We were lucky to catch up with Adisyn Pyles recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Adisyn, thanks for joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
Freeleaf is the combining of my passions for women’s rights, collective freedom, and finding beauty amidst chaos. In 2016, my co-founder, Jiayi, and I started Freeleaf after having met several survivors of trafficking who were desperate to get free but remained trapped in cycles of poverty and exploitation due to economic need and a lack of viable opportunities. By starting a social enterprise, we were able to provide full-time employment with fair wages and safe working conditions to these survivors. We also provide vocational training like literacy and computer courses as well as holistic care like counseling and medical care. We decided to use the ancient Chinese art form of knotting and adapt it to modern applications in order to create a world where women are {k}not for sale. It has been a messy journey learning to start and run a business– everything from product development, building a website, marketing, and customer relations has been a learning curve for us! Ultimately though, we love creating beauty alongside these resilient and incredible survivors and we are committed to becoming profitable and scaling the business to employ more survivors!
Adisyn, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Freeleaf is a social enterprise that makes beautiful products while providing financial freedom, vocational training and holistic care to our survivor-employees so that they can remain free from exploitation for life. As such, the primary problem we are seeking to solve is that of sexual exploitation and the cycles of poverty that lead to abuse for survivors.
I am most proud of the way in which Freeleaf has created a company culture where our employees can not only survive but THRIVE both professionally and personally. One example of this is our first employee, Lin. Here is her story in her own words:
“In 2015, I was at my most depressed and disappointed moment, with no idea what I was going to do in the future. When I met the Freeleaf team, not only did they not discriminate against me because of my past, but they welcomed me to join their team and their new company.
Together, we learned how to make Freeleaf’s first products– knotted rugs. Over the last 4 years I have been able to develop this skill, and today I design many of the new Freeleaf products! If I didn’t start working with Freeleaf, I would still be working in an environment full of abuse and exploitation. I have come to believe, fully, that I can be a good staff and a good mother and a good future wife. Before Freeleaf, my life was so dark, but today it is full of color and hope for the future”
Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?
In 2015, I was sitting on her apartment floor in a foreign country dreaming about starting a company that would provide employment to women in need, and brainstorming ideas for what products she could make. Iloved the idea of incorporating ancient knotting traditions into modern applications, so she made a coaster out of a piece of scrap rope. Little did she know that this would provide the basis for the products Freeleaf produces today.
All of our products are hand-knotted from a single strand of rope or cord. Knotting is an ancient art-form that has been practiced all over Asia for centuries. In addition to tying knots for functional purposes, knots have been used to show elegance and express blessings. Freeleaf bases the design of all of our products in accordance with this rich history and significance of the Chinese knot. In addition, the process of knotting can be quite messy as a single strand of rope is molded to become something beautiful. For example, our large cotton rug uses over 200 feet of rope! Throughout the process of tying the rug’s knot, it’s easy to feel like you’re making a bigger mess than you started with. However, with patience and dedication, the knot slowly begins to come forth and eventually you’re left with a stunning product. I find that this process so often mirrors our lives—if we’re willing to be patient and keep walking through the messiness or chaos of whatever’s going on around us, I believe that beauty always wins.
We’ve learned a lot about designing and handmaking products– everything from quality control/consistency to loyalty to our aesthetic! It took over a year to even refine our products to a point where we felt like we could sell anything so we’ve learned that every new product takes longer than you think it will and that developing systems to allow for good tracking of cost, quality, and sales is essential to continuing to know which products you will want to manufacture in the future.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
Like most small businesses, the Covid pandemic required us to shift drastically. In early 2020, as the pandemic was just starting in Asia and airports/cities were being closed, my family and I decided we would come back to the US for a few weeks while the “new coronavirus” blew over. We left our home of 8 years with our toddler and 3 suitcases, expecting that we’d be back in 3 weeks. Little did we know, over 2.5 years later we still wouldn’t be able to easily get back.
Over the last 2.5 years, we’ve had to learn how to support our staff and maintain production during extreme lockdowns and closures, how to design products from a distance (with me now in the US), how to communicate and manage people and products from across the world, and ultimately how to grow our GLOBAL business. There were so many fears of whether the company would survive or whether we would be able to settle into these new roles/locations, but now 2 years later I am so proud that we have not only survived but grown our business 300%!
Ultimately, the goal was always to have a locally led and sustainable enterprise, and though we so miss being able to work together in-person as a team, I’m so proud of our local team and their resilience to pivot and manage the Asia entity.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.freeleafltd.com
- Instagram: freeleafltd
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adisyn-pyles-b8b454133/?originalSubdomain=cn
Image Credits
Photos by Jess Winni Photography