1 session inside Boa
Kirstin-Lee Keysers
Founder, Kivari
Kirstin-Lee (known as Kiki) is the founder of Kivari, an Australian fashion label she started with $200 worth of leather wallets made in Bali and sold at monthly markets. She has since taken the brand from coastal boho into Australian contemporary design, using European linens and broderies, and owns 100% of the company with no outside investment. She now runs a profitable business while taking extended time off, including a month travelling Tasmania with her family.
The session
What Kirstin-Lee teaches
Hire to take jobs off the founder, not to fill a job title
Kirstin-Lee pushes back on the standard advice to hire a head of marketing or an e-commerce manager. Instead, open your calendar and ask what is clogging your focus, then employ someone to take those specific jobs away. Her reasoning: the most valuable person in the business is the founder, and buying back headspace is what lets the vision grow.
From Kivari's founder on delegation, brand filters and saying no →Use the 80 per cent rule to force yourself to delegate
The rule she keeps coming back to: if someone else can do the job at 80 per cent, that beats it being done at 100 per cent by you. She still catches herself wanting to jump back in and repeats the rule to stop herself. It works as a live filter every time you are tempted to take a task back off a team member.
From Kivari's founder on delegation, brand filters and saying no →Audit your week on paper, then circle the two or three jobs only you can do
Write down everything you did this week, including gym, cleaning the house and the school drop-off, not just work tasks. Then circle the jobs only the founder can do. Kirstin-Lee guarantees there will be two or three. Everything else gets delegated, systemised or deleted, and she says deleting is her favourite of the three.
From Kivari's founder on delegation, brand filters and saying no →Turn down money that is off-brand, even at $100,000
Pre-COVID Kirstin-Lee accepted a $100,000 wholesale order in a print she did not like and knew was not on brand. She was swayed by the money. COVID hit and she was left holding the fabric liability for a product she hated. Her rule since: if it does not fit the vision, the answer is no regardless of the number attached.
From Kivari's founder on delegation, brand filters and saying no →
Watch the full sessioninside Boa.
Session notes are free. The recordings, the live advisories and the founders in the room are for members.