We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Cequoia Johnson . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Cequoia below.

Cequoia , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

Picture this, 2018, it’s a beautiful sunny day on South Beach, Miami, FL; your friends and family are having the most perfect day. Laughs and music can be heard in the background. Jokes are flying and the group is talking about my love for the beach and buying swimsuits. I mean we live in Miami and my family is from Barbados so I LIVE in bikinis. Then your friend poses a question, “Quoi, why don’t you just start your own swimwear brand?” The whole group stops and agrees which leaves me with an important answer…”you know what y’all are right! I should start one.” As I sat there thinking of a name, it all clicked. It would be a play on my name that also happened to be my Snapchat name. Haha. And QuoiFish Swim was born. I always wanted to design clothes since a kid and since I love the beach so much I found swimwear to be my niche. I was so excited for what to come next, patenting the name and applying for it to be an LLC.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am Cequoia Monét (Johnson), I’m an actor and founder/owner of QuoiFish Swim. I have an 11 month old son and I currently reside in Miami, Florida. I lived in LA for 6 years acting before I got pregnant and then moved back home to be around family for the baby. I started QuoiFish Swim back in 2018 because I love swimwear fashion and I wanted to create pieces based off the places I’m from and have lived. My first collection; ‘Barbados Vibes’; officially launched online in April 2021. Since then we have been seen on the runway of Miami Swim Week that same year, along with being featured on Weekly Style Mag and Fashion Week online. We offer a range of cheeky bikinis, high-waist bottoms, flattering one-pieces and swim trunks, ranging from sizes XS-XXL. The colors and prints are hand picked by me and they represent the culture and vibrancy of Barbados. Our next collection ‘Miami Nights’, will feature colors and prints that emulate the city of Miami (launching spring 2024). Not only do I own QuoiFish Swim, but I single handily run the entire business myself. I love the product and I want customers to love them just as much!

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I had already put the order in for our spring launch with the manufacturer, unfortunately the bulk order wasn’t going to be ready until after July. And at that point I didn’t want to further delay the launch than it had already been delayed. So I had to think about the solution and what the next step was because our customers were awaiting the launch. I decided that I was going to hold a pre-order for the customers in order to keep the excitement going. I was very nervous and didn’t know how customers were going to respond to it. I held a poll on instagram and the customers had a first hand pick in deciding that the pre-order was going to happen! So I soft launched the website and made sure that the customers knew they wouldn’t be receiving their items till July. Safe to say that the customers got their items and couldn’t be happier.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

Instagram and word of mouth! I’ve slowly been able to grow the instagram since the beginning at a slow and steady pace. My goal for this year is to hit 1k followers and we’re currently at 718! We also have been doing pop-up shops since last fall and that’s helped us grow new clientele.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.QuoiFishSwim.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/quoifishswim?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/QuoiFishSwim
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/quoifishswim?s=21&t=wK07fVVihggZpO4jZq8ePA

Image Credits
Logan Hughes