“We did it because we didn’t know it was impossible.” - Remy Delaune
For the past month, I’ve been in the early stages of building a physical product brand.
I won’t say what it is, yet.
But I will say that it’s a new adventure, for me.
In 16 years of business, I’ve never had to deal with co-manufacturers, 3PLs, supply chains, regulators, and 9-figure VC-funded juggernauts I’ll be competing with on the strength of my skills alone.
It’s exciting as hell.
And, honestly, a bit scary.
Starting a brand is brutally expensive, complicated, and risky.
And if I don’t keep my guard up and my chin down, I could easily find myself flat on my back, looking up at the lights.
Every day, there are fresh problems I don’t know how to solve, because I’ve never solved them before.
And in those moments, I’ve noticed a funny little pattern:
When my mind runs into a problem, its first impulse is to shut down.
“Too bad, I guess it won’t work.”
“It’s way too competitive, customer acquisition cost will be insane.”
“This Chinese manufacturer’s health & safety certifications look fake, if I work with them the FDA might sue me for tens of millions and make me spend the next six years sleeping on the bottom bunk under Tai Lopez.”
Silly mind.
Thankfully, every problem I’m facing has been solved before.
Which means every problem can be solved.
If Elon can solve reusable rockets, I can damn sure solve gross margins on a fxcking bottle of pills.
(I’m not actually selling pills, but you get the idea)
That mental pattern of hitting the doomsday button every time I run into a scary problem is not helping me solve it.
So I’ve introduced a new pattern I call:
Working the problem
It’s very simple, and goes like this…
- Run into a problem
- Ignore my mind bitching about it
- Write the problem down
- Write down possible solutions & run them through AI
- Start solving it
In other words:
Instead of coming up with reasons why it won’t work, focus on finding ways to make it work.
(the short-form meme I've been using is "ask how, not if")
Remember, our brain is wired for survival and energy conservation, which means the default state of our brain is scared and lazy.
So it’s on us to override those factory settings if we want to do more than just survive.
I think that’s why I’m building this brand, instead of staying holed-up in my cozy little “retirement” of writing and coaching and running retreats.
I’m doing it for money, of course, but there are a million easier ways to make money.
More than that, I’m doing it to test myself against a scary-ass challenge and see who I become in the process.
I’ll keep you posted.
- T
P.S. In the spirit of brand-building, I’ve been re-reading Shoe Dog (goated book in case for some crazy reason you haven’t read it yet).
This passage was a banger:
“Bowerman's strategy for running the mile was simple. Set a fast pace for the first two laps, run the third as hard as you can, then triple your speed on the fourth. There was a Zen-like quality to this strategy, because it was impossible. And yet it worked. Bowerman coached more sub-four-minute milers than anybody, ever.”
Reminds me of the story at 5:42 in this video…