About a year ago, I felt defeated.
I launched multiple products and services in fashion industry and none of them were working.
I blamed everyone else - the industry, not raising enough money, and anyone else that I could point the finger to.
I no longer loved running a fashion marketplace. It was draining and I wanted to do something else.
I decided to quit fashion and start thinking about other business ideas.
Two Things Happened:
I sat down at my coffee shop and thought “what am I good at?” - “what do I actually know?”
I realized that I had been in fashion since I was 16 years old.
If there was anything that I knew - it was how to start a fashion brand.
I realized that I could monetize that skill by bringing together everything that we had built at FITS for the last few years.
The team, resources, and experience in building fashion brands.
This led me to pivot the business into an agency - we then helped other people launch fashion brands.
In 2 months, I made my first $12,000 doing this.
I loved helping other people yet I still knew that something was missing…
I sat down and wrote in my journal "- “what would I do if money didn’t exist?”
The answer was clear “continue my podcast, write a book, and do that dress shirt idea that I came up with 2 months ago”.
I thought to myself - “well I’m not a fashion designer…. or am I?” “Well I was when I was 16…”
“I know how to start a brand… am I capable of designing a dress shirt? I’ve never done that before”
“F*ck it - i’m pretty bored anyways… I’m 20 days into my 50 day challenge and it’s not like I can drink or anything anyways”.
In the next 2 months - I designed, developed, and produced a kimono-inspired dress shirt.
It was the most me product I’ve ever made.
- Dress Shirts For My Love of Business
- Kimono/Barong Inspired - From My Filipino Roots
- Named “The Practice Shirt” - For My Past Life in Sport
I wore my dress shirt to school and felt incredible knowing that this was something that I could sign my name on.
The lesson that I learned in this was - The importance of not digging up your seed.
At 16, I planted a seed in fashion - I didn’t know it, but I did.
From 19 - 21, I watered that seed everyday when building FITS.
I saw no progress. NOTHING came out of the ground.
But - nothing was supposed to yet.
While I was freaking out about not seeing any green on the outside - roots were forming deep under the earth.
I couldn’t see it yet - but digging up that seed would have removed the entire foundation that I had built for the past 7 years.
It is like the old gold digging story.
When the one guy quit digging for gold & left the mine.
Someone else came in & realized that the first guy was only 10 feet away from the gold…
That was almost me.
I say this to you - DO NOT REMOVE YOUR SEED AND PLANT IT SOMEWHERE ELSE!
Water your seed every single day.
People will think you are crazy.
You will think your crazy. Outright delusional at times.
“Why don’t you go buy that tree and put it in your garden?”
The tree that someone else planted and watered every single day until it blossomed…
But you aren’t worried about that - you had a dream of having a full garden.
A garden that you planted, you watered, and you believed in enough to bring it to life.
No matter what happened - you kept going, kept watering that seed, and eventually - didn’t give af about what the outcome would be.
Because you fell in love with gardening.
