Throughout 2021 I was chronically busy. I started this business in fall of 2020 with very simple intentions; I wanted a cozy but stylish fleece.
I’m a Taurus and I like soft, comfortable things but didn’t, and still don’t, want to wear a tech bro or overtly outdoorsy fleece. It turns out, a lot of you felt the same way and what I thought was going to be a side hobby turned very quickly - like, within about 2 weeks from launching quickly, into a baby brand with unanticipated interest, sold through inventory and a lot of pre-orders to figure out how to fulfill.
This moment was that point on a rollercoaster where you’re let go at the top of the incline. The climb to get there wasn’t super long or anticipation building, it was simple, fun and uncomplicated. But the release at the top turned into a total free-fall and 2021 was just wild. Existing in a swirl of endless to-do lists, wanting to compromise on nothing, and being spread so thinly that it wasn’t possible to ace anything. The anxiety existing in this space creates begins to feel normal and pausing for rest feels like a betrayal of goals and ambition.
It’s weird to experience this alone. As a solopreneur it’s strange to feel like something is working while simultaneously being really difficult and draining. Highlight reel culture makes it seem like experiencing any manner of success is only ever just very pretty. However, here there was no Clicquot toast. I just kept moving forward alone, in silence and feeling like an extra pariah. Lol, but also, true.
No-one ever talks about that? I’ve never seen the acknowledgement that when you have something very good that you really want and are stoked about it can actually also be challenging and not what you expected at the same time. Cosmic fucking duality, for real.
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In October 2021, in the height of fall fleece season chaos, after a particularly shitty morning I ate a huge pressed turkey, provolone and pesto panini + a brownie, and it was 11am. Despite this large and early lunch, I still felt empty. Lacking fullness.
It was an odd turning point for me, it was a symbol that I was trying to fill myself up. A realization that, despite “doing what I wanted”, there was still a lack of fulfillment.
I sat in my studio (that I'm totally stoked to be able to afford and do not take for granted at all, btw) with a lot of food inside me and it was clear that, while I had no time, I needed to make time to put the brakes on what had been a year of chase, chaos - AND business growth beyond what I imagined I was capable of, to check in with myself. To ask what was the meaning? What was the purpose?
I realized I had already become detached. Only a year into this idea, the part of me that was so excited and engaged had gotten buried in the chaos of supply chain woes, production hurdles, trying to hire and the pressure for newness.
I needed to pivot.
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Starting 2022, I have made decisions grounded in the learnings from 2021.
I'm equal parts excited, proud and relived to have been able to hire a small team of brilliant, intuitive and grounded women to help bring me out of the swirl. A tiny team who will collaborate with me to grow GK beyond just my vision.
I set goals for GK based on not just what I want the business to achieve, but how I want to feel in the process. I have streamlined supply chain and production partners, aligned with my non negotiable sustainability values, and new product drops are planned, clearly. New designs both expand the potential of what GK can be and excite me at the same time, in a good and not nervous way.
I am grateful for every part of what launching this business has taught me, for everyone who has supported in any way big or small, and I am excited again for what is to come.
Trusting intention, alignment with focus and inviting abundance.
XO,
GG / GK