lia. They were beige, boring and catered only to a small, straight-sized woman. We saw the gap, and we went for it.  When we were first launching Nala in 2022, it felt like a bit of a hot mess. The product was there, we’d done all the work to build a strong brand, but behind the scenes we were scrambling to do everything. We had a small team, which meant I was doing a lot – social edits and uploading to Instagram, the image crops, metatags and back-end website setup. It was also before ChatGPT, so we deserve a pat on the back. Now, we have an incredible team of people who are far better at these jobs than I ever was. Phew. So these days, my day-to-day includes product development, brand copy and overseeing some of our retail partnerships, like David Jones. Basically, lots (and lots) of emails.  Founding and running a brand with my partner isn’t something we ever thought we would do. In fact, I remember years ago saying exactly that. But that’s life for you. Now that we are a few years in, I couldn’t imagine not having Nala with Phil. It’s a nice feeling having a business partner WHO is also your life partner. We trust each other more than anyone else in the world so we both feel a sense of comfort and safety knowing we are in it together. Of course, it comes with its challenges, like anything. It’s more difficult to switch off, not always think about (and talk about) work, and now we have a baby so the juggle has become even more challenging. We love it though.  I wish I had known that retail, and particularly direct-to-consumer, never stops. You’re still getting orders on Christmas Day and customers are still writing to you wanting to ask questions. Want to go on holiday and switch off? Good luck. I guess at times it can be relentless. But we wouldn’t have it any other way, right? I think I’ve got a really strong vision for what our brand stands for and what our product is designed to achieve. It’s been super clear from day one. That means everyone comes to work every day with a clear purpose and direction.  I probably don’t adapt to change as quickly as I could. Being in retail, you need to be incredibly responsive; there is constant change and always a fire to put out. Historically, I have always liked to do things at my own pace. But that pace doesn’t quite cut it in this industry. I have so many proud moments. One is when a lady at Gold Coast airport randomly approached me and flashed me her bra to prove she was, in fact, wearing Nala. Another was when we launched into David Jones, I almost cried that day.  Now the Nala team is focused on launching our next collection, which is sports bras. We are super focused on getting the product right, as it’s a category so many have got wrong over the years. We also need to launch it in a Nala way, which means we need to get creative and a little cheeky.