How I Got Here: The Founder of Mutual Muse on accommodating neurodiversity at work
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH MUTUAL MUSE
PHOTOGRAPHY BY On Jackson Street
WORDS BY MAGGIE ZHOU AND CAIT EMMA BURKE
“I am autistic and have my own specific needs in a workplace, so it’s great to pass those accommodations on to the whole company.”
Have you ever stalked someone on LinkedIn and wondered how on earth they managed to land that wildly impressive job? While the internet and social media might have us believe that our ideal job is a mere pipe dream, the individuals who have these jobs were, believe it or not, in the same position once, fantasising over someone else’s seemingly unattainable job.
But behind the awe-inspiring titles and the fancy work events lies a heck of a lot of hard work. So what lessons have been learnt and what skills have proved invaluable in getting them from daydreaming about success to actually being at the top of their industry?
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Welcome to How I Got Here, where we talk to women who are killing it in their respective fields about how they landed their awe-inspiring jobs, exploring the peaks and pits, the failures and the wins, and most importantly the knowledge, advice and practical tips they’ve gleaned along the way.
Secondhand fashion is no longer a second choice. With the global secondhand apparel market expected to grow 127 per cent by 2026 (triple the speed of the overall apparel market), it’s an industry that’s continuing to bloom and blossom. At the heart of Melbourne’s secondhand scene is Mutual Muse. The northside institution is led by Kirsta Hawkins, its Founder and CEO. Born in the US, Kirsta saw North America’s approach to secondhand consignment stores and wanted to replicate its success Down Under.
After six months of selling preloved garments at markets, Kirsta took the leap and opened up shop in a small Thornbury nook. Years on, Mutual Muse now lives in (much larger and much nicer) spaces in Northcote and Brunswick. As both a parent and an autistic person, Kirsta brings a unique perspective to the role of a CEO. Unlike typical suit types, she has a “really healthy work-life balance” and ensures “there is always time to slow down and rest”. Here, Krista shares the journey of Mutual Muse and how her neurodiversity has helped her lead her team with compassion.
What do you do and what’s your official job title?
I am the Founder and CEO of Mutual Muse. I do a little bit of everything in the business, some of the things that make up the majority of my weeks at the moment are: marketing, scouting new locations, developing our buyer training program [and] working on the shop floor – whatever needs doing really.
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Take us back to when you were first starting out. Did you study to get into your chosen field, or did you start out with an internship/entry-level role and climb the ladder? Tell us the story.
I have two bachelor’s degrees in French and religious studies. I’ve had so many random jobs before starting Mutual Muse: hospo, teaching, public service [and] cake decorat[ing]. I started Mutual Muse with little to no experience in the fashion industry (unless working at The Gap for four months in high school counts?) [but] I’ve always been obsessed with shopping secondhand clothes. I saw a hole in the market in Australia for an accessible secondhand store where people could sell their amazing clothes and have the option of being paid up-front or taking store credit to use for new (secondhand) clothes. This type of shop is really common where I’m from in the US, so I thought people here would love it too.
I had a friend who owned a cafe, so I thought if she can run a business, maybe I can too! I started out selling [at] a market and after about six months, signed the least to my first tiny store. I learnt to do so many things as I went, like photography, marketing, managing a team [and] managing finances. I’ve mostly made it up as I go along, you can learn so much through Google! I love to try things out and see what works and what people respond to, and then adjust as needed.
The growth has been really organic so it’s always felt pretty manageable. I love how many amazing designers we have in Australia, so I started out focusing on selling those. Our customers [also] bring us all kinds of incredible designer stuff from Japan or Europe, so we love to sell that now too. We started out in a really tiny space in Thornbury, then opened a store on Sydney Road in Brunswick a couple of years later. [We] recently relocated our original store to a much bigger space in Northcote. I’m always on the lookout for our next location.
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What challenges/hurdles have you faced getting to where you are now? Can you tell us about one in particular?
It has always been a huge priority for me to sell plus-size clothes in-store. I am a straight-sized person and have many plus-size friends, so I [can sympathise with] the challenges and frustrations plus-size people face when accessing affordable and cute clothing options. Because there are fewer options for buying new plus-size clothes and people have to work so much harder to find cool stuff, people are much more hesitant to pass on their quality items.
I would constantly ask plus-sized people to sell us their clothes, but it never felt like we could quite get off the ground with it. Fair enough, people were like, ‘Why would I want to sell my clothes to you?’ There is understandably a lot of distrust from the plus-size community for the fashion industry in general, so it took a long time to get our plus-size range to where it is today and it’s still a work in progress.
Having multiple plus-size people on staff was so essential to gaining trust in the community. People need to see themselves in a business to feel included. A Plus Market is doing amazing things for making secondhand clothing accessible to the plus-size community, so we started doing a stall with them at every market. Slowly this gave us more visibility in the community. Partnering with A Plus has been an absolute match made in heaven. Now we also buy clothes at the market which means we have even more stock to offer customers in-store.
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We’ve made it a priority to make plus-size customers feel welcome in person. One way we’ve done this is by having sizes clearly marked in both our stores, as well as our online store, so a plus-size customer can come in and go straight to the plus-size section. It feels so nourishing to see plus-size customers come into the store and head to the changerooms with arms full of cute options to try on.
What do you want people to know about your industry/your role?
I wish people knew more about what happens to their clothes at the end of their life. Mutual Muse sells tonnes of stock, but we are a drop in the ocean of how much used clothing there is in the world. Overconsumption is such a massive environmental and ethical problem.
Op shops are only able to sell around 15 per cent of the donations they receive, so donating to charity is not [the] solution. The clothes end up being shipped to the Global South in places like Accra, Ghana or the Atacama Desert in Chile where there are mountains of clothing landfill from the West.
What’s the best part about your role?
The best part of my role is getting to lead a company with such a great company culture. So many of us have come from toxic work environments so it’s great to have a more gentle way of doing things. I am autistic and have my own specific needs in a workplace, so it’s great to pass those accommodations on to the whole company.
We respect out-of-work hours, communicate directly with each other, encourage everyone to slow down and use their leave, and have an ongoing dialogue with staff from all parts of the company. The clothes are a huge perk too, obviously!!
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What would surprise people about your role?
I actually have a really healthy work-life balance. Being a parent and an autistic person [has its] own special demands on the way I live my life, so I’m really fortunate to have a work schedule that can accommodate both. I firmly believe that your business should work for your life, [and that you should] not sacrifice your life for your business.
Sometimes I do work heaps, like when we’re doing the fit-out of a new location, but generally I get to finish in time to pick my kid up from school. There is always time to slow down and rest and I take holidays as needed. I try to keep healthy boundaries around work and encourage my team to do the same.
What skills have served you well in your industry?
I have a photographic memory which has been incredibly useful when knowing how to price the hundreds of brands we buy from our customers! I am an autodidact, so I can teach myself to do just about anything from doing a lot of research. Other than that I think being a good communicator is so incredibly helpful, whether it’s talking to my staff or to customers or writing copy. You need people to understand what you’re trying to say. I’m really grateful I wrote so many essays in high school and uni.
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What advice would you give to someone who wants to be in a role like yours one day?
Chase whatever sparks joy for you, even if it doesn’t make sense to anyone else. Starting and running a business is really, really, really hard work, so you need that fire to fuel you through the rough bits. If I wasn’t so obsessed with what I do, I think there are many points when it might have seemed too difficult to go on. If something isn’t working, be prepared to try something else. It takes a few tries to get the right momentum. You also need to be prepared to do something for a while before deciding if it’s working.
What about a practical tip?
Take one action every day towards the direction of your goal. You might not have the time to sit down and smash out an entire business plan in one sitting, but you can always send an email, share your work on the internet or have a conversation with someone. Tiny goals make the journey more manageable, and if you get anything done beyond that, it’s a bonus!
Read the rest of the How I Got Here series here.
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