Psssst. As always, my posts are far too long for e-mail format, so click ‘read more’ at the bottom to see the whole thing.
Dear Kula Diaries:
For this week’s AMA I am diving into a multi-part ultra-comprehensive series on ‘How to Create Anything’. I’m going to be sharing my experience in product creation - so we might get into the nitty-gritty specifics of creating a thing … but a lot of what I’m talking about could also be applied to creating ‘things’ that aren’t actually ‘things’ you can hold in the palm of your hand - i.e. a community, a blog following, etc… This series is primarily written for the creator who has little to no experience in creating a product… and doesn’t know where to begin — but I hope it’s helpful for everybody!
So, without further adieu… let’s create something… from an idea.
Dear AMA:
I have an idea for a product, but I have no idea how to get started. What should I do? I don’t even know where to begin… and I have no experience in this field at all.
If I hadn’t received that message from somebody else… I think I could have written it a few years ago myself. I had the idea for Kula Cloth in 2016, and I did what most people probably do when they have an idea for something:
I did some basic research, and very quickly compiled a list of why my idea was not possible and would not be successful.
Ugh.
Among other things, my 'limiting beliefs’ list looked something like this:
And so, I quit… if you could even call it that. Honestly, I can barely say that I ‘quit’ - because I really didn’t even get started. I wrote off the idea as, ‘Anastasia and another one of her hair-brained ideas’ (btw - ‘hair brained’ is a phrase I borrowed from my dad - ha!) … and went back to being miserable at my job.
If you’ve been here for a few weeks, you will know that a near-death-ish experience was the catalyst that changed my life: suddenly I woke up to the truth that all of the fears that I had about trying something new were created in my own mind. They were real fears… but they weren’t true. I suddenly knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that I was the one holding myself back from doing anything.
I did not have a ‘guide’ or a ‘method’ - I had no idea how to create anything at all. When I decided to give this pee cloth idea a try, I could barely sew a button. I have no business education, save for a few attempts at starting small businesses as a kid. I have a liberal arts degree as a pre-med Latin Major and I spent most of my professional career as a park ranger and a railroad police officer. I also happened to love hiking and backpacking… and I had been teaching as a Backpacking Instructor for almost a decade. The only slightly relevant marketing experience that I have was from a job as a ‘marketing assistant’ for a small print shop/marketing agency that I worked for directly out of college. That might sound promising, but my actual job could be more accurately described as, ‘driving to Whole Foods to buy lunch for the owner of the company and picking their son up from school.’ The truth is… I created Kula Cloth with absolutely no previous infrastructure or training whatsoever. I don’t say this to make me sound special - I say this because I want you to think to yourself, “If Anastasia can create something from nothing… I can too.”
I figured it out. It was not easy, but it was exhilarating and fun. Product creation is my favorite part of the process - I’m always working on new ideas and products - and I want you to start feeling hopeful and excited about your ideas. Watching an idea become a thing is a beautiful, special experience - and through your ideas, something important and good has the chance to be brought into the world. The best part is that you can then use that thing (whatever it is) as a vessel for more connection and good. The product is secondary - the journey that you experience as you create the product itself is what really matters. You don’t have to have an audience, experience, or special skills to get started. You don’t need to know what you are doing. This is all about taking tiny, manageable steps… one at a time. Many years ago, I named my (now non existent) personal blog and online hiking community, ‘Toward the Mountaintop, Inch By Inch’. Everything is possible, if you just take tiny steps and are OK with not knowing all the answers right now. You are exactly where you are supposed to be.
So, let’s get started.
Step 1: You Don’t Even Have An Idea, But You Want One
When I was a little kid, I (apparently) told my mom, “One day, mom, I’m going to have a great idea… and that’s all you really ever need… one great idea.” First off, I wish I had stayed that open and confident, because it would have saved me a few decades of anguish. Secondly, I was right at the ripe old age of ten. All you need is an idea - and there are infinite ideas out there.
But how do you find one? What if you want an idea, but don’t have one yet?
This is the fun, exciting part - because all you have to do is find the feeling of your idea… be open… and listen. That’s it. Your idea will come - there is nothing you need to do to find it. In fact, stop trying to look for it. This is the part of the process that sounds an awful lot like that one line from a Disney song that sounds like an unbelievable fantasy for kids. I am here to tell you - do not gloss over the importance of finding the feeling of your idea that you haven’t had yet. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THE PROCESS and getting to know this feeling and continually coming back to it over and over and over again as you create is the single most important thing you will do. The more you stay on IDEA FM, the more you will invite the answers to arrive.
Let’s run with that radio analogy and imagine for a moment that you are a radio - and that your idea is floating around in the ether on a specific frequency - in this case, IDEA FM. When you are looking for an idea… or needing an idea… you are unintentionally tuning your radio antenna to LACK OF IDEA FM, which is a very different channel. LACK OF IDEA FM plays … nothing. Or, if it plays anything at all, it’s going to be a whole bunch of stuff on repeat that you don’t want to listen to: the job you don’t like, the reasons why you aren’t good at things, all of the other successful people out there who do have ideas that you don’t have, etc…
So, the first step is changing your channel - because we want you to start listening to IDEA FM so that the transmission can arrive.
This begs the question: what is playing on IDEA FM? Well… I’ll tell you:
IDEA FM is playing the feeling or the frequency of the idea that you are looking for. This means that if we want to change our channel to IDEA FM, we need to start discovering and practicing the feelings of IDEA FM now … before the idea arrives.
This is the practice of being open: find the feeling of the thing before it’s here… and guess what? The thing shows up.
The idea for Kula Cloth arrived for me on a hike. I wasn’t expecting it… I wasn’t trying to find an idea to start a company at that very moment… I was simply in a space of profound gratitude and joy and adventure and abundance in that very moment - and in the instant that my antenna switched over to IDEA FM, the idea arrived.
I cannot possibly say how your idea will arrive. It could pop into your mind, unannounced. It might arrive in a more logical, predictable way. It might be an idea you’ve already had… but previously ignored. It could be a random impulse to do something unexpected and out of the ordinary (for you). The way that these ideas or ‘sparks’ arrive is unique to each of us - but if you put your energy into finding the feeling of IDEA FM now… I know that the idea will come.
Finally, when the idea comes - it may or may not feel like a ‘lightbulb moment’. In fact, it could feel very much like a ‘nothing’ moment to you. It could seem very easy to dismiss and let go. Your brain might want to swoop in and tell you that it’s a dumb idea. This is the moment when you get the opportunity to listen to something and to tell yourself… “I’m open to seeing what this might be.”
For now, if you don’t have an idea, just know that’s ok. Practice saying things like, “I don’t know what my idea is, but I’m excited for it to arrive.” Be open … have fun… do something unexpected today… and see what happens.
P.S. If you aren’t in a place where those feelings are accessible right now - that’s OK too, and I would never tell you that it is healthy or possible to force yourself into feeling abundant or grateful if you are not feeling that way. If you are new here… start back at the beginning of my posts and you will read a lot of things about being exactly where you are - even if it isn’t where you want to be right now.
Step 2: The Idea Arrives
For me, the idea for Kula Cloth arrived while I was taking a photograph of my ‘scrap of fabric’ pee cloth on the Wind River High Route. I was in the creative throws of taking this photo when the idea arrived:
When my idea arrived, it felt like a gift from the universe. I got really really excited about the idea and couldn’t stop talking about it - I was so stoked to get home and start a pee cloth business. And you know what I did then?
I got home, did some research on textiles… told myself that nobody would ever buy this and that I couldn’t afford it and that I didn’t know how to sew… and then I lost momentum and stopped.
You have probably done this before too. I had done it about 30 times (with other ideas) prior to my pee cloth idea. And guess what? It’s OK. It’s a part of the process. So, if you have an idea right now - and you’ve given up on it, that’s totally fine and you haven’t done anything wrong… nor have you ruined your chances to resurrect your idea from the idea graveyard. As luck would have it, ideas are immortal, and they can easily be resuscitated.
Once you have your idea, and you feel excited about pursuing it a little bit, the first step is to do some fun and exciting internet research on the current market for your item (if there even is one). When I did this for Kula Cloth about 5 years ago, I discovered one person making a pee cloth - but it was a completely different product than the idea I had. Keep in mind: even if somebody else is already doing it - that’s ok. As long as you aren’t infringing on patent or trademark issues, there is room for your idea. One thing that helps me understand this concept is to think about all of the different shoe brands that exist… or mug brands… or sock brands… or backpack brands… can you even comprehend how many there are? Just because another thing like your idea exists does not mean you cannot bring your idea to life. Remember, you are not duplicatable. If you decide to start a shoe brand tomorrow or a clothing brand - you bring your unique personality, vision and ideas to the world - and that is something that nobody else has. Do not be waivered in your commitment by the existence of something similar. There is room for all of us.
Step 3: Try to Make it
This is a really fun and exciting part of the process, because you get to take an energetic thought form (your idea) and turn it into an actual physical thing that you can touch or feel. Here are a few questions you can consider as you start to figure out how to make your first prototype:
Sidenote: Keep in mind, if you are reaching out to people about your product - you might want to consider having an NDA form (Non Disclosure Agreement) prior to discussing details with anybody else. Full transparency: I never had an NDA when I was in the early phases of Kula Cloth. I asked questions to people that I loved and trusted and never had even the slightest concern.
When I finally got out of my own way and decided to jump into the world of ‘create your own pee cloth’, I didn’t know where to start… so I just started. After my near-death experience, I had started an online hiking/backpacking group on Facebook, so in September of 2017 (after the pee cloth idea resurrected itself) I did an unofficial ‘survey’ of that group. I posted the following questions to them:
This is a screen shot of my actual post from 2017… Please keep in mind that I posted this prior to the actual launch of Kula Cloth and my audience, at that time, were primarily women hikers that I met online and knew through my backpacking classes with Washington Outdoor Women. Kula Cloth, when it did launch nearly a year later, did so with much more inclusive language as a pee cloth for, ‘anybody who squats when they pee.’
At the time I posted this question, I had spoken to somebody who also owned an apparel company, and they had expressed an interest in possibly helping to link me up with a manufacturer… but ultimately that connection fizzled out. But, the information that I received from my unofficial survey was pretty important. What did people want?
antimicrobial
pretty designs
quick drying
easy to use
lightweight
the ability to tell which side has been used
the option for it to be discrete
a fabric that hides the ‘pee spots’’
odor resistant
a way to attach it to a backpack
My original idea for the pee cloth was that it would have a waterproof side and an absorbent side, so that your hands wouldn’t get pee on them when you used it… and so that you would always know which side was ‘dirty’. So, I started looking for fabrics. I did endless searches for fabrics with antimicrobial properties… and endless searches for waterproof fabrics. I purchased samples online and my husband even drove me to Seattle Fabrics so that I could feel some fabrics in person. With a newfound supply of fabric that I had no idea what to do with, my next step was to answer this question:
What do I do with all of this fabric?
I didn’t know how to sew, but I had a friend who was a professional tailor, so I called her.
“I want to make a pee cloth,” I said, “And I want one side to be waterproof and the other side to be an absorbent fabric. It’s just going to be a square of fabric… how do I do it?”
“You need a serger,” she said.
As luck would have it, she had an extra serger, so I drove 2 hours to her house to borrow it. She showed me how to sew a straight line (sort of), and I took it home where I promptly broke the thread and my husband spent almost an hour trying to figure out how to re-thread it.
I cut out two squares of fabric: one square of waterproof fabric and one square of absorbent terry-cloth fabric. I laid them on top of one another and I placed them on the serger, and I sewed the very first attempt at a Kula Cloth:
It looked awful, but it was a start. And guess what? Every single idea starts somewhere.
While my husband worked his nightshift job at the railroad, I sat in our upstairs guest bedroom and practiced sewing squares. I spent hours and hours and hours listening to podcasts and sewing squares and eventually, my squares started to look like squares.
While I was doing this, I also was refining my fabric choices. I eventually ended up calling a textile mill and (miraculously) getting the CEO on the phone. I shared my idea with her, and my enthusiasm must have been audible, because she got really excited about my idea too. I bought more fabric from them - and started honing in on my final textile choices.
In the beginning of my product creation, I assumed that my product would be two pieces of fabric that were sewed together - a waterproof side and an absorbent side… serged together like a pillow case, without the pillow in the middle. But in January of 2018, I had the opportunity to attend Outdoor Retailer in Colorado, where I spent far too much time in the fabric sourcing department of the show. It was there that I saw my very first laminated fabric. Excitedly, I held a piece of fabric where it appeared that somebody had ‘fused’ two different fabrics together, “YOU CAN DO THIS?!”, I excitedly exclaimed?! The idea of my Kula fabrics being laminated together was exciting, because I knew it would create a really important durability, that I wouldn’t be able to get with a product that was sewn more like a pillow case.
When I got home from Outdoor Retailer, I contacted the textile mill again, “Can you fuse fabrics together?”, I asked. “Oh, you mean lamination? Of course we can!”, they said. In fact, they had been able to do it the entire time — I just didn’t know the terminology… I didn’t even know that it was an option I could ask for.
Suddenly, I had my perfect fabric: a waterproof fabric, permanently laminated to an absorbent fabric. Bingo!
You might not be looking for a fabric (or other material) this complicated - but if you are, that’s OK too. It probably exists… but you just might not know the terminology yet. One thing that I like to do when I’m creating a product or a new piece of apparel is to look at the fabric content of similar products… and do a google search for those terms. For instance, right now I’m in the process of designing a pair of hiking shorts. I have no idea where I’m going to source my fabric from yet… but I do know and have used different athletic/technical fabrics that I like. So, visit the website of your favorite brand of shorts and cut and paste the fabric content from that product page into Google… and just see what comes up. Websites like FourSource are another great place for sourcing fabrics. You can also hire a company to source your fabrics for you - it just depends on your budget and how much time you want to invest in the process.
If you are working on creating a non-textile based product, you’ll be going through a similar process to source materials - but you might need to consider other things: do you need to make a 3D model of your product? Do you know somebody who can use CAD or Solidworks? Can you find a company who can print a 3D design of your product? Do you know a friend with a 3D printer?
No matter what you are creating - start digging… and keep digging. You absolutely are not going to have the final product immediately… in fact, you’ll probably be like me and have an ugly, ridiculous version as your first prototype — and that’s OK! You are pulling an idea from the ether and making it into a real thing… and that process might take a little bit of time. You might bump into obstacles… or you might run into moments that feel like ‘dead ends’. Keep going. Trust the process and keep chipping away, like a very determined sculptor, at all of the information you are finding. It is leading you on the right path to everything that you need to see and know in order to bring your idea to life. Trust the path, even in the moments where you feel like you are sliding backwards on a scree field.
Step 3.1: Meanwhile
As you read these steps in the process, I’d love for you to add an imaginary subtitle that says, ‘Things Anastasia didn’t do while she was creating Kula Cloth, but wishes that she had done because it would have made her life so much easier about a year down the road.’
Simultaneously, as I was creating my prototypes, I was also attempting to name my new product and my new company. I had originally wanted to call my product the ‘P-Cloth’, but when I talked to my trademark lawyer (more about that below), he told me that I couldn’t name something after its functionality. For example, Sony couldn’t trademark the term ‘television’, because then anybody else who creates a television, couldn’t actually use the word that describes their product. Similarly, I can’t ‘own’ the word pee cloth, because that would unfairly prevent others from designing their own pee cloths.
My second idea for a name was the ‘Wink’ - because I loved the idea of hikers on the trail giving each other a secret ‘wink’ when they spotted somebody else with one of these special pee cloths. However, I abandoned this name after listening to a podcast with Sara Blakely, the founder of Spanx. In the interview, Sara made a comment that she had heard that products that included a ‘hard K’ sound in their name were more memorable. So, sitting at my kitchen table, I did a quick Google search for, ‘mountains that start with K’. The first mountain that popped up in my search was ‘Kula Khangri’, a mountain in Bhutan. I had been to Bhutan in 2011, and it was a life-changing experience for me… so this felt like a little bit of a sign. I did a quick search of the word ‘Kula’ and discovered that it had a variety of meanings in many languages — the most notable meaning was the word ‘community’. That day, sitting at my kitchen table, Kula Cloth was born.
Here’s what I hadn’t done: I did have an LLC, but I did not have a separate bank account or credit card for my LLC… which meant that I was putting all of my fabric sample purchases on my personal credit card. I wasn’t making any money yet, but when I did start making money, the only bank account that I had, was my personal bank account… and so everything got combined into one giant, messy cluster. I also attempted to do all of the Department of Revenue tax reporting myself, which was another chaotic abyss of destruction. If you are not a person who gets very excited about numbers, money tracking, and Excel spreadsheets - do yourself a favor and hire a bookkeeper almost immediately. If you can’t afford a bookkeeper right off the bat, there are also bookkeeping services from companies like Intuit and Bench. My bookkeeper is a gem of a woman named Bonnie, and I have been working with her now for almost 5 years! If you are a brand new business in WA, Bonnie will even do all of the paperwork to set up your LLC… obtain your UBI (unique business identifier) and your IRS EIN (tax number) number. It makes the entire experience so much easier. Keep in mind: your time is worth money and your creativity is the driving force of the business. The more time that you have to devote to the things that you are good at, the more your business will grow and flow. Sometimes it’s scary to pay people to help you with things - but what I’ve discovered is that when I let go of the things I’m not good at, the other parts of my business flourish because I’m not drowning in a sea of overwhelm.
The sooner that you set up things like your LLC, bookkeeping, insurance (I use The Hartford), your business bank account, etc… the more of a headache you will save yourself in the future. And this is the perfect segue to my final topic of part one of this series…
Step 4: Protect your gift
Before you announce your product to the world - the first thing I’d recommend is talking to an intellectual property lawyer to find out the best way to protect your idea, if you think that might be applicable. If you are putting fun designs on a t-shirt, you might consider a trademark for your logo or brand name. If you are creating a brand new product from scratch - it’s worthwhile to see if you can get a patent before you try to sell your product (once you start selling it, you no longer have the ability to submit a patent application). Currently, I am a client of Smith Gambrell Russell, who handle my patent applications (for my new Rapunzel Gaiter!) as well as trademarks for Kula Cloth, Pyka and my new company, Milk Run Moto. John Pennington is the lawyer I work with, and he is an avid hiker and has a background working with many outdoor gear companies… plus he and his wife are huge Kula Cloth fans! You can contact John at this e-mail, if you are in the process of getting started: jpennington@sgrlaw.com (he didn’t pay me to share that lol).
When I first started Kula Cloth, I did not have the funding to have a patent attorney and/or invest in a lot of legal protections. I hired a trademark attorney to apply for the Kula Cloth trademark, and that cost me around $1200. I did speak with patent attorneys while I was creating Kula Cloth, and they told me that using ‘antimicrobial fabric for the purpose of hygiene’ was not a surprising use of materials, and that my best bet was to focus on the branding… i.e. to become the ‘Starbucks’ or the ‘Kleenex’ of pee-cloths. While I think that some of their advice wasn’t entirely accurate (based on my more recent discussions with my new lawyer John), I was trying my best in the early days… and I feel like everything ultimately worked out great. I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about pee cloth copy cats (which do exist btw)… because the lawyers can think about that… and because I am not duplicatable. Ultimately, the more pee cloths that exist in the world… the less toilet paper on trails. The Kula Community is where I put my focus - and I don’t waste my time or energy trying to hunt down ‘copy cats’. I do genuinely believe that there is enough for all of us in the world and the negative energy generated by that effort would hurt my business and creativity more than it is worth.
Once you have a name for your company and/or product… and once you have a basic prototype (that you haven’t sold yet)… this is your magical opportunity to share your ideas with a lawyer who will be able to help you start your company on the right foot. I started Kula Cloth with a trademark, but as Kula has grown, John is now working with me to add onto our trademark, and to manage trademarks and patents for new products and brands that I’m working on creating. When you hire an IP Lawyer, you will most likely need to pay a retainer fee to get started - but, very often, you will receive a reimbursement for any of the money that you don’t use out of that retainer. For instance, the current retainer for SGR is $5,000, however, getting a trademark will cost less than $5,000. So, if all you do is get a trademark, you would be reimbursed for any money that wasn’t used during your application process.
You can also submit a trademark application on your own, however, I discovered (through attempting to do this at first), that any amount of money that I thought I was ‘saving’ was quickly being absorbed by the amount of time that I was spending feeling frustrated by not knowing what I was doing. If the idea of doing your own trademark feels exciting to you — I’d say ‘go for it’. But, if the idea feels like it is draining the life out of you and/or feels stressful … that’s your clue that you need some help from a professional.
Phew…
Are you exhausted yet? I hope not… but if you are a little overwhelmed, that’s OK too. Creating something from scratch is pretty exciting - and you should feel so proud of wherever you are in the process right now. What you are doing is something that has never been done before … at least not in the way that you are doing it, so give yourself some grace and celebrate where you are right now.
Sometimes I think about people who are product designers for existing companies, and I feel secretly jealous - because a lot of them went to school… had a lot of amazing training… and move into a position where they have an existing infrastructure for creation and design right at their fingertips. This was not my experience, because I literally had no experience and absolutely zero backing — financially or otherwise.
If you are in the same figurative shoes, you can do this too. It is entirely possible to create something from nothing. It might not go as smoothly as it would have if you worked for a larger company with a tremendous amount of resources… but there is something so remarkably special about having your hands in the ‘clay’ and truly bringing an idea to life. You get the opportunity to build and create something that has never existed before — and through that process, you have the opportunity to share kindness to each individual that you encounter along the way.
When I first started Kula Cloth, I thought that creating the product and the business was the ‘important’ part of what I was doing. What I have learned, as I continue to walk tiny steps each day, is that the product is secondary to the opportunity to use your creation as a vehicle for compassion, understanding and love. As you begin your process, you will encounter so many new people that you would never have otherwise met: they are the reason you are doing this. Take the time to truly see them and acknowledge their beingness as humans. Take the time to approach them with understanding. Take the time to listen to them and to hear their stories and experience. As you begin to talk about your product and feel excited about it and share it with others - take the time to truly see the humans that you are interacting with. Let go of your attachment to the physical outcome — and trust that the creation itself will be born from a place of true love and presence if you approach each moment with that energy.
This past weekend at PCT Days, I had the opportunity to meet many people who have been following Kula Cloth and my journey for a very long time. These interactions were deeply touching. One man told me that he had bought a Kula for his wife in the early days of Kula (I looked it up - he purchased it in month 3!)… I cried with another person as they told me how much my writing has meant to them… and I shared hugs and laughter with people who have been following my journey since I started my online Facebook group in 2017. I cried during these conversations at PCT Days… and early in the morning before each day, I went out on a walk and danced at sunrise and wept with gratitude at the opportunity to do something that I love so much. When I think about Kula Cloth - thinking about the product itself is not what makes me cry or get emotional - it’s thinking about the people I’ve met along the way that matters. It is thinking about the difference that I’ve been able to make that matters. If you lead your business with a heart of service, you cannot fail, because what ultimately matters is not how many pee cloths you make and sell… but how you do it and what you bring into every moment.
Next week, we will dive into more specifics of creating/designing a product… as well as, ‘finding a place (i.e. a factory) that will make things for you’ (if you don’t plan to make your product yourself). If you have any questions you’d like to add to this series, please submit them to the Kula Diaries Google Form… or you can post them in the comments below. And thank you for being here. I hope that I’ve inspired all of you to create all of the things you’ve dreamed up - and more.
Sending you all a lot of love today - wherever and however you are.
Love,
Anastasia
This is my favorite so far. Listened to the entire “podcast” 😉 on my trail run this morning. Definitely How I Built This Vibes. Loved the way you told the story while also providing concrete and relatable steps. Really could be the genesis of a How To book on entrepreneurship.
I really did not want to listen to this article, it just didn't seem that interesting, and I don't want to create a product. But it's really a story of Anastasia creating herself, and I love that openess, and insight in your soul and your journey. As painful as it can be to walk alongside you, while your powerful words illuminate the places in my own path that need healing, I treasure every moment of journey. As your story brings me to tears, to laughter, to hope. And inspires me to bring back to life, those pieces of myself that I loved, but dropped and cast aside, because they didn't fit into society. I'm not sure how you take a story about making a pee cloth, and leave me in tears for the next 2 days. I don't honestly even remember any details about about the pee cloth! Haha! I'm not sure I can take another story, and yet I can't wait to continue up the trail with you. 😄