A Conversation with Sensi Graves, Swimwear Maker
Pro kiteboarder, swimwear maker, motivational speaker
Sensi Graves is a professional kiteboarder, swimwear maker, aspiring motivational speaker, and women’s empowerment leader. She started her company, Sensi Graves Swim, when she was just 23 years old using her own designs and a financial gift from a friend. Her swimwear is among the best for active women. The company has grown and so has Sensi. She’s using the lessons she learned from her past to inform her future and the future of other female entrepreneurs.
For the 22nd edition of this newsletter, Sensi and I talked about what it means to be a creative person, how starting her company was financially possible, why investing in yourself is a must, how to truly believe in yourself, and what would fulfill her ultimate dream. Bonus: Look for the coupon code for a discount on her beautiful swimwear.
What’s your craft?
My craft is empowering women and inspiring confidence both on and off the water. In the nine years that I’ve been making swimwear, I’ve just come face to face with the fact that women, no matter their body size or shape or how beautiful or perfect other people may think they are, are very hard on themselves. One of my big life missions is to help women feel good about themselves. That looks like making awesome swimwear, but it’s also about inspiring a positive internal mindset. I mentor women in their businesses and in their personal lives to build up their confidence, resilience, and pride in who they are. It’s a personal journey that I’ve been on over the last 10 years, and it’s taken me a while to get to a point where I feel comfortable and confident and proud of myself. I want to share that with other humans, particularly women.
Have you always considered yourself a creative person?
I have not. I’ve always been an athlete. I grew up with three brothers in Northern California in a really small town and I played sports my entire life. I grew up playing in the redwoods and it gave me a reverence for nature and for life. With my brothers, I’ve always been very competitive. It’s never been about keeping up with the boys. It’s been about beating the boys. My mom was an incredible athlete as well and my dad couldn’t keep up with her on the ski slopes. So I’ve always had this really strong female archetype to look up to. But I never really considered myself a creative person. I’ve always been into writing, but I had this limiting belief perhaps that “creative” was more art or sculpture or drawing—something that was more of a beautiful manifestation and I didn’t consider writing to be that. Then got a degree in communication from UC San Diego and saw myself wanting to make a product that wasn’t on the market. Turns out, I am creative. I knew what I wanted to create in the world. It was just a matter of putting one foot in front of the other to make it happen.
What were the early days of the business like, and what did you learn that might help others?
My number one piece of advice is just to keep going. Once again, I feel like we’re really hard on ourselves. Both men and women. We just berate ourselves when things go wrong. But the thing with life is that it’s a rollercoaster. Glennon Doyle actually said something in her book Untamed. I don’t know the exact quote, but she said something like, life is not supposed to be easy. It’s not hard because you’re doing it wrong; it’s hard because you’re doing it right. If we change the idea that it’s supposed to be easy and just embrace the downs with life, we create more resilience.
In building my business, I didn’t have any business background. I was 23. I was right out of college. And I was coaching kiteboarding and living in North Carolina on the beach. I was on the water every day surfing, kiteboarding, or coaching. My swimsuit was my uniform. I would wear it under my shirt and my shorts. I just remember getting quickly fed up with always adjusting my triangle tops. At the time, the swimsuits on the market were either string bikinis promoted by surf-inspired brands that just showed a woman lying on the beach and not actually doing anything. Or they were made by the prAna and Patagonia of the world who, at that time, were really geared toward the much older woman. I wanted to feel empowered and alluring to myself, but also feel badass and like I could rip. I thought, why aren’t we breaking out of this paradigm? So I wanted to create a product that was a combination of fashion and function, but also promoted the idea of a strong and beautiful woman. I sketched up some designs. I ordered some fabric from New York to make my first prototypes. It was just falling forward and taking it one step at a time. It was kind of a blind trust. The big takeaway for me in that period was that I was the one holding myself back. We hear these stories of people who become super successful and they’re like, I did it despite the doubters and haters. Here I am sitting 10 years later and looking back, I was the one doubting and limiting myself. It was a journey of discovering that we oftentimes put rocks in our own backpack.
What made it financially possible?
I think hustle can be a positive and negative word. If we go too hard and don’t allow ourselves grace and space and rest, hustle can be a negative. But I truly believe in hustle, and there’s no shame in having a side gig at all. Build your dream without having to live in scarcity. The first couple years of my business, I was coaching kiting pretty much full time. I was also just starting my career as a kiteboarder and wasn’t making any money off that yet. To make the first batch of suits, I actually got a gift of $3,000 or $5,000 from one of my family friends. I think I made 50 suits. That person really gave me a lot of confidence to feel like I could do it. Because once again, I was battling the “I’m not good enough” demon. It manifested in me not wanting to put my own money into the company and also just trying to figure out how to make it happen without risking too much. Shortly after starting my brand I moved to Oregon. I waitressed for the first six years of my company. But to put myself in a place where I felt abundance, I hustled. My ego had to kind of take a backseat because I felt like I shouldn’t be waitressing. I felt like being successful meant making enough money from my business. That was a huge lesson I had to wrap my head around. There’s no “should” because this is where I’m at, which is exactly where I’m meant to be.
Especially in Western culture, we have a carrot always dangling in front of us. Oftentimes we get to those goals and we don’t even eat the carrot. We just throw it over our shoulder and don’t take any time to enjoy it. And then we’re on to the next goal. I totally believe in goals and growth and getting to the next level because that’s important for humans. We need that to feel good. But we really don’t embrace and celebrate the wins enough. You can have all the best intentions in the world and you still might totally fail. That’s totally OK because it’s the actual process that is the enjoyment. It’s the creative aspect. It’s the work itself.
Exclusive: Sensi is offering a 15% discount for HHC readers. Use the code HONINGHERCRAFT at checkout at sensigravesswim.com.
Do you have any financial advice that might empower somebody else?
I’m sure people have heard this before but have an emergency savings fund. Sometimes my friends talk about how they don’t make enough. But we get lost in this consumer culture and we don’t put our futures first. Save up not only for emergencies, but also to invest in yourself. The best investment you can make is self growth and self education. If we can think about that more as an investment rather than just spending money. There’s really no better use of your money than to improve yourself or to learn something, I believe.
Is there anything you’ve invested in for yourself recently?
I recently went to two events that really impacted me. One was Rachel Hollis’s RISE business event. The other was Tony Robbin’s Unleash the Power Within event. They’re both amazing speakers. And you’re around people with high energy also looking to improve themselves. Any time you can put yourself in a room with people who are more successful than you, do it.
What are you enjoying and leaning into right now?
I’ve just been getting into public speaking on women’s empowerment and confidence. I love teaching. I think I’m an educator at heart. I’m starting to do quarterly workshops around various themes. So one I just did was called “Love yourself, Love your business.” It was around how to not let failure define you, how to take feedback, how to imagine where you want to go and get clarity on your vision, how to figure out your values so that you can incorporate them into your business, and how to love yourself and your business through the ups and downs of life. The one-on0one mentoring is monthly. We meet once a week on Zoom and we basically go over whatever the client wants to go over. Some people want to focus on confidence. Some people want to focus on brand strategy. It’s all over the place, but it’s specific to starting your business, getting clarity on where you want to go, building self love and resilience into it throughout the whole thing, and just loving and being proud of yourself along the way.
Connect with Sensi and learn more about her kiteboarding camps and motivational speaking.
What motivates you on hard days?
I always say come back to your “why.” When things get hard and you’re doing it for the wrong reason, you’re not going to have that inner drive to keep going unless your “why” is attached to something outside of yourself. We’ll always do more for others than we will for ourselves. So if your “why” is for the greater good of humanity, then you’ll be way more inclined to keep going. When times get hard, don’t just push those feelings away. Let yourself feel them and think through what triggered you. How can I heal this part of me that’s perhaps being affected in this way? For instance, I have a trigger around confrontation. I’m not very good at it. So when things go wrong or they don’t go my way, I get really frustrated and I feel anxiety in my chest. That’s something I’ve been working through by thinking, feeling, and then letting go. Also allow yourself grace and compassion. We don’t have to be working every day, and it’s OK to have boundaries in your business and work so you can feel good and not let the hardships bring you down.
Do you have a dream for your businesses?
One of my big dreams is to become an inspirational speaker. I feel called to do it. One of my favorite podcasts is Awesome With Alison and she said if you feel called to do something, freaking do it. Then I just want to continue empowering those around me and helping other women feel good about themselves through my kite camps and swimwear. My dream is a world in which women no longer doubt themselves.
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A Conversation with Sensi Graves, Swimwear Maker
Catching up on the last few HHC and I really enjoyed this one. Sensi’s story resonates with me and so many of the things that I’m still learning. “It was a journey of discovering that we oftentimes put rocks in our own backpack.” I love that. Thanks for highlighting all of these rockstar women!