2018

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14.11 // GOLD COAST, AUSTRALIA
Pre-Sale has officially started!! Had a late one last night making sure everything works and so far only one little password hiccup and we’re good to go!
Pre-Sale will finish up at Midnight on the 16th of November, to register and gain access before the rest of the world click HERE

Our campaign photo shoot was incredible! The house was stunning and the company was hilarious. Nothing beats a day in the sun by the pool sipping wine and laughing a lot.

The collection will be available to the rest of the public come Saturday the 17th.
There will be a giveaway and some other cute little specials too. #Excited

23.10 // GOLD COAST, AUSTRALIA
It’s finally happening! The new collection is is about to get on a big jet plane and head to us here in Australia! Oh my wordddd the amount of late night/early morning emails and confusing phone calls I’ve had in the last 2 days, I should have an intravenous wine drip connected to me. Now to make sure those bad boys end up here in time for our summer release, means one thing… photo shoots. Lots and lots of photo shoots, and the weather in the last few days has been a god send!

Seeing as the weather has only just started to show up nice and warm for us, It’s a bit of a blessing in a way that the shipment has been delayed so much. If you live in the Gold Coast, you would’ve noticed it’s been more of a Grey Coast the last few weeks with all this rain, but now how lush are all our lawns ☀︎

Anyways, scratch that pre-sale date and watch our Facebook page for release dates. Also want to toot our horn a little bit, but our Facebook page is doing exceptionally well in the last few days. I used to get so annoyed with Facebook (still do) because of the amount of skin we show in our posts, Facebook would always reject our advertising. Lame… but turns out if you email them enough they come around.
#TootToot

SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCE // 7,873

 

20.10 // GOLD COAST, AUSTRALIA
Still no new collection…

Feeling defeated with the issues we’re having with our shipment. Cargo freight is so complicated, and trying to organise 3, men, to deliver a swimwear collection is exactly what you’re thinking…. painful! Did I mention the language barrier?

You know why it’s difficult? It’s because it’s the first time, and your first time is never what you want or expect, am I right ladies? 9 Times out of 10 when you’re making a new move or losing something *cough cough* you have to figure things out. This time, the promised deadline and shipment did not happen, the turnover time was out, the fabric delivery has effected exporting the collection, etc. etc.

Let’s just call it learning and growth.

SIDE NOTE….

I took a day for myself and went and sat in a room with about 4+ millionaires who shared their stories and talked about their charitable donations. Can I get an AMEN for all the wealthy donating a percentage of their profits to rebuilding cities, protecting the environment and helping those who need it!! Life changed forever.

Don’t forget to tell your lady friends, mums and sisters that our super comfortable bikinis donate 10% of all sales to help clean the ocean.

(Image credit: The Ocean Cleanup)
SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCE // 7,805

 

19.09 // GOLD COAST, AUSTRALIA
What a bad time of the year to be knocked down for almost 2 weeks from illness. The new collection is less than a month away from landing in my hot little hands and some days I couldn’t bring myself to get out of bed. Lucky I have some amazing people in my life who are helping me with random tasks here and there. Shout out to my girl Hayley for chasing up those quotes for packaging materials, actual legend. (I think my Google broke)

I started this journey with my dearest Mum, and not having “Mum advice” really sucks when you’re making some new moves. It’s been especially stressful dealing with International companies with language barriers and time zones. Still praying to the sun gods for smooth sailing on the final stint in this new venture.
I still need to do the product shots, studio shots and the campaign before October 27th for when the pre-sale starts. Buyers will have first dibs on buying the stock before the 1st of November, and will receive a 10% discount code + free shipping to Australia. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me. I also have to finish implementing the Pre-Sale page and emails, on top of the 100 other things I need finished in time for my PR.

Cheeky little side note, last week I sent off some bikinis to the USA to sit in the wardrobe room of a top magazine, maybe something big is about to happen…

#SummerIsComing
SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCE // 7,913

22.07 // Gold Coast, Australia
My oh my it's been a while! So much has been happening, behind the scenes there hasn't been much time to sit down and share it with you all. Do you ever feel so overwhelmed that you can't even verbalise what needs doing because your brain just gives up as soon as your mouth opens. How do I ask for help or let people know what needs doing! 

All the mental lists I've written down in the last few months have now suddenly activated, and are being ticked off as we speak! Manufacturing the brand new designs started a few weeks ago and our Gift With Purchase has arrived for the first 30 sales on the new collection! Not to mention the wheels are in motion for all our print and digital media advertising. 

SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCE // 7,999

 

06.06 // Gold Coast, Australia
Everything has been going swimmingly.. until..
In the last day or so, my fabric supplier in Italy is closing for their summer. That's all good, except my manufacturer hasn't imported my fabric yet, which means it's going to be very hard to manufacture more bikinis, without fabric... 

 

We do Dave Franco, we really do. So the 4 week deadline for sampling has now gone down to 5 days, and I haven't even received the samples yet. So I went with my instincts and sent off the purchase orders this morning. This could either be a really great move or the second stupidest thing I've done, right behind cutting myself bangs.

SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCE // 8,226

 

 

04.06 // Gold Coast, Australia
What is actually going on? It's June already??
I have been going, non-stop. I have never been this flat out in all my years of having a business. I'm really proud of myself and the team around me who are contributing and working towards the same goal.

There has been a few hiccups along the way, but nothing a pat on the back can't fix. I've been working really hard on the second part of the business, and if all goes smoothly it'll be ready by the end of the year.

I've also been working around the clock, scheduling all our IG posts, reading all of our data from the website's analytics, and now I feel like we're finally on track with our target audience. All I'm going to say people is research!! You hear all the insta-famous marketing guru's talk about knowing your target audience, but it's also about knowing their behaviors and when they're most likely to interact with you. Big thanks to the girls at Scene It Social  for all of their advice! I would definitely recommend this business!

SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCE // 8,207

 

17.05 // Gold Coast, Australia
So I'm back and busy. I have to say this right now is the worst time to get sick, and coincidentally it's flu season here in Aus. Classic. The allergies are running rampant and I've got a conference call coming up at 6am in the morning which is fantastic. All I really wanna do is binge watch Netflix, drink copious amounts of Tea and just Zen out.

Do you ever feel like after a holiday, you need a holiday? I did that much running/walking around in Bali I feel like I need some down time?!! I will admit, the workaholic in me is glad to be back at work.

Check out our Bali blog to see what we got up to here: 2018/Bali

Something I've noticed lately is Instagram's up and downs. Does anyone else struggle keeping genuine followers? We want organic growth, but lately I feel like there's nothing Organic about Instagram, as our followers follow/unfollow so frequently? It's crazy how important this little app on our phones has become!

SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCE // 8,065

 

05.05 // Bali, Indonesia
So I've made it to Bali. Time to test the waters of manufacturing. Not going to lie, the excitement was through the roof a few days ago as I walked into a potential new manufacturer. I've handed over the design brief and samples, and now I'll have to wait for some pricing.
The manufacturer itself is busy. A lot of workers there and it's all ethically run with the employees being paid very well. We use the same textile company and there's really nothing on the negative side to mention. Like all big business moves I've made, this risk is definitely a big one!

Keep your eyes peeled for a Bali Blog when I'm back in Australia!

SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCE // 8,082

 

19.04 // Gold Coast, Australia
So ran into some trouble with our social media accounts today. Typical. For a simple concept we certainly know how to complicate it! Maybe I'm at that age, the dreaded age of 25 until Saturday.... that's right, it's my birthday!

Anyway we're all over the social media hoo-har and hopefully everything is back in full swing within a few hours! It's crazy the panic station we all run too when the internet goes down. Like how did we live without it before? I remember very well how we lived without it! I used to fight with my parents because I wasn't allowed to go out and share a Vodka Cruiser with 6 of my girlfriends... Oh the memories haha.

Quick little mention, we're in the process of securing a new line to compliment our new label. We're also implementing a new end of the business within the next couple of months which I personally have been working towards since November 2012, so it's been a long time coming and it's nice to see it all start to come together.

Also we're bringing back our crystal accessories which we made in Turkey with the ridiculously talented (and fellow aussie) Olivia Cummings, who owns Cleopatra's Bling!

So much I want to tell and share and spread around like fairy dust and rainbows but it'll spoil the surprises...

17.04 // Gold Coast, Australia
It has been FLAT. OUT. I don't even know where to start. We've had the commonwealth games on here in the GC, we had Easter long weekend and now Anzac day is coming up. The traffic is about as predictable as a moody teenager, and some of our suppliers have ran out of stock because of it.

A busy week is still a good week! I've accomplished so much and now I'm just waiting to check in and head on over to Bali for my business/small holiday trip.
We're staying at this really nice resort in Seminyak, mostly because it had 'spa' written on their website. It's also 5 minutes away from the manufacturer so that's a plus.
The hotel has also allocated me a driver which is very convenient as I not too keen on the idea of jumping on a scooter with a suitcase filled with swimwear stuff.

I'll check in when I'm over there to give everyone an update!
Once again I wanted to say Hello to everyone who is an avid follower for our brand. Big shout out to my Cali readers over in the US, hope you all survived Coachella ♡

SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCE // 8,080

 

19.03 // Gold Coast, Australia
Finally figured out this whole 'Automated Scheduling' thing for social media. No more alarms to get up an post. Can't believe the quality of life I'll have now haha!

Anyways, bring on Monday! I've got a lot of emails to send today chasing everybody up!

SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCE // 8,103

 

16.03 // Gold Coast, Australia
So it's been a while, and I've just updated the Journal Page to this beauty you see today. Getting sucked into the Vortex of 'reading old journals' some tears were shed and some old fires were lit. Nothing like a bit of fire under the belly to dry my tears.

Anyways, there's been a lot happening. I recently met with the Ladies who run a renowned women's magazine here in Australia. It's also a huge magazine internationally, so discussing advertising with them is huge! I'll have to keep you updated, but so far it looks like we'll be in the Swimwear edition in November, but there's also interest in 2 other editorials!!

We're also on the last phase of sampling and we'll be manufacturing in no time.
There's a new manufacturer in play and a whole range of new bikinis.

Not to mention I've been working with the London company establishing phase 2 of the business. The business plan has been pitched and everyone is on board, including some ridiculously creative people who work for some of Europe's most prestigious Fashion labels. 

Anyways, bring on Bali #May2018 because I need a tax written off holiday like now...

SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCE // 8,119

 

13.02 // Gold Coast, Australia
So a short while ago, maybe a week or two, a heated discussion was had between myself and my boyfriend...

It led into the topic of what should be deemed a luxury. Now depending on your values, no judgement, luxury is, by definition: 'a state of great comfort or elegance, especially when involving great expense.' 

Here is where I went full feminist. Luxury in my eyes is not a fast car, big house, new phone and expensive holidays. Sure those things are nice and fancy, and would be nice, but a 'luxury' to me is much more simple.

Things like freedom, clean water, a home, a bed, good health, food... these are all items of 'luxury' to me. As a female, owning my own business, heck even having a job, HECK even being able to speak publicly was something women 100 years ago could only dream about. Some cultures still forbid women for their right to wear certain clothes, speak their mind or even get an education.

So ask yourself, what do you define as a luxury. Remember to be grateful for what you own, and for the opportunities you're allowed to have.

“Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

31.01 // Gold Coast, Australia
We're well into 2018 now and it's been nothing but samples! Working towards a big collection was never the plan, but I'm just loving the textile we've got and the styles that look flawless on any shape!

We're working with a brand new face this weekend which is always fun. Scouting new local talent is one of the biggest privileges we have as we have the platform to do so.

I am also just so over whelmed with the amount of new followers to our Journal page! A big hello to you in Europe, as we seem to be hot property with you these days (insert high five emoji here!)

Last but not least, Bali is getting closer and closer so we're under the pump more so now than ever! Can't wait to start distributing our biggest collection yet!

#EyesPeeledBananas x

SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCE // 8,075