Rad Livin’: Meet Chloe Chapman

Tuesday // December 8 // 2015

Chloe is a passionate adventure-seeker whose self-determination led her to making her dreams a reality. Her journey started in true Don’t Tell Summer form, traveling back and forth between Australia and America, and always ending up in a swimsuit. She decided that she wasn’t going to go back to the status quo of a nine-to-fiver and so she took the leap to create Aloé. From idea to manufacturing, to getting Aloé out there, Chloe shares with us what goes on behind the dream.

Meet Chloe…

Where are you in the world?

Plantation Island in Fiji for the Your Paradise Festival! It’s incredibly beautiful here.

When did the inspiration for Aloé first come about?

I was living in California in 2013, constantly chasing summers between Australia and the US, I was always in a swimsuit! I definitely wasn’t looking forward to coming back to a Monday – Friday 9-5 job back home. I had always dreamed of starting my own business, so I just took a leap! After a few trips back and forth to Bali, Aloé was born later that year. It all happened very quickly… But I’m so glad I took the punt. I haven’t looked back since!

What did you need to do in order to go from having the designs be an idea to making them into a swimwear line?

I had a small team that I originally worked with. First, I sketched up my desired designs, then I sat down with a few creative partners and deliberated…

I have an incredible manufacturer in Bali who produces my patterns, samples and then in time, manufactures the suits for me. Initially, there were defintiely a few trips back and forth to Bali for fittings (Im not complaining though… There are worse places to take business trips!) and perfecting the product and sizing. I started with a collection of about 50 bikinis across different styles and colour ways, which has now moved into the thousands! There is a huge amount of work though that goes into each and every collection but it’s my dream and passion, so I wouldn’t trade my career for the world.

What’s it like getting Aloe out into the world? Do you have any tips for aspiring designers who are wanting to get their work out there?

It’s a great feeling knowing that Aloé has now gone global, this was in my 5 year plan, but for it to have gone global in the first 6 months is a dream come true! We currently have 9 International stockists, soon to be more in 2016.

My advice to anyone starting their own label would have to be; be confident in your brand and your product. If you don’t believe in your own label, who will? With social media being so prominent in our lives right now, it’s really important to be all over this on a daily basis, its a great tool to use to expose the brand on a global scale! Continue Reading…

Steps to Finding Your Dream Career

Thursday // December 3 // 2015

The following article was written by our dear friend and co-founder of SOLO, Ryan Burch.

Formerly an event producer for an experiential marketing agency, Ryan spent two years producing nationwide event programs for brands such as Red Bull, Teva and Converse. After realizing that the stress of her job was consuming her life, she decided to quit, take a step back, and do some soul-searching in order to redefine her dream career.

Ryan began writing about her career transition for Career Contessa, which led to published articles on Refinery29, Simply Stylist, LevoLeague and WeWork. Soon after, she won a writing contest to contribute to Kaitlynn Carter’s blog, “The Western Wild,” which helped jump-start her own blog, SOLO (SheOnlyLivesOnce.com).

Ryan has learned a lot in this last year about effective job searching strategies, and she’s breaking them down step by step, in this special DTS post!

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“Steps to Finding Your Dream Career”

by Ryan Elizabeth Burch

I’ve written a lot about my decision to leave my “dream job” last year, and the ups and downs I’ve gone through as a result of taking that risky leap of faith. But what’s more important to me (rather than just retelling my story over and over) is to help others who feel trapped in the wrong job find their own way out!

That’s why I’ll be focusing this post on the specific steps I took to discover my “purpose” and redirect my life after quitting my salaried job without a back up plan.

My hope is that you’ll heed this advice if ever considering leaving your job, starting a venture of your own, or if you’re simply in need of a little soul-searching …

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Step 1: Destress

After walking away from the experiential marketing world, I was ready to enjoy my newfound “funemployment,” and relax after years of pent up anxiety and stress. I slept in late, spent my days at the beach, visited friends in San Diego, and went wine tasting in Santa Barbara (I’d saved up some money to be able to do this). It was EXACTLY what I needed to reset and refresh before approaching the job search head on.

If you are able to, I highly recommend saving some money and enjoying your time off for at least 2 weeks before beginning the job search, and giving yourself at least a month off before jumping into a completely new career.

When you leave a job, your mind and soul need time to reflect, process the change, and decompress from your stress. This will help you keep a level head as you embark on the job-searching journey.

Step 2a: Explore alternate career paths

I quit my job with seriously no idea what I wanted to do next, but with very strong feelings about what I never wanted to do again. Since I’d only ever worked in event marketing and hospitality, I wanted to understand what the day-to-day of other jobs were like, and to hear from experienced professionals who were comfortable telling me about the pros and cons of their career.

So before applying to any jobs, I made a list of my best attributes, and narrowed down my top career interests to health/fitness, entertainment, media, tech and brand marketing. (Note: I had no interest in pursuing a career in writing at this time). Next, I reached out to friends and family, and used LinkedIn to set meetings with professionals working at prestigious companies in those fields.

Over the first two months of my unemployment, I was going on about 2-3 informational interviews per week. During these meetings, I’d ask questions like:

“What sort of tasks do you work on day to day?”

“Can you explain what an entry level job would be like at your company?”

“What is your favorite part about your job?”

“What is the most challenging part about your job?”

“What skills are most valuable in this industry?”

“What are some of the perks or benefits of this job?”

“What sort of personality seems to thrive in this environment?”

You should also make sure to tell your interviewee about your career experiences, skills and interests, so that they can suggest specific positions that would be a good fit for you within their industry, and also help you make connections down the line.

From these meetings, I realized that working for a tech company wasn’t the best match for my personality, that my interests in health and fitness were more of a “passion” than a career path, and that entertainment would be way too competitive for me. I was also told that I should begin writing about my career experiences—which led to the launch of my writing career!

Step 2b: Reconnect with your passions

(This step should happen simultaneously with step 2a)

Another reason I decided to quit my job was to reconnect with interests and activities that I’d abandoned over the years.

I’d always loved to sing, dance, write and challenge myself to new activities—but I’d become so wrapped up in my work life (and traveling for work), that the only “activities” I made time for were nights-out drinking with friends. So as soon as I quit, I started journaling, trying new recipes, networking, training for a ½ marathon—and I even recorded a couple songs with a friend!

Getting back in touch with my passions made me feel empowered and alive. It also helped me make new connections, gave me great writing material, and led to the creation of SOLO: a blog I started with my friend Erica to help women find balance and fulfillment in their personal & professional lives (which has become my “purpose”).

What I’m suggesting here (whether or not you are planning on quitting your job) is to think about everything you love—whether it be sports, music, art, dance, cooking or entertainment—and find a way to get out and explore that passion in a creative way every week! This is a great way to identify your own “purpose”—which is often the driving force behind a meaningful and satisfying career.

#RadLivin Speakers: Meet Axel and Ash

Friday // November 27 // 2015

You know when you sit across from someone and you can just feel their passion? Their zest. Their inspiration. Their ease. Their fire. Even if you yourself weren’t too sure if magic was real, you knew that they did, which helped you to believe that you could find it for yourself.

As I sat and sipped my coffee, I was reminded of the ‘just go for it’ feeling you get when it’s Friday, or a time where you feel like you owe it to yourself to let loose, have fun and to do exactly what you love to do. They lived differently. You could see it in their beaming eyes. They don’t wait for the weekend. They don’t wait for things to be perfect or for others to give them permission to follow their passions. They commit to a life filled with purpose, excitement and adventure, now.

Meet Hanna and Ash, founders of Axel& Ash.

Their adventure began with each of them writing down their bucket lists and sharing them with each other. They never made it through the entire list because they stopped on a particular item that would change their paths; they both wrote down ‘start a business’. They then went on to create Wanderlust and Bucket List journals, stocked in bookstores and boutiques all around the world, that inspires you to live life to the fullest and capture all the incredible moments along the way. Hanna and Ash are filled with knowledge about self-publishing, getting your product into dream stores and living a life where you don’t wait to live out your bucket list, because it’s meant to be lived now.

We’re delighted to have them as speakers at the first #RadLivin event in Sydney on the 20th of Feb and wanted you to get aquatinted a little early, wherever you are in the world.

Introducing Hanna and Ash…

Where are you in the world?

Right now we are sitting at a rooftop in LA, loving life as we have just finished a two month road trip across the country to launch our books here (and tick off a bunch of bucket list items! 🙂 )

How do you follow your bliss?

This is what our whole business is about – to follow your heart, live your dreams and chase what truly makes you happy. We started our business by following our guts. We only knew each other for five months prior, yet the idea of starting a business together seemed so right. Everything inside our body was saying yes, go for it! We all have these wonderful feelings of excitement and when we do get them, we need to just follow them and listen to our instincts.

Following our hearts, bliss and dreams just somewhat comes so naturally but throughout life, and especially during our business, we realised that for many people it doesn’t. There are so many people out there full of dreams that they gave up on already (without always realising themselves.) This happens simply because they just don’t dare to take the step to get out of their everyday safe life. We understand it is scary to step outside of your comfort zone and to go chase those dreams, but we find it even more frightening to get to the age of 80 and realise we lived a whole life where we didn’t chase those dreams at all and did nothing in order to make them come true! We only live once and there is nothing more fulfilling for your body, mind and soul than going out there chasing and living your dreams! Whether successful or not (not everyone can marry Brad Pitt) we promise that it’ll be a fun adventurous ride!

When did the inspiration for Wanderlust first come about?

In 2012, after reading a book called 100 Things by Sebastian Terry, we decided to share our bucketlists with each other. One late summer night, we made some coconut drinks and sat down on Ash’s balcony to read through our lists. It was so much fun. A must do with a good friend! It was a long night of laughter and fun and despite having over 100 items each, we only got to #32 when we realised we both had ‘Start a business’ & ‘Start a business with a friend’ on our lists. We were both like, ‘Let’s do something together’! We were bouncing ideas and I (Axel) had an idea to do this type of travel journal for years. When suggesting it to Ash whose biggest passions are writing and travel, she loved it! From that moment, we made a pinky promise there and then that we were both in and would see it through.

Our goal was to create a travel journal that was completely different from anything else out there. We wanted it to be full of inspiration, beautiful photography, quirky prompts and surprises on every page to really capture all those moments, adventures, feelings and explorations of travelling that are otherwise easily forgotten. Something that was stylish and you wanted to keep for years to come, and fills you with wanderlust by just opening the cover. And so ‘Swept away by Wanderlust’ was born… Continue Reading…

Rad Livin’: Meet Nina Zietman Editor of Cooler Magazine

Tuesday // November 3 // 2015

When you have a passion for something that seems hard to break into, or one where the people around you tell you that you should pick something less risky, there comes a time when you have to decide if it’s worth forging your own path.

A common theme that’s been featured in many of the stories that we share is the idea of speaking up about your dreams. They told those around them what they would love to do, which allowed for incredible opportunities to come up when they least expected them… including the opportunity to shoot at the Sochi Winter Olympics.

Whether it’s going for a surf in the UK or hitting the trails in the Alps, Nina Zietman, Editor of Cooler Magazine, shows what it means to be able to do what you love wherever you are. The Cooler Magazine community is described as, “The women who cycle to work, drink tea, practice yoga in our living room, take part in beach cleans and dream of travelling the world in a camper van.” Nina sat down with us to chat about how important it is to push yourself outside of your comfort zone, even if fear is involved.

Meet Nina…

Rad Livin’: Meet Taylor London, Founder of Late Shake

Tuesday // October 13 // 2015

You know when one of your friends invites you to a quirky event on Facebook such as “National Chocolate Day” or “Free Slurpee Day”? You have a good laugh, click attending and give yourself another reason to grab a friend and get a slurpee. The same happened to us ten years ago with “National Milkshake Day”, suggested by my friend Taylor London, founder of Late Shake.

Year after year, we received these invites from Taylor, making his passion for milkshakes not just a one-time novelty, but something that was just getting started. Taylor always had a love for shakes and wanted to share that passion with everyone around him. He’s an example of taking what you love, combining it with a passion for making people happy, and opening up a business that allows him to do both.

Late Shake, located in the heart of Southeast Portland, is a pop-up, late-night milkshake spot delivering high-quality, tasty shakes.

What we love most about Taylor’s story is that it shows us that you can do things differently. You can create your own dream, your own business, your own classification of success. It can be done the way you want it to, and opportunities may come that could lead you to create something that’s more you, and more aligned with what your vision truly wants to be.

Taylor is all about bringing people together, which is probably what has been making Late Shake such a success! Aside from their delicious shakes, Late Shake shows us the magic that can happen if you share your dreams with the people around you and are willing to give it a go, even if you don’t know how it all will all work out.

Meet Taylor London…