AMA with AMA: Answering YOUR questions!
How to deal with copy cats and bad reviews + my motocross riding days!
Dear Kula Diaries,
Welcome to my 37th weekly AMA (‘Ask Me Anything’) column! This is the time every single week devoted to answering your questions… which you have so kindly submitted via the Kula Diaries Vault.
This week I’m excited to answer two completely unrelated questions that were equally enjoyable to answer. One talks about how to deal with ‘copy cats’ and ‘bad reviews’ (which is one of the more challenging aspects of being a business owner)… and the other question turned into a throwback segment on my motorcycle riding hobby.
On a personal note — this week I’ve been really prioritizing my daily gratitude practice, and even adding in a bit of bonus dance time each day for myself. I recognized that in the process of running a fulfillment center and attempting to wrangle all of the very complicated parts of running a business — I had let these important habits slip… and I was feeling the difference. Over the past few days, it’s been really remarkable to watch the difference that it has made in my life as I re-focus on the things that really matter. It’s easy to think that the ‘stuff we do’ is the most important, because we like to be very action-oriented… but, even more important, is how we are when we are doing that stuff. If you are plodding through tasks feeling frustrated, overwhelmed and angry… it’s not going to move effortlessly in your favor. Gratitude is like the energetic lubricant of the universe — when it’s flowing, it feels like things just run… well, better. I hope you can take some time out of your day to intentionally devote your attention to this practice … you won’t regret it.
Again, I genuinely enjoy the opportunity to share and write about such a wide variety of topics — so thank you ALL for being here and for asking questions and for reading the words that I write, it means a lot!
Without further adieu… let’s get to the questions!
Dear AMA,
I just found myself on a Reddit page for “Kula Cloths...are they really sanitary?“ and someone commented that Kula is “Likely an MLM and a scam from the quick research I’m doing.” uhm WHAT?! It made me sad to read that people can be so close-minded (and they will post things online after ‘quick research’). How do you deal with this? This post is from a few years ago but I wish the commenter had a chance to see the wisdom contained in the Kula Diaries!!
First off, I want to thank you for your loyalty and support … the fact that there are other humans out there who notice something like this and feel saddened by its existence is, in a really unique way, very heart warming. It makes me very proud to know that we’ve created a truly special community that people want to protect. I’m going to share a few stories about moments during the past few years when I felt the same sense of disbelief that you felt when you saw that Reddit post, and I hope it will put your mind more at ease.
The first time that somebody ‘copied’ me on my Kula Journey was about one year into the existence of the business. Another person had started a pee cloth company (which was very different than Kula) and, essentially, re-wrote my personal story of starting Kula Cloth on their ‘About Page’ … almost verbatim. At the time, I had also released an image showing the Kula Cloth with arrows pointing to all the different features…. while simultaneously releasing a silly series of videos that featured a Bigfoot finding a Kula Cloth in the woods. Within a week… the other pee cloth company had released almost exactly the same things… an image with arrows, and a whole series of Bigfoot-themed content. This was the first time that somebody had attempted to duplicate what I was doing… and it felt weird, and upsetting. I had worked so hard to create Kula Cloth and to try and create imagery and content for my product… and it seemed like my pee cloth Doppelganger was just watching what I did… waiting a week… and then doing the exact same thing. Initially, I felt fearful that I was going to ‘lose’ business… but, I also realized that I had no actual proof (other than my own suspicion) that this person was copying me.
Within two or three years of starting Kula Cloth, the Amazon knock offs started to show up. I first learned about these products because angry customers sent me the links — Kula Cloth customers are fiercely loyal (thank you!!)… and they were absolutely furious that somebody had made a cheaper version of a ‘Kula’ … and were selling it on Amazon. Again, this felt shocking — and there was this strange sense of urgency that made me feel like saying, “I need to do something about this!”.
Finally — you saw the Reddit post about Kula being an MLM, which is actually funny… because I wasn’t even aware of that post at all until a few weeks ago, when my husband somehow stumbled across it. Personally, I opted not to read it — but, like you, I’m sad that people share ‘research’ without having any clue what they are talking about — particularly without considering how that ‘research’ might impact a person’s livelihood.
So, taking all of these ‘copycat’ and ‘misinformation’ instances into consideration — how do I typically handle them? Well, it might surprise you (or not) to know… that I completely ignore them. And I’m going to tell you why.
First, I do have an Intellectual Property lawyer named John who is often on the lookout for people who might be doing something that verges into the genre of ‘illegal’. He’s currently working on a few options that could help to prevent folks from getting ‘duped’ by the Amazon knock-offs. However, there is absolutely nothing that prevents anybody from starting another pee cloth company. In fact, I highly encourage folks to start a pee cloth company if they feel like it might be something they want to do — there is enough room on this planet for all of us, and many years ago… when the first duplicates started popping up… I made a conscious decision to live my life in a place of abundance, instead of scarcity. In the early days of owning a business — when it’s easy to feel threatened by the existence of another, similar product — I’d force myself to perform exercises where I visualized all of the different shoe companies… or sock companies… or backpack companies.. or car companies… or artists… or musicians… etc… All of these organizations did similar things… but they still were successful… sometimes mind-blowingly successful. And so, I decided that having more pee cloth companies did not mean that there was less for me. Afterall, the pee cloth itself might be duplicatable — but I am not. Each brand has an opportunity to bring their own unique gift into the world — and that is what matters the most.
During this early stage of discovering copy-cats and doppelgangers, I also came across an interesting product on Amazon that was meant for hard-boiling an egg perfectly. There was very clearly an ‘original’ version of this product that was very well branded… and then there were about 6 dozen knock-off brands of the exact same product available on Amazon. Somehow, I ended up in the comment section where the owner of the company was spending their time writing bad reviews on the ‘knock-off’ products’ site and also commenting on his own product page about how he was spending thousands of dollars in legal fees and all of his time trying to ‘shut down’ all of the imposter products because they were ‘taking’ all of his sales. Even though I had never met this person… based on the comments I read… it was easy to make the assumption that they were very stressed out… unhappy… and angry about what was happening. And, I totally get it — when you create a product, you care about it more than you can possibly describe. Nobody knows what it is like to invent something from nothing, unless they’ve done it themselves… and it would be really frustrating to spend years of your life designing something you were proud of… only to see an exact replica pop up a week later for half the price.
As I read this founder’s comments, however, I still wondered: is it worth it? Is it worth it to spend time being stressed and angry and trying to play a sick game of whack-a-mole with an endless parade of knock offs… or is there a better way for me to spend my energetic currency? More specifically — if he focused his attention on boosting the energy of his own brand… is it possible that his sales would be so high that it wouldn’t matter that these other copy cats existed?
I decided right then and there… that there was a better way. I resolved in that exact moment that I would throw myself with my whole heart into serving the Kula Community… into casting a light of good everywhere that I could… into making people laugh… into being creative… into doing things that were fun and exciting. And do you know what happened? Kula grew into a real community of people that genuinely care about it in a very real way… a way that none of the copy cat brands can duplicate. If somebody buys a knock off brand, it’s usually because they don’t really care about much except for the price, and I totally get that… but the knock off brands don’t have what we have. They don’t host classes teaching people about backpacking and hiking hygiene… they don’t dance for over 780 days in a row… they don’t teach people to meditate… and they certainly don’t have a Creepy Cat mascot. In fact, nobody really knows much at all about those brands, because they aren’t really brands — they are just a product that somebody made, because they wanted to earn money. And that’s OK. Because there is room for those people too. In fact, there’s even room for the people who don’t want to use a Kula Cloth — because, truthfully, it’s $20 cheaper just to take an old t-shirt and use it as a pee cloth. Part of living in a true place of abundance is being able to accept and love all of these parts of the universe, exactly how they are.
When you create a community, you cultivate a place that is based on more than just a piece of gear — you create something that builds genuine connection through love. This question was specifically about a Reddit thread claiming that Kula was an MLM — which I find outrageously hilarious… because I have yet to ask any customers to additionally ‘sign up’ two more customers after they purchase their pee cloth - ha! For the official record, Kula is not a multi-level-marketing company … we are just a small, outdoor gear company that sells products on both a B2B (business to business) and a D2C (direct to consumer) model. I don’t know where the MLM ‘research’ was done, but perhaps a misunderstanding of the word ‘community’ was the culprit. That being said — I can’t control what people say or think, particularly on the internet. If I were to attempt to run around and snuff out misinformation about Kula Cloth, I’d probably go nuts. Instead, I have to trust that all of that good energy that I choose to focus on… will do its trick. I have to trust that the people who do know and love Kula will either speak up on our behalf… or, that they won’t be fooled by an internet scientist. I have to completely trust that the light will always prevail.
It’s so easy to be distracted by things that feel uncomfortable or worrisome, but in the midst of those distractions you also lose sight of something else: the thousands of really amazing interactions and conversations that are happening on the same day. I often wonder: how many people are talking about Kula Cloth in this exact moment? How many people are hiking with a Kula right now? There are so many ‘secret’ and wonderful interactions that happen on a daily basis about Kula — and I don’t want to forget about those. I don’t want to let one, very ill-informed person distract me from the thousands who love Kula — because those are the humans (like you) who deserve my undivided attention.
Living in this way has not come completely naturally to me. I’d be lying if I said that it was always easy. It stung a little bit when I first saw knock-off Kulas pop up, but ultimately, I chose to see it as an opportunity for me to grow. The more and more that I can find a place of infinite abundance and acceptance in my own heart — the more it continues to flow into my life. It sometimes feels like ‘weakness’ to let those things slip away into the breeze, but there is so much freedom knowing that I have the power to focus on the things that really matter to me. I put everything into the Kula Community and to cultivating something really meaningful, and I think I’ve been successful. It has come from a place of genuine love and care — not from wanting to make a quick buck… because, very truthfully, it’s a lot harder to build a real community than it is to slap a cheaply made knock-off onto Amazon. Anybody can take a few photos… make a logo… and *poof*… you have a ‘brand’. But making real friendships? Earning trust? Making a difference in the outdoor community? Contributing to meaningful causes? Building relationships? Those things take time… and effort… and love… and intention, and some people just don’t have the patience for that. For me, it’s been the most special part of Kula Cloth… and the most important part. I started as a National Park Service Volunteer and then as a State Park Ranger and Backpacking Instructor… if there isn’t an element of giving back to the greater good from ‘all of this’… then I don’t know what I’m doing.
I’ll end by telling you all a funny, true story of something that happened a few weeks ago. My mom came to visit in January, and we went on a hike at Deception Pass State park. After the hike, we were sitting in my car and I noticed a group getting out of their car across the parking lot. Immediately, I spotted a knock-off Kula Cloth on the backpack of one of the hikers. Jokingly, I told my mom, “Go give them a Kula Cloth!”. Now, my mom being my mom — and the single biggest Kula fan on the planet — she did just that. She took a brand new Kula Cloth (because I always have a stash in my car) and marched across the parking lot to this person. According to my mom’s account, the conversation went like this:
Mom: <pointing to pee cloth> “Is that a fake Kula Cloth?”
Confused Hiker: <laughing> Oh… yes it is!
Mom: “My daughter invented Kula Cloth and she’s sitting over there in that car… and we wanted to give you this!” <hands confused hiker a brand new Kula Cloth>
Confused Hiker: <laughing more> “Oh my gosh, THANK YOU!”
Mom: walks very proudly back to car
It was the cutest, most endearing interaction… and it reminded me that you can have fun with all of this. It’s a big game of pee cloth love… and there are no winners or losers — we are all just out here trying our best to live in a confusing world that’s spinning around in an infinite cosmos. I’ll never pretend that running a pee cloth company is the most important thing I do — I’ll never take it too seriously, because in the big scheme of things… it’s how I go about this that is more important. My love doesn’t stop at my customers — it has to include everybody.
Dear AMA,
Can you please tell us more about your motocross riding days?
I went on my first motorcycle ride when I was 4 years old and I fell in love. My neighbor in Alabama (where we lived when I was that young!) had a Honda Goldwing… and remarkably, my mom agreed to let me go for a ride. I don’t think it was a long ride or a fast ride — but I felt the wind in my hair and the sense of freedom that you notice on a motorcycle… and I was hooked. It would be more than 16 years before I would ever ride a motorcycle again.
As a 20-something, I started dating a guy who had a motorcycle. I didn’t realize it at the time, but he was pretty reckless on it — and that included with me on the back. I didn’t know much about proper protective gear while riding (other than the helmet), so I’d hop on the back of the motorcycle wearing a hooded sweatshirt and jeans. During the same year — my senior year in college — I had the opportunity to take a part-time landscaping job for one of the ER doctors that I knew from my job as a medical assistant at the trauma unit. “Can you ride a 4-wheeler?”, he asked me. “Sure,” I said… lying. On my first day at his property, he gave me a crash course in how to shift using a clutch and shifter on the 4-wheeler that I’d be using with a small trailer to haul debris, and I quickly grew to love my landscaping job… not because I loved weeding… but because I really loved riding their 4-wheeler.
With the basics of shifting down… I wanted to graduate to a two-wheeled motorcycle. I found a friend who had a very tiny Honda XR 80 motorcycle that I could use, and I took it (with some other riding friends) to a nearby open area where I could practice. There was a small loop through the woods, and I spent the entire day going in circles around the loop until I felt comfortable knowing how and when to shift and control the throttle. Quickly, I outgrew the XR80, which wasn’t hard to do… because it was only about 3 feet tall - ha! I eventually purchased a very old dirt bike called a Yamaha TTR 190 — it had a giant metal gas tank and a huge, purple upholstered seat. There was a field next to the apartment that I was renting, and I would take the motorcycle to the field and ride in circles — like a very easily entertained hamster — for hours.
I started to ride with friends at off trail parks — which was usually really challenging for me. My friends were all much more advanced riders, so I struggled to keep up sometimes on the technical terrain. One of the places we used to ride was called Rausch Creek (at least I’m pretty sure that’s what it was called)… and some of the trails looked more like a dry riverbed filled with rocks. I remember that my arms would get so ‘pumped’ (like a rock climber!) from having a death grip on my motorcycle that I’d barely be able to pull in my clutch. My boyfriend at the time was not necessarily the nicest guy on the planet… and after one particularly difficult trail, he called me a ‘wuss’ for not being able to keep up with advanced riders on 450cc motocross bikes. I promptly attempted to prove myself by flipping over my handlebars twice… dislocating my shoulder the first time… and getting a concussion the second time. I started to wonder not only if this boyfriend was a good idea (he wasn’t)… but also if I wanted to continue this type of riding, which I really did not enjoy.
I took a break from trail riding, and I decided to attend the Motorcycle Safety Foundation basic riding class — which was a multi-week course (held on weekends) to obtain my motorcycle endorsement. For the class, we rode a small 250cc motorcycle called a Honda Shadow. As soon as we started riding around the driving course — that familiar feeling of freedom came back, and I remembered why I loved riding so much. For me, it had nothing to do with beating myself up on hill climbs or attempting to ride over small boulders… it was really about being present and feeling the world around me.
I moved to Washington in 2004 and when I went to get a new driver’s license, I (incorrectly) thought that my motorcycle endorsement would transfer over. When the DOL clerk handed me my temporary paper license, I looked on the back under ‘endorsements’, and noticed it was empty. I asked her why my motorcycle endorsement didn’t transfer over and she looked back at me and said, “Because you didn’t say you wanted it to.” I apologized profusely — not understanding that I needed to say something in advance, and I asked if I could transfer it over and pay the additional fee. “Nope,” she said, “It’s too late.” I walked out of the DOL that day, very unexpectedly, as an unlicensed motorcycle rider.
Naturally, I started to miss riding again — so I went and got my permit in WA and purchased a 2006 KLX 250 dual sport. The seat was so high that I could barely reach the ground, but I thought I’d get used to it. I scheduled my test to get my motorcycle license, and on the day of the test, it was raining torrentially. Wearing jeans, a motorcycle jacket, and an open-faced motorcycle helmet and goggles… I drove the 45 minute drive to the DOL office in the pouring rain. I arrived looking like a wet rat, and the instructor gave me a strange look, “Everybody else has cancelled… if you drop your bike… you fail.” With puddles forming underneath my feet, I looked back at the test administrator, “Well, if I go home today without my license, I fail too.” I took the test and passed — I had my license again!
For some odd reason, and I don’t know why — I never rode my dual sport much. Not being able to touch the ground comfortably made me nervous, and I didn’t have many people to ride with. At the time, I was dating my now ex-husband, and we once rode to the Tahuya off-road area near Belfair, Washington. Once on the single-track trails, I realized that my 250cc bike was far too much bike for me. I just wasn’t that confident of a rider on very narrow, technical trails — and I started feeling anxiety, like I used to feel when I had started riding. We didn’t have any intercom system, so my ex would fly ahead of me, and get frustrated when I couldn’t keep up. I dropped my bike a few times, and picking up a 300lb motorcycle by yourself is… not easy. A few times during this ride, we were on dirt roads — and I loved it… it felt easy, freeing and fun… which is why I had started riding to begin with. I started thinking that my bike was a bit too big for me, so I sold it… and ended up purchasing a small motocross bike: a Honda CRF 150.
The CRF was not street legal, so it was only allowed to be ridden on trails (with an ORV permit) or at motocross parks. My ex rode motocross, and so we’d take the bikes to the motorsports park to ride. I would ride around the track in its entirety, while very advanced riders attempted to avoid me (luckily, this was not an issue for them - ha!). I wasn’t bad at riding the motorcycle around the track — but I also didn’t have a desire to jump my motorcycle 15 feet in the air (nor did my bike have the suspension to survive a jump like that). I had a lot of fun riding at the track and, gradually, I got better and better and more confident. Looking back at those days — I think that the most important thing I learned was a different type of motorcycle handling. Motocross riding can be ‘squirrely’ — which means that the back tire can ‘fish tail’ and the riding is on uneven and unpredictable surfaces. Now — riding my dual sport on Forest Service Roads… or my road bike on the street — I feel much more confident on any terrain.
Here’s a short clip of me riding my CRF 150 at the track… getting some impressive air - ha!
I stopped riding motocross many years ago — I honestly can’t remember if my CRF was sold prior to my divorce, or if I simply left it behind when I moved. I’m really grateful for those years of fun and experience learning better handling skills. I will also add that I was not in a great place mentally or spiritually when I was riding motocross — both times I was in relationships where I was not very happy for a variety of reasons (many of them having to do with my own internal state of being), and I think that while I had a genuine interest in motorcycles that had nothing to do with the men I was with… my choice of riding activity was definitely influenced by them. If I had been on my own, I know that I would have chosen to ride on long, sweeping forest service roads into the mountains to eat a burrito with a view… or I would have ridden a road bike up and over a mountain pass to feel the cool air and the sense of freedom that I fell in love with as a kid. Motocross riding, at least for me, was not interesting enough — going in circles around a track for hours on end felt… anticlimactic.
My husband Aaron and I purchased our current motorcycles after he left his job in 2022, and spending time together on our bikes has quickly become our favorite activity. We don’t go on wild, technical rides … instead, we opt for those sweeping Forest Service roads that I had dreamed about. We ride our street bikes to coffee shops… and we take them on short, overnight trips to places we’ve never been. We laugh in our intercom conversations… and most of the ride can be summed up as a cornucopia of moments in which we are endlessly saying, ‘Look at that!’ or ‘Did you see that?’ or ‘Wow!’, or ‘I never noticed that waterfall!’. Motorcycling has given us both a sense of newness and adventure — and, shockingly enough, we haven’t had to ride over giant boulders to find it. Often, our ride will be a quick jaunt to a local coffee shop to sit and work on some puzzles. It’s funny how the simplest things can feel so satisfying — when it sometimes seems like we spent our whole lives trying to complicate everything by being somebody who we weren’t.
Maybe it sounds cliche, but riding a motorcycle is much more about the journey than the destination. It’s about the things you notice along the way… when you aren’t surrounded by the enclosure of a car. It’s the smell of the mountains on an evening ride… or the way it feels when an entire flock of snow geese lifts off the ground next to you — as if you are flying with them too. It’s the feeling of taking your time to arrive at a place, because you are enjoying where you are — instead of needing to be somewhere else. It’s being able to share that feeling of freedom with somebody you love — and knowing that, as a little 4 year old girl, you hadn’t been wrong about how good it would feel to put your hand on the throttle and ride into the wind.
Friends — I know I say this every single week, but THANK YOU for choosing to be here! Living in a world where I get to include Bigfoot photographs… and write about motocross… well, that’s just a beautiful place, and I appreciate the opportunity to share a bit about my own life with all of you. I hope that one day, very soon, we get the opportunity to cross trails and swap stories with each other — it is my favorite thing to do.
If you have any questions that you want me to consider for a future AMA, you can submit them to the Kula Diaries Vault — thank you so much for your interest and enthusiasm, it means so much to me. I am wishing all of you a beautiful week filled with gratitude, peace and love.
I love how you're handling the Kula wannabe situation ❤️ that's why you'll always have a loyal following.
Also, is the Bigfoot with Cat Kula available??!! Because I've never seen it on the site....maybe it needs to make a comeback 🤣🤣🤣