Hi guys, Elena here. Over the years, I’ve come to realize that I’m the type of person that is passionate about a lot of things, and sometimes it makes me realize why I am a filmmaker – so I could participate in different worlds and experience them from the inside. My curiosity about people, ideas, activities, and places is insatiable. I LOVE my job and every morning I wake up in absolute gratitude because I get to do this – I get to talk to people and create and ask questions for a living, I get to experience unique environments in a way I never would otherwise. So, I felt inspired to share a story about pursuing the things in life that truly fire you up.
Once upon a time, I was an eager first-year University student with a serious passion for fashion. I majored in Fashion Marketing and was asked to write an research paper on a local fashion company. I began to explore the then new-to-me Vancouver fashion scene and on a random stroll down 4th Ave in Kitsilano, came across a beautifully laid out clothing store that had a laid-back vibe and was filled with stretchy attire. I remember being slightly intrigued by the name, “lululemon”. At the time I was far from a yogi, opting instead for a power sweat at the gym and lifting weights (this would eventually change). On a mission to fill my report with content, I acted like a regular customer and went on to do my “field research” by trying on as many clothes as I could. I distinctly remember the moment I slipped into their leggings and wished from that point on that I could forever study, exercise, work, eat, and sleep in them. I fell in love with the company and what they stood for so I filled my paper with industry analysis, target customer breakdown and even made a few “professional” suggestions for their marketing strategy. After I got my paper back from my professor, I filed it away in a cardboard box and forgot all about it.
Fast forward to 2011. I go to my first hot yoga class at 7 a.m. on a rainy Sunday morning in Vancouver and fall in love at first stretch. Fast forward to 4 years later, I’m certified as an instructor in both Kundalini and Hatha/Vinyasa yoga. During these few years I worked day in and out to hone my skills as a filmmaker, something I knew deep in my core I was meant to do, and made a lot of sacrifices to achieve that goal. I also worked my butt off to be a the best damn yogi I could which meant keeping up with a rigorous meditation practice and doing my sets day after day.
When I came on board as a producer at Georgia Street Media, you could only imagine my excitement when I was told that I’d be getting to work with lululemon. It felt like the career fairy Godmother waved her wand and gave me the chance to bring two of my big passions together. This past summer, our team here at GSM has gotten to work on some really amazing projects together with lululemon which took us everywhere from their head office to the Grouse grind, the beach, Stanley Park, and all around it the city. On a personal level, it was also a summer of a lot of transitions on my life. I moved to a new apartment and during that process, decided to go through some of my old things, hoping to sell off or throw away a bunch of old junk. I pulled out an old dusty box from my storage room, slid out one of the binders inside, started flipping through the pages and nearly fell out of my seat when a neatly stapled paper report titled “lululemon – a marketing analysis” slipped out. The fact that I had written this paper completely slipped from my memory until I found it…12 years later! It’s a true testament to the fact that when you make your passions known to the world (and work hard at them), as seemingly different or remote as they may appear to be from one another, somehow the universe conspires to bring it all together.
Here are a few pictures and screenshots I’d like to share with you from one of our recent projects with lululemon.
P.S. Have you found a cool way to bring together your different passions? Are you planting any seeds that you hope will grow into future opportunities? Share with me at [email protected]!
