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TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
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[00:00] SPEAKER_00: It's Edmonton's podcast on the Canada's podcast network.
[00:17] SPEAKER_02: Hello, this is Mario Tonigüzi coming to you today with Edmonton's podcast, a member of Canada's podcast network.
[00:23] SPEAKER_02: Where we talk to the entrepreneurs who are making it happen in Edmonton, Alberta.
[00:27] SPEAKER_02: So you can listen, discover and engage.
[00:31] SPEAKER_02: Today's guest is Miranda Zekkel, who founded the retail outlet Cloud 9 pajamas with her sisters Kate and Robin.
[00:40] SPEAKER_02: There are four stores in Edmonton and one recently opened in the Cross Iron Mill shopping center in the Calgary area.
[00:47] SPEAKER_02: Welcome to the show Miranda and thanks for taking the time today to be here for our listeners.
[00:52] SPEAKER_00: Thanks for having me.
[00:53] SPEAKER_02: Tell us a little bit about Cloud 9 pajamas, its history and how it started.
[00:57] SPEAKER_00: So we actually started because of a need that we found in Edmonton.
[01:03] SPEAKER_00: And that was for women going through night sweats.
[01:05] SPEAKER_00: So it really started out with metapause, just trying to find something to kind of ease their discomfort at night.
[01:14] SPEAKER_00: We've learned a lot along the way as well that some women even get up during the night having to change their bedding.
[01:19] SPEAKER_00: All of that kind of stuff, which obviously you're not getting a good sleep if that's the case.
[01:23] SPEAKER_00: And that's actually how we got started was our moisture wicking.
[01:26] SPEAKER_00: And so we started out with a little, little tiny store and have grown since then.
[01:30] SPEAKER_00: We carry a lot more than just moisture wicking now.
[01:32] SPEAKER_00: We carry loungewear, bath products, all different types of stuff.
[01:36] SPEAKER_00: And we really just focus on anything comfortable, cozy, quality, all that kind of stuff.
[01:41] SPEAKER_02: So when you got your start in Edmonton, tell me a little bit about the benefits or the positives of opening a business.
[01:49] SPEAKER_02: In Edmonton.
[01:50] SPEAKER_00: To be honest, I think the biggest benefit that we had was our community, such a supportive community, such a supportive business community.
[01:58] SPEAKER_00: And women in business was a big one for us.
[02:00] SPEAKER_00: We were very young women in business.
[02:02] SPEAKER_00: And that was a little bit of a hurdle for us to get over being taken seriously.
[02:07] SPEAKER_00: That kind of thing.
[02:08] SPEAKER_00: So I think that the community kind of rallied around us and saw that they wanted these three young women to succeed.
[02:13] SPEAKER_00: And that was really good.
[02:15] SPEAKER_02: Besides that, what were some of the other challenges you faced for opening and starting a business in Edmonton itself?
[02:22] SPEAKER_00: In Edmonton.
[02:24] SPEAKER_00: In particular, one of our locations, there was construction closed for a very long time.
[02:29] SPEAKER_00: I was about two to three years.
[02:31] SPEAKER_00: Again, that can happen in any city, but I find that that can happen anywhere.
[02:35] SPEAKER_00: But just hurdles like that that happen in every city, but we kind of just had to stick it through and change what we do to be able to have.
[02:42] SPEAKER_00: Our business still grow during that time period.
[02:45] SPEAKER_00: A lot of businesses were closing in that area or moving and we kind of still grew through that.
[02:50] SPEAKER_00: It's hard for me to say because to be honest, I don't have experience in another city until now.
[02:54] SPEAKER_00: So I don't know what's different necessarily from Edmonton to Calgary,
[02:57] SPEAKER_00: but the struggles I feel like we would have started here.
[03:01] SPEAKER_00: If we would have started here, I think we would have maybe had similar struggles as well, right?
[03:04] SPEAKER_02: Why would you recommend Edmonton to starting our entrepreneurs?
[03:08] SPEAKER_00: I think that we have a really, like I said, a good community that really supports unique businesses.
[03:15] SPEAKER_00: I think you have to prove why you're doing what you do and what you kind of like the meaning behind it,
[03:20] SPEAKER_00: which Edmonton is really big on supporting things that they believe in.
[03:24] SPEAKER_00: Edmontonians are.
[03:25] SPEAKER_00: So I think that we kind of did that and we kind of got continued support because of it.
[03:30] SPEAKER_02: Some of our best ideas come sort of when we least expect them.
[03:35] SPEAKER_02: How do you disconnect, recharge or just get inspired about the business?
[03:41] SPEAKER_00: It's so hard sometimes when you're so in it day to day, you have so many tasks to do.
[03:45] SPEAKER_00: You kind of lose that sometimes.
[03:47] SPEAKER_00: So we are a very big on making sure each of us gets our own free time to recharge.
[03:51] SPEAKER_00: My sister has two daughters, so she wants to spend time with them.
[03:54] SPEAKER_00: It's so easy to get sucked into working all the time.
[03:58] SPEAKER_00: You can always be busy when you own a business.
[03:59] SPEAKER_00: It's so easy to be busy, but to be productive in set of busy, right?
[04:04] SPEAKER_00: People are always, oh, I'm so busy running around.
[04:06] SPEAKER_00: What are you, are the things that you're doing productive?
[04:09] SPEAKER_00: Are they worth your time?
[04:10] SPEAKER_00: So we've really kind of narrowed down what was worth our time, what we could outsource,
[04:14] SPEAKER_00: what we find valuable and what kind of fits with our morals.
[04:17] SPEAKER_00: And so that really kind of allowed us to take the time.
[04:19] SPEAKER_00: We give each other the time.
[04:21] SPEAKER_00: We call it a free day.
[04:21] SPEAKER_00: We want to make sure each person has a free day to be able to recharge
[04:24] SPEAKER_00: and kind of have the right mindset to kind of step back in and be able to do what they need to do.
[04:29] SPEAKER_02: What are you most excited about cloud nine pajamas these days?
[04:33] SPEAKER_00: To be honest, to be in Calgary, it has been since we opened in 2005,
[04:38] SPEAKER_00: so we've been starting in 2005.
[04:40] SPEAKER_00: Since we've had the business, it has been a dream of our Stephen Calgary.
[04:42] SPEAKER_00: We didn't really know how many stores we were going to have in Edmonton before we came to Calgary,
[04:46] SPEAKER_00: but this was kind of our to us that like, wow, we're really, we're really doing it.
[04:51] SPEAKER_00: We're seven outside of our city.
[04:52] SPEAKER_00: We're not here all the time to be able to kind of like the stores are our babies.
[04:56] SPEAKER_00: So if we need to go to them in Edmonton, we can, right?
[04:59] SPEAKER_00: Like we're able to run to them if they need us.
[05:01] SPEAKER_00: We've really gotten away from that in the past couple of years,
[05:04] SPEAKER_00: and that's why we're able to expand to Calgary.
[05:06] SPEAKER_00: So I think that's our biggest excitement right now is to be here.
[05:09] SPEAKER_00: And hopefully, like I said, we want to expand more in Calgary too.
[05:13] SPEAKER_00: So to have more stores here would be really, really exciting.
[05:15] SPEAKER_02: Kind of touches into my next question about what your vision is for the business and the retail outlet going forward.
[05:23] SPEAKER_00: We would love to have in about the next seven years, ten stores in total.
[05:27] SPEAKER_00: So we're at five right now.
[05:28] SPEAKER_00: Also, it'll be a very big push going forward, but we've really taken the time and educated ourselves on getting the systems in place to be able to do that.
[05:36] SPEAKER_00: I think that's kind of the key to be able to expand even more is just making sure all of the systems are in place to do that.
[05:42] SPEAKER_02: What's been your biggest challenge as an entrepreneur?
[05:46] SPEAKER_00: I think there's so obviously there's so many challenges.
[05:50] SPEAKER_00: I think a lot has to do also with the mental aspect of it.
[05:55] SPEAKER_00: You're always in your business.
[05:57] SPEAKER_00: You can be waking up.
[05:58] SPEAKER_00: I guess that kind of goes for any job, but you live and breathe it and being able to kind of disconnect and we're a family business.
[06:05] SPEAKER_00: So when we go on family vacation or we go for dinner, we're still, it's all still business because we all, we live it right.
[06:12] SPEAKER_00: So just be able to disconnect and kind of separate the two.
[06:16] SPEAKER_02: Okay. When you look back on things and looking back on in hindsight, what do you know now that you wish you knew when you first started the business?
[06:26] SPEAKER_00: I think that we were so young and we didn't, we didn't have retill experience.
[06:31] SPEAKER_00: We didn't know what we were doing.
[06:32] SPEAKER_00: So we kind of figured it out along the way.
[06:34] SPEAKER_00: We obviously made mistakes along the way, but we kind of figured it out.
[06:37] SPEAKER_00: We're very big on learning.
[06:38] SPEAKER_00: So we do a lot of conferences and that type of thing.
[06:40] SPEAKER_00: But I think we were so young that we almost wanted other people to take us seriously.
[06:45] SPEAKER_00: So we were trying to act, but I just wish we would have trusted our, we and we do trust our gut.
[06:48] SPEAKER_00: But just earlier on, if we would have trusted our gut, we're good at what we do.
[06:52] SPEAKER_00: We know what we're doing just to kind of get out of the headspace of like, oh, what are, what do people think we're doing?
[06:57] SPEAKER_00: Or like, how do they think we're doing where it's like, you're doing what you're doing and you're doing it well.
[07:02] SPEAKER_00: That's really what matters. So kind of getting out of that headspace of like we were so young and wondering if people took us seriously.
[07:07] SPEAKER_00: Kind of right? Well, here we are and kind of proves it, right?
[07:11] SPEAKER_02: As an entrepreneur, what's the best piece of advice you have made or received over the years?
[07:17] SPEAKER_00: Oh, there's so many. It's so hard. I would say a big one would be trust, trust your gut.
[07:23] SPEAKER_00: You know what you're doing. If, if the decision has to be made immediately, your gut usually will tell you what you need to do.
[07:29] SPEAKER_00: But I trust your gut and like we're big on taking risks.
[07:32] SPEAKER_00: It's like, you're not really going to get anywhere if you don't take risks. That's a big one is take, take the risk.
[07:37] SPEAKER_02: I ask you a few kind of personal questions, but let me ask you, but everybody these days seems to have a bucket list.
[07:44] SPEAKER_02: What's on top of your bucket list these days?
[07:47] SPEAKER_00: Business wise are just personal both both. Okay. So business wise would be again more stores and Calgary.
[07:53] SPEAKER_00: I think would be our top bucket list would just be even to have one more store and Calgary would be the next step.
[07:58] SPEAKER_00: And then also our online store. I really want to expand our online store even more at something that we're we're very good at what we do with our brick and mortars.
[08:07] SPEAKER_00: The online space is a new space to us. So I want to make sure that we're we're doing things correctly.
[08:13] SPEAKER_00: But I think we are and I think I'm ready to kind of push that even further to so that's on our bucket list.
[08:19] SPEAKER_00: And I'd love to have a for a store in California. That would that would probably be my like wish would be like have a store in California so I could move there.
[08:26] SPEAKER_02: What about personally?
[08:28] SPEAKER_00: Personally, I would say take more vacations. I think go to Europe would be on my bucket.
[08:34] SPEAKER_00: I've been once before but since we've been in the business, it's been so hard to get away for a long period of time. So maybe take like a three month vacation or something.
[08:42] SPEAKER_02: If you weren't doing what you're doing now, what do you think you would do as a career as a profession?
[08:48] SPEAKER_00: I always say this I love business. I love our business. Obviously the most, but I love talking with entrepreneurs. I love kind of taking advice from them, but also giving advice to other people.
[08:58] SPEAKER_00: So I think I'd still be doing something in this field of whether I owned my own business or was helping another entrepreneur doing something that you kind of can see where your work's going.
[09:07] SPEAKER_02: What book are you currently reading?
[09:09] SPEAKER_00: I am reading the habit cycle. So it's about starting habits and you can change your habits. You're kind of from your childhood built your habits to be a certain way and to kind of like break those down and starting new habits.
[09:21] SPEAKER_00: That's been one thing that's been a game changer for me is creating habits that are beneficial rather than just easy.
[09:27] SPEAKER_00: But a book I would say is the best. Can I change that question a little bit? The best book that changed our business was especially for a small business was traction.
[09:36] SPEAKER_00: I think it's you know, Wichman, I think it could be but traction. It was what kind of put systems in our business and it is like if there's anyone who ever asks me a for a book recommendation that's in a small business. That's my number one always.
[09:49] SPEAKER_02: If there's one word that you would use to describe yourself, what would it be and why?
[09:55] SPEAKER_00: I would say a risk ticker. I think when we sit down for our team meetings, I'm always the one who I don't think about the necessarily the repercussions until after. Let's do it. Let's do it.
[10:07] SPEAKER_00: Let's think about that stuff after like what do we need to be able to do this? So I think I'm a risk ticker.
[10:11] SPEAKER_02: Is there anything keeping you up at night? Can't sleep about anything you're worried about concerned about?
[10:18] SPEAKER_00: I think a hard thing for me is sometimes giving up what we're growing. So we need more help, but other things that I enjoy, but I don't necessarily have the time to do and giving those up to other people is sometimes hard, right?
[10:31] SPEAKER_00: If you become an expert in something like I do all of our marketing to kind of hand that over to someone is hard.
[10:38] SPEAKER_00: And so just even getting the systems in place. We have systems in place in every other aspect of our business, but the things that we do personally that we only do, we don't have the systems there yet.
[10:47] SPEAKER_00: So I don't have like I just know what I do. So I think that's kind of keeping me up at night is like what's the next step to take that off my plate?
[10:54] SPEAKER_02: Outside of Edmonton, do you have a favorite place in the world?
[10:59] SPEAKER_00: I would say there's an area it's called Salulita in near Port of Iarta. It's like a little town there. That would probably be one of my favorite places in the world.
[11:10] SPEAKER_00: It's like a little beach. It's like a little surf town. So I just like when I go on vacation, I think we're so busy with work that when I go on vacation, I really want to relax and I want a unique experience.
[11:19] SPEAKER_00: I'm more like a more authentic experience rather than a hotel or like a resort. I want something a little bit more authentic and that's what you get there.
[11:27] SPEAKER_02: So we're creatures of routine and just wondering, do you have a specific routine that you almost follow religiously each day?
[11:36] SPEAKER_00: That's what I'm reading this book about is I'm trying to get into better. I definitely have a routine that I follow. It's just maybe not the most time saving if that makes sense.
[11:47] SPEAKER_00: I'm not an early early riser and I wish I was an earlier riser. So there's things that I could change, but I definitely have a routine that I follow most definitely.
[11:55] SPEAKER_02: Is there something that people don't know about you like that you would surprise people about you know if they found out?
[12:06] SPEAKER_00: If someone knew me, I don't think so. I'm pretty open book. I'm pretty, this is who I am. Take it or leave it type of person. For those of people that don't know me very well, I would say we can have it on our like bio and our website.
[12:18] SPEAKER_00: I'm the first person. If there's a song on the radio in the store that I like, I'll be singing along or dancing along. So just have fun and doesn't really matter who's around. I don't like her.
[12:27] SPEAKER_02: I'm going to ask you a bit of a nod, both in a question. Imagine a tropical island and we're going to take you there and we're going to drop you off.
[12:37] SPEAKER_02: The island only has one phone both, but no access to any internet or anything else like that or the you know cell phone access or Wi-Fi etc.
[12:50] SPEAKER_02: Two questions. One, how long do you think it would take you to make a phone call to us to get you off the island and back home? And what do you think you'd be doing while you were there?
[13:03] SPEAKER_00: Hopefully relaxing if it's a nice island. Probably exploring the island I would say just looking around and by how long do you mean how long would I want to be on the island?
[13:15] SPEAKER_00: If it's relaxing island maybe a couple days, but I like my city. So I'd be calling you pretty quick. Be missing my work.
[13:26] SPEAKER_02: Tell me a little bit about, you know, if there's any other things that you wanted to mention that I didn't ask you about.
[13:33] SPEAKER_00: I just were a very big advocate for women and business and young women in business. I think that that's kind of there's the world and the space that we're in right now is a great opportunity for that.
[13:44] SPEAKER_00: And I think people are so supportive of it. So if anyone's listening to this that is a young woman and wants to start a business or isn't business.
[13:51] SPEAKER_00: Just to know that you can do it and that there's people out there rooting you on and we had that all along and I think that's really what kind of helped us grow.
[13:58] SPEAKER_01: Okay, thanks Miranda for being our guest today on Edmonton's podcast. Hey there. Thanks for taking the time today to listen to Edmonton's podcast on Canada's podcast network.
[14:10] SPEAKER_01: We hope you enjoyed the show today. Make sure you sign up for our newsletters and write a review for us on iTunes and then connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, at Canada's podcast.
[14:25] SPEAKER_01: You can also check out what other entrepreneurs are doing across the country. See you next time.
