Hi Everyone! I’m so excited to introduce you all to Jennifer Woodgate. I like to think we’re kindred spirits both on a mission to make a difference through our companies. With the rising trend of businesses giving back, it is particular honor to interview a wonderful female entrepreneur like Jennifer who is working every day to end child hunger. One of her adorable knitted Cuddle + Kind dolls gives 10 meals to children around the world! I hope you love learning about Jennifer and how she has committed to building a business that is truly changing lives.
Hi! I’m Jen. I’m a mama to three littles, former PhD, ice cream fanatic, ocean lover, and dreamer of a better world for children. Our family started cuddle+kind, a social business that creates ethically produced, hand-knit dolls that help feed children in need. For every doll sold, we provide 10 meals to hungry children around the world, and each one is lovingly hand-knit by artisans in Peru. I am thrilled and honored to share our story with you today!
#pressplay below to watch our recorded Skype interview, and check out her answers in written format as well as pictures of her beautiful creations. Enjoy!
What did you do before Cuddle and Kind? How did you decide to start your own business?
It almost feels like another life, but I have my PhD in Kinesiology, with a post-doctoral specialization in Health Promotion. After we had our son Ethan, I fell head over heels for him and decided to stay home to raise him and eventually our daughters Brooke and Rachel as well. With backgrounds in health, both my husband Derek and I recognize the crucial role nutrition plays in a child’s development. As parents, we believe all children should have enough food to eat and the opportunity to thrive, so when we saw a documentary on the devastating impact of childhood hunger on millions of children around the world, it moved us deeply. Just imagining Ethan in that situation inspired us to help. On that day, we decided to start a social business whose purpose is to help improve the lives of children and to make a difference. Our vision was to create a high-quality line of adorable hand-knit dolls that help feed children. So for every cuddle+kind doll sold, we give 10 meals to children in need.
Can you give us a brief history of Cuddle and Kind? How long have you been in business? What has your growth looked like? Can you tell us a story of some of the “unglamorous” moments just starting up?
We spent over a year designing our dolls and developing relationships with our knitting partners in Peru before we launched in September 2015. We actually launched cuddle+kind by sharing our idea on Indiegogo, a crowdfunding website. You can see our story and the inspiration behind our idea in our two-minute family video here: https://www.cuddleandkind.com/our-story. The feedback and support we received during our Indiegogo campaign was amazing! We surpassed our fundraising goal in the first day and by the end of the 7-week campaign we raised over 1300% of our funding goal and had donated over 163,543 meals to children!
We have been in business for less than a year. Our launch was as exciting as it was frantic; we were essentially working through how to turn our idea into a real social business while in business. After the initial rush of our Indiegogo campaign and the holiday season, things slowed down considerably during the first quarter of 2016. In April, we launched our Little Collection, which are smaller size (13”) versions of our original 20” dolls. And even though they’re little, each doll still provides 10 meals to children in need. They’re little dolls that do a lot of good! Since launching our Little Collection, our momentum has increased each month.
We have a wonderful photographer, and have tons of fun at our photo shoots. But, if you were to catch a glimpse of us behind the scenes while the photos are being taken, it would be pretty unglamorous and silly. We are definitely not above singing every children’s song in our repertoire, and making incredibly silly faces to get all of the kids and babies to giggle and smile for the camera.
What’s your big picture WHY? What motivates you to work hard and build your business? What is your ultimate lifestyle goal?
There’s nothing we love more than being parents. We think nurturing our three children is the most important, rewarding and sometimes challenging job in the world! That’s at the root of why we are motivated to make a difference in the lives of children. The unfortunate reality is that 66 million children attend classes hungry every day. And over 3 million children, under the age of 5, die from poor nutrition each year. The more we learned, the more we were inspired to do something about it. The good news is, hunger is one of the most solvable problems that face the world today. Ultimately, helping children reach their potential resonates with us as parents. It motivated us to start cuddle+kind and inspires us to work hard every day.
Where did you find your mentors, or resources to help learn about entrepreneurship and running a successful business?
Derek and I work on cuddle+kind together; it’s truly a joint family venture. We tend to divide and conquer with each of us tackling different areas of the business. I think I’m pretty lucky and get to work on more of the creative side – choosing doll characters, color schemes and generally making them adorable. Since we are just starting our business journey with cuddle+kind, we would love some mentors!
Can you tell a story of a specific failure you encountered while building Cuddle and Kind? What did you learn from it?
We want cuddle+kind to reflect our family’s values, so we decided from the beginning that our dolls should be ethically produced and lovingly hand-knit by talented artisans in Peru. We are proud to provide our knitters with a fair trade wage that allows them to care for themselves and their families. The ‘failure’ came at the end of our Indiegogo campaign when we realized it was a lot harder than we expected to turn our idea into actual product in time for the holiday season. Despite everyone’s best effort, including the hard work of over 100 artisans in Peru, we were not able to deliver all of the dolls we sold during our Indiegogo campaign in time for the holiday season. This was a really stressful experience for everyone involved. We had over 4,000 orders and most of them were relying on our dolls for the holiday season. The reality was, everyone,including our knitters, was going through this process for the first time and because our dolls are extremely detailed, they take a significant amount of time to knit. In addition, there were shipping challenges around the holidays that added delays in getting our dolls up from Peru and into our supporters’ hands. During the entire process, we tried to keep our supporters updated and did everything we could to make it up to them. In the end, we learned a lot and it really highlighted how understanding and compassionate our supporters are.
Do you currently have 1099s or employees? Or are you a onewoman show? If you have help, what advice do you have to give about scaling your business and outsourcing responsibilities through hiring to help grow? Do you have any advice on when to start scaling the business and hiring employees, bookkeeping… etc.
We grew very quickly and now have built a small team of around six full-time and part-time employees. The first person to join cuddle+kind was actually one of our best friends from high school and was Derek’s groomsman in our wedding party. Being surrounded by wonderful people who share our passion for making a difference is such a pleasure. I would recommend that any entrepreneur learn as much as they can about each facet of their business before outsourcing responsibilities. The more you know about your business, the better.
How many hours per week do you work? How do you balance family life with work?
The time commitment to cuddle+kind really tends to fluctuate. The truth is, when the business is busy, like around Christmas time and when we design and launch new doll characters, balance is hard. But, when things are quieter, we have an amazing team, so I can work one dedicated day a week on cuddle+kind and then fit the rest in during the evenings after the kids are in bed. Our youngest daughter, Rachel, is still home with me during the day, and I feel very fortunate to be able to have the flexibility to go to the park, have impromptu Let It Go concerts, and dress up like princesses during the day. At the same time, I still have the creative and inspirational outlet of cuddle+kind, so I can feel like I am making a difference with my children at home and for children around the world.
I’m Like Brave is about creating an uncommon life. What does an “uncommon life” you love look like for you? How does your business help create this ideal lifestyle?
Our business is rather uncommon in that it truly is a family affair – our young children inspired us to start the business and are still very involved. They are extremely passionate about our dolls and our goals at cuddle+kind. We call ourselves “a family of five on a mission to help feed children”, and we truly are. Our three kids are our official cuddle testers and give us advice on characters and their outfits. All of the dolls are “Ethan-approved” for cuddle-ability; he sleeps with all of our dolls and tells us if they are soft enough. Each of our dolls have their own name and personality, and shares a birthday with one of our family members.
What has been the most exciting thing to happen to your business so far?
In such a short time, it feels like there has been so much excitement at cuddle+kind. Probably the most thrilling was our initial success on Indiegogo. We hoped that our idea of creating ethically produced, hand-knit dolls that help feed children would be well- received and it was so rewarding (and a relief!) to see that it was. This was affirmation that people truly do want to make a difference with their purchases.
It is also very rewarding to see that children really do love our dolls, and are inspired to help other children. We love hearing that our supporters are sharing our story and mission with their friends and family and we get such a kick every time we see photos of little ones enjoying their new cuddle+kind friends. Ultimately, the most rewarding aspect of cuddle+kind is that we have been able to donate over 250,000 meals to date to help children in need.
What is your ultimate vision for your business in the coming year? Where do you see Cuddle and Kind in 5 years?
We would love to reach our goal of donating 1 million meals to children in need this year. We have donated over 250,000 meals so far and our donations are growing each month as we gain momentum, so we are optimistic about reaching our goal. Five years from now, we hope that our donations and their impact will have grown exponentially. We would love to develop more adorable hand-knit dolls that both children and parents cherish. As we grow, we would also like to work with more Giving Partners to donate more meals in more countries.
One of the reasons we started cuddle+kind was to set a good example for our children. It’s one thing to tell them they can achieve anything if they follow their hearts, but it’s another to show them. It was also important to us that we demonstrate to them that kindness can and should always be a part of who you are, especially at work. It’s extremely fulfilling when success is measured by more than just profits; it’s measured by the children we help.
What’s holding you back from where you are now and your end game?
It takes time to develop awareness. We are a really young social business, so hopefullywith time we can share our story and mission with more people.
What is it that you need help with right now, and if you could get free advice that would solve your problem right now, what would it be?
We need help in getting our story and mission out to the world so we can raise awareness more quickly. We are looking for mentors and partners who can help us with that.
If you could sit down with any entrepreneur for a 2 hour lunch and pick their brain, who would it be and why? What would you ask them?
Both Blake Myoskie of TOMS Shoes and Lauren Bush of FEED. We are grateful to both of them for being social business trailblazers and inspiring others to create businesses that do good, including ourselves. They showed us that a social business with giving back at its core could help make the world a better place. Our giving model of “1 doll = 10 meals” allows us to create a sustainable stream of giving to children in need without the need to rely on constant fundraising. We very much believe in the power of business to make a difference and improve lives. What question would we ask? After thanking them, I would probably ask what’s on our minds right now, which is raising awareness with limited funds!
What advice would you give your “just starting a business” self knowing everything you know now?
Although I feel like I am still my “just starting a business” self, I would have told myself a year ago that there are bound to be challenges on this journey, but we will get throught hem. Ultimately, it is so worth it!
Jamie Tardy, podcaster at “The Eventual Millionaire” says millionaires share 2 habits:they all journal and they all have a morning ritual. What does your morning ritual ideally look like?
My morning ritual is very unglamorous, but probably relatable to many moms. It involves feeding little ones breakfast, making lunches, braiding hair, packing backpacks, and the best part, giving kisses. Then, I can check emails and our social media. For now, I am embracing this stage of our family and actually wouldn’t trade this time with our kids for anything.
If you could do anything in the world, with no possibility of failure, what would it be?
I love dreaming up new doll characters, personalities, and names. It would be such a joy to see all of the new characters we have in the works come to “life”; I get quite attached to them all. We would also like to have the opportunity to take our big kids out of school and take our family to some of the key places where we give meals. That is cuddle+kind’s main reason for being and it would be very rewarding for our kids to see the impact that we’re having on other children, firsthand.
What’s been the best business book you’ve read?
I love reading every kind of book; I read every night before bed. While we were dreaming up cuddle+kind, Derek and I both read the book Half the Sky. It highlights the plight of women, but also the importance of empowering and employing women as a tool to help break the cycle of poverty. After reading this book, it was important to our family to help as much as we could, wherever we could, throughout our journey with cuddle+kind. We wanted our dolls to be hand-made, but also be able to employ women. This inspired us to provide a sustainable fair trade income to the talented artisans in Peru who knit our dolls. It was also one of the things that particularly drew us to The World Food Program as a giving partner. Their school meals encourage parents in poverty-stricken areas to send their daughters to school, thus girls are able to get an education.
What’s your favorite success quote and why?
Our favorite quote that inspires us at cuddle+kind is “Be the change you wish to see in the world” by Mahatma Ghandi. Closing thoughts to other entrepreneurs or those on the verge of starting a business: Starting a social business has been very fulfilling for us. Letting our values guide us, and putting people ahead of profits makes our days very joyous even when things aren’t going perfectly! And of course, follow your passion. When you’re doing something you love, it never feels like work.
If you didn’t already know about Jessica and her incredible business before, I’m glad you do now. You can find her online store here, and on instagram @cuddleandkind.
Be Brave,
Hillary
