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To celebrate the Oui Collection that celebrates the YES moments in life, we sat down with co-owners of Francesca, Hannah & Rachel Vasicek to hear about their defining YES moments.
ABOUT THE COLLECTION
H: All in all, I think this collection that we’ve created is a collection to celebrate the tiny yeses and the big yes moments in your life.
R: Absolutely, so whether you’re wanting to chase your dreams, go and do something big, or if it’s the smallest thing that brings you joy in your day, we just want that to be your wearable reminder of the YES moments in life.
CHALLENGES THAT ALMOST STOPPED YOU
H: There’s probably too many. I guess when we were first starting the business we were building up our inventory which took a long time because we had to sell and then buy and slowly grow. One day I walked into the store on the weekend and everything was gone. That’s when I realised we had been broken into. We had not paid insurance because it was too costly, so that could have stopped us in our tracks and stopped us from saying yes to pursuing business.
R: Also, our limiting beliefs, which is very hard to step out and lead a team as well when you have those personal vulnerabilities. Having to do a lot of work to get over those. Even our sister dynamic relationship, trying to tease that out to work together has been challenging.
ENCOURAGEMENT TO SAY YES
R: You got an opportunity that I would have killed to say yes to. You got invited to Hollywood, to the Golden Globes gifting suite. I was like “take me with you”.
H: I actually thought it was spam when we first got invited. It was one of those things, where it was almost in our naivety and how young we were, we didn’t even think about the imposter syndrome, like “who are we to go to the Golden Globes”. But we just said YES. We didn't have the funds to get there, so we crowdfunded and it was one of those things, where it must have been so funny to see a young person with two suitcases full of jewellery hop on a plane to travel to the other side of the other side of the world without knowing what was in store. I guess that one YES moment although it was crazy, and something we always think a lot harder about these days, it really cemented us as an international jewellery brand. It was the encouragement that we needed to keep going through hard times and growth pains.
GROWTH THROUGH CATASTROPHE
H: I think it’s important to acknowledge that sometimes the yes moments can also lead to catastrophe. We have had a few of those moments, one I remember - I guess we were excited about growing as a business and we were getting more opportunities. One of those being a Kiosk at a shopping centre. We didn’t even think twice about it, and I’m still scarred from that period. It was the wrong location, we weren’t big in that area, we didn't market it well - we just turned up one day. It was day to day bleeding money. It’s one of those things where all of the yes moments go wrong, that has also impacted future yeses.
R: I think the yes moments that do go wrong also lead you to a better place, because you learn so much and that’s a part of the whole growth process. It’s about honouring this word ‘YES’ in both forms, positively and negatively.
HAN’S FAVOURITE YES MOMENT
H: One of my favourite yes moments is when we have to ask each other for yes directions. One of my favourites is when Rach finished school, she was about to head to uni and I literally begged for her to say yes to not going to uni and to join me on this journey. How did you find that Rach?
R: I still remember the moment because I felt like, Uni was everything, all my friends were going to Uni, it was the right thing to do, but suddenly my sister was like, “don’t you do it, just take a gap year and figure out who you are”. And it was at that moment of saying yes to that, it paved the history of Francesca. Being together in business, doing it alongside each other, learning along the way. I feel like if i hadn't taken that step as scary as it was, we wouldn't be here.
IS SAYING YES REALLY THAT EASY?
H: I think it’s one of those things - back in the day, personally, I found everything exciting and every opportunity exciting, everything was a lot easier. These days, with so much more on the line with the business being bigger and more people dependent on us, I find the yes decisions really hard.
R: The spontaneity of saying yes to anything has come to a bit of a standstill. That’s why we want to celebrate this range because it’s those YES moments of youth and being sporadic in life that got us here, and remembering to continue to say yes to things even when you’re older.
NOT HAVING ALL OF THE ANSWERS
Rach, you design collections that are loved by so many people around the world now, how did you get to that point of becoming a jewellery designer with no qualifications?
R: I think it’s really funny, even to this day I kind of go, wow I have no qualifications in jewellery design, marketing, photography - nothing. It’s all self taught. That in itself was something to overcome. Anyone can pick up a pen and a piece of paper and do a little sketch, no matter how bad the sketches are. I think it’s really cool to see the process unfold so organically. You don’t have to have all of the qualifications or all of the answers. Even to this day, we design collections and I’ll be so nervous that people will hate the designs. Even this upcoming collection, it keeps me up at night but its a part of the process. It does make it so exciting when you do see people loving the pieces.
WHAT STOPS PEOPLE?
R: Limiting beliefs can stop you from achieving so much in life. Also just having the right qualifications and everything available to you to be able to do something. That to me is the biggest thing.
H: Failure definitely stops people. I remember when we first applied for our loan and we got kicked back, it can discourage you from taking the risky decisions. One day we were at an event and there was a quote up on the stage that said: “The fear of failure has killed more dreams than failure itself.” That was huge for us, saying YES is hard, but not saying yes is worse.
R: I think it’s also what you do in those moments after failure that can really define you. Saying yes is even harder, your mind goes to “maybe i’ll just call it quits”. Another thing is feeling like you need to have everything handed to you or you need to be given an opportunity. You can create your own opportunities. For us, funding the business meant busking down at the markets, selling lollies at school, crowdfunding, starting from scratch. Not waiting for something to be given to you but going out there and creating with what you’ve got.