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- [00:00]
A
Today, you know, we go out, we take our vitamins, we brush our hair, we brush our teeth, but the one thing we forget, it's like protect our energy before we leave our house.
- [00:10]
B
For example, when I'm wearing this heart collection, we did this heart collection and I feel safe when I wear it.
- [00:18]
C
It's like a suit of armor.
- [00:19]
B
Yeah, it's like a suit of armor.
- [00:20]
A
How can I protect myself from all these outside, you know, outside movements? And that's how we came up with Azula.
- [00:27]
C
Ana Sparvik and Yvonne Navarro are dynamic, design driven and forward thinking fashion entreprene and the co founders of Azula clothing. Combining their keen eye for aesthetics with a commitment to quality, they empower modern individuals to embrace their individuality through beautifully crafted apparel. Setting a new standard for everyday confidence, sustainable style and authentic self expression.
- [00:48]
B
Azula came alive when I was in a very transformative time in my life where I was going ending a breakup, starting over again and rebuilding my life as a mother, as an entrepreneur.
- [01:07]
A
So we want to create a brand where people can be reminded that they are protected of who they are. And it's like so much today too for social media, like be this, be that, buy that. And it's like you don't have to be all that. You could just be yourself, you know, and that's okay and that's good enough. It spans the globe like a super high Internet.
- [01:30]
C
Elvis Preston. I have agreed today Apple is going to reinvent Lefong. It's not over until I win the living your legacy podcast for those who live to leave a legacy that's extraordinary. The impossible has been. Oh, that is sensational. Jordan open Chicago with the lead. You said Paul is the fastest man on the planet. You can live your dream. Welcome back everybody to another episode episode of the living your legacy podcast. Today I am joined by Anna Abraham Navarro of Azula which shout out to Avatar if you've watched it. We, we just got through kind of talking a little bit about it but well that's, that's neither here nor there. First of all guys, you, you finished recording your episode. First of all, how do you feel now on the other side of recording? We're a little nervous going into it.
- [02:29]
A
Yes. Yeah, we haven't done anything like that before so it was a little bit nerve wracking but we warmed up. He is so great. Your guys's team.
- [02:37]
C
Overall, Kofi is one of my. He's one of the best interviews we have. Love Kofi. Shout out to Kofi. He's back there somewhere.
- [02:44]
A
He can.
- [02:44]
C
He can see and hear us. He can see and hear us. I want to get, you know, I want to give the opportunity for the audience to get to know you guys a little bit. So tell me a little bit about your story and how Azula came to be.
- [02:58]
A
Okay, so, Azula, you should probably tell me that this one, because I feel like that's close to your heart. How Azula came alive.
- [03:07]
B
Yeah, Azula came alive when I was in a very transformative time in my life where I was going, ending a breakup, starting over again, and rebuilding my life as a mother, as an entrepreneur.
- [03:26]
C
So as breakups do. Yeah, very transformative periods. 90% of my tattoos come from breakups. So talk to me a little bit about what is. What is Azula? Let's. Let's bring the audience in. What is Azula? I see that you guys have the fashion on point. I already. I've made my. We've been. We've seen each other a couple of times this weekend, and I keep making comments, but you guys look. You're always well dressed. You look great. But talk to me about what is Azula?
- [03:56]
A
Azula as a brand is a protective, protective clothing brand that when you wear it, you feel empowered. You feel. You feel your inside strength coming out, and it doesn't really matter. Of all the other energies that is around you that just kind of fades. It's a reminder to be who you are. You're strong, you're bold, you're protected.
- [04:19]
C
And I noticed on your shirt, you have the heart with. In the center there, the maldeojo. No evil eye in this house. And if you'll look up there, we also have one on this little chandelier, too.
- [04:31]
B
Oh, I see that.
- [04:32]
C
Yep. We believe in that heavily over here. No evil eye in the studio.
- [04:35]
B
Yeah.
- [04:36]
C
No, no, no, no, no.
- [04:37]
A
I'm so happy that you're saying that because that's one of the challenges we've been, you know, because we're doing an international brand. And, you know, there's also like. Like you said, different cultures and different people experience things differently. So we are so happy that you brought that up. There's no, you know, negativity activities. All love, positivity, support. It's just, you know, a reminder that you're strong, protected, and boiled, you know, so thank you for bringing that up. Yeah.
- [05:01]
C
I have a fashion brand as well that I run with a buddy of mine that he was my roommate in college, and we run it out of New York. So we do all of our textiles. We get all of our cotton, direct from Japan. Yeah, we do a lot of denim work and I have one of the hoodies here with me. I'll show you guys after. But we should collaborate, definitely. The. On the back of the hoodie, we have love written out in every language. So the brand is called LX3 and the logo forms A3, an L and then in the middle is an X, so it forms a heart. But I'll show you guys after the show. You guys don't get to see that brand, cuz we're not. I'm not allowed to promote it here. All right. We gotta be careful. We gotta be careful. Talk to me a little bit about, you know, being in business is hard. It's. There's a lot of ups and downs. There's a lot of things that you have to look out for. And I. I can see that. You gu. Lead with positivity, you lead with love. How is it being in business and trying to avoid the pitfalls of negativity?
- [05:58]
A
I mean, it is definitely, I think, from. From our end, like you always have to seek for the positivity in everything. You know, like, you work really hard and then you kind of have. You have your fall down or you have people that doubt you. But it's like, it's. In those times you really just have to. You just have to believe in yourself. Like, why did I start this? And you know, and then you find a really good group that you can like, you know, which we still haven't found, but we have each other.
- [06:25]
B
Great.
- [06:25]
A
Did we find that?
- [06:26]
C
That's. That's an interesting point. Because we don't get a lot of business owners that come in like as duos. So I think it's. I think it's great for you guys that like, you're both in this together. You have a unified mission. I had a business partner that I went into business with a couple of years ago, and there was this thing that I used to say when we would speak on stage all the time where I would say, you know, he and I both shared the same vision of where we wanted to go, and we realized that and so we said, you know what? We might as well carpool.
- [06:53]
A
Yeah.
- [06:53]
C
Like, we can. If we want to go to the same place, we can just go together. We can go in the same car. Right.
- [06:57]
A
I love that. Like, I would never, like, I feel like without her, it's a part missing because she's so brilliant and smart and I respect her so much. It's just, of course, like it's Just love all of that.
- [07:09]
B
Yeah, it is.
- [07:10]
A
You know, I could not even be here without her.
- [07:12]
B
Oh, I wouldn't be here without you.
- [07:13]
A
It's so crazy.
- [07:16]
C
You guys are adorable.
- [07:19]
A
It's just a message that we want to send then throughout our brand to other people. Like, we just want to send love and positivity and empowerment out there, you know, especially for females, you know, that
- [07:31]
C
extra push from somebody that, you know, I don't do a whole ton. And, like, when I mentioned the. The brand that I work with earlier, you know, I'm not a ton in the back end part of it as far as sourcing. Sourcing materials. And, you know, my. My buddy out in New York, he does all of that stuff, Sources the materials, creates the silhouettes, hand stitches, everything. He's very, very meticulous. But talk to me a little bit about that part, because from my little bit of experience, talking to my buddy about it, it's very difficult getting, like. People think you can just go online, find a place that makes T shirts, print your own designs onto them, and that's it. You have a clothing brand. What are some of the. In opening up your.
- [08:12]
B
This brand, finding manufacturers that have the material that you asked for, we have gotten plenty of samples that have. We didn't like the material of the clothings.
- [08:26]
A
And I'm, like, super picky. Like, I am picky.
- [08:29]
C
I'm super picky on material.
- [08:30]
A
When I'm with her, like, you know, she's so. She's doing a lot of that, and I'm like, I look at the material, and if it's not, like, 100%, like, it won't have a on it. Like, you need to be able to wear clothing. It doesn't matter if it has, you know, like, sparkles on it or whatever it is. It needs to be able to go, you know, like, obviously, this is dry cleaning, but if it's like another cotton like this one, it needs to be watched 10, 15, 20, 100 times. This one should be okay in three years from now. And she's wearing the time. Like, high quality is everything.
- [08:58]
C
That's exactly how I think it should be. Especially, like, when I'm buying clothes. Like, I'm a very. Like, I love fashion. Like, I'm very into it. And, like, when I'm buying clothes, like, even. Even my. Even these pants. These are, like, my favorite pair of pants. I paid, like, $400 for these.
- [09:12]
B
Oh, my God.
- [09:13]
C
I had to. They. They discontinued them. It's Carhartt, so they discontinued them in the States. I Had to go find them. I saw a guy wearing them at Art Basel once. I was like, where did you get those? And I had to go, I had to go find them. And there was a guy selling them on Depop from like Bangladesh. And I was like, I need that.
- [09:28]
A
Take them off and give them to me.
- [09:30]
C
You gotta be picky. Like I think when you have a vision for something and you want it to do well, you very meticulous. Like I'm very meticulous in my craft. When it comes to film, when it comes to anything that I put out that's going to have my name on it, I want it to be the highest level of quality that I can get to. And I, I, I see that in you guys as well.
- [09:50]
A
But it's also like depending on the message that you're sending. Like for me, like, I mean of course, like I love for example fashion. Noa, but that's not what we want to do.
- [09:58]
C
Yeah, the fast fashion, exactly.
- [10:00]
A
Like, I love that. But it's like what we're doing is that we're selling, we're selling a product that it's going to be inspiring people and a lifestyle. Almost like when you wear this product, this is how we want you to feel. So it's like a clothing together with a lifestyle of feeling, emotion, you know, empowerment. So that's why it's so important that it has to have that quality for
- [10:22]
C
it too to piggyback off of that. You know, I think branding is so, so important. What's your guys take on, you know, creating a brand as far as clothing goes? You mentioned this just now that you know, it's about a feeling. It's about feeling like you're a part of something. When you, when I'm wearing a specific piece, I feel like it communicates to the world. Like, hey, I embody what this brand signifies. Like if I'm wearing Nike, I embody the just do it mindset. If I'm wearing whatever it might be. What's your take on that?
- [10:54]
A
Absolutely. I mean everything, you know, is, everything is energy. Everything from what we wear to what we eat to what we put on our bodies. So it's like of course, you know, that's huge. So when you, you know.
- [11:06]
B
Yeah, so for example, when I'm wearing this heart collection, we did this heart collection and I feel safe when I wear it. You know, when we were talking about the mande ojo, the fighting negativity, this is, you go out in your daily life and you not really paying attention to what's happening around you. You really aware, like people sending you, you know, energy. We are. This is fights off negative energy during your daily, you know, like a.
- [11:44]
C
It's like a. It's like a suit of armor.
- [11:46]
B
Yes, like a suit of armor.
- [11:47]
A
Armor, exactly. And it's so crazy because it's like today, you know, we go out, we take our vitamins, we brush our hair, we brush our teeth, but the one thing we forget, it's like protect our energy before we leave our house. I mean, as soon as you enter, like out, go outside your door, we are like sponges. You're going to take in everything, either you like it or not, from everything from your skin to your eyes, like all these senses that we have. So when we created the brand, it's like how come that, you know, like I didn't find anything yet where I'm like, how can I protect myself from all these outside, you know, outside movements? And that's how we came up with Azula. Be like, we want to create a brand where people can be reminded that they are protected of who they are. And it's like so much today too for social media. Like be this, be that by that. And it's like you don't have to be all that. You could just be yourself, you know, and that's okay. And that's good enough.
- [12:40]
B
Yeah.
- [12:41]
A
And I think that's also what we try. The message that we're trying to send out.
- [12:44]
C
There's a. There's an interesting quote. You know, my dad's. My dad's in psychology. And there's this interesting. I guess it's more of a statistic than a quote, but he said that on average a person makes 27, 000 decisions a day.
- [12:56]
A
Exactly.
- [12:57]
C
That. That's 27, 000 opportunities for you to be influenced by the outside world.
- [13:01]
A
Yeah.
- [13:01]
C
That's 27, 000 opportunities for someone's negative energy to affect you. Right. And that's every single day. So protecting that before you go out of the house, putting on, you know, feeling like you are protected from that in and of itself is already.
- [13:16]
A
And you're already putting that. It's like you're putting that mindset in.
- [13:19]
B
In your.
- [13:19]
A
In your subconscious mind. And that's where you like, if you didn't have that, like you don't even think about it. I never thought about it until Azula came along that oh my gosh, I need to protect my own mindset. Because even for kids, they go to school and they get to hear hey your, you know, Your T shirt is ugly or your shoes are bad and then that can be damages that they carry. Like, I mean, I know I heard things when I was little, like about my teeth that I still, like, I had issues for a super long time. But if I known back then that that's, you know, that's their insecurity or that energy doesn't belong to me and I could have protected myself from that, that would be great. You know, then there's so many things you can prevent the today that securities we have about ourselves or whatever, you know, if we are aware of the energies that is entering us from all sources. You know.
- [14:05]
C
Now I know you guys probably heard this question in your interview. And for guys, if you're listening at this point, I just want to make sure that you go and check out their episode of Women in Power. Make sure you check that out. That'll be coming out shortly after this podcast airs. But in your interview, I'm sure you guys heard this question from Kofi talking about impact. When you think about the impact that you're able to create through your brand, what's like your measuring stick, how do you measure that impact? For me, it might sound like, you know, the amount of lives that I'm able to change or the amount of people that are able to feel protected by wearing these clothes. But for you guys, what do you think would be.
- [14:43]
A
I think, I think it's, it's similar to that too because I was just, you know, when we were earlier in the other broadcast, she, you know, for me it's like, it's not even about the volume that like, yes, of course we want to have a profitable products, but that's not really like, that's not really like for me at least what I'm looking for, I'm looking for helping people. So like when people are wearing this brand because it is, you know, like you said, it's returning pain into power. And I love that statement that she has like pain into power. I want to help as many people as I can. So if I, if I can find one person that didn't have to go through what I went through because they found this brand and because they got, they liked the quote that was on the thank you card or that they got the feeling that I can sell through it by explaining what it is about and that's all that I'm sleeping good at night because today there is so much out there that it's so
- [15:36]
C
much, you know, we're being bombarded at all times. Marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing.
- [15:40]
A
I can't see if I can have one person. I'm happy. So the more people I can reach by spreading love. Spreading, you know. Yeah. Spreading awareness. Yeah, Awareness. Almost like a movement. Sometimes I feel like it's a clothing
- [15:55]
C
brand, but any brand, a brand is a movement.
- [15:57]
A
Yeah. The more we, like, talk about it, me and her, I'm like, you know, I feel like we're doing a new movement in today's society where people need to love each other. They need to stop being jealous. They need to, like, especially with female empowerment, like, stop hating and be another beautiful woman, like, everybody's beautiful way that you are, you know, and we are all different, and we supposed to be different, and that's, you know, so it's. It's a lot of feelings and motions, too, with this brand that we're wanting to get out there, too.
- [16:28]
C
There's a. There's a quote that I love from Maya Angelou, and I always think about this quote when I think about, like, you know, we talk a lot in Inside Success about legacy. So I and any of my clients that are watching this podcast that have filmed with me, you know, you'll know the quote, because I give it to every client. But it's a quote from Maya Angelou, and she says, people will forget what you said. People will forget what you did, but people will never forget the way that you made them feel. And I think that's so poignant in the way that I think about the concept of legacy. What I want to leave behind. I don't care about the material stuff. I don't care about if I did these metrics or these numbers. I just care that people felt a certain way when they were in my presence. Did you feel empowered? And for you guys to make that kind of the backbone of this brand, I think is incredible. As we sort of wrap up here, I want to just ask one more question. If you could send a message out there to all of our viewers, what would that message be?
- [17:24]
B
It would be to never give up on your dreams.
- [17:27]
A
Yeah. And work really hard and stay empowered and protected from people that don't want you to succeed in life or whatever you want to do.
- [17:37]
C
Don't let your haters hold you back. Right. Make sure that you guys, if you're listening at this point, how are each other? Yeah.
- [17:45]
A
Yeah.
- [17:45]
C
I love that. I love that messaging. Guys, make sure that you check out their episode of Women in Power. It should be coming out shortly after this podcast drops. For the people out there who want to follow, you guys want to Follow the brand. Where can they get you on social media? Instagram, Tick tock, all the things you
- [18:02]
A
want to say that.
- [18:03]
B
Yeah, you could follow us at Azula Clothing on Instagram and also TikTok and Facebook.
- [18:11]
C
Do you guys run ads? Because I feel like I've seen your.
- [18:13]
A
Yeah, you do.
- [18:14]
C
I knew it. I was like, why do I know this brand? I've seen your ads before. You all right? If you're watching this and you've seen their ads, please comment somewhere.
- [18:23]
A
For every like 10 products sold, we are donating it to mental health or for any kind of charity that is needed to just make it even better, you know, to give back.
- [18:32]
C
That's. That's. Why didn't we lead with that? We're at the end of the pod. That's like, that's the best thing.
- [18:39]
A
Spread love.
- [18:40]
C
We're spreading love, spreading positivity. I love the messaging. I've thoroughly enjoyed being able to sit down with you guys and have this conversation. And guys, make sure that you're following them on all the socials. Make sure that you're checking out their episode of Women in Power coming out shortly. Again, this is your host, Jason Tyler. I have thoroughly enjoyed this episode with you guys, so thank you so much for coming.
- [19:01]
A
Yeah.
- [19:02]
C
And we'll see you guys in the next one. All right.
- [19:04]
B
Okay. Thank you.