Karla Gallardo 0:00 

Think big, think huge, think so big that you're so scared and paralyzed because your idea is so big and exciting. So start there, right? But in order, once you to start executing what's the most simple form of that idea, so that you can get started, because you're going to learn so much along the way. You

David Novak 0:26 

we all have big ideas and big dreams, but nobody really tells you where to start until now. Welcome to how leaders lead. I'm David Novak, and every week I have conversations with the very best leaders in the world to help you become the best leader that you can be. My guest today is Carla Gallardo, the co founder and CEO of Cuyana, which sells premium essential goods for women inspired by her upbringing in Ecuador, Carla co founded Cuyana on the principle of selling fewer better things. 13 years later, her brand is big time on the map, and she's got celebrities like Meghan Markle and Jessica Alba loving her products. But like any big dream, Carla had to start somewhere small, and that ability she has to take action, learn and then iterate, is a big reason why Cuyana has been so successful, you're about to get some big time motivation to turn your ideas into reality, and you're gonna realize it's easier than you think. So here's my conversation with my good friend and soon to be yours. Carla Gallardo,

Carla, it's great to have you on the show. So nice to be here. David, thank you. We're recording this stepping right into the Christmas season. Just how important is this time of year for you? It's, you know, it's, it really is. It is important.

Karla Gallardo 1:57 

And, yeah, we're on our toes just refreshing our dashboards every minute

Speaker 1 2:03 

you'd be like, what percent of your business would be in December? December would be about 15% of the business. So surprisingly, it's we have a seasonal business, but it's not as seasonal as traditional retail seasonality. So I got to ask you, you know, do you have anything that you've asked Santa to bring you,

David Novak 2:24 

time with the family. That's what we all want. That's the only thing I want. I can tell you that for sure. You know, I know you're obviously in the clothing business, but I'm curious, you know, what's the one piece of clothing that you'd never, ever give up that's in your closet today. Oof, that one's a, actually, I know which one. It's a. It's a winter coat that I've had since I was 22

Karla Gallardo 2:49 

and it's a high quality coat that I saved up for, that I bought when I got my first job at Goldman. And it's, you know, what was like, the first expensive product I bought myself, and I made sure that the quality was one that was gonna make it last. And it's just symbolic to me being able to afford it, but it also represents a good choice, because I can still wear it, fantastic. And you were one of the first brands to plant your flag on on this idea of a sustainable closet. Yeah. What do you mean by that?

Sustainability is a word that I think has been really inflated. You know, it's someone has someone has lost its meaning. But I'll tell you what it means to Cuyana

sustainability. Our goal with with being a sustainable brand is to make the least impact in landfill. So you know that takes you back all the way to the number one place we can influence the most is on how our customer makes choices and helping our customer purchase better, right? Purchase products that she can wear every day and that she doesn't have to replenish or refresh too often, and that's because the quality is high, the style is timeless, and it starts there, because the customer actually helps shape everything else that happens in the retail industry. Right? The demand that a customer has shapes how much product is made. It also shapes how product is made. If customers learn about quality and demand quality, brands will make and demand quality. And so with Cuyana, of course, we, we, we look forward to helping our customer buy better by making these sustainable, high quality products, but our goal is to have a larger impact in the retail industry overall. And hence, you know, help this, this, this, this industry, have less of a negative impact in the planet. And so, you know, you get this idea of basically owner, owning fewer, better things. And.

And and get this enduring quality, almost like that coat that you you, which was your first luxury purchase. You know, when did this idea really come to fruition for you? Where you said, Oh, this is what I really want to pursue. It was an interesting point in life. So I moved to the US for college. I was 18, and I quickly made some friends. Got to understand, you know, the kind of mall lifestyle in America which is different than than what a mall right? The lifestyle in a mall in Ecuador was much smaller. Maybe we had a couple of small malls with very few shops. But I was, you know, I was always in awe of the American malls, the size, the the optionality. And

as I got closer to my friends and their wardrobes, which were full, and they were so exciting for me. I, you know, I never seen wardrobes that were so full, I realized that they were actually truly unhappy with what they had purchased, and they always wished they had better or more. And I couldn't understand how this could be possible, right? Because back home, our wardrobes were definitely smaller

and the options to buy were less, but when it, you know, when you would purchase something, and the way that my father taught us to buy was we would look at it as an investment, and so a good pair of shoes, right? Rather have one for the school year, and we would have to be very thoughtful of which one we picked. That had to be good quality. It, you know, had to be have a versatile style so it could go with jeans or skirt, and it had to last. And then when it reached the point where the soles were coming to an end, well it was time to take it to the shoemaker, and we would mend our shoes, and then we would keep going. And so this culture of actually fixing your products, mending them and actually prolonging their life, rather than throwing them out or giving them away as soon as they reached the point where they started to feel old, was super important. And so there was kind of a cultural difference in how I started to experience shopping here in America. But the really telling thing to me was my friends were actually not happy, even though they had so much more. And so I realized that that was a problem. And you know, back then I was 18, I didn't come up with a business plan right there, but that was the key seed in my brain that said, you know, this is this. This is an area to look into with time. And it took me about six years from that moment all the way to know, I graduated college, actually got a math degree.

I worked in Wall Street afterwards for three years at Goldman. And there was a moment in time where I was sitting at Goldman and, you know, I thought, well, there is an opportunity here to create some, you know, a brand that actually helps customers buy better, that actually helps them to be more thoughtful in their choices, that educates them about how products are made, where they come from, but that it also helps them to buy better and not buy if they don't need it or they don't like it. And that would actually be pretty revolutionary, because everything I had experienced for the last last six years was quite the opposite. Yeah, so you so did you break out at that point from from Goldman and start this company when you're 2425 years old? I did. It was, it was really hard, particularly because I was raised, you know, by my father in Ecuador, and he had made so many sacrifices for me to eventually reach that level in my profession, right? It was first of all, getting into an Ivy League college, right, going to Brown University, graduating with good grades so that I could get the job at Goldman Sachs. That back then, getting a job in investment banking was the top and I, I, I was there, so how could I give that up? That was really hard.

And I actually loved my years there. I had learned so much, not only hard skills that every day accompany me and my journey at Cuyana, but also, you know, things like tenacity and ability to not give up all that I learned there. And so giving up that universe, that it was a true University for me, was hard. But, you know, I also realized that

I was in a very unique position to to have this fire inside me that could take me to do more and actually make a bigger impact in the world that I could ever make while sitting, you know, in this seat at Goldman, even if I reached the top.

Uh, how I thought of me building a company like, like cujana, and the impact that that could make, versus me being one more employee, was really what drove me to to take that leap. But, oh, go ahead. Oh, I did it. I couldn't just quit. I wasn't the type who was gonna just quit and start, you know, a business facility. Yes, I had saved some money, but

I needed something to fall back on if that didn't work again, like back to how I was raised. It was, it was something that I I needed a plan B. My personality is to think big, but start, start safe until I'm sure it's going to work. It's kind of a test and response model that I've followed all my life, since I was a kid, and so for me, you know, I didn't know how to build a business. I had learned math, I had learned how to build financial models at Goldman, but that was not enough to build a put together a business plan of a company that was going to transform how retail worked. I truly believed in the insight and I had, you know, I truly believe in the problem I found, but I wanted to make sure that the solution was actually one that could scale. And so I decided Business School was the best next step for me, so that I could just, you know, deep, dive into everything I needed to do for or learn for two years and actually meet people that could help me and support me through this, because I hadn't worked in the retail industry before. I knew absolutely nothing about how retail worked, and it was important for me that I surrounded myself with just more knowledge and more people that would help me get through it. And so fortunately, I wrote my business school essays, which were the beginnings of the business plan for Quina. It's exciting to reread them nowadays. I wrote those back in 2005

David Novak 11:53 

that's so amazing

Karla Gallardo 11:55 

for someone listening. So ended like getting on to all the things that you've done. But let's back up for just a second, you know, for someone listening who might not be familiar with kujana, give us a snapshot of the brand today and your business model. Yeah, kuyana is a brand that's been built on the philosophy of fewer better, right? And what does that mean? It's a philosophy that encourages intentional choices. And what we do is we design timeless products that are made with the most high quality materials of the world, that are actually made with the best techniques, whether they are made by machine or by hand at times, right? Many of our leather goods are partly made by hand, and we design in a way that these products last through time. So we're not about trendiness, we're about timeless products. And what we've done is really, we've you know, what sets Cuyana apart is this commitment to crafting products that are not just beautiful, but functional. And so our customer is women who work, women who actually have a drive to be successful, who spend most of their time working, but who also balance that, or aspire to balance that with a personal life. So she is busy, she travels. She's transitioning from place to place. Her mind is in a million places. So we designed to make these timeless, gorgeous, high quality products for her to be able to get through her day and give her time back. Now, do you when you started out? Did you do it digitally, or did you go store by store, retailers? Or, you know, how'd you get how'd you what was your first sale? And tell me how excited you were when you add it, I was born in a country that's known for the Straw Hats, and I knew who the best factories were. I knew how to reach them, and that was home for me. And so that was the first micro supply chain that we created. And our first line was a line of hats. Quiana is, you know, a brand that's now known for its leather goods, that's the majority of our sales, but it started with a line of hats. And when I think about it, that was, yes, the easiest way to kind of crack into building supply chain for somebody who had never produced a product before. But when it came to selling that product, that was a really hard thing to sell. I mean, David, Have you purchased a hat? You have to know what your head size is. Most people don't know what their head size is. Most people like to try hats on. And I launched this brand online. And you know, it was gotta get the customer to, like, measure their head, figure out whether this hat's gonna fit their face shape. It was, it was a harder, harder way to start the selling process. However,

Cuyana was never a digital only brand, and that's that was where the juice came. You know, physical retail was always part of the idea of how to build this brand and how to be.

Is the big, you know, the big mission is to help customers buy better. And yes, there's a way to doing that digitally, but then there's also a better way to do that in person and and so retail was part of the model from the very beginning. Other retailers, or did you build your own stores? We built our own stores, and we have our own. And back then, without any funds to, you know, build a store and open a store, the way that we sold those hats was Stanford, and I was still living in Palo Alto back then, and in San Francisco, sorry, but really close to Palo Alto, where I had just graduated from my MBA, the WTA sponsors or and does a tennis tournament in the summer there, and you can rent a little booth, and that's what I did.

It was I was there, my my dad, my sister came that summer, and you know, it was one of those things where I looked like a street vendor selling hats on the street, but I had a bigger vision, and it was really hard for my father to understand how his daughter, who was working at Goldman Sachs and then got her MBA at Stanford, what was she doing outside the tennis tournament, selling hats? But that's what that's how the first collection got sold. So and so I got to ask you, what's your dad think of you now, he always says, you know, he said. He says, How I You're You're impressive. I don't know how you did this. Like I you really have he always says, You have guts. You have guts. That's like, the one consistent thing he keeps saying. But I think he's in awe. Also

Ecuador, and at least the time I grew up there, like starting a business, that's like, not something you do. And so for him, I think it was terrifying. I mean, all that work, right? And I was on the right track, and then I kind of moved sideways, and I was starting a business, which is something that most people wouldn't do. Hey, everyone, it's Kula. We'll get back to the interview in just a second before we do though, I have a question for you. Have you downloaded the how leaders lead app on your iPhone? If you haven't take 20 seconds right now, go to the App Store, search for how leaders lead and download the how leaders lead app. In the app every day, you'll get a two minute video that'll give you a leadership insight from one of our amazing guests from our podcast to inspire you and to really get your mind in the right place before you start your work day. So go to the App Store, search how leaders lead, download the how leaders lead app, and start your day, every day with two minutes of leadership wisdom. It'll take 20 seconds go to the App Store, download the app, and you'll be able to watch every day, just like me, the leadership insight from how leaders lead. What was the biggest leadership lesson that you got as you started this company up, that that people ought to really think about. You know, when they think about, I want to, I want to build my own business. Number one, think big. Think huge. Think so big that you're so scared and paralyzed because your idea is so big and exciting. So start there, right? But in order, once you to start executing what's the most simple form of that idea, so that you can get started, because you're going to learn so much along the way, and you will still get to that huge, exciting, terrifying idea, but you have to start somewhere.

And to me, that's the smartest way to get there. No, it started with a hat, and what I truly learned with the hat was not the brand. There were so many bells and whistles that needed to be added later. But what that hat production taught me how to do was to build a true, efficient supply chain that was then the basis for, then how we built our leather goods supply chain, our apparel supply chain, like we have micro supply chains around the world now that I truly learned how to make product. And the second thing I learned with that was, why are customers going to buy from Cuyana? Is that where it's made? Is it the price? Is it the quality, or is it all and in what order, right? And so truly understanding, am I solving the problem I thought I was going to solve, and it wasn't glamorous, right? It wasn't what Cuyana looks like now, I was selling hats in a booth in a tennis tournament, but really it was about the minimum viable product, and starting small, I bet if you were a customer that went to that booth,

David Novak 19:36 

there's no way you're going to let them get away without getting One of those hats.

Karla Gallardo 19:40 

I did not. I actually was just chatting with some of my business school classmates who were, you know, they were reminding me of how there were some of my first customers, and there's a lot of photos from that time, and it's just, it's really awesome. And, you know, it just helps me see how, God it's we've done so much since you got.

Get some of those photos up in your store, tell a little bit history, if you don't have it already, you know, that's, that's my idea for the day for you here, you know? So, you know, here's, you have this idea. It's very intriguing to me. You know, fewer better things. Now, most retailers, you go in there, they're trying to sell you everything in the world. They're trying to build a ticket. They're trying to do, you know, what kind of stance did you have to take that was different to really make that positioning a reality for your customers? Yeah, quijana is all about building a really strong connection with our customers that will last for life, and the way we do that is through trust. The customer needs to trust that what we put to market delivers on the values of quality, sustainability, timeless design, and we only can achieve that trust by consistently doing that, never lowering the quality, taking a shortcut, just never we will do that consistently, so that trust builds through time. And the second thing that matters in that connection building is that we actually want our customer to only buy if she loves what she finds at Cuyana. Quina means to love, by the way, and it's Guianas in it's the language is Quechua, which is the language of the indigenous artisans who wove those first hats. And it truly goes to the, you know, the values of our brand, allowing a customer to make a purchase, that customer is unsure, that's failure. That customer needs to truly love. And if she buys, truly loving, that success to us, it's not only the dollars, it's how she feels when she buys, and we want her to walk out the door loving it, so then she wears it almost every day. That's success to us, but that means that sometimes she's not going to really love it, and we are going to have to be okay with not selling it at that time. But what ends up happening is that when you build that level of trust with the customer, and she knows that you are what you're watching out for in her right and her relationship with the brand, she comes back. And so when I when I say loyalty, you know fewer better is it's just focusing on the lifetime value of the customer, on what that relationship is going to be through time, and it actually ends up flourishing in a way that you can't imagine. You know, our customers are so incredibly loyal that they actually market the brands for us. Word of mouth is our top growth driver, and that's because of the relationship that that we built with them, and that's because they trust us. So, you know, here you are. You know, nearly 15 years later, when you look back, you know what would be that your top three strategic decisions you've made to get you to this point, the first and most important one is our merchandise and production model. Our goal is to create best sellers, right? So we are designing product by product, as opposed to season by season. And so it's very intentional the design, right? We see a business opportunity. We make sure it solves a problem for the customer, and we go after it. And so you can think of

a toiletry bag back in 2012 well, all you could find air are plastic toiletry bags, you know. And beauty shops, there wasn't something beautiful made of leather that was surprised that, you know, $100 range that you could just purchase and keep forever. And so then we designed our travel case set. Continues to be one of the top products. It's a product that's been out in the market for now 12 years, and it's still at the top right, but it's these just white gaps in the market that we go after, and there are times that we don't get it right. And so in order for us to not pollute right, and not overproduce a product that's just not going to work, the way that we launch a product is through a small batch approach. And so we will create a small batch of what we've designed, what we've tested, what we've know, what we truly believe. We'll put it to market. We'll launch it. We'll see how it does, and if it has a velocity that we hope it will, then we push play with our factory, and we produce the bit, the larger productions, and start putting this product to market. If not, then we sell, you know, we wait through selling that small batch, and we just don't do it again. And so what that allows us to do is to create this business of hero products that get reordered every month and that build right into these larger business lines that we have. So this merchandise model has really allowed us to create this business that just doesn't over produce, and that also allows us to really learn how the product the customer interacts with the product, and through time, we start to make it better. So you're really a product product driven retailer.

Yeah, where you you literally try to solve problems with the with the products that you you develop. Can you tell me about the biggest idea you thought you had, okay, that when you went through this process, it ended up being something that you had to discard. My mind went straight into one that I actually thought was going to be awesome. So it was a tampon holder. And we designed this product because, as women, right, you are in the office, and you got to go to the bathroom, and some bathrooms have, you know the products there, but most, most don't. And so how do you carry those? And so we created this tampon holder. We're actually incredibly excited. We had asked many people. It seemed like it was going to be a hit, and we launched it, and it was crickets.

And you know, it turned out that many women actually don't care to carry them without a cover, and that's great.

And just other women, just carrying another patch, like it wasn't like a niche or a real need, it was just like one more thing. And that means it goes against our values of just buying, you know, having few products, right? It was just like one more thing that maybe wasn't going to get that, that level of use. And so we aborted the plan.

David Novak 26:18 

There you go. There you go. You know, I'm loving this, and, you know, you're obviously a very dynamic leader and in very passionate about what you do and and I want to get more into how you're leaving at your company, but I want to take you back, you know, I want to hear a story from you about your childhood that that really shaped the kind of leader that you are, yeah, your dad says you have guts, you know?

Speaker 1 26:44 

What was it? What was it that happened to you when you were a kid that really influenced you the most? My childhood certainly influenced me and tremendously, I would say two things. So

Karla Gallardo 26:58 

by now, you know, I grew up in Ecuador, so Ecuador in the 80s and 90s, right? It's, I love your country, by the way. It's great. Yeah, thank you. I do too very proud of it. And you know, there is a sad part to it, which is that, you know, most humans in Ecuador live below the poverty line. And I was raised in that environment, being one of the lucky ones. You know, in my home, there was food on the table. I had parents who worked really hard, you know, to make sure my sister and I went to school. Education was the most important thing at home. My father always said, Education is something no one can take away from you. Just school really mattered.

And the one thing that living in that environment, like just real, really ingrained in me, was that you can never settle for what feels comfortable, because things just change. And so this, this need to just become adaptable, was a big part of that, and I'll share one example. At some point in high school there was a big financial crisis in Ecuador. My father worked in finance, and from one day to the other, he lost his job, and it was one of those job losses that you know, it wasn't going to get sold within a few months because the system crashed, most banks had closed, and it was going to take time for him to regain,

you know, a place in the industry. And it was a time when applications for college were coming close, like there was a lot going on, and

I didn't really appreciate it back then, but I can today, my dad had to adapt himself, and I saw him go through it, right? He was this finance man who realized I need to send my kids to college. I'm not gonna have a job for a while. I need to figure this out. And he became a finance teacher in one of the universities, and so he changed his job temporarily to be able to get us through. And I was just so impressed by him to be able to do that. And I saw him do it. And so there was always something inside on me that said, you know, you gotta move quickly. You gotta adapt. You can't be comfortable. And then the other piece about growing up that I think has really

defined me as as a person who actually impacts how I lead

is having been raised by him. He's, you know, a man that truly believes in

woman in a way that's very unique to a man, an Ecuadorian man, like he taught me and my sister that we shall never depend on a man financially, that we are not going to be learning how to cook, that we're going to go and do math, that we're going to work really hard to just always be able to pay for ourselves. And when we were in high school.

We go out on dates with your boyfriend, we would pay for our boyfriend's movie theater tickets or ice cream like we were not gonna be paid for. We were the ones. So that's just, you know, he shaped us to think we are the leaders. We are strong, the view of me and my gender, it was like kind of this power role that I was raised to have. I never thought of myself as something less than it was the opposite, and that was actually really,

it's been really encouraging to me through life, because I've never thought of gender as something that's puts me, you know, in a kind of different level. I Brown, I

I was, it was me and another woman, and the entire class, probably more than 100 students. It was all guys, men in math, right? We were the only two girls doing math. They're not gold men. It was me and a couple more girls on the on the sales floor, mostly men, but I was never intimidated, and from a naive place, right? I just didn't even think about it was like the way it's meant to be. And so I truly appreciate that, because I feel like a lot of the guts come from that. It comes from him. Yeah, he didn't know that he was creating this monster who was going to drop Goldman Sachs and go off and start this new company that sell hats. And I could just imagine what he must have been thinking. But you work your way to America, and you get started on all this, and you start achieving your own dream, you know, and you and I've read where you say you have this that not having a background in retail or fashion was actually a blessing. You know, say more, it truly was. We talked about the merch model and how we produce so different. I think that if what I would have known how it's supposed to be, I would have kind of been locked into that, because it wasn't only about, oh, there wasn't only as easy as building a new way of producing and, you know, a new way of of creating product. We had to convince a lot of people along the way, there are so many stakeholders involved in creating a product and then in selling it right, factories, providers, freight companies, then when you're selling it right. We talked about the retail store. We the PR editors, everybody who's in charge of putting that product to market and making it successful. They all work around one model. And so it was one of those things that I would have been so incredibly intimidated to know that I had to building this new way of of putting product to market was gonna just had to kind of rock the boat along so many ways. I'm glad I didn't know until we started to actually go through it. Sometimes you can know too much, right? It could keep you from being creative. Definitely not knowing can help creativity. And then you just have to deal with it and figure out along the way. So you have like, five stores right now, what's your vision for the hard site of part of the business? Look, if COVID had wouldn't have happened, we would probably be at two to three times that store count. Retail really works for us. It's really nice. It's a really nice model. So just like we started small with our supply chain and started with hats. Retail is something that, you know, there's a there was a vision for retail from day one, when everybody else was saying retail is dead, but we started small. And the reason why we started small is because we needed to understand the perfect formula of the size of store, the location, and how we were gonna right. We needed to make stores that were each one on their own going to be profitable, which is not what you know many retailers, that's not many retailers. Approach to reach to brick and mortar for us, every store had to be profitable on on its own. And so it took a few years to learn that the the great thing was that we tested all of this when retail was dead. And so there was a lot of open spaces across the entire country where landlords were willing to sign, you know, a few months of like, just give us short term leases for us to be able to test and understand it. And then we got we understood it, and we started to open, and it was wonderful, and then COVID happened, so we had to pause our plan, and we pause on expanding retail. Up until this year. You're hearing that we're about to open a new store. It's a very exciting moment for us, because retail is going to be where we focus going forward. And the reason why we didn't, you know, restart it earlier. It's 2024 COVID. You know, happened? 2020 is because we wanted to really understand the aftermath of COVID. How have neighborhoods changed? How has the customer changed? Is that formula we figured out in the earlier still, right for today, and there are some tweaks.

Uri Levine 35:00 

X and and so we're still a little bit in learning mode before we start to accelerate super fast, but we continue to believe in physical retail, and we'll see more of our stores across the US. We'll be back with the rest of my conversation with Carla Gallardo in just a moment. Is clear. Kiana wants to design products that solve problems for their customers, and that's a theme that comes up time and time again in the conversations I've had with successful entrepreneurs, including my episode with Uri Levine, the co founder of Waze, he says that your customers problem should be your North Star. If you solve a problem, it's guaranteed that you are creating value. Now, in particular, if you're starting a new journey, then you are seeking for value creation. And the problem is the easiest way to do that. And for a second, I would say there are probably three reasons to do that. One is the story is way easier to be told, and that makes your marketing easier. That makes your customer acquisition easier, that makes your raising capital easier. An easier story to be told is significant, but the most important part is the problem remains the north star of your journey, and when you have a North Star, then the deviations that you're going to make are going to be shorter in time, shorter in duration. It's easier to keep the focus and execute the plan when you have a North Star and that that is really pretty significant. There is another part of it, which is the mission that combines the company and all the people that sign up for this mission, whether or not they are the employees or the customers or everyone they want you to be successful, because you are going to make the board a better place by eliminating that problem, and you end up with three key factors that increase the likelihood of being successful. Go back and listen to my entire conversation with Uri, episode 129 here on how leaders lead. So you're a real figure it out, start slow and then put the pedal to the metal. It's the mantra, yeah.

Speaker 1 37:14 

And you know, you've got a lot of big time fans and supporters of your of your brands. One of them is Megan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, who married, who's married to Prince Harry. She's been a huge advocate of the brand. How'd all that come about? And is that a big part of your strategy? One of the things we all we always realize is because we didn't, you know, we didn't come from retail. Both me and my co founder hadn't worked in retail before. We didn't have any connections in retail. Didn't have any celebrity connections. I mean, I'm from Ecuador, right, like Shilpa, my co founder had worked in tech. It was really hard to get started without knowing absolutely anybody. We had to work really hard to get ourselves into even like being able to speak

Karla Gallardo 38:00 

with editors who would later love the brand and become actually close, close connections and friends to us,

and yeah, Meghan Markle and so a lot of these relationships have happened serendipitously. Most of the celebrities that are actually wearing Cuyana because they come across it,

and and that's what's been wonderful. Megan Markle,

she came across Cuyana, and she loved it, and eventually we got connected. And that was awesome. But it wasn't, you know, it wasn't the other way around. And so, so that's been really great. And I think it speaks to the product. And, you know, just like those early days, where we really made sure we got the product right, and make sure that we just continue to get the product right. So when you think about where you're at today, Carla, maybe using a baseball terminology, which may be a bit unfair, but I'm sure you probably get it. You're there's nine innings in a baseball game. You know, what inning are you in with, with your with your company? Wow, David, that's like a interesting way of asking the question. So the end hasn't I haven't made it to the end point, no way. And I struggle to say, or

just even for my own self, understand which inning do I think? I mean, I'm definitely not on the first one, right, if business model has been figured out, but I don't even know if I'm like, halfway through.

I just don't think that that moment of feel like we've made it has come yet.

Speaker 1 39:38 

I know I'm clear on what success means to me, personally, but professionally, I realized that it's more of a journey, right? And rather than like an ending point, you know, it's interesting. You know, one of the directors of our company, young brands, early on was John Weinberg senior, yeah.

David Novak 40:00 

He told me, when he watched young leaders develop and and move on, he said, I've noticed that they do one or two things, they either grow or they swell.

Karla Gallardo 40:16 

You know, when you look at where you're at and all the success you've had at such a, you know, young age, you know, how do you keep yourself from swelling? It goes back to my upbringing. You just never settle. You never get comfortable. You are always on your feet. And I just have this drive that's like, take advantage of the next opportunity. Take advantage and like, never let go. Just keep going. Keep going. Keep going. It's not the end,

and that's what drives me, and I feel like that's what makes this all possible, and that's why we keep getting better and better and better and better. It also can sometimes be a little toxic, because I'm also a mom, and I also would like to be a perfect mom, right? I want Cuyana to be perfect. I want my my my family, to be perfect. And it's really hard to put, you know, pauses and be able to just balance between both,

but thinking of just Cuyana and where we're at like I don't I also want to make sure we pause to celebrate the milestones that have come along the way, even though the end feels like it's in, like somewhere in, you know, in, like it's an in an infinite point, there are so many milestones that have been so exciting, not only for me, but for the team. Who is the team is they're the ones who are responsible for, like, everything that's happened along the way. And,

you know, these milestones were part of my dreams. I mean, you talked about Meghan mark like, oh my god, a celebrity wearing a Quina product, huge milestone. Our first online order from somebody we didn't know. Oh my God, that's exciting, right? The first year we were profitable, huge. Oh my god, the first day we sold a million dollars. Exciting, right? It was all those things and milestones are just so exciting, and then my brain goes to that was great, awesome. Celebrate next.

David Novak 42:10 

Not surprising, not surprising. You know, Carla, it's been so much fun, and I want to have some more with my lightning round of questions. Are you ready for this? Oh my gosh, yes. Shoot famous. All right, what three words best describe you? Okay, relentless, actually, not not relentless, determined, sorry, determined,

Speaker 1 42:31 

perfectionist and warm. If you could be one person for a day besides yourself, who would it be? One of my kids your biggest pet peeve, messiness or dirtiness. Who would play you in a movie? It has to be a Latin American actress. I would go for Zoe zeldinja. What's something about Ecuador? You'd only know if you were from there? Oh, my God, I think so many things. But we get we have some of we have four different regions.

Karla Gallardo 43:01 

We have the mountains, we have the rainforest, we have the seaside, and we own the Galapagos Islands, and most people don't know that, to my surprise. All right, what's the one thing you do? Just for you? I do Pilates every morning with my friend Christine at six in the morning, fourth and it's just the best 30 minutes that really kickstart my day. If I turned on the radio in your car, what would I hear? You would either hear Latin music, and I'm really into Fonseca, or you would hear electronic music, and I'm really into this musician called Nimi no from London. What's something about you few people would know how crazily OCD organized I am. I mean, when my friends come into our pantry, my pantry, and just see how everything is organized, labeled, and they always think I have a service doing this for us, and it's me.

All right, that's the end of the lightning round. Good job. Thank you. Oh, my God, David, that question about Ecuador was like, I pause, and I should have said something fun. That was great. It was great. You did a great job here. How do you how do you think about giving back, especially to your community in Ecuador? Yeah, we, you know, it's one of those things that I want to do more of, especially now, my biggest way of giving back was, I really wanted to build awareness around this treasure that we have, this hat that's called Panama hat. And so every year, when it's summer and it's time to sell hats, we create these larger PR campaigns, and we invest in publicity around where this hat comes from. Because, you know, the goal is, we really need to know this comes from Ecuador, and it will drive goodness to Ecuador. Surprisingly enough, this is one of those heritages that's getting lost through the years. As you know, this hat gets fabricated, made with plastic and machines in China, and it's like lowering the price. And so then a lot of these communities that are weavers, they're not really getting right, like flat.

Supply is going it's becoming higher. People don't really know how to buy best, and just that whole phenomena that ends up impacting how much they're paid for weaving the hats. And so many of these weavers are moving to the city to just work in another, you know, trait, and we're losing it. We're losing the skill, which is very unique. I mean, I'll tell you, even they're only able to weave during specific hours of the day, because once the straw stops being humid, you can't weave. So it's and they weave in their homes. There's a whole I mean, one day, I'll tell you all about it's beautiful, but that's one way. And so just being able to build that awareness, the other way is just by being able to continue to nurture this community by buying the hats and keeping them alive.

David Novak 45:46 

But there's more to do one day, and that's as the company continues to grow. I would like to do more, and I still don't know how, in order to make an actual impact, right? Not something that just happens and kind of disappears, but it's in my mind. Well, if it's in your mind, I know you're going to figure it out, you know. And you know, for you know, you came to this country from Ecuador. And for anyone listening who has a dream of coming to America, what would you tell them? And I would like you to give me that answer in Spanish. Okay, David, si

Karla Gallardo 46:24 

para los que quieren venir, Estados Unidos trabajen en mostrar las cualidades que son uniqueas de ustedes, porque los Estados Unidos necesitan a gente como nosotros, trabajadores, gente que no ser Linde se

how would you translate that for all of us? I share that we are unique individuals who work very hard and who are so determined, who just don't give up and

and the US needs those characteristics and

David Novak 47:09 

and so to be able to work on the ability to reflect them so that, because if somebody will be attracted to that. So I love that, and I love having you do that in Spanish, because I just think it shows, shows, you know, just how rich and different and diverse this world is, and we all have so many of the same values and desires. You know, last question, what's one piece of advice you'd give to anyone who wants to be a better leader. I think really knowing your true personal values and leaning into those as you lead is key to

Karla Gallardo 47:53 

just being a strong leader through time.

Think when I when I think of myself and how I lead. I lead with purpose. I truly believe in what we are building. The values of the brand are my personal values, and it just allows me to anchor each one of my decisions in these values that don't change. And so I am able to be consistent through time, and then that allows me to build those relationships and to be trusted, but by those who I lead, because ultimately, it's all about trust, right? And authenticity is what allows me to drive that trust, so just leading with purpose and leaning into one's personal values, not trying to impersonate somebody else. Well, Carla, I have really, really enjoyed this conversation. I want to thank you for your time, and I think I've got a great Christmas gift idea for for for my daughter.

David Novak 48:51 

I'm gonna have to get her half size, but she might get a special surprise

Karla Gallardo 48:55 

now you can tell her the story too. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, David, this was wonderful.

David Novak 49:07 

I hope this conversation reminds you it's okay if your big ideas feel scary, you just can't let that fear stop you in your tracks. Find a way to put your big dreams into action. It might mean selling hats at a tennis patch, but when you take that first step, no matter how small it seems, it's going to help you learn what you need to do to take the next step and the next one after that. Because, let me tell you, sometimes the only way to make the path clearer is to start walking down it. So this week, think about the big idea or dream that's been rattling around in your head. What's one small way that you could take some action toward it? As Carlos says, You got to start somewhere. And who knows that one small step could be the start of something huge. So do you want to know how leaders lead? Why?

We learned today is that the great leaders dream big, then start small. Coming up next on how leaders lead is our much beloved quarterly recap featuring top takeaways from every single guest over the last three months. So make sure you're subscribed to how leaders lead wherever you get your podcasts, so that you don't miss it. Thanks again for tuning in to another episode of how leaders lead, where every Thursday you get to listen in while I interview some of the very best leaders in the world. I make it a point to give you something simple on each episode that you can apply to your business, so that you will become the best leader that you can be. You