Letting go of a few of my favorite things
Since 2013, my grounding principles have been: show up, pay attention, be honest + don’t be attached to the result. These 4 simple rules have been essential these past 4 years.
With this in mind, my business strategy in ’24 has been pivot: from brick + mortar to online, events + wholesale.. But there’s so much more change underway. Moving into ’25, I’m taking it a step farther. This will be my year of letting go.
“These mountains that you are carrying, you were only supposed to climb.” _najwa zebian_
This year I’m focusing on #4 of the principles: “don’t be attached to the result” + learning to let go of expectations on how business is supposed to be managed or retail is supposed to be marketed or life is supposed to be lived or the earth is supposed to be saved, letting go of platforms that drain my energy but no longer provide reciprocity + letting go of evolving markets that are destructive in nature and channels that’ve become mega corporations. I don’t share this lightly as shifts like these are a massive undertaking.. I’ve been laying the foundation on these changes for months, but it’s still painful to pull the plugs.
“Surrender to what is. Let go of what was. Have faith in what will be.” _sonia ricotti_
So with faith, I forge on + in ’25 I’m letting go of a few of my (previously) favorite things: Apparel, Amazon, Etsy, Holidays, News + Instagram
The Apparel Industry
I’m leaving the apparel market, but this was a really tough realization. During my brick and mortar era, apparel was my highest earning product category by dollar amount (2nd in number sold only to stickers), and I’ve sold over 100 different designs from 15+ makers, including 10 of my own designs. I have tee ideas for days, shirts I’d love to bring to fruition, but unfortunately it’s no longer sustainable for my small biz.
Due to cheap overseas competition, immense waste and environmental degradation and lack of local manufacturing, it’s really tough to be competitive in the shirt industry as a small business owner with strong earth-focused ethics + most folks I know in apparel are barely breaking even at best. We’re entering the enshittification era + fast fashion is destroying our planet, making the clothing industry into the second highest polluter overall, right after the oil industry. If we stopped making more today, there’s actually already enough apparel produced on the planet to clothe the next six generations. Yet unfortunately due to an oversaturation of cheap crap in the market, folks no longer want to pay what it costs to produce an ethical garment.
Thus after crunching the numbers, optimizing inventory management and researching sustainability, I now know that I need to let this product category go.
Silver lining: all our shirts are now on deep sale!
Amazon et al
Relatedly while we can’t shop our way out of climate change, we can spend our well-earned dollars so much smarter. I’m willing to admit that amazon (or similar services: Alibaba, Temu, Walmart, etc) are a crux of modern life. But most of the time, there are other options. Amazon + Shein are killing the planet, smothering small business and abusing workers + for what?.. to send some inflated ego into space? There may be a little inconvenience of going out into the real world but 9 times out of 10, it’s worth it. Connecting with other humans is core to our essence.
Additionally if the price is unbelievably low, there’s a reason why — as I mentioned above fast fashion is destructive:
- Most clothing bought in the United States is worn only 7 times before being discarded. Most Shein/Temu garments of today seem to barely average 1. When a new trendy dress costs $3, arrives and looks terrible on, you have little qualms about stashing it deep in the closet, “donating” it to goodwill (as if that’s re-sellable) or trashing it, before it’s even seen the light of day.
- In total 87% of materials used to make clothing end up in a landfill. It’s a harmful cycle that perpetuates instant gratification, trashy habits + few good finds in a mountain of garbage for shoppers + for millions around the globe: poor work conditions, environmental upheaval, pollution and dealing with lots of your trash.
Spend your money on real makers + high quality products that you’ll cherish for years to come. Our family went from sometimes a couple purchases a week on a-z when we were living in Silicon Valley to a handful a year, only items where we can’t find a comparable option locally or direct from the manufacturer. And although I had my teenage mall phase (with many cash splurges on items with little value — eg F21), I can count my fast fashion purchases from the last decade on one hand. To make the final blow, we’re finally cancelling our Prime membership.
Unfortunately sometimes you can only find niche products on aggregate sites of this sort and that’s okay. But if the price is crazy cheap, there’s likely a bleak reason why; so ask yourself: on a scale of 1 to 100 uses, how much do I really need this? Or could some better or longer-lasting alternative work? Try a local store if you can: grocers, hardware stores, boutique shops or direct from the producers’ site if that’s an option.
One thing I’ve learned firsthand in building this small shop: we need to support local and small businesses wherever possible or soon there will be none of them left.
If you want a kickstart, check out the Present brands page, including the additional recommendations by category at the bottom (not paid links, just genuinely great brands)
Etsy, as a seller
I may still use Etsy when I can as a buyer but from a small business perspective, it’s no longer working for me. If you’re interested, here’s a quick overview of the issues: Etsy’s really heading downhill for creators.
My direct online traffic and sales have been growing steadily, but on Etsy it’s become hard to grow without pay to play tactics. The platform has exorbitant fees, pseudo-force you into their advertising system and shipping discounts + has been flooded with AI and drop shippers. It started to seem like they’re stealing my SEO potential + eliminating any chance of making a margin without giving much back so I’ve decided to leave the platform.
It’s never been a huge channel for me but helped expand my reach nationwide. Unfortunately that’s no longer true so I’m focusing all my product listing efforts into my direct site instead. And it’s already been paying off big — a few of the digital downloads that I moved from Etsy to my site are some of my highest traffic landing pages nowadays!
Holidays
This has always kinda been our style, but in ’25 I’m leaning into the shift from holidays to micro celebrations or mini-stones. This is one of my favorite ways to escape the consumerist rat race.
This may be a hot take for a gift shop owner, but my husband and I don’t “traditionally” celebrate holidays: birthdays, Christmas, Valentine’s, etc We celebrate each other in the everyday. We haven’t gifted each other for a regular holiday in the entire decade we’ve lived together, but with a gifting love language, the gifts are still plentiful. When I see something that reminds me of him or inspires me, I share it immediately + we often make each other’s day with a small surprise.
We don’t leave it up to society to determine when we should celebrate: we love every day of this beautiful life that we’re creating together. And that’s what life’s all about: finding your stoke + leading with love. I aim to continue celebrating every day + sharing all the little gems we find: local and sustainable gifts, earth love + adventure tips. Find your muse, tune into nature for inspiration + don’t be afraid to celebrate anything or everything; your joy is in your hands.
News
Moving into 2025, this one is a pretty obvious win for me. As the Serenity Prayer goes: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference”. Most news is focused heavily on the former category: out of my control. I’ve finally gained the wisdom to know the difference + this one simple trick helps me filter out lots of unnecessary noise.
If you’re staying plugged in, I recommend checking out Ground news or opting into written, local news as much as possible.
I hate to admit but this one is actually the toughest. But if I’m being honest with myself: this has by far been the best year + it’s also been my most offline in a long while. I’ve been on a personal insta•bbatical since July and on my business account since early September until recently + it’s been my most creative period I can remember. This helped me realize how much of a drain this platform has become. It’s a sap on my emotional energy and creativity. The nagging need to keep up as a small business owner is consuming. And you know what? My online business has grown more since I stopped posting regularly. I’m showing up more authentically in all other places + my creative flow seems boundless at times.
While I’m ready to leave, I will miss this community greatly. If we could have frozen the platform in the golden era of ‘19–22, I’d stick around but it’s a weird world in there now and it’s time for me to move on. Thank you for all the laughs, virtual hugs, pep talks, neat finds + epic content we’ve shared there over the past decade. Your love and support has meant the world to me + I’ll always be grateful for all of you that helped me make it to this point.
Since I used my biz and my personal profiles as a psuedo-journal over the past 10 years, I’ve taken the time to preserve my whole account but have now archived most of my content. I'll leave the remainder as a quick capture of this moment in time for my small biz journey: ‘14–24 + a window into Present’s vibe for anyone who stumbles on us there. I’ve never had TikTok + haven’t had FB since ’14 but it’s time to take the rest of my power back from zuck. Moving forward, I aim to be a flow follower rather than a trend chaser.
To this end, moving forward I will be using:
- Pinterest and Youtube as a creative outlet, simply to unlock creative flows, with no intention to advertise or monetize there, but I’ll share new designs, products, ideas on Pinterest so it may be helpful to follow there if you’re interested in my brand or used to follow me on IG
- Medium and Present site as a blog, to share longer form thoughts
- Quarterly newsletter to subscribers, to share updates about the shop — sign up at bottom of Present site
- Email or IRL for everything else — jackie@adventuregift.store
Let that sh*t go • TLDR
So overall my guiding advice for ’25 can best be summed up by Rainer Maria Rilke:
“Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand — and melting like a snowflake.”
The next few years are sure to be wild, but your reality is what you make it. When you spend money or give a minute of your attention, you’re making a statement to yourself + to your outer world: of what you believe in; of what kind of world you want to create.
“Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.”
_lao tzu_
May these simplifications in lifestyle + business offer some type of clarity, a beacon on my path, as I aim to lovingly craft a brighter world, in flow with the wonders of nature.
Cheers to letting go!