Kat

Trying out Rent the Runway: How did it go?

January 16, 2019 By Kat

For awhile now, I’ve been curious to try out Rent the Runway – an online service where you can rent designer clothing and accessories.

With fast fashion being a problem these days, and our landfills filling up with clothing we no longer want, renting clothes is an attractive idea. It allows us to enjoy the novelty of new clothing, without creating more waste because the clothing will be used again by other people. In particular, it can be worth it to rent special occasions dresses, which we only wear a couple times anyways.

Well it turns out, my friend Wendi had a code for a 1-month free trial, so I happily accepted! Thanks Wendi!! I captured photos along the way and took notes of my thoughts, so here’s my experience with Rent the Runway (RTR).

The Plans

To use RTR, you browse the online shop and select items that you want to rent. They get shipped to you. You wear them. You return them. Oh and they take care of dry cleaning too, which is nice.

You can do a one-time rental for a certain time period. Or there are 2 types of monthly subscription plans offered. More details here.

With the cheaper RTR Update plan, you can have up to 4 items rented at any time, and you’re allowed to swap once a month. A swap means you send back the items you have, and then pick 4 new ones.

With the RTR Unlimited plan, you still can only rent 4 at a time, but you have unlimited swaps. So after you wear the items for a couple days, you can immediately swap them back for new items.

They have free 2-day shipping each way, but it takes a little bit of time to do each swap. My coupon code was for 1 month of RTR Unlimited, so I got to rent as many clothes as I wanted!! Woohoo!

Getting Started

Once I signed up, I started browsing the catalog.

They have lots of cute items and they try to put them in categories like outfits for the weekend, outfits for work, etc.. You can search / sort by the normal filters like tops, pants, dresses or color or other features.

Checking out the catalog for the first time was so much fun. I was like a kid in the candy store. It also took me a lot of time – I think I pretty much looked through the whole catalog LoL. But the best part was that everything was $0!! Hahah because it’s for rent – but seriously, wouldn’t you love to shop when everything’s $0?

They have accessories as well – jewelry and handbags.

Clicking on an item gives you more details. It will show you what sizes are available for renting and whether it runs large/small/true to size. You can also check out photos of real customers wearing that item. That last one is actually pretty helpful!

You can bookmark items you like by tapping the “heart” button next to each item. Then you can view “My Hearts” to see them all together.

Checking Out

Okay the hardest part comes when you must make decisions about which 4 items you want to rent. Ahhh only four!?!?!

I hummed and hawed before deciding on these 4 items for my first shipment!

They also give you some styling ideas on what to wear it with. Cool!

Then it was time to wait for my shipment to arrive. *Eagerly anticipating my new clothes!*

Opinions So Far

At this stage, these were my opinions of the shopping process.

The Good

Renting items can help you plan your outfits ahead of time. At the time, I had a couple special occasions coming up, so I could plan what I was going to wear by picking out a dress for it.
It’s fun to try designer brands that I would not normally splurge on.

Areas for Improvement

There could be more diversity in the types of models they used for the clothing. They seemed to use a lot of lighter skinned models.
Improved styling of the clothing on the models. Sometimes when I’d hover over the item to look at the photo of the model wearing it, I would change my mind about the item. It didn’t look as flattering as the item on its own, which seemed a little counterintuitive. Hmm *shrug*
They could hide the summertime prints or make them harder to find. Scrolling through them, it was the wrong season to be wearing them, so I just skipped over them.
They could have more sunglasses options. They had some designer sunglasses options, but I wasn’t too excited about them.
The engineer in me found a bug in their interface, lol. When you scroll through the user photos of an item and tap to view one of them, it keeps jumping back to the beginning, which makes it very hard to see all the users’ photos. Maybe they’ve fixed this bug by now.

First Shipment Arrives

Ok back to the excitement! Finally a black bag arrived at my doorstep! I was pleasantly surprised that it was eco-friendly packaging – a reusable cloth garment bag that folded in half. The dresses were in plastic garment bags and the purse was in a cloth bag.

The purse was a little smushed though – as you can see, and it still was a little smushed even as I wore it. So I wish they had kept the stuffing inside the purse (when you buy it brand new) so that it would maintain its shape even through the shipping process.

Wearing My New Clothes

Here is dress #1! I wore it to Thanksgiving dinner. You can tell how overdue this post is (it’s now January as I write this lol).

At first I really didn’t like it. It was baggy and looked a little quaint on me. I did some adjusting, unbuttoned some buttons, rolled up the sleeves, added a belt and then it looked a better. You can still tell that it’s a little big on me.

Here’s dress #2! Date night. Sexy one sleeve dress. It’s got a mesh panel across the midsection and back too, and an asymmetrical hem line.

The problem was that it was also too big for me. It could barely zip on the side, but the length was too long and sleeve was too long too (not a big problem, I folded it in). Here are some of the unflattering angles of the dress. It actually looks like a very conservative dress when you see it from the left side of my body. Not quite the look I was going for.

But regardless, I wanted to get some use out of it so I wore it to dinner. I threw my own jacket on top of it, and used the new snakeskin purse as well.

It’s a cute purse! I liked it. It has personality to it. I also wore it out and about for casual stuff like going shopping.

Oh and the sad thing was that the fourth item I had picked (a cape) was not available in stock anymore. (They had emailed me earlier about that.) So I only got 3 items in this shipment.

I ended up picking this skirt instead. It has a whimsical flower design on it. I selected it because I was doing a storytime of my children’s book at the bookstore. It kind of went with the whole artist / illustration vibe – at least in my mind it did! It was stretchy in the waistband, so that fit fine, but the skirt was really long. I thought it would hit my mid-calf or something, but it was longer than that. Without heels, it looks too big for me. Short people problems.

So that wraps up my first 4 items. They were fun to try! I wore the dresses once each, the skirt once, and the purse a couple times. After about a week or so, I returned them in the same black bag. And waited until RTR received them.

Second Shipment

A couple days later, I received the email that it was time to order again! After more endless browsing, I decided on these 4 items.

Here are the cute styling ideas they gave with my selections. Nice!

This time I wasn’t so diligent about taking pictures of everything, lol sorry.

I liked the red dress. It was classy and very holiday-themed. It was December at this point. I wore it with tights for a little holiday get-together. Again though, it was big, so I had to adjust it so it wouldn’t look as baggy on me.

The gray dress was not flattering on me at all. It was very “square” in that there was a somewhat high neckline and the sleeves were long, and the skirt part was long too. So it wasn’t the cute look that I had hoped for. It was sad considering I liked the brand and have another dress from them. I guess it’s hit or miss. I ended up not wearing this out.

The purse and coat were cute! I wore them several times. The coat was a tad big on me, especially the sleeves, so had to roll those in too.

Pics with the purse!

Ok I know this is a really long blog post, but the saga isn’t over yet!

The In-Person Rent the Runway Store

I heard that there was in-person RTR store. They apparently have them in Chicago, SF, NYC, Topanga, and DC. (Where’s Topanga?)

Anyways. I made the trek up to the in-person store in SF. I was curious to see if it’d be easier to find items that fit me in-person. The store is small and near Union Square in downtown.

I returned my current 4 items, using these fancy kiosks. After you scan each item, you drop them in the bins underneath.

I could rent 4 more items, so I browsed around. You can see there are lots of clothes – many of them holiday outfits (because it was mid December at that point), accessories, and handbags.

To be honest, I spent a while looking, but I had a hard time even finding things to try on. I didn’t have any fancy holiday parties to go to, so maybe that ruled out a lot of the dresses. I looked for more separate items (tops / bottoms). Many times, unfortunately they didn’t have my size – my numeric size or an XS. I did find some items to try on – but even after I tried them on, they weren’t too interesting. I browsed the purses and handbags too, didn’t see anything I absolutely loved. So ultimately, I decided not to rent anything. Sad! :'( I felt like the inventory was better online. Or at least it’s easier to see what’s available in my size.

But if you do get something, these are the kiosks to checkout. Oooh fancy!

Anyhow, it was nearing the end of my trial month, and I didn’t end up having time to browse for new items for a third shipment. So here’s my final verdict.

The Verdict

After some careful thought, I decided not to continue with the RTR subscription. It was such a fun experience though – so much joy and anticipation throughout the process and enjoying the novelty of new clothes, new brands, new purses. As time went on though, I grew a bit tired of the items not fitting like I had hoped for and got tired of having to adjust / fold things in to make it look like it fit.

I know they have a petite section, and I forget if I picked items in there or not, but if I did it again, I would focus on that section of their inventory. I avoided all the long dresses / pants because I knew I’d have a hard time fitting those (4’11” over here).

My feeling is that these designer items are great for the runway and for women who are taller. They did have a range of sizes and even maternity clothes, but somehow the items just didn’t fit me that well. I did have better luck with the accessories that work for all body shapes.

It also does take time to browse through and find items each time. I wanted to make the most of each shipment, so I took a little longer to be sure of the items I selected.

In addition, for the price of $159/mo, I didn’t feel like it was an expense I could afford in my budget. The cheaper plan is $89/mo but same issue.

So in the end, I actually prefer shopping and buying items from stores that I already like, so things fit a lot better. I actually appreciated going back to my regular wardrobe because everything fit me just right.

Fit is no easy task. Finding something online and having it fit is already a hard problem in itself (i.e. as part of the normal online shopping process). It takes a lot of time and patience to find things that fit correctly. Even for the brands/stores I shop at, sizing can vary, and many times something from the same brand won’t look as good.

Note: From looking at the RTR website, they do have additional support to help people with sizing, which I haven’t tried yet.

I have to say though, I think RTR will become increasingly popular as will the idea of renting clothing. My friend who is petite actually really likes RTR, so I think for certain demographics of people, this model will work out quite nicely. Living near an in-person location would be great too. I appreciate that RTR is thinking of the environment as well – in terms of reusing clothing and how they ship the clothing.

As the RTR brand grows, they’re already seeing more popular clothing brands come to them and want to work with them. And that will help boost their value for customers. All in all, they’re definitely a company to keep an eye on. I think they’re quite disruptive in the fashion world!

Well, if you got this far in my post, congrats! That was a novel haha. I tried to be as thorough and fair in my review as possible. This post was not sponsored, so take what you will of it.

If you want to check it out, use this link for $30 off your first order.
Rent the Runway

Slowing Down to Speed Up

January 15, 2019 By Kat

I used to have a tendency to live life a million miles a minute. If there was a blank spot in my calendar, where I wasn’t physically meeting someone, I would fill it up with something else. I didn’t account for driving to/from places, and I didn’t account for being tired from going to an event or driving somewhere farther away. So I would pile in many things into my schedule for a single day, and when that day came, as I was rushing from place to place, I would get so tired and wonder why I agreed to all of those things in the first place.

For awhile now, I’ve been working on slowing down my life. Although my mind is very curious and wants to try and experience all these great things, it’s hard for my body to keep up. I realize that scheduling so many things into my calendar wasn’t giving me time to rest or even sit down and breathe. And I needed that alone time to process what just happened or to think about what I wanted to do next.

Having such a full schedule also robs us of the chance for spontaneity in life. On one hand, having a full day of plans already booked is great and time-efficient, but on the other hand, there’s something wonderfully glorious about a blank day with nothing on the calendar. I love those types of days because they are full of possibilities and full of surprises and joy.

I’m not saying that we should just slow down to a sloth’s pace and be couch potatoes for life. I just believe that slowing down to rest helps us get back out there and do our work at a much faster pace. By recharging (before we burn out), we can re-energize and be productive, and then go back to resting – like a sinusoidal curve.

When we slow down, we become more intentional with our time. We may realize that certain things cause us stress or anxiety, so we can adjust or remove those things from our schedule. Then we can have more energy for things that we want to focus on – for that particular time in our life. And the things we want to focus on will also change over time like a sinusoidal curve. There are seasons of life where we focus more heavily on career, then we focus more on health, then family/friends, then back to career, etc..

So in a world where “being busy” can sometimes be a status symbol, I am rejecting that notion. To me, not being busy is a luxury. We don’t need to fill up all our time with activities. We don’t have to be 100% productive all the time. We don’t have to do everything we’ve ever wanted to try in this immediate moment. Instead of cramming 10 things into 1 day, we could aim to do 3 things slowly and but enjoy them in the process.

What speed are you operating at these days?

It is a mistake to think that moving fast is the same as actually going somewhere.”
Steve Goodier

How to Host a Webinar

January 10, 2019 By Kat

One of my goals for 2019 was to work on my public speaking skills by doing monthly speaking events. But finding speaking events is not necessarily straightforward, so to reduce dependencies, I decided to take it upon myself to host a webinar (an online talk) each month for the whole year, with a different topic each month.

Advantages

The thing with having a webinar, unlike hosting an in-person event, is that there’s no pressure for a certain number of people to come. Whoever wants to come can come! And if they don’t, that’s okay too. Takes some of the pressure off, so I could focus on my speaking part.

First Webinar

I just hosted my first webinar last weekend and the topic was: Making Your Dreams Com True in 2019! I was very happy with how it went. There was 10 of us and we had guided reflection time so we could write / plan out our goals and also talk about them too. It was really great connecting with like-minded folks and being able to share openly about struggles and also tips for chasing our dreams. I can’t wait for the next one!!

Which Technology to Use?

I had to do some research to figure out what technology to use for the webinar. I wanted a low or no-cost option because this is really an experiment, so I had to rule out the platforms that had monthly fees.

GoToWebinar is a popular platform that I’ve seen a bunch of online entrepreneurs use, but when I checked out the pricing, I was like hmmm no, too expensive for me now – it was $90/mo for the cheapest plan. I wouldn’t use it frequently enough for it to remotely pay off.
YouTube Live is another option by just livestreaming on your YouTube channel. It didn’t feel as intimate though, feels more out in the public (which could matter for the participants of the webinar), so I didn’t go with this option. This is a free option, but you just have to meet certain eligibility requirements before livestream is enabled for your channel. Meaning, I don’t think it’s available for brand new channels.
Instagram Live and Facebook Live are also options, but again they don’t feel as intimate. I think people also tend to causally drop in and drop off on those live feeds, if they happen to be scrolling in the app at that time.
Zoom is something I’ve used quite a few times already for video conference calls in groups. They have a free plan, but they also have a paid plan if you want more features (see pricing). They also have a paid plan of $40/mo for “Zoom webinars” with some fancy features to moderate the group and stuff. It would probably make more sense when your business is at a bigger scale.

Picking Zoom

So after all that, I decided to go with a Zoom call. It’s not exactly like a webinar format with a host and participants, but it’s more like a group conference call. It actually worked out quite well for our group size. People could turn on their video and microphone and chime in.

A Zoom call does have limitations though. The free version limits your group calls to 40 minutes. We did end up signing off the call, and then signing back in at the 40 minute mark lol. A tiny hassle. And there is a limit to 100 people per call too.

For your purposes, it’ll depend on what your needs are, what audience size you have, and what type of engagement you want with them. If you’re starting off, I would test out the waters with some free options first.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Pick a date and time for your webinar. Put it into your calendar so you don’t flake out.
Create an image to promote the webinar (refer to my tutorial on creating graphics with Canva).

Announce it on social media, your newsletter, and to friends & family. I mentioned that the webinar login instructions would be sent out to my mailing list, so I directed people towards signing up for that.
I created a new “meeting” within Zoom, and gave it a title and time.

A Zoom web link will be provided, or people can dial in with their phone as well. These instructions are located in the Zoom meeting description page, when you click on the “Copy the Invitation” link.

I sent out the webinar instructions to people on my mailing list so they could have access.
I started prepping the content – first with an outline, then with practicing it and creating slides. I used Google Slides to make a simple presentation.
I did a webinar dry-run to test out the technology. I gave the link to my fiance and he hopped on the call so we could test it out: test out sharing the screen, playing my presentation, the audio and my computer microphone, the group chat feature, etc..
I did some more reminder social media posts and a reminder to my mailing list again.
Then I did the webinar!! Woohoo!

Backup Plan

Technology doesn’t always work when we want it to, and I know other people have had technical difficulties with their webinars (on much larger scale with more complicated technology, but still). So having a backup plan is always good. I had a backup plan of using YouTube live in case the Zoom call didn’t work. But luckily I didn’t need it!

All went smoothly with the Zoom call and I’m looking forward to the next one in February!! Hope you can join me for that one! You can also join my mailing list so you don’t miss out. I’ll be announcing the next topic soon!

The Biggest Mistake

January 3, 2019 By Kat

I think the biggest mistake we can make in our lifetime is to think that we don’t matter. The mistake of diminishing ourselves and feeling like “oh if I don’t show up, it won’t matter. No one will even notice that I’m not there.”

In the past, I doubted myself and if my presence somewhere was even useful or not. I was hard on myself because sometimes I didn’t say much or feel like I was contributing much. But you know what? I realized how just “showing up” is enough. You don’t need to be the life of the party, you don’t need to be the best storyteller in the room or make everyone laugh. You just need to show up. Even having positive vibes already boosts the energy level of the whole room.

In building my business and sharing my journey, at times I felt like I was creating blogposts and videos that were disappearing into the void, like I had no idea whether anyone was reading it or getting any value from it. But in those moments of self-doubt, people would come along and give me a nudge. They would tell me that I matter, that my voice, my work, and my creativity matter. And that would help me stand a little taller and realize that what I do matters, and that I shall continue moving forward. So to all those people who kept reminding me of this, thank you from bottom of my heart.

And hence, I wanted to pass along that message to you. You matter. Your voice matters. Your life matters. Your choices matter. And your happiness matters. If it’s hard for you to grasp, I would say that’s normal. But my hope for you is that you eventually come to believe it with your whole heart. It’s an ongoing work in progress for me as well.

Many people don’t realize how much of an impact they have on others around them. They diminish their impact on their circle of influence – friends, family, work, community, etc.. They feel quite small about themselves or don’t allow themselves to fully dream about what their biggest and most powerful life could be. They don’t realize how much light they would shed on others if they stepped into their fullest and best selves.

Two Takeaways

So if you see potential in someone, let them know what you see in them and let them know they matter. I can’t fully express how good it feels when you feel seen in this way.

Second, and probably even harder, acknowledge that you matter. It feels egotistical and self-centered to feel like your life matters, but it’s true. And when we believe that about ourselves, then we start to act in a way like our life has purpose, that we are worth investing in ourselves and worth taking care of. And in nourishing our body and soul, we start to come alive.

“The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire.”
– Ferdinand Foch

Transformed by Kat: Michael Shares His Style Journey

December 21, 2018 By Kat

Meet another styling client of mine, Michael Leadon! This is his “before” picture. Hmm those pants…

And here is the “after” picture! Woohoo! A clean modern look for a stylish man.

Michael shares the story of his transformation:

“I went to Kat to try to get some ideas for some new stylish clothes, but I ended up with my own style. Kat will not only gives advice on what to wear, but she will explain the reasons that one piece is better than another so you are now equipped to make stylish choices. After our shopping excursion, she sent me a list of the brands and sizes that worked for me, so I could then go and get similar items from that designer. Another great thing about Kat is that she is also a student of current fashion. She stays abreast of what the current trends are. When I ask her questions, she not only answers with words, but will send links to celebrities wearing the style in question of videos of fashion experts giving their opinion on the topic. ”

Thank you for sharing your experience, Michael! It’s been very rewarding to see your style and knowledge of fashion evolve. You’ve really taken this information and ran with it. Very proud of you!

If you want to discover a new confidence in what you wear and how you shop, send me a message at styledbykatkuan@gmail.com. Let’s chat!

Where I Developed My Sense of Imagination

December 18, 2018 By Kat

I have the most fond memories of going to my grandma’s place – well it was my grandparents’ home, but she was the woman who ran the household, made sure all the kids were fed, and was the glue of the family.

She lived down the street from us, and my parents would drop me and my sister off at their place so they could go off to work. My grandma would bring us to school, picks us up from school, feed us a tasty afternoon snack, and then let us play until our parents picked us up. My two cousins were around the same age as me too, so it was the 4 of us hanging out and growing up together.

It was so much fun. It was a humble home, didn’t really have many toys, but we always found something to occupy our time. We loved to make up games and use the furniture to setup obstacle courses. We’d crawl under the dining table. We would turn the folding tables on their sides and pretend they were cars. We would make ample use of the sofa pillows and blankets and create forts. Or we’d use pens/paper to entertain ourselves for hours. We would draw or make things out of paper and scissors, and use up all her tape!

We didn’t have much technology – there was a TV in the living room that we’d watch cartoons on – Animaniacs, Sailor Moon, Power Rangers, or whatever was on. They had the best shows back then! The TV would overheat and she’d tell us to turn it off and go do something else instead.

There was a small backyard with fruit trees and a grass area for running around in. We’d make up games, play on our little bicycles, play water games in the summer, or kick the ball around.

I smile as I look back on all these memories – playing and using our imagination. Anything was possible with those pillows and people to play along with.

A couple distinct things stand out:

We loved our grandma’s spaghetti. It was always exciting when that was the afternoon snack.

We enjoyed watching the Teletubbies and even created our own Teletubby club, where each of us were a Teletubby. I was LaLa, the yellow happy go-lucky one! We also had our own Teletubby newsletter complete with “news” and puzzles and other cute clipart images – whatever was available on the Create-a-card software we used.

We dedicated two blank notebooks to each of our grandparents and would each add a page to the notebook. For example, we’d add a drawing or glue in something. Then when the pages would all get filled, we wanted to gift it to them. We never finished it, so we never gave it to them, but we’re pretty sure they already saw it when they would clean up each day lol.

On occasion, she’d take us to McDonald’s, which we loved because of the food and the ball pit.

We would also play “school” to mimic our teachers and teach my little cousin. Looking back, maybe that’s when I started to like teaching! It’s so funny to find early traces of our current selves in our childhood.

All in all, I am so grateful for this time in my life when I had time to play. Life got much busier as I got older. I started doing more activities and running from extracurricular to extracurricular. Unfortunately, there seems to be less time to play for adults, but I’m realizing how much fun it is and how necessary it is for my soul. So I’m trying to make more blank spaces in my life to imagine and create things! Who knows what can come from it? Perhaps the best part is to have no expectation at all about any result, and just let things unfold.

Was there a specific place you remember your imagination developing?

Shoes from Recycled Plastic Bottles: Rothy’s

December 10, 2018 By Kat

The shoes that I see women everywhere wearing are flats from a brand called Rothy’s. They’re very distinctive in how they look.

This brand is based in SF and has re-purposed over 20 million plastic bottles into shoes. It’s incredible! The shoes are created with a 3D knitting machine so they are seamless.

I can vouch that they are by far the most comfortable flats I’ve worn, and are my go-to flats these days.

They have round-toe and pointy-toe styles. They also have loafer and sneaker styles too. I would possibly consider a sneaker style, but I’m very happy with my black pointy-toe flat because it can be dressed up or down with a casual outfit or with a more business casual look. Sometimes I’ll throw this pair of flats in my car trunk if I need to change my shoes when I’m out and about.

If you have wider feet, you could order half a size up. But I find that it runs true to size – I have size 5.5. Some people order 2 different sizes and then just return the other pair. The insole is removable too, so you could replace it with a different shoe insert if you need to.

They have solid colors and also some more funky patterns if you want something more bold. For more ideas on how these shoes look, take a look at their Instagram for style inspiration.

Also, it’s machine washable! More detailed instructions on their FAQ page.

They are more pricey, but I think they’re worth the investment for how often I wear mine. Also, here’s a discount for $20 off your first order. (note this is not a sponsored post, this is just my friends and family referral code that they give all customers.)

There’s free shipping and free returns within 30 days. Or you can return the shoes in-person to your local Happy Returns location (i.e. Stanford mall or Valley Fair mall in the Bay Area). See my previous post on Happy Returns.

They look modern and stylish and they’re comfortable, so I highly recommend a pair for your wardrobe!

Browse Rothy’s Shoes

rothys kat kuan — I’m wearing The Point in Black Solid

Two Types of Discipline

December 7, 2018 By Kat

As an entrepreneur, it’s so hard to be the boss of yourself. You work on something for a goal or deadline, but you’re also the one setting the deadline on yourself, so you can just as easily change it. With better tools, I’m learning to manage myself better, and I came to realize that there’s 2 types of discipline in this world.

Discipline Out of Fear

This is the type of discipline I grew up with. Being in an Asian household, there are strict expectations to study hard and do well in school. In school, there is pressure to do well on homework and exams, otherwise you could *gasp* get a bad grade. School turns into the myriad of college entrance exams and college applications where the constant driver is to do well otherwise *gasp* you may not get into a “good college.” The pressure doesn’t let up in college either. You vie for good grades otherwise you may not get a “good job.” And once you land in a good job, there’s the fear of getting a bad performance review or disappointing someone who’s a higher-up, so you work and work. It’s really a culture of fear that we’re brought up in. And it’s quite toxic because we do things because we’re afraid of disappointing others or bringing shame onto ourselves. We fall prey into thinking that if we can’t do something, it may reveal that we’re incompetent or not good enough.

All this to say, I got very good at being disciplined out of fear. I could crank through lots of work and memorize my way through a class to remember the content long enough to pass a test and then forget it afterwards. I was able to pull through on an extremely challenging deadline by sacrificing my own health and well-being, but it was for a good pat on the back or a good grade / performance review.

But when I left the normal world of formal education / corporate America, I found it very hard to get things done because I had operated so long on discipline out of fear. Sure, I was afraid of failing at my business or being embarrassed that I couldn’t meet a goal that I had announced publicly on social media. But that fear wasn’t enough to get me out of bed and to the gym, and taking care of myself, and doing the hard work of building a business every day.

I learned that I needed a different type of discipline.

Discipline Out of Love

I’m starting to learn that there’s a new source of energy, a new source of motivation which is much more boundless than fear. It is doing things out of love. You can be disciplined in your work and show up raring to go every day because you love it so much. You’re so pumped to make progress towards a dream that puts you on Cloud 9 just thinking about it. You can be disciplined in how you take care of yourself – exercise and eating healthy because nourishing your body feels good to you.

Here’s another way to put it. You can eat healthy because you fear dying early or getting some incurable disease. Or you can eat healthy because it feels good in your body and gives you energy.

For a long time, it felt weird to do things out of love, especially out of love for myself. But when you do things that make you feel good, or find a way to make something feel good (finding a form of exercise you really like), then you are much more willing to stick with the consistency of discipline because it feels great each time.

I also had a mental block on this because sometimes “feeling good” in our society is labeled as indulgent or short-sighted or irresponsible. We’re conditioned to expect that we need to suffer in the short-term for a happy future. But actually self-inflicted suffering just cripples our energy and enthusiasm for life. So I call BS on that. I think “feeling good” is a good thing, and we should pursue more of it, in a healthy way of course.

Instead of doing things out of obligation, I continually challenge myself to do things out of love for myself, love for others, or love for my work. It’s definitely a mind shift, but I think one that will ultimately change the course of my life.

What mode are you operating in these days?

A Truly French Bakery Comes to the Bay Area – Maison Alyzeée

October 30, 2018 By Kat

My friend Pam recently came back from a month in France, and was raving about how this new bakery in downtown Mountain View was legit. She goes there for the baguettes and loves it. Apparently it’s the real deal! I was of course intrigued, so I had to visit this place for myself.

On a Tuesday morning, I stopped by Maison Alyzée and immediately fell in love with the charm of this bakery. I had the chance to speak with the owner, Laurent Pellet. He was so welcoming and open, and I got a peek behind-the scenes at the kitchen and got to meet the chefs as well. So cool!! The more I heard about their story and how they work and think, I was captivated by the amount of care and love that is put into this bakery.

Laurent opened this bakery because there wasn’t a truly French bakery that existed in the Bay Area. There were other really good bakeries, but not one that was *truly* French. The team believed that they could create something truly different. That is the mark of a team on a mission!!

The values that are important to Laurent are humility, respect, sharing, and quality. Sharing is important to him because back in France, a community of bakers is all about sharing. He also emphasizes humility because they are always striving to do better – to tweak and improve the product to be at its best for customers. They challenge themselves daily. Each day, they look at the product and think, “Do we need to improve this?” It’s possible that a pastry may change 1 week later.

When you visit this place, the ambience begins from the street when you walk up to the bakery (there is outdoor seating) to stepping into the cozy bakery and seeing all the beautiful pastries. There is a Parisian flair to the whole experience.

They even have their own signature loaf of bread – the one with the M on it, which is made up of different flours. Gotta try that one day! After I try their baguette. 🙂

Laurent wants this place to be like a second home for customers. Some customers already come every day! And he wants it to be a place for kids as well.

Speaking of feeling like a home, he introduced me to his wife who works there as well. Aren’t they adorable?

THE BEST INGREDIENTS

Their team is also very meticulous with their ingredients and test the products to make sure they’re up to their quality standard. They source their ingredients from local vendors and they use the best ingredients – French butter, the best chocolate, etc..

He showed me the selection of teas they have from France, and he even took out a humongous bag of tea which was so aromatic that I could smell it from an arms distance away, when the bag was still closed!

AN AMAZING TEAM

Laurent brought over 3 chefs from France – including a Michelin star pastry chef! There is Head Pastry Chef Jean-Victor Bellaye, Pastry Sous-Chef Xan Billiotte, and Pastry Sous-Chef Gerald Chahine. More details about them here.

Here’s a picture of Laurent (left) and Chef Jean-Victor (right).

Chef Jean-Victor also took the time to explain some of the pastries to me. And while we were talking, he pulled these pastries from out of the oven! They look delicious.

Overall, I had a fantastic first time at Maison Alyzée. I’m excited that they have come to downtown Mountain View. This place is only a couple of months old and already has strong reviews on Yelp.

By the way, here’s a picture of the croissant I had. It was so flaky and delicious. It was gone in no time.

Before

After

If you’re in downtown Mountain View, stop by this gem of a bakery!!

Maison Alyzeée
212 Castro Street
Mountain View, CA 94041

Thank you to Laurent and the whole team for being so welcoming. Wishing you the best!

The Drybar Experience – A Hair Blowout for Special Occasions

October 26, 2018 By Kat

Drybar is a salon where you can get a blowout. A blowout is where you can get your hair styled (no haircut – just shampoo and styled). Hence this is great for when you want to get your hair done for a special occasion like a night out.

Note: I think the experience can be highly dependent on who you get for your hairstylist and which location you go to. We went to the location in Vegas in the Cosmopolitan hotel. For us, the price is a flat rate of about $49 (not including tip), and if you want a special updo or braid, then that costs extra. The price may differ depending on location as well.

Visiting Drybar is a whole experience.

First off, the decor is so bright and happy with pops of yellow that it lifts your spirits.

They have their own line of hair products which they use, and the pastel colored bottles add a cool look to the place as well.

Also they had the movie Eat Pray Love playing in the background with subtitles. They know their target demographic! 😉

HOW THE PROCESS WORKS

1. First off, I recommend booking an appointment ahead of time. Especially if you’re going in a group, I went with 2 girlfriends, you want to make sure they have time available for all of you at the same time.

2. There’s a menu of different styles you can choose from – straight, loose curls, beachy waves, etc.. You can look through the menu / lookbook and each hairstyle has a fun cocktail themed name like Cosmo, or Mai Tai, etc..

3. First you get your hair washed. WOW this was an experience! It was so amazing and relaxing. They shampoo you twice (with some charcoal shampoo and something else) and add conditioner (it was to promote volume in my case because my hair is so straight and flat).

4. Then they blowdry your hair while styling it at the same time, depending on which look you chose. My hairstylist was super nice and would explain what she was doing as she moved through each step. I can’t recall what she did, but she knew what she was doing! LoL She did all these complex steps to prep my hair so that it would have volume and hold the curls for a long time. There was lots of spraying different products and using rollers and a curling iron and more.

Don’t I look like an oompa loompa? Haha!

By the way, they give you a complimentary drink (mimosa or wine), so this is my drink, with a glass of water too. Even the water looks chic here!

THE FINAL LOOK

Here’s how it turned out! The hairstylist helped me decide on a Cosmo Tai – a mix of the 2 looks in the lookbook, and also parted my hair down the middle. She also told me not to touch my hair for at least half an hour afterwards to maximize how long the curl would last. She said the curls should last 3-4 days. I ended up washing it out after the second day because I was traveling, but yeah, those curls stayed because of the enormous amount of hairspray used lol.

For me, I think I like my curls a little bigger and more relaxed so it feels like there’s more movement when I run my hand through my hair. But regardless, it was a fun experience to do with girlfriends!

To look for a location near you, check out the Drybar website.