Hi! My name is Saskia de Feijter and welcome to the Pattern Shift podcast. In this podcast, I support overwhelmed small business owners in the fiber and needlecraft industry, helping them set up and organize their businesses for growth and personal well-being. Together, we can be a force for good and a counterbalance to fast fashion, helping makers craft garments and accessories slowly and more sustainably. You can be part of that change and make a profit in the process.
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What will it really take to create a more sustainable and equitable future for fashion? Each week, hosts Elizabeth Joy and Stella Hertantyo interview fashion changemakers — from labor activists to slow fashion entrepreneurs — to explore this very question. Hear about topics like greenwashing, garment worker rights, consumer psychology, secondhand fashion, making the most of your closet, and more. For more, visit consciouslifeandstyle.com and follow @consciousstyle on Instagram.
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#82 - Casually chatting about travel, craft projects and current obsessions
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Send me a Text Message. I'll discuss balancing my craft business, personal health, and self-care. Venturing into video podcasting deepens my audience connection. COVID-19 reminded me to prioritize health over productivity. Crafting remains a source of relaxation and creativity amidst running a small business. I emphasize sustainable crafting and in…
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# 81 - You Need a Mindset Shift! - Let’s Talk Change, Comfort Zones and Taking Action
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Send me a Text Message. I have been running the Business Circle for a few years now and one topic stood out in the most recent Wins + Woes meeting. From this I feel the need to emphasize the importance of a mindset shift. So we talk about why a mindset shift is necessary to encourage you to get out of your comfort zone while still taking care of yo…
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#80 - Sewing the Seeds of Love - Set Business Goals to Match Your Values
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Send me a Text Message. In this episode, I discuss the importance of goal setting for creative entrepreneurship. Drawing parallels between goal setting and preparing soil for a garden, I emphasize the need for alignment with personal values and decision-making to drive business success. I introduce a step-by-step approach to goal setting, starting …
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102) Leveraging Your Slow Fashion Skills To Make Money Beyond Products
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For our first-ever Conscious Fashion Collective Membership panel discussion, we discussed a topic that is often taboo in the slow fashion space — money! We believe that financial sustainability is essential for creating a more just, and sustainable, fashion ecosystem with thriving businesses that care about people and the planet. 💰 WE DISCUSSED: Ta…
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#79 - Behind the Filter: The Reality of Creative Entrepreneurship, a Roadmap to Navigate Challenges
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Send me a Text Message. I wanted to do an episode about Etsy and if it is worth starting your own website, when I went to Threads to do a callout for craft business that have ideas about this, I saw a post by a printmaker. This post inspired my episode. Sometimes you don't know where to start and the business roadmap is completely unclear. I hope t…
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101) Demystifying Financial Sustainability in Slow Fashion
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Financial sustainability is essential for creating a more just, and sustainable, fashion ecosystem with thriving businesses that care about people and the planet. But how do you go about actually making money in this space, especially when you care about not overproducing? Money-making is a topic that is all-too-often taboo in the slow fashion spac…
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#78 - How to Sell Your Products Without Feeling Gross
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Send me a Text Message. Hey lovely listeners! Today's episode is all about shifting the mindset in selling. I've got some nuggets of wisdom to share on making the whole process feel authentic and, dare I say, enjoyable! Stick around for tips, personal anecdotes, and a sprinkle of humor. I spill the tea on transforming your approach to selling. It's…
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#77 - Unraveling your Business Identity pt 2. Your Customer’s Identity
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Send me a Text Message. SUMMARY In this episode, we explore the intricate world of establishing a unique business identity in the textile craft market. The key, I emphasize, is standing out authentically amid saturation. I advocate aligning personal values with business ethos and guide listeners through the transition from crafter to successful bus…
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#76 - Unraveling your Business Identity - pt 1. Your Identity
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Send me a Text Message. SUMMARY Hey, it's Saskia de Feijter, your guide on Pattern Shift. In this episode, I share my 16 years of experience in textile crafts and marketing, taking you on a journey from crafter to empowered business owner. We dive deep into the importance of standing out authentically in the market, steering clear of trends, and em…
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#75 - Threaded Intentions: A 3 Step Plan to Launch Your Year with Focus
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Send me a Text Message. SUMMARY In this episode, I'll be taking you through my three-step process to reflect on the past year and set intentions for the upcoming one. We'll delve into both personal and business aspects, emphasizing the importance of a holistic approach. I'll be sharing insights into my use of the Year Compass, a practical tool guid…
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Bonus episode - Why I'm Returning to Instagram after breaking the chain 2 years ago...
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Send me a Text Message. Returning to Instagram after a two-year hiatus was no easy task. Let me, Saskia de Feijter, guide you through my journey of finding my social media footing again, and how I managed to balance business goals with personal values. I'll share my reasons for initially disconnecting and the enlightening course that sparked my dec…
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#74 - Fun Funds Framework; Quick Cash Hacks for Crafting a Growth Budget in the New Year
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Send me a Text Message. FUN FUNDS FRAMEWORK + COUNTDOWN TRACKER - FREE DOWNLOAD SUMMARY Ever wondered how much your business could save by adopting some simple yet super effective strategies? Well, I've got the lowdown for you in our latest episode, where we unravel the art of freeing up cash for your business in just three months. Trust me, it's a…
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#73 - Crafting Revolution: A Conversation with Betsy Greer on Craftivism and Intentional Business
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Send me a Text Message. What happens when crafting collides with activism? Craftivism. Join Saskia de Vaiter and author Betsy Greer as we unravel this powerful concept and its effect on creative entrepreneurs. We dive into how craftivism is not only transformative for individuals but a vehicle for fostering sustainable connections and growth on bot…
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#72 Reframing Your Marketing with Simon Batchelar: Ethical and Unconventional Approaches for Crafters
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Send me a Text Message. What if marketing wasn't about pushing sales, but about engaging and empowering your audience? Ponder that as you join Simon Batchelor and myself on this riveting journey down the road less taken in marketing strategies. Together, we'll uncover the secrets of ethical and effective marketing, painting a picture of a world whe…
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5 Key Pillars for a Net Positive Fashion Industry with Holly Syrett of Global Fashion Agenda (Bonus)
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How can fashion take action right now for a net positive future? From climate and biodiversity to worker livelihoods and fair wages to overconsumption and textile waste, the gaps between where we need to be and where we are right now feel… vast. But in this episode, we're discussing ways that fashion act right now — like tomorrow — on 5 key pillars…
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#71 From Hobbyist to Professional: Embracing Your Weirdness for Creative Growth with Mark Steadman
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Send me a Text Message. Ready to unlock the secrets of optimizing creativity and productivity in your business? Brace yourself for a transformative journey with our special guest, Mark Steadman, the mastermind behind Creative Workflows. Together, we'll explore the labyrinth of the creative process, highlighting the challenges faced by creative entr…
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#70 Crafting Connections: The Power of Content Creation for Small Businesses
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Send me a Text Message. Imagine being able to transform your small business into a powerhouse of engaging content, easily and without stress! This week, we dive into the world of content creation for small businesses, unraveling the mysteries of storytelling and its role in establishing a deeper connection with your customers. We'll walk you throug…
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#69 - Prioritise You: Crafting a Healthy Business with Personal Intentions
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Send me a Text Message. "In my daily life, I play numerous roles, including that of a mom, spouse, entrepreneur, friend, student, teacher, and patient. Each of these personas demands specific attention and care. Without a clear plan of action, I would often feel overwhelmed, struggling to prioritize tasks effectively. I vividly recall a time when m…
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#68 - Creatively Navigating Storms: Managing Small Business Stress
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Send me a Text Message. Ever been left picking up the pieces after chaos struck your business? Listen in as I, Saskia, share firsthand experiences of weathering the unpredictable storms of podcasting and running a business. From managing a bustling yarn shop to juggling multiple newsletters and a thriving community, I'm here to reveal the systems a…
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100) What Would a Better Future for Fashion Look Like?
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We have reached the 100th episode of the podcast! For the past 100 episodes, at the end of each episode we have asked our guests the same question: What would a better future for fashion look like, to you? This question is important, because it sums up exactly why the podcast exists in the first place — to unpack exactly what it will take to cultiv…
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As you might have noticed, we are just one episode away from the 100th episode of the podcast! We're starting the celebrations early and changing up the usual format with this episode. Instead of interviewing a guest, this week we’re sharing 10 lessons we’ve learned from 100 episodes of the podcast that features interviews with some of the most ins…
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#67 - Striking the Perfect Balance: Business and Personal Life in the Summer Season
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Send me a Text Message. Take Notes for Next Season Hey there, it's your host Saskia, and I'm back with another episode of Pattern Shift. Today, I'm excited to share some valuable insights from fellow creative entrepreneurs about how they approach their businesses during the summer months. Summer is often seen as a time to relax and take a break, bu…
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98) Should Resale Sites Ban Fast Fashion?
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Is it green... or just greenwashing? This week, we’re sharing a recap of a few Green or Greenwashing topics we covered this season! Green or Greenwashing is a segment on the podcast where we evaluate if a certain sustainability measure is more green or whether it veers into more of the greenwashing territory. These Green or Greenwashing segments we…
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97) Overlooked Policy Opportunities for Sustainable Fashion with Kenya Wiley
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Policy is an important lever in creating a better, more sustainable, and equitable fashion system. But if we only focus on policy that explicitly talks about the fashion industry and sustainability, we may be missing some opportunities. In today's episode, I'm chatting with fashion policy expert Kenya Wiley. Kenya is sharing behind the scenes on th…
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96) Unpacking Climate Emotions with Isaias Hernandez of Queer Brown Vegan
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After learning about climate emotions, and seeing climate doomism proliferated in the media, Stella knew she wanted to have Isaias on the show to unpack this and understand how it's connected to the fashion industry. In this episode, Isaias Hernandez (who you might also know as @queerbrownvegan on social media) unpacks the complexity of climate emo…
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95) Carbon Offsetting: Green or Greenwashing?
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Carbon neutral. Net zero. Carbon positive. You may have been seeing more and more claims like these lately from companies, including fashion brands. But in today's Green or Greenwashing episode, we’re diving deeper, beyond the surface of these claims, to see if they really can be trusted. Many of these carbon neutrality claims are asserted based on…
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94) Can Slow Fashion Businesses Scale Without Encouraging Overconsumption? With Mahdiyyah Muhammad
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How can we reimagine the traditional role of fashion designers in a world filled with fashion waste? And how can we rethink our primary role as consumers in a way that allows us to become contributors to collective well-being instead? It’s no secret that we live in a world with far too much clothing. If we are to work towards a more sustainable fas…
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What if fashion brands put garment workers first? What if a fashion brand set the prices they pay to their suppliers based on ensuring workers were making a living wage, rather than negotiating the prices as low as possible to maximize profits? This is part of implementing more responsible purchasing practices — purchasing practices meaning not how…
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#66 - Level Up Your Business: Insights from Program Alumni
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Send me a Text Message. Hey there, welcome to this awesome episode of our podcast! Today, we've got a burning question to tackle: "Is the Ja, Wol Business Circle program the right fit for you?" If you're thinking of joining the next cohort in September, we've got something super cool for you – two fantastic businesses that have been through the pro…
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92) From Extractive to Regenerative Fashion: Slow Growth, Climate Beneficial Textiles, and Cooperative Models with Laura Sansone of New York Textile Lab
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What if designers could go all the way back to the source of the fibers their garments are made from? Many of fashion’s favorite fibers — and our favorite garments — begin on farms. From cotton to wool, hemp, and linen. But, often, designers are so far removed from the places where these fibers are produced. Bringing designers back to the source wo…
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91) Behind the Scenes: Fast Fashion Designer to Slow Fashion Founder with Dani Des Roches of Picnicwear
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What is it like to work as a designer for a fast fashion brand? And what is it like to build your own sustainability minded small fashion brand, from circular design practices to figuring out your pricing? That's what we're getting a glimpse into in this episode with Dani Des Roches, designer and founder of the upcycled brand Picnicwear, recognizab…
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#65 - Bending Time: How to Manage Energy for Productivity with Kim Witten
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Send me a Text Message. The big question on this episode is; How do we bend time our way? Can we make more of it so we can get out of overwhelm and stress. I’ve invited my friend and coach Kim Witten because she’s the perfect partner for a hilarious but insightful journey through linguistics and philosophy. Which are all fancy words for we have a l…
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90) Rethinking The Traditional Supply Chain with Ria Ana Sejpal of LilaBare
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What is the process like to create a regenerative conscious fashion label? What does it mean to create long-term partnerships in a localized supply chain that are beneficial for people? Or to make clothes that are beneficial for the earth? In this episode, Stella interviews the founder of slow fashion brand LilaBare, Ria Ana Sejpal, about building …
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89) Will Return Fees Reduce Overconsumption?
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Fashion's returns are a massive waste and emissions issue. In fact, 23 million returned garments were sent to a landfill or incinerated last year in the UK, and returns caused 750,000 tons of CO2 emissions just in the UK fashion industry alone, according to The Institute of Positive Fashion's report: Solving Fashion's Products Returns. Generous fre…
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#64 - Transform Your Small Business Mindset with the Power of Decluttering
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Send me a Text Message. Ready to conquer that overwhelming clutter and skyrocket your small business productivity? Join me, Saskia de Feijter, as I reveal the secret to unlocking your mental clarity and focus through decluttering your workspace. Say goodbye to the myth that creative chaos fuels inspiration and discover how tidying up can actually b…
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88) What Is Regenerative Fashion? with Safia Minney
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It's time for an urgent shift in fashion. And not just towards a path of doing less bad, but of bringing positive change. Not just less harmful fashion. Not even just more sustainable fashion. But building a regenerative fashion future. Recently I read the book Regenerative Fashion: A Nature Based Approach to Fibres, Livelihoods, and Leadership*, b…
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87) Is It Possible to Overconsume Secondhand Fashion?
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Overconsumption is a major problem in the fashion industry. And secondhand is often advocated for as a solution. But is it possible to overconsume secondhand fashion as well? This is a loaded question that comes with nuance and obviously, lots of opinions... which makes it perfect for a segment for our Green or Greenwashing series — we love to cove…
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#63 - Taking yourself seriously as a business owner, with Cal Patch
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Send me a Text Message. Are you taking yourself seriously as a business owner, do you set boundaries, are you being professional, It’s time to start owning the tasks that come with running your business, to stop feeling icky around business terms and accepting what you need to know about your needs and applying business strategies in order to balan…
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86) Holding The Fashion Industry Accountable with Journalist Sophie Benson
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Fashion industry players — like big brands and their billionaire owners — have to be held accountable for their impact on our environment and on the people involved with making their clothes. Independent journalists can play a crucial role in this accountability, since they can provide a critical outsider's look on what's happening in the industry,…
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Send me a Text Message. As you might have heard in the last episode I did with my friend Zoe Edwards, A Smaller Life is evolving into a podcast that is similar but a bit different. I was always talking to and with crafters and business owners in the field, from now on I will focus more on providing business owners in the needlecraft industry with p…
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85) A People's History of Clothing | Sofi Thanhauser
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When we talk about sustainable and ethical fashion, we often think about the future — at least I do: we ask every guest that comes onto this show what a better future for fashion looks like to them! But I also see immense value in looking to the past. To see where we came from so we understand how we got here and what solutions could actually be ef…
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84) How I Built a Career in Sustainable Fashion
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Want to work in sustainable fashion but not sure how to begin or how to transition from what you do now? Or maybe you work in sustainable fashion now, but you're ready for a bit of a change. In this episode, I'm sharing my sustainable fashion career and entrepreneurial journey and the lessons I learned along the way. FIND JOBS IN SUSTAINABLE FASHIO…
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#61 - “Our podcast evolution: How Zoe and Saskia support their business and listeners + BIG NEWS”
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Send me a Text Message. In this episode, podcast hosts Zoe Edwards of Check Your Thread and myself discuss how we approach our podcasts and how we make it work for our businesses. We talk about how we’ve shifted our focus over time and how our podcasts have evolved along with our businesses. We also discuss advertising and how it may or may not fit…
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83) What Is Circular Fashion Design? | Carmen Gama of EILEEN FISHER
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Fashion has a major waste crisis. Circularity — along with slowing down production — can be an antidote, if done right. But what does real circular fashion look like in practice? What would it look like to have a true systems approach to circular design and circular fashion? Today Stella is interviewing Carmen Gama, the Director of Circular Design …
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#60 - Pilar Letelier of Cabeza de Alfiler - Overcoming the fear of Copy Cats, using the Power of Branding and Peer Support
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Send me a Text Message. On this episode of A Smaller Life, Pilar and Saskia discuss several key aspects of running a creative business. They emphasize the importance of having a clear vision for your business, delegating tasks to others, and finding support from peers. They also address the fear of being copied by competitors and suggest owning you…
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82) Rana Plaza 10 Years Later: What's Changed and What Hasn't? | Ayesha Barenblat of Remake
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Elizabeth speaks with Ayesha Barenblat, CEO of the global advocacy nonprofit organization Remake about the 10th Anniversary of the Rana Plaza Factory Collapse in Bangladesh to discuss what has changed in fashion since — and what has not. They talk about the impact of the Bangladesh Accord on Fire & Building Safety, what's next for the Accord 10 yea…
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#59 - "The Art of Deliberate Choice: Crafting a more Sustainable Wardrobe with a Philosophical Mindset"
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By Saskia de Feijter
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81) How We Can Expand The Sustainable Fashion Conversation | Samata Pattinson, RCGD Global
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How can we make sustainable fashion more culturally and politically relevant? Fashion's environmental and social impact often gets overlooked by the climate movement and by governments, though this is slowly starting to change. Similarly, the conversations around sustainable fashion don't often feel aligned with mainstream media and culture. But th…
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#58 - ‘In Conversation with Kathleen’ Overcoming Obstacles and Finding Success: A Journey of Mindfulness and Crafting
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Send me a Text Message. In this episode we’re flipping things around. Kathleen Kettles, one of the most enthusiastic members of the Ja, Wol community and a podcaster herself is interviewing me. Her podcast ‘In conversation with Kathleen’ is all about how her guests define success. I was invited and I loved the atmosphere of this conversation so muc…
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80) Where Does Fashion Stand On Climate Progress? | Rachel & Erdene of Stand.Earth
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The fashion industry has an outsized carbon footprint. But many fashion brands have been making promising statements about their carbon emissions reduction or carbon neutrality goals. How does the actual progress and supply chain action match up to these goals, though? It can, frankly, be difficult to discern. But in today's episode, we're going to…
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