Cynthia Rowley – Founder of Cynthia Rowley

Episode 66

My guest, Cynthia Rowley, is an award-winning fashion designer, Founder of the Cynthia Rowley apparel brand, and a bestselling author. From surfing wetsuits to fashionable dresses, Cynthia Rowley's apparel brand represents so many parts of who she is. Cynthia started drawing and sewing at an early age, and eventually moved to New York where she started putting on fashion shows. Years later, Cynthia Rowley has gone on to win numerous accolades including a CFDA Award and Designer of the Year at the American Image Awards. On today's show, Cynthia exposes her mentality and thought processes around failures and taking risks. She shares her entrepreneurial journey and the advice that she'd give others who are interested in turning their passion into a business.

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Kara Goldin: Hi everybody, it’s Kara Goldin from Unstoppable, and I’m super, super excited to have our next guest here, Cynthia Rowley. Welcome, welcome, welcome. Very excited. Award-winning designer, began her career in fashion while studying in the Art Institute of Chicago. I’ve been a huge fan of hers for years, and I didn’t know all of these little pieces until I actually got your bio, but it’s really great. After graduation, she took a little seed money and moved to New York City to start her amazing fashion brand that has been around …
I mean it’s truly iconic in so many ways and if you’re out in Montauk this summer, actually if you go into the store, you’ll find some bottles of Hint in there too as Cynthia is a fan. Very, very excited. Whether she’s exploring and she’s still surfing secret spots out there in Montauk and other exotic destinations, also scuba diving, I’m also a scuba diver too, so certainly not in an Arctic glacier. That’s much more badass than I’ve done, but she’s definitely a risk taker. I look at her as an iconic disruptor as well and more than anything, we’re just super, super excited to have her here to talk a little bit about her story and some of the lessons that she’s learned, so welcome.
Cynthia Rowley: Hi.
Kara Goldin: Hello.
Cynthia Rowley: This is so exciting. Thank you so much for having me.
Kara Goldin: Yes, very, very excited. So, can you take us back to the beginning and we heard a little bit about how you got started. You moved to New York and what was kind of the thinking? Did you always sew or draw or what was sort of the little Cynthia?
Cynthia Rowley: Yes to all of that. I grew up … My mom is an artist, my grandparents were artists and I grew up drawing and painting and making things and I started sewing at an early age and one thing led to another. I was in art school, and I was studying painting and then decided maybe there’s another way to enjoy this creative process and maybe have a little bit more of a commercial aspect to it, and my friend was like, “You should be a fashion designer,” and it was so foreign to me, the idea, because I grew up in a small town in Illinois where fashion wasn’t a thing, and then I just quickly sort of pivoted and started designing and making clothes and sewing and drawing and the whole thing and then eventually, just in a very naïve but driven way, came to New York and just started having runway shows and inviting Vogue and Women’s Wear Daily and anybody I could think of and sometimes they came, sometimes they didn’t but eventually, little by little, I started to grow the company and …
It’s changed so much from the early days until now because the industry has changed, and I’ve always been excited about the next thing. I never, ever liked to be nostalgic about things. I don’t like looking back ever. All I think about is what’s next and how we can innovate and how we can do something that maybe has never been done before and that’s always my MO, and it’s kept us, I think, relevant and really different than a lot of other ready to wear brands out there. Like who makes wet suits and pretty dresses? People were like, “I don’t get it.” And I was like, great.
Kara Goldin: I love that. No, that’s-
Cynthia Rowley: I want you to have to think about it.
Kara Goldin: Well, it’s funny. We started making sunscreen a few years ago. I don’t know if you’ve had our sunscreen.
Cynthia Rowley: Oh, I didn’t know about that.
Kara Goldin: And I had skin cancer on my nose and being a redhead and having … I grew up in Arizona and having way too much sun and so I was looking for a sunscreen that … I’d always wore foundation with SPF in it and it just wasn’t enough and so I didn’t like mineral-based products on my face. They just made me itch and often screwed up my foundation and so I started looking at ingredients in sunscreen and then I found one at my dermatologist that I thought was pretty great but it didn’t smell very good and then it also was just a little too white and so I started asking questions about all the different ingredients and anyway, developed it in my kitchen.
It’s called Hint as well but I bring it up because when we launched it, I had phone calls from the beverage companies saying, “Okay, we totally got what you’re doing but then you went off on this path of sunscreens and we were like, wait, what is she doing?” And I was like, “I didn’t develop any of these products for you guys. I developed them to really help the consumer solve a problem.” And same with you, you watch your consumer.
Cynthia Rowley: Yeah, and I think traditionalists would say that it’s a distraction and maybe you’re taking your eye off the ball or whatever but I really think that’s how you can inject a fresh eye into something that’s your core and it might make you think about that in a different way. So I think the more you push yourself to try new things, no matter what it is, in a thoughtful way, we’re not flying off the handle with crazy stuff but I think that’s what keeps you fresh in your core too.
Kara Goldin: I love it. So you mentioned you just had a fashion show. Like how did you know to have a fashion show? I mean that, to me … I mean here’s like a … I’m imagining a scrappy 20-something coming to New York City and-
Cynthia Rowley: In a U-haul with no employees, sewing everything myself.
Kara Goldin: I love it.
Cynthia Rowley: Like everything seemed sort of logical in a way to me. So it was like, okay, well, if I’m going to do this … It was in the vein of like hey, my dad’s got a barn, I’ll make some costumes out of these old tablecloths, let’s put on a show. Like it was enough of that mixed with this like kind of like fantastical dream that I knew nothing, had never experienced, so it was like the scrappiness, which I love that word, scrappy, the scrappiness of “I’ll figure this out. I’ll just do it my own way,” combined with Vogue Magazine is going to come because that’s what I had heard was the ultimate.
Kara Goldin: I love it.
Cynthia Rowley: I think you just … Sometimes naivety is important and can take the fear out of things and then I think just sometimes it’s like Nike says, “Just do it.” I always think what’s the worst that could happen? You fail. So if you fail, you’re learning something. You fail fast, you move on. And I’ve never been afraid to fail and I’ve always been sort of an underdog, which I think in a way … Like I used to think was a real liability but now I think it’s really something that like has propelled and pushed me through some really tough times because I’ve never been like … I mean I have a CFDA award, whatever, other awards, like I’ve been I guess you could say like the darling once in a while but most of the time, 95% of the time, I’m kind of the … A little bit of an outsider in the fashion world and-
Kara Goldin: I love this. I have a book coming out in October that’s called Undaunted and you’re undaunted and you are the epitome of undaunted and so-
Cynthia Rowley: Oh, thank you.
Kara Goldin: I talk about it’s part autobiography, part business, part self-development but I talk about a lot of the same things that you’re talking about that I was never really afraid of failure, and still to this day, I go along on the journey and I take sort of what comes along and if it doesn’t come, I hope that I’m learning something that is actually going to help me or if I fail, it’s going to help me the next time because I’ve gotten smarter about things and I keep bringing those things in. So, Undaunted is … I think like the number one thing that I see when I talk to entrepreneurs is this fear of failure but they also often think that they have to have lots of experience and all the answers and all the credibility and hearing your story, oh, I think I’ll just go have a fashion show and I’ll go invite Vogue and all of these amazing, amazing things …
I mean when I started Hint, I thought it would just be for kicks if I could get my product on the shelf at Whole Foods and I didn’t even bother figuring out that there was a big buying office in Austin and I just took it to my local Whole Foods in San Francisco and I said, “How do I get this on the shelf?” And they thought I was crazy and then long crazy story, but I was pregnant and I think the guy took pity on me because I was pregnant and he was like, “I can’t believe you’re launching a beverage the same time that you’re pregnant,” and I was like, “Yeah, it’s my fourth child and I’m pregnant with my fourth and it’d be really great if you put it on the shelf because you’ll just make my day,” and he did it and then it actually sold.
And then so I sort of reversed what everyone else did and it stood out and I think so many times, that’s the story of the best entrepreneurs in every industry, every [crosstalk 00:11:45]
Cynthia Rowley: That’s almost exactly my-
Kara Goldin: The same? Let’s hear it. Yeah, I want to hear it.
Cynthia Rowley: Well, this is a story I’ve told a lot, so maybe some of your listeners might have heard it but it’s really … I was stopped on the train when I was in school in Chicago by a buyer for this department store there and she asked me about the jacket I was wearing, gave me her card, said be in my office Monday with your collection and it was Friday and of course, I didn’t have a collection but I accepted her appointment and I went to the story, fabric store, sewed all weekend, made five things, went to her office, was showing them one by one and she was like, “Oh, that’s nice. I like that one, little set you made there. What’s the style number on that?” And I was like confidently “one.” And then, “What’s the style number on that?” “Two.”
And then she was like, “Let me guess, three, four and five?” And I was like, “Right.” And anyway, she knew that I had no clue what I was doing and that I had sewn it all myself and then she asked me prices of things and I was like, “What do you think you could sell it for?”
Kara Goldin: Right.
Cynthia Rowley: [inaudible 00:13:03] but I was a student. That was my … I was a student. Anyway, she bought-
Kara Goldin: I love that story though.
Cynthia Rowley: She bought it and that was it but I mean I think the things to think about too are not … You can’t be afraid of hard work and just like the Whole Foods and any of my early days, it was like I never had this grandiose goal of like riding around in limos with supermodels. I just didn’t want to be a bartender anymore and I wanted … Like every little thing, these short-term goals like that like oh, if I could get it on the shelves at Whole Foods or to me, I was like if I could just get one review in Women’s Wear Daily and then you would get it, those are things that were achievable so that little by little, it can push you to keep going whereas it’s easy to feel bad about what’s happening because you’re not reaching some gigantic pie in the sky goal that you set for yourself that could take years, if ever, to achieve. So I think that’s …
But also, being an optimist. Don’t you think that’s an important part of having a business is always being optimistic and thinking well, that’s good that that thing fell apart because if it would’ve worked out, I wouldn’t have been able to do this or whatever. I think that it’s-
Kara Goldin: 100%. Yeah, no and I’m giving away pieces of my book but a few years ago, we got kicked out of Starbucks. We were in 11,000 Starbucks and we were meeting our goals and everything was great and then one day, we got a phone call from the buyer after being in there for 18 months and they told us that we were getting kicked out of Starbucks next week and I said, “Why?” And they said, “Well, this is a directive from Howard Schultz and he wants to put more food in the cases, and so they just don’t have room in the cases.” And so that was a really bad day and I had to go back and tell my board, my investors, like I had all this product in the warehouse and then two days later, I came back in the office and I said to the team, “I’m not going to lie, it’s bad but on the flip side, we have been exposed to potentially everybody in America that goes into Starbucks. They’re everywhere.” Right, 11,000 stores. And so it’s like …
I mean that’s the thing that the optimism over there, that’s really the thing that I was able to see and then two weeks later, the buyer from Amazon called that was starting Amazon Grocery and said, “I buy your product all the time in Starbucks.” And I didn’t know if I should tell him that we were just kicked out of Starbucks. I didn’t bother but I said, “Listen, we’d love to work with you and we have excess inventory in our warehouse if you’re interested in taking it and selling it.” And he did and we very quickly became one of the number one products in grocery.
Cynthia Rowley: Amazing.
Kara Goldin: Yeah, so and then-
Cynthia Rowley: I always think … I mean you did … It is also like don’t you think you have to sort of just trust that … I mean I don’t know if I believe in fate but there is a certain amount of trust in your product and your vision that will guide you, I think, to the next thing.
Kara Goldin: Yeah, and I think also finding the optimism in these opportunities and ultimately, I don’t think the Amazon buyer would have found us if we wouldn’t have been in Starbucks and I also learned another really important lesson which is at that time, Starbucks was almost 40% of our overall business and I had put all my eggs in that basket and it ended-
Cynthia Rowley: Yup.
Kara Goldin: And that was like … And so talk about the lessons that you learn along the way and that one, I say to people all the time, we are … We cannot ever let any piece of our business be more than 20% of our overall business.
Cynthia Rowley: Exactly.
Kara Goldin: Right, and-
Cynthia Rowley: I mean it’s what happened in fashion. If you talk about what’s happened in fashion recently where anyone who was strictly a wholesale model or wholesale with like a tiny bit of DTC, it’s done. It’s over. Everyone of those stores is gone. Even the licensing model. It’s broken. It just doesn’t work because there’s nowhere for these manufacturing licensing partners to sell this stuff unless they sell to a direct-to-consumer business.
Kara Goldin: Yeah, absolutely. So talk about direct-to-consumer. Has that become a big piece of your business?
Cynthia Rowley: It’s like yeah, basically we … At a certain point, I saw we had a lot of licenses. We’ve evolved so much over the years but I had a lot of licenses. I saw that department stores weren’t selling those licensed products or it was just not working anymore. I saw the writing on the wall. So we took away a lot of our … Most of our wholesale business and went into our own econ and our own retail stores. Now, it’s so interesting because now, since mid-March, with all our stores closed and any wholesale accounts that we have continued with close, our econ business is up almost 50% over last year, crazy!
Kara Goldin: I believe it. Yeah.
Cynthia Rowley: But it’s crazy and it’s not what we expected at all and I think that’s part of the thing too is like being able to … Being nimble and being able to steer your business and adapt.

Yeah, and I mean it’s just like listening and being true to yourself. It’s like I think when you have all these filters in place, like buyers for stores or editors, those are … Of course, they can be very helpful but they’re also filters and they’re putting up these barriers between you and your audience. So the more you can be in direct contact with your audience listening to what they want and need and giving them newness directly as opposed to through some other third party, I think it just creates a much stronger bond and a much smarter and better product and it’s different than Hint or whatever in that it’s … I mean the same in a way because there’s an emotional connection but different in that we have to keep reinventing the wheel, which I … All the time when I read stories about entrepreneurs like you, I’m like damn, why didn’t I think of that. It’d be so much easier. I’m always like, bring another … We’ve got to do another collection, another collection. It’s just like-
Kara Goldin: I know.
Cynthia Rowley: It’s a lot but that’s what is also really fun and exciting and working with a great team and everything.
Kara Goldin: No, no, no, I love it. Well, it’s interesting because when we … In mid-March, when … We’re an essential product, so we were in lots of grocery stores across the country but we were out of stock and we go through distributors in order … And so we didn’t … So, it wasn’t just the retailer having control of our product but it actually wasn’t making it out of the warehouse from a lot of these distributors-
Cynthia Rowley: Right, right, right.
Kara Goldin: So, we actually made a very, very aggressive, ballsy move by going into the stores and saying can we just send truck loads into your stores and just go direct and do this, into Targets, into … Imagine as a founder and CEO, you go into three … I’ll never forget March, the night of March 13th, Friday the 13th-
Cynthia Rowley: Yeah, that was … Yup.
Kara Goldin: And we went in … I went in when I … I flew back from New York to San Francisco and I went into three Target stores and we were out of stock. We have 16 feet of space in Target, gone. There’s none. I’m in there at like 10 o’clock at night going what’s going on? And so that weekend, we really acted fast and we reached out to all of our buyers and we said, “Look, we’ll figure out the invoicing later, can we just get it in there?” And they didn’t know what was happening either. The electronic ordering that was coming off of the register just wasn’t happening and so we actually gained space in so many stores because people said these guys are on it and then in addition to that, we have over a million consumers in our database.
Our direct-to-consumer business is now over 50% of our overall business and so we immediately, on Monday morning, that 16th, we wrote to all of our consumers and we said, “Look, we’re consumers too. We see what’s going on in the grocery stores. It’s really hard right now for everybody but just to let you know, we have plenty of stock. Don’t hoard. If you want to order, we’re here.” And we had some crazy response. It was like 60% of our consumers ordered right then, like off of that email. Like we spoke to them in a way that we said, “Look, it’s happening, we’re all watching it but … And please visit your stores and support your local stores but just so you know, we’re here and we’ve got plenty of stock.”
And it was … And we’ve continued that message through this crazy time and our promise has always been that we have everything here and sometimes we do special collections. We call them smash ups and so consumers keep coming back for those special things that we just try. So anyway, it’s been … It’s really been an interesting time and that business has just gone crazy but then the rest … In the midst of it, we had just gone into a few other retailers including Walmart and including Aldi and then Costco called us the end of March and said, “Can we put you guys in nationwide because you do everything in the US?” Which has become a whole other-
Cynthia Rowley: Oh my god.
Kara Goldin: Because a lot of people do things in Europe or … And especially in your industry and I know sourcing has become like a whole question. You guys do most of your stuff in the US, right?
Cynthia Rowley: No.
Kara Goldin: You do outside of the US? Has that been challenging?
Cynthia Rowley: Yes.
Kara Goldin: Yeah?
Cynthia Rowley: No, what’s interesting, I mean our supply chain stayed intact but I think we were lucky because most of it is … About 80% is China, maybe a little bit more or … China, Taiwan, a little bit Singapore, a little bit Japan, that sourcing, that part of the country sort of came out of COVID a little bit before we [inaudible 00:27:00], so it all … A lot of our domestic factories were closed. We moved a lot domestically when China was closed and then we were able to switch back when the US factories closed and China was open. So we-
Kara Goldin: That’s great, that’s-
Cynthia Rowley: Just being able to switch around and stay nimble like that-
Kara Goldin: That’s-
Cynthia Rowley: And hustle. It’s the same thing, like get trucks, go right to Target, go right to … It’s like you just, you’ve got to figure out a way.
Kara Goldin: Yeah.
Cynthia Rowley: Sometimes, don’t you think that’s fun though?
Kara Goldin: I do.
Cynthia Rowley: I tell my team sometimes, I’m like it’s really fun to have an idea but if you can figure out how to make that idea a reality, that’s even double the fun because you’re figuring it out. You’re solving a problem. You’re creating something that didn’t exist and it’s great to have an idea but if you can’t make it a reality than-
Kara Goldin: Well, I think it’s also you’re a great example of a founder who’s still around though too, that has done every job in the company, right? And so-
Cynthia Rowley: Oh yeah.
Kara Goldin: Right? I mean you certainly hire people who can help and maybe are better than you at certain tasks or whatever but you have an idea of what’s going on in every single role in the company which is really great and I think great to work for somebody like that, so that’s amazing.
Cynthia Rowley: And I work hard. Like I … This whole thing, I mean everything that’s happened since March has been … It’s been challenging for me because I was the one that never took a summer Friday, always worked all the way through the week all summer long, had a 48-hour maternity leave. I was never … I just work, work, work, work, work and now I’m seeing that I can still do that but in a way that maybe has a little bit more balance. So, that’s been interesting, I think. But I do think like they say, the fish rots from the head. You’ve got to set a good example. You’ve got to work hard. If you’re not working hard, why should anybody else.
Kara Goldin: No, it’s absolutely true. So one thing that I feel your brand really represents well is women’s empowerment and so was that intentional? I mean do you feel like … I mean certainly this brand is a lot of you, right? I mean you’re still here and loving, obviously, you’re smiling and loving what you’re doing but can you tell us like how those two things sort of came together? I mean was it pretty organic how you-
Cynthia Rowley: That’s what I was going to say. It’s been totally organic and I think it’s just like that’s the only way to have real authenticity in the company is that … Or in a brand is if you’re living that life. Not just me but my team, it’s just easy to tell that kind of a story because I think that we’re mostly women in the company, even though there’s a lot of guys and some have been with me for more than 20 years and I think that it’s just … I always … Sometimes, things like titles, things like a Harvard MBA or something, it’s not as meaningful to me as someone who’s really smart, who really understands the brand, who really is passionate and hard working and enthusiastic, like that’s who I want to give the responsibility to and the tools to grow and that feeling of empowerment. That’s what I look for.
Kara Goldin: That’s awesome and so you have one daughter or you have …
Cynthia Rowley: I have two daughters.
Kara Goldin: You have two daughters?
Cynthia Rowley: Yeah.
Kara Goldin: And are they working in the business?
Cynthia Rowley: I wish I had four more but I have my daughter, Kit, is in … She’s at NYU and she’s in her last year at NYU but she dabbles in some fashion stuff. We’ll see what she ends up doing. And then my daughter, Gigi, is a freshman in high school.
Kara Goldin: Oh, that’s great. That’s awesome.
Cynthia Rowley: But they’re-
Kara Goldin: Are they interested in … You said Kit possibly but it’s-
Cynthia Rowley: Possibly. I mean who knows. I would say probably … Kit maybe peripherally or in some other form of fashion, style. My husband is an art dealer, so he has a gallery. So I think it could be that or some combination of that, which she’s kind of doing now, art and fashion, and Gigi, I’m not sure. It’s a little early. They’re both really good surfers and-
Kara Goldin: I love-
Cynthia Rowley: Kind of crazy, will do anything that … Sometimes when I’m like, “Guys, okay, we’re going to go camping in the Himalayas.” They would never say, “No, I can’t do …” They’ll always go for it, which for me, that’s like a foundation for life, that they’re always willing to kind of at least try-
Kara Goldin: I love it.
Cynthia Rowley: Something new.
Kara Goldin: I love it. You and I are like the soul sisters. It sounds like you have to travel and do these crazy experiences. I’m in the same boat.
Cynthia Rowley: Yeah. I mean if that’s what you can impart to your kids, like that sense of like I want to see the world, everyone’s different, I want to accept the world and all it has to offer and learn about that, I mean I think that’s a great thing to give to your kids and then let them be who they are.
Kara Goldin: Yeah, and totally, and find their passion and yeah, I love it. I love hearing this. So what advice would you give to someone who wants to follow in your footsteps? The new designer who’s trying to figure out or maybe not even clothing designer but somebody who’s sort of looking at fashion as something that they want to do?
Cynthia Rowley: I mean I think that there’s … Advice? I think that there’s … I think don’t think about anything that anyone’s ever done in the past. There’re no rules. There’s nothing that’s been done in the past that should be repeated in the future is how I feel. I think that in a way, fashion is really a old-fashioned, antiquated notion of an industry, of a business and the only way to really disrupt and make an impact is to do something your own way. Do what you feel. Just be authentic. Be yourself and also it’s really easy in a way. Like now, you can do whatever you want. You can do whatever you want. You can make whatever … It’s easy to figure things out, put things out there. Talk to your audience. I mean I think the most important thing is to just try it. Just go for it.
Kara Goldin: Yeah. No, I agree in so many ways. I mean technology has brought a lot of good to industries in terms of being able to give people access to be able to talk to the customer, right?
Cynthia Rowley: Yeah.
Kara Goldin: And it’s not just about a relationship with a major … With a Bloomingdale’s. I mean that’s great but I think-
Cynthia Rowley: [inaudible 00:36:02]
Kara Goldin: Right? It’s-
Cynthia Rowley: I mean I have so many stories, I can’t even … That’s what I’m saying, like don’t do anything that’s ever been done before. Just don’t do it like that.
Kara Goldin: What’s your craziest story that you were just … What were you just thinking about?
Cynthia Rowley: Well, you can name anything that … Any reference in the industry, and I probably have a story about it with-
Kara Goldin: When did you really feel like you had failed in some way? Like do you remember early on where it just really hurt? Was there an account that actually said, sorry, we’re not interested or-
Cynthia Rowley: Oh yeah, everybody. Everybody told me no. Everyone said no, no, no, no, no. We can’t. We don’t want it. We don’t this. We don’t that. Everything was no and that’s why now, I think conversely, when people ask me to do things, I went through a phase where I was saying yes to everything because people had told me no for so long. So then I was completely overwhelmed and spinning my wheels on things that maybe didn’t matter that much but I was so grateful that people were interested and cared that I didn’t want to say … I would never say no. Oh my god, like I’m so flattered, I’m so grateful and gratitude is important to have but also being able to put things in perspective about what is important for the company and what should be prioritized and all that, but everybody told me no. Like there was no … Yeah.
Kara Goldin: And how do you just keep going then? Do you remember the yeses or do you remember … Or do you like just want to get to a yes in order to kind of steamroll all the nos that you’re hearing? I mean that’s how I felt, like somebody’s got to say yes at some point.
Cynthia Rowley: Yeah, I mean I never felt like oh, I’ll show them. I never had that attitude. I was always like happy for like the littlest, tiniest little positive reinforcement or positive movement in something. I think sometimes it’s just a kind word that really can keep you going or sometimes-
Kara Goldin: I love that.
Cynthia Rowley: From hearing someone say, “This is my favorite thing I’ve ever owned,” things like that, it makes me so happy. Even in the beginning, I remember seeing a girl, like it was the first season I was ever in New York City and I saw a girl walking down the street, like a stranger, someone I wasn’t even related to or friends with, wearing my clothes and I was just like, oh my god, there’s someone wearing it out in the world and little things like that were really-
Kara Goldin: I know exactly what … I know what you mean. I was out in Point Reyes last weekend, which isn’t far from my house. It’s a tiny little town in Marin County and we were driving by and there was a guy just sitting on a bench drinking a Hint. I mean and it … I don’t even know what stores all sell our product and many of them were still closed and I thought … And I just smiled like … I waved at him and he probably thought why is that woman waving at me but I’m sure it’s the same thing. I mean it just is … That relationship with the customer that is just-
Cynthia Rowley: [inaudible 00:40:20]
Kara Goldin: It’s super special. So I ask two questions, two final questions. One, what’s your favorite Hint flavor? I’m drinking my cherry at the moment.
Cynthia Rowley: I like cherry. I like watermelon.
Kara Goldin: I like the watermelon a lot too. It’s so good. And you’ve answered a lot of this but what makes you unstoppable?
Cynthia Rowley: Oh my goodness. I know, I was thinking about this.I think curiosity.
Kara Goldin: It’s so interesting that you say … Yeah, I was going to say the same thing about you because I do, I think you’re just … You’re very curious and then you just go try.
Cynthia Rowley: And do it, yeah. Curiosity, I think having a vision that is achievable with being able … I do think being able to sort of organize things in a very linear way makes it easy to get from A to B.
Kara Goldin: I love it. I love it.
Cynthia Rowley: So, yeah, I think that … It’s easy when you start to scale and you start to get like, “oh, this is important, this is important, this is …” and you get sort of like crazy. You can get crazy trying to keep all those balls in the air and keep it all growing and growing and growing and I think sometimes you almost have to just like pare it down to … Organize it in a way that is more linear and I don’t know, so when I think about business stuff, I always think of a visual. I think visually about-
Kara Goldin: I can see that in you. So you are a visual person but I think that that’s … Yeah, that’s terrific. I love it. I love it. So where do people find you on social? I mean cynthiarowley.com obviously for your website and-
Cynthia Rowley: Yes, [crosstalk 00:43:21] Insta. Our podcast is called Ageless. It’s on Spotify and all those places.
Kara Goldin: I love it.
Cynthia Rowley: And what else? I just started on TikTok but we’re just starting. I don’t know.
Kara Goldin: I’ve got to check that out, definitely.
Cynthia Rowley: Well, I don’t know. Don’t check yet, but there’s a couple things.
Kara Goldin: I love it.
Cynthia Rowley: Yeah, I don’t know, I think Insta and our site is pretty …
Kara Goldin: I love it. Well, thank you so much. You are such an inspiration-
Cynthia Rowley: Thank you.
Kara Goldin: And definitely go out to the store in Montauk if you guys are out there this summer and very, very exciting. Well, thank you and have a great rest of the week, weekend and everybody the same. So super fun.
Cynthia Rowley: Hopefully catch some waves and have a delicious watermelon Hint afterwards.
Kara Goldin: I love it. I love it. Thanks so much everybody. Bye-bye.
Cynthia Rowley: Thank you.