I recently received a DM from a FEST founder name Allyna with a big question: how to start a sustainable fashion brand off right? Well, yes, of course there was more to it than that. Like many people who listen to the Spirit of 608 podcast, she wondered about finding suppliers, getting samples, setting herself up to seek future investment and sourcing deadstock fabric for the line. To be honest with you, when I first saw her question, I thought, I'm a media expert, not a fashion brand founder. Do I even have a right to give advice on this? Not sure if you've noticed, but I typically stick to advice on media and mindset and bring fashion business advice into the show by asking a lot of other people a lot of questions. But as I thought about it, it dawned on me: I may not be a fashion designer or a founder of a fashion brand, but I have talked to thousands of entrepreneurs about building businesses, fashion brand strategy, sustainability, entrepreneurial ups and downs and so much more. And I've been doing it for close to 15 years. My self-minimizing thoughts hit me in the face right then and there. I had to admit, yes, I have a ton of things I can tell an early stage founder about approaching her dream to build a sustainable fashion brand that empowers women.

But because I fiercely reserve my one-on-one time for Spirit of 608 partners and clients, I dove into creating a podcast episode answering Allyna's question so I could share it not only with her, but with all of you who have the same questions. In fact, people have been asking me these questions for years. So many thanks to Allyna for being the reason I finally decided to answer.

Listen for 6 steps every founder needs to know to start a responsible fashion brand responsibly.

Want the free guide mentioned in the show? Oh yes! It includes all the resources mentioned on the show and a few bonuses, and it's right here:

Hear more on this week's solo episode of the Spirit of 608 podcast.

Ask Spirit of 608 a question

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DM Spirit of 608 on Instagram

Resource of the Week: The Master of Love: A Practical Guide to the Art of Relationship by Don Miguel Ruiz

The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom

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Taking huge leaps in your business can be all about the baby steps. For proof of that, dive into this week's episode of the Spirit of 608 podcast featuring a FEST-ive female founder who started out small and now counts a decade+ as a San Francisco retailer, her line of hand-assembled jewelry in hundreds of locations around the country and a thriving private label business.

Listen for a jewelry industry insider's journey from the early days of the maker movement to tackling 17 trade shows a year, finding success by streamlining, writing a book and snagging speaking spots at top conferences such as Alt. Learn how she did it on the show.

Meet this week's guest, Adrienne Wiley, Founder of Covet.

Use the code SPIRIT for 20% off your purchase at COVET.

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Linkage:

San Francisco Chronicle

Fred Segal

The Ritz-Carlton

Adventures in Wholesale by Adrienne Wiley

Covet

Frolick Jewelry

Over App

IBISS Boutique

Instagram: @coveted_frolick

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Ask Spirit of 608 a question

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Look ahead, how will the state of the world change fashion -- and the business of fashion -- forever? If you're like me, thinking about what's next can be inspiring and motivating. For businesses, the changes up ahead in consumer behavior, spending preferences and what's considered valuable in the first place are inevitable. But what will they be?

This week's guest, who went from high fashion modeling to studying fashion's ties to culture in some of the best fashion-driven academic institutions there are, has spent years studying the ways people relate to luxury. When the economic crisis of 2008 changed lives around the world, a cultural shift towards internalized luxury soon followed, she argues. Green smoothies and juice cleanses anyone? How about super popular celeb-backed online brands tied to clean living strategies? You get the point. As we emerge from the global pandemic, luxury will shift again. Hear where she's convinced it's going and how that related to sustainability on this week's episode of the Spirit of 608 podcast.

Listen for a fashion industry insider's journey to academic success in the field, as well as predictions for the future of consumer behavior (hint: sustainability is going to play a major role). Along with that, an added bonus at the end of this episode is our guest's 3-part Market Analysis training. She'll walk you through why every FEST brand needs a proper market analysis and how to do it in three easy steps you can start this week.

Meet this week's guest, Global Luxury Brand Strategist Sara Emilia Bernát.

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HOW TO LISTEN:

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Linkage:

LinkedIn: Sara Emilia Bernat

How Luxury Transformed From Opulence to Populace And What It Means For Brands

Budapest Central European Fashion Week

Chanel

Dataporte

The Business of Fashion

The Fashion Law

Find more episodes featuring women at the forefront of FEST online at www.Spiritof608.com.

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Welcome to the second show in the Spirit of 608 sharing + support series. For this episode, we asked FEST brands and businesses to submit messages, news, promos and deals so we could help share and support what they're working on at a time when, more than ever, small businesses need support and those of us seeking to stay visible and market during the mayhem need inspiration.

Listen to the podcast for proof it's possible to keep moving forward as a small business right now. Let the ideas and messages from other FEST founders inspire you to take action, connect with your customers and stay motivated. We hope that hearing how are others are dealing right now will help you pick up a few fresh ideas -- and at the same time find a business you want to support or a deal you want to take advantage of (I know I found several).

There are surprisingly creative approaches, as well as tried-and-true marketing tactics. You'll learn that not everything costs as much as you thought it might thanks to some recently-announced promotions from brands that sell FEST products and services. At at the same time, you'll also discover that it's not always necessary to offer a discount or a deal. There are other ways to generate interest and connection and other ways to inspire people to purchase. There are examples of each in the show, as well as a number of uplifting messages from other founders who know exactly what it's like to be where you are right now.

We'll also be sharing the deals and offers on Instagram this week and next. Visit us there for more -- and visuals to go with the brands' messages on the show.

Sign up for the PressDope weekly email to get DIY PR tips and The Dope List of media opps, calls for pitches, FEST events and more ways to raise your visibility.

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HOW TO LISTEN:

Listen online: Just press play above or subscribe via RSS to receive all new episodes.

iOS, iPhone, iPad: Subscribe via iTunes or download the Apple Podcast app and subscribe by searching for Spirit of 608 in the app.

Android: Download the free Stitcher app and search for Spirit of 608 in the app.

Linkage:

PressDope by Spirit of 608

Instagram: @spiritof608

Facebook: Spirit of 608

Facebook Group: Join here.

Twitter: @spiritof608

FlyDog Yoga

Spirit of 608 FEST Business Support + Sharing

FEST Businesses and Brands

Part one: listen to EP 214 here.

SENSE of SHELF

RISE Creative Co.

milo+nicki

VENIM

Jessica Redditt Design

Malia Designs

Pure Colour Baby

SixChel

M. PATMOS

The Fashion Business Coach

THIRD LAW

Purse & Clutch

Vivid Element

Opaline Hue

LIYA Collective

Green Story

Part two:

Earth Warrior:

Use the promo code bethechange at checkout to get 15% off your Earth Warrior purchase.

Earth Rewards

Vedalia Living Inc.

Ponch

Filbert

Goshopia

Be Kind Vibes

Recreative Apparel

Hive80

Thicket

Conservationista

glōu

Limnia

Find more episodes featuring women at the forefront of FEST online at www.Spiritof608.com.

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Mindset and meditation: again and again, guests of the Spirit of 608 podcast say these two things have made huge differences in their lives and ability to persist as entrepreneurs even through the ultra challenging times we all face.

Inspired by guests who told me how meditation benefitted their minds and bodies, helped them recover from anxiety and stay focused on their goals, I began to experiment with my own meditation practice. More recently, during work towards 300-hour yoga teacher training, I've begun creating my own guided meditations. This week's episode of the Spirit of 608 podcast features a guided meditation created especially for female entrepreneurs. The goal: using the mediation to reconnect with and bring to the surface the positive feelings and inner strength inside you and take them with you.

Listen to the episode to surface the calm confidence, joy and resilience that exists inside you and bring it with you as you move through what's ahead in your day.

Sign up for the PressDope weekly email to get DIY PR tips and The Dope List of media opps, calls for pitches, FEST events and more ways to raise your visibility.

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This stuff is key to the show's success, and I appreciate you helping me play the game. <3 <3 <3

HOW TO LISTEN:

Listen online: Just press play above or subscribe via RSS to receive all new episodes.

iOS, iPhone, iPad: Subscribe via iTunes or download the Apple Podcast app and subscribe by searching for Spirit of 608 in the app.

Android: Download the free Stitcher app and search for Spirit of 608 in the app.

Linkage:

PressDope by Spirit of 608

Instagram: @spiritof608

Facebook: Spirit of 608

Facebook Group: Join here.

Twitter: @spiritof608

FlyDog Yoga

Spirit of 608 FEST Business Support + Sharing

So608 Ep 14: How to Market Through the Mayhem: FEST Deals, Promos + Marketing Inspiration You Can Use Right Now

Find more episodes featuring women at the forefront of FEST online at www.Spiritof608.com.

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I love bringing smart, cool and accomplished media people on the Spirit of 608 podcast every once in a while to let us into their world and bring insight into what the people creating coverage and content think about the FEST space (if you've listened to the show for a while, you know this). For this week's episode, I was *so thrilled* to bring a conversation with a longtime journalist and expert in the West Coast's style scene to your ears.

But wait, there's more! The woman you'll hear from today not only lets us into her perspective on independent and ethical fashion right now and, of course, how to pitch someone like her in order to land yourself in publications like Forbes, but she also walks us through why she's moved away from editing well-known sites like Eat, Sleep, Denim to launch her own publication and podcast. And it's not just any media outlet, but one that there is a dire need for: one for women facing 50 without a hint of an interest in doing what society kinda-sorta tells women of a certain age to do these days, i.e. stay quiet and slowly disappear.

Listen to the episode for Kristen's story, insights into connecting with contributors to publications like Forbes and how she's bringing women's voices and lifestyle content for 50-ish-and-still-all-kinds-of-alive ladies to readers and listeners without many alternatives.

Meet this week's guest, Kristen Philipkoski, founder of Mean Magazine.

Sign up for the PressDope weekly email to get DIY PR tips and The Dope List of media opps, calls for pitches, FEST events and more ways to raise your visibility.

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HOW TO LISTEN:

Listen online: Just press play above or subscribe via RSS to receive all new episodes.

iOS, iPhone, iPad: Subscribe via iTunes or download the Apple Podcast app and subscribe by searching for Spirit of 608 in the app.

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Linkage:

Mean Magazine

Facebook: @meanmagazine

Instagram: @meanmag

Parenting Magazine

Travelocity

Kamperett

30+ Fashion Brands Pivoting To Make Stylist Coronavirus Masks

Fiona Apple's Art of Radical Sensitivity

The Mean Podcast

Descript

WIRED

Find more episodes featuring women at the forefront of FEST online at www.Spiritof608.com.

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For inspiration and real talk on how to retail in uncertain times, plus inspiring and uplifting yet totally practical and accessible tips for not only hanging in there, but also upping your marketing and outreach game in the midst of a global pandemic, please look no further than this week's conversation with ethical fashion pioneer and longtime supporter of independent brands Marcia Patmos.

From her first brand Lutz + Patmos (whose cashmere pieces were a serious thing in their day) to her namesake business of today, Marcia has woven slow fashion values, care for workers and ethical sensibilities into her own collection, but also into the relationships she builds -- something that's apparent when you scope the brands sold in her online shop and in her Brooklyn store.

Listen to the episode for the techie things this FEST founder has added into the mix since COVID-19 changed her business, as well as her brand's rapid pivot into making face masks for the general population. Lots of fashion brands are doing it, but here's the real story from a down to earth founder who is doing it right now and working with a US-based manufacturer to make it happen.

Meet this week's guest, designer Marcia Patmos.

Sign up for the PressDope weekly email to get DIY PR tips and The Dope List of media opps, calls for pitches, FEST events and more ways to raise your visibility.

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This stuff is key to the show's success, and I appreciate you helping me play the game. <3 <3 <3

HOW TO LISTEN:

Listen online: Just press play above or subscribe via RSS to receive all new episodes.

iOS, iPhone, iPad: Subscribe via iTunes or download the Apple Podcast app and subscribe by searching for Spirit of 608 in the app.

Android: Download the free Stitcher app and search for Spirit of 608 in the app.

Linkage:

Marcia Patmos

Facebook: @mpatmos

Instagram: @mpatmos

Pinterest: @marciapatmos

Social Distancing Masks by M. Patmos

Sundays

Dress for Success

The Laundress

Clientbook

Shopify

Shopify's Social Impact Business Community

Asana

Dropbox

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This week, we're bringing back one of our most popular episodes of all time with one of the ethical fashion movement's best-loved pioneers. Her thoughts on working from and her frankness about building a business during life's challenges are especially relevant right now, as is her participation in face mask-making efforts in her home state of New York.

Originally shared in the fall of 2018, this conversation reveals how she made comfortable women's apparel not only stylish and sought after, but also mainstream - you'll find her multi-million dollar company's clothing in department stores around the country and in some 56 shops in the U.S., Canada and the UK. That's quite a journey from her start in the 1980's, when she invested a few hundred bucks to present her first collection and immediately won attention with her clean-lined, easy-to-wear designs. Today, this pioneering female founder heads up a company that's not only become a certified B Corp, used non-traditional models in its ads and incorporated organic cotton, but has also implemented numerous social initiatives and programs and vowed to use only eco-positive textiles by the year 2020.

Meet this week's guest, Eileen Fisher, Founder of Eileen Fisher.

Sign up for the PressDope weekly email to get DIY PR tips and The Dope List of media opps, calls for pitches, FEST events and more ways to raise your visibility.

<3 <3 <3 Oh hey there! Please help the podcast out and leave us a rating and review on iTunes.

This stuff is key to the show's success, and I appreciate you helping me play the game. <3 <3 <3

HOW TO LISTEN:

Listen online: Just press play above or subscribe via RSS to receive all new episodes.

iOS, iPhone, iPad: Subscribe via iTunes or download the Apple Podcast app and subscribe by searching for Spirit of 608 in the app.

Android: Download the free Stitcher app and search for Spirit of 608 in the app.

Linkage:

Eileen Fisher

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EILEENFISHERNY

Instagram: @eileenfisherny

Twitter: @eileenfisherny

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.ph/eileenfisherny/

Inside Eileen Fisher's employee stock plan Eileen Fisher: 'When Was Fashion Week?'

Eileen Fisher Company

Textile Exchange

We The Change: Women Together

New York Fashion Icons Embrace Cuomo's Coronavirus Mask Challenge

Eileen Fisher Making Masks and Other PPE in Irvington

Eileen Fisher Comfortable Basics

Find more episodes featuring women at the forefront of FEST online at www.Spiritof608.com.

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We asked FEST brands and businesses to send messages, news, promos and deals our way so we could help share and support what they're working on as, well, everything around us all shifts and changes. For listeners, the gems in this week's episode are twofold. First, you're likely to find a business you want to support or a deal you want to take advantage of (I know I found several). Second, the show is an excellent overview of how ethical and sustainable brands are responding to the need for continued marketing and connection with their audiences amid COVID-19.

There are surprisingly creative approaches, as well as tried-and-true marketing tactics. You'll learn that not everything costs as much as you thought it might thanks to some recently-announced promotions from brands that sell FEST products and services. At at the same time, you'll also discover that it's not always necessary to offer a discount or a deal. There are other ways to generate interest and connection and other ways to inspire people to purchase. There are examples of each in the show, as well as a number of uplifting messages from other founders who know exactly what it's like to be where you are right now.

We'll also be sharing the deals and offers on Instagram this week and next. Visit us there for more -- and visuals to go with the brands' messages on the show. If you'd like to submit a deal or message, you can still do so here.

Sign up for the PressDope weekly email to get DIY PR tips and The Dope List of media opps, calls for pitches, FEST events and more ways to raise your visibility.

<3 <3 <3 Oh hey there! Please help the podcast out and leave us a rating and review on iTunes.

This stuff is key to the show's success, and I appreciate you helping me play the game. <3 <3 <3

HOW TO LISTEN:

Listen online: Just press play above or subscribe via RSS to receive all new episodes.

iOS, iPhone, iPad: Subscribe via iTunes or download the Apple Podcast app and subscribe by searching for Spirit of 608 in the app.

Android: Download the free Stitcher app and search for Spirit of 608 in the app.

Linkage:

PressDope by Spirit of 608

Instagram: @spiritof608

Facebook: Spirit of 608

Facebook Group: Join here.

Twitter: @spiritof608

Previous Spirit of 608 podcast episodes mentioned on the show this week:

So608 Ep 141: All About Ethical Fashion Branding With Marisa Flacks Of RISE Creative Co.

So608 Ep 163: Sourcing Plant-Based Textiles From Overseas + Building A '19 PR Strategy With Nicki Patel Of Ethical Fashion Brand Milo + Nicki

So608 Ep 171: How SixChel's Dina Chavez Landed A Print Feature Story Read By 3.6M+

FEST brands and businesses

Sense of Shelf

RISE

milo + nicki

VENIM

Jessica Redditt

Malia Designs

Pure Colour Baby

Sixchel

M. Patmos

The Fashion Business Coach

Third Law

Purse & Clutch

Vivid Element

Opaline Hue

LIYA Collective

Green Story

Earth Warrior Lifestyle

Find more episodes featuring women at the forefront of FEST online at www.Spiritof608.com.

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What happens when you interview a top model-turned-fashion technologist who's lived through the COVID-19 outbreak from her outpost in Beijing? Well, this conversation is what happens. If I have a hunch, and I do, you're going to be both entertained and inspired by what this week's guest has to say about the world right now -- as well as her journey into a career turning technology into fashionable wearables and her current love for virtual events.

Hailing from a computer-savvy family that prized playing with technology from a young age, this week's guest has worked with Nokia, Samsung, Intel, IBM and many more to apply the latest technologies to the fashion industry. As executive producer of some of the largest fashion tech event organizers in China -- including the China National Garment Association -- this female founder lives to combine fashion, industry, startups and the connected future of fashion with results that are eye-catching and conversation-worthy.

Adding to the conversation is this: last year, she became obsessed with virtual communication tools long before many cities in countries all over the world ended up on lockdown due to the global COVID-19 outbreak, one that's led many events and companies hosting events to migrate online. During the show, she dives into what led her to embrace virtual meeting and conference tools before they became a global necessity, as well as what she's doing with them now to advance the future of fashion and technology -- starting with this week's Digital Fashion Summit.

Meet this week's guest, Anina Net, founder of 360Fashion Network.

Sign up for the PressDope weekly email to get DIY PR tips and The Dope List of media opps, calls for pitches, FEST events and more ways to raise your visibility.

<3 <3 <3 Oh hey there! Please help the podcast out and leave us a rating and review on iTunes.

This stuff is key to the show's success, and I appreciate you helping me play the game. <3 <3 <3

HOW TO LISTEN:

Listen online: Just press play above or subscribe via RSS to receive all new episodes.

iOS, iPhone, iPad: Subscribe via iTunes or download the Apple Podcast app and subscribe by searching for Spirit of 608 in the app.

Android: Download the free Stitcher app and search for Spirit of 608 in the app.

Linkage:

You can attend the Digital Fashion Summit by signing up here.

360Fashion Network

Anina Net

Facebook: 360Fashion

Twitter: @360fashion

Twitter: @aninanet

Instagram: @aninanet

YouTube: @360fashionTV

LinkedIn: @360fashion.net

LinkedIn: @anina

Weibo: @aninanet

Anina Dress Up

Vodafone

Nokia Corporation

Stylumia

MeetFox

Eyes On

Skype

Zoom

THIS EPISODE BROUGHT TO YOU BY NEWS FROM THE FESTFRONT -- A HUGE THANK YOU TO OUR SUPPORTER ANACT

ANACT: Is this the perfect sustainable bath towel?

Save 20% off your ANACT order with ANACT608 at checkout through Earth Day 2020.

Find more episodes featuring women at the forefront of FEST online at www.Spiritof608.com.

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