Welcome! I’m the founder of the personal styling app called Cladwell.
Here is where I frequently write, curate, and share honest stories about what it’s like to build a business, live with intention and style.
Transparency lives here. So glad you made it.
I’m Erin Flynn, Cladwell Founder
on my mind this week…
BOUNDARIES = FREEDOM
I used to think freedom was shopping for whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. Any time I didn’t like my outfit, my knee-jerk reaction was to shop online or hit the stores. I was shaped by a culture that believed the way to better style was through shopping. Believing that little lie, I spent my twenties buying cheap brands with no boundaries. The result was always the same: a wildly overgrown closet that lacked an authentic sense of style.
Too many clothes and nothing to wear.
I’ve heard that for a tree to thrive, it must be trimmed. For a vine to bear the most fruit, it must be pruned. Cutting back actually enables them to become more deeply rooted and fruitful—healthier than those left to grow wild.
Six years of working in fashion have taught me that it’s often the people with overgrown closets that have the least amount of freedom. They struggle with the simple task of figuring out what to wear, just as I did.
It was only when I finally faced my closet and set boundaries in my wardrobe that I experienced freedom. It started overflowing into other areas of my life. From the way I designed my home to how I structured my work day, I replaced impulse with intention. I found immense freedom in exploring my personal style as well as the power to overcome the impulse.
Boundaries don’t restrict freedom, they create it.
Understanding what you like and don’t like is the starting point to forming boundaries. Having boundaries is what makes shopping easy, and keeps us from over-buying and saying the phrase “I have nothing to wear.”
It opens up the mental space needed for creativity and the freedom to explore your personal style and beyond.
Investing In What Matters
Maybe you have already heard, but I couldn’t skip this revolutionary story.
“A half century after founding the outdoor apparel maker Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard, the eccentric rock climber who became a reluctant billionaire with his unconventional spin on capitalism, has given the company away.” -The New York Times
Here is the letter Yvon Chouinard….
Earth is now our only shareholder.
I never wanted to be a businessman. I started as a craftsman, making climbing gear for my friends and myself, then got into apparel. As we began to witness the extent of global warming and ecological destruction, and our own contribution to it, Patagonia committed to using our company to change the way business was done. If we could do the right thing while making enough to pay the bills, we could influence customers and other businesses, and maybe change the system along the way.
We started with our products, using materials that caused less harm to the environment. We gave away 1% of sales each year. We became a certified B Corp and a California benefit corporation, writing our values into our corporate charter so they would be preserved. More recently, in 2018, we changed the company’s purpose to: We’re in business to save our home planet.
While we’re doing our best to address the environmental crisis, it’s not enough. We needed to find a way to put more money into fighting the crisis while keeping the company’s values intact.
“Truth be told, there were no good options available. So, we created our own.”
One option was to sell Patagonia and donate all the money. But we couldn’t be sure a new owner would maintain our values or keep our team of people around the world employed.
Another path was to take the company public. What a disaster that would have been. Even public companies with good intentions are under too much pressure to create short-term gain at the expense of long-term vitality and responsibility.
Truth be told, there were no good options available. So, we created our own.
Instead of “going public,” you could say we’re “going purpose.” Instead of extracting value from nature and transforming it into wealth for investors, we’ll use the wealth Patagonia creates to protect the source of all wealth.
Here’s how it works: 100% of the company’s voting stock transfers to the Patagonia Purpose Trust, created to protect the company’s values; and 100% of the nonvoting stock had been given to the Holdfast Collective, a nonprofit dedicated to fighting the environmental crisis and defending nature. The funding will come from Patagonia: Each year, the money we make after reinvesting in the business will be distributed as a dividend to help fight the crisis.
It’s been nearly 50 years since we began our experiment in responsible business, and we are just getting started. If we have any hope of a thriving planet—much less a thriving business—50 years from now, it is going to take all of us doing what we can with the resources we have. This is another way we’ve found to do our part.
Despite its immensity, the Earth’s resources are not infinite, and it’s clear we’ve exceeded its limits. But it’s also resilient. We can save our planet if we commit to it.
