cheer you on - and I am so personally thrilled and honored that you choose to be a part of the Kula Diaries and the Kula Community as a whole.

If you’d like to submit a question for an AMA with AMA, I’d love to answer it! You can e-mail them directly to anastasia@kulacloth.com or submit anonymously to this Google Form.

Sending you all a lot of love today - wherever and however you are.

Love,

Anastasia