April 15, 2024 • 28 mins
Welcome to another transformative episode of InspiHER'd, a platform entirely devoted to grown-up girl talk. Join our hosts, Stacey Fleece and Samantha Tradelius, as they indulge in a heartwarming dialogue with accomplished entrepreneur, Naz Dion. Naz shares her journey, painting a picture of her life's transition from Tehran to Canada, her struggles with postpartum depression, and her eventual launch into the entrepreneurial world.
Listen closely as Naz discusses her shift from a career as a physicist and banker to becoming an innovative entrepreneur. She explores the emotional turmoil of postpartum depression and how it served as an unlikely launchpad for her entrepreneurial journey. Facing a personal need for a stylish, yet functional diaper bag for her new baby, inspired Naz to design her unique line of diaper bags, marking her entry into the world of business.
Delve deeper into Naz's story as she explains the evolution of her business named Enya Mond lauded for its modern, stylish, and practical designs. Learn the thought process behind every design detail - from multiple pockets to a waterproof exterior. Naz also shares the iterative process of refining these designs based on precious feedback from other moms.
Experience Naz's resilience as she navigates through unexpected hurdles such as the quality issues from her overseas manufacturer. Gain insights into her uplifting experiences of doing business in China, providing an encouraging example for other aspiring women entrepreneurs.
In conclusion, get to know about the different models of diaper bags she offers, her expanding market presence, and her move into retail stores. Be inspired by Naz's incredible journey of surmounting obstacles, overcoming an intense personal struggle with postpartum depression, and building a thriving business venture.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello and welcome to Inspired, your grown-up girl talk. I'm Stacey Fleece with
co-host Samantha Tredelius.
Samantha. Here we are. Here we are. It's raining again. In case anybody was
wondering, it's raining again.
Like, winter left and then, like, forgot its fucking coat and came back.
(00:20):
Yeah, it did. It sure did. And I left my umbrella. I had to come back to get it. I don't know.
I really thought thought I was bringing spring on for everybody because I put
all my outdoor cushions out the other week.
So I was going to take full responsibility for bringing on spring.
And yesterday I had to put them all away again. Not good. It's not good.
(00:41):
But here we are again with an incredible guest doing incredible things for women
all over the place. So let's dive on in.
I'm super excited about this one. First of all, our guest today,
Naz Dion, thank you for joining joining us. We're super excited to have you here.
I'm so happy to be here. Thank you so much for inviting me. It's so great to
(01:02):
be talking to your incredible ladies.
So entrepreneur, you have your own company that you started after a very successful
career in finance, almost out of a self-need after you had a child.
So I want to back up to your history though,
because you have a a really interesting path that sort of led you
(01:23):
all to this growing up in Tehran and then
moving to an entirely different country when you
were 26 how did that like how did
you land in Canada in oh that that's well I have a funny answer for that because
I get I get that question a lot that why all over all the countries you chose
Canada and my answer is all when I was very small my mom travel to many,
(01:48):
many countries, my mom and dad.
And I remember that I was so small. My mom came to Canada. And when she came
back, she said, that's the country that I want to live in.
I love the country. I love Toronto.
I love the youth. And it stuck with me. And when I was growing up,
I always knew that I wanted to build a better life for myself.
I wanted to go do my master's degree.
(02:10):
And funny enough, I always introduced myself as being a physicist turned turned
banker, turned entrepreneur, because I studied physics in my undergrad.
I always wanted to be an astronomer. And I always wanted to go to Toronto and
study in my master's. So this just stuck with me.
And I always wanted to, whenever I thought about just continuing my studies
and going to another country, because of all the issues and problems and economic
(02:33):
problems back in Iran, I always knew that I wanted to go to Toronto. And that's what I did.
Which is incredible because it is an amazing place. I think my takeaway from
that is children are always listening. They are always watching.
Like if you think kids aren't listening to you, yes, they are.
(02:54):
100%. Yeah, 100%. 100%.
So how, I mean, as a young woman, I mean, that must have been a little bit of
a culture shock, you know, to relocate.
And, you know, obviously life in Canada, I'm sure, is a lot different than it
was in your home country.
So there was a lot of hurdles and things you had to you know
move over yes i did so i i
moved to canada with my husband so we
(03:16):
both moved at the same time i mean he was here
before and we kind of like he out back and forth but we really for the first
time living here we did it together and we just got married so just imagine
that that the two of us starting kind of like living together and moving here
and what we did which i think was really helpful but at the same time was really hard
(03:37):
But what was really helpful in helping us just get our foot into the workplace
was that we applied for MBAs.
So kind of like my life shifted.
So after I started working back in Iran and I was growing up in an entrepreneurial
family, so I started working with my dad.
And I quickly knew that I didn't want to study astronomy anymore.
(03:58):
I wanted to be V3 co-worker. I wanted to be in business. So I decided to do an MBA.
And my husband, who was an engineer, he did the same thing.
So we applied and we moved to Canada right before studying our MBA at one of
the business schools here, which was very, I think, hard because it was the
culture shock. It was studying an MBA.
(04:18):
It's not it's not easy to do. And you're new at and, you know,
away from family. We didn't have anybody.
We didn't know anybody. But I think going to school, making friends at school,
getting like just learning more and more about both the, you know,
social, like creating that social life, that friend group, and at the same time,
(04:39):
opening doors to get recruited in good companies.
I think that was the best decision that we made in our career.
Life. Pause for one second. Let me understand this.
You get married, you pick up and move as a newlywed couple to a country in a
totally different part of the world where you have no family, no friends to speak of.
(05:03):
You apply for your MBA, become classmates. Yeah.
And I barely survived. And you're still married. We are still married. I think this was magic.
(05:25):
I don't know how we did that. I feel like that's a whole other podcast episode.
A whole other episode. A TED Talk on that.
Just that one piece of your life. So I think what helps.
I mean, it was difficult. It was a challenge.
I think every day was a challenge. Not only we had challenges.
(05:46):
Like working together and like going
to school together all of that but also like nobody wanted to
cook nobody wanted to go grocery shopping nobody we didn't even
have time to do that right I just remember that we
had classes until 10 p.m and at 11 p.m we were grocery shopping and coming home
afterwards and just putting things away and I'm like what it was it was it was
(06:07):
it was a challenge but I think it made us a lot stronger and but and but it
helped because I I started dating my husband back then.
He was not my husband, obviously, when I was 18.
So I think like growing up together and going, we went to the same school for
undergrad, studied different majors, but we went to the same undergrad school.
So we kind of like just got used to that.
(06:31):
So, you know, we survived. I don't know how. That alone is fantastic.
So you graduate with your MBA. You have this incredible career in finance with
RBC, Royal Bank of Canada, that in case anyone is unfamiliar.
And then you want to have a family. So you have a daughter.
And this is interesting. You said after you had a daughter, and I think so many
(06:54):
of us feel this in our hearts, all of your achievements and focuses in life took a backseat.
Which probably shouldn't happen, but it does.
Like it just, like we lose, we gain the joy of motherhood, but we lose so much
of ourselves as a career woman.
(07:15):
Anna, just who we are growing up. So, you know, tell us, tell us about that
transition for you, because that really sort of then birthed your company,
which we will talk about here as well.
Yeah, exactly. So my daughter is now eight. When I had her, I was on,
I was having, I was working in RBC and I was moving from one role to another.
(07:39):
I was in the talent pool. So I kind of like felt Like I got it all right.
So every day, like the challenge that I'm going to get over my accomplishment
that I call it a social identity that I built myself for myself in my career
and how I felt like I'm being perceived.
(08:00):
But that and I was so excited about having a child. Like, I always wanted to
become a mother. I wanted to have more than one.
And I wanted to and I just even thinking about taking a year off in Canada,
we have a year maternity time.
And I was, well, I'm so excited about it.
I'm like, Oh, my God, I'm so excited about taking a year off,
just spending time with my baby.
(08:22):
And you know, I'm going to rule the world.
And I'm going to be so great at it. And my mom had four, I have three siblings.
So my mom had four children.
And to me, obviously, she was the perfect mom. And I'm like,
I'm going to be even better than her. I'm going to do it all. And I can't do it.
And then bam, in one day, I was at home with a baby. And my only job was to take care of this baby.
(08:45):
And I was so bad at it, or I felt I was bad at it. I'm like,
I don't know what I'm doing.
I couldn't even breastfeed. I mean, I was all over the place.
And I'm sure that many, many moms experienced that.
But to me, it was so hard because I was nothing that I felt I was before.
(09:06):
And I was something that I was so excited about. And I loved,
thankfully, I loved, I wanted to hold on to my baby.
I didn't even want anybody to take her away for a minute from me, which was not helpful.
But I kind of like slowly slowly develop postpartum
depression because I wanted to just sit in a room
try to rest with my my baby which I thought was the end of the world if I couldn't
(09:28):
which is now if when I think about it it's just so I don't know it's it's so
wrong thinking that way but but I wanted to be a really good mom I wanted to
be able to do it all the way that I did did before in my MBAs and my career.
And I felt like I'm really failing. So that was really hard to go through.
(09:51):
And I really fought postpartum depression for many, many months,
which I think the worst part for me, and I should mention that among my friends,
I was the first one that had a baby.
So it was all new to me. And I didn't see anything else.
I didn't talk to him. And again, And I was in Canada, all my friends were,
(10:12):
most of them were immigrants too.
And I was already 33 when I had my, when I had my baby.
And I was used to just, you know, having my own social life and being on my
own, not needing to worry about a baby.
So all of that was such a big shock to me that didn't help at all.
So I think that that is...
(10:34):
The main thing that led to developing postpartum depression that I fought with for many, many months.
And I thank you for sharing that because we all go through our version of motherhood
at the basic stages because a lot of us aren't around little babies and now
we have a little person we got to care for and we don't matter. It's all about this.
(10:54):
And it is a very isolating place. Even if you do have a great circle sometimes,
it is a place that I think all of us at some point in the motherhood journey go through.
And, you know, we still go through different areas of it as they age.
So what I really love the most about this line that you've created of these
incredible bags is that you're a mother, but you're still you.
(11:16):
So it was really taking that moment,
that dark place that you were in and creating something incredible.
So tell us a little bit about what it is that you're doing and how we can still
be moms, but still be cool. Exactly.
Yeah, for sure. So a few years forward, my daughter, I think,
was already four when I started thinking about doing something on my own.
(11:39):
So I did go back to RBC and I kind of like tried to, and obviously I got over
the postpartum depression and everything was good. But there was this just itch
that I knew that I wanted to do something and I knew that I wanted to help moms.
I did that little by little by helping moms that in my circle.
I know I remember that anybody in my friends who had a baby,
(12:03):
the only thing or one of the only things that I told them is that it doesn't
matter. It's OK not to be OK.
If you can feel inadequate, you can feel you're failing. feeling.
You can have all of that feelings.
And a lot of other moms do have those feelings. So you're not alone.
And just remember that at the end of the day, you are the best mother for your baby.
(12:26):
So never forget that. So I try to be really vocal about this.
I almost told everybody in my circle about my postpartum depression,
about the challenges, because I knew that if I don't talk about that,
that person is going to be another me, not knowing about the challenges that
other the moms are going through.
So it was really at the back of my head all the time that I want to do something
(12:48):
and I want to bring that like voice up and help moms.
So when I really knew that I'm ready to start a company for myself,
and I always had the passion for products, I knew that I want to do a product.
I want to do something for moms and babies, but I specifically wanted to create something for moms.
And diaper bag was something that I felt like is going to be a really good product
(13:13):
to focus on because one is a bag,
We've been love bags. You carry a handbag or bag all the time with you.
And I think it's a little bit underappreciated that a diaper bag is something
that you use for two, three years.
Some people even afterwards, if you have a good bag and you take it everywhere
with you, no matter if you're going to a park, you're going to a party or going
(13:36):
to a restaurant or travel.
This is something that you carry. So why not have something that you love to
carry? Not because you have to carry. Right. Right.
So I wanted it to be something that one is very functional because as a mom,
a lot of us go through a lot of diaper bags that we cannot like find that functionality that we want.
So I wanted to, first of all, create something that has that function,
(13:57):
has that quality that moms are looking for.
But why not have something stylish and fashionable that you feel good about?
Most of the time they are not stylish.
I mean, I'm my kids, my youngest is 11 now. So things are a little bit hipper
than they were 11, 13 years ago when I was having my girls. But a lot of times they're like not cute.
They don't. I mean, you could go up the ante and get like, I remember when Kate
(14:20):
Spade came out with like her favorite bag. So mine are college and I didn't
want a diaper bag that looked like a diaper bag.
And the only good option out there was a Kate Spade diaper bag,
which basically was just a square tote with two outside pockets for bottles.
And that became a diaper bag. But for me, it was like, well,
we're going to have to have something that dad will carry, too.
(14:42):
And I didn't want it to look like it. But that was literally the only good option. There was no option.
And by the way, we've now come up with your TED Talk number two for new moms.
Yes, we have second TED Talk.
We're just going to create a whole new career for you. But let's,
let's talk about, I want to talk about your designs, your, your company name,
(15:03):
India Moan, India Moan, am I wrong?
Yeah, that's right. They are gorgeous. Like I, I don't need a diaper bag,
but I would carry these just as a really stylish bag, especially for travel.
Like as a professional woman, I do travel for work sometimes and also a little
limited on what, because I don't want just a regular computer bag. No, thank you.
(15:27):
This is something that I could totally carry. So let's talk about how you came
up with this idea and the design around it. Sure.
Yeah. So what I did is that I, I remember the first thing I did was to list
everything that I wanted a bag to have, like literally everything.
And it's funny because I went to a lot of mom, I interviewed and I kind of like
just had this conversation with a lot.
(15:48):
I started this friends and then just going outside of my circle and talking to my mom.
To all the moms just understanding what they
want to see in the diaper bag or what are the pain points they
have and everybody was like you know
what it's it it seems perfect but it's there's no
way you can put all of that stuff in in one bag and
to be really honest I did most of them at least I
(16:10):
don't think maybe there's then one item that I didn't I
wasn't able to include because these bags are are big
and working with my manufacturer and kind
of like tweet tweeting the design for almost over a
year so 14 months I worked on this design just
to make sure that it has everything so I wanted it
to be first of all has so much space inside
(16:31):
but multiple pockets because the
chaos would be like when you're looking for something
and just looking inside that bag and just trying to pick everything out just
one-handed most of the time for moms just picking something out and trying to
look for that so I wanted to have multiple pockets inside this bag has 15 pockets
and I wanted to have insulated pockets for snacks or.
(16:56):
Bottles, obviously. I want it to be wipeable. I want it to be waterproof.
I want it to stay clean and I want it to stay upright.
So that's what I did. I created a bag that stays upright instead of just falling over.
I wanted it to go on a carry-on. So it has a carry-on sleeve that can turn,
(17:16):
if you open the zipper, it would just turn into a carry-on sleeve for travel.
So you don't have to carry it in airports.
I wanted to have a laptop or electronic sleeve because, you know,
as moms, a lot of us would carry an iPad or something.
Or then later on, when you go back to work, you can use it as your work bag or just a hybrid.
(17:37):
So, and so kind of like just, again, going through. So that was the first thing, just having that list.
And then what I did is that I looked at most of the diaper bags available.
So I did my best to go through everything and find out the good features and
the pain points and try to correct some of them.
Just an example is that the side pockets usually are good to have when the bag is full.
(18:00):
We cannot really use the side pockets. So I designed in a way that expands.
So even if the bag is completely full, we can still fit a bottle,
water bottle inside or something.
So kind of like that was my design process. So right there, you outdid Kate Spade.
Just in that one side pocket moment, you have outdone Kate Spivey.
Yeah, no, it's, it's very cool to be able to actually be able to create something
(18:24):
that is, you know, you're getting all the Intel, you're experiencing it yourself
and now you're like bringing it all together.
So when you talked about that, you know, year plus process of,
of building this out, I mean, picking fabric, picking, you know,
the interiors, the zippers, all the different things.
I mean, was that super hard? It was hard.
I think the sourcing part for me was the hardest because I manufacture overseas.
(18:50):
Just given the size of the bag, the complexity of the bag, I couldn't do it
locally, but I couldn't just give it to somebody that I wasn't sure that they're
going to deliver the quality that I want. So that was the hardest part.
I worked with manufacturers overseas. Just considering the time change,
it was really hard. And I tested, I think, 10 manufacturers and I asked them
(19:13):
to build prototypes for me.
And during every prototype, I gathered people, showing them, just taking notes.
And I remember that something that somebody told me was my daughter's friend's
mom who told me about the opening because we didn't have a zipper first.
We had kind of like a clip.
And I remember and I always thank her because she said that,
oh, you know what, this is not easy to use. Why not just have a zipper?
(19:36):
And I'm like, yeah, I think you're right. Let's just do that. and like a god.
Feedback from a lot of people because when you're really
deep into something you might not really see that from
another perspective and you just get used to the fact that
this is the way that it looks or the way that it functions so
i tried to get that feedback and then finally we came up with like we we said
(19:58):
okay we found a manufacturer that was amazing their prototypes that they made
for us were amazing the quality everything the lining of the bag was really
good but what What happened is that when we ordered,
and I'm just kind of like deviating here to some of the problems that we had,
is that when we ordered the bulk order,
that it took us a few months for the bags to reach us.
(20:19):
And we started selling and kind of like even pre-selling.
The lining of the bag has changed. So they didn't deliver what they promised.
And just imagine I have this big, very full of bags and it was okay for so many
people. But then I heard, I started after about two months, I started hearing
people saying that the lining is too thin, that it's kind of like coming off the stitches.
(20:43):
And I'm like, what am I doing here? I'm promising moms something that is going
to, you know, solve one of the problems.
But I'm just adding to that. That must have made your head explode.
Like, that's not what I designed.
It's not what I, yeah. But obviously, the manufacturer wasn't that helpful.
Fool so to this date if anybody had any problems
(21:05):
with that i said you know what no problem i'm gonna i'm gonna change
that for you because that's the level of customer service i want to
what did you do when the bags were not i mean did
you send them back or were you on the go no we
were on the hook so we already paid for everything we already had that but
you know some of the lessons that we learned so what i did
is that i stopped i laid really low so we
(21:26):
kind of like just stop everything thing and this was a time that we
needed to do a name change too we had some trouble with
our u.s trademark we knew that we're gonna change the
name so i'm like you know what maybe this is
a good thing for us so we want to change the name i'm going to do the whole
new brand rebrand and because the first time around i was testing the market
(21:47):
and we got really good feedback so i'm like now i'm willing to invest more let's
hire a company let's do rebrand and what i did is that I looked for another manufacturer,
which was twice as expensive, but I knew that they can deliver.
I flew to China for two weeks and sat down with them to just make sure that they are.
(22:08):
They say they are and kind of like just visiting everything
sitting down with their manufacturer there are a
manufacturer that make bags for it disney and
so many other big brands so i'm really confident in what they can they can deliver
so that's when i'm like okay you know what now we're ready to launch so this
past september we did a relaunch with a new new name new branding and a new
(22:31):
manufacturer so now i'm kind of like that's out of the way i have everything out with yeah Yeah.
A little bit of a tangent question, but what is it like doing business in China as a woman?
Ash, please, you read my mind. I was just going to ask her that.
You know, it was very surprising for me. So when I wanted to go,
I've never been to China and I was going alone and I was like,
(22:55):
I don't know anybody. I don't know the language, obviously.
And I heard so many stories that the companies knew the language,
no new English because I was working with them but I
was a little bit scared and I was hesitant to go but like you
have to do what you have to do right and it was just a big leap of
faith that I took and I went and it
was surprisingly amazing so what
(23:17):
happened yeah so what happened to me is that I
didn't even know like what I'm gonna do when I get to the airport like I had
my my hotel booked and everything but I'm like how do I even get a cab if they
don't speak English so I had all all of my VPNs and everything and Google Translate
and everything and had the address printed out. I was like, I have everything.
(23:38):
But then what they did, that company did, is that just tell me your flight number
and they come and pick you up.
So there I arrive at the airport and they're there waiting for me with a car, taking me to the hotel.
And every day they came and picked me up, take me to their facilities and take
me to lunches, to dinners and sightseeing. And I'm like, and it was so funny
(24:00):
because the first few days I was so jet lagged. There's a 12 hours difference.
And they persisted that they should take me out. Like, I really want to go to sleep.
But it was such a good experience just knowing that how, and I was,
and I am one of a very, very small customers of theirs.
So they had this huge customers, but their customer service is so good.
(24:23):
And they're so professional that I, and I talk about that a lot.
Because I know that a lot of people are my.
Place last year that they don't know what they can expect going to China or
going to the fairs there.
But I'm like, I can tell you, I have experienced that.
It was a difficult experience at first, but then to me, it's just, I can't wait to go back.
(24:46):
I love the part about getting uncomfortable. And we talk about this all the
time, is when you're most uncomfortable is when you can birth the most incredible things.
And had you not gone and met them and developed this, this like knowing that
you needed more than what you were getting from the other place. I mean, wow.
I mean, that's a big thing to do. And also in a different, totally different
(25:08):
environment that isn't always super embracing of women.
I mean, we hear a lot about these different cultures and how they don't,
you know, embrace the female and especially the female entrepreneur.
So kudos to you. So now where can we find these bags? Are they in retail shops? Are they online?
So we were solely online. so we
sell on our website only and just this
(25:31):
past month we opened to retail so we have just started
talking to retail thank you and the
reason we did that is that i go to trade shows and we
just launched september so in september october november
i have i was really busy with the trade shows and i
felt so happy and
so lucky that i got this response from people it
(25:54):
was it was crazy like i'll always i was
walking on the clouds people will come and see the
bags when they see it and feel it and touch it and
just look at all the functions they go they go crazy about
it and i got a lot of love they're beautiful thank you i got a lot of love i
got a lot of orders on that like one day trade shows or two day trade shows
(26:15):
that i did in toronto and in vancouver like i traveled to vancouver a few times
and it was amazing so that was kind of of like the moment that I'm like,
I have to put this in front of people because people have to see it.
In real life and that's why we opened i'm going
to be in vegas for a for a very big vegas uh
wholesale show in in may yeah that's when
(26:36):
i'm hoping to kind of like open up to u.s retails as
well and then and then other than that we are online and we sell to canada u.s
and uk what's your best-selling bag pardon what's which one is your best-selling
bag oh our luna bag which is the The one that we used to have prior to the rebrand too.
(26:58):
So that's definitely our bestseller. It's a bigger one. It has more capacity
and a little bit more stylish.
And then we have the Alara bag that is a little bit more compact and it has
its own kind of like lovers.
But the Luna bag, especially the cream one, I just see people really love.
(27:18):
And I have a lot of people coming to me saying that we love the cream one,
but we're afraid that it's going to get dirty. And I always tell them,
you know what? I've been prototyping this bag for three years.
I went to Disney World with it. I went to like, I just push it under the seat on that airplane.
It just doesn't get dirty because you can wipe it. Don't worry about the color.
There's no color transfer.
(27:39):
I'm just giving you a pitch. But anyways, it's- We're listening.
We're into it. We're totally, I think, you know, for somebody who found a need
in a market, which is, you you know, a story we love to tell,
who's put everything she has into it to create this brand that is stylish,
looks good, is multifaceted, is something that a woman can grab and go.
(27:59):
She can be a mom. She can be a sassy gal. She could be a businesswoman.
She can do all the things. You are definitely one to keep an eye on.
And we are so honored to be able to share space and tell your story.
Naz, we hope that everybody hears your story this week and is inspired.
Hello and welcome to Inspired, your grown-up girl talk. I'm Stacey Fleece with
co-host Samantha Tredelius.
Samantha. Here we are. Here we are. It's raining again. In case anybody was
wondering, it's raining again.
Like, winter left and then, like, forgot its fucking coat and came back.
(00:20):
Yeah, it did. It sure did. And I left my umbrella. I had to come back to get it. I don't know.
I really thought thought I was bringing spring on for everybody because I put
all my outdoor cushions out the other week.
So I was going to take full responsibility for bringing on spring.
And yesterday I had to put them all away again. Not good. It's not good.
(00:41):
But here we are again with an incredible guest doing incredible things for women
all over the place. So let's dive on in.
I'm super excited about this one. First of all, our guest today,
Naz Dion, thank you for joining joining us. We're super excited to have you here.
I'm so happy to be here. Thank you so much for inviting me. It's so great to
(01:02):
be talking to your incredible ladies.
So entrepreneur, you have your own company that you started after a very successful
career in finance, almost out of a self-need after you had a child.
So I want to back up to your history though,
because you have a a really interesting path that sort of led you
(01:23):
all to this growing up in Tehran and then
moving to an entirely different country when you
were 26 how did that like how did
you land in Canada in oh that that's well I have a funny answer for that because
I get I get that question a lot that why all over all the countries you chose
Canada and my answer is all when I was very small my mom travel to many,
(01:48):
many countries, my mom and dad.
And I remember that I was so small. My mom came to Canada. And when she came
back, she said, that's the country that I want to live in.
I love the country. I love Toronto.
I love the youth. And it stuck with me. And when I was growing up,
I always knew that I wanted to build a better life for myself.
I wanted to go do my master's degree.
(02:10):
And funny enough, I always introduced myself as being a physicist turned turned
banker, turned entrepreneur, because I studied physics in my undergrad.
I always wanted to be an astronomer. And I always wanted to go to Toronto and
study in my master's. So this just stuck with me.
And I always wanted to, whenever I thought about just continuing my studies
and going to another country, because of all the issues and problems and economic
(02:33):
problems back in Iran, I always knew that I wanted to go to Toronto. And that's what I did.
Which is incredible because it is an amazing place. I think my takeaway from
that is children are always listening. They are always watching.
Like if you think kids aren't listening to you, yes, they are.
(02:54):
100%. Yeah, 100%. 100%.
So how, I mean, as a young woman, I mean, that must have been a little bit of
a culture shock, you know, to relocate.
And, you know, obviously life in Canada, I'm sure, is a lot different than it
was in your home country.
So there was a lot of hurdles and things you had to you know
move over yes i did so i i
moved to canada with my husband so we
(03:16):
both moved at the same time i mean he was here
before and we kind of like he out back and forth but we really for the first
time living here we did it together and we just got married so just imagine
that that the two of us starting kind of like living together and moving here
and what we did which i think was really helpful but at the same time was really hard
(03:37):
But what was really helpful in helping us just get our foot into the workplace
was that we applied for MBAs.
So kind of like my life shifted.
So after I started working back in Iran and I was growing up in an entrepreneurial
family, so I started working with my dad.
And I quickly knew that I didn't want to study astronomy anymore.
(03:58):
I wanted to be V3 co-worker. I wanted to be in business. So I decided to do an MBA.
And my husband, who was an engineer, he did the same thing.
So we applied and we moved to Canada right before studying our MBA at one of
the business schools here, which was very, I think, hard because it was the
culture shock. It was studying an MBA.
(04:18):
It's not it's not easy to do. And you're new at and, you know,
away from family. We didn't have anybody.
We didn't know anybody. But I think going to school, making friends at school,
getting like just learning more and more about both the, you know,
social, like creating that social life, that friend group, and at the same time,
(04:39):
opening doors to get recruited in good companies.
I think that was the best decision that we made in our career.
Life. Pause for one second. Let me understand this.
You get married, you pick up and move as a newlywed couple to a country in a
totally different part of the world where you have no family, no friends to speak of.
(05:03):
You apply for your MBA, become classmates. Yeah.
And I barely survived. And you're still married. We are still married. I think this was magic.
(05:25):
I don't know how we did that. I feel like that's a whole other podcast episode.
A whole other episode. A TED Talk on that.
Just that one piece of your life. So I think what helps.
I mean, it was difficult. It was a challenge.
I think every day was a challenge. Not only we had challenges.
(05:46):
Like working together and like going
to school together all of that but also like nobody wanted to
cook nobody wanted to go grocery shopping nobody we didn't even
have time to do that right I just remember that we
had classes until 10 p.m and at 11 p.m we were grocery shopping and coming home
afterwards and just putting things away and I'm like what it was it was it was
(06:07):
it was a challenge but I think it made us a lot stronger and but and but it
helped because I I started dating my husband back then.
He was not my husband, obviously, when I was 18.
So I think like growing up together and going, we went to the same school for
undergrad, studied different majors, but we went to the same undergrad school.
So we kind of like just got used to that.
(06:31):
So, you know, we survived. I don't know how. That alone is fantastic.
So you graduate with your MBA. You have this incredible career in finance with
RBC, Royal Bank of Canada, that in case anyone is unfamiliar.
And then you want to have a family. So you have a daughter.
And this is interesting. You said after you had a daughter, and I think so many
(06:54):
of us feel this in our hearts, all of your achievements and focuses in life took a backseat.
Which probably shouldn't happen, but it does.
Like it just, like we lose, we gain the joy of motherhood, but we lose so much
of ourselves as a career woman.
(07:15):
Anna, just who we are growing up. So, you know, tell us, tell us about that
transition for you, because that really sort of then birthed your company,
which we will talk about here as well.
Yeah, exactly. So my daughter is now eight. When I had her, I was on,
I was having, I was working in RBC and I was moving from one role to another.
(07:39):
I was in the talent pool. So I kind of like felt Like I got it all right.
So every day, like the challenge that I'm going to get over my accomplishment
that I call it a social identity that I built myself for myself in my career
and how I felt like I'm being perceived.
(08:00):
But that and I was so excited about having a child. Like, I always wanted to
become a mother. I wanted to have more than one.
And I wanted to and I just even thinking about taking a year off in Canada,
we have a year maternity time.
And I was, well, I'm so excited about it.
I'm like, Oh, my God, I'm so excited about taking a year off,
just spending time with my baby.
(08:22):
And you know, I'm going to rule the world.
And I'm going to be so great at it. And my mom had four, I have three siblings.
So my mom had four children.
And to me, obviously, she was the perfect mom. And I'm like,
I'm going to be even better than her. I'm going to do it all. And I can't do it.
And then bam, in one day, I was at home with a baby. And my only job was to take care of this baby.
(08:45):
And I was so bad at it, or I felt I was bad at it. I'm like,
I don't know what I'm doing.
I couldn't even breastfeed. I mean, I was all over the place.
And I'm sure that many, many moms experienced that.
But to me, it was so hard because I was nothing that I felt I was before.
(09:06):
And I was something that I was so excited about. And I loved,
thankfully, I loved, I wanted to hold on to my baby.
I didn't even want anybody to take her away for a minute from me, which was not helpful.
But I kind of like slowly slowly develop postpartum
depression because I wanted to just sit in a room
try to rest with my my baby which I thought was the end of the world if I couldn't
(09:28):
which is now if when I think about it it's just so I don't know it's it's so
wrong thinking that way but but I wanted to be a really good mom I wanted to
be able to do it all the way that I did did before in my MBAs and my career.
And I felt like I'm really failing. So that was really hard to go through.
(09:51):
And I really fought postpartum depression for many, many months,
which I think the worst part for me, and I should mention that among my friends,
I was the first one that had a baby.
So it was all new to me. And I didn't see anything else.
I didn't talk to him. And again, And I was in Canada, all my friends were,
(10:12):
most of them were immigrants too.
And I was already 33 when I had my, when I had my baby.
And I was used to just, you know, having my own social life and being on my
own, not needing to worry about a baby.
So all of that was such a big shock to me that didn't help at all.
So I think that that is...
(10:34):
The main thing that led to developing postpartum depression that I fought with for many, many months.
And I thank you for sharing that because we all go through our version of motherhood
at the basic stages because a lot of us aren't around little babies and now
we have a little person we got to care for and we don't matter. It's all about this.
(10:54):
And it is a very isolating place. Even if you do have a great circle sometimes,
it is a place that I think all of us at some point in the motherhood journey go through.
And, you know, we still go through different areas of it as they age.
So what I really love the most about this line that you've created of these
incredible bags is that you're a mother, but you're still you.
(11:16):
So it was really taking that moment,
that dark place that you were in and creating something incredible.
So tell us a little bit about what it is that you're doing and how we can still
be moms, but still be cool. Exactly.
Yeah, for sure. So a few years forward, my daughter, I think,
was already four when I started thinking about doing something on my own.
(11:39):
So I did go back to RBC and I kind of like tried to, and obviously I got over
the postpartum depression and everything was good. But there was this just itch
that I knew that I wanted to do something and I knew that I wanted to help moms.
I did that little by little by helping moms that in my circle.
I know I remember that anybody in my friends who had a baby,
(12:03):
the only thing or one of the only things that I told them is that it doesn't
matter. It's OK not to be OK.
If you can feel inadequate, you can feel you're failing. feeling.
You can have all of that feelings.
And a lot of other moms do have those feelings. So you're not alone.
And just remember that at the end of the day, you are the best mother for your baby.
(12:26):
So never forget that. So I try to be really vocal about this.
I almost told everybody in my circle about my postpartum depression,
about the challenges, because I knew that if I don't talk about that,
that person is going to be another me, not knowing about the challenges that
other the moms are going through.
So it was really at the back of my head all the time that I want to do something
(12:48):
and I want to bring that like voice up and help moms.
So when I really knew that I'm ready to start a company for myself,
and I always had the passion for products, I knew that I want to do a product.
I want to do something for moms and babies, but I specifically wanted to create something for moms.
And diaper bag was something that I felt like is going to be a really good product
(13:13):
to focus on because one is a bag,
We've been love bags. You carry a handbag or bag all the time with you.
And I think it's a little bit underappreciated that a diaper bag is something
that you use for two, three years.
Some people even afterwards, if you have a good bag and you take it everywhere
with you, no matter if you're going to a park, you're going to a party or going
(13:36):
to a restaurant or travel.
This is something that you carry. So why not have something that you love to
carry? Not because you have to carry. Right. Right.
So I wanted it to be something that one is very functional because as a mom,
a lot of us go through a lot of diaper bags that we cannot like find that functionality that we want.
So I wanted to, first of all, create something that has that function,
(13:57):
has that quality that moms are looking for.
But why not have something stylish and fashionable that you feel good about?
Most of the time they are not stylish.
I mean, I'm my kids, my youngest is 11 now. So things are a little bit hipper
than they were 11, 13 years ago when I was having my girls. But a lot of times they're like not cute.
They don't. I mean, you could go up the ante and get like, I remember when Kate
(14:20):
Spade came out with like her favorite bag. So mine are college and I didn't
want a diaper bag that looked like a diaper bag.
And the only good option out there was a Kate Spade diaper bag,
which basically was just a square tote with two outside pockets for bottles.
And that became a diaper bag. But for me, it was like, well,
we're going to have to have something that dad will carry, too.
(14:42):
And I didn't want it to look like it. But that was literally the only good option. There was no option.
And by the way, we've now come up with your TED Talk number two for new moms.
Yes, we have second TED Talk.
We're just going to create a whole new career for you. But let's,
let's talk about, I want to talk about your designs, your, your company name,
(15:03):
India Moan, India Moan, am I wrong?
Yeah, that's right. They are gorgeous. Like I, I don't need a diaper bag,
but I would carry these just as a really stylish bag, especially for travel.
Like as a professional woman, I do travel for work sometimes and also a little
limited on what, because I don't want just a regular computer bag. No, thank you.
(15:27):
This is something that I could totally carry. So let's talk about how you came
up with this idea and the design around it. Sure.
Yeah. So what I did is that I, I remember the first thing I did was to list
everything that I wanted a bag to have, like literally everything.
And it's funny because I went to a lot of mom, I interviewed and I kind of like
just had this conversation with a lot.
(15:48):
I started this friends and then just going outside of my circle and talking to my mom.
To all the moms just understanding what they
want to see in the diaper bag or what are the pain points they
have and everybody was like you know
what it's it it seems perfect but it's there's no
way you can put all of that stuff in in one bag and
to be really honest I did most of them at least I
(16:10):
don't think maybe there's then one item that I didn't I
wasn't able to include because these bags are are big
and working with my manufacturer and kind
of like tweet tweeting the design for almost over a
year so 14 months I worked on this design just
to make sure that it has everything so I wanted it
to be first of all has so much space inside
(16:31):
but multiple pockets because the
chaos would be like when you're looking for something
and just looking inside that bag and just trying to pick everything out just
one-handed most of the time for moms just picking something out and trying to
look for that so I wanted to have multiple pockets inside this bag has 15 pockets
and I wanted to have insulated pockets for snacks or.
(16:56):
Bottles, obviously. I want it to be wipeable. I want it to be waterproof.
I want it to stay clean and I want it to stay upright.
So that's what I did. I created a bag that stays upright instead of just falling over.
I wanted it to go on a carry-on. So it has a carry-on sleeve that can turn,
(17:16):
if you open the zipper, it would just turn into a carry-on sleeve for travel.
So you don't have to carry it in airports.
I wanted to have a laptop or electronic sleeve because, you know,
as moms, a lot of us would carry an iPad or something.
Or then later on, when you go back to work, you can use it as your work bag or just a hybrid.
(17:37):
So, and so kind of like just, again, going through. So that was the first thing, just having that list.
And then what I did is that I looked at most of the diaper bags available.
So I did my best to go through everything and find out the good features and
the pain points and try to correct some of them.
Just an example is that the side pockets usually are good to have when the bag is full.
(18:00):
We cannot really use the side pockets. So I designed in a way that expands.
So even if the bag is completely full, we can still fit a bottle,
water bottle inside or something.
So kind of like that was my design process. So right there, you outdid Kate Spade.
Just in that one side pocket moment, you have outdone Kate Spivey.
Yeah, no, it's, it's very cool to be able to actually be able to create something
(18:24):
that is, you know, you're getting all the Intel, you're experiencing it yourself
and now you're like bringing it all together.
So when you talked about that, you know, year plus process of,
of building this out, I mean, picking fabric, picking, you know,
the interiors, the zippers, all the different things.
I mean, was that super hard? It was hard.
I think the sourcing part for me was the hardest because I manufacture overseas.
(18:50):
Just given the size of the bag, the complexity of the bag, I couldn't do it
locally, but I couldn't just give it to somebody that I wasn't sure that they're
going to deliver the quality that I want. So that was the hardest part.
I worked with manufacturers overseas. Just considering the time change,
it was really hard. And I tested, I think, 10 manufacturers and I asked them
(19:13):
to build prototypes for me.
And during every prototype, I gathered people, showing them, just taking notes.
And I remember that something that somebody told me was my daughter's friend's
mom who told me about the opening because we didn't have a zipper first.
We had kind of like a clip.
And I remember and I always thank her because she said that,
oh, you know what, this is not easy to use. Why not just have a zipper?
(19:36):
And I'm like, yeah, I think you're right. Let's just do that. and like a god.
Feedback from a lot of people because when you're really
deep into something you might not really see that from
another perspective and you just get used to the fact that
this is the way that it looks or the way that it functions so
i tried to get that feedback and then finally we came up with like we we said
(19:58):
okay we found a manufacturer that was amazing their prototypes that they made
for us were amazing the quality everything the lining of the bag was really
good but what What happened is that when we ordered,
and I'm just kind of like deviating here to some of the problems that we had,
is that when we ordered the bulk order,
that it took us a few months for the bags to reach us.
(20:19):
And we started selling and kind of like even pre-selling.
The lining of the bag has changed. So they didn't deliver what they promised.
And just imagine I have this big, very full of bags and it was okay for so many
people. But then I heard, I started after about two months, I started hearing
people saying that the lining is too thin, that it's kind of like coming off the stitches.
(20:43):
And I'm like, what am I doing here? I'm promising moms something that is going
to, you know, solve one of the problems.
But I'm just adding to that. That must have made your head explode.
Like, that's not what I designed.
It's not what I, yeah. But obviously, the manufacturer wasn't that helpful.
Fool so to this date if anybody had any problems
(21:05):
with that i said you know what no problem i'm gonna i'm gonna change
that for you because that's the level of customer service i want to
what did you do when the bags were not i mean did
you send them back or were you on the go no we
were on the hook so we already paid for everything we already had that but
you know some of the lessons that we learned so what i did
is that i stopped i laid really low so we
(21:26):
kind of like just stop everything thing and this was a time that we
needed to do a name change too we had some trouble with
our u.s trademark we knew that we're gonna change the
name so i'm like you know what maybe this is
a good thing for us so we want to change the name i'm going to do the whole
new brand rebrand and because the first time around i was testing the market
(21:47):
and we got really good feedback so i'm like now i'm willing to invest more let's
hire a company let's do rebrand and what i did is that I looked for another manufacturer,
which was twice as expensive, but I knew that they can deliver.
I flew to China for two weeks and sat down with them to just make sure that they are.
(22:08):
They say they are and kind of like just visiting everything
sitting down with their manufacturer there are a
manufacturer that make bags for it disney and
so many other big brands so i'm really confident in what they can they can deliver
so that's when i'm like okay you know what now we're ready to launch so this
past september we did a relaunch with a new new name new branding and a new
(22:31):
manufacturer so now i'm kind of like that's out of the way i have everything out with yeah Yeah.
A little bit of a tangent question, but what is it like doing business in China as a woman?
Ash, please, you read my mind. I was just going to ask her that.
You know, it was very surprising for me. So when I wanted to go,
I've never been to China and I was going alone and I was like,
(22:55):
I don't know anybody. I don't know the language, obviously.
And I heard so many stories that the companies knew the language,
no new English because I was working with them but I
was a little bit scared and I was hesitant to go but like you
have to do what you have to do right and it was just a big leap of
faith that I took and I went and it
was surprisingly amazing so what
(23:17):
happened yeah so what happened to me is that I
didn't even know like what I'm gonna do when I get to the airport like I had
my my hotel booked and everything but I'm like how do I even get a cab if they
don't speak English so I had all all of my VPNs and everything and Google Translate
and everything and had the address printed out. I was like, I have everything.
(23:38):
But then what they did, that company did, is that just tell me your flight number
and they come and pick you up.
So there I arrive at the airport and they're there waiting for me with a car, taking me to the hotel.
And every day they came and picked me up, take me to their facilities and take
me to lunches, to dinners and sightseeing. And I'm like, and it was so funny
(24:00):
because the first few days I was so jet lagged. There's a 12 hours difference.
And they persisted that they should take me out. Like, I really want to go to sleep.
But it was such a good experience just knowing that how, and I was,
and I am one of a very, very small customers of theirs.
So they had this huge customers, but their customer service is so good.
(24:23):
And they're so professional that I, and I talk about that a lot.
Because I know that a lot of people are my.
Place last year that they don't know what they can expect going to China or
going to the fairs there.
But I'm like, I can tell you, I have experienced that.
It was a difficult experience at first, but then to me, it's just, I can't wait to go back.
(24:46):
I love the part about getting uncomfortable. And we talk about this all the
time, is when you're most uncomfortable is when you can birth the most incredible things.
And had you not gone and met them and developed this, this like knowing that
you needed more than what you were getting from the other place. I mean, wow.
I mean, that's a big thing to do. And also in a different, totally different
(25:08):
environment that isn't always super embracing of women.
I mean, we hear a lot about these different cultures and how they don't,
you know, embrace the female and especially the female entrepreneur.
So kudos to you. So now where can we find these bags? Are they in retail shops? Are they online?
So we were solely online. so we
sell on our website only and just this
(25:31):
past month we opened to retail so we have just started
talking to retail thank you and the
reason we did that is that i go to trade shows and we
just launched september so in september october november
i have i was really busy with the trade shows and i
felt so happy and
so lucky that i got this response from people it
(25:54):
was it was crazy like i'll always i was
walking on the clouds people will come and see the
bags when they see it and feel it and touch it and
just look at all the functions they go they go crazy about
it and i got a lot of love they're beautiful thank you i got a lot of love i
got a lot of orders on that like one day trade shows or two day trade shows
(26:15):
that i did in toronto and in vancouver like i traveled to vancouver a few times
and it was amazing so that was kind of of like the moment that I'm like,
I have to put this in front of people because people have to see it.
In real life and that's why we opened i'm going
to be in vegas for a for a very big vegas uh
wholesale show in in may yeah that's when
(26:36):
i'm hoping to kind of like open up to u.s retails as
well and then and then other than that we are online and we sell to canada u.s
and uk what's your best-selling bag pardon what's which one is your best-selling
bag oh our luna bag which is the The one that we used to have prior to the rebrand too.
(26:58):
So that's definitely our bestseller. It's a bigger one. It has more capacity
and a little bit more stylish.
And then we have the Alara bag that is a little bit more compact and it has
its own kind of like lovers.
But the Luna bag, especially the cream one, I just see people really love.
(27:18):
And I have a lot of people coming to me saying that we love the cream one,
but we're afraid that it's going to get dirty. And I always tell them,
you know what? I've been prototyping this bag for three years.
I went to Disney World with it. I went to like, I just push it under the seat on that airplane.
It just doesn't get dirty because you can wipe it. Don't worry about the color.
There's no color transfer.
(27:39):
I'm just giving you a pitch. But anyways, it's- We're listening.
We're into it. We're totally, I think, you know, for somebody who found a need
in a market, which is, you you know, a story we love to tell,
who's put everything she has into it to create this brand that is stylish,
looks good, is multifaceted, is something that a woman can grab and go.
(27:59):
She can be a mom. She can be a sassy gal. She could be a businesswoman.
She can do all the things. You are definitely one to keep an eye on.
And we are so honored to be able to share space and tell your story.
Naz, we hope that everybody hears your story this week and is inspired.
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