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

Nikky, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

General: Pomp & Sass Turkish towels are a high quality towel with 3X social impact. (Ethically made, sustainable and we donate a portion of our profits to the Canadian Women’s Foundation)

Direct to consumer sales: When selling our line of towels online, we work towards making sure that everyone feels welcome. Representation in size, ability, age, gender and skin colour matters to me. Especially as a formerly disabled person who is non-binary. I know we have a long way to go in our content but the effort is being put into it.

Our line of towels is unique to us because I hand draw all of our styles. This also means I am choosing the weave, yearn and finishings to be the highest standard of quality possible. In conjunction with our 3x social impact, we stand out in the market.

Business to Business sales: Pomp & Sass specializes in customization. This full service offering is unique in the branded merchandise market (as far as I know of). I begin making a custom style by understanding the purpose of the branded goods. My clients can have a simple design made with their logo front and centre. Or I can develop a full illustration depicting their location or service and have the art woven into the fabric of the towel. I have a 4 year degree of illustration and years of textile design experience. I love designing for clients.

The branded merchandise market is primarily make dominated and seems to struggle to offer social or environmental impact. By offering a spa quality, custom towel with 3x social impact, we present a unique vantage point for those looking for merchandise.

I recently partnered with Sabrina Harding at Yellow Plane Branding to sell our product in a large capacity. Together, along with the other brands she represents, we will bring impactful branded merchandise to the market as under represented companies.

Summary: Specializing in custom styles of Turkish towels (correct name is peshtemal) I bring a unique offering to the industry. Having 3x social impact instead of 1 x or 2x is also unique.

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

My Story When I was growing I saw my (late) father work really hard as an entrepreneur. He grew his business to the point where he could give back to his community in a big way. I wanted to do the same.
But when I was 18 I was diagnosed with a disabling neurological syndrome that caused continuous full body pain and side effects like brainfog and fatigue. I worked as a freelance textile designer and learned everything I could about marketing and business.
In my late 20’s my husband and I overcame infertility and the pregnancy cured me of my disability. I decided to pursue my ambition of launching my own product line. In 2019 I started working on the business plan and on March 30th 2020 I was due to launch the business. I had warm leads, sales and an advocate in the northern hospitality industry telling their friends how great my product was. I was set for success. But I lost everything instead.
I spent the next three years building back while working as a full time college educator and a full time parent all while managing (and living within) 5 emergency home renovations. It wasn’t until the Revolution Her Summit of 2022 that I saw traction in my direct to consumer sales.

The product
When developing the brand I decided on the mission statement of ” To be a positive influence in the world”. I didn’t want to settle on ethical or sustainable or charity. I had lived in isolation, sadness and pain for so long, all I wanted was to find joy and make high quality, useful goods that made others happy. So I found a product that was both beautiful and useful. Luxury quality was a third criteria I needed to have. I refuse to make something that won’t last. It also had opportunity for me to use my design skills to offer something new in the market. I love designing and enjoy the process very much.
I interviewed several manufactures. Many would not work with me because of my gender. Eventually I found a company who would work with me. I asked a lot of difficult questions to learn about their hiring and safety protocols. I’m now on very good terms with my manufacturer and there is mutual respect between us.
When I am selling larger volumes of towels I will have access to manufacturing that qualifies for Fair Trade certification. I also aim for B Corp one we are ready for that wonderful application.

I’m most proud of the quality of the product I make and how happy it makes people. I’m proud of my resiliency and dedication to social and environmental impact. I know Pomp & Sass will be big one day. That means our impact will be big. That will be wonderful and I’m looking forward to growing from a small business to a large one.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

When I first started the business I wasn’t planning on selling e-commerce for the first three to five years. I was going to focus on business to business, custom towels. But when the marketing partner didn’t pivot and my leads went cold (full ghost) I knew I needed to rethink this strategy. I launched my product line online and chose to work with Wayfair and Amazon. I invested in professional warehousing, fulfilment and stock. But those platforms mismanaged my sales and didn’t provide what they promised. So I lost a lot of time and money before I pulled out. They also didn’t align with my brand the way I initially thought they did. It was a hard lesson to learn.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

On March 30th 2020 I was supposed to present my brand to members of the Resorts of Ontario group. I had spent the previous year building relationships with it’s members at various events. Leah L who was considered the ‘cool kid’ bought two small wholesale orders from me. She told the other members how impressed she was. Many of them told me to save some time at the event so they could make purchases. I was set for success. But the pandemic shut things down and the marketing group didn’t pivot. They went silent for a long time. A year later they held a virtual zoom event that didn’t go well. Most participants hadn’t used zoom yet and the technology failed most brands as they tried to run commercials. After that I had to walk away from the group and find a different path to success.
During the first months of the pandemic my web developer ghosted me, taking the 50% deposit. My entire savings was in the stock stuck in Turkey due to border lock down for months. That was hard because the ‘shop local’ was booming and I had nothing to sell.
I was also working as a full time college professor. Eventually that dried up due to low enrolment. I’m back teaching now but there was a time I had no work there.
For six months my husband would work from 6am to 3. I would support our child (with gentle parenting and co-regulation) who was in distress from the situation. Then I would work from 3:30 until 11 and weekends. We did this while under 5 emergency home renovations (the renos only recently finished) caused by the previous owners hiding massive water damage with asbestos drywall. The water finally broke through right when the world shut down. We had nowhere else to stay. Thankfully the asbestos was replaced during the summer so we spent a lot of time on our lawn.
We also lost friends and family during this time. Ghosting not death. I was setting boundaries and asked them to respect us. They didn’t like that they couldn’t act on their assumptions or emotional dump on me anymore. I started standing up for myself and taking real charge of my energy, stress and joy.
I’m proud that I never gave up on trying to find joy or living in gratitude. I’m certainly tired but I’m doing good work and know that it will pay off. My business is still small but it’s also still here. My product is really excellent and I will never let the impact slide or fall away. I stayed true to my core values. I find joy in small moments between the hard ones.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://pompandsass.ca/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pompandsass/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pompandsass/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikky-starrett-38399442/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/pompandsass
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ7Ju36dGfID2JQor4j5-vw
• Other: https://www.pinterest.com.au/pompsass/

Image Credits
My headshot was taken by Mashpop Media 2022 Lifestyle images where taken by Daniella Falcone 2022