How to build a brand and chase a dream with Dani from Kulani Kinis
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Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Moments Podcast. I'm so excited. This is a very, very special edition of an episode. I'm currently not even in the country. I'm recording this episode months before I'm sharing it. We're telling you about a really cool secret and

I'm just introducing you to a really cool person that means a lot in my life and has impacted so much of the last two years of my life and I'm sure is going to continue to do so. So I am meeting with Dani and we are going to be telling you guys all about Kulani Keeney's, how it started, how she got here, how she made this dream become a reality. And I can't wait for you guys to hear her story and also share

me to hear the story for the first time, because this is actually my first time meeting Dani in person. We've Zoomed and video called for so long and now it's our first time getting together in real life. So Dani, do you want to say hi? I will say hello. Lexi, thank you so much. That was, you're going to make me cry. I know, I'm already tearing up. I can't believe we're sitting here together in Ibiza and we've spent, I guess, yeah, the past two years or more, I was actually looking back, we've been kind of in each other's orbit for like

around five years almost. So long. This is surreal. I feel like we've grown up a little bit together and I just feel, you know, really privileged to get to spend time with you and to do all that we do together. And I'm just in awe of all that you do and your community and everything. So I'm very excited to be here and thank you. I can't wait. So big

Basically, if you guys don't know, I would love to tell you how we've known each other for the past five years because I was thinking about it on my flight here. When I first started doing influencing before this podcast, before I did, right when I started making TikToks, I would always post in my parents' backyard wearing a bikini. And I think I DM'd you guys. Yes. And I reached out and I was like, oh my gosh, I love your bikinis, probably saying something like that. And you guys were the first ever...

company to send me PR or one of the first few, the first bikini I ever got. And I remember you guys sent a draft print bikini and I was obsessed with it and I wore it all the time. And it's so crazy because now we have one collection together and we are currently about to shoot the second one. It's a top secret.

at this moment, but by the time I launch this and you guys listen to it, it won't be so top secret. So crazy. I'm so excited. Yeah. We'll tell you more about that as we keep going. But I want to know...

How Kulani Keeney's became Kulani Keeney's. Taking me way back to the beginning, because I know you guys have been in business now for... Nine years. Nine years, which is incredible. And I know there's so much to that story that we definitely couldn't cover, even if we recorded for days. But take me back to nine years ago, or maybe it was 10 years ago. When did you first have...

The idea. Yeah. How did it birth? Wow. Well, this is, yeah, there's a lot to kind of unpack. So I'll do as best as I can. And, you know, so yeah. So taking back 10, let's go 10 years ago. So it's 2014. This is like really early Instagram days. TikTok's not around. What's crazy is that 2014 was 10 years ago because in my brain it was yesterday. Yeah. That went by way too fast. I know. Life is going. Yeah. And I feel like each year it just goes faster and faster. Back.

Back in 2014, I'd finished study. So in Australia. So I'm from Sydney, Australia. We call it university. I think you call it college. Yeah. Some of them. There's some colleges, some universities. It's complicated. So I did psychology at uni, actually. Oh, my gosh. If you knew that. I had no idea. Yeah. I'm a registered psychologist. Really? Yes. Yeah. Wow. So I practiced for seven, eight years almost in our health care system. So I worked for our local hospitals. Wow.

And I finished school and there's always that pressure to kind of just pick really quickly what you want to do. And sometimes I feel at that age, you might really not know what it is that is your calling. However, I was, both of my parents are so beautiful. I'm so lucky to have them. They're still together and

You know, they've done an incredible job to raise me and mum and dad didn't get to go to university. So for them, there was this idea that that was, you know, what you had to do and that it was, you know, really something that they wanted me to do. I'd also, I have a brother, so I'm just one of two. His name is Lee. He's four years older than me and he has a severe intellectual disability. So he...

can speak kind of like a toddler. So he speaks like a two or three year old. He lives in a group home now with a couple of other guys and they looked after him. We get to see him, but he growing up, I was, even though I was younger, I had to, I was always kind of like his caregiver with mom and dad. So we all had to look after him.

and I just naturally fell into that caregiver kind of role. So I finished uni and kind of when you get to the end, things don't often pan out as you maybe imagine that they would. And, you know, it's

it's hard to find a job in the field that you want to get. And with psychology in Australia, and I think it is all around the world, you have to then earn a thousand hours of practice. I actually just learned this because I have a couple of friends who are studying to become therapists and they

she's working basically full time right now, but unpaid. And it's crazy to me. I know that you have to do that in a lot of degrees that you received, but that's hard. That's really hard to do. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. So I studied for four years and I was just itching to kind of, you know, leave home and leave the nest. But then I had to find this time and figure out how to do a thousand hours of work. So instead of going into the disability field, I ended up

up finding a job, a job popped up at a local hospital and it was in the acute community treatment team, which is the really, I often say it's the pointy end of psychology. So it's people. So I was kind of going out with paramedics, police to really high kind of volatile situations like emergencies, psychiatric emergencies. Yeah. It was...

Pretty intense. So we would go to incidents where there'd been accidents and, you know, like a lot of self-harm and, or I'd be in the emergency department within the hospital on call 24 seven. We're on a rotating roster and I would be that first point of contact that would do the assessment. And then with a psychiatrist, we would decide whether, you know, the next steps, whether a person would be, you know, admitted for inpatient treatment or they would be, you know, they'd go home and then we'd do some follow-up.

So I did that and it was very heavy. It was very important work. My hat goes off to all those that work in that field. I think I had no, I was so naive and didn't really have any life experience and didn't really, I think I wasn't really equipped to deal with some of the situations, but I had a really great team.

and I noticed though that they were, we use the word burnout. So the way that they dealt with situations were, you know, they'd use humor or it was just like, there was some stuff that I was noticing that wasn't, it was very heavy. Yeah. And it wasn't coping mechanisms that maybe just,

don't resonate so well with you. Yes. Yeah. And I could feel, I often think that if you are a therapist, you often, you take a part of what the person gives you. They leave a little bit inside of you. I looked around and I noticed that there are a couple, we call them clinicians. So there are a couple of psychologists or nurses and the ones that were the happiest or the lightest, they worked part-time in health and they worked part-time in something else, or they were moms or, you know, they didn't have that full time five days a week.

in this role. So that's kind of the little thing that sparked in my mind that maybe there's something else out there that I could do. So I had this little inkling to try and find some balance and two things kind of happened. So I was with Alex, who's my, Alex and I've been together for like 15 years. Which is so crazy. Yeah, that's you and Gabe, baby. Yeah, no, definitely, for sure. I can't wait for you to get to know him. So Alex and I started, we both met when we just finished our university degrees and he did accounting.

I was in the health system and we did this for a couple of years and we got to this point where things felt heavy. And Alex actually, I have to credit, was he had a dream to go to Hawaii. Wow. I'm already getting goosebumps. We barely started the story. So for me, when I went on holidays, I was all about experiences. So, you know, we went to Borneo, I went to Africa. I always thought if you had to travel, you had to kind of do something that would, you know, open your eyes or you'd learn something. I didn't really know how to relax.

And that was just from, I've always been like a busy little person and, you know, very busy with family. So Alex, so he's the opposite. He is the youngest of three boys and he would always fight when he was little to push in the CD player. Do you know CD players? It's like a record player, but you have like a little silver discs, like a rainbow hologram and you can push a button and the disc goes in and out. And they played the Beach Boys. Okay. And Alex said there was this song, Hawaii, and he just had this question.

core memory. He's like, I want, he could play that song over and over in his mind. He's like, I need to go there. We were like, right, we're working really hard. We need to kind of have a bit of a breather. Let's go and, you know, go to Hawaii together. So, and that was the first time where I kind of went to a place where I thought, you know, it's okay to go and just like sit and, you know, go for walks or sit in the sun. And we really fell in love. Like it was our time together and it was just, you know, Hawaii is stunning. It has a certain, um,

energy there and I I think it's one of the most beautiful places ever not even just because of how physically beautiful it is to look at the oceans and the mountains there's some kind of energy there that does exactly that it makes you fall in love with whatever you're doing whoever you're with their friendships like it's just beautiful yeah it's a beautiful place it moved us

And I just wanted to bottle it up and I didn't want to go home. I would be like almost in tears and we had to leave. How long did you go for? Well, we would do like two weeks vacation. Okay. And then we did that for three years in a row. So we would, we'd go on vacation. Then we'd come back. We'd work the year, save up our money, go on vacation. Oh, that is so special. And that was our kind of, that was our escape. And it was just,

every time we went, I wanted to figure out how can I have longer here? How can I make this more? So we actually had Alex go into the downtown Honolulu office. He found the Ernst & Young office.

He just walked in, went up in the lift, introduced himself. And they all laughed because they're like, what's this kind of Aussie tourist doing? And he asked if, you know, is there any opportunity that I could have to have a job here? And I sat in the lobby waiting and it was like an hour he was up there. But it turned out that they're a very small office and their mother office is huge.

Los Angeles. So in California, because I guess it's like the little satellite office. So they actually sent an email and said, look, this Australian guy came in from the Sydney office. He's really keen to work here. Is there something that we could do? And that's how we ended up living in LA a couple of years later because of that, what Alex did there. And this is pre-Kulani. That just goes to show if you don't take the chance, if you don't make the move or ask the question, even if it's scary, you're

You never know what could happen. I mean, good for him. Wow. Yeah. That really set the, like without us knowing how important that was in our journey, because that is really what led to us growing because we have such a big,

community and audience in the US. Definitely. And we got that through. Oh yes, I'm just connecting. Yeah, that makes so much sense. So Kalani didn't exist yet still. So we came back home and kind of at the same time, a friend of ours started. So I had no exposure to commerce or business. You know, my mom was a stay-at-home mom. She was a bookkeeper. My dad worked as a software engineer. So I just hadn't seen like that side of like making or selling or creating. And we had a friend who started a beef jerky business and

Okay. So he just made like beef jerky and a dehydrator. It was like paleo, like a really clean, high protein. And he was, he was quite an introvert and he worked with Alex and he asked if Alex would be, Alex is quite extroverted, you know, going into the office, take it a little bit more lab. Yeah. So Alex,

So Alex and I would help them. So he would package it and then Alex would help market it. And I did. This is kind of back on Facebook when you would do some, there weren't Facebook groups that you'd be able to like put a little post on Facebook and speak about it. So that was kind of the first time. I often say that that definitely helped.

I guess, gave me an experience of creating something. And helped you figure out where to start. Yeah. And just like understand, yeah, that you can like, yeah, the very basics of commerce. So it was between, I guess, we'd done a couple of Hawaii trips that had packed up. And so we're going kind of through the year again. And I had this episode at work. I used to go on home visits. So I'd visit people in their houses who were really unwell. Usually we'd do

doubles, but on some of the occasions, if we thought it was okay, we'd go on singles. And I went to this house and it was a male that I had to see and, you know, we're having our session. And then he said, look, does anyone know you're here? And I said, oh yeah, of course. Like the hospital, like I've got a pager, which I didn't have. And he said, oh, well, and I explained to him like how the pager system worked. And he said, oh, well, on that case, then I'm not going to like chop you up and bury you in my backyard today. Oh yeah. And that was, I,

froze, but kept it together, kept very calm. But at that point, like I still feel really sick inside thinking about that. It was a really kind of scary moment and just a moment where I, you know, wrapped the session up, left as calmly as I could, got in my little car and raced down the street as quick as possible and just burst into tears.

called my mentor and I was like, I've just, this is, yeah, this is heavy. And I was really young. And I think to figure out how to manage that and make sense of that and feel, yeah. So I didn't feel safe. So we were kind of looking again to go to our little safe place. And this time we went to Fiji.

I bought a couple of swimsuits and this is, so this is now 2014. Oh, it's happening. Yeah. It's happening. And e-com is not, so e-commerce, online shopping isn't super big. You'd usually buy your swimsuit from like the local mall, but I was pretty busy with work. So I bought a couple of swimsuits and I bought a neoprene swimsuit, which is a very big brand that make it back in the day triangle, I can say. Oh, yes. Yeah. And yeah.

the fit wasn't fabulous because, um, you know, it's a, it's a thicker kind of fabric and I really didn't understand how to fit myself properly. Um, especially in those, those, I remember when they were super popular and I, I always like, but they, they're very body styles, specific, like you have to, they,

They don't fit everyone because there's not much stretch, not much movement. They're very thick, beautiful design. And they were like, you know, revolutionized, I think, online swim. But that was kind of my first kind of like time getting a swimsuit online. So we went to Fiji and the water there is beautiful.

is you can't drink it. It's not like, yeah. So Alex accidentally drank the water. Oh no. And he got this little upset tummy and we laughed because if he'd not had that time, we would have been out, you know, hiking and having adventures, but he, he needed a bit of time to like sleep it off. Recover. Yeah. So because of that, I like sat in our room with him because I didn't want to leave him. And I read this book, which I'd picked up called The Four Hour Work Week, which is Timothy Ferris. He's a, he's got a big podcast. I think I've heard

of that book? It's old. He has a few. He has like the four-hour body or the four-hour, like, yeah. He was like trying to say how you could work more efficiently. In this book, they mentioned Shopify and I'd never heard of Shopify before, which is a major e-commerce platform. Anyone can start a store on Shopify. And it mentioned...

a platform called Alibaba which is which connects you know people to suppliers and can be all around the world so Alibaba and AliExpress is pretty well known now but kind of back in 2014 that you know I'd never heard of those so I had this you know we're sitting in the room I'm looking at the swimsuits on the floor that I wasn't getting to wear and there in Hawaii there was a

couple of brands, they're South American based and they are like the seamless cheeky swimsuits. They weren't really big in Australia. We had moderate coverage. We're a little bit like less cheeky and we didn't have a seamless swimsuit. It was always like had a finish that had like the stitching. So I thought there was this brand in Hawaii and I thought, okay, for me to spend some more time in Hawaii, cause this, you know, trip, um, Alex's work opportunity hadn't come up and I was desperately trying to think, okay, maybe I could sell some, some

be a distributor or wholesale some swimwear from this brand that I really liked and then sell it in Australia. So I reached out to them whilst I was like, you know, in the hotel room, emailed them and they were really lovely. They replied and I said, oh, look, I'd love to do a little bit more vibrant prints because I've always loved color. And they said, yeah, that's what I think. I wear like, I've got a lot of neutral colors, but swim for me is where I like,

I get to be who I want to be and I just think on such a small piece of fabric you can really have fun. So I emailed them and I said hey may I please stock your swimwear in Australia and also could we make the prints a bit more fun and they were like thank you for reaching out so you always got to take a chance. Always. Yeah people will reply usually especially if you're kind and they said but we

We can't do what you want to do. You have to sell what we have, which is understandable. And it was going to be really expensive. It was, I think at the time they wanted to sell a swimsuit, say for $70 and you could sell it for $140. So you like get to have twice the margin, but it's,

I thought, well, I can't sell that in Australia. No one knows me. I work at the hospital. Yeah, you're like, nobody's going to be able to buy that. Swim suits are expensive. Yes. So I was like, I want to go back a step and I think I want to make the swimwear. I want to do the prints that I want and I want to sell it at a little bit of a better price than that. And take it from the top. Yes.

Yeah, so I literally just searched on this Alibaba platform, swimwear, bikini, seamless, cheeky, all those like keywords that you think about. And this is where I say there's a little bit of luck and timing. And the girl that I connected with on that platform is the same girl that we work with now. And I was very lucky that her boyfriend at the time, now their husband and wife, and they run this factory together, he was our head pattern maker. So he helped me make the patterns that I started with. He still does our pattern stuff.

happens today. Wow. And we, you know, that's where it kind of started. So then we go back home and Alex and I go back to work and

And I spent the next six months thinking about a name. So I obviously wanted to tie it to Hawaii because I just had an absolute love of alliteration. So Kalani Kini is short for bikini. And I really wanted to embody everything, have the essence of Hawaii, but share that through the swimwear. And it took from there, I worked probably, Alex and I laugh, we haven't stopped working since from when we started. I believe it. I mean, seeing how far you guys have come is incredible.

incredible to see, but it just goes to show that you guys have worked your butt off since I'm assuming this point right here. Yes. And the irony is we haven't probably spent too much time back in Hawaii because we've, you know, we're very lucky. The business is really has grown and we are constantly kind of out trying to out

pace ourselves. So we're busy. So on February, we launched a Shopify store and it was something I just did the, you know, it was a theme. They have edits and stuff that you can, you can use. Yeah, ones you can pick from. Yes. Yeah. Learn a little bit of coding. You can Google everything and anything you want. The world really is our oyster. And I think that we,

It's so easy to forget that. And of course, it's easier said than done. You still have to put the work in. But it's a nice reminder for anybody who is listening and needs it. Just learn how to code on the Internet. And trust me, Alex thought I was crazy. That was going to be a question I was going to ask because...

What did he think? Was he like, oh, great idea. Or at first he was like, this is bananas. He thought he was like, how, how he, he was great. He had a spreadsheet and he's like, okay, we'll spend our next holiday money, which was our next trip to Hawaii. We're going to put that on. We call it a purchase order. So we're going to pay for our first production bikinis. We made this deal that we'd give it a go. And, you know, I did have a little backup plan, which is I was going to sell it at markets, you know, some swimwear. So, or everyone was going to get Christmas gifts for the next few years. Yeah. Swimwear.

And my parents, they did, you know, I try and, you know, I guess, please my parents. As we all do. Yeah, I really want them to be proud of me. And mom and dad were like, well, you've spent so long studying and you've been training. You've got this job. Do you really think that this is? But, you know, it was always cautious. I didn't drop everything. It was considered. So we spent, I worked two or three days in the hospital and two or three days I dropped. I asked the hospital if I could drop.

to part-time, but not permanently, but just as like on a trial. And I did that for six months. We then got a call from California around this time. So Alex's Ernst & Young EY offered, they kind of, yeah, said, look, I know it's like two years later, but we'd love to offer if you want to come to the US and move. And we had 30 days to pack up our

30 days. Yeah. Work had asked if I could come back full time because we were, we had low staff and that wasn't going to work for me because bikinis were growing. Yeah. So it just became like, I'm loving this. Yeah. I was like this, I have to do this. And we've got this opportunity to go to California. So I was in like my seventh year of psychology. I resigned from the hospital and don't know if I would have done that without the push that we, you know, so sometimes you do need a little bit of encouragement or something. And we packed

everything up. We got six suitcases and Sunyoung allowed us to have. And we put, instead of putting all of our possessions, you know, to like have a little house, we had a studio in downtown LA. We packed bikinis. Oh my goodness. Yeah. We had two suitcases for ourselves and the rest was swimwear. And we started shipping the swimwear from the US. We're also very lucky that my parents are

did any like Australian orders my parents helped with. It was so much easier to ship in the US with FedEx. Whereas in Australia, we have to use, you know, Australia Post or DHL Express or DHL. So we are in downtown LA. I thought we'd live by Santa Monica Beach because that's just what I had in my mind. But the office for Ernst & Young was close. Alex was working kind of, I think in the US, you only get two weeks vacation a year, usually for most people. Is it different in Australia? We get four. Wow.

Oh, see, I wish that we would do that a little bit over here. A little bit more balance. Yeah, which is a beautiful thing. I think that the U.S. could do a little bit better job of just spreading out our life a little bit more than just our work. Yeah, to its heart. Exactly. So Alex was really working these crazy hours and I was in this bikini bubble because I'd left my job and I would just wake up each day and I was like, how am I going to sell swimsuits today? And it was, I discovered a trade show.

So we don't have trade shows in Australia, but in the US you have big conventions for

Fashion could be like vehicles, anything. I went to a Kulani one last year. It's so wonderful to see how that all happens. Like it's so cool to see so many different people come together and sell their pieces. And it's fascinating. Yes. So that's the swimwear one. So there's one each year in Miami. That's the biggest. And they have a little baby one in California in Huntington Beach. Okay. And that's called the Swim Collective. And it was just really lucky. The show had closed and I just thought, look, I'm just going to ring up.

up. You don't often ring people anymore, but I thought I'm going to try and get a spot. And I rang the number and this guy answered and he was Australian. And he said, oh, I recognize your accent. I'm also from Australia, but I've lived in California for a long time. And he said, let me see what I can do. And he managed to get us a booth and he tacked us on to the, you know, usually with a trade show, when it's your first show, you're in the kind of out in the back corner where nobody can usually get to you unless...

They try to. Yeah. So you have to earn your stripes over time. It's about relationships and kind of being there every year and moving a little bit closer to the bigger brands. So the bigger brands were like Billabong, Frankie's, you know, and so they were all in this one area. And because we were a late special edition, they tacked us onto the back of...

of a booth where we weren't supposed to be. And everyone was going downstairs into the ballroom where the main swimsuits were and big lines. And then all the buyers were coming up and this was like eight hours a day for, you know, two or three days going up and down these stairs. And every time they came up the stairs, Alex and I were just standing there. You were the first booth.

Yes. Yeah. So we were just smiling and we had our like Kalani kinnies up in lights and we had our beautiful imagery and you know, our imagery, we'd learned that we didn't have money to do big campaigns. So we would often gift

photographers swimsuits in exchange for like one or two high res beautiful images. Yeah, we were very lucky because photographers were always looking to have, I guess, content to work with. Yeah. For their portfolio, whatever it may be. Yeah. So, so we were just, yeah, that was probably a really big moment for us. And that's where we got our first

Trader Joe's are very expensive. They can be, you know, around $5,000. And then you add in accommodation and travel and, you know, it's something that we could never do being from Australia. But because we lived in LA, we were able to take that kind of jump. And our goal was just to cover the costs. And we were very lucky to get our first order there, which covered the cost of the show, which meant we could then come back and they are at every six months or so.

at our next show we had, so we met a lot of brands that said, look, if you're here next time, we'll sit down and look at your line. But for that first show, it was more just like a hi, take a card. Just show your face, let people get to know you and hope for the best. Yeah. So it's about being consistent. And it's because if a store is going to place an order, if you've got a new brand, they want to make sure that you're going to deliver. You know, there's lots to overcome. Can you ship the product in time? Can you make your product in time? So we turned up at this show six months later and we were in the

a not as good spot. So we were a bit deflated because we're like, well, we're come back, but we're not having as good a time. We're outside the main area this time. You know, we were a bit like, okay, but we'll make this work because you always have to have, you know, you see the light in situations. And when you first launched back in 2000, how many styles prints were there? We had only like four prints and we maybe did

Four tops and four bottoms. It was very tight. So it's crazy to think about now. Just a side note, my favorite things about Gulani is the variety of styles and prints. I mean, so many shapes for every like no matter what kind of bikini you like to wear, you guys have something. And I think that's just so cool and so hard to come by. So yeah.

I applaud you guys for that. But we call it SKUs. So each item is a SKU. So we maybe only had 16 SKUs to start, but now we would have like hundreds. And per collection, we do, you know, eight to 10 prints per collection. So you get to see yours. I can't wait. Oh my gosh, guys, I haven't even seen, we're doing this podcast before I've even seen the collection. We're kind of just talking about and hinting at right now, which is very, very exciting. You just re-sparked my excitement. I forgot where we were. Yeah, that we're here.

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Quick little intermission, you guys. We all know how important it is to prioritize the right things in our life. And maybe for you, that's prioritizing doing leg day at the gym or making sure you go for your hot girl walk. But how often are you prioritizing your mental health and making sure that therapy is a part of your weekly routine? If it's something that you've been open to, if it's something that you've been considering, I highly recommend BetterHelp. And thank you so much to BetterHelp for sponsoring this episode.

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So really quickly, going back to the trade show, we're next to this booth and usually you don't talk to, it's quite competitive. You're in a similar industry. But Alex and I are not used to the industry because we're not from the industry. So we pop our head over out to the little booth next to us and there's this guy in there and he says hi. And we're like, hi, we're Danny and Alex.

And it turns out that he is Tan Safdie from Queer Eye from a Straight Guy. So he had a brand called Kingdom and State, which he's sold because he said, I'm going off to do reality TV. Oh my gosh. So he ended up, he was on Netflix. But he was just, and that's why I sometimes say there is a little bit of luck in

And he spent the time, we were not busy at that trade show. We didn't have a lot of foot traffic because we're outside the big main room. And he just told us all these little things to kind of learn and do whether, you know, when working with a retailer, we call them majors. So if you get a major retailer like Nordstrom or Paxon or Urban Outfitters, there's certain rules and things that you have to do with your deliveries. Otherwise you get kind of penalized. Oh.

Okay. Or mark down or, you know, find. The more you know. Yeah. So he was teaching us all these little things and he actually pointed out at the time a really big buyer for a brand. And he said, you have to say hi to her and get her into your booth no matter what you do, because this will open up doors for you. And yeah, we ended up selling to this retailer, which is Forever 21. They've been through a big change.

transformation with their business. And they were looking to do e-com and bring in brands to sit alongside Forever 21. So they had like a, probably a $12 swimsuit, which isn't ideal, but they wanted to stock a brand. And they, they had this, I guess, trial where they did a couple of years of buying brands and Kulani was one of them. That is so cool. And I had no idea. As soon as we launched on their website, I think it was 2018, they,

It was like a light switch for us. And the traffic to our, the brand awareness and the traffic was just from there. Alex had to leave. So we came back to Sydney because things got really busy and we had to ship our orders. We couldn't be in America. Alex was still going back to work. I didn't go back to the hospital. And then it was probably, you know, Alex and I did maybe a year and a half together of just shipping the orders. He left his work. And then I think around maybe five years in, we got our first service.

staff member. Which is crazy. I mean, the two of you to do all of that and to build it into what it was. One of my questions that I have written down is when you first hired somebody new to help you with all of this, did it feel like

Was it hard to delegate things because you've been, I guess, in control of how everything is done for five years at the time? A hundred percent at the start, that was really hard to kind of hand over, kind of, yeah, just not the trust, but to, you know, it's your baby in a way and it's everything that you

you're across everything. But now it's so funny, five years in, I'm like, the more that people want to do to help, the more the merrier. So we are a team of like 70 now. So to go from, you know, and we have some of our first hires still with us. A lot of, we have a really low turnover, which is, you know, we're very, very lucky. And we achieve so much for the size, I think that we are. I think for the past six to 12 months, we've been focusing on, we looked at the brand story and we're

Kalani came from and what it was that Alex and I did. So it was like, it was a lot of hard work. There was a lot of persistence, a lot of patience. And then we've broken it into four values that we have now for our like kind of core. And it's no risk, no magic, which I said before, obsess over the details, be magnetic. So we really want people to be warm, be kind. And that's about that karma piece and like paying it forward. And it's buckle up buttercup.

cup, which is like, I love that one. Yeah. You know, it's where, where any hat, if you see something on the floor at the office, pick it up. It's not someone else's job. You prepare for anything. You got to do it all. Yeah. So that's, we kind of embody that as a team and it's really, it's something special.

incredible. I can't even wrap my head around it, all of it. And it's so every, every time I do get to have more and more deeper conversations with everybody, because usually it's just on zoom. It's so wonderful to see how much each person within the team loves what they do and how they do it. And I think that that,

is really, really important. I think that the passion, we wouldn't be able to do what we do without everyone. And right back at you, I think you're a very special person. You know, we often talk about there's this, I think you embody a lot of our, like what we would say those values are, you know, you are very warm, you are a very special soul and you inspire us a lot. And we are just like

so excited that we get to work with you and do the things. And I just think I was thinking back and talking to Alex about even the shoot last year for Wildflower Wanderer and how you and your mom and Lissette and Meredith, like you had no power, no water. You're on your campaign swim shoot. Oh my gosh. I forgot about that. Despite that, you were just cool as little cucumbers and turn off and absolutely rock it. And, you know, it

you had every right to be very, I think, upset and frustrated, but you guys just, yeah, really rolled with the situation. And that was just a breath of fresh air. Thank you. Those were such sweet words. I really appreciate it. And I think that's like spot on. We often say, you know, when we get stressed, because we do, we, you know, like things happen in business and we think Alex always says, it's just bikinis. We're not saving lives. It's just bikinis, which is a good reality check. And that when things are tough, we have to pinch ourselves and go like, remember, we get to

We get to do what we're doing every day and we're very lucky that we get to do that. You know, when I talk about like meeting these retailers and traders and things, we've had times where we've taken orders and then, so for example, there's this shop called Nasty Gal. Okay. I don't know if you met it. It was a brand. It was online. I think I've heard of it before. Gal Boss. Gal Boss.

It was like the, it was the stall that was associated with that. And it was, we were so excited to get stocked with them. And unfortunately they went through like, they filed for bankruptcy whilst our bikinis were mid air. You know, we were just, it was just Alex and I, it was like a couple of thousand dollars worth of swimwear. And, you know, you feel your world is just, you feel like it's the worst thing ever at that point. It's scary too, because you don't know what the future holds at that point. And I'm sure like as a brand, you've had more than just this one situation happening. Yeah.

hundreds do you find yourself now like if things do happen similar to that you're like why did that used to bother me in a way like you just kind of have a different mindset or just yeah threshold I guess and you know with some experience and just really knowing that lean on other people you're never really alone in something and always not being going back to that like don't just get like pushed along with it I think if something like that happens so this

purchase order. We lost it. We got this email saying that they'd filed for bankruptcy. We actually contacted DHL and we spent as much time as we could on the phone to stop the shipment, to get it turned around. Which is crazy because when something like that happens, they're not expected to send it back? No. Oh no. They take it and they like kind of sell it off with whatever part of the business. Because, oh, I see. So

They already bought it, essentially? Yeah, but didn't pay for it. Okay. But once it's in transit, it goes to their warehouse. But we did everything we could to stop it and we got it turned around. So we've done like lots of little things like that along the way. You've just got to, it's perspective. It's just making, turning it upside down if you can and just knowing that

even if it is the worst thing that's going to be, you know, there's going to be something better. Always, always. It's just, it's so fast. I wish that I could hear every single detail about how Kulani became what it is today. But one thing that I, I am so curious about from the standpoint I'm at, I guess, as an influencer and working with brands now and seeing how much the market is

is like changing and how much marketing is done through influencers and social media. Like how would you say social media has impacted you guys as a brand? Because you guys do wonderful on there and you are on top of the game and I'm sure, I think it helps a lot. So I'm just curious. Oh, it's, I mean, working at influencers, uh,

very grateful for. I mean, it's, it's so different to traditional marketing in that kind of, you know, the ads that you might've like put out. We, we didn't do paid. So we do do paid digital marketing now. And that's something that we didn't start until only a couple of years ago, not even, which we were very, there was, I think around 2016, 2017, it was new. And if you did it, you really would have had great exposure, but we used organic growth and we did get gifting.

That's kind of where we're gifting with no strings attached. If you love the product, like please, you know, share, don't share, do whatever. And it goes to show you guys have the most incredible products that it's almost like

Yeah, I know you could do it that way. And it showed because you grew through even that time period. Yeah. And now we do. I mean, then it became a you have to they say pay to play as in like you can't really be seen on a platform unless you for particularly for a brand, unless you pay for engagement in some kind of way, whether it be that you're having your ads kind of, you know, boosted or shown more across more platforms. Yeah.

Yeah. But I guess there's so many different types of social media now, you know, from all across the platforms. I think you can get, I guess, consumed with wanting to be perfect on everything or, you know, there's like Pinterest, there's YouTube, there's TikTok. But just, I think the focus is share on the platforms that you love, I guess, feel the right home for you and don't put the pressure to be perfect because I think then you won't do anything because you'll just get

literally frozen by the fear of having to put something together that is, you know, it can be relevant across all platforms will be. And I noticed too, it's so cool to see. I think that I see the most of my growth when I just kind of go back to doing social media, why I started it because it's a creative outlet. It's fun. It's something that I enjoy. I love to share and reach people and spread good messages, but the more organic things are, the more, um,

authentic. That's it. I think, and being original, I guess if you, it's so tempting to kind of look right and left and see what everyone's doing, but if you do stuff that people are doing, that's different. And it's just what you want. It's from your heart. It's your heart and soul. Your community will relate to it. They'll understand. They'll pick up

I have to be very honest that we have a beautiful team. It's a tricky landscape out there. And I think we're all trying to navigate and work out what it is, even podcasts. So a new form of media that's just, yeah. I'm noticing that now too, because one thing about Moments that the reason I started it was because

Well, for many reasons, but part of it was because I wanted to have a place where I could just record in silence, long-term conversations or long-form conversations about whatever it is I was going through, learning, whatever I could share, whatever had value to give to somebody. But I liked the idea of doing it without having to focus on what do I look like? How do I sound? Or am I going to have to cut this? I wanted it to just be completely real.

raw and people who have listened to this podcast long enough know like in the beginning I never cut anything and I still don't usually if I'm doing a solo recording

There's a whole lot of ums a whole lot of lights a whole lot of losing my train of thought but that's all a few part of why I started it was to show that part because social media can be so curated which is fine It's it's supposed to be your highlights real. Yeah, and I think that's something we all should remember too Like not everybody wants to cry on the internet, which is so valid But when I would talk about deeper things I liked not having to film it or record it and now

to almost keep up in the podcast world because it's so popular right now. It's really encouraged. Oh, you have to take your podcast and cut it into clips and post it on reels and post it on Tik TOK, but don't forget Snapchat and YouTube. And I'm like, Whoa, calm down. Yeah. Part of me, I go so back and forth with wanting to do that because I do want to grow the show and I want more people to be able to listen and hear the

anything that they might need to hear, want to hear. But then at the same time, it's like, that's a lot. That's a lot of trying to figure it out. And I know my cores of why I wanted to start this. And it's to have those

quiet alone conversations and not be filming and anyways it's really just we'll stay true to that and that will you know I think there are trends and with anything it's you have to be consistent and persistent and patient and I think kind of people come in and things will you know it's a lot to do it's easy to get lost if you're always chasing something that's always moving and trends are

what everybody else is doing every other influencer every other brand that's constantly going to be changing and you're always going to be racing to the top and it is so much easier to just stay in your lane exactly stay in your own lane do it the way that you feel is right and it's just so much more of an organic growth I think it might be slower might not reach as many people all at once but you will get there from being consistent and true to yourself and your own brand

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Stream on Hulu. So it's been nine years now. Yes. Yeah. And let's tell them a little bit more about how our first collection even happened, because I don't know if I even know what really sparked the conversation of doing this

like a big collaboration the way that we have internally from our side, I guess. So we knew of you and we really loved you and adored you. And I think that in this kind of sea of everyone who's around, there's a lot of not different and a lot of, I guess, speaking to what you just spoke to, people who are authentically the

And you really embodied that. You had this free spirit. You were like, I guess, a muse. And that is just, you were very strong. And it's like, you had a very core aesthetic that was divine.

just yours and not anyone else's. It was very much you. And that excited us because so when we create, we launch maybe say six collections a year. And often I come up with a story or just like a message or something, or it might be a location and that becomes the theme of the collection. And I just think it's sometimes really cool to be inspired by a person. We might be inspired by art,

might be inspired by yeah location or something but it was just really exciting to think that you were someone we really wanted to embody through our collection and share with our community and I remember getting the text from I think it was Emily who texted me and I was with my mom and I showed it to her and I was like mom

No way. I was freaking out. And to this day, I'm still like just thinking about the fact that I've had an opportunity to do something like this with a company like you guys is so amazing.

insane and mind blowing to me. It's like kind of gives me some imposter syndrome because what in the world? But I remember her showing me that text. And then I think from that point on, we got on our first call. Yeah. We talked for every time we get in a call, we chat for like two hours and we couldn't talk for so much longer, but we really go from the beginning all the way to the end. And it's given me such a wonderful look into what goes, how much

time, energy and passion and thought goes into every detail of the swimsuits that you guys create and now beyond swimsuits. Just everything

thing, every storyline, every post, every graphic, like even the creation of the products through to our customer care, through to our packaging and our warehouse and everything. There are so many little touch points. The descriptions on the website of each of the pictures and the styling, like every single detail you guys listening is...

so well thought out and it's just incredible and I can't even believe that we're doing another collection right now like it keeps hitting me yeah this is what we're here for yeah and we're yeah I don't want it to end I think it's I know yeah we're gonna have a such a great time and I love this we said when we wanted to do this again we thought like okay volume one Wild Farm Wonder of volume two

We like to say what it is. Yeah, because I think I'm going to wait until we've launched to launch this episode. So, or at least the week of. Yeah. Once people know. So it's going to be electric sunshine. I'm so excited. And I think that it was really important for me too. If you guys did miss the last collection, the goal of it was to be very much something that felt like me, but could work for everybody. There's such a variety of prints and colors and styles and shapes and colors.

and fits. I mean, everything you could imagine. There's something, if you don't even wear bikinis, you could get a t-shirt, a bag, a headband, whatever it may be. And it was really important for me to carry that on to this collection, just with a little bit of a different twist, but carry some of the same similarities. You did some nods back to your collection with the butterfly and the charms and some little details. It's just, it's been such a fun process taking it really from the beginning all the way to here and just evolving it.

And it's been wonderful. Like, I can't wait for you guys to see the prints. I'm sure by the time you're listening, you've seen them. We'll see how it all plays out. And Lexi plays such a big role. And you push us to do things that we've never done before. Yeah, I'm always like, hey, what are you?

think about this and it's always kind of risky but it works out and we meet each other so well in the middle too of like how can we do this where we stay true to us as a brand and to you as a person and I think that we do a really good job of colliding our worlds together in a way wonderful yeah it's just very special yeah I can't wait I know I'm so excited and I think that

when this, this is launching, we'll figure it out. I'll figure out the timeline when I do, but anyways, you guys, you're going to fall in love with it. You're going to be obsessed with it. And I'm really glad that you get to know now part of the story of how this all got to be here. Yeah. Thank you for letting me share this. Yeah. And I guess I wanted to ask a few, just a couple more things. Like what would you, what advice would you give somebody who wants to

do something towards chasing their dream. And I'm sure we've covered a lot of it already, but what's a couple sentences. Yeah. I think, um, I, I,

I think we've mentioned patience, persistence. I think another thing would be purpose. Love that. The three Ps. Yes. Yeah. And a point of difference is another one. Yeah. So purpose, I think ultimately it's going to be hard work. If you want to do something and it's different to what you're doing, you're going to have to move the dial and to shift towards something, it's going to require a little bit of energy. And

at the end of the day, when you might not be feeling like that you want to do it because, you know, you might have to like get back and do the emails or do something, you really need to be, have a purpose pushing you. So for me, it was that kind of

finding something that was different to what I was doing. Like I really wanted to bottle like Hawaii. And so at the end of the day, that was always there as a little reminder. So you have to have a little purpose, a little passion, something to, you can't give up something that you're doing to start something that you don't truly love or have a belief in because, or you'll just lose interest. You really have to have something that's like that's

like that little like light and the candle, you know, that even when it's burning low. Something that sparks you up inside. Yes. Yeah. So, and I love like bikinis and swimwear. I'm obsessed with swim. So that is a big thing. Yeah. It's just so passionate, you know, and point of difference. So, you know, just do something that's a little bit different to what everybody else is doing so that you stand out, whether it be whatever you want to do and just being persistent and patient. It's going to take time to do things. So, but it depends what your, you know, if your dream is to be like a runner or a singer or a master, something like,

You might not want to start a brand or do something, but whatever it is, it's probably going to require all of those things. I think most of those points apply to anything we have dreams or goals of. Showing up, even when it doesn't feel, you don't feel like showing up. It's.

It's so cool to hear your story and to be talking to you nine years later after this all began. You guys have come so far. You've built out such a wonderful team. We're here in Spain shooting a collection. Like what a dream come true. Where can everybody buy Kalani Keeney's? KalaniKeenies.com or like, you know, on our Instagram, have a look. You can shop at Insta. We're in some stores. So like in the US, like maybe Nordstrom.

Tilly's, Paxson. One thing I found so cool, and I didn't actually know this until we did our first collection. I was in California and I went into like a random little surf shop and I was like, oh my gosh, those are my swimsuits. And that was the first time I learned that you guys are in like a lot of little spots too, which is so cool. Because we find our customers kind of everywhere and she might not want to be online, especially shipping from Australia can take a little bit of time. So being in store, you get to try it on and that.

But the other thing I was going to add is that we often this whole time, and I still do it now, there's no pressure on

on the journey. So what we've become, what we're doing is just, we take it day by day. And if it all ended tomorrow, I'd just be so grateful for what the adventure was. That's so special. Yeah. If you hold that in mind with whatever you're doing, just take that pressure for yourself. I'm so excited that you got to come on and tell me a little bit more about where Kulani came from, because it just...

gave me and I'm sure all of the listeners such a different kind of love and understanding for the brand. And I think that it encouraged us all to want to support a little bit more. And to anybody who is listening, I mean, their suits go beyond how incredible the people are. They have the best swimsuits of all time. And I don't even just say that because we have collections together, but I've been wearing them since while you guys were the first PR team that ever sent me something. And I wore them.

Non-stop it was always the first suit I grabbed whether it was for tanning surfing which I think is so cool because So many of the suits you guys offer you can wear for both of those activities and that is rare where you have a suit That's like exactly. Yeah, that's hard to come by usually it's one or the other but the greatest suits the greatest people I hope that you guys all go support

this collection. I think you're going to love it. And I think that you're really, really going to be excited to see it. And you're not going to hear me shut up about it for a while. So sorry for talking your ear off. We love you, Lexi. Thank you so much for having me on. Yes, we'll do this again soon. Maybe next year. All right. Cool. Bye, guys. Bye.