Meet Natalie Kathleen | Founder & Creative Director of Jibs Footwear

We had the good fortune of connecting with Natalie Kathleen and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Natalie, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Q1: What was your thought process behind starting here on business?

A: Well, this being my second business the thought process was quite different and somewhat natural. I had started my first business at the age of 21, a handbag leather goods company while I lived in my hometown in Vancouver Canada. This business brought me 10 years of absolute excitement, challenge and adventure with manufacturing across multiple global destinations, and an enjoyable excuse to relocate to New York City as headquarters. This background is quite fitting as the shoes which became known as a Jib was, let’s say, conceived at a dining dining table in Vancouver while I was visiting some friends for the weekend. With eight of us sitting around, all catching up with our lifelong friend who had recently moved back to his homeland of Brazil, he put a shoebox on the table and asked who is a size 7? Very quickly, as I shot my hand up, the rest of the girls around the table soured their faces and said “that’s not fair, those are super cute sneakers and Natalie only wears 5 inch heels!” Jump forward a couple weeks where I wore this pair of navy blue perforated leather slip-on shoes up and down the WestSide Highway of Manhattan in hot humid August and it was when the third person stopped me and said “hey, I’ve seen those shoes in Brazil, but those are much cuter, more chic. I definitely want a pair.” My inner lightbulb went off. This simple, insanely comfortable yet gracefully chic little sneaker was the perfect vehicle for me to write my next business story, to share my zest for life and travel and adventure with people literally stepping inside it.

Q2: Do you have a budget? How do you think about your personal finances and how do you make lifestyle and spending decisions?

A: Ha ha I assume this question is about a personal budget because without a business one, there’s no way I’d be sitting here 8 year later with Jibs’ lights on! And yes, in the many years of growing business, my budget has varied including back in the early New York years my friends were often shocked at how I could activity fill all moment in a whole week and literally spend under $100 on everything while still socializing every evening and all weekend – actually thinking about it, I’m surprised I was able to do that. Maybe I should practice that again! And jokes aside, yes, as a family we use YNAB budgeting app, it’s been amazing. For at least the last five years, we’ve monitored every single dollar we spend and use this to analyze and forecast our cash flow. With a healthy appetite for enjoying life to its fullest, keeping our eyes open to all expenses makes sure we’re saving enough, investing enough and everything in between.

Q3: Risk-taking: how do you think about risk what role hasn’t taken rest played in your life/career?

A: I love taking risks. It could be my upbringing, playing every ball sport possible striving for the home run over a safe first base punt, or simply it could be just the natural adrenaline that flows through my body. I’m definitely the type of person who says “why not?“ when pondering a new idea. I’m also pretty good at fixing up my mistakes. This is something that has improved due to necessity over the years as I can also be pretty hard on myself. As my natural ability to say yes and try things without overthinking means I often try many times before I succeed. Therefore, I really do believe my ability to take risks is directly tied to my tenacity to keep trying – and to know that if things don’t work out the first time I can try again and again until I get to my destination.

Q4: Where are you from and how did your background for impact you are today?

A: I was born in a super super small town, the one that you know because it proudly has a gas station you may stop at midway on a road trip, outside Vancouver, Canada then raised in a commuter city with my dad working hard so we could push the limits and better each summer car trip holiday we planned all year for. We definitely were a family that made every moment fun. I’m pretty sure my mom still has Tupperware containers of every single piece of artwork from holidays including painted Easter eggs and anything else that could be used to spruce up the festive moments year-round. I definitely had dreams of playing softball for the Olympics, which I got super close to with participating in Olympic youth programs, and I was never one to shy away from putting my worth ethic to challenge with showing up to school super early to lead the social government team and then spend my lunch hours hosting the Price Is Right or Who Wants to be a Millionaire, student cafeteria version. I found myself struggling with how best to spend my time between all the outdoor athletic endeavors (snowboarding became a huge passion as I got into my late teen years) and full days with my head buried into my sewing machine and pattern making, creating the clothes that I would wear for summer holidays.

Q5: What is the most important factor behind your success/success of your brand?

A: challenging to pinpoint just one action item/belief… However, that would probably be my desire for adventure mixed with an engrained trust that I’m following the right path for myself. That combination is the magic that drives me, the without-question motivation to jump out of bed in the morning and keep taking steps towards my goals. My brand Jibs has lived many lives, in its quick/long eight years I feel as an individual I’ve continually reinvented myself, and as a brand, we’ve reinvented ourselves numerous times, however, at the core of both, the true values and beliefs always stay the same. Being mindful of all of this, I know that when things are tough it’s time to hold on tighter, and when things are great to celebrate even more.

Q6: What value or principal matters most to you why?

A: My four guiding principles are honesty, challenge, intimacy, and pleasure. Not in any particular order, with a variety of combinations that play well in different ways at different times. Intimacy is one I’m paying attention to right now with Jibs. As we’ve expanded and grown, some of the beautiful action items that I took in the early days have slowed down, and are being exchanged with others that help scale more efficiently. And I can see that sometimes this must occur in order to evolve the business, however, some of those quirky unique Natalie traits I’m pulling back out of hibernation. My “CEO emails”, where I personally emailed every single customer with my CEO footer, celebrating their purchase and curiously (aka snoopily) asking how they heard about us has built some of my closest friendships, our best partnerships, and simply my own greatest personal joy in what I do. So, as we are larger now and I can’t sit in front of my emails speaking to Sally from the Nebraska and Mark from Tahoe, I am systemizing the action while dedicating appropriate time in my week to review the responses and keep those close relationships with who matters most, the who of why I do this, our customer.

Q7: Work life balance: how has your balance changed over time? How do you think about the balance?

A: That’s a perfectly timed question! My work life balance has been challenged to the extreme as of the last year. And really, I’m not complaining, as I believe that I am not the only one that is going through this, or has or will go through this, moment of having a first “business“ baby and welcoming in a real life mini version of themselves into their world. Here I was, thinking that comparing the endless important tasks necessary to grow a business into a single day took rocket science, and now that I’ve been so gratefully gifted a little girl to raise and share my time with, there’s a whole new meaning to multitasking – and really a desire to be present in every moment is of even more importance. That’s probably why, to be fair to myself, I have struggled in the last months on how to be kind to myself during this time. I am naturally a person who wants to do everything, and do it all perfectly. And perfect is not even an option at this point in my journey. So I’ve been working on being softer to the results of my decisions, and to reflect more often to see when I need to edit those decisions on how I manage my time. I’m learning that this is different for every person, every working mama, working father, caregiver, multi-hyphenated career person and each on our own we need to find this rhythm that’s right for us. I thank all those living, working, playing beside me in this moment for their grace, as I find harmony in being my best individual self who is equally a fantastic mother as an inspiring business leader.

Q8: What is the end goal? Where do you want to be professionally by the end of your career?

A: Oh, that’s a hard one. I really don’t like to look at the end. I do prefer to look at the current moment, or maybe a few steps ahead so let’s start with that. My end is probably 100 years old and I’ve got a lot to go before I get there, a lot to learn and a lot of open opportunities that will come in front of my path. So for that magic 1, 3, 5, 10 year plan I am pretty excited to push myself even further that I’ve achieved yet with what I consider success. With this being my second company, I feel like I’ve gotten around to pretty much back to where the end goal of round one was – what lies ahead is exactly that nervous, fearful, and equally goosebumps thrilling test test out new tactics moment in order to spread the Jibs “juice“ with as many life, loving souls, and souls across the US and really this planet. Break that down, I’ve already witnessed the beautiful, snowball effect that happens after a single person, slips of feet into a pair of Jibs and their eyes light up their wide smile feeling the comfort and ease of their new favorite shoes – let alone, once they learn about our sustainability efforts, and our-lead-by-example beliefs that life is to be adventurously enjoyed and celebrated, they want to share that with more and more people. My job is to facilitate this flowing further by building partnerships with other vibrant brands that have already established an aligned presence, to offer more mini-moments of enjoyment to like minded people through our social media and our community events, to collaborate with other inspiring individuals to tell their stories of the power behind their journeys. To have people walk down the street and see another pair of Jibs look up and have a side smile at each other knowing that there’s more than likely a kind person taking those steps is the reward that I’m looking for.

Q9: why did you pursue an artistic or creative career?

A: The variety of every day and every project; the curiosity feeding environments I find myself in; the tactical making of things that physically live in the world… It’s truly the lifestyle of a living and breathing creative adventure that drew me into the space, and keeps me desiring for more.

Q10: Tell us about a book you read and why you like it/what impact it had on you?

A: I love my bookshelf. I thoroughly enjoy every moment that I dedicate to reading and learning and growing – and also to getting lost in some pretty good silly chick literature books as well! A recently gifted book, well thought out, which I am reading at this moment is Adam Grant’s Think Again. In my personal life, at the current moment of evolution, I find myself eager to reevaluate and observe where I’m currently at in my business life, what I really really do enjoy and where I could really go further. This book is inspiring me to refresh my love for uncertainty, rethinking and taking a scientific approach (which, I am definitely less naturally the scientific type, much more of the gut thinker!) to set up recipes for achieving my goals. Being OK with saying I don’t know the answer, and I look for new possibilities and ask her for help, and I can see already and allow myself to get into the vulnerable spaces, which I know are magic moments that lead to great opportunities that I may not even know existed yet

.What should our readers know about your business?
Hi I’m Natalie Kathleen (aka @natkathleen, born Nat The Brat, now the Shoe Woman who used to be the Handbag Girl) riding front seat to one heck of a journey through this thing called life.

Some count themselves in years. I choose to count myself in milestones and celebrations. Why not, if we make our own rules (nothing too crazy now) then we can have fun keeping inside the lines too.

This would be why at age 21 I’d already proven my millennial-ism (a very last in that herd to be specific) by dipping my toes in 4 careers…. pizza waitress turned Aussie scuba dive master, turned Whistler snowboard instructor (while waitressing in evenings to save up for next travels!), turned Foxtons real estate agent (in London baby), turned Cosmo Magazine advertising executive. All before I discovered my crazy love for proving to myself that anything is possible.

From tomboy outdoor enthusiast, to confronting a curiosity in fashion, I’ve always been one to convert a ‘Can I do this?’ to ‘Well I only know if I try!’. This no holds back approach led me to make a leather handbag on my kitchen counter, pitch it to the local fashion magazine (shout out to VanMag) fashion director and negotiate with a handful of ma and pop boutiques to buy them. Lucky for me, and for them as sales out the gate we’re great, my rough plan worked and thus was born my first brand Sienna Ray & Co..

Ten years in I’d moved production from my own two hands, to local sewers, to New York’s garment district, to LA’s luxury leather works and through to China’s (surprisingly to me) detailed craftsmanship and hilarious quality control procedures (save this for another time) I was selling leather wallets, Fanny packs, clutches and “Milfie” mom/baby bags to the masses. Well – not quite, sold a lot however through the recession and being bootstrapped with limited resources I eventually hit a wall. My last hooray of a pop up shop on Mott & Prince in SoHo (next to the celeb dropping cafe Gitane) was good for the ego yet not good for the health.

Between making the city that never sleeps a reality, networking from gym to brunch to bar (on daily repeat), as my self-made industry community was growing my mind and body hit a wall. The business wasn’t very profitable and my hamster wheel mentality wasn’t solving the inefficiencies.

They say timing is everything. Also knowing when to take a time out can reap rewards. Luckily (FYI luck only reaps the benefits when doing the work is behind it, it does not fall on doorsteps) for me, my resilience to keep positive found a niche to translate the creative business growth skills I’d learnt into consulting other hopeful entrepreneurs on their journeys.

Ok so Jibs. Long story long, thank you for listening, I found myself at the right place (dinner table in Vancouver) at the right time (after a good chunk of hours hustling brand and network building) with the right people (hosted by Jonas, my friend who is like family, from Brazil with a generation family history in footwear) as a shoebox was opened and my answer to the question “Who is a size 7?” was ME!

Little did I know inside that box was a) a take on a traditional Brazilian beach sneaker (noting that while this part of my NYC grinding life I was known as the girl who wore fierce high heels everywhere she went) and b) my immediate joke of ‘oh I’ll for sure where them to yoga and back, and who knows maybe they’re meant to be in Manhattan…’ turned literal as I ended up daily speeding up and down the west side highway on my bicycle soon to capture the commentary of many fun-loving sports fans wanting in on this easy breezy Brazilian perforated leather sneaker-shoe action 🙂

Again, always a journey, which I love to share (as you can tell and listen further here and here for the longer podcast versions) and which I’ll cut short finally so you can get back to shopping – don’t forget I am a business woman at heart!

Now a few years into the building life of Jibs I’m only just getting started. We (at times this has been the Royal We) have an incredible team who keep me on my toes (I feel strongest when I’m in a room of people who are confidently excelling in their unique talents) and who believe in themselves as much as our greater mission. Which ironically is: by taking care and being good to yourself, you radiate good to those around you.

Imagine if we all woke up and went to bed with a smile on our faces. Imagine you’re six years old at Disneyland running around to collect an autograph from Goofy – or even right now, at your current age, during that omg I’m on vacation, this is an amazing week a year when a lightness takes over you.

It’s contagious. Inwards and outwards. Try thinking of your favorite holiday moment from last summer? Feels good right, edges of your lips curling, your mind glowing, step is getting a little lighter?… then you look at the person next to you (honestly try this next time you’re in line at the grocery store!) and watch their eyes and face and body lighten up, then if it’s really genuine they pass it onto the next… see where I’m getting at – so simple and so fun!

Full circle back to my just getting started comment. The contagious smile can lead to the power of hello, don’t worry, not much more difficult, but it does involve opening your mouth and being kind. Like saying ‘hello, how are you?’, then waiting for the response and actually recognizing the other person’s presence. Ground-breaking. No, not really, however it’s a rare occurrence these days. Let’s do our best to fix this. A little care could go a long way these days in our communities and to our general global well-being.

There I said it. Global Well Being. I like that. Our kids kids’ will benefit from that.

Achievable end goal of an enjoyable journey in a Jibs filled life.

Why is all this important to me? No, Jibs are not going to change the world. However if they make you feel like you’re on vacation for one minute of the day and that genuine smile is caught by another present person who passes it on and thinks in a positive manner while faced with a tough decision during the day (such as ‘paper or plastic?’) they may simply veer towards a decision that benefits themselves and others, rather than our current society norm to carry on, head down with little concerns for the beauty around them.

Let’s do it together, foot in front of (Jibs wearing) foot, smile like we know the simple secret to the contagious moment of feeling good. #stepintogood #jibsjourney

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
My must-see-and-do Miami list after a year hear picking up a few local tips:

* Bars:
* Living Room @ Faena, the full glitz and glam (and $$$ to match) of the beach with a very south American extravagance vibe, sometimes only entrance with guest list, go early or book dinner at one of their restaurants and have them get you in
* Bodega, speakeasy/bar behind the street side taco shop
* Standard, only actual restaurant / bar that is on the water in Miami, also a great spa, this time of year beautiful sunsets and often dolphin spotting
* Really any design hotels along the Collins 17-25th streets have great lounges/bars/restaurants; often $$ yet added value in Miami people watching
* Restaurants:
* Stiltsville, in Sunset Harbor, more of a local haunt (until a recent NY Times article) this is an amazing fish restaurant
* Meat Market, my fav steak place / people watching on Lincoln Road which is not super tacky tourist
* Juvia and Chotto Matte, first is a rooftop and other is hidden gem
* Books & Books, an actual great bookstore and also really good lunchtime salads, also on Lincoln with a tacky drinks menu yet totally stand behind their salads
* Tony’s Sushi, by far the best sushi on the beach, high quality, not tourist, not fancy yet still costly as so so fresh, also good for pick-up
* Time Out Market, new food hall, must visit so many options and very well done
* Swan, one of the latest “it” places in Design District, food is ok, design of space very nice, definitely more good people watching
* Coffee etc:
* Panther Coffee, local brand with great strong coffee and good vibes
* To do:
* Walk the boardwalk, start South of 5th all the way to around 40th, walking would take a couple hours, beautiful
* Wynwood Walls, do some research yourself as I visit this very tourist like to see the main walking area and there’s a food truck area nearby… a must and make it your own by wandering away from the mass tourists
* Design District, depending your budget great lux shopping / window shopping
* If into museums the Perez, Frost and Bass are all amazing
* They have electric scooters on the Miami (not beach) side which are always fun
* Paddle boarding is amazing all over Miami / Miami Beach, we love this small shop in Sunset
* You can rent a day pass at One Hotel pool   and likely other hotels as well for either pools or beach chairs/loungers
* Fitness:
* Jetset, my favorite Pilates on fire classes
* Greenmonkey for sporty yoga and Topical Vinyasa for more namaste yoga (both Sunset Harbor is where

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Marika Fumes founder of mysha, the mom group reimagined. She is the kindest and most natural networking individual I’ve been lucky to share paths in life with. Her mysha community has been exactly the breath of fresh air and support I needed (without even knowing it!) as I navigate my current new-mama meets scaling moment with my business. Great kudos and thanks to her and definitely everyone in Miami would be lucky to meet her! (she current lives in Sarasota and relocating to Miami in September)

https://myshapods.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/marika-frumes-9a46286

Website: https://wearejibs.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wearejibs/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nataliekathleen/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/wearejibs

Facebook: https://fb.me/wearejibs

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNOl4bl_JgUijlaUbce6yvw