The Next Step
“Everyone must choose 1 of 2 pains: The pain of discipline or The pain of regret.”
When I started my journey as an entrepreneur, I was undisciplined and inconsistent. I worked when I felt like it, went to the gym when I felt like it, and relaxed when I felt like it. At the time, I was an immature kid with big dreams and no execution. My roommate was the most disciplined person that I knew. He would handle his business regardless of how he felt and I looked up to him because of that. He inspired me to take that next step by forcing me to come to the gym with him. Throughout the next year, going to the gym completely revolutionized my life. It became a keystone habit that changed all of my other habits. Over the next year and a half, I launched 3 businesses, started documenting my life on social media, and became the person that I always wanted to be. Yesterday, when I went to the gym with him for the first time since last summer, I was the disciplined and consistent person that I always dreamed of.
Dreams are delusion without Sacrifice.
Sacrifice starts with:
Building Good Habits
Removing Addictions
Practicing Delayed Gratification
Most importantly: Showing up for yourself, regardless of how you feel.
Remember: “The top 5% do, what 95% of people won’t do.” - Robin Sharma
I want to continue this talk about sacrifice in a business context. In business, I have learned that it is better to do the things you don’t want to do, than the things that you do want to do. Let me explain:
Things I want to do:
Marketing: Recording and Posting Content
Sales Calls: Trying to close new clients
Build Products: Creating Cool Sh*t
Playing Offense: Attacking the market
Things I do not want to do:
Marketing: Editing Videos
Sales: Prospecting and Dm’ing 50+ people / day
Finance: Budgeting to make sure we have runway to stay alive
Playing Defense: Putting out fires and solving problems
The things at the top are results from the things at the bottom. When planning out my calendar, the actions at the bottom will get me to where I need to go. Not the fun and pretty things at the top.
Podcast Rec: Alex Hormozi on The Diary of a CEO
The Diary of a CEO hosted by Steven Bartlett is one of my favorite podcasts in the world. Steven is a successful black entrepreneur that took his social media marketing agency public at $500+ million. He has had great guests recently from Richard Branson to Cole Sprouse. Today, he aired an episode with Alex Hormozi.
Hormozi is a successful entrepreneur that has been all over my social media feed for the past year. He gives extremely digestible business advice based on what he has done and accomplished in the past. If you are building any time of service business, his book $100m Offers is absolutely life changing. He presented an equation to provide your customers the most value possible. Here is a video of me explaining the value equation: Watch
Brand Update:
Yesterday, I revealed the final sample for my dress shirts. Here is the video:
Next, I have to put in my full production order. I recently purchased 180 yards of the featherwale corduroy fabric that I am using. I still need to buy 1,100 buttons (each shirt requires 11 buttons) and then we are good to go. A few recent developments:
FITS update:
We are currently working on manufacturing projects for a few clients. Puff Prints / Puff ink’s are super in right now. If you want to start a business or fashion brand in particular, we offer:
Branding: Logos, Fonts, Color Palettes
Graphic Design: Product Graphics and Social Media Posts
Manufacturing / Production Manager Services
Cut and Sew
Development: Sourcing, Patterns, Muslins, and Samples
Full Production
Printing
Screen Prints, Puff Prints, Embroidery, DTG, DTF, Vynl, Debossing, Embossing, and more
Website Design
The Fashion Revolution Playbook: Read
I hope you all have a great week!
“Top producers make it a habit to do the high-value activities that average ones don’t feel like doing - even when they, too, don’t feel like doing them.” - Robin Sharma