There is No Finish Line

You can’t make this up…“It is 2:00 am and my inner Chai voice says… let’s just do one more test batch! So, I grind more spices, steep more tea and set another kettle on the stove! “Maybe this time it will be the one,” says Ethan, my 16 year old son who has been helping me perfect our Chai Concentrate recipe for the last year. The fact that I have been drinking Chai my entire life and grew up blending teas, one would think making a Chai concentrate would not be so cumbersome. It was the hardest thing I have ever done! It was a labor of love and resulted in many restless nights. Just when we would think, we have something to celebrate, once we scaled the recipe, it was back to the drawing board. 

It is always good to have a partner in crime. For me, it was Ethan because I not only depended on his help but his emotional support as well. Also, having a network of trusted advisors outside of your immediate circle is imperative. We often forget and must remind ourselves that we don’t have to do this alone. We surrounded ourselves with people who helped us taste test and provide feedback. We reached out to our family, friends, neighbors and our Indian community to ensure we were making something that can represent the true taste of traditional Chai. 

Then, one day it did happen with our 174th batch. The minute we tasted this batch, our eyes widened, our mouths dropped and as if all was in slow motion, we both screamed - Hell Yeah! We Got It! At that moment, we both forgot the long hard journey we took to get to this point. The saying “Pain passes, Beauty remains” holds true to Chai too! Cheers!” — Monica Sunny, Founder of The Chai Box 

Is there a tougher statement to smile through than: Alright team, back to the drawing board! I said it more than ever when our iconic Mini Mac bag began slowing down. The Mini Mac is our hero product. She paid the bills. There was no way we could survive without her.

I tried 1,000 different crossbody bags over the next few years. Nothing truly stuck. Then, on Day 1095 (but who’s counting?) the Edie finally did. I remember breathing a sigh of relief: Phew, we’re back! 

The Edie reignited our crossbody business and remains a bestseller. I didn’t know then whether our customer loved the attributes, size, or color. That’s the nature of creativity, though. You can’t predict what’s going to hit. You just have to keep showing up until you find it. This week, we hear from Monica and R.E.D.D. CEO Emma Fuerst Frelinghuysen about resilience in the creative process. 

Four seasons is a long time to focus on one product. So long that I had a baby in between! We could have given up but we chose to persevere, even when it felt like we’d never figure it out. 

When your knee deep in samples, your product hitting the shelves feels like the finish line...until it isn’t. Emma shares why you’re never too far from phase one. 

“I will never forget my first store visit as CEO of R.E.D.D. After I joined the company in late 2019, I took a trip to LA to visit grocery stores and other retailers that carried our plant-based nutrition bars. At our best-performing Whole Foods store in the country, I was thrilled to see a huge R.E.D.D. display on the shelves – it looked like an advertisement! The store’s Grocery Lead was nearby, so I introduced myself and offered him a T-shirt and bars to thank him so much for his support. He told me kindly that he couldn’t take them because he was vegan. This was a huge “Aha!” moment for me because R.E.D.D is a vegan brand! The fact that at our #1 store in the country, the vegan team lead didn’t know that R.E.D.D. is plant-based showed me there was a major communication gap we needed to fix. He couldn’t have been the only potential consumer who didn’t know. Our core attributes clearly weren’t reflected through our messaging. 

This triggered a big shift in the way we thought about and adapted our packaging, marketing, and communication. Brands didn’t like to use the word “vegan” in marketing ten years ago because of the stigma that vegan food doesn’t taste good, but that’s not at all the case today. We embraced the feedback, changed our packaging to put the word “vegan” front and center, and have made sure to include “plant-based” in all of our messaging. Today, vegan and low-sugar are the most important attributes to our growing consumer base. I look back on this experience, however awkward, with gratitude.”

Dream partnerships like these are pivotal milestones, especially as a young brand. The success of the Morning After Bag afforded me my first: A meeting with showroom owner Cynthia O’Connor, the indie-bag-queen-maker of the moment. Name the trend, she was behind it. 

Cynthia had a reputation for being hard-core but the M.A.B was a winner, or so I thought. She picked my baby apart stitch by stitch. The materials. The proportions. The finishing. The brass (A solid 10 minute interlude in itself). I can’t even tell you everything that she said because I only remember that she hated everything about it. 

Any confidence I had gained as a founder dissolved in that meeting. The M.A.B. had been met with glowing praise for two years. This was a wake-up call that I was still a scrappy designer. I headed straight back to my office (i.e. my tiny apartment) and didn’t rest until I checked off every piece of feedback. I was determined to get the M.A.B in her showroom. 

Cynthia was shocked when I called her two weeks later. The bag still needed improvements, but she was willing to take us on. I knew her feedback wasn’t just an opportunity to improve the M.A.B. It was a turning point to lay the foundation to become a forever brand. I honestly don’t know where we’d be without her today. 

Feedback feels personal when you’ve poured your heart into something. I’ve learned that opportunities for improvement aren’t failures, though. They’re a sign that you’re on the right track. 

We’ve created at least 10,000 designs over the last 16 years. Less than half of those made it to market. The iterations on the cutting room floor taught me an important lesson: The definition of happiness is overcoming barriers towards your goal. Every time I fall, I remind myself that I’ll remember how painful this feels when I finally achieve it. Setbacks make the win that much sweeter.

What drives your creative focus? Share your tips in the comments! 

I share all my You Can’t Make This Up moments in my new book, Fearless: The New Rules for Unlocking Creativity, Courage, and Success. It’s a collection of 21 rules that help me overcome my fears and turn my dreams into reality. I’m honored to share them and hope they do the same for you. You can learn more and pre-order it here!