Setting up and running a start up (confidently) with Molly Kent

Women In Confidence with Molly Kent

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Every week. I introduce you to amazing women who have interesting stories to tell about confidence through their stories, insights, hints, and tips. You realize that a lack of self-belief or low self-esteem is common and also very human, but by listening to them, you'll take away what they have done to show up confidently on the inside, as well as on the outs.

itality, workwear, and Molly [: 00:01:00

She's an

amazing, amazing person because she lost. Business in the lockdown and throughout the pandemic. So my half off to her. So listen to the episode and realize how she did. So Molly. Hello and welcome to women in confidence in. Thanks for joining me today. How

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[00:01:29] Vanessa: there.

It's it's just a pleasure. I loved you spoken before and I just loved your energy. So I think you're going to be amazing as a guest and have lots to share with my listeners. So my first question, I always ask everybody this. What does having confidence mean to you?

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And over the years, it's really changed how I see what confidence is and what it makes you as a [00:02:00] person. But I think at the end of the day, what confidence really is to me is just truly just backing yourself and what you want to do as well. And You've really got to just have the grit to just keep going with whatever you want to do and that confidence and even it's a whole fake it till you make it.

I honestly do believe in that catchphrase because if no one else is going to believe it, you're the only one at the end of the day, that's really going to believe it and keep going with what you want to do. And that's when you, when you pick up your pieces, you, you give yourself little confidence every now and then.

It's you backing yourself really, and whatever you want to do in life. And that's what I always think confidence is for me. I, I, I always thought I was a very confident person and then it wasn't until my business came around that I was like, oh, maybe I'm not so confident, but it was learning to how to pick yourself up when, when those things are.

ant to be, where you want to [: 00:03:00

[00:03:01] Vanessa: we're definitely going to come on to the bit round, fake it to you, make it, and also backing us up. Cause that's really, what's driven you and what's guided you in some respects to being successful, but I want to go back to something you said around when you were younger, you had all the confidence in the world.

It was that. How did, can you remember? What, how would you describe yourself when you were younger?

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And I. God that's so right. Like I knew everything at 18. I was so confident. I was so like, you can't touch me. I am like, it's me against the world. I'm going to do everything in my power to do whatever I want in this world. And it was this like ooze of confidence. And I think it's. What comes when, when you're like fresh blooded to a project for life and you [00:04:00] haven't lived everything or you're not tainted by things and you haven't gone through these pitfalls of ups and downs of life to like bat down your confidence either.

So your, your cup is full of confidence and you're ready to take on the yeah, I resonated with that, but that, that's definitely how I felt when I was 18. I was like, I'm going to do. And I'm just going to live a full life, which I, I do believe I definitely live a full life, but yeah, but now I think when you go through the ups and downs of life, your confidence gets a few dents and scratches on it and, and you start to question it a little bit more. So sometimes I always think like I've got to put myself back in the feet of my 18 year old me and all the shoes of my age and your man, which were probably some six inch Hills or something ridiculous and, and try and resonate with that and take that into where I am now.

fidence. It's just had a few [: 00:05:00

And probably when I was 18, I would just walk in, not even thinking about doubting anything and not, not going into a meeting thinking, oh, this is going to bomb or anything. I would absolutely just go on. Yeah, I'm ready to take on the world. This is it.

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Do you, can you remember?

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And it entertains me. It keeps me I love learning new things. [00:06:00] And that is probably where I couldn't stay in one place for longer than, nine months at a time because I was just too excited to see the next thing. For me, going to university was a really different. Thing. I couldn't, I, I traveled the year before and I couldn't just stay and study for six years or whatnot.

I just couldn't do it. So for me, when I was younger, I really didn't know where I was truly headed, but I loved the creative side of things, but then I loved being challenged through, I loved the forensic side of things that I was really into at school. And that's what I went to university to study. Then again, there are two totally polarizing ideas.

a lot of jobs and I think I [: 00:07:00

Where I would start to learn what I don't like and what I do and maybe that's where I would start to develop a bit more of a, a roadmap for me in my, my passions and where I want to take my life and how I want to fulfill it and what maybe my purpose is with fulfilling all these sort of activities and jobs and things like that.

But I think truly I'm all about finding a passion, but it's really, you can't find a passion without trying a lot of things. Yeah. And so I just made sure I tried a lot of things when I was younger and I still do it today. I'm doing so many different random things that I'm still trying. And I still learn to like what I don't like and what I do and how I can bring it into my business and other parts of my life as well.

ou, bring you this learning. [: 00:08:00

And so I was like, ah, I know how to do this. It's fine. Let's do this, little things like this. I was like, this is really fun. Now I know how to do this and I'm, oh, I'm good at it. Or I'm bad at it, or how that gets, that gives me so much energy.

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They are on a track, they're like, I am going to go to, I'm going to get all my qualifications and I go to university and I'm going to go into a job and I'm going to do this. I'm going to be promoted. I don't know. I think sometimes they lose their [00:09:00] sparklers results that because they're doing what I guess, society expects of them.

And at the end of it, they are like exhausted or frustrated. Whereas for you, you have followed, what will your curiosity, you followed that followed your interest and excitement. I think that really shows, you've got such a sparkle. I know people can't see this, but they can hear the energy and the sparkle in your voice.

And I find that, there's no question here, but I just find that really lovely that you can test fall. And I think this is where it's going, is that, and I said this to you before, you can be a real role model for people who don't know how to follow that one track because that's not set up for them.

And I love that about you and you've carried that off.

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My hands and a lot of things, because I enjoy them all. But I hear this a lot when people say, oh you probably have two careers in your life. And I think, oh I've probably already had 12 and I haven't hated that. I've loved that. And when I was living in Japan, actually that was what. It was quite apparent where it wasn't acceptable to have many different careers.

Like there it's quite culturally accepted that you have to work at one thing for a very long time. And then you're, you're respected in that field. Yeah, for me, they would be looking at definitely my housemate that I was working with. She always said, oh yeah, you wouldn't be able to work for my father's company because I've just worked for too many different jobs and, or dabbled into many different things.

romotion in this one sort of [: 00:11:00

Yeah. I definitely think that sort of deviance from this traditional university and career oriented, I have a lot of friends that do that. And sometimes they always that they're the ones that do have this feeling of like career change or they have a feeling of oh, they don't enjoy their job, but they, because I figured it out.

So yeah. What they wanted to do. And maybe because it was like one of four subs sex at school that they were good at or something like that, it's quite limited at school. And you don't really even know what job could be a prospect towards. There are so many different types of jobs. You've done

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So at what point did it all start coming together to bring it into day seven? And we'll talk about what day seven is in a minute, but day seven is your company. When did it all start to come together? And you think, actually this is where I want to channel my energy.

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Where I really wanted to go into a world of fashion. I loved fashion when I was younger, but then I was traveling and I thought maybe modeling was that way in. Or I thought photography might've been that way. And I really liked that creative side of fashion. And I was always designing my own clothes and I loved that, but I couldn't, I couldn't really piece the puzzle together.

rough this and let different [: 00:13:00

And then I was working hospitality at the time and that's what. I just started, I guess also deviating from the group of my peers when I was in hospitality as well. And I started thinking like all the fashion that the customers have are really amazing, but where here in these kind of crazy promotional walkway, it was just really uncomfortable, but it didn't eventuate for a long time.

I had these thoughts over and over, but when you have these ideas, you're just modeling over them for a while. Bring up conversations here and there about them, but it takes a long time to eventuate, a business idea and really start to conceptualize. And in a more whole way. So I think I was sitting on this idea for a good few years and started taking everything.

't think I was capable of it [: 00:14:00

There are people out there. I started meeting more people that had small businesses. And made it happen and hearing this stories on how they started it. And I thought, oh, maybe I could do this. And that's when I started turning to Google to train my brain into a fashion design a business on a as well.

was, yeah. As we had spoken [: 00:15:00

I was like, there's so much accessible on the internet and I'm in this day and age where I can use the internet, I was in Japan. I, I couldn't read country or any Japanese characters, all that well, so I couldn't really go to the library and learn Japanese from a library or anything. So the internet was definitely.

Helpful in that time where I was learning from start to finish. And I'm sure I've missed a lot of pieces and fashion design, but that's why now I love hiring the experts to do this work as well, because they do know better than me, but I am aware of what they do as well. I've taught myself what they do.

what needs to happen. Maybe [: 00:16:00

I think, oh yeah. Maybe I could write myself a certificate.

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Yeah,

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And I think it was a sort of a bad reflection on the customer that they have there and like the interiors that they spend so much money on as well. So aesthetically we try and create and work together with businesses to custom design something that can be one proudly forever with their whole teams and Perpetually worn throughout everyone's size changes and business roles and everything from like repairs and replacing them.

signers in hospitality where [: 00:18:00

Meet in the middle and create a beautiful pace from a fashion designer that we, we collaborate with and take out experience from hospitality and combine it with functionality for the job and yeah. Have some beautiful web,

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Cause they're not like a uniform to me, something you don't know, be a prison guard or something like that. They're beautiful. And we'll talk about sustainability in a bit, but let's go back to. The theme around you saying six years ago, that is that even possible for me to run a business and a successful business and one that's growing.

Wow. Where did all that confidence come from to step into running a business?

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Someone like me. I was the waitress who wanted it. I was the waitress who needed it. I was sick of wearing this. So I guess that confidence of I think someone will pick this up. Someone like someone will enjoy that I'm doing this for their business until I elevate their business. Waitress and where have a business or the waiter that needs this or that wants this.

use staff and, and training. [: 00:20:00

And I mean that stop treatment in hospitality is getting better and better, but I think it's also got a long way to go in terms of culture within that industry. And I think that at the time when. Conceptualizing the brand, it was pre COVID, none. None of this sort of thought about culture of hospitality either.

So I definitely wanted to create a brand around these feelings that I had personally, within the industry. It was, it was a nice energy that I brought from that experience. And I thought if, if I'm not going to, if I can't find it anywhere, I think I'm the only one that's going to do it or so that it just kept going with that.

So trying to go that, unless I'm doing it for me, old people like me and. I kept that confidence. And you

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[00:21:13] Molly: Oh, that's a really nice question. I I definitely think it was people around me. In the beginning, because I also, at the time I couldn't afford any professional coaches or anything. So it was a lot of following people I liked or the works I liked on online and what they would show. How people conducted businesses, other business owners as well.

was like, oh, they did this. [: 00:22:00

Like maybe we should try that or take that on board. But then I started to look to more, specified coaches as well. And people that were really mainly all women as well. I think women have like a different way in business or the way they interact with people and supporting each other's businesses as well.

They understand something that is just unwritten, I feel and it's, it's beautiful. And that's mainly most women who have their own businesses. They've got this hustle about it. It's it's almost. No one's ever had a business like that because it's they're just hosteling and it's right. And I don't know, like a woman without a business that is hasn't got this hustle attitude or this, this energy about them.

So that was really inspiring for me to just keep following these people that you aspire to be like these businesses that you really admire as well. And yeah, that's where I always get my inspiration from. And I

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You've got an interest. So when, when you started. Being serious, taking this to market and wanting to find clients. How is that? Were you taken seriously or people like, mm. Okay, Molly, she doesn't have the background. Is this a serious business? How did, how did you step into that space and find the competence, but no, this is just bullshit.

I am totally qualified for this. And my designs are amazing.

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And I know it does seem somewhat unfair when I am in a room. Qualified [00:24:00] fashion designers. And I do feel very oh, I should get a certificate for this or that. And it was quite hard in the beginning. I thought I had to pretend I had to be a fashion designer. I had to pretend like I did go to uni forum because people didn't take it seriously.

So it was something I kept a little hush hush for a little bit, not on purpose. And if people ask then I would be completely transparent about it, but it wasn't something I would readily. Bring up or make hugely public, because I did think it was something that was going to change people's opinions on the reputation of the brand and everything.

tuated as now. I'm just more [: 00:25:00

And and that's really worked out in the end, but. I was very transparent in the beginning when hiring these, the fashion designers that we work with and they, yeah, I I'm like, Hey, look, I'm not a fashion designer. And they're like, wow, look what you've done. You've been able to do this and to get that also like a boost of confidence from them to be like, look what you've done without a fashion degree.

That's amazing. Things that we actually don't because you've done it differently. You haven't had. In a box sort of learning. You've had to go and learn always things yourself and you might've missed a lot of what we learnt that you've actually learned things that we haven't. And that was like a really good confidence boost, really to be like, okay, I've done some things, right?

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[00:26:00] Molly: now? There's about five and we all, they all work casually because we're a very growing startup, but it's been beautiful over this COVID period with. Cultivated a gorgeous team of people that some have come and gone, but some have been like, Hey, I've got a friend and just a really good group of people that we're working with at the moment in our team.

And it's just really beautiful because I guess in the beginning, When we first launched, that was what I really struggled with. I was doing everything and I thought that's how it would be forever. And then I realized I'm actually not good at this, or I'm actually not that great at that, but I will give it a crack and I will understand it, but I, I will also accept that I'm not good at it.

t. Let's bring them on board [: 00:27:00

I was talking about this this morning in a meeting and get everyone that's working. For day seven is such a cheerleader for the brand and for its future and all that goals that we have for the future as well. It sounds, it's so beautiful to have chili. It is, and they all have side things that they do as well, that I love to support them on as It's a, it's a nice bourbon.

I really

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And being able to let go of the [00:28:00] thing that. I imagine when you're a new business owners is really tightly controlled. So how did you know it was time to let go and say, I've got to delegate now.

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And you're like, this is so hard and you try your hardest and you're trying so hard to do this one thing. Say for example, graphic design, I am terrible at graphic sign, but I, I gave it a crack. I thought, yeah, I know how to put these together. And for a long time we have my website on my leg graphic designs on everything.

phic center and damn, that's [: 00:29:00

And because they lacked. They do it quite quickly where I could take three weeks to do this one thing where they could take two hours. So it does make a difference lab, but I

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When oh, I'm hopeless. I can't do it. And the confidence takes a nose dive. Actually you saying I might not be good at it, but I know somebody who's going to save me time and probably some money in the long term. Yeah, your confidence probably fairly stable as the results of it. What were the, what are the signs that come up for you when you think actually this is really hard or I am in a space where I'm out of my depth.

What comes up for

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And so it overtakes my thoughts and. Oh, God, this is way out of my depth is very small. Job is way out of my depth where in actual fact it isn't, but I'm scared to do it because I'm scared. I'm not maybe going to do it well enough, or I know other people could do it better than me and quicker than may.

for help sometimes. And then [: 00:31:00

This is gorgeous. You just made a lookbook that looks as stunning for day seven. And I just spent three months on that, trying to put it together or something. It didn't need to take that long. It didn't need to be in my thoughts for that long, but yeah, I think that is a moment when, when you're sort of like starting to nose, dive a little bit, it makes you think, okay, but where can I, where can I fill in that spot?

And then concentrate on what I am good at. So then it takes that off your back. It takes it off your thoughts, and then you move on to something that you're like, I can do this really easily, easily. I can do this really well. That's a really nice thing. Like for example, I, I love going face-to-face meetings because I just love talking to people, sitting down, having a coffee.

l like I'm a very personable [: 00:32:00

They're small on paper, but really they're important in the role of business as well. We started, we launched just before the pandemic. So we, I know very, the timing for it was a little off for us, but we, we actually think that we came in at a good time as well, because it was this beautiful wave in hospitality, where there was a concentration in hospitality and the change of culture around it as well.

way of, of the way we think [: 00:33:00

The hospitality was like a big thing of that. There was a little change happening within the industry and it was really exciting for day seven to be on that cusp of when we started and have our thoughts realigned as well, like an also real aligning with businesses as well and how they was starting to think.

So we're definitely riding on a bit of a wave here at the

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[00:33:48] Molly: Yeah. At the moment we, because we do see like a lot of uniforms and work wear around hospitality that isn't sustainable and isn't [00:34:00] manufactured in a PR in like an ethical manner.

So that's something that we're really proud of at day seven to take on and be completely sustainable. We really want to become self-sustaining as well, would love to do. All things self-sustaining. So we're really working towards that and setting those foundations up for future business to be a reputable, sustainable business, and that starting with getting accreditation and.

Yeah, everything. Just setting those small goals and timelines. So then we can become known for that as well, and primarily known for being a sustainable brand and super transparent as well with customers and open about it all. Yeah.

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Yeah. What's your one piece of advice for someone who's got that, but [00:35:00] they're also thinking how could it possibly be me? How would you advise

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If you just dabble in it, like I've dabbled in a lot of things that I would love to be professional as well, but I'm not, but I've dabbled in it. And I know I love it. And maybe one day dream, a dream. So like dabbling is fun. I think dabbling teaches you about. It exposes you to a lot of new learnings and a lot of new skills as well.

o it's really helped me gain [: 00:36:00

Because it, you can't stop doing it.

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So thank you so much for being on Jenna really wish days, having all the best of luck in the future. Cause I really do love, love your designs. I don't work in hospitality, but I would absolutely wear them.

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[00:36:51] Vanessa: Thank you so much for listening to women in confidence, and I hope you enjoyed it.

want to sponsor it, if you'd [: 00:37:00