We were lucky to catch up with Kayla Raymond recently and have shared our conversation below.
Kayla, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?
I owe Haiti so much. She gave me my family. My husband is Haitian; our three oldest children are adopted Haitians; and every aspect of my work includes Haiti. I’ve met so many wonderful people – and some not so wonderful people, ha! – as I lived in Haiti that I never would have otherwise met. Today, many of those people are some of my closest friends, together we hold such deep relationships as we hold Haiti together. It’s a wild experience to explain, honestly. But, Haiti showed me my purpose. It wasn’t overnight or suddenly in a dream..it was a slow process. It’s a journey that has held many mistakes, many losses, and many heartbreaks. It’s also a journey that has led me to today. I’m in my mid-thirties now and I can honestly say I’m living in my purpose each day, which is a gift in and of itself. Living in purpose isn’t always rainbows and butterflies, it’s lonely, too, but it’s also rich and deep. The deeper I dive into the world of ethical trade, dignified job creation, sustainable business, the more passionate I become because it’s so obvious the effects fast fashion, pollution and the pressure to spend, spend, spend is having on us, our children and our planet. It’s important we talk about it, because a lot of people just aren’t. The deeper I dive, the bigger the purpose becomes. It began to create a few jobs to moms in Haiti, but it has become something so much bigger than that and something so much bigger than myself.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I opened Rosie’s in 2014 – we celebrate our 10th anniversary in April this year, so wild! – and at that time I was a newlywed with three young children in my care. We needed a way to make money and I came up with the idea to open a small tourist shop on the main highway in Haiti, connecting the capital to the beaches. We were only open on the weekends when we first began and I can remember sitting there many weekends with not a single visitor, wondering what had I just done! But slowly, word got out about our cute little shop and the milkshakes we served (something that was very hard to find on the island!) and we grew. In the spring of 2018, we purchased land and built our “expansion” boutique, which included a full kitchen. We began canning and making our own salsa, plus operating a small cafe. There would be days when 3-4 buses full of missionaries or tourists would stop by the shop! But those “golden days” didn’t last long as Haiti began to have much political upheaval begin in the summer of 2018. By the fall of 2019, I was pregnant with our second biological child and we decided to take an extended break out of Haiti as the unrest grew more unstable. By the spring of 2020, COVID was doing it’s thing and Haiti was unraveling beyond our comprehension, so we eventually made the difficult decision to make our “break” a permanent move.
We moved back to the small Iowa town I was born and raised in. My mom had opened an extension of Rosie’s in town with a full coffee shop, so I began working away in the back building an e-commerce website. After all those years serving people from all over the United States, I had a really nice following on social media. When people would visit the shop in Haiti, they’d always ask how they could shop online, so this was my moment to make that a reality! I saw really rapid growth with the website and was thankful to keep working on behalf of all my mamas in Haiti.
It’s crazy how fast the last four years have gone. I’ve only been able to travel back to Haiti three times, my last time was May 2022! I miss so many things about the life we had built there, but my husband and I are grateful for the life we’re now building here Stateside, too. It’s a strange balance, for sure! But when it comes to work, I feel there’s more work that can be done Stateside than there can be done in Haiti right now. For example, I’ve begun traveling to Atlanta’s home and gift trade show to promote our hand-stitched greeting card line and that’s something I never would have had the capacity to do if I was living in Haiti full-time.
Even though it’s harder to maintain those deep, meaningful relationships I was able to have when living on the island, I still feel very connected to the mission and purpose of the business. I’ve built it on a very solid foundation, creating an environment of collaboration over competition and people over profit. If you follow along, you’ll quickly learn about other brands, organizations and ways to make intentional impacts. Those are things I’ve honed in on and it’s had a significant impact on how I operate my business + hold my purpose.
The most exciting thing I’m looking forward to digging deeper into this year is The Mama Box. I was offered the position to curate and design for The Mama Box, which is a quarterly subscription box featuring Haitian made/ethical products that promote job creation. It truly feels like a job created just for me! Tausha, the founder of the box, approached me last summer with the opportunity and it’s taken a bit to work out the kinks in the transition, but it’s so fun putting together all the connections and relationships I’ve built in the last decade and pouring them into something new, that is also so perfectly aligned with all that I believe in!
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I went to college to earn an art degree in graphic design. I almost didn’t come back for my senior year because I thought I needed to stay in Haiti. I’m forever grateful I came back and earned my degree. A degree and education is something no one can ever take away from you. So, I’ve often told young people who want to move and jump right in that they should also take the time to learn the things and acquire the knowledge, whatever that may be for them.
After graduation, I moved to Haiti two weeks later and quickly had many regrets on that shiny new degree. Why hadn’t I studied to be a doctor or social worker? How would I ever use my design skills serving the poor? Well, two years later, I started Rosie’s and I now use those skills in more ways than I can say. Another reminder that now skill or acquired knowledge is wasted.
Lastly, I’d say things just don’t happen over night. A lot of sleepless nights, long work days and boots on the ground/first-hand experiences went into what Rosie’s has become. I watch people want instant growth and instant success (even in nonprofit/ministry, not just business models) but it just doesn’t work that way. Rosie’s is a decade in the making. Those first few years were so small with little sales, but I can see how they were learning years, shaping years. We aren’t meant to grow all at once, I think that’s something important to remember, especially for people early in their journey.
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
The biggest challenge we are facing right now is the unrest, lack of safety and inability to travel within Haiti. The gangs have gained complete control of our community since October 2022 and my entire team that works for Rosie’s has had to flee their homes for safety. Not just our team, but the entire community, which includes my husband’s family. There’s obviously been so much to learn when it comes to starting a business that sets people free from poverty, but navigating ministry, business and ensuring loved ones are safe in the middle of a gang war is a whole new challenge.
One specific example of the many challenges would be the logistics of shipping goods. The gangs control the main highway that I spoke on earlier, where we set up our first shop. For quite sometime you couldn’t even pass, so people were traveling by small wooden row boats to get goods to and from Port au Prince. Gangs are now allowing more movement, but there’s a price to pay if you pass. A “toll” if you will. There’s also just such extreme risk and danger involved with every movement. There’s definitely been moments when we ask, “is this still worth it?” Because no life is worth losing in the process of getting artisan goods shipped to the States. Yet, the artisans will echo back, “without the work, we have no life; we have to keep going despite the great risk.”
Contact Info:
- Website: www.rosiesboutiquehaiti.com
- Instagram: @rosiesboutique.haiti / @the.mama.box
- Facebook: facebook.com/Rosiesinhaiti
Image Credits
Haley Marie Photography
