016: Fabric of Change: Conscious Gifting Meets Sustainable Wrapping with Monica O’Neil and Cindy Estes

Essential Ingredients Podcast

“It is challenging to stand out there and pitch your idea to total strangers. But as you do it, you realize you can do it, and you get better at it the longer you do it.” —Monica O’Neil

“Not only in the business, it's extended to our life. I'm now driving an electric car, and we're now both composting, which we weren't before. The little, tiny bits we're doing with this are starting to eat into our lives.” —Cindy Estes

The holiday season is a time of joy and celebration, but it also generates an overwhelming amount of waste from single-use gift wrapping. This staggering issue highlights the urgent need for sustainable alternatives to reduce our holiday footprint.

Monica O'Neil and Cindy Estes, the co-founders of Rapt GiftWrap, have answered this call with their innovative and eco-friendly solutions. Monica and Cindy have combined their expertise to create a reusable fabric gift wrap that not only reduces waste but also offers a stylish and practical alternative to traditional wrapping paper.

Tune in as Monica and Cindy share their inspiring journey, covering key insights on sustainability, thoughtful product development, embracing sustainable lifestyles, educating and building a market, leveraging entrepreneurial experience, adaptability and customer-centricity, overcoming marketing challenges, and their collaborative strengths.

Meet Monica and Cindy:

Monica O’Neil is a New England transplant with a youth spent in Chile, Venezuela, and Morocco. Fluent in 3 languages with a Master’s in French Literature, Monica spent a decade teaching at several area high schools. Becoming a mother was a natural evolution - there is a lot of overlap in the skill set. Monica is still trying to educate but the subject is a little more straightforward - reducing waste with fabric gift wrap - and there’s a lot less homework.

A California native who married New England, Cindy Estes started Seam, a children’s clothing line, with 4 children in tow. As a young graduate, Cindy became the first in-house graphic designer at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and worked with various artists and curators to create a consistent brand strategy. With a background in design and experience in clothing manufacturing, she brings her sense of style, design, and implementation to Rapt gift wrap.

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Episode Highlights:

00:50 The Birth of Rapt

04:02 Developing the Product Concept

06:52 Sustainability and Business Practices

09:45 Cultural Context

13:02 Marketing and Customer Feedback

15:16 Entrepreneurship and Collaboration

18:28 Navigating Challenges

23:07 Community Engagement