Bart

Been building this little brand for almost three years now with Grant Eastey and Ejay ODonnell. That’s my wife and I packing our first orders in our tiny garage that couldn’t even fit a car. But in the end the garage found its purpose. There’s something special about just going for it. We just wanted to make some hats for dads that we didn’t see out there for ourselves. Everything else was dad bod humor, mowing the lawn, ugly sneakers, etc. Being a dad is so much more than that. Being a dad really isn’t any of that funny stuff. That’s just the weird brand social media has given us. We’re about to cross half a million hats sold soon and still see ourselves in that tiny garage. Just trying things. Seeing what happens and doubling down if it works. The brand has become so much more than we ever imagined. I don’t enjoy the notion of becoming a “DTC brand”, just become a brand. Become a community and movement. You should see the notes we get from customers saying our hat helped them become better parents, our hat helped them keep trying to have children, our hat brought their kids joy when their dad passed away, our hat showed up and changed the life of someone deciding if they wanted to go on. I don’t care about the metrics. Obsession over CAC and ROAS won’t create this. Building something with meaning is so beyond any of the acronyms we see here on a regular basis. At the end of the day it’s all about trying. You just need to try. It’s as simple as that. I used to think there’s so much to risk by trying. At the end of the day it’s usually ego or fear. And two things are true. Ego decisions are solely based on your perception of what you’ll look like to others, which will never matter in the end. The second thing is fear. Fear usually only lives within YOU. Nowhere else. You make it up and decide how to act from it. Greatness is on the other side of fear. There’s no pressure over here. I was born into project buildings in Poland. “Making it” happened long before the brand started. Making it was getting out of Poland and into the US at the age of 7. On our pod yesterday Nate Lagos📈 asked me why I even stay on X when having a successful brand. The answer is simple. I personally want to give away as much free game as possible. I don’t know it all, not even close. But I want to help others break through and get their ideas into motion. Everyone is charging for courses and slack access. I get it, but it’s not how I care to move. There’s plenty to go around for everyone and if I can help then I’d love to. Gate keeping is weird. Pass it on. Help others win. Looking back at my time in that tiny garage I miss it. The excitement of a new idea forming. Hand packing every order and writing notes. Not caring if it works but trying and having fun. Going for it. To this day. 95% of all creative is Canva and iPhone. Free Shopify theme. I run all marketing. No employees. Great partners. It’s beautiful. One more time. JUST GO FOR IT.

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