13 Lessons Learned from 13 years in Business
13 years is a long time. When you count the year before I launched the brand, we’re looking at more like 14 years, which is two seven-year cycles (there is a belief that the cells in our bodies are completely replaced every seven years and therefore major physical and physiological changes occur during this timeframe).
One of my very first kiteobarding and swimwear photoshoots. Circa 2012. Tracy Kraft.
What I’ve learned in this timeframe has been massive and has given me a platform through which to fully and truly express myself, something I wasn’t set up to do when I began this journey in 2011.
After deciding to close down the swimwear brand that I’ve been running for over a decade:
I wanted to take some time to distill the major lessons learned on this journey, as Michelle Obama would say, of Becoming.
Please enjoy these 13 lessons. I hope they serve you.
To be proud of myself. The most important lesson. I have accomplished SO MANY things over the past 13 years. Looking back has allowed me to fully sink into the fact that I AM super proud of myself. I am proud of my grit and determination to start this brand. I am proud of not giving up. I am proud of creating something from scratch. I am proud of having the strength to move on. I am proud of the woman I have become. While I have much more growing to do (what a blessing!), I love myself right here and right now and I am super proud of myself! WOW! This has been my greatest lesson—the fact that my opinion of myself is the only one that matters and only I can permit myself to be proud of myself.
You either win or you learn, there is no fail. Not feeling good enough has plagued me for much of my life but the lesson of embracing failure has allowed me to realize that the only way we fail is simply by not trying. In truth, I believe there is no such thing as failure. As Miki Agrawal says, “It’s not a failure, it’s a revelation”. Through everything that we do, we learn. It’s just sometimes tough to admit that the lesson came about while we were knocked down with mud on our faces.
Feedback is your friend. One of the best ways to get better at something or improve your product or service is by getting feedback. If your goal is to make the best product out there, then feedback is your best friend. Through feedback, you can crowdsource your way to success. I used to avoid feedback like the plague because I took it personally. When someone said that our suits were bad, I took it to mean that I was bad. It took me a long time to realize that feedback is one of the best gifts that you can get.
Nobody knows anything. One of my favorite stories was told during a speech by Marc Randolph, the founder of Netflix. It was “nobody knows anything”. He spoke about how, when starting Netflix, he and his team weren’t entirely sure what would work so they just kept trying stuff. They kept iterating and iterating and trying and trying and failing and failing until ultimately they landed on their winning combination of unlimited DVD rentals by mail. They didn’t know what was going to launch the stratospheric success that is Netflix but they knew that they wouldn’t find it unless they kept trying. By embracing the beginner mindset and approaching the situation without presumption they allowed themselves to explore. We always have more to learn and by acknowledging the journey and staying curious and open we will have the most success.
When in doubt, dance it out. Shaking your butt is more than a fun way to get exercise. Moving, and dancing especially, are excellent ways to shift your energy. You can shift your state and create momentum and enthusiasm. By taking control of how you feel and acknowledging that you create your own motivation, you can start to do things to get yourself motivated. For me, dancing is one of the best ways to create more energy in my body. Shaking my booty is also a surefire way to put a smile on my face.
Quitting is a good thing. There is this idea in our society that quitting is a bad thing. The old adage is “winners never quit and quitters never win”, which makes it seem like giving up or letting something go is the worst thing in the world. But there is such a thing as sunk cost fallacy and we are allowed to evolve and shift and grow. Albert Einstein once said,
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”
Quitting allows us to release what’s no longer serving us and move into something greater, more expansive, or at the very least different.
You are the best investment you can make. I remember when I used to be afraid of spending $100 on myself, now I spend 4-5 figures a year on personal growth and self-development. It's that important. You are the best investment you can make. What's standing in the way of growing your business? You are. What's stopping you from leveling up? You are. What's holding you back? You are. That can hit like a punch to the gut, but the truth is that you are the problem, and you are the solution. When you take radical responsibility for your life, you can make some big changes. Because when it depends on you, you know you can do something about it. You shift from a victim to a badass executor. And when you start investing in yourself, you tell the Universe that you are worthy.
Clarity comes from taking action. There’s no way to know if you’ll like something or if you’re good at something or if something is meant for you until you try it. Clarity comes from taking action toward your goals and dreams. The more you learn about yourself and about the thing that you are slightly interested in, the more you will find if it’s a fit for you or not. Figure out what the smallest step that you can take toward your goals is and take it. Then stop, reevaluate and see if it still interests you. Wash, rinse, repeat.
You'll never get where you want to go unless you know where you're going. I didn't set clear, concrete visions for my business for many years. I knew I wanted to build an awesome swimwear company, but what did that look like?
An arbitrary marker like 'awesome' or 'successful' is not clear enough! What does your version of awesome or successful mean to you? Does success look like working 30 hours a week with an assistant and one month off every year? Or does it look like a team of eighty-two, with a corner office and the cover of Forbes Magazine? What are your markers of success? What do you want your life to look like? Once you begin to crystallize and answer this question, only then will you be able to make a plan to get there.
Surround yourself with the people whose opinions support your dreams. You can find anything you want to believe on the internet. And you can find people who believe and support many different realities. When I was looking at selling Sensi Swim a few years ago, I had conversations with many mentors. Some people believed (and gave their opinion) that I had assets that were worth something and that I could sell the brand. Others believed that it was too small and no one would be interested. After many conversations, I realized that while this input was good, I could just engage with the people who had an opinion that I liked and run with that. You can surround yourself with whomever you want. You get to choose your beliefs.
Boundaries are good. I tend to be a yes-woman. I say yes to opportunities that flow my way, yes to travel, yes to jobs, yes to coaching, yes, yes, yes. In 2022, I said yes a lot and by the time June rolled around, I had back-to-back trips on the calendar and no capacity to enjoy them. Then I learned that I can't and shouldn't say yes to everything. I simply don’t have the capacity or energy for everything! Therefore, in 2023, I vowed to keep a "said no to" list and to wait 24 hours before saying yes to big trips or opportunities.
A "said no to list" is a running list of things that you say no to. This will strengthen your ability to say no, enable you to reflect on what and why you said no and provide accountability to actually say no.
As Marie Forleo says “if it’s not a hell yes, it’s a no.”
It's not about you. It's never about you. Oftentimes we are afraid of putting ourselves out there because of how we'll look or how people will judge us. Or we feel the need to produce to make money or "get something" out of the work we’re doing.
When we step back from making the work about ourselves and instead lean into how useful our product is or how potent our teaching is, we make it about who we serve. When we make it about who we serve, our customer, we operate from a much different energy. We operate from a place of:
How can I make the people around me feel awesome?
How can I make this thing super excellent for them?
It’s about sharing what we know with others. It’s about helping others feel awesome and amazing and lit up. It’s about service. What if your job was to make the people around you feel awesome? How would you show up? What would you do differently? How would this make you feel? What if we made everything we did about helping other people?
Wow. What a much different energy to create from. It feels…better.All you have to do is show up and try. Last year I competed in a Big Air Kiteboarding event. Big Air is not my specialty discipline but nonetheless, I'm am excellent kiteboarder and I wanted to try. I blew up. And not in a good way. I came in last place. The next day I had a really sore neck and a really bruised ego. Sometimes you show up and you try and...you fail. And it's all ok. It would've been easy for me not to try--to say, "This isn't my thing" and to not show up. But by pushing out of my comfort zone, I inspired others to do the same. I received messages like this: “You did not hold back and that’s what the big air is about! I was inspired watching you go for it!"
Now that's something to be proud of.
I hope this serves you. If you’re inspired by this work, become a subscriber, paid or free! This helps inspire me to keep writing for you!