I think along the way, one of the things I learned as well, another lesson I learned is don't compare your check just don't compare because it's so easy for us. Like now, it's social media to be looking at other people, or even other businesses me like, oh, how come they got this? And oh, how come they got that? And how come I don't. And he's like, you know what? Just do your thing. Stay in your lane, keep doing the good that, you know, is good. Just keep doing it. It me feel like no one notices or you're not getting anywhere but believe me, you will.
Welcome back to the purpose, affect the podcast, about purpose-driven businesses. And what we can learn about solving some of the world's biggest problems from the woman who are solving them. I am Elena Kersey, and I am on a mission to learn how we can build better work, stronger communities, a healthier Planet. If you believe there's a better world out there waiting for us, then this podcast is for you. Ceci by chemists is the founder of Earth are a social Enterprise that helps Artisans from marginalized communities. Develop sustainable income streams by using their traditional craftsmanship. To make beautiful bags and accessories in doing. So, Earth are is also preserving traditional craftsmanship and techniques in Malaysia and Beyond the goal of Earth are is actually to work themselves out of business. If Artisans have the skills, they need to access the markets for Their products themselves then they're no longer reliant on intermediaries. That's the impact that Earth are is creating. They are almost like an incubator for Malaysian Artisans, and they're also one of Malaysia's first, be corpse and are fair trade. Certified. In our chat, sassy is extremely honest about the struggle of starting and trying to grow a social Enterprise. And to be honest, a lot of the struggles, she's had been true for many of us who run businesses. It requires you to be a little bit flexible and how you define success grateful for how far you have come and proud of all of the things you have learned. So, if you're in a place in your life or your work, where you're doubting, whether you have made the right decision. Then I think this conversation will help you stay the course. And if you're contemplating stepping off course, then this conversation might give you the courage to do so. So let us get into our conversation with sussy biochemist, the founder of Earth are, but before we do, I am going to pour myself a hug in a mug with a cup of tea bird tea. I love T-bird tea and not just because the packaging is absolutely beautiful. Although it is or because the t is organic and comes in biodegradable tea bags, although it does. But because I love the way T bertie's founder Ashley cultural uses. Her business to support other businesses doing, good, Ashley partners with Brands and not-for-profits, doing good for people and Planet because she believes that, this is how you build sustainable businesses and I couldn't agree more. So if you want delicious healthy beautifully, packaged T that makes impact you can get 20% off using the code hug and a mug. 20, I would recommend the earl grey and orange. It's my favorite.
It was in my early thirties. A single and I had some savings from my finance career but returned home to Malaysia from London. And I worked with Khazana, and I was thinking that. Okay, if I did start a business, now, maybe it's a good time because if I fail, I am still young Ashish and I don't have like family and kids to support at this stage. Or why not try it. So, I was very excited but then at the same time as how do you grow a business from scratch? I was working out of my bedroom, and we had all like scarves and Earth are products like in the living room of my family home and my dad would come home from work. And you'd be like are we living in a warehouse? And then, and my dad had in, the beginning was not pleased as an Asian, father, because he was like why did you leave your job? That was paying so highly and now what are you doing with your time? And then the first year of he asked me like how much money we made and I think it was like less than a hundred thousand Ringgit, and he was like, what is the point of this? Like, you could have just worked at Khazana and donated part of your salary and that would have been more than what starting this business. You're wasting your talent or The first three years, those things were niggling in my head. Am I really doing something? That is the best? Use my talents and something that is making the most impact with my time, or should I be doing something else? We Define a lot of who we are and Society by what we do in a way and that was hard for me, but then eventually in 2013, There was no one talking about social Enterprises, like what the social Enterprise business model is in Malaysia. So a lot of my time was actually spent talking to clients explaining to them like, no, we're not an NGO, we are a business, but we work with communities that are in need, and we help them with livelihoods. So we're not asking for donations from you. We're just saying by these beautiful products. It's and that in turn. You will be helping those communities. The early years were hard. And then the first three years I couldn't be myself a salary. I was literally like, loading, all our stock into the car going from pop up to pop up. It was exhausted. I was exhausted. I just felt like a car boot sales and which is what I was.
Doing. So what kept you going? How come you didn't give up?
I specifically remember By wrote to my family. And I said, look, guys, I don't think this is cutting it. It's not working. I am going to get I think I need to shut it down. Like I just need to have a very realistic eye and be like, I did my best. I tried it. It didn't work. Shut it down and move on. But that was the time that I got the Eisenhower Fellowship, which is a fellowship where you spend seven weeks in the u.s. Meeting people in different Industries leaders to help you in your mission. So when I went to the US and I met with 24 other women from around the world who are leaders in their Industries and their workspaces and I got new ideas, I came back with freshed and I think that was by the point where things changed so that year we also won the British Council social Enterprise award. So a few things Happened at the same time. We got funding to open up a retails like a physical space so that meant that I could move out of my bedroom and move all the stock out of my house into a space where people like, I could invite people to come and be like, hey, this is what Earth are does. This is who we are. These are products, that was one. And then when I came back from the US I realized that I should be looking at B2B in addition because I was trying to do a lot of be to see, which was necessary, because no one even knew what they was or what we were doing. But we had gotten to the point where, like, after three years I was like, okay, we need to get like bulk orders. And that year my old University watching be there was the Wharton business Forum in KL that year, and they reached out to me, and they were like, hey, Hey, can you make 400 bags? Like woven bags for this forum. So I worked with one of Artisans cut Nelly, she passed away, but she was the first Malaysian Artisan that I worked with, and she initially told me that she couldn't do it. She's like Tuffy I am one person. How am I going to be 400 bags? Like we have three months, so I worked out with her. Like, this is what we're paying you. These are your material cause Is how long it takes you to leave one bag. So you actually have a profit margin of almost 50%, you can then use that 50% and you can pay other people to weave it for you and you still make money and then I realized that income that she earned making the 400 bags. Yeah. It gave her income for eight months of the year and that year, I also met Xiao qiang whose now a shareholder. She was literally at as first employee. And I remember I, when I wrote the check to pay her salary, and I was thinking like, oh dear, how am I going to manage this? Because for three years, I didn't have to pay anyone. I didn't pay myself either, then I thought. Okay, this is it, this is what you know, when things really hit the road because now I have to see if the business is going to survive, being an employee and being myself, I took a photo of myself. Self with the first paycheck that I made to myself because it was such a momentous occasion for me to be, like I could be myself a salary. What were the things that you did to the business model to try and prove that it could work on its own? How did you shift not just your mindset as but also the way you?
Constructed that business so that it could be sustainable.
Okay. So the first three years of the business, it was me educating myself. I come from Finance, I don't know anything about like how to start a retail or fashion business or design thing. I didn't even know what a line sheet was. I didn't know how to price our products. I didn't even know about brand or logo and marketing, all of this I had to learn. And so the first three years, I Hold a lot traveled in Southeast Asia, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, and India because India is the world's largest producer of handmade artisanal products and side travel, to all these countries. And I worked with different Artisans. I learned about all the different techniques and different art forms, and I learnt about what other artists and struggling with, how can I help them? So, early on, On. I became to realize that design is number one, no matter how like needy or worthy the cause is. If you don't have a well-made well-designed product, no one's going to buy it. And then number two, I realize that market access is what most Artisan struggled with. So I was like, okay, so maybe there's a role for us. Here, we can be an ethical intermediary, where we can design beautiful products, work with The Artisans, get them made, and then we then build the market for these products. And that was also when I realized it was important to both, Build a brand. It was important for us to build a credible trustworthy brand that people could especially as a social Enterprise, they could trust that what we are saying is what we do. So along the way, we started giving price transparency for like breaking down the price so that customers could understand like where is the price that you're paying. To, you know, because that's what people used to ask a lot of the times. So then we got an up, we got fairtrade certified, but then we got be cop certified. So all of these things are like, incrementally and organically done as we grow as a business, and we learned more, and we realize that, okay, these are all building blocks towards consumers, having trust in us, and for us, to share what we are. Doing in a transparent way. So, people know that we are doing what we are saying we are doing.
How did you go about building the market? I guess one piece is that education you build a market by people. Also, trusting that the products that you're making are doing what they say. You're, they're doing. You're having the impact on these Artisans and these communities that you say you're having, but how did you make them really desirable? How did you do that?
For my real name and point of view, I suppose I created products that I would like, I suppose the benefit that I had is that lived in New York, I have lived in London. So I thought if I can think that Earth are products can be placed in like a store in New York City or a store in London and that it would be admired and it would be valued highly. So I tried to have that as my bar. And so whenever we design products, I wanted the products to be very high quality. And then the second, you know, as I mentioned earlier, was about awareness and education. So, in 2014, when I suppose 2013, yeah, is when the Rana Plaza collapse happened and 2014? I got in touch with Cary, Summers Isle fashion Revolution, and I messaged them and I said, look, I want to bring the fashion Revolution movement into Malaysia because I want people to understand why it's important for them to think about who are the humans behind the products that they buy because already then the whole Eco movement and the green movement was gathering momentum, which was fantastic, but then I was like, I don't feel like people are considering the humans the Whole side of thing. We can't just have an environmentally friendly product, but not think about the people in the factories that I am making these products. I brought in fashion Revolution and then helping people understand why ethical fashion matters. And of course along with this, we got more and more media coverage, or we were featured in like radio stations, TV press. And so I think all of this help. Help create a market and it helped raise awareness about sustainability about ethical products. And so we started getting more and more inquiries. And the thing is like, my desire personally has always not been about growing a for myself or what we do yappy. My vision is always been about. If we don't grow the ecosystem, then When everyone is going to fail. So it's not about, yeah, me sassy by Kim is, or Earth are growing, but it's about us working together with all the other social Enterprises. Everyone else was speaking for sustainability, all of us need to work together and realize that it's not a zero-sum game. So if you grow, I grow. So we make the pie bigger for everybody.
We talked about sort of ethical fashion. Ian and making fashion, sustainable pricing fashion at the right level. But what about circularity, is there anything that you're doing in that space? So.
From the beginning sustainability has been a very key point in what we do. And when I started working with cotton Ali, I had a choice to make because Artisans like cotton, Ellie we're using plastic strips to make their bags. And a lot of their reason was because it's very hard to source for the natural fibers, like Britain or bamboo and the natural Fibers were getting harder and harder to go to the jungle and get or by. So the women, use the plastic strips is an alternative. So I was thinking like oh dear, I want to help this community and I want to help cut nearly, but then they're making, they're using a raw material, that could be harming the environment and it's not recycled. And what is happening, what is going to happen with these bags at the end of its useful life. So that was the only Product that we had that was using non biodegradable or non recyclable materials at that point in time. So I had been searching until I met SeaMonkey project. And finally enough, I married the founder of, if I keep project. And now Carlos is my husband. That's amazing. So, that's actually how we met because I saw them at a social Enterprise in bed, and I went up to them, and I was like, hey guys, I have this. Bag and it's made out of plastic and it stresses me out that it's made out of plastic. Can you please help me figure out how to recycle this bag into something that is usable? So it doesn't go into the landfill and that's how it started. So now we work with sea monkey project and all of our permanent bags that are no longer usable. And we highly encourage our clients to return the bags to us, and we are working with the hive and helping None. So any pain on bags that are no longer usable? Please, don't throw them away. Return it to.
Yours. Yeah, even if they're not always yeah, absolutely. Any bag that this you made out of this plastic recycling strips? We will take them, and we then pay SeaMonkey project to make them into new products, so we can make things like pots. Rulers, fridge, magnets cold Seems so at least it's reused in a functional way and it doesn't go into landfill. So this was closing the loop for me on Earth are products because these bags were used to stress me out because it was like do I help the women because if I don't you buy the bags, or I don't design the bags with them, and we don't purchase them, they don't get an income, I had to balance the human and the social side with the environmental side. And, so I decided to do the social side first, and then I found a way to solve the environmental side and time.
It feels like we're at this moment where we have to rethink the way. We have designed everything, the way we produce everything from our food systems to our consumer goods, to the way, we travel, to the way, we build businesses in order to create the impact and to make all businesses circular, we have to rethink the way we have been making. I am everything as someone who's worked in many other kinds of businesses, both pre earth air and also now has your work with Earth are kind of change the way you do business in other areas.
Absolutely has changed my life. I didn't think.
I found your husband. Yeah.
I found my husband and also it is, it's it became something that I didn't expect it to go because as I started growing at and then I became an entrepreneur, I didn't have a social media presence, really before I started because I am pretty private. And Then I don't really post very much but then I started realizing that. Oh okay. Wait, you're an entrepreneur now, you represent something you stand for something. And if you want to grow this cause and help people be more aware, but all why, all of this matters, you need to speak out and you need to develop a presence and that was hard for him. Always remember where you came from and why you started this and why you're doing it for And make sure you remain humble because don't let things get your head and I think that is something for all entrepreneurs as your business grows and more people know about you and you go for events and people are like oh yeah I know you are heard about you. I bought your products or whatever. Select your like. Oh that's very kind and it's very nice and you have to make sure that you don't become like Defeated. If that makes sense. And, so I had to remind myself many times along the journey as well that this is about in the people that were helping. It's not about me. And now, Ten Years Later with it has taught me so much. I have grown so much in terms of my own personal character because the person that I was when I left my corporate, It jobs is very different from the person that I am now, you know, as an entrepreneur or as a social entrepreneur, you have to mentally prepare yourself. That there is a Reality Bites side to it, that your lifestyle has to change. And, and of course, that took time as well for me. And I think it does for every entrepreneur every social entrepreneur, because you have to, you get used to different ways of living. Different things that you can afford, you know, because before I could go wrong holiday anywhere, I want it. Now I get to travel when people pay me to speak, you know, I mean, so I was like, yeah, there are things that I lost. But there are things that I gained in different ways and the things that I lost came back to me in different ways. So I may not be able to afford the same trips that I was able to do before, but I get to experience new countries and holidays. In a different way because of what I am doing at there.
Do you have any ideas on ways that we can level the playing field a little bit more? I mean for social business. Do you have any ideas on how we can direct wealth more responsibly?
I suppose in this social Enterprise space? One of the things that I have been preaching to all the different agencies that have been looking at Social Enterprises was actually Market access for social. It says, you know, because being in this space there so many beautiful products that I see different ngos and social Enterprises and Community Civil Society organizations like making, but nobody knows about them. So that's why I have taken matters into my own hands, and I am like, I am going to do it, you know, so we're going to do the store so in a way that one is awareness, right? Number two, at The policy side. One of the things that we have been pushing for is social procurement. No. Because if the government can include in their procurement and it was announced in several budget during prime minister najib time. It was announced by that goes after all. He was Minister Finance, but that there is going to be social procurement, where government agencies and Ministries. We have to procure from social Enterprises and Then there was also it was also what was also promoted was to give social Enterprises like a tax break. Because sometimes I am like, hey, like a solar panel company gets tax break for 10 years and I find I know they are investing billions in the country. But what about us? We're also helping communities in and marginalized peoples in Malaysia that the government is not able to help necessarily. So we're helping them. So we are providing a service as well. So giving us a tax break. Break will help so that what we are working on the policy side to like, you know, because social Enterprises we don't want free money. We're not asking for bronze, which we just want people to buy our products because the more that people buy our products, the more sales we make and the more Artisans and refugees and communities, we can help. So we're actually just asking for people to buy. So, the next step is also like we have been In with a couple of other social Enterprises, we want to like work with Porsche bike. Get companies to satisfy the ESG where there s the social side of the ESG. They can fulfill part of that by buying from social Enterprises and working with Social Enterprises. So this is how I feel like we can redistribute things, and we can scale and help social Rises.
Grow, do you measure the impact? Your B Corp. So I guess you must have to. But do you measure the impact that Earth are is making on the communities? You work with. And can you share a little bit about what that's been to?
Date? Sure. So this is one of the things that I used to struggle with, because when we were a small team, or in fact, when I was alone, I like when I spoke to impact investors, they're like oh, you need to measure impact, and I was like, oh so You want me to measure my impact or do you want me to run my business and make it operational and actually successful? So in the early years like we didn't we weren't able to measure much else other than how much money we have contributed to the Artisans. But we worked with a fellow from the US, he sat down with us, and he was like, look, let me think through, let us really look at what is your impact? And we then realize that our impact is not about just how much we're buying from Artisans. All right, Earth, as impact is how much training and Independence. We are creating for The Artisans that we work with. So we started measuring our training hours and the time that we spend with The Artisans, because our vision, as a business, has been to no longer exist, because If we can help train The Artisans that we work with on how to price their products, how to design, good products, how to develop proper production systems when they get a large order, and they can communicate with clients directly. They don't need a thing anymore. So, Part of what we trained Artisans to do is all of these things. So, when we work with the new artist in group, or we make a new product, it takes us between six months to like, sometimes one year to two years to train the artists. Like when I first worked with cut Nelly, she hung up on me, please, she has shouted at me. She has stopped talking to me. It was almost like a Boyfriend/Girlfriend relationship. I like out. Then, she would stop talking to me. And I would be like, I will call her and be like cotton, any please talk to me, please answer my messages because she was pissed at me because I would tell her be, like, Cup, this bag that you have just made is not good enough. The drawing I gave you say, decide to be 10 cm but your bag is 8 feet. Again, I cannot sell this bag or so. Part of that was Teaching The Artisans that they need to make consistent quality products and like just helping them understand that took a long time. And so building that took a long time like training all the artisans in the communities that we work with to realize that they can't just make whatever they feel like and expect us to sell it. Oh, we're creating a product. Line. And so, the product has to be somewhat consistent, people are expecting the bag to look pretty similar. And to do that, we need Artisans to understand that and be able to produce. So we had to teach them how to create tools and materials to be able to produce more consistent designs. And so, all of this took years, you know, and to me, that is our impact the That, you know, before cut Nelly passed away, she had her own shop that had grown, she had trained her daughter, she had trained all her relatives or and now, like, even though she's no longer here her daughter and her sister are running the business and it's still going strong and it's still feeding their family. So, we don't always have the means to be able to measure the exact impact of all of that. But we do try and portray the stories as much as we can of how it has changed the lives of the communities that we work with that is our real impact as a business is that we can train and help our decisions so that they can fly away from us. And the more that fly away from us and the more independent they get, the more, that means we have been successful in what we're doing. It's a really interesting way to measure it and I think such an important point, but also a very different way of doing business. The fact that actually your goal is to work yourself out of the business because that's where the true impact lies. I want to move on to some of the lessons of this journey for you. I am sure a lot of entrepreneurs, not just social entrepreneurs, but all kinds of entrepreneurs may be particularly.
No one's come to you for advice. Is there something that you can't lie? Tell them.
Oh, now that I call this and I got married in September last year, and.
Thank you. And I will just say it, I am 44. So I got married when I was 43 and on a per. So I was just actually talking to my sister's about this morning. That The 10 years of running Earth are there was a struggle inside me. My personal life was not where I wanted it to be, because I have always dreamt of having a family and having children. And but Earth are professionally on the outside was like, doing well and people would come up to me and be like, oh, it is doing so well. I see you in the magazine. Congratulations. And I would smile. But on the inside, I was struggling because.
Really want to settle down and I never thought that, you know, when I got to age 39, I got panicked and I actually went to freeze my eggs because I was like, oh wait, I still haven't met anyone yet. So one of the things I started doing now is speaking to my female friends and women that may follow me on social media. Whatever and encouraging them to freeze their egg? It is expensive, I feel but it is an investment that you're making or for many years in the future. I was speaking to a number of my friends who are like you know 3435 or early 30s, and they are lawyers, they are successful entrepreneurs, and they were telling me like oh, I am too busy. I am running my business, I don't have time. And I was like, hey, that's where I was too, and I am telling you, from where I am now. Learn from my mistakes, freeze, your eggs earlier because the quality of your eggs will be much better. And now I am going through like the IVF process and I suppose my advice to women would be like yes, we want to be like I suppose like men and be like killer entrepreneurs or whatever but you also have to recognize that we are women and if you know you don't want to have a child, that's great. But if you do want to, you do want to have a child or you're thinking of a family in the future, think about it now and invest in it in the same way that you would invest in your career.
I hear that advice often. My mother gave me the same advice. She didn't need to worry about me specifically because I have two children. I was 31 when they were born but it's does. To the fact that the messaging that I had when I grew up was that women can have it all, we're at this point where we can have it all, but we can't all at the same time and yes, I have a wonderful husband and beautiful family, and I am thankful for that every day. But to have that, I took quite a big step back, career-wise. And I am only now. Kind of jumping back in and starting my own business and that's hard as well. It also creates an identity crisis. So, thank you for sharing that because I think it's important that we talk about the fact that what you see on the outside can be very different from what's going on, you know, in the home internally how we're feeling about things and that success doesn't mean having all of these things, successful professionally, Do you know, married to a beautiful family children, all by the age of.
35. Absolutely. If you plan for it and you invest in it, you can't have all of those things but not necessarily at the same time and maybe not in the way you pictured. Absolutely. It's also I guess about encouraging that flexibility. Yes. I mean in I supposed my own journey of sort of meeting my husband. You know, like you know, when your younger, you're pretty video. Tease I read you have this sort of like it major a vision of like the kind of partner on man that you want. And now I look back at that, and I am like oh my gosh I was so shallow.
Possibly as in it's probably Aid and I think starting a and then like I think my dad passed away in 2019 and that was a turning point in my life as well. It's Switched something in me because I realized that hey the people that you love, you don't know how long they're going to be with you. So you better appreciate every moment that you have with them and that I think it's after my dad passed away that I remember like mean, I pray and I saw I was praying and I asked God and I said help me to meet a kind man. I said, I just want One thing I just want him and kind it and so that was what I was looking for. And in the end you know I met someone that is a fellow social entrepreneur, kind intelligent and everything that I had hoped for. But if I had my original sort of criteria of looking for a husband, I would have never met Carlos. I think, along the way, one of the things I learned as well, another lesson I learned Is don't compare your journey. Just don't compare because it's so easy for us. Like now, it's social media to be looking at other people, or even other businesses me like, oh how come they got this? And oh, how come they got that? And how come I don't. And he's like, you know what, just do your thing stay in your lane keep doing the good that, you know, is good. Just keep doing it. It may feel like no one notices or You're not getting anywhere. But believe me, you will. And when you look back, you will see that all the good that you did have ended up with something that you never expected. I don't think success comes in that cookie cutter form anymore and I think everybody defines success differently for themselves. And I think that's what it should be. As long as you are, happy and fulfilled and satisfied with what you're doing. And It's not what Society thinks it's success. Who cares? You know? It's yours too old.
I also think. You made this point about how even if nobody sees what you're doing, keep doing it because these things, all of these dots of your lives. When You Look Backwards, you see how they're all connected. Even though, when you're in the thick of it, you're not sure you feel like, maybe you should give up, maybe this is not the best use of your talents, but when you look back, that every step you take kind of prepared you for the next one. Exact next one. It only makes sense. In hindsight. And so, as these dots kind of line up for you, what's the next step for Earth?
Are this year? I am so excited that in our 10th year, we are going to make a.com, a website, as a One-Stop, shop for social Enterprise and impact products made in Malaysia. So it's not going to be just products from, are it's going to be products from. Don, ôt, from Earthly, from many different social Enterprises and ngos and Artisans and refugees in Malaysia. And we're going to start with a retail shop which we code developing with SeaMonkey project. So we're hoping to move there in July, it's 7,500 square feet space where Earth is going to have our retail shop. See Sea-Monkeys going to have their plastic recycling Workshop or end. We're going to have a sustainability education space. So we want it to be a hub where people can come and learn about social Enterprises about impact products about sustainability and why all of this matters. So we want it to be like a hub for sustainability and impact product impact education.
That's awesome. Not For consumers, right? It's also I think a really interesting Initiative for this next wave of entrepreneurs and professionals who are going to work in this space and really.
Exactly with all of these lessons that you have learned. Do you have an and now that you have kind of arrived at like another turning point, I suppose where you're-evaluating what are the hopes for the next phase? Not just for your for you personally. But also So, for the way this social Enterprise ecosystem, will develop.
Yesterday. Someone laughed at me, they're like, oh, you say you want to work on your personal life and start a family. But here you are now moving into a new place and setting up a new retail shops. I guess is entrepreneurs. You kind of you can't really settle down, you know, you're always looking for like or how else, or what else can we do. You to grow this and that's what it is, you know, it's like I feel passionate about the space. I feel like this is my purpose, you know, that my purpose is this and therefore, it doesn't matter how much or how little I am learning or what's going on in my life? I still want to be balled. It's like my baby and it's what I love doing, you know. Obviously personally I like to mean I have children. I have a daughter and a son from my husband. If we don't have our own child I am very happy with my life, you know. So that on the personal front and on the business side, I am really excited to sort of like what I feel is like a linchpin moment for me and for that to be able to like bring together everybody in the ecosystem. One plate. I mean of course it's not going to be everybody because we only have so much space. So we're going to try and represent as many Brands and social Enterprises and impact products as we can, you know. But my dream is like Earth air.com, you know? Because there were not limited by the amount of space we have that. It can become like a One-Stop shop for social Enterprises and amazing cause X and brand to meet new clients to grow their Market. That, you know, one day, they may not need us anymore, you know, and for consumers, that they can find the products that they want buying one space rather than having to go to like, multiple websites and buy separately. So, I suppose in a way like that sort of like our next stage of being the ecosystem. Builder for Market access.
Before we wrap things up, I just want to ask, is there anything else about Earth are.com the retail space or the website that you want to talk about or promote? Or is there a launch date coming up that you want to shout?
About? Well we just got the keys last, we do this piece over still working on it, but we're hoping to sort of move in first week of July which is not far away, and We do like a soft launch in July. Yeah, I am very excited because the space is also very exciting because where we are next to Central Market, there's a revitalization and Revival in that whole downtown KL area. It's almost like what happened in Georgetown in Penang is happening in KL and, you know, so I am also very excited to be working in that part of town. All of their life collaborations and Partnerships that we will be able to develop. And, you know, I really hope that the space becomes a space where even marginalized communities can come and use the space and social Enterprises in. Malaysia can come and do workshops and talks, and they can do trainings are so it can really become a hub for people to learn and me. Meet with people who are doing good in this.
World. I am very excited to see it when it opens, thank you so much for your time, so I will see, I really enjoyed this conversation and thank you for being so honest you know like really refreshingly honest about the challenges but also what the successes feel.
Like sure. Thank you. Thank Selena.
I was actually feeling a little bit stuck when I had this conversation with sassy. I was trying to work through a challenge around pricing with my podcast agency business. So if you're a pricing strategist or you work in an agency I would love to hear from you, but I was really doubting if I had what it takes to make this business succeed and this conversation with sassy really reframed, my perspective, it allowed me to think. This challenge is just that, just something I had to work through, not an indication of failure, not an indication that it's never going to work. So I hope that it helps you to reframe difficult moments in your own life. To next week, I will be talking to Becky Fox. A sustainable business Mentor, who started a million-dollar purpose, LED business at the tender age of 25 with absolutely no money. We're talking about how you can build businesses that Make money and do good too so you will hear from me then. Bye.