How to Create Anything: Part 2

Tags, Packaging, Prototypes, Clusters and Dance Breaks.

As always, this post is far too long for e-mail format - so make sure to click ‘read more’ at the bottom to see the whole thing!

Dear Kula Diaries,

Welcome to Part 2 of, “How to Create Anything’! If you haven’t read part one, you can find that by clicking right here. If you have absolutely no desire to create a product… absolutely no idea where to begin… or, if you just aren’t sure — don’t worry. This post is actually a lot of fun (and funny), and I think everybody will like it - even if you have no desire to become an entrepreneur. This is your life and you can become, be, do, have or create anything that you want. Creating a product is about a lot more than just creating a ‘thing’. When I first started Kula Cloth, I didn’t realize that at first — but stay tuned. Along the way, something much more important starts to reveal itself… and that, friends, is the really fun part.

All good things need a name

It’s hard for me to say when your ‘product’ (i.e. physical thing… blog… business… idea, etc…) might get a name. Maybe you already have the name right now… or maybe you still need to come up with it. Either way - you will need to call your ‘thing’ something.

I probably shared this before, but when I was trying to come up with the name for Kula Cloth, I went through a few different options:

One day, while listening to a podcast with Sara Blakely, the founder of Spanx, I heard her say that products with a ‘hard K sound’ were more memorable. I did a quick Google search for, ‘mountains that start with K’, and I discovered Kula Khangri, a mountain Bhutan - a place I had visited in 2011. Another Google search revealed that the word ‘Kula’ had a variety of meanings in many different languages… one of which was the word, ‘community’. I was sold and the Kula Cloth was born.

Once you have your name — the next thing you might need to do is purchase a Domain Name for your name or brand. Buying a domain name will allow you to build a website later — you don’t need to do it right away. Typically, I will buy domain names on Squarespace (only because I’m most familiar with the process)… but you could use GoDaddy or Wix (or something similar). Once you have your Domain name, you can simply keep it for awhile, until you are ready to build your online store (if you need one - I will go into that in a later post in this series).

The absolute basic steps are: get a name for your product, purchase the domain name, and talk to an intellectual property/ trademark lawyer (I’ve linked the lawyer I work with - he’s amazing!) to see if you need to get your name (or product) trademarked… or submit a patent application.

This is not necessary, but can be helpful — if you have folks that you trust, run your potential name ideas past them to see what they think and/or what their reaction is to the name you’ve chosen. Ultimately, go with your gut instinct on it.

Draw a picture for your name!

Getting a logo for your brand is another step that you’ll have to navigate as you are creating your ‘thing’. This part is also really fun — and can be really easy too.

You don’t need to know how to draw or use Adobe Illustrator in order to create a logo - this can be as simple (or as complicated) as you want it to be. If you are a no-maintenance person, you can hire an artist or a designer to make you a logo. If you look on Instagram under the hashtag #kulaclothdesign2023 or #kulaclothdesign2022, you will instantly discover all of the 200+ artists who submitted their art to our design contest this past year. Scroll through them and see if any of the artists or designers have a style that speaks to you — and then reach out to them and see what their rates are for creating an original logo! I have spoken to many people who discovered a designer or artist from our contest entrants. It’s such a great and unexpected resource!

Another great resource is Fiverr.com, which is a huge database for freelance workers. You can scroll through the artists on the Fiverr platform and pick one who resonates with your style, and then work with them to create a logo.

Finally, you can roll up your sleeves and get your hands metaphorically dirty by creating a logo on Canva. You’ll have to pay $12 per month for Canva Pro, but it’s worth it (and then some!). Get creative and make a few different options — and then show them to some of your friends to get reactions… then make some tweaks to the design, until you are happy. If you do create a logo in Canva, you will likely want to send your design to a designer who will be able to put your logo into Adobe Illustrator and create print ready and web ready files for you. You’ll also want to have a few versions of your logo with different colored fonts (to show up on dark or light backgrounds)… as well as a logo with a transparent background.

For kicks, let’s make a logo. I’m going to create a logo using Canva for my imaginary Nut Butter Company. I asked my husband what he wanted to name the company, and his first response was, ‘Uncle Steve’s Nut Butter Co’. I felt a bit odd attempting to make a logo for that one… especially considering that I don’t even have an Uncle Steve. It really just felt like a bit of a lie — and I told my husband I couldn’t lie to all of you … even about my imaginary Nut Butter Company. So, I decided to call it ‘Tiny Spoon Nut Butter Co.’

I decided that I wanted to make this a really simple logo - just a mini spoon and a heart, to demonstrate my absolute love and adoration of both mini spoons and nut butter. Then, I picked a cool typeset font that I liked. Making the logo took me approximately 5 minutes. It probably won’t win any awards in a logo competition (wait… are there logo competitions?!) … but it would be a good start. You can always re-brand at a later date if you need to. And also, remember - your logo doesn’t need to have anything to do with what your product does. For instance, the Kula Cloth logo has nothing to do with peeing - it’s just a few brightly colored rectangles.

Here is the brand new logo for Tiny Spoon Nut Butter Co:

And then, for fun, I decided to see what it would look like on a jar of nut butter (I did this using Canva too):

It actually looks really cute … and very unfortunately, I now want to start this company (my husband promptly chimed in and said I was not allowed to start another company, for the record). Darn. But really — this part of the process is one of my favorites - I love the creativity and the fun of getting to create something that has never been created before. Isn’t it exciting? You are getting to make something brand new that has never existed before. And the amazing thing about this is that you are going to create something that only you can bring your own unique energy to.

It’s so easy to get stuck in the ‘not knowing’ of how to do this — but I want you to know that it is possible and it can be so much fun. If you feel inspired, try your hand at creating a logo for Tiny Spoon Nut Butter Co … or try to make your own logo for your own product or company … and just see what happens. If you find yourself feeling stuck at any part of the process, just notice that you are stuck. That’s the most important part. You can even say, “Wow, I’m stuck.” And then… instead of throwing in the towel of ‘not knowing what to do next’, simply say, “But somebody out there has figured this out.” You don’t need to know ‘how to do’ whatever is next. All you need to do is know that it can be figured out… and then be open to seeing what that could look like. Keep taking little steps forward… the answers will arrive.

For the record — when I launch Tiny Spoon Nut Butter Co., I’ve already picked out the first flavor. It’s going to be a birthday cake peanut butter base with swirls of buttercream frosting, chunks of chocolate covered pretzels and… sprinkles. Always sprinkles.

My new professional headshot.

Figuring out everything all at once

Keep in mind that as I’m writing these ‘steps’ - you can mix them around and put them in different order…. and maybe you will add new steps… or subtract steps. Your journey is going to be uniquely yours. So, while I might be able to give a general idea of important things that you might need to do… the order in which you do them and what they look like will be specific to you and your idea.

For instance, if you are a creating a food product — you probably won’t need to go on a search for a cut and sew facility. Instead, you’ll need to figure out if you want to rent a commercial kitchen… or build out your own production location… or hire a ‘co-packer’ to manufacture your product for you. If you are making a product out of metal… or plastic… or wood… the way that you make your product will be entirely different. Just know that the basic idea is that you are going to need to have some sort of a prototype product… and then figure out how you are going to get it made… and by whom.

When I started Kula Cloth, I began by making prototypes on my own. Eventually, after I had finalized the design, I started selling them on Instagram. At that time, I didn’t even have a strap or a logo, and the reflective thread was around the edge (not down the corner of the diamond). Very quickly, I realized that I needed to brand my product, so that it looked like it was an actual piece of gear — and not just some randomly sewed square of fabric with a piece of ribbon attached to the top of it. I had no idea where to look for labels, so I just started doing what all of the most brilliant entrepreneurs in human history have done… I started Googling.

Eventually, I happened upon a company called Cruz Label… so I e-mailed them. I dug back through the archives of my e-mail as I was writing this post… and I found the original e-mail that I had sent to them in 2018:

Nearly 5 years later… I order at least 50,000 labels at a time. Things have really changed!

When you are making a new label or a tag for your product, keep in mind… it doesn’t exist yet, so you will get to figure out all of the specifics of what it looks like. To make our Kula straps, I took a piece of paper and cut it to the size that I thought would work best, and then I measured exactly how long I wanted the logo to be, and where I wanted the holes in the strap so that I could attach the snaps to the Kula Cloth. It isn’t hard to make a tag or a label - all you need to be able to do is provide the graphics that will be on it, and the sizes and the material you want the label to be made from. When you reach out to a tag or a label company, they will usually provide you with samples so that you can learn what terms like ‘woven’ or ‘jacquard’ or ‘satin’ are referring to. When in doubt - ask! You don’t need to be a label expert to do this — that is what they are good at, so they will help you figure out all the details. Once you design your label, you will get to see a proof — and Cruz will even send you a sample of your final product before production, so you can make sure that it is perfect.

The e-mail and photo approval that I sent Cruz Label once I got my production sample - I was pretty excited!

The other thing you will need to begin pondering is how you are going to package your product. If you are selling a pair of underwear or clothing from your own fulfillment center, you might be able to package it in a small compostable bag (Better Packaging is a great spot to start) and add a clothing tag to the product itself. If you are going to be selling your product in stores (or if you want to!), you will need to design customer facing packaging for your product.

When I first started Kula Cloth, a woman reached out to me and said she wanted to help me design packaging - so we designed a really cute cardboard box to package the Kula Cloths in. The design was really adorable, but nobody ever told me that boxes do not open themselves. When 5,000 boxes arrive at your house completely flat… that is a moment when you know you are in trouble. There were very many nights in the early days of Kula when my husband and I watched movies while frantically opening boxes so that we could package Kula Cloths for wholesalers. It was not great. When REI reached out to me about carrying Kula Cloth, they felt that the boxes weren’t a great fit for them, so I had to start figuring out a new type of packaging. I decided that I wanted to find a compostable packaging, since the entire point of Kula Cloth is to reduce waste. I discovered a company (through Google) called TIPA, which is based in Israel. They had relatively high minimums at the time, and all of the bags were produced and shipped from Europe, which meant that my first order cost around $6,000 + $2,000 in shipping… and the order of bags got lost somewhere in transit and my husband and I ended up having to pick it up from the FedEx Hangar at SeaTac Airport. It was an absolute, giant cluster.

I want to interject myself here and say something really important about the clusters that you will encounter along the way. These clusters are very very very important, because it is through these moments that something even more beautiful has the opportunity to arise. In the moments that your packaging arrives with incorrect printing… or your products get lost in the mail… or something else unexpected happens… you have two choices: 1) become reactive and angry and believe that everything has gone to sh*t, so you might as well just give up and/or try to get rid of the ‘problem’ … or 2) practice acceptance of where you are in that moment, and then see what happens. Option 1 is what most of us want to do — because you are going to take the creation of your product so personally that it will feel like somebody is cutting off your arm when it does not go as planned. Option 2 is what you will wish you had done when you look back on your journey and realize that what you once thought was a very ‘serious’ problem was just a tiny, insignificant blip on the radar… and that having integrity as you worked through that challenge was actually more meaningful and valuable in the end.

Some of the deepest conversations I’ve had — some of the moments that have produced the most brilliant ideas and astounding results have been through letting go of what I think needed to happen… and allowing what was happening… to happen. Over the past five years, I’ve developed very strong relationships in unexpected ways because I have approached all situations, even the challenging ones, with kindness and love. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t take appropriate action — but it does mean that I didn’t have an adult temper tantrum and waste my time being uselessly angry about something that I could not change. Instead, I always try my best to be open and to ask myself, “What good is hiding in this situation that I cannot see yet?” And then, I wait. Embrace the cluster. Gold is hiding in it, my friends.

Ok… back to where we left off before I took myself on a lengthy tangent…

When I first started ordering my compostable packaging, I ordered 28,000 bags in my first order. In my second order, I purchased 50,000 bags — which were similarly delivered from Europe (for a whopping $5,000 shipping fee - yowza!). However, TIPA has since switched to working with printing partners in the USA — so now all of my packaging is produced domestically in New York - which means that I can receive it really quickly… and the minimums are much smaller. If you are in the process of creating packaging — just reach out to a variety of packaging companies, to see what might be the best fit for you — most of them will offer free samples of their products. You might even have to design a custom box, bag or other type of packaging, depending on the nature of your product. You can work with designers on Fiverr to design your packaging - or you can ask the packaging company if they have any designers that they recommend. Either way, the company will be able to provide you with a die line for your packaging, so that you can create a design that you feel excited about.

The other thing that people don’t tell you about selling a product is that the product does not inspect itself and leap into its own packaging. No, my friend, somebody has to put it there. A few years ago, after I purchased my compostable packaging, there were nights where my husband would get finished working his 14 hour shift… and then sit for 3-4 hours stuffing Kulas in bags, because they simply weren’t going to stuff themselves. I have since hired folks to help me with the product inspection and packaging — but please know that every single solitary Kula Cloth in existence is inspected and placed into a bag by an actual human. It is an exhaustive, never-ending effort where we sometimes feel like we are ‘getting ahead’ … only to discover that we are absolutely not ahead at all. I am still figuring this out — and if anybody wants to invent a Kula-in-bag-stuffing robot, I will award a lifetime of 9oz chocolate chip cookies to the inventor.

There are other items (commonly called ‘trim’) that you could need for your product too — zippers, snaps, thread, zipper pulls, etc… Keep in mind that there are a plethora of companies that source these raw items. A few of the companies that I have used and/or am aware of are:

• Wawak (great for thread, zippers, etc…)

• KamSnaps - (easy to use snaps + presses to install them!)

• Duraflex (fastners, snaps, zipper pulls, etc… they will custom make you anything as well!)

• YKK (like a zipper superstore - every zipper you could ever imagine!)

• Dutchware (they have an entire section on their website called ‘Make Your Gear’)

• Country Brook Design (webbing, ribbon, etc…)

• Ripstop By The Roll (fabric supplier for outdoor fabrics)

• Yarrington Mills (USA based fabric producer - they also sublimate on their own fabrics, so you can custom print them)

• Cruz Label (they make our Kula Cloth straps and our reflective heat transfer logos for our underwear as well … ask for Mindy, she’s the best!)

• Next Day Flyers (where we purchase our clothing hang tags)

• Contrado (another company that makes custom labels - we get some of ours there too… they will also print custom fabric for you, but the cost will be significantly more than if you are printing in large quantities at a textile mill)

The good news is that once you have your packaging, tags, labels, hang tags, etc… designed and completed - the process is much easier to repeat… over and over again. Believe me — it gets so much easier. Doing the initial sourcing of your product materials and packaging is by far the most challenging part, but have no fear - once you figure it out… you’ll feel pretty proud and excited about what you’ve accomplished.

I still remember the first day that I got to hold a finished Kula Cloth. Keep in mind, at this point I had sourced all of the fabric… created my logo and label… figured out my reflective thread situation… and chose snaps for the products itself. I had also found a USA-based factory to work with (don’t worry, I’ll talk more about that in part 3 of this series!). I sent them my prototype, and they were tasked with creating a pattern for a Kula Cloth… making one… and then sending me a production prototype for approval.

In August of 2018, my fabric was completed at the mill, and sent to my factory, where they got to work making me 8 prototypes. They put them in the mail to me when they were finished, and I anxiously awaited their arrival. When I say, ‘anxiously’, I’m not exaggerating. I had opened up the ‘pre-sale’ for Kula Cloth prior to ever holding a final sample of the product. In retrospect, maybe this wasn’t the best decision — but I knew in my heart that it was going to work out. Still, when you’ve been receiving hundreds of pre-orders, and you have hundreds of customers anxiously awaiting a product that you’ve never even held… it’s a little bit nerve-wracking.

I still remember the day that the first production sample Kula Cloths arrived. I had just finished a workout at my gym, and my husband and I stopped at my PO Box in Mill Creek, Washington to pick up my mail. A small manila envelope was sitting in my mailbox, and I knew what it had to be. Nervously, I broke the seal on the envelope and 8 galaxy print Kula Cloths fell out of it onto my lap as I sat in the front seat of my tiny Honda Fit. My hands were shaking as I picked them up and looked at them for the first time. The fabric was perfect - two different fabrics (waterproof and absorbent) bonded together in supreme glory, with a heavenly reflective stripe adorning the side left corner. The strap, that my husband and I had designed with a piece of paper, was the perfect length and it looked so… real. Somehow, the boubakiki shaped blob that I had sewed months and months ago… had morphed into what looked like a real piece of gear.

I sat in my car that day and held those 8 Kula Cloths and cried. It had taken me almost 2 years of dreaming… and giving up… and hoping… and figuring out… and questioning myself… and doubting myself… and believing that it was possible… and ignoring negative comments… and staying committed to myself for this moment to arrive.

It’s a weird moment when you realize that almost two years of your life has culminated with you sitting in a Honda Fit in the parking lot of a post office holding 8 pee cloths. But, of course, it wasn’t about the pee cloth. I didn’t cry that day because the reflective thread looked so good, or because I was inspired by the beauty of the Galaxy print. I cried because it was the first time in my life that I had believed in myself and that I hadn’t given up, even when it was hard. It was the first time that I hadn’t told myself that I wasn’t good enough to do something. It was the first time that I knew that I was worthy of bringing something in to the world. The 8 Kula Cloths sitting on my lap were a tiny piece of physical proof that I could learn to love myself again.

Take a dance break

And now that I’m crying while writing this… it’s a perfect time for a dance break. No, really. I’m absolutely serious. Sometimes talking about ‘entrepreneurial’ stuff can seem really dry and methodical and serious. And I want you to know that it doesn’t have to be serious or boring or hard.

You get to write this story about creating your product (and your life). So… let me ask you… which book would you rather read?

Remember how I am seemingly always talking about how your energy and focus are really important? Well, as you move through this process — don’t lose sight of that. It’s really easy to get sucked into the mental exercise of creating something — and forget about what really matters… which is looking deep within yourself and allowing yourself to be receptive and open to the ideas and creativity that want to flow to you. Keep in mind: the point of your product is not to just make some random product. The point of creating something is to bring something more important into the world through your creation. Which means that how you create the product is more important than what the product actually is. And don’t worry - you aren’t going to miss out on anything. When you focus on how you are as you move through this process… the ideas, inspiration and creativity that flow to you will be better than anything you could have thought of on your own. This is creativity, love, inspiration and connection that is coming from a deeper place.

So, let’s do it. Let’s dance. Since I’m a little bit of a goober… I’ll join you. Put on a pair of headphones, and play the song or the little video below and… just see what happens (have you ever noticed I say that a lot? Hmmm… maybe there’s a reason for that!).

I almost didn’t post that video … but then I thought about a story I heard about Virgin entrepreneur Richard Branson. According to the story, he was at a dinner party, and everybody was talking about business and entrepreneurship very seriously… and he got up on the dinner table and started dancing. He was reminding people that we don’t need to take ourselves so seriously. I don’t want to diminish the importance of what you are doing or creating — but please approach everything with this reminder to yourself:

I am a human being floating on a planet in an infinite cosmos that is so vast in scale that my heart aches when I try to comprehend the depth of its mysteries and beauty. Did you know that there are around 50,000,000 plant cells in a single leaf? And yet, here I am. I can hold a single Maple Leaf in my hand and I can look up at the stars at night — and have a deep knowing that there is something beyond myself… but also within me. No equation … no formula… no computer code can explain the existence of me. And yet, here I am. So, I know that very deep down, I must be very important — or at least a tiny piece of something much bigger that is very important. And that anything I create in this world pales in comparison to the depth of the love that exists within my chest as my heart beats and beats, without me having to do anything at all.

And on that note… there is one final thing I’ll share today…

I had to do it.

Friends, you are so very loved. Thank you so much for being here and for giving me the chance to share a little piece of my heart with all of you. I appreciate you in every possible way, and writing this Substack feels like a gift every single week. I hope that it inspires you to create anything you want. It doesn’t have to be a product - it can be anything. If you are in any part of that process right now, and aren’t sure what to do next - let me know. I am here to cheer you on and uplift you … and to remind you how much you really do matter.

I am sending all of you a wish for love, peace and ease, wherever and however you are today.

Love,

Anastasia

P.S. If you have a question or comment, you can submit it anonymously via the Kula Diaries Google Form. If you’d like a specific response from me, please be sure to include your e-mail address. I do read all of the comments and I appreciate all of your kind words so much!