Rising Stars: Meet Kirra Cobb McGowin

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kirra Cobb McGowin.

Hi Kirra, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers.
My business is a childhood dream come true. I have been lucky enough to travel much of my life and when I was a teenager I went to Thailand and noticed all these beautiful handmade goods and textiles and just thought how they should sell in the United States. I dreamed of combining my love of travel and shopping to give talented artisans in other countries an opportunity to make more money by selling their goods in the United States. For many years this idea was put on the back burner.

Fast forward to 2020, I was in the middle of a 7-month backpacking trip around Africa and got stuck in Uganda (where I actually still live to this day). For 8 months in 2020, I was in Uganda, with the border closed I decided to travel all over the country to see the beauty it holds. When I was in Fort Portal I came across these beautiful bags and I was reminded of my childhood dream of having my own store.

From here on out I made connections with various talented women’s groups and began to figure out how I could get these beautiful items back to my country to sell, and from there Colors of the Earth was born! Now, 3 years later (I didn’t really start my business until 2021) I work with several talented women, men, women’s empowerment groups, and women-owned small businesses from 6 different countries.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
If you are a small business owner you know it’s never a smooth road! I have had so many ups and downs and learning curves but I wouldn’t change it for the world. For some reason when I started, I thought this business would be easy, although everyone was telling me it wouldn’t be. While it can be sometimes annoying for things not to go as smoothly as you want, it is honestly really fun to figure everything out on your own this way.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
So my business, Colors of the Earth, is an online store (hopefully a brick-and-mortar in the future) that sells unique, often one-of-a-kind, handmade, slow-made goods from 6 different countries. Not only is it a store to give a wider platform to talented artisans but it is also a space of education, to learn more about countries and cultures you may have no previous knowledge of.

The store specializes in unique colorful goods that you won’t find anywhere else. While I love everything that I sell, I am most proud of my best-selling item, the bucket hat. This is the product I have the biggest hand in. I personally go to the fabric markets and pick out fabrics, I work closely with a women’s empowerment group that makes the products.

I have worked a lot with them tweaking the design to make it perfect and I think this year with our new hats we have achieved that! I’m honestly just proud of my business as a whole considering how much it is growing and that I’ve done pretty much all of it by myself. Another thing I am very proud of is working with local creatives in Uganda to bring the visuals of the Colors of the Earth to light.

The majority of the photos I use come from photoshoots that I produce and direct in Kampala, Uganda using models that reside in the country but may come from all over East Africa from countries like DRC, South Sudan, Eritrea, and more! While oftentimes I am the one taking the photos, I find it important to not only support artisans but also creatives who can take photographs, videos, and models for me. In the future, this is something I hope to expand on more by doing photoshoots in this manner in every country I work in.

We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you.
This is a great question, I consider myself to have a lot of good luck in my life, the universe has really blessed me. Pertaining to my business, I’m not sure if luck has anything to do with it, I think it’s all about determination and not giving up.

Contact Info:

• Website: colorsofthearth.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/colorsofthearth/