with Founder of Rastaclat, Daniel Kasidi.
Fiona
Where did the idea come from for Rastaclat, and what was the passion behind it that kicked it all off?
Daniel
When I was 17 years old in high school, I was an inspiring professional skateboarder. I became very skilled at skateboarding and shoe companies began to notice me for my skill set. The skate shoe companies would send shoes, about 5 pairs of shoes a month, because you’re going through them pretty quickly when you’re skateboarding, and they’d come with these extra laces. One day, in just a little bit of my idle time and creativity, I decided to take one of the extra laces braid it and wear it on my wrist. It was just an expression of creativity. I went to school the next day and 10 of my friends commented ‘that’s a really cool bracelet can you make me one to match my shoes or outfit?’ So, immediately there was interest in this fashion bracelet.
That night I made 10 bracelets for my friends, I went to school the next day, and every single one of them had a story of new-found confidence and inspiration by the end of the day. Every person that the bracelet touched had a sense of positivity and energy exchange, the positive energy exchanged from me to them. That experience gave me a ton of self-worth especially at the age where you’re trying to figure out who you are, and it really motivated me to become an entrepreneur.
So, that first day I started with 10 bracelets, then there was 20, 30,40 and it just multiplied day after day. Really the significance of this story is our mission statement ‘spreading positive vibration one wrist at a time’ so that initial experience of the why and the purpose of our company movement is how I got into it.
Fiona
What has been your favourite project with Rastaclat to date?
Daniel
That’s a tough one, we’ve worked on some cool projects but to date one of the most meaningful, and my favorite project was with the NBA – NBA Licensing. Number one, I’m a huge fan of basketball and the opportunity to work with the NBA team, the NBA League and it has been fantastic. A part of it is not only because I love basketball but there is a charitable piece to it, where we donate a percentage of sales to the NBA players charities. We tell their stories as philanthropic men giving back to their communities and not only as athletes. And so, to date that has been one of my favorite collaboration, it’s actually really a partnership and we look forward to continuing that for decades.
Fiona
If you weren’t building Rastaclat today what do you think you would be doing in business?
Daniel
I feel like if I wasn’t an entrepreneur, I’d be relatively unfulfilled. It doesn’t mean I would have to be ultra-successful but I do enjoy building, it’s something that I’ve had a passion for since I was a kid. So, I guess if I wasn’t an entrepreneur I would be part of building something … when I was a child I wanted to be an engineer like my father, so maybe I’d be an engineer. But you know it’s very hard to imagine not being an entrepreneur.
Fiona
What does a perfect work day look like for you?
Daniel
My perfect work day is to wake up around 5 am, meditate for about 30 minutes to bring positive thoughts into my mind, body and soul, then repeat to myself what the goals are and why I’m doing them, so I can set myself up for the day mentally and spiritually.
After that my day would include building relationships. It’s different from day-to-day but building relationships with the people that we work with internally around the clock, all the partners externally and being inspired I think is the most important thing for me each day. Making sure the relationships that I’m building are with people who inspire us, that we inspire back and allow me to develop a vision. I want to eat clean, food that energizes me, drink things that give me energy rather than take energy away from me and for me exercise is also a big part of that. I would go for a 3 to 5 mile-run, a hike or rock climbing, something that is going to feed my body challenge me. At the end of the day spending time in the evenings with friends and family over a meal.
A pretty simple day based around being inspired, spending time with people that I respect and love, treating my body, mind and spirit in the best way possible. That is the perfect day for me.
Fiona
What has been your biggest impact personally and professionally?
Daniel
I think they both intersect, I believe it has been the ability to create something that inspires hundreds of thousands, even millions of consumers around the world. I have stories from traveling to China, Europe, South-East Asia, Australia where kid say, “Rastaclat really inspired me to speak positivity and every day I wear it, it reminds me to be positive and to encompass positivity.” To me that’s the biggest fulfillment, the ability to influence someone’s life that I’ve never met, because of the foundation that I’ve built allowing that to happen. That’s the biggest impact that I think I’ve had and I’m just scratching the surface, I think that impact is scalable, plus it fulfills me.
Fiona
Do you remember someone who has come into your life or influenced you along your journey?
Daniel
I think it’s tough to say one person. You know my parents come to mind, without their words of encouragements, without their ability to teach me discipline and I wouldn’t be who I am today. I find inspiration in my friends, my friends’ parents, I find inspiration with other bosses that I’ve worked with in the past, I find inspiration in musicians, they are just like teachers. I’ve even found inspiration from an Uber driver from the airport. They say you’re raised by a village where I’m from in Kenya, the entire human race is one village, there are things that we’ve taken from every relationship. So, I wouldn’t say it’s one person, I have a lot of people I admire, I have a lot of great quotes that I love, but one of the things that I’ve done since I was a young kid is I learned from listening, I learned from observing and in my earlier years, I learned from people’s mistakes more than I learned from people’s successes.
Fiona
You’re in the E-commerce space, how have you seen technology influencing your market?
Daniel
It’s been tremendous, our demographic is 15-22, that’s the core. The majority of it, 90%, is mobile first, so really changing the way that we view the customer experience to shop for products, to look for storytelling has got to change in mobile first. Second to that is content and with the fast pace world that we live in today understanding that the customer in this E-commerce space really wants to follow brands sharing more than just ‘selling a product’. So, for us one of the main focus is how do we become even more of a content driven brand and movement where it isn’t about selling bracelets, it’s about inspiring people and majority of the content that goes out there is inspiring stories.
So, we’ve got to change the way that we think of marketing, we’ve got to change the way that we view our devices and create a system. At the end of the day your website, your apps, things of that nature, that’s your platform and there are so many different plug-ins whether you’re utilizing social media, e-mail, visual advertising, they all have to flow to one common goal and vision. It’s about creating a system which can be incredibly difficult to do if you don’t have your vision very clear and the right team behind that.
For us that’s how we’ve seen things develop over the past 5 years, it’s been phenomenal to see the scale on which you can share a message in the digital world and we’re just getting started I’m sure.
Fiona
How do you picture Rastaclat in 10 years from now?
Daniel
In 10 years from now, one thing I know will remain constant for Rastaclat, this is all I can hang my hat on, that our mission will never change, it will be about spreading positive vibrations. It doesn’t matter whether we end up making shoes, or technology, businesses evolve based on market conditions and that’s an opportunity, but our vision and our mission will remain that of spreading positive vibrations. And so, factually very difficult to say where exactly we’ll be in 10 years but our mission I can answer with 100% confidence.
Fiona
How do you keep yourself driven and thinking big each day?
Daniel
The first thing is surrounding myself with big thinkers; people I think of as big achievers which is that energy is so important, the general energy that you bring every single day has a lot to do where you take yourself. I also love to step away from “work” because I believe when you let your subconscious mind, when you give that space visions evolve, ideas evolve and before you know it you’re coming up with amazing concepts or ideas or philosophies. So, stepping away, surrounding myself with people that have much bigger visions than I have for myself, and I think that’s good.
Fiona
What is your superpower?
Brian
I think my superpower lies in my ability to manifest ideas and things that do not already exist. Making those come to life and I think that’s my overall superpower. Along with that comes a lot of drive and persistence, relentlessness and personality traits that follow along that rapport. My superpower I believe is simply the ability to manifest.
Fiona
What fills your energy tank?
Daniel
I think what fills my energy tank is just constantly having that moment of achieving something. As small as it may be, and it’s not about always being successful, it’s all about the journey. So, I’ve gotten to a place where I’m so in love with the journey, the challenge that every single day when we have a brief, a small win here or a small win there it just kind of re-energizes you slowly-by-slowly and then a big one gives you a lot of energy and as long as that battery level is consistently getting recharged like a phone every day, it just keeps you going. So, I think success and accomplishing things, small or big energizes me every day.
Fiona
What is your definition of a changemaker?
Daniel
My definition of a changemaker, is someone that is committed to bettering the world that we live in today and also have the ability to think big and do what others may deem impossible or improbable.
Fiona
Thank you so much Daniel.
Want to know more about Rastaclat follow the links
Website: https://rastaclat.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rastaclat/
How can we help, reach out: hello@formingimpact.com