Pssst. As always, my posts are far too long for e-mail format. Click ‘read more’ at the bottom to see the whole thing!
Dear Kula Diaries,
Today I thought it would be fun to take you through a day in the life of a pee cloth entrepreneur. I know what you’re thinking… "It must be soooooooo glamorous and exciting to own an outdoor company.” And yah… it is pretty much like that…
Ok, sooooo a private jet is probably not super accurate….but, I’ll do my best to share my day with you, so that you can see what it’s really like to be the founder of a gear company. I often tell people that I’m the most boring, exciting person that you’ll ever meet. Yes, I do own an outdoor gear company… but, really… I’m pretty darn unexciting.
Ok… here goes. It’s 4am… and it’s time to wake up.
4:00 am - Wake Up
My alarm goes off at 4 am in the morning (yes, it really does)… and I bounce out of bed looking refreshed and glorious… my chocolate brown locks tumble into place as I gracefully move about my home and get dressed. Oh wait… I think that was a reel I saw on Instagram. In reality? I do wake up at 4am (everyday), but the part about feeling refreshed is not entirely accurate.
This morning, I half stumbled to the bathroom where I drank an energy shot (don’t judge)… and got dressed in my workout clothes… brushed my teeth… grabbed a headlamp, and headed out the door. I live in the woods, and behind my house is a small mountain that I walk up and down every single day. This, friends… is my morning routine. I walk up the mountain… I walk down the mountain… I walk up the mountain… and back down… and I do this over and over again for at least 1-2 hours every single morning.
What do I do while I’m walking? Honestly, nothing. I love listening to the quiet. Sometimes I will turn on my music and try to build a playlist for one of my next dance experiment sessions… but, most often, I walk in silence. I try my best to focus on my breathing and to feel the sensations of walking outside… but I’m not always good at that, and often find myself lost in the thoughts in my mind. Most often, I’m thinking about something at Kula — these are likely repeating thoughts that have permanently etched themselves into my psyche. If I’m lucky, I’ll catch myself and think, “STOP! For ONE MOMENT… JUST STOP AND BE HERE IN THIS AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL PLACE RIGHT NOW.” Sometimes, I see a deer or a rabbit… or I watch a star in the distance. Sometimes I lay down on the ground and stare at the sky. On this particular morning, I did see a few rabbits, but mostly… I just walked. I was feeling a bit tumultuous in my mind this morning, and I found myself having imaginary conversations, which is something that happens… and I try to consistently remind myself… IMAGINARY. These are not real conversations. You are here right now. Over and over, I come back to my breathing and to my walking. This is the one point in the entire day when I don’t have anybody asking me questions… I’m not responding to e-mails… I don’t have to communicate with anybody except for the universe around me. It’s one of my favorite parts of the day.
I used to tell people, I’m not a morning person. I don’t know what happened, honestly. Maybe The Musical Mountaineers helped to inspire my early morning walks when Rose and I would wake up at 1 am to drive to a trailhead. But, a few years ago, I decided to stop telling myself that I wasn’t a morning person. It’s pretty incredible what happens when you start telling yourself a different story. Now, the morning is my favorite part of the day.
This morning, in particular, I had to teach a Dance Experiment Class at 6:30 am. I prep for my classes the night before, so that I don’t have to do any set up for my computer and audio in the morning. I probably walked about 7 miles total before I made it back to my house to get ready for dancing. Sometimes, if I’m not leading the dance class, I will opt to dance by myself in the woods. It’s funny to be a person who runs a company… has employees… by all outward appearances leads a relatively social life… and then you find out that I’m basically a hermit - ha!
Once I’m almost back to the house, I do my ‘lunge routine’… this is something I do 6 days per week… I do 2 sets of 50 walking lunges. I don’t have much of a weight lifting routine, but I like doing lunges for some strange reason.
6:30 AM - Teach The Dance Experiment
I get back to my tiny office just before 6:30 am, and I turn on my computer and launch my Zoom call for The Dance Experiment just before 6:25. If you’ve ever attended the Dance Experiment, you know that when we are leading a class we usually facilitate a little bit of chatting before the class… and then we move into the meditation and playlist that we’ve chosen. Today, my theme was, ‘Dancing in the Dark’ … and we did a really fantastic meditation (that you should do) about darkness. During the meditation, when I’m leading the session, I can’t really join in… since I’m monitoring the zoom call to let people in from the waiting room. So, this is when I do my push-ups and very small workout routine that looks like this:
set of 20-30 push ups
set of 30 leg lifts on each side using a 12lb dumbell
20 ab exercises (varied)
another set of 20-30 push ups
bicep curls (usually 12)
another set of 20-30 push ups
That usually takes me about 5-9 minutes, which is about how long the meditation lasts. As soon as the meditation wraps up, it’s time to DANCE! I start the playlist and then dance for about 20-25 minutes. This morning, since our theme was ‘Dancing in the Dark’… I did just that… and danced with twinkle lights!
7:05 AM - Meditation
As soon as the dance call is done, I head into the house, because my husband Aaron has most likely woken up by then. Once I arrive, we do a meditation together (since I didn’t really do the meditation with the dance group). This morning, we did a really cute meditation called a Mini Vacation. Once we sit down for the meditation, our cats reliably jump up on the bed and try to sabotage it. This morning, Niko started trying to side swipe my face mid-meditation.
7:20 AM - Walk
Did I mention that I like to walk? After our meditation, Aaron and I head out for a walk together. Sometimes we talk… and sometimes we don’t. When I left my job, Aaron and I went to a coaching training together in Mexico for about 2 weeks. The training took place at a facility that doubles as a yoga teacher training center. In the mornings, we’d wake up and wander over to the breakfast area and there was a ‘general rule’ that you weren’t supposed to speak out loud in the mornings until after breakfast when classes began for the day. I loved it. I often feel like my brain needs to gently warm up into communicating with other humans in the morning, so I absolutely love silence, even if it is with another person present. Luckily, Aaron is pretty similar, so we will often walk silently together.
This morning, we did talk about some Kula-related things since there has been a lot going on as we moved into a new HQ. It is quite an adjustment to go from 100% working at home… to working in a new location, and so it was one of those mornings that was decidedly not silent. That being said — we seem to always find the time to appreciate our surroundings. This morning, the sky was a beautiful pink color and we got to see the alpenglow on Mt. Rainier as we walked. We watched a deer scampering up a steep hill… and saw our neighborhood rabbit colony hiding in their grove of blackberries.
Aaron worked for BNSF Railway for 16 years… and one decade of that was while we were together. During the time that he worked for BNSF (and particularly after I left my own job at BNSF), we rarely saw each other. We were lucky if we could go on 2 walks together per week. When Aaron was working dayshift, he’d leave the house around 4:30 am to drive to work. When he was on nightshift, he’d sleep until 3:30 pm in the afternoon and be gone by 5pm. Our only communication, particularly for the past few years, was about logistical things — so being able to go for walks every morning together is something that I do not take for granted.
8:15 AM - Back at the house
The walk up and down the mountain takes about 50 minutes total. Once we get back to the house, it’s time to do another set of 20 push ups (did I mention I like push ups?), shower, get dressed, and eat breakfast. Today, we decided to ride our motorcycles to the office… so I had pre-packed my motorcycle bag with all of my ‘office clothes’ to bring to work (since I wear protective gear on the bike).
After putting on my armored pants, I made both of us breakfast sandwiches… sourdough bread, Beecher’s flagship cheese, egg and bacon. I usually butter and salt the bread… and then pan sear it. It’s ridiculous. Have you ever buttered and salted your bread before cooking it? If not, I hope that is the most valuable thing that you take from this week’s writing piece. It’s also scalding hot… so we can’t eat it right away, unless we want the inside of our mouths to disintegrate. Usually Aaron makes coffee while I cook the sandwiches, but this morning we decided to make coffee at the office, since we were riding the motorcycles to work.
While we are waiting for the sandwiches to cool, I read a short lesson in A Course in Miracles — a book that I have slowly been working through for the past few years. I actually had made it as far as 125 lessons into the book… but a few weeks ago, Aaron and I decided to re-start the entire book. I quoted A Course in Miracles in one of my last weekly posts: “Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God.” This book is hard for me to describe… so I’m not even sure where to begin with it. It’s a challenging book to read and understand on a lot of levels… and while I conceptually understand a lot of what the book is talking about… I also know that most of the things in the book cannot be conceptually spoken about… because they are talking about something that is beyond thought. It’s a very deep book that delves into our consciousness, ego and understanding of life in a pretty profound way — I first heard it mentioned by Eckhart Tolle, and I’ve been an off and on student of ‘The Course’ ever since.
The lesson that we read this morning was: I have no neutral thoughts. I’ll share the first passage of this lesson, because it might help me ‘explain’ this book:
The idea for today is a beginning step in dispelling the belief that your thoughts have no effect. Everything you see is the result of your thoughts. There is no exception to this fact. Thoughts are not big or little; powerful or weak. They are merely true or false. Those that are true create their own likeness. Those that are false make theirs.
If you’ve been around The Kula Diaries for a little bit… you’ll know that I do talk a lot about focusing on what you want to create… rather than on what you don’t want to create. That’s the ‘gist’ of this passage… but in a way that extends beyond creating the things we ‘want’ in our lives — like a job, or money, or a relationship. If you’re interested in the book, I highly recommend it — keeping in mind that it is not for everybody (just like nothing is for every single person on earth).
Once I read from A Course in Miracles… it’s time for the sandwich. This is a glorious, unmatched, nearly spiritual moment in my morning… because my breakfast sandwiches are the saltiest, most delicious, most breakfast-y breakfast sandwiches that I’ve ever had and I really try to enjoy every single bite.
9:20 AM - Ride to work!
We hop on our motorcycles and ride to work! Just like the sandwich, it’s glorious. I’ve never ridden a motorcycle to work in my life — this is my first morning ever commuting on a motorcycle. It’s peaceful and beautiful, and the wind feels cool and fresh.
In case you’re curious, I ride a Ducati Monster +. It’s a 937 cc motorcycle, and it is my dream motorcycle. When I was a kid, I went to the Ducati factory (in Italy!) when I was 20 years old. I vowed that one day I would ride a Ducati Monster. I got my motorcycle license when I was 21 years old, and I’ve ridden off and on over the past few decades on various bikes, including some dirt bikes and a KLX 250 Dual Sport. In addition to the Ducati, I also have a KLX 230 S Dual Sport. My husband rides an Indian FTR 1200 R Carbon. We purchased the motorcycles last year, and I’ve put over 8,200 miles on the Ducati! We ride them all year long (hence the invention of my Rapunzel Gaiter!).
10:00 AM - Arrive at work!
We arrive to the new office around 10 am and I change out of my motorcycle clothes and into my ‘office’ clothes (jeans). I have literally no idea what I’m going to do when I get there, but I know that I have a few important tasks:
finish the Kula newsletter that is supposed to go out on Friday (this involves a lot of cutting an pasting of text and images into Klayvio, my e-mail marketing program)
respond back to a woman who is making some earring prototypes for me
deposit a check (yay! Abundance!)
So, this begs the question.. what did I end up actually doing?
I drank coffee
I listened to a spam call on my cell phone from somebody trying to get me to sign up for some website security program
I talked to the Kula creative director for awhile about a design project we are working on
I talked to my sister Mare 4 different times about a soap project we are working on (excited to share this with all of you!)
I ate a really delicious salad
I made 4 custom Kulas that my assistant designed to bring to a restaurant in town where she was buying lunch
I took a horrible selfie of myself for my event coordinator to use as a decoration at our upcoming Halloween Party
I e-mailed my bookkeeper
I drank water with electrolytes in it
I drank hot water with electrolytes in it
I danced in the office for about 5 minutes
I talked to my assistant about her music blog
I talked to my other employee about his YouTube channel and the amazing logo he designed for it (his YouTube channel is primarily following his journey of learning how to pick locks… it’s pretty cool!)
I talked to my husband about what we wanted to do for the weekend (ride motorcycles, go to a coffee shop, and do a crossword puzzle)
I wrote (finally) the Founder’s Message for the Kula Newsletter, and cut and pasted all of the newsletter content into Klayvio (if you got the newsletter on Friday morning at 9am… yep, that was me!)
I helped my assistant try to figure out how to add a wholesale order form app to our website (easier said than done)
I posted my pre-recorded videos to Instagram for the Kula Cloth story
I e-mailed my dad to tell him him the best way to go about ordering stickers for the fly fishing non profit that he volunteers with, Antietam Fly Anglers
I forgot to deposit the check I was supposed to deposit - doh!
4:30 PM - Drive motorcycles home
When I started Kula Cloth, I decided that I wanted to run it differently than any place that I had ever worked. I noticed that when I was working 8-12 hours shifts… I’d be productive for the first few hours, and then barely hang on for the last few hours. After working with employees for a few years now, I’ve noticed and witnessed that working for 4-5 hours in an office yields far more productivity than working an arbitrary amount of hours for absolutely no reason whatsoever. Many years ago, I had a job working at a gift shop for a short period of time, and when the shop wasn’t busy, it was always a great time for the employees to chat and connect — which is something that I really valued. The owner of the shop could not handle the thought of his employees not doing something ‘productive’ at every second of every day… and so he would give us completely made up tasks … like the time he once told me to arrange dish cloths by color… and then alphabetize the stacks of different colored dish cloths.
Some people might gasp at the idea of showing up to work at 10am and then leaving at 4:30 pm… but it is my hope that we can create a new culture that is based more on being than doing… and a culture that values humanity over productivity. My tiny team gets a lot done in a few hours — they are some of the hardest working folks that I know… and instead of giving them ‘busy work’ when they are finished with their important tasks for the day (which is ultimately not an incentive to work efficiently) … they get to go home and live their lives. It’s been pretty cool to do the exact opposite of what I had to do as an employee.
The ride home was… lovely. It’s on a motorcycle, so it was fun and meditative and I pretty much loved everything about it. As we neared the final turn for the road where we live, Aaron remembered that there was a different road he had always wanted to check out. So, we took a random right turn and discovered a beautiful winding road that was lined with big trees and fall leaves. The motorcycles have reminded me to take random right turns… just to see where they lead. Doing the same thing over and over… gets the same results. But what happens if you do something just a tiny bit unexpected? Motorcycles turn even the most familiar rides into a chance for exploration and newness.
Once we got home, we let our cats out so that they could have some outdoor time… then I made a breakfast scramble (for dinner - I know - gasp!) … and then sat down to type out this Kula Diaries entry, since I know myself too well and I’ll probably forget everything that I did by the end of the evening.
7:00 PM - Berries and Yogurt
This is the part of the night where I relax and eat my berries and yogurt parfait, which I have likely looked forward to all day long. Sometimes, Aaron and I will sit on our couch and watch one show (or part of a show)… we usually eat the berries and then sometimes I use this time to paint a watercolor in my little notebook. On this particular evening, however, I was feeling pretty emotionally exhausted… so I made it for about 30 minutes of watching ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ and then I decided that it was time for bed.
Before bed, I do another set of 20 push ups (did I mention I like push ups?) … and then I climb into bed. On this particular day, I was in bed around 8:20 PM. Yes, I go to bed very early… but, I also wake up at 4 AM. Aaron and I usually play Wordle and Connections before we go to bed. We’ve only ever missed ONE word… PARER, which I swear is not a legit word. That one still haunts me. Did anybody else miss that one? It can’t have been just me…
And then, folks, I attempt to read for about 2 minutes… before I decide that I am actually far too tired to read… and then I go to bed. That’s it. It is not very exciting. In fact, it’s probably very similar to a lot of people’s days (at least in the general sense… maybe without the 4 am voluntary wake up call - ha!). It’s strange, because I actually spend far less time out hiking and backpacking now that I actually own a company that makes hiking and backpacking gear… but the weirdest part for me, is that I feel really content and satisfied. In the past, I’d have a bit of a meltdown if I couldn’t hike or backpack almost every weekend. This coming weekend, I’m looking forward to being at home and to spending time with my cats and with Aaron. In a strange way, owning a gear company has complicated my life and simplified it, which I never expected.
I am not going to lie to you — there are a lot of days when I struggle with being a business owner. A few years ago, I would have given my left pinky to own a gear company, because I had some idealistic view of what that would be like … and I think that’s pretty common. We look outside of ourselves for something better… thinking that it will give us everything that we need… and then we get there… and we discover that we’re really just doing the same thing, in a different costume. The dissatisfaction was never coming from what I was doing… it was coming from within me while I was doing it. That being said… do I wish I could go back in time and still be a railroad police officer? Absolutely not. I love Kula more than I could ever possibly describe — but to put it on a pedestal and say that it is an adventurous, fantasy lifestyle would be a drastic overstatement. When it comes down to it… I’m just like you… except that maybe I like to put a lot more salt on my buttered bread in the morning.
I rarely feel like I have it all figured out. Just when I think that I know what I’m doing… something new shows up that I never in a million years imagined that I would have to ‘deal with’ as the owner of a pee cloth company. I thought that owning a gear company would be one thing… but it has turned out to be something completely different. It isn’t what I expected… but it is what I want. Could I imagine myself doing anything different? Could I imagine myself living in a different way? When I think about the way that my life has blossomed as a result of following my heart, it crushes me with gratitude. I am overwhelmed with a feeling of joy every single time that I get to wake up in the morning and take a walk with my husband and eat breakfast together after nearly a decade of being apart at meals. I am thankful that I can ride a motorcycle to work. I am thankful that I can have an idea… and make it real. I am grateful that I can work with my sister. I love seeing that my product has made a difference in the lives of other people. I love that I can have a silly idea - like giving away creepy cat shower curtains - and do it. There are so many things that I love.
I wake up every single day, and I try my best. That’s all I can do. That’s all any of us can do. We wake up and we are thrown into a world that sometimes feels confusing, and we’re just supposed to figure it all out. When it comes down to it, we have to trust that our best is good enough. We have to throw caution to the wind and walk in the dark for hours…and dance on Zoom with twinkle lights… and play with our cats… and eat our salted-bread breakfast sandwiches… and spend time with people we love… take random right turns just to see where they go… and do our very best to bring a tiny bit of good into every single day. I hope I’m doing enough. On days that I wonder, I need to remind myself to look at the sky, which never wonders how its doing… or the rabbit hopping across my path that scurries into the vines… or the giant maple leaves that land on the ground… they never wonder. Maybe I need to listen to them more closely sometimes. Maybe when I wake up tomorrow morning to do it all again, I will.
Friends, thank you so much for being here… thank you so much for letting me share my day with you … I am so truly joyful that you are a part of the Kula Community. Please know that you are doing your best and that you do matter. We are all in this (whatever it is) together. You are loved very much.
Love,
Anastasia
P.S. If you have a question, comment, or anything else you want to share with me… you may do that anonymously using the Kula Diaries Vault. If you’d like a response, please include your e-mail address.
So fun to read about your routine and all the brilliant insights you have about life!!
I printed this out and have been revisiting it every few days -- you are very much an inspiration to live life more purposefully. I have known I needed to be more present in my life for some time, but was getting caught in a shame spiral about it and felt paralyzed/hopeless about actually taking some of the simple first steps. I am working on it actively now. Thank you for sharing so much with us <3