Female Disruptors: Cassie Abel of Wild Rye On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
Business is a team sport — I have countless mentors who without them I and Wild Rye would not be where we are today. I have learned to rely deeply on my community. No one can run an entire business solely on their own, and learning to really lean deeply on my community has taught me so much — particularly that they have my back more than I ever knew.
As a part of our series about women who are shaking things up in their industry, we had the pleasure of interviewing Cassie Abel, CEO and Founder of Wild Rye and Women Led Wednesday.
Abel has more than 15 years of brand and agency experience within the active lifestyle, outdoor, resort and financial services segments managing communication strategy and integrated marketing. After countless years in the male-dominated outdoor industry, she founded Wild Rye in 2016 to bring outdoor-loving women a better option. Wild Rye crafts beautiful and technical outdoor apparel that fits, inspires confidence and welcomes more women-identifying adventurers into the outdoors. In addition to Wild Rye, Cassie is the creator of Women-Led Wednesday — a brand directory and annual shopping holiday in support of women in leadership.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
It’s been a journey to get exactly where I am. Immediately after graduating I dove headfirst into the world of investment banking. I quickly realized that I wasn’t destined to work in finance, so I went in the polar opposite direction and coached the D1 Lacrosse team at UC Berkeley (I played in college). After realizing that world also wasn’t for me, I met the business world and my love of sports in the middle and worked for a powerhouse marketing agency in San Francisco. After city-living for most of my 20s, the mountains called me back when I landed a job in marketing at Grand Targhee Resort in WY. This was soon followed by a global communications role at Smith Optics in my quasi-home town of Ketchum, ID. It was here that I found my footing in the outdoor industry and the path to Wild Rye. Being fully immersed in the outdoor industry was where I wanted to be, and where I thrived. It took a while to figure this out, but once I did the momentum never stopped.
When I made the leap and launched Wild Rye seven years ago, I was also running a marketing and PR consulting agency to pay my bills! I had a really strong marketing and public relations background but was totally new to the world of supply chain, manufacturing and product design. It was a risk but it all led to where Wild Rye has gotten today, a thriving business by women, for women.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
Wild Rye is and has always been unwaveringly a brand for outdoor adventurers who identify as women. This in itself has been disruptive to an overwhelmingly white and male-centric industry. Beyond Wild Rye, I am heavily focused on women’s empowerment and creating equal opportunities for other women entrepreneurs. I’m not sure if my work and goals are necessarily disruptive; in my mind they are more equalizing than anything. There is a gap in the industry and really in the world, and our goal is to lessen that gap. In an effort to help all women-led brands overcome this funding gap, we founded Women-Led Wednesday, an annual shopping holiday designed to inspire conscious consumerism in support of women-led brands. The goal is to grow awareness around women-led brands and how making a point to shop women-led is the best way the public can support women-led brands in this inequitable funding landscape. Women-Led Wednesday has grown to a 600+ and counting women-led brand initiative to inspire conscious consumerism.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
To be honest, I made a million mistakes. And I’m still making mistakes. But, I’m happy to say that as the years go on the mistakes become less and less drastic. When I took over entirely from my former business partner, Katy, I had been doing all of the front end work, marketing, and sales. Essentially, I had no idea how to actually run a clothing business. I sat around for weeks waiting for the product to arrive, when finally our factory partner emailed, informing me that I had yards and yards of fabric sitting around and asking if I wanted to submit a purchase order to do anything with it. That was a hard one. Luckily delivery was only delayed by a short period and it didn’t sink us, but that was a hard and fast lesson to learn.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
I’ve been fortunate to have had so many amazing mentors over the course of the last forty or so years. Two of the most impactful in my life are my mom, Marie, and my college lacrosse coach, Stuey. Both demanded excellence, but at the same time refused to sacrifice too much fun. As a kid, my mom had high expectations for us. From manners, to performance in school and sports, she expected the best of the best; she was also the biggest purveyor of fun. I remember countless Mondays as a child, waking up to the car packed with all our ski gear, my mom proclaiming it a P.E. day — taking us out of school to ski! This instilled a deep respect for the “play hard, work hard” mentality. Stuey had the same approach. She demanded excellence on the field, but also knew we needed to have days to focus on play and resetting. After a long road trip, or series of tough days, she’d show up to the field for practice with a bucket of water balloons. Needless to say, the results followed — we made the NCAA Final Four my senior year. I believe that cutting yourself some slack to cut loose and have fun is equally as important in business, and frankly, when I’m outside having fun I do some of my best big-picture thinking!
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
This might be an unpopular opinion, but I think being disruptive is almost always a good idea. At the root of it, disruption is simply the questioning of an established system or way of doing things. And without questioning, there is no avenue for growth. If an industry falters with deep and intentional questioning and pushback, it should be disrupted. If it can withstand, at least the questions have been asked.
That said, the way one goes about disrupting is the deciding factor. Coming from a place of negativity or anger rarely garners the results anyone wants. Much of what is “wrong” with our industry stems from lack of understanding, exposure, or awareness. It (usually) is not inherently bad, vindictive or evil, it just needs to be shaken up and looked at through a new lens.
Wild Rye is an attempt to disrupt the industry in a positive way. Our goal is to magnify the lens and viewpoint of traditionally overlooked groups (women, transgender, BIPOC, differently-abled groups and individuals, etc) and bring these to the forefront of our thoughts and actions. We are doing this not from a place of anger, but with a strong sense of community and understanding, while relying on our powerful allies — oftentimes men. Much of what Wild Rye is today can be attributed to the support of strong male allies and their willingness to relearn and challenge preconceived notions and ideas. This value should not be overlooked. We’re creating a disruption that we want people to join. This is not a disruption to be viewed from the outside. It is a movement we want people to jump into, be a part of, and see themselves in. Our disruption is a community that everyone is invited to be a part of.
Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
Business is a team sport — I have countless mentors who without them I and Wild Rye would not be where we are today. I have learned to rely deeply on my community. No one can run an entire business solely on their own, and learning to really lean deeply on my community has taught me so much — particularly that they have my back more than I ever knew.
Just start somewhere — Don’t be paralyzed by the need for perfection. Mistakes are a part of learning. If you wait to have a perfect product you’ll never put anything out into the world. Starting is the hardest part, and once you do everything that comes after that will be easier than the initial leap.
Fail Fast — This one is potentially the most important. Always be prepared to pivot. Dont be married to an idea if the industry or consumer pushes in a different direction. Things are going to come at you fast when running a business and you have to be prepared to roll with the punches and adjust to what comes at you.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
At the moment Wild Rye is a growing niche brand, but we have big plans for being the choice brand for women across all outdoor ventures. We hope to be the one stop shop for women who get outside. We want to dig even deeper into our messaging, and continue the evolution of our ethos to be even stronger, more inclusive, and more community driven than ever. We hope to continue the growth and presence of Women Led Wednesday — providing space for more and more women-led brands & leaders. The work is never done, and we’re truly just getting started.
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by ‘women disruptors’ that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?
Funding. Access to capital. Women are conditioned to sell ourselves short so we continuously undersell and overdeliver. While this is a healthier way to do business in the long run (IMO), it can be detrimental when trying to raise capital — particularly as a woman. When women are “disruptive” they are seen as hard-headed, brash, aggressive, overbearing, and countless other negative words while men are seen as strong-willed go-getters who are applauded for going after what they want. This disparity has been, and will continue to be detrimental as long as there is a wage gap and a funding gap between genders (and races).
Do you have a book/podcast/talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us?
I love the “How I Built This” podcast. Learning about other founder stories makes me feel less alone in the process and puts me at ease when I find myself spinning out. There’s just something about hearing about other missteps that makes me realize it’s all just a part of the process and that many of these mistakes are inevitable.
I especially love Missy Parks (of Title 9) episode, and I’m excited for Tory Burch’s episode which just came out!
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
We’re five years in and I still stand fully behind Women-Led Wednesday. WLW supports over half of the population, which is about as good as you can get in a movement. Through Women Led Wednesday we are pushing the general public to shop women-led, giving other women the ability to rise through the ranks and build their businesses. Women-led brands are underfunded. Full stop. This is a movement created to funnel money and support to them in the ways that their male counterparts are supported without question day after day.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Give more than you receive. This is especially true when networking and building a business. I want to be a mentor to other rising entrepreneurs in the way that I had others do for me.
The other one that really sticks with me is “a rising tide lifts all boats’’. So many of us are striving for a similar goal, but we can’t get there alone. Restructuring this industry will take more than one person or one company, and we’re prepared to band together to get it done. I believe that even potential “competitors” should be viewed as allies when we look at the bigger picture.
How can our readers follow you online?
https://www.instagram.com/cassieabel/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cassie-abel-5853787/
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
