We were lucky to catch up with Jenny Drew Oubari recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Jenny Drew, thank you for being such a positive, uplifting person. We’ve noticed that so many of the successful folks we’ve had the good fortune of connecting with have high levels of optimism and so we’d love to hear about your optimism and where you think it comes from.
I definitely feel like I got my optimism from my family, particularly my mom. My family has just always supported everything that I want to do so wholeheartedly, which always makes me optimistic that I can be successful, that I can make anything happen.
Sometimes I feel like I am definitely overly optimistic, but I would so much rather that than be pessimistic. Being optimistic allows me to trust my gut and go, allows me to fall fast and learn quickly so that I can continue to grow. Optimism helps me keep believing in myself, even when it gets hard. Trust me, being a small business owner is the furthest thing from easy, but by having a positive mindset, I am able to carry on when the going gets tough. After all, how can we do anything in life without the optimism to believe in ourselves? Combining that mental toughness with resilience is the key. And trust me, I feel like I am always having to convince myself to stay optimistic, or I am always fighting that mental voice in my head that goes dark or negative. Just keep pushing through. Keep finding that momentum. Keep trusting. And stay positive, baby!
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I am the founder, CEO, and sole owner of all the babies –– we make matching baby and adult organic basics all here in LA with a mission to give back to babies in need. Loungewear is the name of the game for us. We use 100% GOTS certified organic cotton, family run factories, and low impact dyes to make vintage & European inspired cozies for you and yours. Everyone is shocked that I started a baby brand without yet being a mom, but I have been a nanny for a huge part of my life, and have always wanted to be a mom (hopefully one day soon!), so that feeling and heart of motherhood is definitely still seen throughout the brand. After all, I started all the babies with my mama! We call her the CMO, “chief mama officer”.
We are here for our clothes to create an experience, to illicit a feeling, and of course to give back to babies in need through our wear-grow-give mode. After four years in business, we are working on launching a subscription based service that we are super excited about, updating our website, and loads more.
It takes A LOT, and I am basically a one woman show, so it can definitely be overwhelming but I am so grateful everyday that I get to do what I love everyday. It’s a really special feeling.
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?
I think my three biggest skills that got me where I am is 1) vision, 2) instinct, 3) care. I always had a really clear vision in my head of what I wanted all the babies to be and in being able to “see” what I wanted in my head, it was a lot easier to execute it and make it happen. The next skill would be instinct. Anytime I didn’t trust my gut and forced something, it didn’t work out for me. Every time I did trust my instincts and gut, ease, rest, and success would follow. It wasn’t forced, it made sense, and you felt the passion through it. I just knew when I had to zig, zag, or figure out something that wasn’t working. And the last most important one for me I would say is care. I just put so much care into everything I do for this brand and that is seen through our packaging –– I hand pack every order myself with a hand written note, no plastic, and all sustainable materials and with so much love. I genuinely care about our customer experience, from being there for any questions or concerns, to helping our customers with style advice, to the talent we work with for photoshoots, to anything in between. I think we have the repeat customer pattern that we have because of the genuine care that we put into everything that we do and I am so grateful for that.
I would say the best advice first and foremost is to GO FOR IT. Don’t sleep on your idea. Trust yourself and see if you can make it work. After all, starting something is the hardest part, the rest you figure out as you go.
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
I genuinely feel like it’s a hard time to be a small business, and that is unfortunate because there is so much beauty in small businesses and small business owners. There is a different level of heart and soul. Of grit. Of individuality. There is a human connection that is unmatched and that I feel like the world needs. I don’t want to ever have this victim mentality, of “oh I am a small business, it’s hard for me.” But I mean it in the sense of, with so many big dogs out there like Amazon and other big fast fashion brands with just so much capital, it’s easy to get flooded out and not be as relevant.
Even the instagram algorithm is no longer in our favor. It feels upsetting, but it also puts a good fire under our backs to find creative new ways to be seen. The hardest part truly is NEW customer acquisition. As you can imagine, it’s EXPENSIVE to find new customers, push ads, etc. etc. But, I trust our brand value so much that once we are able to reel in customers, that they will see the genuine care and quality of all the babies and stay a regular, repeat customer for us.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.allthebabies.co
- Instagram: @allthebabiesco @theporchtimepod @drewoubari @drewscozies
- Other: tiktok – @allthebabiesco
Image Credits
@anais_dax @livrunsaway @drewoubari
