18,19 years old
started right out of a front bedroom of my mom's house yeah so
very small
that's right you guys today we're diving into what it takes to build
a brand from out of your mom's garage to a facility that produces over 500,000
garments every single day so in this video I actually just want to take you
guys behind our own scenes as well and show you guys what we're creating here
and since my brother Cesar was there he's actually the man in charge of
editing this video,
hey seez what are you doing
oh!
um
sorry my bad I was just trying
to figure out what everyone kept telling me I look like McLovin
do you see the resemblance here ?
umm..
no?
ok! thank you I don't get it
hows the video coming along?
yeah, you want to go ahead and take a look?
yea sure!
and then we started to get into
manufacturing today say mid 90s and 94 95 and just started making different
products for different companies but then realized what a what in need there
was to make retail garments for the wholesale industry so we started to
build into that and then we started to beginning in the
manufacturing pretty deep so learning about it different doing different
things with it
so you have a guys that's key tip number one that Marco just
shared with you guys that I feel entrepreneurs myself included oftentimes
really miss sometimes we just create a product thinking that people need it but
we don't really fine-tune it and figure out if that's a market that truly
deserves and is wanting it for BELLA+CANVAS it meant starting with a woman's
line of apparel that was essentially for the wholesale market at a time where
wholesale was just regular blank t-shirts for men really and in the
corporate world so they came in there with some designs
and later on they added a men's side of it just like any brand product that is
one of your favorites whether it's Nike or anything that you buy they began with
the need for that product and from there they evolved it so keep that in mind as
you guys create your brand and which really leads us in to tip number two
that I want to share with you guys right now
so can you talk to us about how your
vision when you started the company has evolved or perhaps is becoming a reality
today like what are you most proud of and what how did you guys start out to
do this business sure in the beginning I would say you know we wanted to make a
great t-shirt you know started small our thought was create a great t-shirt then
once you start to do this you start to learn about doing things in an
eco-friendly way how you dye how much water consumption you use you know being
under a lot of regulation makes you think you know what we should even go
beyond that we should even let's look at low water consumption where it's not a
requirement but let's let's target that as a solution to that we can make fabric
with very low water consumption you know it's so it kind of evolves and you if
you're always open to learning then you're gonna make better products and
then you're gonna do things in a better way and I would say that today with how
polluted the world's getting limiting the pollution that you put out is a huge
issue and so I think by having us look at how you know water is processed how
chemicals are process inputs if you can improve all those different
things then you could be a sustainable business for next 50 years you can't
you can't do that in some countries
and that's key tip number two guys is to
go the extra mile with your brand or service because when you do that you're
able to stand out in a market that's still doing things the same way for
bella canvas this meant making a quality tee in an eco-friendly way they were
able to reduce the water usage as well as the waste when it comes to dyeing
so for any brand out there watching and listening find ways to actually stand
out and make a difference by going the extra mile
hey Seez what do you think people or brands can do to go the extra mile?
I think for a majority of reasons and people going the extra me means like you
know contacting your customers and all that
what are you doing? Why are you glasses like that?
oh sorry I was these damn lawn care
people they don't know what they're doing outside they're making all this
noise where they can't hear or what not not everybody has the money to go the
extra mile and revolutionize an industry but you got to start with what you have
and as you guys grow I think it really dives into this next question here
what would you say is a lesson that you've learned or perhaps applied to your life
as you were growing this business that really impacted your ability to keep up
with it not-not-not let it beat you down or
stress you out like how do you cope with that you still have fun with it on a
daily basis you know you get out of bed you're excited about going to work and
really just look at everything is not so much what what have you accomplished but
just were the opportunities what are the cool things you can do in the future
what does the world need from you like why is your company here and if you
think once you start to think that you're some great fantastic company you
start to lose your edge when you think of yourself as look every day we wake up
like entrepreneurs we need to solve problems we need to be proactive if
you're as soon as you get think that you're at the top of that mountain
then you're done
someone's gonna take you out so you just
got a you got to enjoy what you do you have to do something that's you know for
me you got to do things that are good for the world you know we're here for a
short time you've got to do things that are good for the world
and then enjoy it you know enjoy the people that you work with enjoy that the
customers that you have I can only imagine the pressure and the stress
involved with managing up to a thousand employees all counting on you for your
business to succeed and Bella Canvas Marco DeGeorge and his team have created such an
amazing infrastructure and business but really think about that for a second
like a thousand people counting on you for you feeding their families and
providing for their own communities and lives I have a very small team here and
even with that small team at times it really feels like there's a lot of
pressure and a lot of things counting on me for it to succeed and perhaps you're
in a similar situation where you have a small business maybe you're the only
person running that business and everything is counting on you for it to
even grow now at times it could feel very stressful and make you want to feel
like maybe you should go get a full-time job again but I think the lessons that
Marco here really shared can be something that you can apply and really
take home and that is in enjoying everything that you do and more
importantly finding opportunities and the challenges that arise throughout the
course of your business there's always opportunities that come up through the
challenges and if you're able to see those opportunities you're able to
capitalize on them and make your business and your life a lot better so I
had a moment to reflect over the last few months and I realized I had to
really think five to ten years in advance and say what do I want to be
doing with a business what do I want why do I want to be doing with this channel
and it led me to the start of a whole new series for this channel which I want
to let you guys know about today which is essentially bringing you guys behind
the scenes to show you how major brands and businesses are operating globally so
this is a very special production we put si
we wrote we produced we directed and it's actually gonna launch on this
channel within the next few weeks the first episode will and we're just
excited and we're blessed to be able to have the opportunities to get behind the
scenes with brands to develop canvas and many others that we'll be sharing on
this channel and I really feel that that is what people need to hear they need to
be able to see how the inner workings are that very few people are willing to
share but that is my goal that is my vision to continue helping you guys and
with that I think it really leads us into this next topic
was there ever a point where you felt like
man are we really doing the right thing or should
we try to do something else well I think our failures our biggest learning you
know periods like I think about when there's success and when there's failure
and I think when there's failure you actually learn the most I think you you
figure things out you you know and that and we've had you know many many
problems we had to solve many you know issues but you always grow from figuring
in the mouth yeah and whether it's you know if you want to make lower water
consumption products you know those kind of things then you really you know it's
a problem you got to solve it you have to and if you really want to it's a you
know it's an issue you got to figure it out so I would say that there's lots of
things that you know I think that just as a human being you learn things more
from when things are when you have to pull yourself out of something or you're
trying to solve a problem that's difficult then when things are great and
everyone's telling you oh this is great
the reality of entrepreneurship is that
you'll encounter failure and overcoming that failure essentially helps you
graduate from a school of hard knocks I took night classes no for real guys
like failures one of the things that will continue to come up over the course
of your business in your journey regardless of how big or successful
you're getting and it's in really realizing that you're coming to a moment
of potential failure that helps you really build up the courage and helps
you build up the plans and the team to get over that and you experience that
growth that you need and sometimes it might mean hey maybe we
should do things differently and that might mean starting fresh and starting
completely new which he also provides some amazing advice to do
so do you have a tip for anybody like
that wants to get into a partnership with somebody
like how do you vet them before you even think about that?
well you definitely
people that are of high character you know that have similar
values good values because a lot of when money gets involved a lot of
partnerships fall apart because someone's trying to take advantage of
the money aspect so you want to you want people that aren't doing this
necessarily for the money so much you're doing it because you love
doing it because you're looking for money because when you when
you just when you're chasing money sometimes you'll you know get taken
advantage of or take advantage if it's just about the money but if it's about
the business the building and all those things if you can find a partner that's
into that that's great
man so that really is like a marriage?
that's right it's right if you get
married for money that you're in trouble too
now you guys know I never asked you
to go back and watch something but I truly want you to go back and watch what
Marco just finished saying really take a moment right now if you didn't
if you weren't paying attention to what he had to say when he was
discussing was partnerships and more importantly the difficulties in
navigating them in order for them to be successful you know in my own life over
the last ten years I didn't make the best decisions when it
came to choosing partners and it was really the reason why I needed to
reevaluate my life and decide to step aside in order to move forward was
something that was fresh new and something that we were passionate about
and had a very strong vision for oftentimes partnerships don't work
because people have different objectives or they see things a lot differently and
just like he mentioned partnership is like a marriage and if you're not on the
same page about what your life vision is then it's very hard for it to last and
I've had multiple discussions with mentors about it over the years and they
all told me to proceed with caution be careful with the partners you choose
because they can ultimately dictate your success or failure in your business so I
truly hope this video helps you guys in reaching your goals for 2020 and beyond
I really felt that this piece of content and this advice from Marko was so
powerful I needed to create a special video in order to share it with you guys
so with that being the case I really hope that these five lessons guide you
through your guys's success and more importantly I want to make sure that you
guys know that the first season the from the ground up is actually launching
within the next few weeks so I want you guys to really visit the premiere when
we finally are ready to announce it it'll be announced all over the
community the email the Instagram the Facebook everywhere if you haven't
already followed me on those channels make sure you do
and as we'll continue to provide this type of information and assistance to
guide your in your creative businesses and your brands and just really explore
more of what it takes to continue to build your brand and business from the
ground up so I hope you enjoyed it again and we'll see each other very soon bye