Musings from a Work-a-haulic’s Vacation
I just spent 8 days in Mexico. My partner’s cousin got married in Cancun, and to turn it into a proper vacation, we tacked on a 5 day preceding stay in Mexico City. The trip was wonderful, and a much needed getaway.
Inside the Frida Kahlo Museum, Mexico City
Cancun, Mexico
Lately I feel like I’m staving off burnout. By day, I work as a fractional sustainability advisor — supporting multiple brands and organizations in their sustainability strategy and implementation (requiring a sufficient amount of task switching/mental modes, which can be exhausting) — and by mornings, nights, and weekends I work on development for my natural fiber lingerie brand, Petal + Ash. I also try to dedicate time each week to my partner and friends, investing in these relationships, and time for myself. And if I’m being truly transparent, I do this all while also managing a chronic condition that involves fatigue.
I love everything I’m invested in, but all of it has really been wearing on me.
Any sane human would tell me to scale back. But I need to be passionate about my work. Having spent my first career as a professional dancer, I see my profession as an extension of who I am. This is the way I function. I know I’m so lucky to have been able to make my passion my first career, let alone working to make a new one my second, but we only get one go on this planet. And on the other side of losing a close family member in a tragic car accident several years ago, I feel a renewed importance in this.
So this vacation came at a much needed time, and I promised myself I would not work at all over the course of the 8 days.
Yet, on our last morning, with the view of the beach and a beautiful wedding in the prior night’s rear view, I felt inspired to write. So here I am sharing with you.
I can’t say I have all the answers for how to juggle these multiple tasks upon my return. I can say I have renewed clarity in these things:
Burnout is real, and recognizing when you feel like you’re heading there is important.
Your health will always need to come first and taking the time to take care of you will always be the most important. You cannot serve others if you cannot show up for yourself.
For me this means a yoga or pilates practice most days, and rest on the days I need rest. Even if I have to push some things on my ever-constant to-do list, I know I need this time to move my body and ground my mind. Lately this practice is also including some meditation, though I’m giving myself grace in building consistency, and thankful when I am able to add it in. Even a five minute meditation or a pause to take four deep breaths can prove helpful to calm and center my mind.
This also means taking the time off to truly step away — whether that’s an afternoon catching up with a friend, a walk in the park, a full weekend off, or a true vacation. Whatever it looks like for you, these pauses are necessary for all of us and even more so when building something.
I feel evermore determined to successfully bring Petal + Ash to life.
Building a brand from scratch is hard. Building a brand responsibly is even harder. I completely understand why, over time, I’ve been given the advice not to start one. I know the failure rates of new businesses, and I know life could be much easier if I didn’t feel compelled to birth this thing into the world.
Working to build a product with materials that are better for your body and better for the planet, while also ethically made, takes longer, costs more, and is at constant friction with how current (conventional) supply chains are built. There’s a million and one mistakes you can make as an entrepreneur, and doing it yourself, without investors and big dollars backed behind you is scary to say the least. The odds are stacked against you. And I’ve seen some really amazing brands I admire close their doors. But if we don’t keep trying we’ll never get there.
This is something I believe in with all my heart, and I don’t want to look back in a few decades and think “what if.” If you’re also sitting on that fence, this is your permission to go for it — or a reminder to keep going. The world needs your ideas, and the more we push current systems to budge from business-as-usual, the more likely they are to actually change.
I also feel compelled to see things through for the woman I’m building for. The one who has been searching for beauty, comfort, and breathable materials; the one asking questions her favorite brands can’t answer; the one wanting something she can actually believe in. She deserves better than what exists today, and she is why the harder path is the only one worth taking.
I developed a product-based business to fix a problem I saw and to fill a necessary whitespace in the market, not to become a social media creator.
I am still struggling with how to authentically and successfully show up in this space (More so on Instagram than here. I love to write, so at least for me with writing it’s more just finding dedicated time to write). But I also am trying to lean into the things that make us uncomfortable, as those are the things that make us grow — and as I was recently reminded in a yoga class, it is about the process, not the end destination.
So lean into the process.
I’m working to embrace social media, though it still feels like a bit of a crap shoot. I’m still a ways from figuring out what really “works,” and I think I’m mostly talking to friends and family, with a small but mighty, and slowly growing, contingent of like-minded women excited for the brand to launch.
The content churn to feed the algorithm can be exhausting, so I’m giving myself permission to do less but do it “better,” and we’ll see what that looks like!
To go back to the yogic lesson of “process, not destination” I want to remind you (and myself) that for all of us determined, driven women (and men, I see you too in my subscriber list) working to build incredible things, working to make change in this world, working to show up as our best selves for our friends and family, it is hard but it’s also beautiful — and in the process we can learn so much. At the end of the day, that’s what it’s about. (Though hopefully that also includes wild success, cause let’s be real for a second, we need purpose-driven brands leading the way against mega-corporations and in order for us to do good in this world, we also need to build and maintain financially viable businesses.)
Sometimes (especially these days) it feels like the system is stacked against you (it kinda is), and “bad guys” are always winning (they kinda are), but we can do better; we can be better. First, we have to take care of ourselves to do so.
Spring Inspiration
Over on Instagram I recently put together a Spring Gallery Guide, highlighting some incredible exhibits around NYC, LA, and beyond. Speaking to the need to slow down — and to getting inspired — I hope you go check it out. If you make it to any of the exhibits, I’d love to hear about what moved you.
Book Recommendation
My vacation read of choice was a book by a dear mentor and friend of mine, Tricia Brouk. I spoke about Tricia in my last Substack. Her latest book, Being Smart is Stupid: Why Embracing the Wisdom of Your Buddha Nature is the Secret to Great Leadership is both a practical and inspiring read, and one I found very applicable to life in general, as well as leadership of course.
It’s International Compost Week!
Are you composting your food? It’s an amazing way to reduce waste going to landfill (and therefore reduce dangerous methane emissions produced as a by-product of waste decomposing in a landfill), and to support healthy soil.
Some cities across the country now have either mandatory or voluntary compost programs. Even if yours doesn’t, you can compost at home. Here are a few resources to guide you:
