Chasing a Toddler + Entrepreneurial Dreams around the Globe

She Who Wanders

Feb 10

A convo with Jocey from First Peak Baby

Meet Jocey. With her husband and 2-year-old son, she's exploring the world, discovering new cultures, and chasing life-changing experiences. She believes that by exposing her son to different places + people, she's building a foundation for him to be more compassionate and bold. This mompreneur is also shaking up the world of kids’ clothing (while full-time traveling!) with her sustainable and practical line of baby clothes called First Peak - inspired by her toddler’s love of the outdoors and her desire to outfit him for his greatest adventures. I love talking shop + life with fellow entrepreneurs, digging in to find out their passions and how they make it all work - so this convo inspired me deeply. I know it will inspire you too.

Tell us a little about you and your family.

My husband, 2-year-old son, and I have been living nomadically since last summer. We gave up our San Francisco apartment in June, sold or donated nearly all our things, and then hit the road, starting with a cross-country roadtrip. We’ve since visited 15 countries together, and so many parts of the US we’d never been to. We still think of the Bay Area as home, and we also celebrate all the “new homes” we get to explore during this year of travel.

I’m also proud to be the founder of First Peak (www.firstpeak.co; @firstpeakbaby), a line of sustainable adventurewear for babies and toddlers. All our clothes are designed and manufactured in the Bay Area using eco-friendly fabrics built to stand up to mess, moisture, and mayhem.

The Great Wanderlust is all about women stepping outside of the box and diving deeper in both travel and in life. The mission is to inspire mamas and families to feel fully alive through adventure and exploration! What is your great wanderlust? What most makes you come to life??

Two things come to mind:

The first is nature — fresh air and sunshine — and seeing others enjoy that nature. Before my son was born, I’d spend hours playing fetch with our dog in San Francisco’s Presidio, because I loved her exhausted grin as she pranced through the trees. Now, I feel like I’m constantly lost in bliss watching my son skip rocks or collect sticks.

The second is creativity, and the infectious energy that consumes me when I get to be creative. That can come from a project, like designing a new line for First Peak, or just figuring out a plan for a day in a new place. That sense of problem solving on the go makes me come to life.

You are passionate about taking adventures around the world with your family, but you’re also passionate about taking adventures as an entrepreneur. Tell us about First Peak - what it is, why you started it and how you found the courage to take something from just an idea to a successful business.

First Peak makes sustainable adventurewear for babies and toddlers (3 months - 4 years). Our clothes are made in the Bay Area from eco-friendly fabrics, and are built for adventure and exploration: they’re odor-resistant, quick-drying, sun-safe, and super soft.

I got the idea for First Peak shortly after my son was born. It was November 2020, in the thick of the pandemic, and the outdoors became our haven. We loved getting outside together as a family, but I quickly grew frustrated with traditional baby clothes. I felt there was an expectation that we’d do 7-10 outfit changes a day, or that most of our time would be spent in a pristine playroom. Nothing felt like it was purpose-built for exploration and the outdoors.

We took a trip to Yosemite when my son was about 6 months old, and within 5 minutes of leaving the car, he spilled milk and spit up all over himself. He instantly started to reek, and it didn’t help that he was strapped to my sweaty back in the hot sun all day. By the late afternoon, his sleeves had ridden up and his hands and wrists were burnt too.

I figured there must be a brand on the market making performance clothing for babies and toddlers, that could work as well as my own activewear. But when I couldn’t find anything that met my need, I knew I wanted to bring the idea to life.

I was working a full-time job at the time, I had a little one at home, and I had zero experience in garment manufacturing. I didn’t have a moment of saying, “ok, I’m starting a business. Let’s blow this up.” Instead, it was gradual. Goal #1 was making an outfit for my own son. After years working in software, just making something tangible felt like a fun challenge. It scaled naturally from there: my next goal was to sell a garment to a friend, and then to a stranger. Before I knew it, I was loving the process of meeting families at farmers’ markets and on trails and introducing them to the clothes my son was wearing every single day. I’ve been so proud to see this business grow to reach so many families and fuel so many adventures.

Starting and running a business takes a lot of grit and determination. Among the many benefits, there are also challenges, especially when running it from afar. What values do you come back to to help make it through the most challenging obstacles? Take us back to a time when you had to overcome in a big way.

This may sound nerdy, but in the hardest moments, I come back to a love of learning. When I reframe challenges as part of a learning process, my thinking becomes far more productive and solutions-oriented. I reserve pages in my journal where I can write down negative thoughts I’ve had about the business, and then rewrite them with a learner’s mindset.

I remember feeling very nervous before the initial launch of my two latest products, sweatshirts and flannels. I’d dreamt of them for so long, and obsessed over making the best layers I could imagine for my own son, but what if I’d missed the mark? What if the release was a total flop? I wrote down those thoughts and then re-wrote them like this: “this is the first release of a brand new product. If anything, sharing these products with more families will help me get real feedback and make improvements for the next run. Let’s see how it goes!” That shift made all the difference.

How do you juggle running a new business and traveling the world with a toddler? What are some tips you’d give other entrepreneur parents who want to gain the freedom of the full-time travel lifestyle but are concerned with how to make it all work?

I’ve done a lot of reflecting and creative thinking to divide my work between “remote-possible” and “in-person required.” Many tasks, even if more difficult, can be handled with a good internet connection and functional cell service.

We’ve structured our travel to take about 3 months on the road at a time, followed by 2-4 weeks in the Bay Area, where all First Peak products are designed and manufactured. I do all that I can while we travel — managing the website, connecting with manufacturers, planning new launches, trying to get a handle of social media — and queue up tasks for an intense push when we’re back in the States. I have “working hours” when we’re on the road, and my husband takes the lead on childcare during those times. Our partnership is key to keeping this business going.

I’ve also certainly had to rely on friends and family back home for help. There are moments where I’m 1000s of miles away, and someone needs to get a sample from point A to point B. I don’t have any employees or co-founders in this business, but I’m grateful to have a support system I can lean on in a pinch.

For me, taking a year to travel and launching a business were two separate dreams that just happened to come to fruition around the same time. In some ways, it’s been harder juggling them concurrently, but in other ways, they’ve made each other so much more fulfilling. The perhaps hazy tip I’d give to others is to just try saying “yes” — I hadn’t planned to travel while building a business, but it’s amazing the solutions you can create when you’re energized and inspired.

What is a top character trait you hope to instill in your son by exposing him to different places, people and cultures? How do you think travel is helping build that in him, even when he is so young and may not remember a lot of the experiences?

Above all, I hope this experience builds a foundation for him to be kind and to be brave. I hope the exposure to so many people, places, and cultures fosters in him the importance of welcoming others and valuing their unique experiences and perspectives. I hope the challenge of so much change and so much newness builds grit and boldness, and nurtures a love for adventure and a desire to embrace the journey over the destination.

He certainly won’t remember the details of this year, but already I’m so proud of the child he’s becoming. He talks more, hugs more, chases more, and smiles more than I think he would have had we not taken this leap.

One of the values The Great Wanderlust and this series emphasize is contribution, or taking action to make an impact. What kind of impact do you most dream of making in the world?

Simply put, I hope to leave the world better than how I entered it. I hope to do this through the people I touch and the joy I spark them, and through the choices I make. The mission of First Peak is to help more families get outside together, by removing stress and increasing comfort. I hope that through this business, I can contribute, even in some small way, to helping families create cherished memories together, and to helping the next generation of kids respect and love the outdoors. I’m very proud to source sustainable fabrics like Seawool (made from discarded oyster shells and water bottles) and bamboo for First Peak, and to manufacture my products locally to support the community that’s cared for my family for so long.

That may sound like a simple or loose dream, but that’s intentional: five years ago, I would have never dreamt of starting a clothing business, and would have never thought a year on the road could be possible. I’ve loved letting my dreams evolve and surprise me.

Where are you off to next and what are you most looking forward to about it??

We just wrapped up a month in New Zealand, road tripping across both islands and ending with a bike trek on the Otago Central Rail Trail. Now we’re in Melbourne, Australia, and I’m so excited to settle in a bit. One of the true treats of full-time travel is our ability to stay longer in a single place and really get a feel for living there. I’m excited to build our routines, meet other families, and explore the nature in and out of the city.

Is there a question you wish I would have asked or anything else you’d like to share with other mamas relating to travel or life?

“Adventure” doesn’t need to take the form of some epic ascent or round-the-world trip. I named my company First Peak to honor and celebrate all the peaks and milestones our little ones achieve, and will continue to achieve, whether in our backyards or 1000s of miles from home. Just getting outside is the perfect place to start.

Who inspires you to dig deeper in life? Do you have a few recommendations of someone I should feature next? :)

My son was the catalyst for my business and for my year of travel. Never had I appreciated the speed and value of time as much as after I became a mom.