{"id":3978,"date":"2023-08-08T10:44:27","date_gmt":"2023-08-08T08:44:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/my-sofia-moment-agnes-weber\/"},"modified":"2024-05-13T12:10:52","modified_gmt":"2024-05-13T10:10:52","slug":"my-sofia-moment-agnes-weber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/my-sofia-moment-agnes-weber\/","title":{"rendered":"My Sofia moment – Agnes Weber"},"content":{"rendered":"

Entrepreneur Agnes Weber is fascinated by the concept of circularity so it makes sense that her company Mended<\/a> is built around this idea as it seeks to retell the story of people\u2019s relationship with their clothes.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI love finding value in the overlooked and making the ordinary matter,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Agnes is lucky in that she\u2019s been able to translate her personal purpose into her business and make it work. But it hasn\u2019t always been this way.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Like so many female founders before her, Agnes was stuck after her initial success. When she read the Wyseminds\u2019 story of the fictional entrepreneur <\/span>Sofia<\/span><\/a> she understood why. She recognised herself throughout, nowhere more so than when Sofia is demotivated after her company\u2019s first growth wave.<\/span><\/p>\n

In this article, Agnes describes her own \u201cSofia moment\u201d but first, a little about her business Mended which, at its core, is a clothing repair, alteration and resale service. As a brand, however, it\u2019s about so much more.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ditching the \u201cdusty image of clothes repair\u201d<\/b><\/h2>\n

Mended\u2019s purpose to \u201cbuild a better way to keep clothes in play\u201d has struck a chord with people who realise that not only does this mean a more sustainable way to live, but that they can get more enjoyment out of their wardrobes by restoring the items inside.<\/span><\/p>\n

It aims to change perspectives and shed \u201cthe dusty image of clothes repair\u201d to attract the growing cohort of people turning their backs on fast fashion in favour of reusing and wise spending in times of global economic turbulence.<\/span><\/p>\n

For Agnes, the main appeal was that \u201cold clothes can be made to fit better and last longer\u201d through tweaking, adjusting and fixing. She identified a common pain point \u2013 people looking at the unworn clothes they\u2019ve owned for years and feeling guilty.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re tapping into that and using a different narrative so that the old jacket that you get fixed, altered or customised, or swapped for a different item, can trigger the same kind of thrill as buying something new.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The common denominator behind why founders get stuck<\/b><\/h2>\n

As Mended became successful, Agnes noticed the initial buzz that she and her team once enjoyed was fading.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cObjectives were getting bigger. There were lots of changes and I wanted to keep moving forward to the next level but often felt like we were going backwards.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Sofia<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the mirror image of how Sofia is described as her enthusiasm dissipates beneath the strain of spreadsheets, admin, accounts and to-do lists. While Sofia is a make-believe character created by Wyseminds founder Julie Perkins, Agnes was heartened to discover she wasn\u2019t the only one feeling this way.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhile your business may be unique, its growth pattern is most definitely not,\u201d says Julie. \u201cThe important part is learning how to recognise when this is happening so you can take action to continue growing your business with new tools that will support you through the next growth period.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Trapped on the business hamster wheel\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n

For Agnes, the reason she was stuck was obvious. \u201cI\u2019d stepped away from the thing I enjoyed most \u2013 the front-of-house story-telling, marketing and content promotion. When the business got busy, more important jobs had to be done and I was learning things that weren\u2019t natural to me. It was draining and things weren\u2019t working for me that way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In Sofia\u2019s story, the processes at Dragon Backpacks haven\u2019t changed because there\u2019s no time and she finds herself trapped on a hamster wheel of problem-solving. Her priorities have changed; the focus is now on sales as she attempts to repeat the first wave of growth. As Sofia moves further away from her true purpose, she and her team spiral into directionless confusion.<\/span>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Building a better business with the purpose toolkit\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n

The unconscious script for Agnes had become about growing up and being serious. \u201cThere was no time for play, and playfulness is one of my biggest values. I found it very hard.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"She\u2019d once looked at values and purpose as fluffy, nice-to-have additions for her marketing messages but Julie taught her how to use them as tools to keep her focus sharp. These practices are outlines in Julie\u2019s book The Wyseway, available to buy <\/span>here<\/span><\/a> or free if you register on the Wyseminds course <\/span>Your Journey<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bringing in an operations manager helped alleviate some of the serious stuff and freed Agnes to expand her business. She now has a regular practice that she channels in times of uncertainty.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever I\u2019m in doubt, I return to our purpose and reason back from there. It brings everything and everyone back to this same point of truth. I find it really powerful. I\u2019ve realised that the more I suppress my values, the less I enjoy my day-to-day life, the less stuff I get done and the less impact I create.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Would you like a copy of the book A founder\u2019s story and learn from Sofia and her entrepreneurial growth journey?\u00a0You can get it in\u00a0our shop for \u20ac 10,00<\/a>\u00a0now or for free by joining our programme on Your Journey,\u00a0here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Entrepreneur Agnes Weber is fascinated by the concept of circularity so it makes sense that her company Mended is built around this idea as it seeks to retell the story of people\u2019s relationship with their clothes. \u201cI love finding value in the overlooked and making the ordinary matter,\u201d she says. Agnes is lucky in that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3872,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[176,108,179,41,210],"class_list":["post-3978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-agnes-weber","tag-growth","tag-mended","tag-purpose","tag-sofia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3978"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4088,"href":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3978\/revisions\/4088"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}