Media Maven: In Conversation With Kena Paranjape

When Kena Paranjape founded All You Are in 2018, she was simply trying to solve a personal problem. As a new mother, she found herself searching for the perfect robe—something practical yet beautiful to wear while breastfeeding—but nothing seemed to fit the bill. That’s when she embarked on a journey that transformed her from consumer to creator, and ultimately, into a mentor for women looking to step into their fullest selves.

In our conversation with Kena, she shares how the creation of a single robe blossomed into a brand with a mission far beyond fashion. From the personal challenges of caregiving to her pivot into coaching, Kena opens up about how life’s most difficult moments have shaped her vision and fueled her passion for supporting other women through her podcast, workshops, and more. 

CLEO: Our first question for you is… Actually, it’s not really a question. It's a request. We'd love to know a little bit about how you came up with the idea for All You Are.

Kena: I started All You Are in 2018, actually, when I had just had my daughter and I had one of those sort of moments as a mom where you find a pain point and you wish that a product existed and it doesn't. And so, I was wearing a lot of robes because I was breastfeeding and I could never find the right one. And so All You Are actually started as a product business.

I designed what I felt was the perfect women's robe and ended up, you know, creating a business around it, not on purpose. I sort of fell into it. I designed this robe and then I just kept taking each next step. Okay. Should I get a sample made? Okay. Now I've got a sample made. Should I get people to try and see if they love it? All right. Should I get it actually made in mass? So that's kind of how the company was built.

All You Are came to me like a download. And I think it was my subconscious planting a seed for what was to come because I think I had this strong feeling that I wanted to encourage women to step into all they are. Not someone else, not living up to someone else's expectations, but truly who they want to be or who they are. 

And so for quite a few years, I operated a product based business under that brand and a couple of years ago I made the pivot or the transition into the work I do now which is working directly with women, supporting them, guiding them, mentoring them to step into all they are. So I do that through my podcast, through group coaching programs, through a membership I'm about to launch, through workshops. Clearly it was meant to mean so much more than just about a robe, which I still have by the way.

CLEO: We love the backstory, and the name is so inspiring and sentimental. Speaking of life-changing moments, how did your experience caring for and ultimately losing your husband shape where you are now?

Kena: I was 31 when my husband got sick. When you think about how you would imagine life to be in your thirties, you don't imagine that you're going to be taking care of your new husband for much of it, right? And so that period of time required me to learn new ways of seeing the world, of seeing my situation, because if I hadn't, my experience would have been so different. 

It was sort of like I was forced to, but it was also a choice. It was also a choice to learn what I could from the experience and also take care of myself through it and to see it through a lens of what is being asked of me. And, you know, eight years later, he then passed away. And my journey since then has been one of self -exploration, of discovery, of healing, of, you know, studying and learning and feeling like truly things don't happen to us, they happen for us. And while we're in that moment, it can be hard to see how things are happening ‘for’ you. 

Now I have a deeper level of compassion for other people's suffering. I'm so much less judgmental about what others might be going through. I have so much more urgency about life and you know, even just this idea of stepping into all you are for a lot of people, they're like, ‘that's nice.’ But I'm like, no, this is your one life and things can change in an instant. We need to own this now.

CLEO: How does it feel supporting others looking to challenge the status quo and do something they truly love with their lives, like you've done with yours? 

Kena: You know, it's funny. It's not like there was a moment one day when I woke up and said, ‘I'm going to help other people.’ It didn't happen that way. What happened was I would sit with my friends and I would sit with people who came to me for business advice or, you know, startup advice or something like that, or career advice. And I would listen to the way they talked about their future, the fears that were holding them back, and I saw past that for them. 

I think through all the training and education and learning that I've done, I've been able to take my own experience and help women see it for themselves. Help them sort of break out of old ways of thinking, like holding themselves to other people's expectations instead of following their own unique path. And part of that has been helping them see a vision for themselves that is so much more beautiful on the other side. 

I think what happens is when we feel this desire that we want to do something different and go against the grain or disrupt things in a way, we confront our fear. Fear of what other people will think, fear of failure, fear of, you know, people talking about us. Fear of letting somebody down. All of these fears come up and we have trouble sort of seeing past the fear. 

That's what I focus on– helping women see past the fear because the saddest thing for me is allowing our fear to stop us from what we're meant for.

CLEO: We’d love to know more about how digital marketing helped you grow your community. On top of that, do you have any tips on how to remain authentic online?

Kena: I think one of the things I've had to get over, but it's also something I help other women with. So I think in some ways I'm in a perfect position because I can't teach women something that I'm not also embodying and doing myself. If I'm telling you to be authentic, I need to be authentic too. Otherwise, I'm just saying it and not actually doing it.

So, I think when I'm sharing, especially on a platform like LinkedIn which tends to be a lot of job updates or corporate updates, I think about my woman. Like, the woman that I feel needs this message and I write to her or I post to her and, that way it's less about me and it comes from my heart, but it is more about what I feel she needs.

One of the things that you have to get over on social media, and this definitely took me time, is that the woman who most needs what you have to offer, they're not necessarily the one who’s going to like your post or comment. They're watching and they're like, huh, that's interesting, but they're not giving you any indication of that until you get a DM one day and they're like, I've been listening to what you've been saying and this resonated with me and can we book a call? 

So I think for me, whether it's on Instagram or on LinkedIn, even in my emails, I focus on the woman and I also focus on storytelling because I think in the end people do resonate with stories. It's also easier to tell stories. It's not like finding the perfect copy and the perfect everything. It's really just about telling a story, sharing a story and everyone can resonate with stories, especially the person that you want to speak to.

CLEO: With All You Are and everything going on in your life, what do you hope to see or do next?

Kena: I have this vision to create a community of women who are committed to stepping into all they are. And right now I focus mostly on women who are approaching midlife because I think that is a stage of life where women are often more ready because they've gotten to know themselves. You spend your 20s and 30s really understanding yourself, like getting to know ‘adult you.’ What do you like? What do you not like? What do you have trouble with? What do you have resistance around? What do you gravitate towards?

Then, in your 40s, It can feel disruptive because now you know all these things about yourself and you don't know what to do with it. You feel like, my gosh, if I switch careers, this doesn't feel aligned anymore. It can feel scary. So, my focus right now is building a community of women who are embracing this sort of middle stage of life with a lot of passion and fire and conviction and energy.

CLEO: We can't wait to watch it roll out! One last question to finish off: what is your favorite way to take a break from work?

Kena: A hundred percent walking. For me, walking is like at every point in my life, whether I was going through something super difficult or just feeling overwhelmed by my to-do list, walking is always going to make me feel better. You can listen to music, you can not listen to music, you can listen to podcasts, you can not. You can talk to a friend. Getting out the door and just walking is the way that I take a break.