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.
Come What May
It was June 2019 and we were about to make our official offer.
I was supposed to be this empowered millennial woman, fully capable of running her own company. Yet when the opportunity to buy Cladwell presented itself, I was terrified.
Everything about the business screamed run for the hills. Messy code. Angry customers. No team. Unclear business model. To be frank, Cladwell was a hot mess. I had done the mental math of our chances of reviving it, and it didn’t look promising. If there was ever a time to bail, wipe my hands clean and start over in my career, this was it.
But I still believed in its potential and had always preferred working for myself. Making the offer, becoming the CEO, working in fashion tech… I was staring down the chance of having everything I ever wanted in a company. Creating what I always hoped Cladwell could be. But I was stuck. Sinking into worried overthinking like quicksand. Fear kept me trapped between belief and burnout.
What if I can’t turn it around?
What if it isn’t successful?
What if I take on the title of CEO and crumble under the weight of expectation?
I quickly realized I didn’t have to predict the future or have all the answers. But I did need to ask one simple question…
What do I want?
Do I want to run a successful tech business worth millions, or do I simply want to run a business, with work that I care deeply about? A business that very well may stay… small. (gasp!)
I couldn't guarantee if Cladwell would flop in a year or grow like wild. To be honest, it didn’t matter. The work was enough. And the outcome was never any of my business.
And with that clarity, I surrendered.
Surrendering did not come easily or naturally. It felt counterintuitive to every empowerment message I had ever heard. Fixating on all I couldn’t control was more my speed. But like a white-knuckled grip on a rope, more pain comes from holding on too tightly than letting go.
Real empowerment looked like aligning what I wanted to do with actually doing it. This is what I truly wanted.
When I finally said yes to making an offer, I found my own strength. Fully ready to carve a new path. Willing to be the CEO of Cladwell, come what may.
New Year, New Feature!
It just got easier to add from URL. We like easy, don’t you?
The WHY Behind Slowing Down
“A fast approach tends to be a superficial one, but when you slow down you begin to engage more deeply with whatever it is you’re doing. You’re also forced to confront what’s happening inside you. Speed becomes a form of denial. It’s a way of running away from those more deeper, tangled problems. Instead of focusing on questions like who am I, and what is my role here, it all becomes a superficial to-do list.”
— Carl Honoré
By slowing down and intentionally placing your true values at the heart of your lifestyle, a slow living mindset encourages you to live in self-awareness and make conscious, purposeful decisions for the benefit of your well-being and that of the planet. It celebrates quality over quantity, living with intent, being conscious and considered. To adopt a slower mindset is to switch off autopilot and make space for reflection and self-awareness.
Slow living means living better, not faster.
(via www.slowlivingldn.com)
11 slow living tips for the busy person
Minimise your things. ...
Find your go-to outdoor spaces. ...
Start your day slowly. ...
Monotask instead of multitasking. ...
Take your entire lunch break. ...
Turn off your music, podcasts and TV to appreciate silence. ...
Spend a manageable amount of time outside each day. ...
Find pockets of time to meditate.
