Kristy Caylor on Walking Away with Integrity and Making Sustainability Stick Artwork

The Imaginals with Ashley Wick

UNVARNISHED STORIES OF TRANSFORMATION FROM CREATIVE, WISE WOMEN

You are the co-creator of your life, but what happens when you find yourself on the precipice of change and unsure of what’s next?

The Imaginals podcast invites you to explore seminal moments of personal change. Together, we move forward, drawing wisdom and inspiration from creative and insightful women as we explore their journeys of transformation.

Imaginal cells are those responsible for a caterpillar's incredible transformation into a butterfly. In these conversations, we explore the moments of impact, the messy middles, and the most surprising elements of meaningful change.

Authentic, brave and warm, The Imaginals will inspire you to claim the center of your own story. Join host, Transformational Coach, Ashley Wick to witness how they put their whole being into action to light up the world.

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Ashley Wick has an intimate understanding of the pitfalls of perfection. Born and raised in San Francisco, she grew up in a family where high performance was the maxim. For years it served her to be the ultimate doer: a straight-A student; a Duke athlete; a Vogue Magazine executive; and founder of her own fashion PR agency. By all accounts, her efforts were propelling her toward her life’s desires. That all changed when she learned of her newborn daughter’s heart condition. She couldn’t “do” anything, she simply had to be. By processing moments of uncertainty with her own coach, she came to understand the power of working in communion with other women as a foundation for creating meaningful change. It is this framework that transformational coach Ashley Wick brings to her practice and her new podcast, The Imaginals.

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The Imaginals with Ashley Wick

Kristy Caylor on Walking Away with Integrity and Making Sustainability Stick

April 08, 2025 • Ashley Wick • Season 1 • Episode 6

In this episode, host Ashley Wick sits down with Kristy Caylor, who is on a mission to change the way we think about fashion and waste. The industry produces a staggering 100 billion garments a year, and 85% of that ends up in landfills. It’s a cycle that feels impossible to break—but Kristy is proving otherwise.

As the CEO of Trashie, a company making textile recycling easy and even fun, she’s tackling the problem head-on. Her journey started in industrial engineering before she found her way to fashion, leading projects like Gap’s Product RED and later co-founding Maiyet, one of the first ethical luxury brands. At Maiyet, Kristy poured her heart into proving that high fashion and conscious business could go hand in hand.

But after six years, Kristy faced an excruciating decision. Some of Maiyet’s inner workings didn’t align with her values, and she had to ask herself: Was she willing to stay and compromise, or would she walk away from the company she loved? She chose integrity, letting go without a clear next step. What followed was a period of uncertainty, but also a powerful reset.

In this conversation, Kristy shares the question that stumped her and ultimately reshaped her approach to leadership. She talks about failure, the role of intuition in big decisions, and how asking “What if?” has fueled her most innovative ideas. They also explore behavior change—why guilt and shame don’t work, and how Kristy is using joy and ease to shift the way people think about recycling their stuff.

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