We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Carol Miltimore a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Carol, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?
The most concise way to answer that is it comes from my dad, who is one of the hardest working people I know and raised me with the mantra “do not put anything off that can get done today.” I’ve had an intense work ethic since I was a kid, and in college my dad even wrote me a letter my junior year telling me he appreciates how hard I work but I should also relax a bit. I’ve come to realize as I’ve grown older and wiser that this kind of work ethic, while productive, is not always the healthy. I have had times of extreme burn out. I find a lot of joy in seeing my visions through and staying busy but these days I’m also trying to make time for rest and seeing the value in that.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
After over a decade working as a designer for fashion brands large and small, I began working on creating Seek Collective. It took a couple years of development before it officially launched in 2014. Since then it is safe to say my life has been very much been about my work for Seek. It has been driven by a great deal of passion on part for what it means to truly produce sustainably and ethically. The artisans and partners I work with along the entire supply chain motivate me each day and they are all people dear to my heart, as is their work and crafts. It has been a real struggle though, with slow growth, no big team, and depending on loans. This year (2023) after tremendous amounts of thought, I decided I could no longer keep going financially as I have been. I also started to consult again for other brands, which has been brining me fulfilling work. Sometime in 2024 I will relaunch Seek Collective with a slightly different vision, producing much smaller quantities but retaining the production partners I value and admire so much.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
For me they have been my work ethic, my passion in the vision and morals of the business, and a sense of adventure. All that said I also see a lot of value in the years I spent working with corporate companies, which taught me some valuable skills and knowledge of the industry while at the same time also showed me what was not working and what I did not want to take with me going forward. My advice is to do a lot of research, gain some experience, and make sure your idea is not only bringing something new to the table but is also going to leave this world better in some way.
What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?
Starting a small business is never easy but I think keeping it going is the hardest part. The biggest challenge I face but I also see other small business owners facing is the financial aspect. We collectively, the world over, have gone through a particularly challenging 3.5 years yet somehow this past year has been the hardest yet.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.seekcollective.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seekcollective/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theseekcollective/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carol-miltimore-0b190b20/
- Other: https://carolmiltimore.com
Image Credits
photographers: Noami Phan-Quang, Carol Miltimore models: Malika Rubin-Davis, David Anthony Weary production: Barbar for hand embroidery, Ryan’s hand showing his Climate Beneficial Wool Ranch, Radha and Prashanth at the cutting table, one of the incredible handloom weavers
