My First, My Last, My Everything | Mogul Moments w/guests Brittney Major and Jai & Angela Anderson

Well, hello everybody and welcome back to Mogul Moments. I am your host Camille D. Jamerson, CEO of C.E.M® and Associates, as well as The Camille Company. And speaking of The Camille Company, I want to give a shout out to The Camille Company. Yeah, my own company for sponsoring this episode of Mogul Moments. And if you or your company or you have a product or event and you want to sponsor an episode of Mogul Moments, just let me know. We have 30-second spots and 60-second spots that you can get for your business, and I will highlight your business right in this spot here. I will also put your business on our promo material when it goes live. You will get, of course, shoutouts on our Facebook page and our YouTube page, and we leave those episodes up until infinity, so you will get a shoutout for your business whenever someone happens to watch that episode. So if you're interested, just let me know. DM me or put it down in the comments. And I will certainly reach back out to you. Now, today's show is really, really, really, really exciting. Um, and I say that about every show, but this one for real, for real. And the reason is, is that I got two sets of entrepreneurs. Um, one is a couple and, and one is not, but they're entrepreneurs right at the beginning of their journey. So we're going to talk to them about kind of the highs and lows of building their business and what it's like to birth a business and the joys of the labor pains and the lows of the things that they may not have known about. And you get an opportunity to get a sneak peek kind of behind the velvet rope of what it's like to actually start a business from the very beginning. And hopefully I can talk them into coming back on maybe at the beginning of next season so we can see how they're doing. But right now, at the beginning of their journey, we want to talk to them about kind of how things have been, and it will give you motivation and encouragement if you're looking to start your business, because if they can do it, so can you. So I'm going to bring on Brittany Major, and Brittany will be starting a business called Fusion Management, and I'm gonna let them introduce themselves and tell you all about their businesses. And we also have Jay and Angela Anderson, and they are the founders of the Oversized T-Shirt Company. So I'm gonna bring them on, and you guys clap— you supposed to be clapping out and welcome them on to my show. Hello, hello, hello! How y'all doing?

We're doing great, how are you?

Good, all is well, all is well. Now full disclosure, I just want to be really transparent here. Jay and Angela, they're my son and my daughter, so if you hear him call me ma, don't think he's just being disrespectful. He really is my son. So just a moment of transparency there, but he and and his wife are at the beginning of their journey too. So I definitely wanted his and her insight and input on this. We're going to start with Brittany. Brittany is beginning Fusion Management. I want her to tell you all about herself and a little bit about what Fusion Management is going to be all about. Take it away, Britt.

I am Brittany Major, principal of Fusion Management. We're a small business specializing in small business and professional and entrepreneur concierge services. So VA services, some, some human resources if you're looking for like a permanent assistant or something like that, helping small business owners and entrepreneurs with the small things that get them stuck in and block the growth of their businesses.

Absolutely. Love it, love it. And when is— when around are you looking to launch?

So, um, officially I started Fusion in 2014, but it's just kind of been sitting there, right? Um, and so I— this time around I haven't given myself like a hard deadline launch date. It's do the work and get it out. Um, because I've tried to, you know, this is the date we're going to do this, it's going to go live here, and it doesn't work for me. So I'm just going to get it all together and just be like, here it is, give me a call, holler at me, let me know what you need me to do, and move from that point.

Okay, I get it. I get it. Some people can't work with, like you said, that launch date theory. It's just like, you got to finish today. Okay, it's Tuesday. You're welcome, I'm open.

That's exactly what it's going to be. It's going to be just like that. Okay, this looks good.

Let's start. Let's go. Okay, okay, so Jay and Angela, introduce yourselves and tell us a little bit about your business.

So I'm Jay and Angela Anderson. We started a t-shirt company called the Oversized T-Shirt Company. So we're an e-commerce-based business with kind of the new model, obviously with Instagram, using Instagram as our major our major marketing tool to promote the brand. So kind of how it came about a little bit was just kind of, I've always had some entrepreneurial bones, obviously because of my mother. But for us, just juggling the workload that we have, we're in full-time ministry, just part of our lives, our faith. And then we have 3 kids. So we just kind of always just put it on hold in every season. So before we had kids, I think it was just a lot of fear and nervousness, to be honest. We just took the leap. We just started, and our first step was buying the domain name. We're like, yes, we did it.

That's a big deal, isn't it?

It is.

It's probably like one of the cheapest parts of the whole process, but you feel like you got something done.

It's like, yes.

Yeah, depending on the domain name you buy. Some domain names aren't that cheap.

I figured that out.

Thankfully, my name isn't one of those popular names. I was able to snag my domain name. I was like, let me grab this right quick.

It's been years in the making in our heart, and we just finally pulled the trigger in late 2020, 2021, right in the heat of COVID honestly, where we decided to just like, so that's a little bit of our how we got started. And launch date is Mother's Day, May 9th.

Finally.

Yes.

So now, and actually, that brings up a really good point. And Um, a question I don't know if we had an opportunity to discuss, but both of you guys are launching these businesses right in the middle of a pandemic, and it would seem to some that that's not an opportune time. What has been your thoughts on that? Has the pandemic in any way affected what you planned or wanted to do or didn't do, or has it not been a hindrance at all? Either one. Just jump in.

Well, for me, the pandemic hasn't been a focus of it, right?

Okay.

So it's been— I've been dabbling in my business, like I said, since 2014. And there was a point where I was looking for a job. I'm looking for full-time, good benefits, good pay, and been doing that since before the pandemic. March, I finally got that last letter that was like, you have great qualifications, but, you know, and I just said that. I said, you know, I have enough people, I've had enough clients that I have worked with already where I don't need to keep going through this stress. Um, so let me just shift gears a little bit and focus on this 100%. Because this is clearly where I'm supposed to be anyway. So the pandemic was just something fun to play with while I was doing it.

She's like, no pandemic over there.

No pandemonium. It's all right.

I see that.

But yeah, if anything, it has allowed me the opportunity to work more and fine-tune. Just what I am doing in my business. The job that I had when the pandemic started, you know, my hours were cut. I was at home. I had a little time. So it was, you know, let's look at this. Let's do this. Will this work? Why won't that work? So it's given me time to build better and better prepare my business than previously before.

Okay, Jay and Angela.

I think for us, I like how you said that, just the preparation. I think for us, we always felt like we didn't have the time. And obviously, whenever everything shut down, you know, March, you know, 2021, it was like, okay, now you have plenty of time.

You got nothing but time.

And I think isolation can do one or two things. I think it can crush you, or you can really use it as a time of self-reflection. So for us, it was like these goals, these dreams, these visions that we had, you know, to build something, to dabble in entrepreneurship. We're like, okay, like, all right, let's, let's take this time of isolation and self-reflection of ourselves and like, okay, let's just do it. Uh, so for us, I don't know if you had something to jump in.

I think that's it. I think, to be honest, I think that we didn't ever have the time to sit down and really talk it out more so than anything. Like Jay said, he's always had that entrepreneur-like thing. That's not necessarily been something that's on me. I'm like, eh.

I'm a good worker. John is kind of entrepreneurial.

He is.

He is.

I'm more of that tell me what to do and I'll do it. Go for it. So we just never had the time to sit down and him really explain to me the heart and me jump on board with him.

I saw it from my perspective, we had a whole lot more time.

We had a whole lot more time to sit and talk about everything, not just what we had to be intentional before with our alone time to spend time together and make sure that we were having time together. But we were able to talk about everything. And so we were able to talk about this and really go into why he has that entrepreneur's heart and me get it as well.

Sorry, that was my fault. I apologize.

But for me to jump on board with it as well then and then had the time to talk out then what we wanted to do. It's like you have to get on board and be excited about it, but then also like figure out exactly what we wanted to do. So yeah, I think that's what it was, just the time. Yeah, we had a whole lot more time to figure it out.

Yeah, not seeing the pandemic as a hurdle, but more as an opportunity. Yeah, for sure.

Yeah. Okay, here's a good question. And this time we're going to start with D'Angela and then go to Brittany so she has more time to think about her answer. This time. Um, so both of you guys' businesses, I could probably rattle off 5 businesses off the top of my head that I know that's already doing what both of you guys are doing, that's already doing kind of what Brittany's doing, and that's already doing kind of what you guys are doing. So what, what's your— we call it in business terms USP, your unique selling point. So what is the thing that's going to make your particular brand or your particular business stand out? What's so different about, um, The Oversized T-Shirt Company and Fusion Management that regardless to what else is out there, you see a uniqueness in what you are bringing to the table that you think is going to make your business a success?

Yeah, something for us, um, honestly, when we're in the curation process of like what our business will look like. We had a lot of different ideas and thoughts and themes and, um, should it be faith-based, should it be, um, like we just kind of just played around with some different things, things that were important to us, things that we identified with, obviously where we're from, Michigan and Tennessee. And so it kind of came down to just telling stories about us but in a unique way that people can relate to it. So is it so niched down where it's, well not niched down, it isn't so personal to us, I would say, that it would be a disconnect. But like, for instance, so our slogan is that we tell stories on oversized comfy apparel. So those stories that we're telling is stories that are unique to us. So for instance, there's one t-shirt slogan that says, "Just brave" on the t-shirt, and we obviously did a unique design with it. But the story is our daughter, our youngest daughter named Hill, she's just deathly afraid of heights. And I would take her and actually put her on top of our minivan and I would have her jump down to me just to practice trust, like trusting your dad, be brave. So then all of a sudden, like every time I would put her up there, she would just start crying and going scary. I felt like a horrible dad. So I'll tell you the end of the story.

Horrible! Honey!

So she would, you know, get confidence, you know, become brave, and she would jump into my arms, and then she would just tap her chest and say, "I'm brave, I'm brave, Daddy, I'm brave." So for us, we're like, you know, obviously bravery is something that everybody can relate to, but us telling our story, we hope that, you know, like, for their children. So I think for us, that's our unique selling point, because honestly, there's a lot of t-shirt brands, there's a lot of —A lot of oversized t-shirts. —There's a lot of oversized t-shirt brands. I didn't realize that.

This is unique too.

Yeah, there's a lot of niche brands where the shirt says coffee please, and for us, we're like, we're not telling those stories because those stories are not real to us. We want to tell stories that are real to us, and we hope that relates to people. And the response has been so great just in our first little, as we've been rolling out t-shirts and designs and things of that nature. Excited to share those stories as well.

Yeah, yeah, I think that's it. I think it's— we tried to— number one, you have to be niche when you're doing retail. Yeah, we found you have to be very niche, and you think you need to be broad, but really you actually need to be niche so that you can be sure that you're reaching your audience. So yeah, we're that, but I think what makes us unique is exactly what he said, that we're telling stories, and that it's a cool shirt and it's something anybody can relate to, but then when you read the the story and you see our girls were putting pictures of us up, you know, like, so when you see it, you can relate to it. It's almost like a connection that's made there to make us unique. Awesome.

Okay, Brittany, what's unique about Fusion Management?

Well, not to make my head as big as this screen here, but I am what's unique to Fusion Management. I was dubbed the Britney by my intern supervisor in undergrad, and somehow word got out because she mentioned it on Facebook, and that is what I have gone through life. Everybody who I've worked for or worked with come back to calling me the Britney. I have to I have to sit, you know, because I even previously I worked with a lot of small businesses. I would have to sit the owners down and break it to them very gently that I was leaving.

Some refused to let me go. So, yeah, no, you can't go.

Like, you can go, but just know I'm calling you tomorrow because I we got to do these things. And, you know, um, so I'm what you need to Fusion Management, um, which is also a part of my struggle, is because I want to be able to make it be a scalable business, and I need to know, uh, I need to know how much of myself to give, um, what parts of myself to sell, you know, um, yourself to duplicate. Yeah, you know, all of that. And then the fun part is figuring out how to duplicate those parts. So, you know, the quality is there at every turn. So, you know, sometimes I had to come to terms with the term, the Britney, but that's what's leading my charge currently is you, you're the Britney. No one else can be the Brittany. They can't get it from anywhere else. You got to give it to them.

I love it. Okay, and anybody can jump in and answer this one. Has there been anything that's happened so far that has made you second-guess your decision? Like, I mean, it could have been something minute, doesn't necessarily have to be something big, but something that made you say, what am I— why did I get in? But Like, what am I doing? Is there anything that jumped off that made you really second-guess either the timing or starting the business at all?

Anybody? Every day that ends in Y.

All the time.

You know, I'm always finding the, you know, somebody else has it or somebody else is doing it or there's not enough money or you can't charge that much, or who do you think you are? So it's always something that I'm fighting. Yeah. But again, I just, you know, it's those days where it's like, well, you know, who else gonna do it? You're right. Who else gonna do it? Right. So let's just go.

What about you guys, Jay and Angela?

Any bumps so far? I would say similar to what What she said, what Brittany said, that we, you know, there's, you second-guess yourself sometimes. Like, are you doing everything right? Because you've never done it before. So you do all this research and all this time, and, uh, you know, we've sat down and we've had these conversations where we're like, he's like, are we doing everything? What are we supposed to be doing?

I guess it's like you're trying to find a playbook, but like, yeah, I mean, yeah, there's, there's certain tools and resources that you can get from other people, but it's your business. So like Right. You're designing the playbook. So it's just that confidence in the plays that you're drawing up. It's like, is this the right decision? Is it the wrong decision? Should we do marketing here? Should we invest this much money here? So, yeah, it's just kind of— yeah, I would say it's that.

And time. I think that there's times, like, for us, like Jason said, we're in full-time ministry. So Easter week was like, we didn't get to do anything. I know.

It's like church Super Bowl. Yeah. That's major.

Full on, you know, we didn't do anything for the business that whole— for like a week and a half because just with taking care of our girls and Easter, we kind of second-guessed. But then we had to just sit down and say, we talked about this before, we knew that we would have these seasons where there would be a week or so we couldn't focus on the business, but then we jump right back in and we would get that taken care of. So it's just, you have those thoughts, but then you get up, you wake up the next day, you keep going again.

Yeah. Yes. So I think I know the answer to this because both of you guys, all of you guys sound like creatives. But what was the easy part for you? As far as besides the domain, what was the easy part for you in building the business?

I think if I could ask, I'll jump in. I just didn't want to forget Brittany. I think for us, the easy part was the stories for us. So like I said, we Our goals for our t-shirts, our sayings that we put on t-shirts, that is from a story. So the easy part is the storytelling aspect. And we just did our brand photo shoot last Saturday and then just kind of making the scenes that were— and to make those stories come to life. I think for us, because it's authentic to us, it isn't like we're trying to grab from somewhere or trying to reach for somewhere. I think the stories were the easy things for us.

I would say it's the fun thing.

Yeah, the fun things.

The fun things are what makes it. Are the easy things. So that's fun, you know, the design, coming up with it and all of that. That just— when you're having fun, it's easy. For sure. What about you, Britt?

Yeah, the easy thing for me is probably the name of the business. I did— I came up with Fusion. I was about 12 or 13. Like, I knew then I would not, you know, I would be my own boss. Is what it was at 12, 13. You know, everyone called me bossy. That's fine, I'll be my own boss. Um, and you know, the business has evolved. Like, at 12 and 13, it started as me wanting to do like event planning and getting in very much trouble for it, you know. But, uh, that's been the easiest part. And even through the the evolution, the transition, the change, um, the name fits. So I don't know how it was so easy then and why I thought that it would work at this point, um, but it fits. So that's been the easiest part for me. That's the easy part.

So, okay, do you guys— are you focusing or have given any thought to, um, I call it what's next, kind of your growth strategy? Or is starting the business taking up so much capacity you don't even want to think about that part yet? You're just focusing on the here and now. Or are you kind of thinking, well, down the road we'd like to, or as time goes on, or in 3 years you want to do this, in 5 years you want to do that. Give me your thoughts there, Britt.

I have, I have very much, especially in the last year. I thought about what the next is, and I really need to, first of all, get it out of my brain because it sits in my brain. Sometimes it's one of the things that make me go, hmm, what am I really doing here? But to me, it's such a genius idea that it's like, you have to move forward with this. You can't keep it here. So I have to get it down. I have to get the plan together and make sure that what I'm doing now aligns with what that will be and what that will look like. But it's definitely a plan. Really.

Jay and Angela?

So I think for us, obviously, with any small business or business in general, obviously the main goal is you want to make money. But besides that, for us, Some of our goals is just to be able to help people. So for us, obviously with some of the profit and things that we make to be able to, the long, I guess, end play is to build a community to help people. So like, for instance, to be able to donate to like women's shelters and be able to, be able to, so the community we build from our social media following, hey, meet us here, you know, or regardless of where they're at, whether it's LA or Arizona or Florida, hey, This day on a Saturday, we're all going to help clean up the park. So our goal is to kind of create a community outside of making money, to create a community, build a community, and help it go from there. So that's like long-term, which is people do good in the world and to see people do more. I think like what we said with entrepreneurship and launching a business, I think a lot of times we put a cap on ourselves that this is what we can do or this is what we have time for. So we're really just calling people to more and to help others. That's kind of the center motivation, I would say.

Yeah, no, I think that's it. I think we— I was going to say yes and no because we have talked about it and we have thought about it, but a lot of time has gone into the launching and the starting. But we've already talked about our next collections. Like, we're launching May 9th with our first collection, our Chapter 1, but we've already got ideas and designs in play for the next one for fall. So like we are taking those steps for future to make sure that we have a reachable goal, but also that we have those unreachable goals, like what Joe's saying, like our way in the future is that, like we want this community built around it, but then also taking into consideration our time and what we have to put into it and what the priorities are in our personal lives and putting them together. So it's definitely something we've talked about and looked into.

Awesome. Now, Brittany, are you a first or second generation entrepreneurs? Are you got entrepreneurs in your family?

I am a first generation. First generation. I am.

So my question to both of you guys then, as a first and a second generation entrepreneur, what responsibility do you feel as far as generating wealth and passing that on to the next generation? Are you building the business, um, with a thought in mind that, hey, this is something I can pass down, um, to my kids, or is it more I'm building, um, opportunities and wealth, um, so I can build opportunities for your kids? So is it more passing the business down or leveraging the wealth that you hope to gain from the business?

Um, Ideally, you know, I wanted to pass it down to my kids, but if that's not what they're interested in or they have no desire to even run a business, I can't expect them to take care of that and take over that, right? So ultimately it is, um, what can I do to help the, the next person? What can I do to ensure that the objectives and goals of Fusion Management are met, but also that the community we serve is fine. The people who come behind us understand the importance of building wealth and longevity in business or in life in general. So I, I do think about it, but it's it's not, you know, like we—

I know, and all you guys got like small kids, so— not small, but younger kids. Yeah, my kids are like grown grown, so I was just interested in your perspective. So, so Jay, Angela, what do you guys think? Is this something you want to pass on to the girls, or, um, not necessarily? In my head, I can't even— I don't even know where to put that. Wow.

So this is option 2. We want to build wealth that they can either utilize for additional schooling or for something along entrepreneurship themselves. So for us, that was when we were kind of curating the brand. It's kind of like, okay, what are our goals for us? So like, yeah, we want to make money, but what is that for? Something you gotta have a plan for your money so you can have these extra things, but what is it for? So like right now, is to be able to have some of those vacation moments, to be able to splurge a little bit, those different things. But then, like, for us, the goal, obviously, and what the main goal is, is to build a storehouse for our girls, to kind of create that generational wealth, to be able to move down to, like, third generation entrepreneurs. So, like, they can have a good starting point or a launching point, or even if we're buying a vehicle for them to start to just get into the workforce. Like, we kind of help them kind of make those first initial steps for sure.

Yeah, I think also even if we don't pass the business to them, just giving them the tools and seeing that it can be done and what we put into it. I mean, our oldest has already— she's always designing t-shirts, so she's like writing, she's drawing t-shirt designs in her book like all the time, and she'll bring them, look, I made this t-shirt, Mommy. I think that's exciting to me because whether she wants to do the t-shirt company or not, it's like already stirring in her that if that's something she wants to do, whatever she wants to do, she can do it. Yeah, sure. And it's almost just an example as well to them.

Yeah, for sure. Okay, this is a question. What do you guys think about— there's some people who are of the thought that in order to be successful at business, you have to quit your 9 to 5 and dive into your business full force. And then there are other schools of thought that say there's a way to navigate both until the business can stand on its own two feet. What are your thoughts?

Well, I can go first, guys. I think that whatever works for you works for you. Currently, even after the search, I eventually did have someone call and I accepted an offer for a job last week. So as it stands, I will be working full time while I'm building Fusion. But this does not put Fusion on any— no more back burners for Fusion. Right. It's full steam ahead, like I said.. But for my sanity, working a 9 to 5 is something that— not that I need to do, but it just helps keep me sane. I don't— I'm not worrying about if I'm making enough in the business to sustain what I need to sustain in the household, because that's, you know, my 9 to 5 can do that. And that way I can focus on what I need to focus on to make Fusion the full time, um, instead of worrying about, oh well, Fusion didn't make this much money, so I don't know, we need to find a job. And yeah, yeah, I can't— so a job is a 9 to 5 or any type of something bringing in some extra income while I'm working on Fusion is necessary for me, uh, but like you said, it's, it's not for everybody. And I commend those who who do whatever they do, however they do it. It really is up to you. That's good.

That's good.

Jay and Angela? No, I like that reading for sure. I think like one word that just stuck out to me was focus. I think so for us, I work a full-time job and more than 40 hours a week, sometimes 60, 70 hours a week, obviously. And with that for us, It was just kind of navigating, just taking time to be able to focus to it. And I think, like I said, I think we have a lot more time on our hands than we think we actually do. I think it's just isolating our focus on one particular thing. So obviously, like, analogy of a bullseye and the target, like, you know, just being able to isolate your focus on whatever you're doing. So for us, it's really utilizing just the downtime is utilizing the, hey, I got an hour or two here, window here, I can just work on it and just not putting a lot of pressure on myself to, hey, we gotta be at this deadline this time. And I like how Brittany said, I don't necessarily have a launch date, it's just kinda, we were talking about it today, we were like, hey, maybe we might move it up earlier because Mother's Day, take advantage of it, we're ready, we're prepared. But for us, but also too, just the other play in mind for us, is that our strategy is unique, but selling t-shirts isn't unique. So we can sell our strategy, sell the business to somebody, and another family could take it and tell their family stories uniquely, and they can give us a lot of money for it.

That'd be great. So let's get to it.

The key to that though, Jay, is this: is that you know at any given time if you need to build another business, You can, because you've done it and you've got that under your belt. Um, the other thing that I'll say to both of you guys, as far as my thoughts on working a 9 to 5 and building a business at the same time, um, there, there are a lot of people who think that you do need to quit your job in order to focus on your business full-time. And me and a previous guest just had a conversation about this on another show. And the thing that I told was saying there is that it's really hard to be creative when you're hungry or when you worry about them coming to pick up your car, or when you're not sure if you click the switch and the lights are going to come on. Listen, your creativity will tumble if your focus is more so on survival. So I tell people, especially to you who are just starting your businesses out there, that if you are working a 9 to 5, leverage that 9 to 5. That is your number one investor. Your 9-to-5 job is your number one investor into your business. They are providing money, they are providing insight because you are learning things about business while you're working there that you will be able to use in your own business. They're providing a network because the people that you're working with will probably become a part of people that you might sell to in the future, contingent upon what— or it could be people that you collaborate with. So I tell people before they are so quick to throw that 9 to 5 to the side, make sure you're getting everything out of it that you can and use it to work for you. Yes, you're working for them, but use it to work for you. And like I said, it's hard to be creative when you're hungry. So just, yeah, don't be so quick to do that. And people who are of that school of thought, God bless them. But that just has never been my thing. I'll work a 9 to 5 and build a business on the side so I know that my immediate needs are met and I can work on this, like Brittany was saying, without the worry of do I have enough for my household to do this, that, and the other. And like in Jay and Angela's case, ministry is I mean, I know you said 50, 60 hours, but it's 24/7. Yeah, it really is. It's nonstop. I mean, I've been a part of that world, so I know what that's like. So it's really hard sometimes to have the mental capacity. I can't imagine to build a business too. But I think what you guys do as far as balance and knowing in advance, like you said, you already knew Easter was going to be a time where you couldn't really work on the business, so it didn't necessarily frustrate you. Because it was something you already knew and prepared for. And having that type of preparation and those types of conversations, I think, will save your sanity, um, going forward. So, oh, I only got 2 more questions. Okay, the first one is, and this is— I asked this to all of my guests on all of my shows— what books are you reading or have read that you recommend?

I am, um, I just finished my master's program So I'm just getting back to reading because I'm just getting back to reading for fun, right? Or for myself. I'm not reading because there's a paper due at the end of the week. But I actually, I just picked up, um, Damon Johns' The Power of Broke. Okay, so that's what I'm working on now, and I have several others coming up behind it. Um, but I just, I'm trying to get back in my reading groove.

What about you guys, Jay and Andrew?

I say for us, I would say the same, get back in the reading groove, but I do watch a lot of podcasts and from time to time I catch this, his name is Craig Groeschel, he just has a podcast on leadership and this podcast is primarily in the church setting because he's a pastor with almost 30 campuses in the Oklahoma area, so in leadership and building people and things, I mean he's He's got a good recipe for sure. So like being able to get resources and tools for obviously the field that we're in, in full-time ministry, but it's been able to help as well in regards to the business setting as well. There's a—

what's his name? David, like, how do you pronounce his last name? Luciani? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

I can't pronounce his name. Patrick Luciani. Patrick Luciani. Oh yeah, the teams guy. Five Dysfunctions of a Team. Team. A team.

Yeah. Yeah, so that's a really good book. I've learned so much in that book as far as leadership, because like I said, I've always been more on the side of tell me what to do and I'll do it. And so in both our business as well as in our full-time ministry, I've had to grow as a leader, and that book really helped me to grow, to step up and say, hey, you don't always have to be told what to do. You can be a leader.

Well, yeah. Awesome. Last question, I promise. Okay, so like you guys know, there are people watching this show who, like you, are right on the cusp of either starting their business idea or they're kind of like double-dutching in and out and in and out, kind of like Britney for the last couple years, or they're ready to launch but they're apprehensive for whatever reason. What advice would you give them that you wish you had or that you think they need to hear just based on what you've gone through up to this point?

I would say for me, it was not thinking that we could do it because our situation is unique in that we're not just working a 9 to 5 until we can launch full-time business. Like, full-time ministry is our passion. It's what we want to do. That's what we're going to always do. So it's not like that's something we're going to stop doing one day. And so in my head, it was hard For me, I was fearful to grasp that, hey, we can do this. We can do both. We can have passion for full-time ministry and we can launch this business and we can enjoy both things still and not be overwhelmed. And so I think just encouraging people to not let that fear that, hey, you know, I can't do this, stop you because you can. I had someone who was really good at pushing me and encouraging me to grow in that. So that's personally, that was for me my biggest biggest fear was, we're not gonna have— I'm not gonna be able to do all this and I'm gonna fail. I'm gonna fail at something. I'm gonna fail at either the full-time ministry or a mom or the business. I'm gonna drop something. I can't juggle it all. But when you're intentional with your time and it's— and you're, you know, you're— you have routines and you have those things that you keep on, it's like we've been able to do it. And yeah, there's crazy moments, but we're doing it and I haven't dropped anything, you know. No, that's good.

I think just being able to like, you yourself have to be polished or all put together to be able to start a business to debunk that lie. I think you just have to be passionate and I think you just have to be focused. So like for us, I mean, we're like, you know, like you said, there's just naturally just fear and apprehensiveness when doing something new, but I I think just the lie that you're doing it on your own, that's a lie. You're not really technically doing it on your own. The people, the resources, the books, YouTube videos, what we call it. As well as your business is unique to you, but for us, I was telling Angela the concept of let people work for you for free. Their ideas, their thoughts, their opinions, their, "Hey, what do you think about this?" It's like getting people a part of your business so you're not doing it by yourself. A successful business based off one— It's not based off one person, it's built off the people and things that you build. So for us, prime example for our photo shoot, yeah, we had ideas and thoughts, whatever, but I got the photographer involved. I'm like, she's been doing this for a while, what do you think? These are some of our concepts for our scenes and different things. So like being able to, in a way, not use people, but to be able to invite them into your dream, your vision, and help either, they can help you elevate or you're like, ah, no, these ideas or stuff is not necessarily where I want. But I would just encourage for sure, like, you're not in it by yourself and the resources are available. And don't be afraid to tap into the resources, whether it's Pride or whatever may be going on. Like, there's resources available for you to be successful.

And to just jump in and do it.

Just jump in.

We jumped in and started doing it and we changed so much from our first thought. But we jumped in and started doing it. It was the act of just doing it, getting the domain name. It's like, this is real, you know, and just jumping in and doing it. And then we did a focus group and got people's feedback and tweaked it, and we gave ourselves enough of a launch date where we had the time to tweak those things and stuff like that. But just doing it, like, we didn't have it all figured out at first, but jumping in and just saying we're doing this and starting the steps, just, you just dove right in and we changed things as it went along, and now we have what we have.

Awesome. Yeah, and I don't I don't mind beating the dead horse because everything that they've said is what's gotten me to this point. It's working with people and listening to what they have to say and their opinions and understanding that whatever I feel like I'm going through, I'm not going through alone. No matter how shiny and sparkly their businesses look on the outside, on the inside, it's still the same things that you have to go through.. So I'm, you know, whether it's connecting with mentors, and I mean like really connecting, not just, hey, I have a mentor in name, but hey, I will call you 5 times a day and we're going to talk it out because I have these questions. Or, you know, it's building relationships with other entrepreneurs that are either new or seasoned. Having the camaraderie, having the community, and building your brand and your business is really, in my opinion, what makes the difference. No one really truly wants to do this all alone, period. It's not fun. Like, once you get to that point of success, who are you celebrating with? So why not build that, that the celebration group? Why not build your team? You know what, in the midst of it, and it starts with you making those connections in the beginning. And absolutely just get out there and do it. No, I had— again, like I said, Fusion, what it was 10 years ago is not what it is today. I had no idea I would be here. You couldn't tell me that I wasn't going to be be my second idea, which is funny to me, publishing a magazine. Don't ask me where that one came from. But you couldn't tell me that's not what I was gonna be doing, you know. So it's get in there, do, figure it out. What are you doing? Do it. If it don't work, pivot, and then pivot again. And then, you know, if you got to come back to it, because then you're like, oh, I know what I did wrong. I can fix this. You know, so-and-so said this. I'm going to take what they did. You just have to get in there and get your hands dirty and talk to everybody you know. And more importantly, talk to people you don't know. That's really the important part, because that one person you don't know might be your biggest client or your biggest customer, or, you know, they're calling you every other day like, hey, I need this. And also send me that invoice. That's my favorite word. Send me that invoice.

Sure will.

It's right on the way.

Like, on its way, ma'am. Oh my gosh, you guys have— this has been just an incredible interview. First of all, because I really didn't have to say much. I just had to just investigate and let y'all go at it.

So So that part is cool.

But even as somebody that's been in entrepreneurship for a while, it's interesting to learn how even different it is now versus even when I started, which wasn't that long ago. But I can tell even now how different it is. And just listening to your point, Jay, about the importance of building communities, I think of Brands like, uh, Bombas Socks. I don't know if you guys heard of them, but how they, um, they're, they're known for their socks, of course, but they're also known for their philanthropy. Like, moms, um, you know, you buy a pair and they send a pair to, you know, someone in need. Buy a pair of Bombas Socks, they send a pair to someone in need. So not only are they, um, building a brand, you know, retail, they're also building a philanthropic arm to help and build community, and that is elevating their brand status because everybody wants to be a part of something that's helping somebody else. Yes. And Brittany, your point about collaborating and building your network and your team early in the game, that is so important because when I first started, I just had this Wonder Woman mentality that I had to do everything myself. I had to do the website, I had to build the logo, I had to come up with the colors, I had to do the content, I did the social media, I did the invoicing, I did the marketing, I made the calls, I did the emails. I mean, I did everything from top to bottom. And then, you know, after a minute or so of that, it's like, oh, I can't keep this up. No, no, right? You'll feel the disdain for the business when it's not the business's fault. It's that you're trying to do everything yourself instead of building a team around you. So that's something that I would definitely encourage you guys to do as your business continues to grow. Is, you know, I know that like with Jay and Angela, I know you guys have collaborated with people to build some of your collaterals and even to manage how you're getting your t-shirts and stuff navigated, but even as the business grows, you're going to need more hands. And don't be afraid of what that looks like going forward. And with you, Brittany, I would advise that with business management and the type of work that we do, one way to, to bring in business and not wear yourself out is you might have to link arms with a couple of people for a bigger purpose. So if there's a bigger project out there and they're requiring X, Y, and Z, and you got the Z, go find the X and the Y. You three get together and did that project, you know, and collaborate instead of trying to be a one-person wonder and do it all or miss the opportunity because you don't have it all. So that's my advice to you entrepreneurs out there. So you heard what the the newbies have said. Um, that's my advice. So this episode is chock full of advice. Um, and I'm gonna go back and listen to it myself, not just because I gotta edit it, but because it was good. So, um, I hope you guys got something from this. Brittany, Jay, and Angela, thank you guys so, so, so, so very much for coming on some moments and sharing the beginning of your journey. If you guys don't mind, I'd love to have you guys back maybe at the beginning of season 5, which is like in the fall, maybe. Yeah, because I want to know how things are going. If Brittany started, because you know she don't have no longer— we'll get it going. But if she's going, then we'll bring all you guys back and then, um, give people kind of like, okay, this is launched, this is what happened. This is how we're doing. Don't do that. You can kind of tell people kind of where the pitfalls are and then some things hopefully, some success stories. So we'll look to have you guys back sometime this fall. So I'm gonna let these guys go, but you guys stay on because I want to tell you what is coming next week after this episode. Is going to be an episode based on what we kind of talked about in this one. And I think it was Brittany that made the point about pivoting. I'm going to do a whole episode that talks about pivoting in your business and how you can make a slight shift, right? A slight shift in your business before you throw the whole thing away. I'm going to show you how— I think it's 3 or 4 things, ideas that I have to show you what you can do in your business, a little slight pivot that could possibly save your business from either failing or from losing revenue. Okay, so I want you guys to come back. Hopefully this one will be on next week, and look for that episode on pivoting. Now this episode is called My First, My Last, My Everything, because this is their first quote-unquote business. Sometimes when you're going through it, you feel like it's gonna be your last, but we're hoping um, that when we bring this back, bring them back in the fall, that they'll be like, okay, this was everything, this was, this was live, I love entrepreneurship. We will see, right? So thank you guys for tuning in. I hope you guys loved it. Hope you're dropping in your questions and your comments. I will definitely come back around and, um, share, uh, share with you one thing we did not do in the episode that I cannot believe I forgot, was give them an opportunity to tell you where to find them. Um, Oversized T-Shirt Company, I know for sure, is on Instagram. I will definitely get, um, Brittany's information to you guys too, so when they're off and running, you guys will have a way to connect with them. Generally, thank you guys so much for tuning in to Mogul Moments. It has been fun. I'll see you guys next week. Bye!