The She Leads Podcast: Real Conversations with Women Entrepreneurs

Take that chance - go down a different path!

Nasrin Yafari is a Japanese-Iranian-American, designer, and entrepreneur who began her career in education, straight out of NYU, where she worked with people, and learned and grew into marketing.  Nasrin shares her experiences in building a successful Brooklyn-based fashion brand, with a focus on taking risks and being true to herself. Taking a chance, Nasrin started her own business, going from manufacturing face masks during the pandemic to colorful jumpsuits.

Nasrin believes strongly that it is good to go down a different path while trusting your gut. Following one dream does not mean other passions don’t exist, but rather that they can be executed over a long period of time. Many people end up jumping ship when things are difficult, but Nasrin teaches the power of pushing through dips and slumps.

We must remember that entrepreneurship is a marathon - don’t give up when things are hard!

Notes:
🗽 Nasrin went to NYU and chose education: she loved learning and growing and working with people. 3:39
😷 “Mixed” started with producing face masks during the pandemic: later it scaled into textiles, physical products, and manufacturing. 5:45
⚠️ The way education is set up, Nasrin couldn't execute her ideas: need for a shift in education. 7:11
🧥 A product journey from masks to jumpsuits: how Nasrin designs. 10:07
📩 Nasrin has a newsletter, which includes personal notes related to selling and empowerment. 15:52
👠 Her story just happens to resonate with women, not men: it wasn't a conscious decision. 20:09
🎯 In entrepreneurship, a lot of people jump ship, faced with difficulties: you just have to push through it. 23:37
🍃 The peak season for Mixed comes in the spring and summer, but they are a year-round brand. 26:23

Links:
Website: mixedbynasrin.com 
Social Media Handles: @mixed_bynasrin @nasrinharumi
Connect with Adrienne: https://www.sheleadsmedia.com
Listen to podcasts for women by women on the She Leads Podcast Network: https://www.sheleadspodcasts.com

>> "I love ❤️ Adrienne and The She Leads™ Podcast!” If that thought crossed your mind at any time while listening to our special show, can I ask you to please take a moment and give our podcast some love? To do so, simply Rate, Review & Follow Us on Apple Podcasts & Spotify. Taking this simple action helps my team and I to spread the word about all the incredible guests of The She Leads Podcast and contributes overall to helping women leaders and entrepreneurs everywhere! 🗺️ Also, if you haven’t done so already, please +follow the podcast so you never miss an episode. Thank you so much!! XO -Adrienne  <<

Creators & Guests

Host
She Leads® Media
👩🏻‍⚖️ ⭐️ Adrienne Garland - She Leads® Podcast Network - 4 women X women ⭐️ 🎧 Sugar Coated Podcast Host| Leadership Conferences, Retreats #SheLeads #Women #entreprenuers

What is The She Leads Podcast: Real Conversations with Women Entrepreneurs?

Discover the go-to podcast for driven women entrepreneurs ready to lead! Join host Adrienne Garland, CEO of She Leads Media, as she uncovers the unfiltered path to scaling your business to 7 and 8 figures. Each week, bold female founders share their raw stories, overcoming challenges, and proven strategies for explosive growth – all without sugar-coating a thing.
🚀 Why She Leads is Your Essential Listen:
Super-practical, actionable advice to conquer your entrepreneurial hurdles
No-holds-barred insights on leadership, scaling, and business growth
Real, refreshing conversations with industry-leading women entrepreneurs and leaders (and male allies!)
Impactful strategies to influence your family, community, and the world

At She Leads Media, we reject the notion that women must be deferential or pull back our opinions. Instead, we're creating a powerful platform where women are free to express their brilliance without restraint. Whether you're launching your venture or ready to scale new heights of revenue and profit, The She Leads Podcast: Real Conversations with Women Entrepreneurs delivers the unvarnished truth you need to thrive in today's competitive business landscape.
The She Leads Podcast (formerly Sugar Coated) is your ultimate resource for:
✅ Practical and actionable business growth strategies and tactics
✅ Authentic leadership development
✅ Transformative mindset shifts
✅ Genuine connections with like-minded women

Don't miss out on game-changing wisdom from Adrienne Garland - fearless entrepreneur, innovative media producer, and inspiring professor. Subscribe now and join a community of women who refuse to hold back their voices, thoughts, or opinions. Your journey to 7-figure success and beyond starts here – no sugar-coating required!
#SheLEADS #WomenInBusiness #FemaleEntrepreneurs #BusinessGrowth #LeadershipPodcast #WomenEmpowerment

Adrienne (00:00.973)
Hi everybody and welcome back to the She Leads podcast. I am so excited to welcome my next guest. Her name is Nazrin Jafari and she's the founder, CEO and designer of Mixed, a Brooklyn based printwear brand inspiring you to be seen in full color. Founded in the summer of 2021, Mixed has grown into a mid seven figure brand with an engaged online and in -person community.

And the reason that I found mixed and Nazrin is that I was scrolling through Instagram and her account just jumped out at me. She was strutting down wearing the most beautiful jumpsuit that I've ever seen in my life. And I was like, I need this jumpsuit and I need to talk to Nazrin. So welcome to the She Leads podcast.

Nasrin Jafari (00:49.934)
Hey, Adrian, thank you so much for having me. Your voice is also so perfect for podcasts.

Adrienne (00:56.429)
Oh my God, thank you so much. I love doing this. It's so much fun. And I just think that it's like I've with this, I've sort of found my way because I love talking to people and I love interviewing super creative people like you. And we just were chit chatting and I found out that you went to NYU, which is so cool. And that's where I went as well.

Nasrin Jafari (01:23.118)
Yes.

Adrienne (01:24.567)
So we are NYU alum. Yay, NYU. So take us back. You have started, you started this brand mixed in 2021, you know, post pandemic. I'm sure that that was a little bit of an inspiration, but why don't you take us back to the NYU years and let us know a little bit about your background.

Nasrin Jafari (01:49.262)
Yeah, yeah, sure thing. So NYU, wow. So I moved to New York and NYU when I was 18. And I came from LA. And I went to NYU actually for education because I was on a completely different path back then. My dream was to start a school. And so I was really studying like the politics and economics of education. I was volunteering at multiple schools. I went and I worked full time in a school several years after graduating NYU. So fashion really.

didn't have any place in the roadmap. I think building an organization, whether that was like a school or a company, that has resonated throughout my journey since the beginning. But definitely, the way that it has panned out with Mixed was quite unexpected.

Adrienne (02:38.189)
I love that because so many of us start down a certain path and we think that we need to stick to that path, especially, you know, you go through school and you spend all this money on your education. And so in a lot of ways you feel like, well, I need to stick to that because I've just invested all this time, money, effort into this one thing. But do you find that, you know, much of what you learned up

in what you're doing today.

Nasrin Jafari (03:10.286)
Yeah, you know, I think there's definitely some common threads. I think the reason I loved or I wanted to really go into teaching and education was that I loved learning and growing and doing things with people. And through being a teacher, you learn how to communicate, you learn how to tell stories, you learn how to engage people. And I think a lot of that translates really to brand building. And it makes sense that I enjoy brand building with my background, I think, as a teacher and in education.

Yeah, so I think that there are definitely those common threads. And even back to what you were saying about feeling like you need to stay on the path that you started on. I completely understand that, especially when you're spending a lot of money going to an expensive college to get a certain degree. So it can be difficult to veer off the course because you feel like you owe it to yourself, to your family, to see that through. And I think once I decided to leave education,

Adrienne (04:02.349)
Yeah.

Nasrin Jafari (04:08.334)
What I started to do then was really just follow my curiosity and I would, you know, what's calling to me today? Let me do that thing. Let me experiment with it. And if the result is positive and it seems like there are signs of life, then I'm going to keep going down that path. And that's really kind of how Mix started was really as face masks in the pandemic, this really kind of small scale way to get into textiles, to get into physical products, to get into manufacturing.

Adrienne (04:13.357)
Mmm.

Adrienne (04:25.003)
Hmm.

Adrienne (04:35.629)
Yeah.

Nasrin Jafari (04:37.602)
that was working and so I just took that thread further and further and that ended up into like a full, you know, fashion brand.

Adrienne (04:45.709)
Wow. So many people pivoted during the pandemic and chose a similar path where they made the face masks and everything, but that's quite a jump from making a face mask into these beautiful jumpsuits, all of these different vibrant colors. And to me, Mixed also has a very up -

lifting an inspirational message for women behind it. So can you talk a little bit about that? I also do want to understand, was there a point in the journey through education, did you want to try something new out of frustration? What was that? Why did you want to pursue something new?

Nasrin Jafari (05:37.166)
Yes, a couple different reasons. So I think being in the education space, what I wanted to do is I wanted to start a school that was really based on a different kind of curriculum model. And as I became a teacher, I kind of realized the very real institutional constraints that are on education that make it really difficult to kind of execute the type of ideas that I had that I would have liked to do in a public setting.

in a public education setting. And that was, so that was one piece. And then another piece was, you know, personally, I'd lost my mom during that time. And I think when you lose a loved one, it really just changes your perspective and your priorities. And I kind of looked around at my school and I didn't look to anyone and feel like I want to be in her shoes or in their shoes. And for me, that it just felt like there wasn't more runway ahead that I was really excited about. And so for that reason, I decided to leave.

Adrienne (06:04.269)
Hmm.

Adrienne (06:17.357)
Yeah.

Adrienne (06:25.485)
Hmm.

Adrienne (06:34.189)
Hmm. You know, what you just said is sort of exactly what I said to myself. I was working at one of the big four accounting firms in the marketing division. And, you know, the people that were higher up were partners and, you know, women partners. And I looked around at them and I was like, I do not want to be them. I don't.

Nasrin Jafari (06:34.19)
those reasons.

Nasrin Jafari (06:59.052)
Yep.

Adrienne (06:59.565)
And it was the reason that I left too and started my own business because you do, you don't think about that I think when you start out, but it's like, that is where you're going. And so I think a lot of people can resonate with that and that's a good thing, right? That taking the chance to go down a different path and it's so bold what you did, like let me follow what's happening inside, that's a very,

bold move and one that I feel like as women, we don't do enough. We don't trust our gut and follow that thread because we're so afraid of failing or not knowing what's next and not being 100 % sure. So I just love that you did that. And then you did something very useful, right? Like everybody needed masks and they wanted at some point,

Nasrin Jafari (07:56.684)
Yes.

Adrienne (07:57.997)
them to look good, right? But then, you know, making, and I wanna also just acknowledge, and it's awful, like losing a parent, you know, especially a mom as a girl, like it's all, it sucks and there's no way around it. So I'm so sorry that it just sucks. But I'm sure your mother would be incredibly proud of you. I'm sure she always was.

Nasrin Jafari (08:01.006)
Yeah.

Nasrin Jafari (08:23.662)
Thank you, yeah.

Adrienne (08:25.485)
but I'm sure she would be even more proud of you than I'm sure that she was. But sort of how did you make the jump from making masks into just even making an item of clothing? Because that's a very different proposition.

Nasrin Jafari (08:40.878)
Yeah, I mean, you know, I think the mask was a nice segue because there was some, I got some proof that I can make a physical product, I could sell it, people wanted to buy it, and people liked the prints. And so because I started manufacturing, so I started out hand cutting, hand sewing all the masks, and then the demand got too big, and so I started working with a manufacturer. And the great thing was that working with a manufacturer on this really simple, small product,

Adrienne (08:54.827)
Mmm.

Nasrin Jafari (09:09.582)
was a kind of a nice segue into understanding how clothes work. And so initially for the very first collection, I actually, I worked with a woman who I met on Instagram, who she just really loved the brand and she was a pattern maker. So she was the one who would make, like I would design the sample, but she would make the technical pattern and actual physical sample. And so I am really not, I'm not one to necessarily like collaborate with people quite easily, but.

Adrienne (09:12.941)
Yeah.

Nasrin Jafari (09:38.304)
You know, I saw her work and I could tell the integrity of her character and her work ethic. And so, yeah, so she made the initial samples for me. So that first collection, you know, everything was brand new to both of us. So I would sketch these designs and we would get on and I never met her, you know, so she was in Texas and I'm in New York. So we would get on these Zoom calls and I would show her the images and with the notes and I would say, this is how I wanted to drape. This is how I wanted to fit.

Adrienne (09:52.875)
Mmm.

Adrienne (09:59.495)
Wow.

Nasrin Jafari (10:06.99)
this is the vision and she would just take that, those, my words and those, that image and she would make a physical, she made a physical sample. And so she's actually the person who made that classic jumpsuit that you still see today, our best seller, just so much of her time and effort went into that and really paid off. So that was kind of the initial collection and from there, it just become easier. You know, now I understand how to, like what fabrics work with what silhouettes and.

you know, how to adjust fit and sizes and, you know, every collection. I think I've lost track now of how many collections we've done. It might be, the spring is coming out in March and that might be our seventh collection, eighth? I don't know.

Adrienne (10:48.685)
Wow. Yeah, that's good. It's good to lose track. That's amazing. Congratulations. So can you talk a little bit because it is so fascinating, right? And listen, there is so much that goes into building a business, especially a business where you're manufacturing a variety of different sizes, clothing, fashion, and just being able to produce everything. And I know that there's been supply chain issues and all of that kind of.

Nasrin Jafari (10:54.862)
Yeah. Yeah. Thank you.

Nasrin Jafari (11:09.666)
Yes.

Adrienne (11:18.515)
stuff, which you need to think about, right? And you need to you need to learn about along the way. So can you talk a little bit about the patterns that you design because they are really beautiful and unique and different? And then why did you pick a jumpsuit to start with?

Nasrin Jafari (11:38.862)
Yeah, so the prints that I design, I designed them all on Procreate. This is what I would suggest to any designer who's interested in, you know, maybe textile design. It's a super simple and low cost program. I use like an iPad and an Apple pencil and I just, you know, get to drawing. And in terms of the jumpsuit, I've always just been a jumpsuit person. I love that it is one and done dressing. You put it on, you have your full outfit ready to go. There's not too much styling. Like you could just,

Adrienne (12:03.853)
Yeah.

Nasrin Jafari (12:08.526)
style with maybe some accessories in the shoe and maybe a bag if you want to go even that far. But it's just, I love that it's functional, but it's still very striking. And that's always kind of been my taste is though sometimes I really do like to layer and I style and accessorize, I'm very simple and impactful. And I feel like jumpsuits really allow me to do that. And I think, you know, even as like with what I do with the work that I do, I'm quite busy and the jumpsuit just really allows me to throw it on.

Adrienne (12:19.691)
Hmm.

Nasrin Jafari (12:37.454)
and get going, but still feel good, still feel confident. And then I think from a marketing perspective, I didn't realize when I started, but the jumpsuit really, it's great from the marketing perspective because it's a full outfit. So visually, it's very striking on like a user's eye, and rather than like a shirt, because a shirt is just half of an outfit, and a shirt you still have to style, a shirt you have to find the right bottoms to wear with it. The jumpsuit is, it's a full outfit.

Adrienne (12:54.261)
Mmm.

Nasrin Jafari (13:04.878)
It's really visually striking for anyone who's scrolling through social media. And also I find that people who wear jumpsuits are a certain kind of personality. And when they see jumpsuits, they're like, oh, that's me. I'm a jumpsuit person. And so I think that really helped with creating this initial targeting and initial niche audience for the brand.

Adrienne (13:05.293)
Yeah.

Adrienne (13:14.315)
Mmm.

Adrienne (13:18.125)
Yeah.

Adrienne (13:25.517)
Did you know that going in, that was like a discovery?

Nasrin Jafari (13:31.342)
Yeah, that was a discovery. And it was, the jumpsuit being really true to me and my style was very, that was just true to my style. But the kind of marketing benefits from that I realized later.

Adrienne (13:40.171)
Yeah.

Adrienne (13:44.299)
Oh, that is so interesting. And I love the title that is on your website and your website is striking, right? The colors, the vibrant scene, just the photography. And it says, step into who you're becoming. Like, oh my God, it's so good. The jumpsuits are so...

feminine, but yet strong. And so can you talk a little bit about, you know, you mentioned like a jumpsuit person is a jumpsuit person and I get it, you know, I get it. What type of woman is attracted to a jumpsuit so that she could step into who she's becoming? What does that mean?

Nasrin Jafari (14:16.334)
Yes.

Nasrin Jafari (14:38.286)
Yeah, I mean, I think it's somebody who is stretching themselves, who's challenging, you know, who they are today, who they want to become tomorrow and really working towards that, whether that is about, you know, pivoting careers, whether that's about leaving a certain relationship and kind of growing personally beyond that, whether it's, you know, taking a risk and maybe leaving a job that you don't quite love. Every Sunday, I write a newsletter and this started from the very beginning of the brand. That's a very personal.

kind of like a blog style that has nothing to do with clothes, has nothing to do with anything we're selling. It's just talking about different musings that loosely revolve around stepping into who you're becoming and embracing that mixedness. And so it's been a really interesting part of the brand because I started it very, I started writing those Sunday emails just from the perspective of like kind of the logging, how I was building the brand and what I was going through.

Adrienne (15:19.885)
Hmm.

Nasrin Jafari (15:37.806)
It's been really a common thread, I think, for people that come through our studio during our events or, you know, if I meet someone on the street, because oftentimes I do, around the city, and they'll say, like, I read this email, and it really resonated, and I sent it to my friend, or I read this email, and I printed it out, and I put it on my fridge. And I think that this community really values that kind of the deeper, like, like what you're picking up on, the deeper meaning behind the brand and kind of the values that the clothes embody.

Adrienne (16:07.757)
I just absolutely adore that. And you continue to send these out. People can just kind of sign up on your website to get those Sunday emails.

Nasrin Jafari (16:19.342)
Yeah, yeah, they're gonna sign up on the website, get the Sunday email. And there's some blogs on the site as well.

Adrienne (16:22.573)
Amazing, okay, we'll definitely put that in the show notes. So what, I guess like, you know, you were always conscious of community, right? And the education system. And I think we all know that it definitely, oh my gosh, I'm like, I could co -op on a tangent, but I do think that so much needs to change.

Nasrin Jafari (16:47.822)
I'm sure.

Adrienne (16:52.461)
what is being taught still is not helpful for where we're evolving into as a society. I mean, just some of the things that we're even talking about right now, entrepreneurship, leaning into creativity, finding out what our gifts are, you know, we don't need to necessarily memorize, you know, the whatever battle happened on whatever hill because it doesn't really have any.

Nasrin Jafari (17:19.02)
Hahaha.

Adrienne (17:22.029)
It doesn't have any relevance and it doesn't help. Maybe it helps us think and remember facts, but there's so much technology now that can take the place of that. And so I do think that we as human beings are, I guess, morphing into more creative individuals. The facts are there. We don't need to hold them in our brains anymore. Our brains can be used to find those really beautiful

Nasrin Jafari (17:44.27)
Mm hmm. Yeah.

Adrienne (17:50.765)
connections between things so that we can be much more creative and innovative and all of that. I do see what comes through your brand. And I think one of the reasons that I was so attracted to it is because it very much speaks to me as a woman, but it's also not highly feminine, feminized. There's a power behind it. And I hate the word empowered. I actually hate it.

Because I just, I feel like it's, you know, you're, you don't have power and then someone has to sort of give it to you or to take it, but we all have it. Right. And so what for you, why are you focused on creating something that is for women? Like what about.

Nasrin Jafari (18:27.094)
Mm. Mm. Mm -hmm.

Adrienne (18:43.981)
that because that's who everybody is that you're talking to. We're all women in the audience. I'm sure there's some guys that listen that are friends and supporters, but the majority of the audience are women entrepreneurs. And I do believe that we're so powerful and we haven't fully expressed that power. Why are you helping women to express their power in this way? Why women?

Why not? Why didn't you start designing for men?

Nasrin Jafari (19:13.774)
Yeah, I mean, I guess the reason I didn't start designing for men is because I just don't, that's not my experience and I don't, I wouldn't even know how to do that. So I think, I think, you know, I didn't necessarily set out to think about like, how do I specifically empower women? I think it was more so coming from my, like from my own place, what do I know? What is my story? And kind of sharing that. And I think it happens to resonate with women. I...

Adrienne (19:40.621)
Mm -hmm.

Nasrin Jafari (19:42.634)
grew up like with my mom being very, very sad and very, my mom was like a quite sad person and very, felt very trapped or I like saw her or thought her to be very trapped in the situation that she was in in her marriage and unhappy with her life. And I think when I was younger, I kind of soaked that up like a sponge and something inside me was kind of like, I really don't want to be in that position.

Adrienne (20:06.603)
Hmm.

Nasrin Jafari (20:11.374)
where if I'm unhappy with my life that I don't have the ability to change it, both from a guts perspective, but also from a financial perspective. And so that's really big for me and something that I really value building for myself, having the guts to follow the thread, so to speak, and then to build something where I have my own financial security. And I think...

Adrienne (20:11.661)
Yeah.

Adrienne (20:20.715)
Hmm.

Adrienne (20:36.235)
Mmm.

Nasrin Jafari (20:37.742)
because a lot of the brand just kind of, it comes from me and my real lived experience. I think that's maybe what translates in the messaging. Yeah.

Adrienne (20:45.197)
Yeah.

Yeah, I love that. Thank you so much for sharing that because again, I do believe that so many people can like that that resonates with so many people they can relate to it. We, you know, we grew up and I mean, it continues to this day, but things are changing. But we did grow up where, you know, women felt that they were in situations that they couldn't get out of. And financially, it was true, right? I mean, I

I think back, my father passed away when I was young and my mother, she couldn't buy a car on her own. So, and my mom went the opposite way. She was like, if you don't sell me a car, screw you. I'm gonna go find a place that will sell me a car without my husband's signature. Because it's so stupid and so mind blowing. But like, I saw that and I was a young child.

Nasrin Jafari (21:26.286)
Yeah. Yeah.

Nasrin Jafari (21:40.31)
Wild.

Adrienne (21:46.125)
wait a minute. And so I just think, you know, so many of us have absorbed something and then we tried to, you know, push against that. And I think that that's done a great, that's been great for the progress of women and, you know, doing things like you're doing and just really leaning into, you know, you may not have had formal training.

But look at you. I mean, you've created an incredibly successful brand that is so inspiring. It really, really is. And not just because you're fabulous, but because you put in the work and you trusted yourself. And I'm sure that if for some reason it didn't lead you to this, I'm sure that you would have found the thing, whatever that was. Yeah. And the message too that,

Nasrin Jafari (22:13.966)
Thank you.

Nasrin Jafari (22:22.926)
Yes.

Nasrin Jafari (22:33.538)
Yep. Yep.

Adrienne (22:39.063)
I am getting from everything that you do is that there are certain gifts that we all possess that unless we pay attention to them, they may never show up. And just because we have one passion in one area doesn't mean that other passions don't exist.

Nasrin Jafari (22:56.62)
Yeah.

Nasrin Jafari (23:03.79)
Yeah, definitely. And I think it's about discovering them, but then also executing against them over a long period of time. And I think that oftentimes, you know, I think there's lots of cycles in work and life. But, you know, when you first launch something and you start something, it's really exciting. It's very sparkly. It's very lighthearted. You have lots of encouragement. Everyone around you is excited because it's new.

Adrienne (23:12.597)
Yes.

Nasrin Jafari (23:28.43)
And then you get into inevitably a moment, you move forward and it's not new and shiny anymore and it goes through a dip. And I think a lot of people kind of jump ship on the dip and then they start somewhere else and then they start the whole process over again and they never get past that dip. And so I have felt many times, building mixed, I've been going, I went through a dip, whether it was just kind of a slump or it was kind of felt a little bit gray, like not so much energy is.

Adrienne (23:35.371)
Yeah.

Adrienne (23:44.749)
Yeah.

Nasrin Jafari (23:57.038)
you know, flowing through me and the brand. And sometimes the dip was just like really difficult, like having to do layoffs, having to turn everything around, like, you know, so, but you have to move through that to continue exercising against that gift to then develop skills on top of it and, you know, stamina. And I think that is really what I, at the end of the day separates the people, like people who can really step into that fully and people who don't.

Adrienne (24:22.957)
I love the way that you said that. It's so true. It's a marathon, right? And you can't give up when it's hard. I mean, sometimes in class, we do have this conversation, especially because I teach entrepreneurship and questions get asked. Like, when do you know that it's time to give up, right? Because there definitely are times, it's like you might experience that dip and yes, you wanna keep going, but you also might say, well, maybe,

Nasrin Jafari (24:27.502)
Yeah. Yeah.

Nasrin Jafari (24:42.99)
Yes. Yeah. Yep. Yes.

Adrienne (24:52.493)
it really is time to do something different. And I don't have an answer for it. I think you just try and you do, you tap into your gut and you get advice from really great people that you surround yourself with and you make a choice.

Nasrin Jafari (25:09.998)
Yeah, and I think there's also definitely signals we get from the environment. If you are starting a business, for example, and you're working at it for however long and you've gotten zero sales, then that's probably a signal that Mark doesn't want what you're offering or you have to change. So I think that it's a combination of your gut feeling and also the signals you're getting from the environment and being honest about them. Yeah.

Adrienne (25:34.637)
I love that. Exactly. And sometimes that's very difficult because we fall in love with what it is that we're doing and we think everything is so great. We're so excited about it. And it might not always be the right product market fit. So where is the future of Mixed? Where are you going? How are you growing? Talk to us a little bit about that.

Nasrin Jafari (25:39.086)
Yes.

Nasrin Jafari (25:43.694)
Totally. Totally.

Yeah.

Nasrin Jafari (25:57.486)
Yeah, it's really exciting. This is a really peak season for Mix as we enter into spring summer. This year, I mean, so this year we're going to go, we're doing four seasonal collections and we're on pace to do, I would say like mid seven figures. So looks like a $5 million brand profitably bootstrapped and thank you.

Adrienne (26:20.557)
Amazing.

Nasrin Jafari (26:23.406)
And I'm looking to this, so what we've done really well is spring summer. And because we're really colorful, our fabrics and silhouettes are really suitable for the warm weather. But what I'm really excited about hopefully being able to do this fall winter is going into proper outerwear, getting into maybe some faux leather, faux fur, doing coats, and just doing more warm weather attire. And I'm really curious to see how to really transition the brand from just a spring summer.

Adrienne (26:43.757)
Hmm.

Nasrin Jafari (26:51.862)
I mean, we are a year round brand. I'm just saying our seasonality is better currently in the warmer months. But I would love to bring that color and the pattern to fall winter in a way that's, it's not gonna look the same as spring summer, but how do we still like bring in some color for the fall? How do we do that on heavier and warmer textiles? So that's really my goal, I think, for this year is to really just have mixed feel like a.

Adrienne (27:09.003)
Hmm.

Adrienne (27:13.771)
Hmm.

Nasrin Jafari (27:20.078)
a full year round brand at scale. And yeah, from an internal organization perspective, I've learned a lot in terms of how to keep a lean operating, OPEX costs, a lean team, lean payroll. So working with some people internally, but a lot of it is being done with contractors and agencies. And yeah, it's exciting.

Adrienne (27:42.317)
Awesome. That is so exciting. And I cannot wait because I just think that outerwear, it's, you know, black, dark blue, like maybe you'll get a metallic in there once in a while, but you look around and everybody's the same. So I am very much looking forward to vibrant colors, patterns on the streets of New York City. That's a dream.

Nasrin Jafari (27:56.974)
Ha ha ha!

Adrienne (28:11.085)
Awesome, awesome. Yeah, so I just really appreciate you taking the time out of your very busy schedule and your design schedule and all of that. And I know that the audience really loved this conversation. Thank you for sharing your journey and congratulations on all of your success so far and where you're going. I cannot wait to see everything new that's coming out. And if people do want to...

Nasrin Jafari (28:11.086)
Same.

Adrienne (28:36.525)
You know, there's definitely some students that are listening in, some women that I'm sure would want to talk to you. How can people either get in touch with you or just find out a little bit more about you and next?

Nasrin Jafari (28:47.886)
Yeah, sure. You can email me at Nazrin at mixedbynazrin .com. You can reach out on Instagram, mixed underscore by Nazrin or my personal, which is Nazrin Harumi, which is my middle name. I'm sure that maybe be linked in the episode, but you know, our studio is based in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. So it's quite an open space. We host events in here. We do, we'll do shopping events, but also things more like panels and meet and greets and things like that. So.

I'm very open for people to come in, build relationships. We work with some people locally as well. So it's a really great, I would say community space and hub in addition to being our studio and showroom and warehouse.

Adrienne (29:33.227)
Amazing. I love it. Well, thank you so very much and hopefully I will be coming to that studio soon. I can't wait to make a trip out there and I can't wait to get myself one of those jumpsuits. I just can't decide which one. Thank you.

Nasrin Jafari (29:47.706)
Awesome, thanks so much Adrienne. Thank you.