#80 From Self-Care to Business Success with Cat Westell

0:00:02

Carmen

Hi, everyone, and welcome back to the Committed Creative Podcast. I'm your host, Carmen Allen Patali. This week on The Pod, I had a chat with Kat Westall, who is the founder of Amarette Muse, which is a self care product based business. And Kat hails from Perth, where I'm from, and she shared with me why she started her business, which was was to quit the nine to five and go all in on her creative pursuits.

0:00:29

Carmen

So obviously, she is the perfect fit for this podcast. And I would love for you to have a listen and hear her success story, how she quit her job, what she did next, and how she's grown a successful business, which, mind you, was founded during COVID So make yourself a cup of tea, get comfy, and let's dive in. Hi, Kat, and welcome to the committed creative Podcast. It's so great to have you with me today.

0:00:57

Cat

Hi, Carmen. Thank you for having me.

0:00:59

Carmen

So the first question I love to ask is, who is Kat and what does she do right?

0:01:04

Cat

Well, I always find this the most difficult to answer about myself, but I am a devoted mother of two little beautiful little darlings. I am a loving wife, and I am a successful businesswoman. I consider myself a strong manifesto and a real go getter, and I'm never afraid to start from the beginning of anything.

0:01:36

Carmen

Oh, I love that intro. That's awesome. And it certainly describes you. So how did you get to where you are today? Because when we were offline, you were saying that you used to be an insurance broker. So how did you go from insurance broker to beautiful self care product manufacturer?

0:01:58

Cat

Yes. So I didn't start off in the corporate world. I started off in the retail world. So I was in that retail space at some point, and then I moved into the corporate world for a bit of a change, and I kept growing into and out of roles and expanding my reach and climbing that corporate ladder. But there was always something missing. There was no fulfillment. There was the success without the fulfillment.

0:02:34

Cat

So it took me having my second child and being in lockdown to really consider whether I wanted to go back into that corporate life or not. And I started to come up with ideas of how I could not go back. Basically, coming into my business sort of fell into my lap in a way, because I was in lockdown with a five month old and a three year old, and I was constantly trying to find things and activities for both of them to do.

0:03:16

Cat

They're both at very different ages, and it was draining me very quickly. And so I decided that I also had to look after myself in this period. So I decided to learn how to make all of my favorite things. And a business wasn't really something that I was thinking of at this point. It was just acting from a place of self care and doing something for myself. And when we came out of Lockdown, I had all these products that I needed to distribute because otherwise they were just going to go bad. And I had lots of lip balms and whip soaps and bath bombs and bath salts and candles and it was all too much for myself to use.

0:04:02

Cat

That would be self care and overload and yeah, I started giving them to friends and family and the feedback that I was getting was that they were really great products and that I should create something out of it and maybe try to sell them. And that was around about July 2020. And the idea got planted that maybe I could actually earn some money from this. And what my initial idea was that I was going to go on Etsy and put my products on there and not really go full in because that was such a big risk.

0:04:43

Cat

But by thinking about this in a couple of months, it really came to me that if I do want to do this, I do have to go all in. It can't just be half done. I have to go all in. I have to make sure that my heart, my body, my soul, everything is in this. So by November 2020, I launched Amarant Muse into the world. And yeah, I was pleasantly surprised by how well it was received by everybody around me, because I'd had a previous business and it was one of those learning curves where you open a retail store and then you think that everyone's going to come to you, but they don't because you are that tumbleweed in the desert.

0:05:37

Cat

So this time I really marketed myself and put myself out there prior to launching. And it was a success from the get go, which I'm so proud of. That version of me looking back, it's awesome.

0:05:54

Carmen

And you've come so far in three short years. So did you say that you used to have a brick and mortar retail store, your first business?

0:06:03

Cat

No, it was online as well and it was a clothing boutique. So I sold like Cooper Street and all of those sort of dresses and everything, but I really had no idea what I was doing. And I was also working in the corporate world at that point, so my time was very limited. As I said before, you really have to go all in when you start a business.

0:06:29

Carmen

Yes. And what about Amarette Muse? First of all, where did the name come from?

0:06:36

Cat

So Amarette is derived from a French meaning meaning little love. And because my little loves were the reason why I wanted more sense of freedom and purpose in life and to show them that they can do anything that they want to do. Yeah, I guess I wanted to be that inspiration for them, but they are also my inspiration, my muse. So Amarette Muse was derived from basically wanting to do everything that I could to be the best role model for my children.

0:07:13

Carmen

That's so beautiful. I love that. What a precious name. So, when you said you said about learning how to make all your favorite products, how did you do that? Because I think I look at all the amazing range of items that you have up on your website and I'm like, how would you even go about building lip balms and things like that from scratch? I would have no clue. So how did you learn it all?

0:07:39

Cat

Yes, so with the candles, I watched a lot of YouTube videos and basically learnt how to do it from there. There's a lot of testing involved when you're making candles because different fragrances require different loading and there's also the heating element as well, and making sure that you pour everything at the exact right temperature and the fragrances can actually affect that as well. So there's a lot of testing that's involved with that. And it was because I wasn't in a business mind mode at that time, I was really just playing around with it, so it was really fun.

0:08:23

Cat

And with the lip balms and the soaps and everything, I actually decided to do a diploma in natural skincare formulation while we were in lockdown. So I got a lot of ideas and I got a lot of assistance from doing that as well, and a lot of understanding about how products work and how they can be formulated together to create an end result.

0:08:50

Carmen

Where do you get ideas for new products? Do you get inspiration from other brands? Or, like, for example, when you're thinking of making a new range or a new product within a range, is it all part of experimenting? Or how do you come up with new ideas?

0:09:06

Cat

When I wanted to start my business, I actually didn't want to create well, it wasn't about wanting, it was about my passion was lying within bath and body products. So really, the inspiration that comes to make those products is from a place of wanting to do something for yourself and take a moment for self care. So my bath salts pretty much speak for themselves. I think everybody knows that once you take a bath and you immerse yourself with magnesium and you've got the aroma of the essential oils, then that's an extremely relaxing tool.

0:09:47

Cat

And your brain receptors are receiving these aromas and your body is absorbing these salts. So when you take a bath, you are living in the moment, you are being present, you are really relaxing and you have that chance to recoup and re energize yourself. Or if you're having a relaxing, sleepy bath, you would be having it for the purpose of deep rest. So there's always a purpose behind every product that I create, even my lip balms.

0:10:26

Cat

I've been asked the question before, how is lip balm an act of self care. Well, I've got my lip balm here as well, by the way. I have it with me on all the time, but whenever I use my lip balm, I literally feel it gliding on my lips. And I just take that moment to feel how nourished my lips feel in that moment. And it's just those little pockets of time that we need, because when we're rushing around and we're doing all sorts of things for our lives, we don't actually take in what we're presently experiencing.

0:11:09

Cat

And if we're not doing that, then we're either living in the past or we're living in the future, which hasn't even happened yet, and we can by no way tell what is going to happen. So all we have is the present. And I think that all of my product inspiration comes from wanting to be intentional with life and live in the present moment and make decisions from the present moment, not making decisions from what we fear may come.

0:11:44

Carmen

Beautiful. I love that. And I guess it's all tied back to self care in a way, because you're not really looking after yourself if you're pondering the past or stressing about the future. And I know that you're a big believer in self care, and that's a huge driver, as you say, behind your products. How did you become so obsessed with self care? How did that become such a driver in your life? Because I know in the past you've spoken about burnout, so could you talk a little bit about that and how you came to arrive at this point?

0:12:18

Cat

Yes, so the burnout that I experienced was actually quite recent. It was this time last year and the beginning of this year. And it all came about because I was experiencing such success in my business, and I was letting my business drag me along in a way. It was carrying me, and I was being very reactive to it. It was, okay, all of these sales have come through today. Now I have to make all this product, now I have to send it all out. Now I have to start again the next day. And there was no time for me to sit or stand still and just be present and think, hang on a second. I need to take control back here, and I need to pull back on the reins and figure out, first of all, why I started this business in the first place. It came from a place of wanting to do something for myself, and because I was passionate about the products that I was making.

0:13:22

Cat

And last year I had lost those things. I forgot about why I started, which was to practice self care. And I had lost passion because I was just doing things because they were required for me to do, rather than me doing them, because I wanted to do them, and that they were there, available to everybody to purchase. It became very reactive. And I speak of self care as well because there's been many times through my life where I've experienced trauma and hardships and it was all because I was losing myself.

0:14:14

Cat

I was allowing people to control me, I was allowing situations and outside factors to control my life. And when I was just going with the flow with those things or being controlled in such a way I wasn't able to make decisions from a point of clarity. They were always from a fight or flight response. And so this journey of me being on self care, it's actually been quite a long journey, it's at least 20 years and I'm going to be 40 next year. And I look back and I think my early twenty s a lot of people, they experience these amazing, fun, free experiencing times and I look back and I was in some really toxic relationships and I was not myself.

0:15:21

Cat

I was unable to be my true authentic self because that was being taken away from me. And I look back and I think about the things that as an act of self care I had to take responsibility for the part that I played in my life at certain points as well. And so for me that was so freeing not blaming somebody else or something else for things that had happened to me and understanding that things are happening for me and they're opportunities for me to be present.

0:15:59

Cat

Take a deep breath and move forward with some clarity and knowing that I'm doing something that I truly want and I desire. And there's a term that gets thrown around quite a lot saying self care is not selfish and that's so true. There is an element of selfishness in practicing self care but it doesn't make you a selfish person, it just means that you're acting from a place where you feel empowered.

0:16:34

Cat

And that is just so important because if that power is taken away from you, how can you possibly act for yourself or advocate for yourself?

0:16:45

Carmen

It's so true, isn't it? And I think as women we often put ourselves last and particularly if we're mothers. And I love that saying too, that a good mum is someone who puts themselves first or I can't remember exactly what it is, but it's true because I always think about it whenever I'm feeling mum guilt, which is a lot of the time, I always think to myself, well, I'm always role modeling for my kids, right? So if I'm feeling guilty about going to the gym, I think about, well, when my daughters are my age, would I want them to be going to the gym when they've got young children? Yes, I still want them to be looking after themselves.

0:17:26

Carmen

And I always just think that I am a role model and my actions speak louder than my words. So if I continue to practice self care and look after myself, then hopefully I'm modeling that for when they're older. But I know a lot of women have faced burnout and mainly because we do put ourselves last. And you said there that you were operating your business on autopilot and you lost the joy for it. How did you get that spark back? Because I think as business owners, that's something that we always go through is that there are times when we're just not feeling the love anymore for what we're doing.

0:18:04

Cat

The only way I think that I managed to come back from this is that I started to communicate, and I started to communicate with the right person as well. There have been many times where I have felt deeply depressed in my past and I've unintentionally told the wrong person, and it does not help you at all. It's hard to know who the right person is, but you have to trust. You have to really trust that it's going to be received, what you're saying.

0:18:44

Cat

So I expressed how I felt to my husband and it all came out. There was a lot of things that came out that I was afraid to say, afraid of being judged, afraid of hurting his feelings and everything. But I had to really be strong and really understand that I needed this and I needed to do this for myself. And it was received really well, and I was given space and I was given support, which is really important.

0:19:28

Cat

So I think communication is really important when you're feeling this way. I started to ground myself again because everything had been I had been rushing around, I had been working on adrenaline, and in January, all that busyness ended, and so the adrenaline just dropped out of me completely and I was left feeling quite empty. And so I started to ground myself. And rather than being stuck in the house with the kids and this was June, school holidays and only working, I would say, yeah, okay, so Monday, Wednesday, Friday, this week, we're all going to go to the beach and we're going to sit on the beach. And I just sat there.

0:20:17

Cat

I had my legs in the water, and I just really brought myself back to the present because at that time, that's really all I could do. That was like the only tools that I had for myself at that time to really assist myself. And doing those things made me feel really like I had achieved something. I got home and we'd had a great day out. I'd forgotten about any stresses or worries. I wasn't concerned about anything coming through, any emails, orders, anything like that.

0:20:57

Cat

I just was I was just there. And it really helped with all the chatter in my mind. And I'm a very strong believer in meditation. I love meditation. And I've gotten to a very good place where I can practice it. But in January, I could not there was no way that I could meditate at all, there was far too much going on in my head. So, yeah, it was really important for me to find other ways to become present.

0:21:32

Cat

And that's another thing as well, is I created a business out of my hobby. So then I didn't have a hobby anymore. I didn't have anything to do that wasn't associated with work. And so in January, I decided that I was going to start doing puzzles because I knew that I enjoyed doing those and it had nothing to do with work, nothing to do with anybody in my life. It was just for me, it was mine alone.

0:22:04

Cat

And I've done them all throughout the year. Now I literally have a puzzle sitting on the table, and I will come to it every half an hour or so. I have an alarm that goes off and it says, do you need to take a break? And so I will go sit in front of my puzzle and I'll find a couple of pieces and then I'll leave it again and I'll go back and do some work and I do it before bedtime as well. And it really brought me back to the moment without having the pressure of meditating, because meditating, you lay there and you think, oh my God, I can't stop thinking.

0:22:41

Cat

Doing something that you're really enjoying and you're completely immersed in it, you're present, you step away from it and you think, wow, I wasn't thinking of anything but that. And that is so powerful, because as women in business, as mothers, as strong, powerful, independent women, we are constantly thinking of what, maybe five to ten things at one time. It's a lot. And so, yeah, those are the things that I did. I also decided to put my daughter in daycare a little bit more. I only had her in a couple of days, a week, half days. Now she does full days.

0:23:27

Cat

I also got somebody to help me with the business, a family member, and that really took a lot of pressure off as well. And I outsourced my emails, so there was a lot that I put into place. But another one of those things is that I decided I needed to refresh my business so that it became more aligned back with myself, rather than it running off into something that I couldn't recognize anymore. So that's why I spent this entire year rebranding, because I needed to remember what my values were and what was important to me.

0:24:05

Cat

And this is my new favorite saying that I said to a friend a couple of months ago, and I just feel it so deeply now. And I truly believe that at the core of every successful business is the heart of the person who created it. So keeping that in mind, I rebranded and I brought it back to myself and back to why I started the business in the first place. And I feel so much happier now. I feel so much more aligned and 100% in control of my business now and I'm working on it rather than in it, which is really important, I think.

0:24:54

Carmen

Absolutely. You've got some great advice in there as well about stepping away when you're feeling overwhelmed. And I love the fact that you set timers on your phone to remind yourself because when you're working on your business, sometimes it's just so engrossing that you just stare at a screen for 4 hours and realize you haven't taken a break. So it's so important. And I feel like, yeah, you're right, it does refresh the mind when you manage to switch off for a minute and think about something else. And yeah, as mums, we have such a massive mental load that we're constantly carrying. So I love that puzzle idea.

0:25:26

Carmen

But you spoke a little bit about your rebrand there and that was something I wanted to ask because when we launch a business, whether it's a hobby that we're turning into a business or a passion project that's evolving into a business or whatever it might be, we often think about the product itself or the service itself. But there are so many other elements to running a business. Like for you, it would be you would have to think about the packaging, the shipping, the branding, the marketing, all the hats.

0:25:57

Carmen

How did you learn all those things? Was it just trial and error or did you learn it as you obviously Amarette Muse has become really successful? So how did it evolve to this point? And were there any kind of coaches or anyone who helped you along the way?

0:26:17

Cat

There is no coaches at this point. I am definitely at a point where I believe I need a coach to scale. But yeah, everything was done by myself from the get go and it was definitely a lot of trial and error. I remember the first Whip soaps that I made, I bought labels for them and then they would just like disintegrate because they were in the shower all the time and it was just so obvious. But it was just something that I needed to learn and just with everything, I think that if you just start, then you can learn along the way.

0:27:03

Cat

But if you try to perfect everything before you start, then all you're doing is delaying the inevitable. And a year down the track, that's not where you're going to want to be anyway. So I think when I went into this, I was very afraid of my branding and whether it would be right or anything like that. And I think that in the end, I just decided that I was going to put it out there and see how it was received. And if I didn't like it, or if my customers, or if it wasn't received well after a few months, then I would change it.

0:27:44

Cat

And that's exactly what I did. So three months in to my business. So it was February 2021. I decided that my plain black labels with the color writing, it just wasn't the branding that I was going to go for and I wanted to really elevate it and bring it to more luxury level. So I brought in rose gold and I put that all through my products for the candles and the diffusers. And I guess my bath and body kind of got left behind a little bit because my candles were really taking off.

0:28:26

Cat

But by the end of last year, I realized what was making me money and what wasn't and what was selling crazy and what wasn't. So I really honed in on that and I decided to bring my range in instead of having such a broad range bring it right back in. And it's funny because the range that I have now is the range that I started off with. So even though I expanded and everything in the last couple of years, the best sellers are what I started off with and what were most aligned to me in the first place anyway.

0:29:09

Cat

So, yeah, it's just all trial and error. There's a lot of research that goes into it looking for suppliers, especially when you're going to have packaging made. You're not just sticking labels on packaging, you're actually having the packaging branded for yourself. There's a lot of trial and error with that. And I almost didn't bring out my bath salts on my launch date because the supplier really screwed me over.

0:29:42

Cat

And I had to find somebody else within a 24 hours time period and explain everything that I had been. Talking to the previous supplier about for a couple of months in the space of a week so that they could get production underway and have it all sent to me as well. So it's a lot and there are a lot of lessons along the way, but you do learn quickly and I don't think in business you ever go through something and then make that same mistake again.

0:30:19

Cat

I think that those lessons are very inbuilt into you and you know exactly how to operate the next time. And, you know, like, I used to be really like, oh, what would you think about this with suppliers? And now I'm like, no, this is exactly what I want. And I say it exactly how it is. And you know what, I used to think that they'd get offended if they got my opinion on my product, but they don't. It's my product, my business, and they're there to hear what your designs are, see what your vision is, and yeah, at the end of the day, they just want to make the products.

0:31:05

Cat

They don't really care about any niceties or anything like that, but yeah, it's really good. And now I've got some really amazing suppliers. We have a great working relationship. I do all the design work myself, so that's good. Like, I don't have to give any feedback on that, which is great, I just do that myself and drive myself crazy with that. But, yeah, it's all a learning curve. And I think anyone else who is in a product based business can attest to the fact that once you learn a very big lesson, that's it.

0:31:42

Cat

There's no making that mistake again.

0:31:46

Carmen

Absolutely. I mean, what a journey. And I love the fact that you looked at what products were best sellers and then capitalized on that. Because I think too often as business owners, we forget to look at the data and what is actually making us money and focus on those things so that we can bring in more money and increase our revenue. You touched on some of the challenges that you've faced just then, but what about some of the wins that you've had? Obviously, you've grown the business in such a short time. That's certainly a win, but have there been other moments where you've kind of pinched yourself and thought, I can't believe this is happening to me?

0:32:25

Cat

Yeah, I mean, last year I spoke at an event and I thought that was pretty amazing. I was one of the speakers at the Spotlight events with Brooke Villanovich and being on podcasts, I think that's pretty incredible. I think that's pretty amazing, right? Yeah, it's growing great. I love it. But yeah, I think at every level there is something to take from it. And it's not just lessons. You're right. There is wins all the time. And whether they be big or small, you have to celebrate them all, because otherwise you're never going to feel like you've accomplished anything.

0:33:15

Cat

And so the speaker roles and the podcasts are pretty amazing. But my most recent win, I think, is my launch. So when I did my launch for my new branding, I held an event and I had all these amazing business women attend my event and they heard my story and my why and the reason for the rebrand. And it was just so empowering and it really gave me that confidence to move forward, because even prior to then, I was so excited about this rebrand.

0:34:00

Cat

But just before the event, I freaked out and I was thinking, oh my God, I've been talking up this rebrand for months now with everyone. What if I rebrand? Like, if I launch it and everyone looks at it and goes, you know what I mean? There's this impostor syndrome that comes in and it comes to all of us. But I moved forward with that launch and it just was so successful. And that night I launched it into the World Online and it was just received so well. I had so many of my previous customers come back and purchase in September and October, and it just blew it out of the water.

0:34:46

Cat

And I couldn't be more proud of myself, especially coming from such a dark place at the beginning of the. Year to where I am now. I just feel like I'm a whole different person. And I really did shed that old person, like that old version of myself that was at that level of my business last year. And now I'm at a different level. And I've really upgraded my branding and my business and also my own personal development as well, and my outlook on life and business.

0:35:29

Cat

So I think that my biggest win is the continuous growth that I have in myself.

0:35:39

Carmen

That's awesome. I love that. That's so special. And what's next for Amarant Muse? Do you have plans for 2024 and what are they?

0:35:49

Cat

Yeah, so I might bring out another product. I've got one in the works. I try not to get too excited because if I do that, then there'll be ten new products, you know what I mean? So I have to be realistic with myself as well and make sure that I'm not getting too excited. But I also want Amaritmeres to be quite multifaceted, whereas I don't want to just be providing products to people. I want to be able to be providing a service in a way that I can help people with their personal development and even being on a journey of self care and self worth and self love.

0:36:38

Cat

I feel that that is just so crucial to be able to survive in this world, like in this business world, in this world. And I think that there's just so much potential there because there's so many people out there. It's probably like 99% of people out there that just don't take the time to look after themselves and that have the mindset that they think, I simply don't have time. And yes, it does feel like that because life is so fast paced, but it only takes a small step every single day and then you just don't recognize yourself at the end of the year because those small steps have become crucial to your everyday routine.

0:37:30

Cat

So, yeah, my vision for Amarette Muse is to be something a lot bigger. And I just hope that that messaging that comes through with the products now can turn into something really big.

0:37:45

Carmen

Awesome. And I guess that ties in nicely with my final question, which is if someone has a hobby or a passion project, or perhaps they're still in a corporate job, but they want to leave that job and see if they can start their own business, what would be the advice that you would give them? Would it be to set that routine and do something little every day or what advice would you give?

0:38:10

Cat

I would say be prepared that if you want to make your hobby into a business, if you want to monetize that, because then you do still need to have something for yourself. I would say be passionate and make sure that you're doing something from the heart and not because you think that you can monetize it. And I think that anything that you want to do, you have to go all in with. You have to be prepared to almost make it a purpose and just to feel really aligned with it.

0:38:56

Cat

So I think that there are a lot of wrong reasons to start businesses. I think that there are a lot of misconceptions about the success and everything that you can get from hobbies and starting businesses and then living off that business in a certain time frame. I think that when you're scaling businesses as well, there's no definitive answer on how successful something will be. So you have to be prepared to just go all in and trust and have faith that because you're passionate about it, that's going to show through and be received in that same essence.

0:39:50

Carmen

That's a beautiful way to finish. Thank you so much, Kat. I've really enjoyed this chat. You had so much great advice to offer and I'm sure our listeners got a whole lot out of it. So thank you.

0:40:01

Cat

Thank you so much for having me.

0:40:07

Carmen