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Daniel: Hey, this is a niche. This brand is kind of carving a space that no one's really delved into. We'd love to represent you. And probably within a three month period, we were sold in major retail stores. We went from 15 doors to probably about 700 doors within a span of three to six months.

Welcome to Make Good Fashion, the podcast that's all about starting, launching, and growing impactful fashion brands. I'm your host, Jasmine Rennie.

Jasmine: Hey friends today, you're in for a special tree. As I have the privilege of speaking with Daniel Cassidey. Visionary CEO and founder of the accessories brand rasa clot. In this episode, we'll explore the origins of rasa CLA and how the power of a simple idea transformed into a global movement. We'll dive into the pivotal moments that have defined the branch unique path in the fashion industry. And how

daniel

bootstrapped his business with

$4,000

and grew it into a multi-million dollar brand. Daniel, we'll also be [00:01:00] sharing some practical advice for fashion entrepreneurs that you can't afford to miss. So get ready to be inspired. And let's jump in to my interview with Daniel OCD.​ Hi, Daniel. Thank you so much for being on the podcast. I am so excited to speak to you.

I've been following your journey for quite some time from the industry. And as you know, we are fellow FIDM alum. So it's really excited to see this full circle moment and to get to talk to you about your journey. Well, yeah, thanks for having me jasmine and yeah excited to share share any bits of knowledge and just experience that I have and Hopefully help help some people out there that are looking to get on a similar journey Yeah, and just let you know, I feel an immense amount of pressure because I feel like you're just such a wealth of knowledge So I feel like if I don't ask the right questions i'm gonna get dragged So hopefully we get everything in here and i'm gonna try my best not to make it a 10 hour episode But let's go ahead and get started and I think the best place to start is just to [00:02:00] get the origins of rossaclat how you started this brand and how this Concept came about.

Yeah, that's it's a great question. It's for me. It's been a little bit of a life journey really the the idea of the brand started when I was a young teenager I grew up in orange county, california and And, you know, really love skateboarding and you know, I got pretty good at it and shoe sponsors started sending me all these shoes.

I guess I was probably like an influencer before the term influencer became so I'm aging myself, but so I started to just get, you know, started getting into fashion, you know, because I started getting clothes and things like that. And I'd love to just kind of like put outfits together and things like that.

And so that's, that's kind of where my love for fashion started. It was in high school towards the end of my high school career. And then. You know, I used to get these shoes and I tossed the shoelaces at the end of the side of my room because skate shoes would come with extra laces. So one day I just decided to sort of like fashion one into a bracelet.

I'm sure all of us have done something like that when we were [00:03:00] kids. And to my surprise, I'd go to school the next day and friends would ask me, So I make them one and like their favorite color or whatever that that was. And so that's really where it started. I started doing it for my friends and every day kind of grew from, it's kind of doubled from the day before.

So it became this like interesting little hobby business when I was a kid. And I think the why was really what was born then was it made people give the people a sense of confidence or when people wanted to create and things like that. So it. It kind of had an emotional transaction, like a little connection there.

And that's what, that's what people loved about it. And then it also made me feel good about myself because I felt like I was providing value for people, which gave me a sense of self worth. So, you know, the Rastafari brand started technically like years after, but that experience kind of gave me. An idea of like a product and a why and a community and kind of building that.

And so that was the early stages. [00:04:00] From there, I obviously wanted to start a business, but it wasn't, this was, this was like in 2000, maybe 1999 when I was in my late years, I had school. So. There wasn't, you know, Instagram, you didn't have Shopify, Klaviyo, it wasn't very easy to just go out there and find your customers.

So a lot of it was done just by, you know word of mouth and just kind of going out and showing people product. But I kind of hit a roadblock. I didn't know how to really build that into a business. I didn't have any resources in terms of finances. I didn't have any mentors. I was just trying to graduate high school and figure out what my next step was.

And so, really the origin of the, the concept of Rastaklot started there. And then fast forward, I decided to go to FIDM and, cause I knew I wanted to be in the, in the business side of things and also fashion, understand how to, how the whole thing works together. And so right out of high school, I actually wasn't right out of high school, I took about a year break, but then I decided to go to FIDM and I got a degree in apparel manufacturing or apparel management.

And so that was really awesome. [00:05:00] It just gave me all the skills that I needed to go out there and get a job. And I worked at the likes of Warnoco, you know, designing with Speedo and. Worked for a licensee for Levi's and really became truly more of like a tech designer than a, than a, than a, than a creative designer.

Cause my brain generally worked, I can be creative, but I can also be like highly analytical. So that was a perfect role for me. And So now I'm like kind of in my mid 20s and I'm at this company called Hybrid Apparel. We have a licensee for Levi's and it was a fast paced business and so I learned so much there.

I learned how all the different departments work together from product development to production to costing to sourcing all of those things and You know, I, I was pretty good at it and I kind of looked at the trajectory of my career and I said, Hey, by the time I'm 35, if I'm still doing this, you know, will I be happy?

Right? And the answer to that was, was no. Right? And I'd always had that idea that I had when I was 17 years old. That little sort of like little hobby [00:06:00] business. And I thought, You know, it'd be really great if I gave that 150 percent and and it always kind of stayed in my back of my mind after, you know, my high school years.

But so I took a leap of faith and, you know, started the Ross Cloud brand in 2010. And yeah, we've been around 13, going on our 14th year now. So it's pretty remarkable to just see that, that journey, but that's, that's kind of the, how it came about. That's amazing. And I'm curious, how did that, So how did that initial concept that you had as a kid with the shoelaces kind of stick with you to the point where years down the line, that's what you decided to launch with. Yeah, I, you know, it's funny. I, it stuck with me because I knew I'd always wanted to be an entrepreneur. And I, I, I think it's, I think the effect that it had on people when I, when I first sort of did it as a hobby business, it was, it was profound enough where there was something left in me that was like, [00:07:00] this has to be something that you, you try to do or do at a bigger scale, just because of how it made people feel right.

And it's also, it would just seem like a idea that was that, that the world needed, people needed, the industry needed. And so. I didn't have any like data or anything to like back that up, but it was just like there was just a feeling and there was a conviction in me and it just never left me all throughout those years.

And I always knew that at one point I would do something. I just didn't know exactly what it was. But to start that business again was just like a, it's kind of like in the back of your mind, like check it off, like no regrets, right? Like if I don't try and do it, then I'll regret that I did. And so it was one of those things where it's like, let's do this and see where it takes us.

And so yeah, that's how it worked. Yeah. I actually remember seeing you guys for the first time at trade shows. So I remember I think you guys had a booth at one of the trade shows and I remember coming across your brand and I think what Struck me was that [00:08:00] from my vantage point? I'm not a man, but I hadn't seen a lot of accessories for men on the market at least like in this way that it was like casual jewelry, casual accessories that you could wear on an everyday basis.

So I remember that was my first my first encounter with you guys. So to me it was like, Oh, this is definitely a niche in the market here. But I'm also curious when it comes to like the trade shows and your sales strategy, was that how you guys started off? Did you start on the trade show route or did you start direct to consumer?

What did that look like? Yeah, that's a really good question. So when I first started off. So I started off and I, you know, essentially my first order, I had to buy 4, 000 units because I think my MOQ colorway. Right. And it's crazy to think that I purchased that many because even today the MOQs aren't that high.

So maybe I know better. But I, I kind of, I bought them. I didn't have any sales, like retailers or anything. It [00:09:00] was just like, all right, you know, let's purchase this amount. And just, Like back against the wall, you've got to sell it, right? And so the early days, I'd say probably the first year of the brand, it was like, okay, how do I sell these?

And, you know, back at those days, it wasn't really Coachella or, you know those type of events. It was like, they had like I don't even remember what the festivals were called, but sort of festival or music concerts where people went for the weekend. And so what I would do is I would contact the company and that runs it, the merchandising or the spaces for vendors.

And I'd get a vendor space and I'd set up my table with the bracelets and I'd, I'd, Go the night before and I'd wheat paste the parking garages. I'd put banners in like the bathrooms where, you know, that's the only area where like, you're not inundated with a bunch of noise and people would see the ads, you know, whether it's like through the, when they parked or when they went to the bathroom.

And so when they walked by my booth, like they were just like, Oh, I saw that somewhere, what is that? And then they kind of checked it out. So in a way without [00:10:00] knowing I was doing. That's like sort of the guerrilla marketing and it's like that's really the the foundation of marketing right is like kind of you know owning a little bit of a space in someone's psyche and then being able to have that conversation with them once they they come up and you know maybe they purchase but that is that's how I got started so it was really through event Like vending, right.

And that was probably the first year. And then, you know, through that every weekend, I'd go to a couple of shops, mostly skate shops and see if they'd want to carry the brand. I got about 15 of them over that first year to carry the brand. And, and then eventually sales reps go into these shops because they're selling other merchandise and they noticed our brand.

And maybe for the same reason that you saw is like,

Daniel: Hey, this is a niche.

This is a,

Daniel: This brand is kind of carving a space that no one's really delved into.

And so we, you know, they found the brand, they contacted me, they said, Hey, we have this. account list.

Daniel: We'd love to represent you.

And of course I said, yeah, let's do it.

Daniel: And probably within a three month period, we were sold [00:11:00] in major retail stores. We went from 15 doors to probably about 700 doors within a span of three to six months.

And that was the reps kind of finding me and, and also marketing kind of happening. We were getting a lot of like athletes wearing it, the product musicians.

I was still doing vending. I switched from more like music festivals into sneaker shows and just, you know, a lot of things have to sort of align for that like scale to happen. And, you know, that's, that's sort of how it all happened. It was somewhat intentional, but also somewhat serendipitous too.

So, and I think, you know, most things happen in that way. Yeah, no, i'm like smiling from ear to ear if you're listening the podcast you can't see but I just love the grit and You know, I don't know. Maybe it was because you had all those units on hand. You had to get really scrappy Or what it was but You know, just going into the stores by foot, doing what you can with your guerrilla marketing, not, I don't know, and we'll get to this in a [00:12:00] second, if you had a huge budget, but like, there are so many things that you can do, you know, on your own without a huge budget to get Get started and I feel like, a lot of new designers feel like they have to have, you know, immense amount of money to, to start their brands.

And yes, it does take money to develop and to do all these things, but there's a lot of things that you can be doing right now you know, to just get the word out there. And one thing leads to another, I think when you start getting visible, more people, like you said, the sales and showroom started to see your brand and things just happen.

So I love that. Yeah, it's a, I, it is, you know, one of the questions you had asked on the email is about bootstrapping. So I started my business with like, I had 4, 000 to my name. Right. And and I took that and it was like, I paid a dollar a unit and I bought 4, 000 of these bracelets. And so that's all I had.

And there was no like marketing budget. There was no. You know, influencer budget. There was no like [00:13:00] fulfillment budget. Like it was just like, you just got to go figure it out. And I think, I think a lot of brands that get funding at the very beginning, it's it could be a gift and a curse because having that ability is sort of like the.

I call it a little bit the entitlement to spend money, right? Right. It doesn't allow you to sort of like be as scrappy as you need to be, right? There's like, oh, well, there's someone that's maybe we'll, you know, we'll do another raise or someone will give me more money or whatever the case may be. And it's hard to build a business foundation with that because you really need to know like what's working, you know, and the only way you know, what's working is when you're making profit.

Right. And so for me, it was, it was easy to be profitable from the first day, you know, never lost money, right from year one, all the way through. And so it helps you just understand your business versus I think money can cover a lot of skeletons in your business. And when you have too much access to it, and so I'm not saying it's bad for people that do it and do it successfully.

I think there's certain industries that do well with that, [00:14:00] but I think if you have a new product and you're trying to find a customer, you kind of have to go on, get your hands dirty and go out there and be in the streets and talk to people and be at the shows or the trade shows or the fashion weeks, like you've got to do it that way.

It has to be organic. And then you go from there. Yeah, and I think the other benefit to that too is that you are Able to like get the feedback and you know, you were doing these events and you were seeing customers react, you know firsthand Then you can go back and you know revise amend things instead of throwing all this money into development and you don't even know How the product's gonna do you don't know how it works.

You don't have any feedback And you know, you don't have anything to go off of so i'm curious too while you're doing these events like what? What benefits did that have for you? And like, what kind of feedback were you able to take back from your product? Yeah, it's, it was it was great. It was getting feedback initially.

And I'll preface this like bootstrapping is great. You know, [00:15:00] 15 years later, I, you know, invest in businesses and work on, you know, You know, with other founders on, on business ideas, and also I have coaches. It's very difficult to do that in scale very early. So there's, there's also other methods that I still believe in, but I think bootstrapping is one way if you can do it.

And to your question, oh, sorry, I missed, I missed your question. I just wanted to clarify that first. Yeah, no worries. Just wanted to know, like, about, You know the benefits of bootstrapping and starting small and being able to have your feet on the ground in the beginning and that feedback That you were able to get and as opposed to having a lot of money and throwing it at development with no You know data to back up what you were doing Yeah, I think the feedback I got when I was going to these events was just that people wanted a product that they can go to something and it would be a representation of their experience [00:16:00] there, right?

And so like, it's like that, like when you go to, Disneyland, like people will buy the key ring or whatever. Like people want something like that. They want that, like, they don't want to forget that experience. So they want something that you carry with them. And then jewelry is a, is a great category because it's something that you can wear every day.

You know, maybe your first date was at that event with someone and you wear that and it represents that. And so I started to learn that people for various reasons wanted that connection. So when I did like a sneaker show, so we started doing sneaker shows. And this is when sneakers are like just jumping off those Nike dunks and all these different things and I started to realize a sneakerhead wanted to maybe they couldn't afford the You know, the Gucci inspired dunk, but they can like buy the bracelet that matched that.

And then they felt that they had a connection to the culture and it like, kind of like validated, like their ability to participate. Right. So again, it's like all these sorts of connections between pop culture and culture and music and personal relationships and things like that, that I [00:17:00] learned that people seeked.

And if you gave them a product that allowed them to like, you know bridge that people would vouch for that and they'd, they'd, They'd give you their, your money, their money for, because you're providing a value for them. And so that's what I learned just from feedback and events. And I kind of just took that and ran with it.

And our business became a product storytelling business, you know? So for us, we've, we've, we've sold over. Probably by now about 20 million bracelets and we've made probably about 5, 000 different variations of them and I mean, technically it's the same silhouette or five different silhouettes, but it's a lot of different story.

We've told over 5, 000 stories, right? And so that's, that's so it's kind of learning that in like a small Like festival or sneaker show aspect and then being able to take that and like Scale it into licensing and all these different things and collaborations is how we got our brand to just scale in terms of You know people knowing about it people being interested in it people wanting, you know a piece of that [00:18:00] culture Yeah, and I think that's so important because I feel like as a designer Sometimes we can be in these like echo chambers and just creating whatever we want to create or what we think works But we're really I think it Try we need to be a solution to someone's problem or else they're not going to buy And so I love that you kind of identified that and gave them exactly what they were asking for yeah, I mean I think with every business like really a business is is I guess the synonym for like solving a problem, right?

Like, and the bigger, the more people that have that problem, the more that you will be rewarded with what you call success or revenue or whatever that that is. And so you know, and even when I started the business, I didn't know that I was solving a problem. I think just like you're back against the wall and having to figure out like, how do I make this work?

You sort of start to like. Unlock the puzzle of the problem that you could solve. Right. And so but yeah, I think it needs to, if, if a designer is looking to create a line, it's and there's a lot of products out there. When you think about fashion, I don't know how many fashion brands there are in the world.

There's a [00:19:00] lot, there's a lot of, you know, apparel brands, a lot of footwear brands, a lot of jewelry brands. You really have to figure out like what is the problem that you're going to solve and what's your unique sort of like go to market strategy. That's going to set you apart from other people. And. I think of the young designer, you have to really, before you start your business, like really think about that, you know, like it worked for me without really knowing, cause I'm, I'm very scrappy.

That's my gift. Right. And I'm very resourceful, but someone that maybe doesn't have that in them doing the pre work to really identify that will be, you know, Critical right? You know, so that would be just what I would say about that. Yeah Okay, so you said that when you started, you know, you started seeing sales really quickly, which was amazing through You know wholesale and these other opportunities and i'm curious when the money started coming in One, how did you know how to manage that or what did you do to manage your your finance as well?

And what were the first few things that you invested in for the business? [00:20:00] So in terms of managing the finances, I had a really tough, like early twenties, like when I got out of high school, just managing my finances. And so through just personal stumbles, I learned how to essentially do like a personal closing every month, right?

Like go through every single expense that I've had and, and like understand where every penny that I was spending was going. And then like allocating it, having a budget and like doing that every single month and being ultra, hyper aware of like where finances are going. And so that was, that translated into my business experience, not say that I was a CFO, but I knew like what was coming in and what was going out.

And it wasn't just like Oh, things are going great. Like just keep spending, you know? And so, and to your point, what was the first, what was it? One of the investments I made when we first started. So my first generation of the Ross clock product, what isn't what you see on the market now. But when I sold those 4, 000 units.

You know, I, [00:21:00] whatever, I think I'd probably charge like 10 a piece or something like that. So maybe I made 40, 000 and I took that money and, and I started to generate, I started to create the version two based on what I was hearing from buyers and consumers. Right. So I was kind of altering the product for that V2, which is what you see in the market now.

But with that, I invested a part of that 40, 000 into intellectual property. So I patented that product in the U S China, Europe. All those different places. So I started, you know, investing in design patents and of course, product. And those are my two biggest expenses in the beginning. And I was still kind of like, you know, going out there and hustling the sale a little bit.

And so those are the biggest things. And for Ross the cloud, it's not a very. Complicated product to make. So making sure that there's like a, there's a hard barrier to entry. So other people can't copy you and make the same product was important for us. It's a reason we've been around for over a decade versus what could have been just two years.

And [00:22:00] then, you know, the market's flooded with copycats and, you know, Amazon, yeah, exactly. Yeah. I would say that was my best investment was intellectual property initially and just, you know, Yeah, and what kind of advice would you give like new designers, especially in the apparel space, like as far as allocating, you know, the money that is coming in?

If intellectual property is not, you know, top of mind for them right now, what would be the next thing that you would say would be the most important investment? I think the most important investment is And that's a good question. I think it depends on the business and what the opportunity is, but I think it would be if you're in the fashion business, people are buying product, right?

And so getting your product to the, to this, to the, the quality or the functionality or whatever that it is that's special about your product and having it right is where you need to invest, right? Cause you can have a story and [00:23:00] whatever, but when people buy your product, if they don't love it and they don't share that experience with other people, it's going to be very hard for them.

You know, maintain a business. And so I think in the beginning it's product development and, you know, making sure you have the right product to meet the customer's needs. Yeah, that's good. Okay, so I think that when it comes to fashion like people don't know all the opportunities that are available to you and there's so many ways that you can go and that you can scale your business and one way that Rastaklat has done that is through licensing partnerships.

I know you guys have done stuff with nba Olympics in 2020, which is amazing. And so I'm wondering if you can just give us a little bit of insight on that, how you were able to form those partnerships.

Like how did you get there?

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yeah, it was definitely a journey. I would say the one thing that set us apart was that our product was unique, right? So When the Olympics is looking at licensees, right? Like they, they're going to go to Ralph Lauren for apparel, right? And you're going to go to this company for whatever.

And so being, having a niche and [00:25:00] having something that was unique, kind of gave us a leg up. Like we didn't have to have as much like cache to be able to have that opportunity. So I think the unique factor in the sort of unique value proposition, not only with the product, but the brand, like one that really helped.

I think number two is, you know, having distribution any licensee that we're looking for, you know, brands, they want to know that you're going to be able to generate royalties for them. It's either royalties, or you're going to be able to elevate their brand. So if you're the coolest business. there. You probably don't need a lot of distribution.

You just need to be able to say, if you guys sign up with us, we're going to elevate, you know, your cachet, or if you have a lot of distribution, you can say, Hey, we're probably not going to make you cooler than you are. Right. But. We're going to offer this product to an audience that maybe that you don't have, right?

Or audience that you have that's not looking for this category in your, in your license. So I think those are the two things that you just have to come to the table [00:26:00] with a value proposition on. And then acquiring the licenses is just, it's, I mean, I don't know if I have a straight answer for that. It's like you go to the licensing show , you meet people, you talk to people, you send the samples, you have conversations.

Some, some happen, some do not. Sometimes it's, you just go to the website and you fill the application and next thing you know, you're approved, right? You know, I've had, I've had the various different experiences of it happening. And then sometimes it's really hard. You have to meet the right person and be at the right place at the right time, you know?

And so I, there's not a straight answer. I think you just have to be very resourceful and you got to really make sure that you're, I always say never leave a stone unturned. And you kind of live with the results from there. But you know, or, you know, you can also just be, if you have all the cachet and you're just really trending as a brand, I think you can start, you can, you can pretty much contact people and people are going to respond [00:27:00] and you may have an opportunity, an easier opportunity, but if you're not in that position, it takes a little bit of hustle.

Yeah, and so I'm curious because I think that has to do, you know, the value that you bring as a brand really has to do with your positioning and, you know, you guys as a brand and where you're, you were able to scale to, but you know, going from the beginning where you are doing this guerrilla type marketing and doing your advertisements and bathrooms.

And like you said, you had a little influence from Of your own, but how did you kind of scale that to get to the point where you are, you became, you know, desirable to these, to these other brands and that you got to this place of creating this brand that is, you know, people want to wear and people are talking about, like, how did you scale as time went on?

Yeah, for us, the idea was we scaled by partnerships. So it was licensing. We did collaborations with Champion. We did, you know, sneaker inspired collections. We did different licensing deals. [00:28:00] And then also internationally, we scaled up our distribution. So we weren't only selling in the U. S., we're selling in Asia, we're selling in Central America, we're selling in Europe.

South America, all those different things. So it just, all of that sort of like coalesced into just a bigger audience and, you know less today than it probably was, you Six, seven years ago. Like if your Instagram following was growing at a certain pace and all this type of thing, it still matters today.

I think today it's more about engagement and different things, but but all of those things happening together, just grow your audience and people see that. Buyers see that brands see that. And then they want to, they want to be a part of that, that wave. Yeah, and to like acquire all those licensing deals and we know you did the distribution from, you know, being in showrooms and all of that stuff.

But to even get to that point, how were you guys able to grow your audience? What was the most effective way? Did you guys use social media or like what did that look like? Yeah, so [00:29:00] for us, it was social media predominantly social media, but I think it really was just finding the right stories to tell that people were Wanting to be a part of and kind of catching the zeitgeist of like, whatever was, was, was hot at the moment.

Right. And being able to take that idea and put it into a unique product and then offering that. And I think that's just word of mouth. Like people start talking about it. Oh, where'd you get that from? Whatever. Like, that's what, that's how we really grew it. And I don't, I wouldn't even say it's social media.

I think for us, it was word of mouth. Like people were our product. They go to school or whatever. Someone would be like, that's cool. Where'd you get that? And then they would tell them they'd go to our social or our website, and then they'd purchase. I would say. When we did surveys and got the data when we were scaling, it was like 33 percent of people were finding us from word of mouth, another 33 percent were finding us from social media and another 33 percent were finding us from the retail floor.

So I also don't want to discredit retail, like having a lot of retail indoors is a form of [00:30:00] marketing and and a form of new customer acquisition. And so I'd say those are the three ways. Yeah, and I think, too, in the form of like, word of mouth, obviously that can be, you know, gifting, that can be being featured on blogs and people discovering you that way did all of those things play into that, too?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, gifting is, as we've, probably in the last three or four years, we've learned that gifting is such a huge reason for purchasing, right? And you'd think you're, you know, so for us, we think our audience is like a Gen Z consumer, right? And we market to the Gen Z consumer. And so that's the community that we have.

And that's the avatar that we have in our mind where we're marketing. But really what we come to find out when we look at our data is like the mom is probably purchasing for. You know, their Gen Z kid as a gift, or the grandparents are purchasing for Gen Z kids, or the Gen Z kids also purchasing. So, it's gifting is an interesting thing because, you know, [00:31:00] that's, people are doing that all throughout the year.

You have your Valentine's Day, you have Mother's Day, Father's Day, you have, you know, back to school, you have graduation, you have holiday, and so. That's a big part of how people engage with a brand and a product like ours too. And so we've actually leaned in more into that space over the last couple of years, because it's just, it's happening organically and it's.

Again, we've got to give the customers what they want. And so that's that's something that we focus on yeah Amazing. So I know now that you guys are also You know expanding the social impact part of your business as well. And you guys have something called the Seek positive foundation seek the positive. So how did that come about? Why did you want to make that? You know an arm of your business?

Yeah. So, you know, kind of the, like I said, the why of the brand has always been what it was. It's about, you know, inspiring people to be the best version of themselves essentially. And a lot of that comes from, you can't be the best version of yourself if you're not like mentally healthy. Right. [00:32:00] And so the seek, seek the positive is like a, is a mantra for mental health.

It's not to say that you should always be positive, but it's to say that. You know, you want to live a life where you're seeking that, right? It's a constant journey to become that and to, you know, cause I believe your mindset really like creates the reality that you live in. And so earlier in the brand's years, we used to partner with a lot of different charities.

You know, whether it be breast cancer or feeding people or, you know, clothing, children or different things. And we wanted to really own our give back. Right. Meaning we wanted to be able to give an opportunity for customers, which one thing that I really heard from customers is like, Hey, we want to give back, but we just don't know how to get started.

Right. So we thought about how do we create. An ecosystem where when they purchased a product, they were doing good by just vouching for our brand and we would do the legwork for them. Right. So essentially we started to seek the positive foundation. It's based around. I guess the high umbrella is really like mental health, but really through [00:33:00] equality and personal development.

And so we formed that in 2020 and. You know, a percentage of our nets of all net sales go to the seek the positive foundation. And then we essentially deploy those funds to different. Like charities and nonprofits that are on the ground doing the work that we're partnered with. And so so that, that's why we created it.

And so we've done quite a bit over the, last three years, you know, from, you know, giving scholarships to Skillshare so people can learn photography and graphic design, all these like sort of like non traditional skill traits. So we've given about over a thousand scholarships there. We've done, you know, over 3, 000 meals with different, you know charities out there, nonprofits, donated over a hundred thousand dollars to breast cancer.

And yeah, over 3 million donated, you know, in cash. And so it's it's pretty, pretty awesome to do that. And, you know, it's something that, that's just something that we would do. And that's something that we did before. It was [00:34:00] like cool to do. We've been doing it for a long time. Over 10 years. So yeah, that's just yeah, that's that's what it is I love that and did you what at what point did you guys start this in the business?

I know you said you'd done it for over 10 years, but At what point of like the life cycle of your business was it? Towards the first few years or what did that look like? Because I know a lot of designers want to incorporate giving back into their business and they want to do Good in their business, but it might not be feasible in the beginning or you might have to start small So what did that look like?

Yeah, that's a really great question. So in the earlier years of the business, when we probably didn't have the stability to sort of like have a consistent give back, right? You purchase something and a percentage goes somewhere. We just did like, we would do a collaboration or a collection and there was like some sort of give back for that.

So we did that quite a bit. And that, that was, that was more sustainable at that point. Cause it wasn't like committing to like giving back every single time. You know, when you say net proceeds, I want to be clear. That means when, when the business makes money, we can donate. It's not [00:35:00] necessarily that. You know, every single purchase, like just.

Automatically has a donation. It's like the business has to make money. So if you're going to make that claim, you've got to make sure that your business actually is profitable, right? So that's something that, you know, that's something that you have to figure out. So I think as your business matures and you're able to.

Be confident that you can make that claim and follow through with that. Then you can do things like that. But I think at the early stages, you just do what you can, you know, I think doing whatever it could be, you could, you could donate to one person a year. Like that's a win. You know, I'd say it's not about how much one brand does and the other brand does.

It's if it's truly authentic to, for you to give back and you have a cause that you want to give back to, it really doesn't matter. Like, At the scale that you do it and so just do what you can and that's doing that's better than doing nothing Yeah, I think that's important too because people feel like they always have to start really large To feel like they're making an impact but every little thing you do [00:36:00] can make some kind of impact And I think if you're doing it truly because it's something that you care about and it's not a marketing ploy that is what it's in what's important.

So Yeah, it's just, it's just consistency. It's just, that's the name of the game. And I, I like kind of what I catch the thread too, is like when designers want to start, it's like, it seems like this big mountain and you want to create this big, wonderful brand, but it's just like one day at a time. One foot over the next.

And if you don't love that process, like you just got to love the process and you gotta love the pain in the process, because that's, that's, that's what you're going to do for, and if you do it consistently for about three years, like you're going to, you're going to know if you have a business, you're going to know what the trajectory of that business and that brand is.

And if you do it consistently over 10 years, you know, people sell their businesses to LVMH or, you know, caring and all these different places that there's opportunities. It's just about consistency and yeah, nothing is guaranteed. It's a, you have events like COVID that happen and it's [00:37:00] really changed business models, completely changing.

So you kind of just have to love doing it. Rain, shine, you know, anything, you just have to love doing it because it's not going to be easy and it's. It's, you have to just be consistent every single day. Yeah, and this is a great segue into my next question. I feel like you kind of answered it a little bit, but I want to see if you have any, anything to add to it.

But I'm just curious. How many years has it been now that you've been doing this? So for Rossaclaw this is my 14th year. 14 years. Yeah. After 14 years, what kept you going? Because I know as a business owner, there are constantly things being thrown our way. Like it, you're constantly having to pivot, constantly having to, you know, overcome hurdles.

So what has kept you going over these 14 years? You know, that you haven't quit. Like, what is it? You know, I ask myself that question every day. I think what, for me, it's I just enjoy building, [00:38:00] right? And I enjoy, I enjoy the highs and I, I also kind of relish the lows, right? I relish the lows to know that I can make it back to the high, you know, so call it a drug or whatever, but it's like, I enjoy that process and I enjoy that challenge.

And so. I'm not really, of course, I love the results, you know, being acknowledged and recognized as great making money is really great. But I think more than that, it's just like proving to yourself that you can create something out of nothing and. You can provide a value to someone that, that, that maybe they even, maybe they needed that product.

Maybe they didn't know they needed that product and now you've made their life better. Like that's, what's fun, you know? And that's what keeps you going. So it's, you kind of have to be a little bit of a, for me, it's just, it's, it's like gardening. Like, why do you garden? Like you want your garden to look beautiful.

And some days it's going to look bad. Some days your plants are going to die, but you just keep going out there and you just keep, you know, [00:39:00] You know doing it because it's like something that you're just Passionate about and you're not going to stop doing it because you had a bad rain season, you know, yeah That's that's how it is for me.

That's good. And it kind of reminds me of life You know, we have the highs and lows in life and things are cyclical things change all the time and the last interview I actually had on the podcast She mentioned it was another founder how You know at first when you start like the lows are shocking and it feels like things are gonna fall apart But if you stick it out long enough, you realize that you know There's another high coming things change autonomy changes all these things happen and I think you know, it's a great mindset to have yeah, you just get tougher skin and then you're able to deal with it a little bit easier like I remember when the pandemic happened and it was like I mean, literally having a meltdown, you know, like what's going on, what are we going to do?

We're going to say, and then like, after experiencing that for a couple of years, it was like, things didn't seem as, [00:40:00] You just don't, you don't take it, you don't take it as like personal, you don't, you don't like let it like completely throw off your entire, you know, center, you know, because at the end of the day, it's a business, it's a brand, it's a product, you know, there's other things that are more important than that too, you know, so just, I think having a level of being centered with, within this journey is really important because if you put your entire self worth into it, It will take you on a roller coaster that drives you crazy, right?

But if you love what you're doing and you're able to stay centered, it's, it's, it can be gratifying on a lot of different levels. Yeah, I'm curious because we brought up the pandemic and this is completely off topic and I wasn't going to ask this, but I'm curious about how you guys pivoted with something like that and how you are prepared for, you know, if something like that happens again, what you kind of learned?

Yeah, I mean we've had to do probably I would say three pivots since the pandemic. It wasn't [00:41:00] just one and I think every year after the pandemic kind of offered different challenges, you know, so one thing that we've had, we had to do is, you know, obviously everyone working in in. In an office to now we work in a fully remote, right?

Also people wanted to have, and then after people had their own freedom to do what they wanted to do when they wanted to do it, like that became the norm. Right. So we've transitioned people from employees to consultants and they're completely happy is that right. And they, they started their own consultancy businesses, but they're still working with us, right?

So just things like that, I think even. Categories, for instance, we have sports licensing during the pandemic, you know, when I was going to sports events and all the different things, you know, so we've had to wind down some licenses that just didn't make sense for 2020, 21 and 23. Right. And and then also distribution, like everyone around the world experienced a pandemic and the U S you know, we have the [00:42:00] luxury where we have a strong enough economy where people are getting stimulus checks and, you know, banks are getting bailed out and certain companies are getting bailed out so we can continue to.

to spend. Not all other countries have that luxury. So you start to see distribution channels sort of shift. We went, we went more on the D to C side and really focused there where we can control Really where our brand is, who our customer is. And we can also get the data and analytics to be able to make decisions.

So those are some of the pivots that we've, we've had to make. And also retailers, some retailers were able to make it through some retailers, weren't, you know, some, we got stuck with some retailers that couldn't pay us or wanted to return product or all those types of things. So there's so many, I couldn't, I could write a novel about how many pivots have had to be made.

But I think How do we prepare for the next one? I don't know if there's really a way to prepare, right? I think you have to just it's understanding, really, your financials, right? And this is where it comes back to just, like, gotta [00:43:00] have, if you're not a good numbers person, like, have a really good numbers person in your business, because, you know, whatever happens in the world, it's really, a business is just profits.

And expenses and, and, and what you can profit from it, right? And when you have a hard time, Black Swan event happens, you've got to be able to manage the number of months that you anticipate that that's going to happen and be able to still be able to pay your employees, still be able to buy products, still be able to do all those different things.

So the only way to prepare for it is to know your numbers. And under and make sure that you have a little bit of a buffer that if things do happen that you can withstand a bit of a rough patch and also be prepared to make some really difficult decisions because that's what happens in those type of situations as businesses don't have a choice if they don't make those decisions.

They go out of business. And so that would be my answer. Yeah, that's good. Hopefully, we don't have to prepare for anything like that anytime soon again. Yeah, it's always, no, but regardless, it's always good to know your [00:44:00] numbers and to make sure that you have, you have some contingency plans and, you know, you have different things.

But yeah, hopefully we don't have to prepare. But, you know, I guess You got to stay ready, right? So absolutely. And I think it's so important that you're emphasizing numbers. Cause I think that's a big missing piece of the puzzle when people are starting off, I find that a lot of people starting off with numbers.

Brands are more so on the creative end of things. Sometimes we get unicorns like you that kind of have both things going on and that kind of falls by the wayside and yeah, you Find yourself out of business really quickly because you run out of cash and this is a business that thrives on cash And so yeah So to your question earlier, you said it was one of the things that you'd invest in the beginning.

I think for, for people that maybe don't have that set up that mindset where it's kind of, they can manage both worlds, you need an integrator in your business, right? If you're the visionary and the creative, like you've got to have someone that. You also don't want to put so much pressure on yourself to think in a way that you don't naturally think that's [00:45:00] also like kind of an unrealistic expectation of yourself and pressure.

And also sometimes when you focus and where you're not really great at, you don't actually do what you're great at, which is what your business needs. But you may want to think about finding an integrator, someone that believes in your business, has that analytical, that left brain mindset, and. You know, is willing to sort of be your yin to your yang, right.

And so, and that sometimes that means you don't own a hundred percent of your business, you know, you've given some, cause maybe that person can't, you can't pay that person a salary. Right. And, but if you don't bring that person in, you may not make it to where you've.

And I think that's an important mindset, too. It's like, You know, I think you have to, I think a little bit of it is, is finding the right people in your business that can help you get there. And so you can focus on what you do best. Yeah, and I think that's a important mindset, too. It's like, You know investing in those things because I think a lot of times we're so like with the the cash that you do have [00:46:00] you're so tightly holding on to that because You feel like there's all these important things that need to go product development all of those and they are important But the thing is if you're not reinvesting in the important areas, you can't grow to the point that you want to go That's a great point.

And sometimes you don't have cash to invest so you have to think about you know Is this a company that I own a hundred percent or can I? You You know, carve out a little bit for someone that is going to help me really build the business so I can be the creative and, and continue to do the creative things and have someone that is like an expert on the numbers.

Nonetheless, you still have to be an expert on the numbers, but maybe not in the detail, but like, you know, but you know, those are the things that I don't know are. They're very normal in like a tech industry, but maybe not as normal in like a fashion and apparel industry, and I think they should be, you know, so I think you can get further with With you know more great minds faster than you can if you try to do it [00:47:00] yourself absolutely and to that point too, I know that you've been mentoring brands and Helping other brands get who were once where you were get to where you are now so can you tell me a little bit about your mentorship and what that's been like and Yeah, it's it's just relatively organic.

You know, I think I've I've gotten my fair share of just mentoring being mentored by different entrepreneurs. And I've always felt like, man, like the 17 year old version of myself, if they had a mentor, you know, could they have had the same impact in a shorter amount of time? Right. And I think that, There's an opportunity out there.

So I get a lot of inquiries for people to, they just want me to look under the hood of their business or like they want me to invest in their business or, or they want just to get some, you know, insight. And so I'm always doing that. And like I told you, when we talked before, kind of my next season of business is more investing and mentoring founders that have great [00:48:00] business vision and helping those come to life.

And so so yeah, that's what I'm doing. It's still in the early stages and you know, maybe we'll be talking two or three years, it'll be something that I can dive into more, but right now we're, we're just kind of getting the foundation set up and going from there. Yeah. Well, I'm going to utilize a little bit of your mentorship right now.

And I am curious for, from what you're seeing with the brands that you're working with, what is some like of the top advice that you've been giving out or the things that you've been seeing that that you've been really speaking into a piece of an encouragement that you give your, your mentees. Can you share some of that with us for some of our listeners?

So we feel like we are in a mentorship session with you. Cool. Well, I think, I think a lot of it I've already spoken on. So I'll probably paraphrase some of it. And I think the number one thing is, you know, just make sure you're solving a problem that either the customer is facing or that you believe that, that, that you, you can [00:49:00] show the customer that there, there's a problem that they don't know about that you're solving, you know, for instance, we never knew we needed a cell phone on us, you know, 100 percent of the time and someone who convinced us that we do, and they provided a lot of value for that.

So I think. That's number one. Like I said earlier, be really passionate about what you're doing because it's going to be really challenging. And you know, yeah, just be passionate about it and just be, know going into it that it's going to be really hard and know going into it that you're going to have just as many good days as bad days and it's okay.

That's, that's what you're signing up for. And so that's just, just be okay with that. And like I said, know your numbers, you know, figure out like, what does it cost you to do pretty much everything in your business? How much does it cost you to acquire a new customer? Often does your customer come back and purchase from your brand?

You know, like what's that ratio between how much you're spending to get a customer and how much they spend in the lifetime of your brand? Does it make sense? All those little things are really, really important. [00:50:00] And and I think most importantly, really know the why, like, why are you doing it? Not only from a business standpoint, like, why do I want to have this business?

Maybe you want financial freedom. Maybe you want to exit and, you know, do all these different things. But also just know about it, what you want to do personally, like how does it serve who you are, how does it serve your personal journey, because if those two don't align, then you're going to have a lot of conflict in your journey, you know, and so really spend the time, meditate on that and figure out, okay, does the business vision and my personal vision of what I want in my life really coalesce and if they do, yeah.

Go for it. If they don't maybe think about it a little bit a little bit further. Yeah, that's so good Thank you for that wisdom so daniel You've told us that you started off with the four thousand dollars and you have scaled us into a multi million dollar business And one question that I always like to ask entrepreneurs who have done really amazing things is what do you think?

Sound like Set [00:51:00] successful brands apart from those who maybe never see the light of day that fail all of that What do you think sets? What is one thing that sets them apart? Wow, that's a That's a that's an interesting question. What sets some successful brands apart? I think the best brands Really know Their customer and have a true relationship with them in a sense of like they're, they really know them.

Like they, they have a customer base and they know who they are and they have that like connection with them. And If you're able to do that, even if you screw up, you have one bad line or terrible collection, they're going to keep coming back. And I'm going to use a terrible example. Like the Swifties, like it doesn't matter.

You can put out really three bad albums. They're still waiting for the fourth one. Right. And so it's creating that community and it's, it's being able to know who your customers are and to a certain extent, give them what [00:52:00] they want, but also give them sometimes what they don't know they want. And that's the art and the science behind it.

I love that I think that's so important because you're creating everything you do is for the customer I think people don't realize that it's not about you Everything you do from your marketing message from the product that you create Everything is about them. So yeah, I had one person tell me i'll finish on this.

I had a someone that was a business business partner, but a kind of a Mentor as well. She said she told me one day. She's like the customer is the boss Because if they don't buy your product, you don't have a job. And so, and I would tell my employee that a lot of times it's my employees that a lot of times, like, you know, I might be the one that's, that's, that's directing the ship, but like really the customer is who you're, you have to be loyal to.

Right. Because at the end of the day, they're vouching for what we're doing by giving us their, their resources. Right. And [00:53:00] so yeah, just another little. Nugget that I've learned in the past you're giving us so much wisdom. I feel like I did a master class right now So thank you so much But daniel if we want to stay connected with you and what you're doing all the things you have where can we find you?

Yeah, I'm on LinkedIn. So Daniel Cassidy on LinkedIn Instagram, Daniel dot Cassidy follow Rosteclot at Rosteclot Rosteclot. com. And yeah, reach out if you ever have anything, DMS or, you know, LinkedIn messages, I generally respond to them and you know, happy to, to help where I can. Yes, and make sure you follow him on linkedin because you will continue to get more wisdom I love reading your posts and see what seeing what you have to say.

It's like a constant master class happening on there. So thank you so much and thank you for just being so much for willing to share everything. You know, I think that in our industry, it can kind of feel like it's a gate kept industry. People don't really want to share, you know, their wisdom and all of that, but I [00:54:00] feel so happy that we're able to help people to kind of avoid some of the mistakes that we made it might have made and to have a leg up as they step into this industry.

So thank you. Absolutely. And thank you for, for creating a platform to be able to do that. So congratulations as well. Thanks for having me. Thank you so much. We'll see you next time. All right. Take care.