When Eva and I conjured the idea up for Mindless Mag we didn’t really know exactly how it would work, in fact we still don’t and we probably never will, because it’s constantly evolving.
I think that’s probably one of the most exciting things about the start up environment that’s being cultivated today. You don’t need a three year strategy, in fact, having one would make you too rigid to adapt. Nor do you need a solid structure and a load of formal processes in place to get going.
If you have a good idea, a bit of a vision and enough motivational fuel to get you started, you can just start something. You try it out. And if it fails, it fails fast – you learn from it and you move onto the next thing.
This is how businesses today are starting to evolve. And I love it.
The Evolution of Mindless Mag
Mindless Mag started off in January as a magazine covering all “lifestyle” categories from fashion to beauty to wellness, nutrition and spirituality. We quickly realised that magazine content is heavy and there was no way we could do it between the two of us.
So we opened up to the idea of setting the topics and asking contributors to send in content. This was much better than us just talking at people. It meant we could be the conversation starters and hear other peoples’ stories.
When we sent out our initial topics in January we quickly realised that 90% of writing submissions were fashion, nobody seemed to want to write about the other topics. And this made sense to us – both with a fondness for fabric.
So we switched our focus to fashion and we decided to make each month a dedicated theme to help with brand sponsorship and events. And it’s working.
Next month we’ll be releasing dates for an exciting range of writing workshops hosted in various venues across our home city, Liverpool. And we’ve been asked to give a talk about our magazine and conscious fashion at Live A Better Life – Liverpool’s largest annual vegan fair hosted at the beautiful neoclassical St George’s Hall.
It’s all evolving and organically so. Every single day we learn something and we adapt if we need to.
The Dream Team
One thing I have to say about setting up on your own is that it’s totally possible to be a solopreneur and I’m doing that for Consciously Curated. But even solopreneurs rely on networks and you can never underestimate the power of two.
We’re almost Yin and Yang that overlap in the middle. She’s the journalism expert with plenty of links into academia at all levels and I’m the one with business background in retail and fashion. Even our different approaches to work compliment each other and it means we get stuff done.
And she happens to be one of the most talented writers I’ve ever met. Check out her latest article for Mindless Mag here .