Cassandra Thurswell on The Power of Micro-Intentions
Feb 18, 2025
auto_awesome
Cassandra Thurswell, founder and CEO of Kitsch, shares her inspiring journey of building a successful beauty brand from humble beginnings. She candidly discusses her early failures and the pivotal role customer feedback played in her success. Cassandra emphasizes the significance of resilience, self-confidence, and engaging with customers to create viral products. Additionally, she explores unconventional business strategies like remote work and the concept of micro-intentions for personal growth, all while staying committed to sustainability and accessibility.
Cassandra Thurswell's journey reflects resilient entrepreneurship, showcasing how failures can foster valuable insights for eventual success in business.
By engaging directly with customers, Cassandra innovated hair accessories that resonated emotionally, demonstrating the power of authentic customer connections in product development.
The practice of micro intentions, like future journaling, emphasizes a proactive mindset and collective positivity as essential for achieving entrepreneurial goals.
Deep dives
Time as Luxury
Time is regarded as the ultimate luxury, and how one spends it is crucial. The conversation emphasizes making every moment count, whether that's during commutes or leisure. An example given is the Polestar 3, an electric SUV designed with features that cater to enhancing your driving experience, such as 3D surround sound and a minimalist aesthetic. This perspective urges listeners to reflect on the quality of their time and experiences, especially those that feel luxurious.
The Journey of Entrepreneurship
Cassandra Thurswell's entrepreneurial journey is highlighted as emblematic of resilience and determination. She emphasizes the importance of recognizing that entrepreneurs often embody an innate drive to create and serve. Starting with small ventures that taught her valuable lessons, Cassandra eventually founded Kitsch without seeking outside funding. Her experiences through initial failures fostered a unique understanding of her market, empowering her to successfully build her brand.
Building Kitsch from Scratch
Kitsch began with Cassandra making products by hand and engaging with customers directly, which cultivated her passion for service. This hands-on approach allowed her to develop a deep understanding of her target audience. She recognized the lack of satisfactory hair accessories in the market and responded by innovating with simple yet effective designs. Cassandra's journey reflects how authentic customer interactions can lead to impactful product development and brand loyalty.
Learning from Failures
Cassandra reflects on her previous business failures, explaining how they contributed to her eventual success with Kitsch. Initial attempts included a gift shop and an online clothing store that did not resonate with customers, teaching her the value of genuine feedback. The realization that her previous ideas lacked a personal connection pushed her to pivot towards creating products that were not only functional but also emotionally resonant. Ultimately, these experiences shaped her understanding of effective entrepreneurship and customer relationships.
Micro Intentions for Success
The concept of micro intentions emerges as a key practice for fostering a positive mindset and achieving entrepreneurial goals. Cassandra shares her technique of writing future journal entries to visualize success and cultivate the feelings associated with it. This practice highlights the importance of maintaining a proactive mental attitude toward personal and professional aspirations. Additionally, she emphasizes collective positive thinking, encouraging team-building activities that promote shared goals and intentions.
In this episode of The goop Podcast, Gwyneth Paltrow sits down with Cassandra Thurswell, founder and CEO of Kitsch, to talk about how seven failed business attempts, a handful of handmade hair ties, and a one-paragraph business plan led her to building a global beauty empire. Thurswell shares the unfiltered realities of bootstrapping, the secret to creating viral products, and the mindset shifts that kept her going—all while staying true to her brand’s mission of accessibility, sustainability, and innovation.