creative business accelerator in brand & product management

The dog with the bone.

‍Born and raised in Holland I grew up expressing my way through life. We had an open table policy - everything was allowed to be discussed or shared. This opened a way for me to literally discuss everything, 'yes - everything!' at school as well. The most annoying kid in the class, for both students and teachers. The one who always questions, the one who never lets a topic go, the dog with the bone!

This resulted to me fighting against 'the norm' from a very early age. Why couldn't I simply accept how it is? I realized in a rather harsh way that there was no place for someone like myself - I was the weird one. My brain simply didn't stop, it had to be fed - so if school wasn't feeding it - I went elsewhere.

I always had side projects to keep the wondering mind happy - and they were to be funded - so I started working at the age of 13.

#1 - Twisting English Ivy into hearts, balls, everything the flower season needed.
#2 - Cook & Service at camping restaurant (Amsterdam Forrest)
#3 - Clerk local clothing store
#4 - Service at local restaurant / bar
#5 - why not working at another restaurant at the same time?
#6 - add a retail clerk job to it
#7 - more restaurant workIn short - I worked, all-the-time.

‍When the going gets weird, the weird turns pro.

‍After a 'to be forgotten' school period, I started my studies at AMFI (Amsterdam Fashion Institute). In my believe the perfect place to feed my creativity and satisfy my lust for analytics. It was a ride! I accidentally signed up for the international side of it all - so all courses in English. Could up to that point order a beer in English - so that was interesting. Then got kicked out of multiple project groups as being too pushy, too everything and too nothing. I saw it as having a vision, but somehow couldn't get others on board. They would state - I was just weird.

I landed my first internship at FHVBBDO / SKYBOX - where a team of male creatives took me on board to teach me all branding / CI,CD had to offer. Bluffed my way in. Never touched any Adobe product before except Acrobat reader. And here I was, becoming a graphic designer. Here I got freedom to create, to think wild, to not be judged by thinking 'weird'. I was praised for it. I fell in love with '(re-)branding'. Creating emotional value through visual communication tools. Giving product & brand a pulse.

I realized through these workings that I was thriving to get something broken working. I could rethink the scene rapidly and reset it. Make it work again. And this is how I ended up at Nike.

Again bluffed my way in, as had seriously no clue what a fleece or polywarp was - but I later learned that they didn't hire me for that knowledge. They hired me for my attitude. I was there to shake things up! And so I did. Almost got me fired on multiple occasions, but here my weirdness grew into my personal super power. I asked the questions that were needed to be asked and we created new potential and grew the business. After my biggest trick - launching Nike Global Sportswear - at the age of 22, I was part of the Nike layoffs. Funny enough, Nike Global Sportswear was the way towards empowering these layoffs - the joke's on me.

‍Losing my ability to think and walk.

‍Together with 1'500 other self-proclaimed experts we went out jobhunting in Holland - interesting. I worked in different fashion firms here, and rather rapidly ran into a burn-out. I had simply worked on one end straight since I was 13! Sitting on a chair for 5 consecutive days not being able to move, getting angry with yourself for not getting up. When I then got up, I miss stepped - cracked my back. Resulting into a long recovery process and emergency surgery of a double spinal disc herniation. Now next to resetting my mind I had to also learn how to walk again.

‍The worst and best thing that happened to me.

‍After running around like a headless chicken for a few years, it was very clear. I should (re-)build product and brands again. This brought me to Switzerland at Triumph. Resetting their positioning in some of the declining product categories. When these were up and running I moved to the crystal palace - Swarovski. Same thing - largest business unit is loosing, hard. Resetting this was fun and challenging - but check, done.  What now?

‍Hungry for more.

‍My husband stated that I always grew trees for others at our kitchen table, but never charged for the seeds. So I decided to stop the corporate rat race, and seek how I can help more people win, who are loosing now. And this is how Koai Lab was born. I was there for everyone who wanted me, but no one needed me. The irony of that. I could build every-ones business to stardom, just not my own. It was a massive slap in the face, I had to go butt naked and take the self punishment.

I started to notice a commonality in all my customers needs and that was 'need for clarity'. Is there no system out there for start-up creatives that can help me get clarity in my business? There was, for large corporations, but not tailored to start-up budgets. So I decided to build it. I connected via Bexio with ZEMP - and we took off. And we faied. After a mere 4 years of building the best team, a solid product, asking the right questions, we weren't able to financially keep heads above water. We had to lay off 21 professionals before Xmas, the worst time of my life - I rather do 'the learning to walk' thing again.

‍Belief.

‍I decided to not take any of the offers. I decided to follow the path I set, before I started building other peoples dreams. It's 2023 - time to build my own. Elevating my 'weird' super powers of accelerating everything I touch. I launched Arinda & SKILL almost overnight - and it took off.

Sometimes all you need is 2 sec of insane courage led by belief in yourself - to deliver courage and confidence to many others.