Latest / Corporate Dropout / Jaden Mitchell

Transcript

Jaden Mitchell · Corporate Dropout

• 0:12
  You just drop back into corporate drop out. Season two. Today we got a special guest all the way from
• 0:18
  Vegas. Slash jersey. Jay. Mitch! What's going on, bro? What's good bro. Bro. Chilling, bro. Thank you for
• 0:24
  having me. Long time no see. We got some questions for you, but we're just going to chop it up. I feel
• 0:29
  like some of the audience may know you, some may not, but we kind of just want to hear how
• 0:34
  everything came to be and how you how you became to be. Well, can I. Say first you just got you about
• 0:40
  to get married, right? Uh, yeah. Technically, yeah. We just got engaged, like, last month, two months ago.
• 0:46
  Congratulations on. That one. Clever little bit. Thank you so much I appreciate it. 2026 the first
• 0:51
  engaged man on the pod. Yeah. Really? Yeah. Yeah, I ain't gonna lie. That's lit. That's like, it's all
• 0:58
  right. So I feel like an old man. All right. I mean, you said you were an old man now, but you gotta
• 1:04
  you gotta tell us the backstory. You start starters from the beginning. Where are you from?
• 1:09
  Growing up, who you were. What was your life looking like? Got you. Um. So I'm born and raised
• 1:14
  Las Vegas. It's actually crazy because, like, right now, during my design stage, or even just like me
• 1:20
  right now in life, I'm really trying to figure out who I truly am or what I truly was in order to
• 1:25
  create better. Um, so just a kid from Las Vegas grew up playing football, playing soccer, racing
• 1:31
  dirt bikes, always outside on the street, just just being outside, you know, being a kid. Um, I ended up
• 1:38
  actually becoming. Let me rewind. Um, I always drew on my clothes
• 1:45
  growing up or drew on clothes. I used to cut up my clothes. He used to get really in trouble for
• 1:49
  doing that. And then it just so happened that I was good at football. So I ended up playing
• 1:54
  football at the University of Arizona. It just so happened. Yeah. Just so you know. I
• 2:00
  know. So I was I was definitely grinding. I was putting in, you know, the work just with anybody
• 2:05
  who has D1 aspirations. Um, so that happened, um, my senior year I tore my
• 2:11
  ACL, my left ACL, my first game. Thankfully, I was already committed to the University of Arizona at
• 2:16
  that time, so they honored that commitment. Um, attended the University of Arizona, tore my second
• 2:22
  ACL. Um, recovered from that and then transferred to Texas State. And then a week into fall camp,
• 2:29
  tore my ACL again. Yeah. So I want you to laugh, bro. My bad. No that's crazy. Yeah. So I went left
• 2:36
  for my senior year of high school and then back to back with my right. So I told my ACL three
• 2:40
  times in five years. So y'all already know like I heard like usually ACL recovery is like a year to,
• 2:46
  you know, a year long. So like right when I got back good. It was torn again. Um, how your knees
• 2:51
  feel now. They smooth during the cold. It gets bad a little bit. But yeah That's right. Uh.
• 2:58
  They they smooth, um, after that third ACL. You know, I tried to come back. It was six months and
• 3:03
  usually six months out there at ACL. You could start jogging a little bit. You can run a couple
• 3:07
  routes. Um, I could barely walk. And I was like, man, you know, I gotta figure out something that that
• 3:12
  makes me happy again. And that's when I found the, the, the iPad and started drawing again and, you
• 3:19
  know, started ripping up clothes. And this is like, while you were injured, you were kind of. Yeah. Yeah.
• 3:23
  Because I had to get so I don't know, like when you're playing ball and you're, you're injured or
• 3:27
  things aren't going your way, you have to find some other form of release. And for me that was
• 3:31
  drawing. So did you growing up. Were you always like, I'm going to go to the league
• 3:38
  or football like that was your passion or was you thinking about like making clothes, starting a
• 3:43
  brand and stuff? No, I wasn't even thinking about making clothes or doing a brand. It was just
• 3:48
  playing a B, and C was was football. That was the only reason I got a full ride. If I if it wasn't
• 3:53
  for a football, I don't know if I would have, you know, I don't know where I would have ended up, but
• 3:57
  yeah, it was always go to Lee, go to Lee, go to the league. That was that was the number one thing. So
• 4:02
  what was the moment? It was like, all right, time to pivot. Um yeah. Third one. Yeah. After one. No
• 4:09
  after. After the third and the third and final one. That's why I don't be hooping. Because I don't
• 4:15
  like I'll spot up and shoot, but I'm not playing around with no more. Like, what were you doing that.
• 4:18
  Was it like the same kind of move? It was just all non-contact. Every single one was non-contact. One
• 4:24
  was I was running the it was on kickoff return and I wanted to go cut to the outside. During the.
• 4:29
  Game. Yeah. Just popped. Um, first game of my senior and we won championship that year and I couldn't
• 4:33
  play. So you get the ring? No, I got the ring. Yeah, I got the ring. So I guess that counts. So then you
• 4:38
  could just tell your kids you played, and then you tell your grandkids. You and I can't do it, you
• 4:43
  know. But, um. But yeah, after that, after that third one, like I said, I got to that six month mark and
• 4:49
  I couldn't walk. I remember vividly I was in Houston shopping at like, uh. Something like. Like,
• 4:56
  I guess you can say thrift store. And it was hard for me to walk, and I was like, man, this song's
• 5:00
  going off. And I immediately called, like, my my mom's my uncle and my my grandma, and I was asking
• 5:06
  them if they would be mad at me and if I stopped playing football. And I was like, of course not. And
• 5:10
  I think that was kind of the reassurance I needed to be like that. So you were living in Houston at
• 5:13
  the time? Uh, no. I actually visited Houston for, like, my birthday's always around spring break. So
• 5:18
  I went during spring break, and it kind of hit me as a revelation. And then I ended up retiring like
• 5:25
  a month after that. Did you stop football and finish school or you just said, screw all of it. I
• 5:31
  got my degree, all right. Yeah, I got my degree, so I moved out. Don't look at me like that, bro. I'm
• 5:36
  still trying to finish my high school, so he's looking at me crazy, but. Oh, yeah. No. Yeah, it's
• 5:41
  really just, you know, busy work. It's not like it's necessarily difficult. It's just work you don't
• 5:44
  really want to do. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I retired in, like April, uh, moved to Houston. I was sleeping on
• 5:51
  the homies couch when I first moved there, I changed all my classes online and I was just on
• 5:55
  the iPad. What year was. This? 2023. So 2023, that's when you like really locked down on your
• 6:02
  unlike your brand. Yeah 2023. So moved to Houston was on I was couch surfing a little bit and then
• 6:08
  I actually had my first drop while I was still on the couch. It was a preorder. Um, and then from
• 6:14
  there, I kind of just. How did you, like, build up the following? To be able to be able to even do a
• 6:19
  preorder? Like, did you have like a big following online or. Like, well, take it as eyes on me
• 6:22
  personally. I mean, both I mean, because you started Bottega in 2023. Yes. So like May or June of 2023.
• 6:28
  Yeah. How did I guess, did you get a following behind it to the point where you were like
• 6:31
  confident to drop and do like preorders? So a lot of people are like that's like the hardest part.
• 6:35
  Yeah, I was playing ball already. So I kind of had a decent amount of following, uh, you know, playing
• 6:41
  football. I guess you could say I had a little TikTok. You know, everybody has like a TikTok dance
• 6:45
  or I was doing all this. Yeah, it was bad. Don't I don't go back on the back. Cause I'm a I'm an
• 6:50
  archive. Let's pull it up. It might be about, uh, every time one of my homies go D-1 football, they
• 6:56
  immediately get their Instagram verified. Did you know what I'm talking about? Yeah. Did that happen
• 7:01
  to you? Yeah, I think I got verified my sophomore year. How did that work? They just said, give me
• 7:05
  your Instagram and go verify. Nah. There were people. There were people that were, um, there that
• 7:10
  were, like, making fake pages of me. And then I one day I was just scrolling and I went to like, my,
• 7:15
  you know, the activity and just said, like, you've been given the blue checkmark or something like
• 7:20
  that, or like I didn't say blue checkmark, but you've been verified. And I went and I started
• 7:24
  going crazy. That's like, you couldn't buy it. You couldn't get a check before you could buy it.
• 7:29
  Checks at all. So yeah, I started we was going crazy in that crew. I was like, man, this is crazy
• 7:35
  bullshit. During that time when you're injured and kind of get on the iPad, starting to find a new
• 7:42
  direction, what was kind of like your mental state looking like? Because, I mean, I grew up playing
• 7:47
  basketball. Basketball is my whole world. If that was taken away from me like that, I'd be going
• 7:51
  crazy. So what was your mental look like? It was, it was. It was. It was tough. Um, I think that was one
• 7:57
  of the times in life that I really struggled with my identity, because I've been playing football
• 8:01
  for probably like 17 years. At that point, um, I struggled with my identity. I struggled with my
• 8:06
  faith. Like, it got to the point. Like I didn't want to hear the name God. I didn't want to hear
• 8:10
  nothing. Because, like, how could someone how could that happen to me? Um, so it was it was tough. I had
• 8:16
  a whole identity shift, as you know, like playing sports your whole life. If you're not playing
• 8:20
  sports, what are you. And I kind of had to figure out who I was. And I guess what my purpose on this
• 8:25
  earth was. It was tough, though. I ain't go like, that was probably one of the toughest things I've
• 8:29
  ever had to go through. And then as you're like, as you're graduating, did you was it always,
• 8:36
  I'm making my money off this brand? Or were you working like a corporate job or anything? No, just
• 8:41
  the brand I was getting when I was playing ball was getting my stipend. Um, so when you're on full
• 8:46
  ride, you get paid. Yeah. Um, and then I started doing preorders of my brand, and I think the
• 8:51
  preorder ran up, like, 10-K, and I was the first time I'd ever seen ten cages sitting like that.
• 8:56
  What the drop looked like. Like what you have. Was it. It was a preorder of the fucking. If you can't
• 9:01
  take a joke. T I don't know if you've ever seen, but it's just as simple. But take it as high as T.
• 9:05
  And it says that on the back. And we did preorders and I think I sold like I forgot how many I sold,
• 9:11
  but I did like ten K that first drop. You probably answered this before, but like how did you come up
• 9:15
  with the name Bo? Take it designers. Yeah. So at first it was just going to be designers, which I
• 9:20
  thought was just very plain. Um, which is cool. So I was gonna spice it up, and I was on, like, my
• 9:25
  explorer page on Instagram. And there was, I was looking up typefaces because I really liked
• 9:30
  typography, typography, um, and being able to, you know, change the way you do graphics and
• 9:36
  everything. So I seen Bottega and big old, like, funky green leather letters. It wasn't even about
• 9:42
  Bottega. It was just a big Bottega. And I was like, Bottega! I was like that word. It's crazy. I was
• 9:47
  like, what? I was like. I was like, smashed. I was like, I was like, I was like, what is Bottega? What
• 9:52
  is Bottega? And then I looked up what is about tagging? And it said like a studio or workshop
• 9:56
  where art is made. Um, so I was like, man, this is fine. Later on, obviously, um, I learned that
• 10:02
  Bottega was also associated to Bottega Veneta, but once I found out that, um, it wasn't the
• 10:09
  word or the noun wasn't owned by Bottega Veneta, arrogantly, I was like, free game. You ever be
• 10:14
  having people like, saying that they thought you're about to go, and that Bottega was the same
• 10:19
  thing. I you could say that, yes. I've also heard a lot of people or a lot of people tell me, like,
• 10:24
  some people only find out or have only found out about Bottega Veneta because of Bottega desires,
• 10:30
  which which I think is a really cool thing, because you got to think, even me at 23, I didn't
• 10:35
  know Bottega Veneta didn't know what it was. I came in like, I met this terrible that, but I
• 10:40
  definitely came into the fashion space very arrogantly and confidently, which I believe you
• 10:44
  need to have that confidence and a little bit of arrogance to be successful. But yeah, I guess some
• 10:49
  people sometimes find out about Bottega Veneta through us. So I say like the biggest struggle
• 10:55
  with athletes is kind of, what do I do after I get done playing my sport? So like, how was that
• 11:02
  transition for you from being? Because I know how football go. The two days, the 6 a.m. lifts like
• 11:08
  that strict program to transitioning to okay, now I'm just focusing on my creative mind and I have
• 11:14
  all day to kind of focus on my goals. How was that transition for you and what helped you with that?
• 11:20
  Because I feel like a lot of people have a hard time scheduling their life after being honest or
• 11:24
  schedule like that. Yeah, I'm honestly still working on figuring out a schedule that that
• 11:28
  works for me. You know, entrepreneurship is so just up in the air. You can get called one day and you
• 11:33
  have to be here or there. So I'm still kind of, I guess, working on figuring out that schedule. But
• 11:38
  overall I think it's difficult because when you're an athlete, everything is set up for you.
• 11:42
  You have tutoring. You have training weights, you have film. Everything's like that. So finding
• 11:47
  finding that life outside of that was definitely tough. But I know that iPad has has saved my life
• 11:53
  in ways I couldn't even, you know, explain. Do you think football has
• 12:00
  created a mindset for you to understand, like discipline and grind and all that stuff? Because
• 12:06
  when I was hoping, they told me this basketball stuff is going to go way farther than just the
• 12:12
  sport. And now that I'm older, I'm not really hooping. I kind of see how that is. Like, I can take
• 12:16
  criticism and not get affected by emotion. I can wake up early, be disciplined. I can wait for the
• 12:22
  the further goal and kind of push away the immediate pleasure. Do you think that's the same
• 12:26
  thing that's happened to you? For sure. I think football was one of the best things that's ever
• 12:30
  happened to me. It teaches you selflessness because, you know, you have to rely on the other
• 12:37
  ten on the field in order for the full 11 to be able to be successful. Um, so yeah, football has has
• 12:43
  changed my life. It's made me Starship's maybe dedicated to the point where you're saying I can
• 12:47
  take criticism. You know, I don't think to take things to a, you know, series. At the end of the day,
• 12:52
  we're all trying to win a game. So if I don't do my job right or someone else doesn't do their job
• 12:56
  right, we just talk about it and watch film and move on. But, um, yeah, it also makes you I feel like
• 13:02
  it's also allowed that obsessiveness, you know, the obsessive nature when you're playing a sport, like,
• 13:06
  I just want to live to league. It's all I think about. All that thing about that obsessive nature
• 13:10
  kind of transition into these clothes to where I'm really taking. I'm really I'm willing to like,
• 13:15
  say, all out work anybody when it comes to this, you know. And. When you started like kind of going
• 13:21
  back to like the clothes stuff when you started where most like were most people buying it
• 13:24
  because it's you, or do you think it was just like, like just because you genuinely like the pieces
• 13:29
  were like speaking for yourself? Like the more people feel like now I feel like the brand might
• 13:33
  be bigger than you, but like, back then, like, how did you, I guess, like, were people finding it just
• 13:39
  like through, like organic, like online. Yeah. It was it was super organic. So what I would do is I
• 13:44
  would drive around Houston because I was living in Houston at that time. So I was driving around
• 13:47
  Houston and heading up people like, yo, let's take pictures, let's do some photo shoots. And I think
• 13:52
  that's a dope way to market. Just drive around your city and link up with friends that even if
• 13:55
  they don't have a crazy following, there's still people that will buy your product. And I think
• 14:00
  from that, it kind of just compounded. And then I think one of my I think my third design was those
• 14:05
  shorts, those Ortega designs, jean shorts that they. Just goes. Everywhere. They just went viral. And
• 14:10
  like from that moment it was just a. Yeah, that's a that's a staple bro. That's yeah I seen. That was a
• 14:16
  that was a crazy. Was that. First preorder shirt you did. Was that like your first design ever ever.
• 14:21
  Yes. And do you still like that design. That design is probably one of the earlier designs that I
• 14:27
  actually still like a lot of my other designs. I cannot stand like a lot of one. Yeah. What's the
• 14:33
  worst one you ever did? The worst design I've done that I've dropped so far. Yeah, no, you wouldn't put
• 14:38
  it on that shit any day. Not even to go to them. Probably. I made this a Rodman T. It was like a
• 14:43
  Rodman face, and it was kind of a dude. It was denial. He was a deconstructed a little bit, but
• 14:48
  yeah, I wouldn't I wouldn't do that piece again. And there's also yeah, there's, there's other
• 14:52
  pieces because like I continue to say like I got into the space very, um, I don't know what the word
• 14:58
  I don't want to use arrogant again, but, you know, just I didn't know too much. And so when I was
• 15:02
  referencing in a young, uh, when my brain was really young, I don't think I would, uh, create to.
• 15:10
  How do I wear this? I wouldn't change the design up enough and I so I think I look at my old self
• 15:16
  designing and wish I maybe would have did some things a little bit differently. But, you know, now
• 15:21
  I'm here three years out and I'm like, when I'm designing, I understand. Hey, this is probably how
• 15:26
  you should extend upon inspiration. Did you take like feedback from like, I guess, like what people
• 15:32
  who are buying it were saying, or do you kind of just were locked in like, I want to drop this, this
• 15:36
  and this. Uh, I was really just. I was really just locked in. I think it got to a point where
• 15:40
  everything we were driving just started turning to gold, you know? Um, but yeah, the feedback was
• 15:46
  always was always pretty good. Obviously, you get to people who don't understand that the what the
• 15:52
  noun voting is and they only associated with Bottega Veneta. So being able to I guess, have that,
• 15:57
  um, feedback. But, you know, from the football conversation, like it doesn't really. Yeah. I mean
• 16:01
  that. That so that third drop you said was like the one that kind of got you. Right. It was like
• 16:07
  the third piece, like I did the preorder for that black. Um, I reordered it and then I did a white
• 16:12
  version. I think after that it went to like the Rodman and then the short. So you can say like the
• 16:17
  third, fourth drop is when it started going. So how were you feeling in that moment? Like what?
• 16:24
  Like did you get all the bread and buy some crazy or what were you thinking the next time I hear.
• 16:29
  That first, that first job when I made that 10-K was like, I'm rich. Like I've never seen 10-K
• 16:35
  setting an account like that. And I was just like, I could buy anything. I could do anything. Um, and
• 16:41
  so I bought stuff and then it's like, oh, shit, it's a preorder. I still need to order like product, so
• 16:47
  order the product. And I think that was my first realization or like, okay, 10-K is not a lot of
• 16:52
  money, not a lot of money. But it was it was cool to see like that 10-K then go to 20, 30, 50 and
• 16:59
  then whatever it went out there, there it was very dope. Was it? I mean, I don't want to say you
• 17:06
  charge like super luxury prices, but you definitely have like a, like a higher middle in
• 17:13
  price. Was that always your mindset through it or kind of talk us through
• 17:20
  your approach with that. Like because with my own brand, I want to try to keep it almost like at a
• 17:27
  supreme level. Gotcha in the pricing. Right. So how do you come to those decisions to understand what
• 17:33
  would be the right price? Yeah. Pricing is a very difficult topic because it's something that like
• 17:39
  a P, you could charge, you know, $100 for a piece, but then you look at a brand like, I won't say no
• 17:44
  names, but you look at other brands and they may charge $1,000 for that piece. Yeah. So I think
• 17:48
  pricing is just becomes what somebody else values it as. Um, we start off selling
• 17:55
  pieces a little bit less. Um, and then they started to get resold for like four times, five times. So
• 18:01
  I'm like. Man, I get my bread. Okay. I'm like. I'm like, I'm like, okay. And then the pieces are being
• 18:06
  worn by notable figures and I'm like, um, you know, there's real value to this. And then the more
• 18:13
  that I started taking the brand on, my designs got more intricate. I started playing around with
• 18:17
  different fabrics and different stitches, and just I started paying more attention to the craft of
• 18:22
  the actual product. And with that, obviously your your cost to make other product goes up. So then
• 18:27
  you're, you're. Yeah, it has to reflect on the retail. So how do you as you're making better
• 18:33
  pieces is getting on more like famous people, I guess you would say. How do you kind of like,
• 18:39
  curate that esthetic or push that point across like this is a more luxury item? How do you retain
• 18:46
  those customers who would buy that as well? You understand what I'm saying? Yeah, I, I noticed there
• 18:50
  was there was a stump where I started creating for the buyer and not myself, and now I'm creating
• 18:56
  more for myself. And I wear luxury garments, so it naturally just flows into creating a, I guess,
• 19:03
  synonymous collection where it feels luxury. Because all I really wear is I'm not saying all I
• 19:08
  wear is luxury, but like this is about taking designer shirt. It's. I loved wearing Erde shirts
• 19:14
  or palace shirts, so now I know that quality. So now when I'm creating, I understand that I'm
• 19:18
  creating from a sense of knowing and understanding what a high quality product should
• 19:22
  look like, and then the collection just ends up feeling that way. Did you have like a favorite
• 19:27
  like brand growing up? I guess even now, other than yours that you kind of. Growing growing up? I know
• 19:32
  growing up I was wearing a little bit like echo. Y'all remember echo? Yeah, I was. I was wearing like,
• 19:37
  echo. I wore a ton of vans. I was wearing just a like DC as well, where a ton of DC when I was a
• 19:43
  kid. Yeah, yeah, I grew I grew up racing dirt bikes, uh, riding bikes, um,
• 19:49
  scooters, skateboards. I was doing everything. So I kind of had. That with dirt. Bikes. Yeah. Racing dirt
• 19:54
  bikes. ACL have no contact. Yeah. That's crazy. That's really how you know. Yeah. Yeah yeah for
• 19:59
  sure for sure. Not not. Yeah. So but um. Yeah all those I think now that I'm looking back
• 20:06
  into my childhood and truly pulling inspiration from things that made me, um, I truly think it's
• 20:13
  able to reflect now and even my music taste and going back because my, my step, my mom's ex-husband
• 20:19
  was my stepfather, um, he used to listen to, like, a lot of hardcore rock, like disturbed, Korn, System
• 20:25
  of a down. And it's like, you know, getting back to that groove and understanding. Like what? What made
• 20:31
  me in creating from that spot. Finding yourself within the clothes. Yeah, yeah. How do you find
• 20:37
  yourself within the clothes? But also listen to what your community wants. Because I feel like you
• 20:42
  said you were making clothes for the buyer, but you got to make clothes for yourself. But I feel
• 20:46
  like there's a level of, like, balance there, for sure. I think it's understanding what works for
• 20:51
  the brand, what the what the consumer is genuinely appreciate and love, but then also finding space
• 20:57
  to create something that you really love. And even if it doesn't resonate with your majority of your
• 21:02
  community, just knowing that a little part of that community is going to like that piece. I think
• 21:06
  it's the balance. Like a lot of pieces that I create are generally pieces that I love, and it's
• 21:11
  kind of like nobody fucks with it and nobody fucks with it. Um, and then some of the pieces are
• 21:15
  like, I know that people are going to love this. Like we had some, like, bodega text. You could say
• 21:19
  they look like a Texas Tech suit. Um, and I already knew that people were going to love it. What do I
• 21:24
  wear that all the time? Not necessarily, but I know it'll do good for a specific demographic. You seem
• 21:30
  to have like a lot of strategy with what you're doing. Was there any like setbacks or like halts
• 21:37
  in your strategy where you kind of had to step back and be like, okay, I gotta pivot. Yeah. Um,
• 21:44
  there's been a couple. You know, manufacturing is. Yeah. Trust me, I've been waiting on my damn sample
• 21:48
  for six months. Yeah, yeah, yeah, six months is crazy. That's what I'm. Saying, bro. Six months is crazy.
• 21:53
  Yeah, I would have flew to China when I was there. Um, but. These hands to the screen. What was the.
• 21:59
  Question? I'm saying like. Like I was like, yeah. So much.
• 22:06
  Like. Oh, setbacks. Yeah. Like, how did you like, how did you know that it was time to change the
• 22:11
  formula and what caused it? Like, what bumps did you have in the road? So I think I think a dope
• 22:18
  learning lesson that I'm very appreciative for was there was a rebrand at one point to Marsha. I
• 22:25
  don't know if you ever knew that, but there were both take it as ours. And then as I seen the
• 22:30
  pieces start to elevate, um, I started to become real aspirational. Like, I want to do Paris Fashion
• 22:36
  Week. I want to do this. I want to do that. I want to create luxury clothes. And my brain just went
• 22:41
  like, I don't know, very extreme on being just very aspirational, I'll say. So there was a rebrand to
• 22:48
  Monsieur Did this years which was material designers and French, you know, me. Looking back at
• 22:54
  my young stuff now, I was like, just because you name it French doesn't make it doesn't make it
• 22:58
  luxury. Yeah, yeah, it doesn't make it. It doesn't make it luxury. But I think that was a dope
• 23:04
  learning lesson. It was still very successful. We were able to sell pieces from like $353, $200. We
• 23:10
  were able to sell out from these pieces. But there got to a point where I felt like there was so
• 23:15
  much more left with Bottega desire, as I was needed to be done. There was a demographic that I
• 23:21
  wanted to be able to inspire and be able to, you know, create clothes that they could purchase. I
• 23:26
  think that was a really, um, a really good learning lesson for me because I got to, you know, truly
• 23:32
  figure out what matters and also appreciate and learn fashion for what it is. And it's not just a
• 23:38
  a high price tag or a French name. It's it's a quality garment that people can continuously wear,
• 23:43
  you know. But I think that was a really good learning lesson. Do you so drop under that under
• 23:48
  that name. No we don't we don't drop. I think in the future we'll definitely, you know re Re Re
• 23:53
  bring that back. Um, I don't know I love luxury goods. I like, you know, even thinking about
• 23:58
  producing clothes in Italy or wherever the case, you may want to produce luxury goods, but, um, yeah,
• 24:05
  I think when the time is right we'll, we'll dabble in that. I feel like we talked about a couple
• 24:10
  setbacks. Let's talk about the good stuff that happened. Oh, we're through the grapevine.
• 24:17
  You generate over 500 K on one day. Half a. Ticket? Yeah, half a ticket in one day. All right, just give
• 24:24
  us the. Old feel like what did that even. What does that look like? Yeah. What? Yeah. Um.
• 24:31
  God is good. I say, God, I say. Of course I say God is amazing. Um. That was that was, um,
• 24:40
  an unexplainable feeling. I didn't, I didn't know I felt like in that moment, all of those ACLs were
• 24:46
  worth it. I think God knew exactly what he was doing. And in those moments where I was
• 24:51
  questioning, um, what the higher power was, was allowing me to go through. Um, in that moment, I was
• 24:57
  like, okay, yeah, this is this all them ACLs, all that stuff was worth it. Um, it's it's it's
• 25:04
  interesting because you you make that type of money and then people know that you make that
• 25:08
  type of money. And I feel like there's a shift. So that's a different. Yes. I feel like there's a
• 25:13
  there's a big shift. You go from someone who's grinding and making their way out to you made it
• 25:19
  the whole time. Just because you make 500, it doesn't make you mean you made it. But I
• 25:23
  definitely think it changed people's perspective on me. Um, any relationships in your life like
• 25:29
  change? Yeah, a lot of a lot of different things. Different things changed. But for, I say, for the
• 25:34
  better, you know? Money definitely teaches you so many valuable lessons. But that moment was
• 25:40
  amazing for me. But it was also life changing. And the the other side of the coin way, where I
• 25:47
  remember vividly, um, we, we made that money and then like the month afterwards, New York
• 25:54
  Fashion Week, and I was out here and I was just sitting on all that money. I was like, I'm not
• 25:58
  touching this shit. I'm not. I'm not spending it. And actually, because I'm kind of frugal when it
• 26:03
  comes to money spending, I'll reinvest into the business. But, um, yeah, she wagon was good right off.
• 26:09
  Right? Right. You know, you need to pay taxes, you start making fire, and the kingdom taxes are not
• 26:15
  fun. Um, but I remember vividly like a New York fashion week, and I had all that, that money in my
• 26:20
  account, and I went and got I went to like the Louie star. I got some shoes. And I remember
• 26:25
  getting back into that apartment and I had all that money in my account, and I was still, like, sad.
• 26:30
  And that's when I realized. And that's when I realized money does not change. What you said
• 26:35
  about. Um, I had recently got out of a relationship. Um, and I
• 26:42
  think there was a sense of like, like loneliness. And in that I was in, like, a new city by myself,
• 26:48
  like, wanting to spread all this wealth. And like. You had just moved to New York at the time. No, I
• 26:53
  just I was visiting for a fashion week, but I was in a new city. I wasn't like, you know, I was
• 26:57
  traveling now, I've never really traveled all my life because, you know, football is just football,
• 27:00
  football, football, football. And if you travel for a game, you're there for 48 hours and then you're
• 27:04
  gone. Um, so that was my first time really, like traveling. That was my first time having that type
• 27:09
  of money in my account. And I was like, man, I could buy anything I want, I can go anywhere I want, but
• 27:14
  I'm still not happy. And I think that was a tough realization to know that just because you have a
• 27:19
  lot of money doesn't mean you're good. I just went through this exact same thing, bro. Yeah. So it's
• 27:25
  it's it's tough. Like it's like you're all the things that you believe growing up were a lie. You
• 27:31
  you look at money as a kid and remember $100 you used to make, you just. There are no problems in
• 27:36
  the world when you got $100. Yeah. Chris, honey, I'm doing great. Now it's like you walk outside and
• 27:42
  you got to spend $100, you know? But it's a beautiful, uh, realization. I would say. Oh.
• 27:49
  No, I. Can't even. Work. I know that was a whirlwind, but I've. I've been through the same thing as you.
• 27:55
  Like, I mean, I got out of relationship months ago, and I was like, I just went to Paris for the
• 28:02
  first time. I just walked my first show. I was like, this girl still got me fucked up. No,
• 28:10
  she still. Got me fucked. Up. And it's just, like, annoying. I ain't got no more drink.
• 28:18
  You just do that one. I still want you to. Take a look. It's just annoying because your life can
• 28:24
  be so blessed and you can have so many things going for you. But if your mental still fucked up,
• 28:30
  it doesn't change anything. And that's why I appreciate you talking about, like, saying that
• 28:37
  that you had the biggest, one of the biggest days of your life and you're still going through it
• 28:43
  mentally and it just tells the people watching and all the people out there that like all this
• 28:49
  stuff we see online, everything, all these clothes, all this consumerism stuff, it don't matter if
• 28:56
  you're not straight up. Here, but sometimes it'd be the opposite to bro. Even just being with the
• 29:00
  homies like back at home. Younger. No money in your pocket. You just be the happiest in the world. Yeah,
• 29:05
  yeah. Yeah, my homies just to get in the game. Get a $5 hot already, pay seven living, get some drinks.
• 29:10
  The best days of my damn life, bro. Find out. Yeah. I actually want to
• 29:17
  shift real quick because, I mean, you're on our podcast. I am. But yeah, you were you were doing
• 29:23
  your own podcast, and I was looking at the guest you were having, and I was like, Holy shit. Babyface.
• 29:27
  Ray. Meek mill. Yeah. So, like, how how the hell do you do that? Um. So
• 29:34
  shout out. Shout out my Boise White. He actually had a connection to to meek and was able to make
• 29:40
  that make that happen. He was actually chilling in his crib one day and was listening to me, and he
• 29:45
  was like, bro, we got to get him. And so we'll take his desires. And then he figured out a way to to
• 29:50
  to get to him and then face. Actually, me and him met in complex at complex like two years ago.
• 29:57
  And we just locked in from there. So yeah, it's kind of just really natural, you know, God just
• 30:02
  allowing things to follow through. Who say like is the most, I guess, famous person you've had rocking
• 30:08
  in Bottega? Most famous person that I've had where Bottega Obama. Nah. Come on. Now. I
• 30:15
  don't know. That's crazy. Yeah. Where do you pull that from? I was hoping. On your notes. Somewhere
• 30:21
  over here in Alabama. Wasn't it? Yeah. I don't know, there's been a lot of. There's been a lot of
• 30:25
  people, you know. I don't like name dropping, but there's been a lot of people that have one. You
• 30:29
  ever see someone in your stuff that, like, you don't want to see you wearing your shirt? Oh,
• 30:34
  really? No. Like, don't be wearing my shit. Not like. It. Take my. Shirt off. You don't want shit. Like
• 30:41
  they don't really fit the image of, uh, personnel that you want to see it in. Like, maybe they, um.
• 30:46
  Yeah. No. Desires are for everybody. Everybody. If you want to purchase a tee shirt, go ahead and
• 30:51
  wear whatever your style is for. To be better than me out here. For the people. Desires are for
• 30:55
  everybody. Uh, going back to the brand a little bit, you said that you have, like, a team behind you, so
• 31:00
  you have, like, employees. When did that? Yeah. Like when did you realize that? Yo, I need to, like, get a
• 31:05
  team. I ain't gonna lie. That's it. I think the the right before the 500 k happened, and, um, I was just
• 31:12
  pulling from people close to me like, y'all need help packing? Yo, I need help doing this because I
• 31:15
  just started scaling a such a rapid rate. Um, and then very soon, it just turned into a
• 31:22
  business. And I think now it's like it's a full fledged business with like, ten employees. And. But
• 31:28
  I think that 500 K really triggered it because then who was packing all of them or there's, you
• 31:33
  know. Do you think you're more busier now than you were when you were a one man army? Oh my gosh.
• 31:40
  More money, more problems. Yes. Uh, yes, for sure. I mean, because you got to think about it like let's
• 31:45
  let's use arbitrary numbers here. I'm not you know, let's use arbitrary numbers. You do 4.4. You may be
• 31:51
  looking at, you know, half a ticket to upwards of 700,000 in taxes now, whereas
• 31:58
  one, one man show you're doing 70 K. Your your taxes are nowhere near, you know, half a half a
• 32:04
  ticket. You do, you know, 10 million a year. Now we're looking at maybe 2 million to 3 million
• 32:10
  maybe owed in taxes, depending on how you write stuff off or whatever the case is. So yeah, I
• 32:16
  definitely been having a lot. At 3:30 a.m. nights. Like vivid, 3:30. A.m.. Nights where you're just
• 32:22
  working. Are you at this point? Like, are your employees just kind of taking care of, like,
• 32:27
  packing orders or doing customer service? Like, do you have anyone on your team that's kind of
• 32:32
  helping you with, like, the creative vision or is it still all. You for sure? No, no, no for sure. I
• 32:38
  definitely have people that help these creative visions come to life. I'm currently the only
• 32:43
  designer. I've been the only designer for the past three years, so that sometimes gets a little heavy.
• 32:48
  Doing tech packs and communicating. But we're building our team. We have a great marketing team.
• 32:54
  I think our marketing team consists of about four people. Now, if I'm not mistaken, 4 to 5 people. And
• 33:00
  then we also have like an operations team that consists of the rest. Like how did you like learn
• 33:05
  like to do. It was just trial and error. Like over time you just kind of, what do I need? Or like, did
• 33:10
  you have, like, a mentor that kind of. Um, try. I guess you can say trial and error. Like I still
• 33:14
  try on there. Like there's so many business decisions or things that I could be doing better.
• 33:20
  So I think it's just constant trial and error. Um, the thing, there's a lot of things in life where
• 33:26
  you could either be paralyzed from not knowing how to do it and you're just, like, too scared to
• 33:31
  do it, or you just fuck around and find out and at least there's some movement there, you know? So I
• 33:36
  say trial and error is probably gonna just continue to be trial and error. Honestly, I'm
• 33:40
  scared to it. I know you said after the like the 500 K, like you needed your homies to come help
• 33:45
  you pack orders, but like when I was like, all right, I actually need to
• 33:52
  hire some people. Like, how does that transition feel? Because, I mean, I got my brand and, you know,
• 33:59
  I might possibly look into hiring someone. How is that go from just being a brand owner to now
• 34:06
  being like a boss? And what have you learned being a boss? Um, that's a double letter question. That's
• 34:12
  a good question. Um, I think the first the first person I truly hired on was my boy C white. He was
• 34:19
  working for the, uh, the Mavs at the moment had a really consistent, stable job. And I was like, yo, I
• 34:25
  need help. You know, whatever I got to do to get you over here. So that once that move happened,
• 34:30
  then I started looking to like, okay, let me try to figure out how we can hire more people. Um, but a
• 34:35
  lot of people don't know. Just because you hire people doesn't make make your job easier. Because
• 34:39
  now you have to teach these people the processes, and you have to teach them kind of what's going
• 34:43
  on in your head. Because I've talked to other business owners and they say you were hiring
• 34:48
  employees to fight to focus on the micro, uh, the micro, so you can focus on the macro. Yeah. Does
• 34:54
  that make sense? Yeah, I would say I would say so. I think even now, like a lot of my employees are
• 34:59
  focusing, I say my teammates because I view it as equal. But a lot of my teammates, they they focus
• 35:04
  on a lot of macro stuff too. I think it's, you know, allowing me to create and whatever capacity. Like
• 35:10
  if I need to focus on designs for a season, making sure I'm able to set the creative direction for
• 35:15
  marketing and for, you know, how do I want to price pieces out? Or how do I want to scale the brand? Um,
• 35:21
  it's it's it's a lot. It is a lot of trying to have a not trying to have a brand, but building a
• 35:27
  business. It's not an easy thing. I think a lot of people now, um, want to create clothing brands, but
• 35:32
  they don't understand how complex it can get once it scales to a certain amount. Um, and I think
• 35:39
  anything when you're being a leader, you got to take care of your people. You know, you got to make
• 35:43
  sure they're heard, they're respected. You got to make sure that you're leading them the right way.
• 35:47
  And, um, yeah, I think overall it's just being a good a good person and making sure that you're
• 35:54
  making their lives easier. Within that creative process of making a new product. Making
• 36:01
  a new item. What does it look like? Like are you kind of
• 36:08
  just like drawing stuff from the heart. Are you making mood boards? Are you traveling and finding
• 36:14
  inspiration within, like architecture and stuff like that? What is your process look like? It's
• 36:19
  everything you know. You know, creatively you can pull from anything. You can walk into a showroom
• 36:24
  and you may see a piece of furniture and you're like, okay, what type of person is sitting in that
• 36:28
  chair and what are they wearing? And then you get to create from there. So I create definitely mood
• 36:33
  boards. I just walk around. New York is just a walking mood board. You know, you just walk outside
• 36:37
  and you see so many different styles. But usually my creative process is like, uh,
• 36:44
  you know, go outside, you know, look at people, you know, see what everybody's wearing, walk inside,
• 36:49
  whether it's patron Essex, Dover Street, whatever is just being able to feel the fabrics and touch
• 36:54
  everything. Um, and then, you know, start designing. I use procreate, so I'm not just drawing everything,
• 37:01
  but like piecing things together and, you know, figuring it out from there. Then you go Prototype
• 37:06
  size run. Then we try to order bulk and that's like a three month process. You ever make
• 37:11
  something that you like I guess weren't as super confident in that did well or vice versa? Probably,
• 37:17
  bro. We've been dropping so many damn clothes. Too hot on them. But yeah, there's there's always some
• 37:22
  pieces that you don't expect to do really well, and they just do really well. And there's other
• 37:26
  pieces that you like that's going to be a hit. And it maybe doesn't sell as fast as you think it is.
• 37:30
  I think that's the name of the game when it comes to it. Business is cool. It's very stressful though.
• 37:37
  People don't talk about that. The stressful side of it. Yeah. Do you have much free time? Like, no.
• 37:43
  We're actually trying to create free some more free time for me so that I could live a normal
• 37:48
  life. It's crazy. Like, we vividly have these talks even earlier. Just figuring out ways that I could
• 37:53
  free up my time so that I could, I guess, live, you know? Yeah, I work a lot, bro. Like I work. I
• 38:00
  work. A lot. For those of y'all don't know, he just came from working straight here. Yeah. Been working.
• 38:05
  I have my first meeting at 9 a.m. this morning. All right, so what's the perfect non-work day look
• 38:10
  like for you? A perfect workday for me. No non-work. Day. Oh, non-work. If you really are. No
• 38:15
  responsibilities today. What are you doing today? I was watching the TV all day. I don't know what I
• 38:19
  was. You've been working too much. You know what you want to do? Yeah, I gotta think. Yeah, I gotta
• 38:24
  figure out a hobby. I gotta figure out a hobby. I guess even then. Because you say, like designing.
• 38:28
  Designing is a stress reliever, but then it's tied to work. Yeah, I would say the perfect day for me
• 38:33
  is I'll probably wake up, you know, have have a breakfast with my fiance. After
• 38:40
  that I would go work out, um, maybe draw design and then probably going to walk
• 38:47
  smoke a J and then, um, yeah, I don't know. I think I'll probably just find a way to stay busy.
• 38:54
  I don't know, I work, I like working is I'm a workaholic, bro. It's like you get it from the
• 38:58
  football, though, cause they tell you never stop. Go go go go. I'm the same way, bro. Once I get started,
• 39:04
  I can't stop. Yeah, it's kind of like you feel guilty for not working out or you feel guilty for
• 39:08
  not. You never feel like you're doing enough. Yes. For sure. I know exactly how you feel. So you just
• 39:13
  try to stay busy. And so it's hard to, like, sit and just. Be, like, chill. You're always something just
• 39:18
  going on in your head. Like, I could be doing this type of thing. Yeah, yeah. You complete the whole
• 39:21
  task. All right, what's next? What's next? So you feel satisfied? So I'm working on that right now.
• 39:28
  Like, how to just live a life? Yeah. How to live a life away from work. Because it's very difficult.
• 39:34
  How does your fiance feel about it? Yeah. Would you work with that crazy person? Yeah. Yeah, I know.
• 39:41
  She's actually working. I just I just hired on to, uh, to vet. She could say that I really, uh, well
• 39:47
  versed in this space. So they've been all talking as to finding ways for me to just free up my time.
• 39:53
  Um, yeah. She definitely doesn't want me to work as much as she would. She would. I mean, she doesn't
• 39:57
  want me to work as much, but she's super supportive in my hours and, you know, making sure,
• 40:02
  you know, I always got food. I'm always good, you know, straight. I come home, there's like, some jazz
• 40:07
  music or some soft music playing Kendall's list. So she does an amazing job of allowing me to, I
• 40:13
  guess, be a workaholic. But she understands now. She's been like, all right, it's time to fill the
• 40:18
  iPad or come on, like, she's just chill. Well, what is the point you want to get to where you're like,
• 40:23
  okay, this is a good work life balance. Um. Like, what steps do you think you need to take in order
• 40:28
  to get that? Yeah, I think it's just continued building up processes and systems within the
• 40:33
  business so that things could operate without me having to touch them. I think that's just a time
• 40:39
  thing. You know, I definitely think we have the right people and we're we're, you know, acquiring
• 40:44
  the right people in order to get this ship sailing to where I don't need to always be behind
• 40:51
  the wheel. Um, but I think it's just consistency in time, you know, process, like, a lot of people don't
• 40:57
  talk about systems and processes, but it's everything from, you know, when we take pictures,
• 41:01
  what folder does it go into and how are we choosing silhouettes? What edit are we doing? When
• 41:05
  are we posting the photos? Like all of that is just for media. When you talk about products and
• 41:12
  then designing products, tech packs, designs, blah blah blah like finding ways to make it so once
• 41:17
  something is done, we already know how we're going to go about it. Likewise, on game week, like you
• 41:22
  already know, okay, we play the game, we're probably going to watch film and we're going to start
• 41:25
  practicing for the next game. And you kind of know that system. Yeah, I feel like people talk about
• 41:31
  making the clothes, but marketing the clothes is I mean, I would even say it's even
• 41:38
  more important than the clothes themselves. Yeah. No one sees it. So like go. Yes. You're did you
• 41:44
  learn your marketing through like trial and error where I mean, you were posting videos just about
• 41:49
  like your personal life. Yeah. Did you kind of learn from that? How did you how did you separate
• 41:54
  the brand from your personal and learn how to market so well to be able to do such good numbers.
• 42:00
  Yeah, I think I love organic marketing because you get to gauge kind of what's good, what's popping.
• 42:05
  Um, I don't know. I think organic is always the way to go. Granted, you could always run ads, but I
• 42:10
  think it's just gauging how the people feel, whether it's putting something on your story and
• 42:14
  doing, you know, a slider and seeing if people are liking it or whatever. The case to the point. Just
• 42:20
  trial. Just trial and error of just, you know, making something and then asking it. Well, like, yo,
• 42:25
  what you think it is shows you thinking, do you get three yeses like it's going to sell to
• 42:29
  somebody? So, um, I would say that's kind of like the ideology behind the marketing. And I think
• 42:36
  truly, and this is obviously the confidence part of it, I think anything that I create will end up
• 42:41
  turning to to gold. It may not be loved by everybody, but I know there's at least 100 people
• 42:46
  that will like what we're doing. And even now with marketing, we're just finding ways to be more
• 42:51
  personable. Like, I even talk about the rock music or just getting what? Like I just want to show
• 42:56
  more Personality and just have more fun. So what's like the. The most exhausting part of all this?
• 43:02
  What's the one thing you're like? All right, this got to get tightened up so I can figure my life
• 43:07
  out. The most exhausting part of this. There's so many things. I think every form of
• 43:14
  the business gets gets very stressful. Like, I don't, I don't really. There's not one thing. Like,
• 43:19
  if I could say one thing, I don't even know what that one thing would be. I just know it's like
• 43:22
  finding the finance part, the operational side. So make sure that it's a well-oiled machine and
• 43:28
  everything's running smoothly and making sure that designs and creative are being pushed out.
• 43:32
  But I don't even think I could pinpoint one thing that's like, uh, the number one stressor.
• 43:38
  It sounds like I'm complaining a lot about the business. I'm just I'm just keeping it very real
• 43:42
  when it comes to, like, when owning owning a eight figure brand, like, it's it's a lot of work.
• 43:48
  Especially when three years ago, I was playing football, like, three years ago, I was, you know,
• 43:52
  running the routes. You were like, super locked in on football and I are like, all in on your brand.
• 43:57
  Do you see yourself like maybe in like a few years being like locked in on something
• 44:01
  completely different? Or you think Bottega is here to stay and like this. I would love to start, you
• 44:06
  know, creating furniture. I would love to start painting. Um, podcast. I love having conversation. I
• 44:11
  love, um, uh, just connecting with, you know, humans I love, I don't know, just just
• 44:18
  being alive and being able to feel things and whether that's, you know, expressing myself through
• 44:21
  art, fashion, uh, conversation. I think whatever creativity is available, I want to do, you know,
• 44:28
  I want to I want to maximize this life I have. Getting a couch in here because we ain't got one.
• 44:34
  Bottle because you're gonna. Make it. We need that. Sure. Yeah, I want to get that one. It's expensive
• 44:38
  to make furniture, but I definitely want to get into that for sure. You got it, though. I have a
• 44:42
  ticket. You could. See what I'm saying? You see what I'm saying? No, no. I
• 44:48
  don't want to hear nothing. About expensive, bro. I don't care nothing about expensive. Yeah, That's
• 44:54
  exactly why I don't show any numbers. I don't. After that, I showed $0 coming in. I was like. No,
• 45:00
  but like to be honest though, like, after you got the bread, did you like, just do, like some dickhead
• 45:06
  shit for the one time, like follows the club like, oh no, we've been going out. We got because we
• 45:13
  was in Houston. Like, you've been to Houston before? No, but I heard some stories. Houston is crazy. If
• 45:18
  that's your mode that you win, where you just you win. If you were in that mode, you could you could,
• 45:23
  uh, you could throw some money in, uh, you could throw some money out. We we was we was having fun.
• 45:28
  We was eating really good. Was we went to Miami one time. We did really good out there. So, um.
• 45:35
  It was it was good. It was. Good. Yeah. I wouldn't do it the way we did last time, but, um. Yeah, you
• 45:40
  definitely have fun. You you enjoy the money, I believe if you if you, uh, if you crowd the money,
• 45:45
  you you don't allow it to grow. So you gotta let money go, and it'll find a way back. I say, besides
• 45:51
  the money, Are you just chasing a better balance in your life? What's the one thing you're chasing
• 45:58
  over the next five years that's like. Oh. This is my goal. I guess it's not really
• 46:05
  measurable, but like, peace. I just want to continue to be at peace. I want to be happy. You know, like I
• 46:09
  spent a lot of my years at war with, whether it was my body with, you know, the higher power just
• 46:16
  at life. So I'm really just chasing peace. Um, a stable relationship. You know,
• 46:23
  I didn't grow up with a married family or a two parent household for, you know, that was super
• 46:30
  healthy. So chasing a stable and healthy marriage, um, financial stability. You know, I want to make
• 46:37
  sure that my kids don't have to go through what I had to go through as a, as a kid for certain
• 46:42
  things. So I'll say peace. And I'm chasing, like, experience. I want to travel so much. I just
• 46:47
  started traveling like my first time going out of the country was the Last. You just go to China. Not
• 46:53
  too long ago. Yes. Yeah. That was. Dope. Yeah, that was super dope. Yeah. Only your first trips. Be in China
• 46:58
  too. It's crazy. My first trip was Paris Fashion Week last January. That was my first time going
• 47:03
  out the country. Were you just. Did you go to the last Paris one? Uh, I went to January. Paris fashion
• 47:09
  week. This year I didn't go to the summer one. Yeah. I got. It was hot as shit. It was hot. And it was
• 47:15
  just one of those things where, I don't know, I want to experience Paris outside of outside of
• 47:19
  Fashion week. I think you get a truly authentic. Yeah, it's way different. It feels like. It feels
• 47:24
  like another version of New York. When you're there. During the same people. It's the same people.
• 47:28
  It's the same thing, same parties. And it's not like I'm being invited to to anything. So it's
• 47:35
  like, I don't want to also just go. Just to go. Like, if I'm gonna go, I would love to be invited. I
• 47:39
  would love to, you know, actually be out there to connect. Are you going to be out there working?
• 47:45
  Yeah, exactly. You're not gonna be able to stop working. Exactly. Do you? um. I mean, you went to
• 47:51
  college, so I kind of want to hear, besides recycling the money back into the brand. What else
• 47:57
  are you doing with that money to help it grow? Uh, so I have three properties. Um, I bought my mother
• 48:03
  home, uh, last, I think, November. I got her a house. I got a house in Houston. And then I also bought
• 48:10
  the warehouse that my brand is currently housed in. So, uh, real estate. Definitely an interesting
• 48:16
  thing to put money in because it's such a vast market and there's so many question marks around
• 48:20
  real estate, but, uh, real estate also, uh, got a Vanguard account, which is, which is really good,
• 48:27
  the S&P 500. So continuing to do that and uh, yeah, you got cool things that banks do, which is like
• 48:33
  bonds. Um, you could also have like they have like brokerage accounts, which are like high yield
• 48:38
  savings. Um, so being able to have, uh, I guess the diversity in your money. But what was your mom's
• 48:44
  reaction to you buying her the crib? Oh, she was crazy. Yeah. She was she was super happy. That was a
• 48:49
  surreal feeling again. Like, you know, you think about buying your mom's a crib, but then you
• 48:53
  actually do it and it's like, oh, this is dope. And then you look at the backside of it and you're
• 48:57
  like, well, shit, the interest rate is X, Y, and Z, and then you're like, the the bank is going to get
• 49:02
  this much when I pay it out. Like to the to the to the thing of just learning how money works. You
• 49:07
  know what I'm saying? Like, you could buy your mom a $600,000 crib. Amazing. Beautiful. But then you
• 49:12
  look like, okay. Over 30 years, I'll probably have paid 1.2 to the bank. Yeah. Like fuck. But then
• 49:17
  you're like, you know, it's my mom, it's mom's. But, uh, that was a that was an amazing experience to
• 49:24
  know that she doesn't have to worry about rent. She doesn't have to worry about anything that she
• 49:28
  could just live and, you know, be good. So it was the best feeling, though, you know, when you start
• 49:34
  making a little bread and then you win the car, listen to music and then you actually start
• 49:37
  relating to the lyrics. Oh, so. Yeah. It's like a nad or buying your mom's house. I don't know. You know
• 49:43
  what I mean though, because like, I was on the opposite spectrum, like one time, uh, I was in the
• 49:47
  car in high school. I was listening to Baby Smoove, and I had Wendy's in the passenger seat, and he
• 49:52
  said something about y'all motherfuckers eating Wendy's. I was like, damn. Are you talking about you?
• 49:58
  Yeah, he's like, bro, talking about me, but not reverse enough. We're good, we're good. Now you're
• 50:02
  on the good. Yeah, yeah. I'm trying my best over here. Relate to Drake. Relate to Drake a little. Bit
• 50:07
  late. When you start leading the Drake, then it's like. Yeah, you start relating to Drake. You're on
• 50:10
  your. Phone. Yeah. No, I'm. I'm relaying to, like, lucky right now. All right. Okay. So you going through it?
• 50:16
  Yeah. We're going to do a good though. I have another. Story. Lucky is a crazy pool. Yeah. You
• 50:23
  hear a lot of lucky in this house. Okay.
• 50:30
  Vegas or New York? New York. Damn. Um, bro, have you been to Vegas? I love Vegas.
• 50:37
  702. I love Vegas, but. For, like, a weekend. It's not a real. Place. Yeah, it's not a real place. Um,
• 50:44
  does Vegas have its own style? No, not really. Its. Yeah. Is there one thing that people
• 50:51
  misunderstand about your brand? Yes. What is it?
• 50:58
  There's no question. One thing that people misunderstand about my brand. Um, I think just the
• 51:04
  overall noun. Bottega. They don't understand what Bottega means. So it's just a noun. This studio
• 51:11
  workshop where art is made. I know you played football, so you're obviously competitive. Do you
• 51:15
  find yourself, like, competing with, like, maybe like, mentally or competing with like other brands that
• 51:20
  are, like in your space or is it kind of just you versus you healthy competition? I definitely use
• 51:24
  it as motivation. Like if I see another brand go crazy or design a piece, I was like, I got to get
• 51:29
  that ass. Yeah, yeah, I got I gotta go after them. So, um, healthy competition. I, I definitely respect and
• 51:34
  appreciate everybody's form of art. Uh, is there anything that your fiance has taught you that
• 51:40
  helped with, like, you personally or maybe your brand Off the top of your head. There's probably a
• 51:45
  few. Yeah, there's a lot of things. She. She's helped me. She's, uh, taught me, um. She's taught me to be a
• 51:52
  little bit more outgoing. I'm a really reserved person. I don't like talking to people unless I
• 51:57
  really trust you. But she's super bubbly, super, super lively. So, um, just, I guess being comfortable
• 52:04
  with showing a little bit more personality, for sure. Favorite meal? Favorite meal? I
• 52:11
  gotta go somewhere that. Yeah, I gotta go somewhere that my shorty makes. My shorty makes. Oh, she makes
• 52:16
  some really good like meatballs. She makes some crazy good meatballs. Crazy good meatballs. We're
• 52:22
  like a nice with, like a nice, uh, sourdough bread. And then we go, like, a side salad. Crazy. We get an.
• 52:29
  Invite. You should have brought that. Yeah. We're like a white fish and butter beans. Gas. Mm. You
• 52:35
  know what that is? I've had I mean, I've had white. I've never had no butter, you know, but I mean. I
• 52:40
  don't even know, but. Oh, what the fuck is a butter bean? I never had a better being. I don't need to
• 52:44
  be nasty, man. We'll do a cookout. But, um, what's your go to reset after, like, a brutal week?
• 52:51
  I go to reset. Yeah. Let's go bro, where I was. I was talking to one of my
• 52:58
  teammates today. I was like, yeah, I need a blunt. Take a wood to the face. Let it ease the pain. I
• 53:02
  say, but not really. Really a walk. I said walk, I just need to walk. It's a little. True. Yeah. One of
• 53:06
  my friends taught me, uh. Move a muscle. Change your thought. Move a muscle. Change the thoughts. So. Yeah.
• 53:13
  Go on a walk. Yeah. Do you follow trends? Like when you're going for, like, drops and stuff? Or is it
• 53:18
  kind of just what you are creating at the moment? It's really what I'm creating at the moment. You
• 53:24
  know, it's a lot of people kind of stay stuck in a box when it comes to the designs and the pieces.
• 53:28
  So if I see some, if I see a trend, I kind of want to do the opposite of that, that trend. Uh, best
• 53:34
  piece of advice you ever received? I guess not a piece of advice I've received, but it's a quote
• 53:39
  that I live by that helped me get through my ACLs and even struggling times. I have two. One is
• 53:45
  Frederick Douglass. Frederick Douglass. If there is no progress or if there is no struggle, there is
• 53:49
  no progress. Um, I think it's super important, especially if you're struggling in life. Just know
• 53:54
  that that's leading to growth, which is progress. Um, I have a couple a thousand mile journey starts
• 53:59
  with one step, which is dope. Um, Isaiah 41, 41 and ten. Um, so do not fear, for I am with
• 54:06
  you. Do not be dismayed from your God. I will strengthen you and help you out with uphold you. I
• 54:11
  will uphold you with my righteous hand. Um. I live by those also. Um. After the
• 54:18
  hardest views comes the best. Or after hardest climbs comes the best view. There's another one. I
• 54:23
  feel like once you've got kids, you're gonna be hitting them with hella quotes every day. Yeah. So,
• 54:28
  yeah, I actually just I just got some books on like, philosophy. So I'm just, I'm really into just
• 54:33
  figuring out the way the mind works and making sure. That bro wise, we're a 26 year old. I will say
• 54:38
  I've. Been being through some shit, man. That'd be through it. But yeah. I kind of live by
• 54:45
  those quotes, for sure. Those good ones. Uh, favorite NFL player? Um, if he was talking about my
• 54:52
  childhood, I'll say. Oh. Oh, did I have my hair? Did I die like him? Yeah. What did that whole face did?
• 54:57
  The whole nine. So I'll say. Oh, um, I mean, just say, oh, do you go? You can go,
• 55:04
  Steph, because you got the swag with the awful swag and everything. But I'll say either older
• 55:09
  stuff. Is there any like celebrity that warrior clothes that you were like genuinely like like
• 55:13
  damn. Yeah, I did that. CB Chris Brown. Oh. For real? Yeah. When Chris Brown wore it, yeah, he was on the
• 55:20
  stage doing spins and. It was like, yo, I was like, no, that's. Crazy. I remember being the kid yo.
• 55:27
  Excuses like, excuse me. Miss Dissing. Like. That, that's fine. So seeing him, seeing him wear the
• 55:31
  clothes was like not as crazy. Neymar Neymar. Wow. Yeah Neymar war. And I was like. What piece did you.
• 55:38
  Wear. are the shorts? Oh. The shorts. Yeah. The shorts. Oh, no. I was going to ask, like. So when you're
• 55:44
  getting these celebrities in clothes. Is it. Are there stylists reaching out to you and asking for
• 55:48
  pieces or are they just ordering it? Um, I'll say it's a mix of both is mainly like the people that
• 55:54
  buy it to resell it. Um, we don't we don't deal with resellers, uh, hand to hand. But we know a lot
• 56:00
  of people will buy for this store and then they'll resell it. And a lot of these influence on,
• 56:05
  like, the term influencer. A lot of these, uh, you know, content creators or athletes or artists will
• 56:11
  then go into that store and purchase. Um, but I wouldn't say not so many stylists actually reach
• 56:16
  out. Do you ever want a physical store? Yeah, I would love a physical store. That's appointment
• 56:22
  only. But then we throw like, events and we host events out of that store. So and I guess another
• 56:28
  question is, are you are you selling bulk to stores right now? No. So it's all online.
• 56:35
  Yeah. All online. All online. You have to be careful about, you know, scaling your product that much.
• 56:39
  Like, okay, it's cool. This person may want to spend a ticket to disperse your pieces to stores, but
• 56:46
  then you don't have control over your product and then saturated. You know, you got this kind of like,
• 56:51
  I don't know if I can say. You can say whatever you want. Okay. Yeah. So drugs. Yeah. You got to kind
• 56:55
  of treat it like that. You got to be mindful who's who's pushing your product, who's carrying your
• 56:59
  product. How is your product being, uh, you know, dispersed around the community. So no, no book to
• 57:04
  any story. I never thought about that. That's crazy. When do you see do you think that opportunity is
• 57:10
  near to, like, opening a store? Is that something in the near future? Um, like my own brick and mortar?
• 57:16
  Yeah, like we have a showroom right now, which is going to be, like a cool first step to owning our
• 57:22
  store. But yeah, I see maybe in the next, let's say three years would be cool. I really want to get my
• 57:29
  pieces in these stores out here that I personally love shopping, I think is really cool to be able
• 57:34
  to have product living next to your favorite brands. You do the store in New York? Yeah, I'll go
• 57:39
  for sure. Yeah, but Vegas inside, like a casino or something? No, I mean, you gotta think the the
• 57:45
  demographic that's purchasing your clothes out here versus the demographic that's out there. So
• 57:50
  I'll say out here somewhere in Texas, Texas. The brand was started in Texas. So always showing love
• 57:55
  to either Houston or Dallas. Um, and then a store out here for sure would be fine. What do we do?
• 58:01
  Yeah. I think we'll end with two more serious questions 20 years from now. What
• 58:08
  do you want the people to remember? He's still going to be here, right? I'm just saying. 20 years
• 58:14
  from now, you're going to have the career set in stone, you know. Early 20, 20 years. What do I want
• 58:19
  them to remember? Um, I want them to remember that I inspired that. I
• 58:26
  inspired in that. I actually, uh, tried I think a lot of people I was there was another podcast or
• 58:33
  someone I asked. Was asking me some questions. Not an official podcast like this. But, um, you know, a
• 58:39
  lot of people tell you to go try and go after your dreams and your desires. You have the people
• 58:44
  who do it, and you have the people who who don't and the people who do. Usually when you go out
• 58:47
  there, what you want to go out there comes with a lot of negativity or hate. So just, just I want
• 58:53
  people to remember that I actually tried and that, um, you know, I jumped off the porch and I just
• 58:59
  whatever happened, that happened. So that's. True. Do you ever have any doubt in your mind? Um, when I
• 59:05
  don't drop for a while, there's, like, there's, like a little bit of doubt. It's kind of like, if you
• 59:08
  don't get down for a while, you can be like, okay, you know, you're still going to perform well. But
• 59:13
  when I say get down, you know. Yeah. I didn't see no reaction to you. I was like, hmm. But you know, like,
• 59:20
  yeah, if I don't drop for a little while, I think that kind of doubt can start to creep up. Um,
• 59:25
  imposter syndrome. Like, not really viewing yourself how others may view you or your brand is.
• 59:31
  Or do you also have imposter syndrome? I ever had. That. Should I get it? I feel like every every I
• 59:36
  like look at some of my old content when I'm, like, trying to make new videos and stuff. I'm like, well,
• 59:39
  I don't even, like, feel like him anymore. Like, I feel different. But then I still want to connect
• 59:45
  to the audience that I built in. So it kind of it kind of it's a little different than like having
• 59:49
  a brand per se, but like when, like you're your own brand, kind of like making just content about
• 59:54
  yourself. I'm beginning every now and then. Sometimes I'll be. Getting fraud and I'll be in
• 59:58
  the shower and you're like, damn, should I just gotten a regular job, bro? Yeah, I don't get that.
• 1:00:06
  What? What are your thoughts on social media since, like, y'all, a lot of y'all brand is on social
• 1:00:12
  media or personal brand. Like, what is your aspect of social media? I mean. I guess positive and
• 1:00:19
  negative. I mean, the positive is like I guess the, the creative freedom and kind of, I guess being
• 1:00:24
  able to control your own schedule for the negative sometimes, like, I mean, everything you do
• 1:00:30
  is like you had to do it. Like you got to come up with a video idea. You got to make the content. You
• 1:00:35
  got to get. Be brand friendly and do everything. Sometimes you just want to go brainless and just
• 1:00:39
  maybe just, like, put in a few hours and get paid from it. But like, if you're not being creative and
• 1:00:43
  doing all this stuff, like you're not getting paid, but rent still do kind of thing. So I mean, it
• 1:00:48
  changed my life. I went. From changed my. Life to sitting in the basement, going to basketball
• 1:00:52
  practice to living here, freaking walking shows, making money.
• 1:00:59
  I mean, I could never guess this had happened to me in my life, bro. I'm so blessed and I'm very
• 1:01:04
  thankful. And it just like, I mean, I think more than ever, like, especially like our
• 1:01:10
  generation, they want to make money, but they don't want to make it the conventional way. Right? And
• 1:01:15
  that's like the whole reason for this podcast. It's called corporate dropout. Like people like
• 1:01:18
  you taking the unconventional career path. I feel like being successful. The craziest thing about it
• 1:01:23
  is, like every guest and even us that we've had on like no one kind of went into it for the money.
• 1:01:29
  Like it was kind of just passion. But yeah, it all just ended up paying us and giving us freedom to
• 1:01:35
  kind of do more of what we want to do. Final message to the youth. Give us a cool camera. Yeah.
• 1:01:40
  Heart to heart. Heart to heart. Like the keys to Carson. Yeah. There's little music in the
• 1:01:45
  background. Um, I would say, you know, chase your desires, go after everything that you want to go
• 1:01:52
  after. You have one life on this earth. So make sure that you're doing what makes you happy. Um, if
• 1:01:59
  it's disrupting, disrupting your peace for a constant amount of time, probably make some moves
• 1:02:04
  and make some changes, you know, even if to the point. Like if money's not flowing or whatever the
• 1:02:09
  case is, go after what you're passionate about. You have a lot of people that are making six figures,
• 1:02:14
  making seven figures, and they're not happy, you know? You know what I'm saying? Like, it's not the
• 1:02:19
  money that is going to provide you peace. So go out there what you you truly want to go after. You
• 1:02:26
  have desires like, you know, there's no limit to to what you can achieve. You know, if someone's done
• 1:02:31
  it before, you could do it. Me and me and my boys always say, why not us? Like you know, why not us? So
• 1:02:37
  see what you did there. To have desires. Yeah. Chase your desires. We say that all the time. Chase, chase
• 1:02:43
  the desire. Chase the desires. Put down to. You. Uh, that's like our little slogan. We haven't put it
• 1:02:47
  on the T yet. We should have put it on. We should, we should. We should put it there. You know. Now, now
• 1:02:53
  I'm 10%, but, um. Yeah. Chase. Chase our desires, bro. Chase. Well, we appreciate you coming out so
• 1:02:59
  much. Appreciate your love from here. Thank you for the invite I appreciate y'all. Hey, comment who you
• 1:03:05
  want to see for your next guest. Uh, corporate drop out, and, uh, we'll catch you every Thursday. Uh,
• 1:03:11
  YouTube, Apple Podcast and Spotify. Yes, sir. For me, Myles and Jay. Mitch. We'll see you all next week.
• 1:03:18
  Deuces.