The Chair That Change Outdoor Enjoyment with PARKIT Founder Steve Wilcox:You Winning Life Podcast

Welcome back to the You Winning Life podcast. So today's guest is Stephen Wilcox, who's a graduate of Chapman University in Orange County, California, all the way out on the West Coast. And after school, he began working with global action sports brands such as Oakley, Quicksilver, DC Shoes, and Roxy, where he developed a fundamental understanding of brand building and the strategies required to authentically reach a brand's audience. Today, he's a founder and CEO of Parkit, an outdoor brand that wants you to get outside and enjoy the exploration. Its first product, an outdoor chair they call Voyager, launched on Kickstarter during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and despite the restrictions on outdoor activities, They raised over $500,000 in preorder sales in less than 60 days and is now preparing for their formal debut in 2021 and a direct-to-consumer e-commerce brand. So good morning, because I know it's super early over there on the West Coast, but thanks for— thanks for coming.

Good morning. Super excited to be here and share the story.

So, you know, my podcast focuses on 4 main pillars: psychology, spirituality as it means to that person, right? Natural, alternative and natural wellness and entrepreneurship. And I think your product and your brand kind of represents all of those things at its core. So I'm really curious, like, where did this whole idea come from? I know, right? You have this business marketing background, business building background. How did this happen? What got you to, from point A to point B? And my bigger curiosity is like, what was going on in your head behind the scenes throughout that whole process of like, can we do this? Can we not do this? Is this gonna happen? Are we gonna, right? All of that. Like, I just have so many questions for you. I'm so excited to hang out with you, but wherever you wanna start, anywhere in one of those few questions, go for it.

Yeah, I'll start kind of with the genesis of the overall idea for the brand. I've always been entrepreneurial focused. My uncle was an entrepreneur, my grandfather was an entrepreneur, my dad was in the Air Force but had entrepreneurial characteristics that he drove to be successful in the Air Force and also on the side of his Air Force career. And so it was something that I was always raised with. I think the piece of the puzzle for me that really shifted into, this is how you can be a brand builder, was when I was in school, I had an internship with Merrill Lynch 'cause I actually was a finance major at first. And I had an internship with a bank and I loved it, I learned a lot, but I realized really quickly this, wasn't what I wanted to do for my life. And registered, you know, there's a way now with the advent of different social media technologies and different platforms that communicate and connect us from with one another, that there's an ability to build a brand around basically what you're passionate about. And that's what led, you know, into the opportunities with Oakley and Quiksilver that you just mentioned in the intro there. And I knew that I wanted to build a brand that allowed me to marry my passions in life with my passions for work. And what I was able to identify was that, you know, there's an opportunity, especially within the society right now, where being outdoors and being adventurous, um, you know, a bit of a Patagonia, a Yeti, um, not so much the action sports side of things now, but more so like the, the universal outdoorsman and the outdoors woman, um, has become really a, a a pinnacle piece of a lot of these companies that you're seeing come to market today. And that's exactly the lifestyle I live. I don't know if, uh, this is, uh, you know, gonna be a video thing, but in the background right now you can see the surfboards and the snowboards, um, and the outdoor chairs and all the camping equipment in our garage. Like, that's who we are, right?

Right.

Yeah, that's, that's who I am as a person, and that's who me and my girlfriend are as people. And we, we recognize that, you know, people gravitated towards these types of activities. They would ask us all the time How do you guys do this hike? How do you do that? And we recognized that there was a demand for what the knowledge that we had just as people in the lifestyle that we lived. And just eventually got to the point where I was like, how can we put a company together that allows us to do this full-time, that promotes the type of values and the passions that we have and brings together a community that can do all of it? And that's what led to ultimately the, the foundation of what Parkit would stand for. And so that was really exciting to kind of marry that idea together and put it into an entrepreneurial focus.

Nice. So, right, the idea of Parkit here, right, for your body and your bum, right, in the most comfortable way. And I know, right, that the, you know, as I was reviewing everything from your site and your marketing, like, it's brilliant because we do, right, I live in South Florida, we're both in beach areas. And, you know, when you look online to find a beach chair, it's either like a $599 you know, convenience store beach chair, you might spend a little bit more if you go to Target. And then if you go to like these like name brands, yeah, like a Margaritaville or Tommy Bahama, you're spending $70, $80. But I'm looking at the reviews, I was actually doing a cross comparison, like, you know, as I was looking at things online to prep for the show. And it's like, it's a great chair, it's, it's comfortable enough, right? And, and but you're paying a premium price for something that's okay enough. And people are going to be brand allegiant, especially if like they're Jimmy Buffett fans, they're going to go to the Margaritaville stuff. If they know the Tommy Bahama brand, and you know, maybe they have some of their house decorations, stuff like that, they're going to stick to that brand recognition. But it sounds to me like this little cottage niche industry that kind of has these like, you know, licensed out things, you really tried to like take it by storm and solve some major problems with it.

Yeah, you know, that's what like, you segue perfectly into the product. You know, the beauty of the product genesis for us, like where I recognized ultimately that I could build a brand that supported community and outdoor adventure and build all that was actually, you know, just doing what we normally do, sitting around a campfire with friends. About 3 and a half years ago, uh, it's my buddy's birthday and we're all having a good time, and he goes to sit down in his chair around the campfire that night and the thing just ripped. Like, I'm not kidding you, like, when you— you know when you're in school and you watch your friend like rock back too far and then he falls? Chair, and the whole class laughs. That moment, just right through the center of his chair. And that was where I had the, like, the ultimate light bulb moment of these have been made poorly for decades. Um, yes, like, are they cheap? Yes. Are they economical for most people? Yes. But what's, what's the benefit of having a cheap and economical chair if you're just gonna have to throw it out every season and buy another one? And then, you know, you look at the landfills and you just, like, recognize, oh wow, hey, there's some aluminum tube from an old chair, and there's more. Junk from that product over there. And you just, you know, it's wasteful. And, um, and I just looked at it and went, we can build this so much better. And it was the ultimate, like, light bulb moment of let's marry the brand and everything that you stand for as a person and, like, within your community of friends and align that with this product. And, um, you know, we've built some incredible features into the product. One, it's built with aircraft-grade aluminum, so it's just, you know, as high— about high-quality aluminum as you can find. The fabric on it's a woven polyester, so it's actually soft. It's not that crunchy plastic nylon that's discomfort— that's uncomfortable on your skin. The cooler, it's actually two products in one. This is actually a really exciting feature for it, is that the cooler sits directly under your seat, so you can actually get really easy access versus like if you're using some of those other chairs that have a storage piece on the back, on the backrest of it, you have to do what I call like the weird T-Rex giraffe reach around where you're just like really uncomfortable trying to grab what it is that's in those, in that storage section. And so we put that, you know, we put it right underneath your seat for easy access and then it's detachable. So it's two products in one. It has enough volume for 12 to 15 cans of your favorite beverage so you don't have to get up and it holds ice for 8+ hours. And we've ran some tests with our factory sample that we received and we were pretty excited about the amount of time in which it held ice. So, you know, whoever jumps on one and grabs one, we advise you to test it and see how long it lasts and let us know how it goes.

That's super cool. And one of the most unique things about it is what the R stands for in the brand name.

Yeah, so our brand is called Parkit, and that name came about simply just driving down the freeway one day. I saw a sign and it said, you know, I was driving past Disney and there was something about parking up there in Orange County, and I was like, parking, Parkit, Parkit. I think that's it. And so I pitched it at a couple buddies and they all really liked the name and it rolled off the tongue well. And when we explained to people that the product was a chair, they were like, oh, and you know, you already mentioned it, a park-it, a place for your bum and a place for you to just enjoy everything. Park-it, take a moment and be present. And the, you know, there's an acronym built into it and the R in park-it stands for responsibility. And that plays into a part of what we call the park-it movement. Which is why you can find us at parkatmovement.com. And that's where we, you know, we give back to the environment. We're part of 1% for the Planet, and 1% of our sales goes to an organization through 1% of the Planet called SeaTrees, where for every chair that we sell, we plant one mangrove tree in Bajau, Indonesia. And fun fact for everybody, you know, about mangrove trees that I didn't— I wasn't aware of until we forged this partnership They actually sequester 4 times the carbon and recycle that back to oxygen than any normal standard tree. So a huge sustainability push there just to contribute to the environment and make way for a more sustainable future for the planet.

So I think that aspect, right, of when I was— when we first connected and I started doing research, I think of the coolness of your product. But once you started adding in not only just we're selling something, but we're creating a community And then even more so on top of that, you have the social sustainability responsibility part of it really spoke to me because I know, like, you know, I'm really about these core values and values-based decision-making and, and aligning yourself with those and making the right choices of who you're going to let into your life, what you're going to let into your life, where you're going to spend your money, those type of things. So I know a lot of people now are much more into that type of mindset. About being more conscious, not just putting on a pair of Lululemon pants. And, you know, all of a sudden they're, you know, they're an uber-consciousness guru. But I was like putting their mind where their money is, putting their money where their mind is, right? Matching everything to these values. So at the beginning of the pandemic, when I moved home from my therapy and coaching office, I'm like, oh, I can now brew my coffee at home instead of having to do an espresso with all the, you know, the wasteful, you know, even though they can, they recycle it supposedly, and I send it out, I don't throw it in the garbage and they have the bag that they include., but I really wanted to be more committed to my core values now that I was able to do more things. And for about 4 days, I found— I was looking for organic, fair trade, right? All the good stuff, socially conscious, gives back. And I found a company out in California— I'm sorry, in, um, I think it's in Portland called Grounds for Change. And they meet everything, right? The 1%, they do— they're carbon neutral, they do, you know, all these things. I'm like, ah, I'm now gonna put my money there. So now since the pandemic started, right, that's where my coffee has come from. And I love this idea that your brand is trying to build where you're trying to bring those people who care about those things to have an emotional investment in a product. It's not just a chair. There's an emotional investment. You know, you're doing something for the world. You know, you're doing something for, for something. So like, what point did that get created in the mindset of the business development?

Yeah, so being an outdoorsman, um, that's always been a piece of it. It was figuring out— I remember there was a, uh, an issue. I mean, California feels like it's always burning in some capacity. Um, I'm sure over on the East Coast when you guys get the news on California, it's, there's another fire in California that's burned X amount of acres.

And right, and you guys are splitting into two different states, right?

That's— yeah, that too. There's either gonna be an east and west or a north and south. We're not sure yet, but, uh, That's besides the point. In terms of Parkit and the environmental push that we had, I remember working for Oakley and making the reasonable salary that you make at Oakley when you're fresh out of college. And there was a huge issue with fires that we were having, and I wanted to contribute to it, but I couldn't. I'm fresh out of college, I've got bills to pay, I'm learning how to budget realistically on my own for the very first time. And like, I'm not in a position necessarily to contribute X amount of dollars to the fire that I feel is worthwhile contributing. Like, okay, cool, yeah, a little bit. If I give $50, that definitely helps. But then I saw a friend of mine who was a couple years older who had started his own direct-to-consumer business. He did an entire email blast where he was like, every watch that we sell this week, we're contributing all the profits to CAL FIRE. And I was like, That's cool because now you're giving me the opportunity as the consumer to contribute, and you as a business owner are making such a greater impact because you're using your community to do so. And I remember like just experiencing that and going, when I build a business, we're gonna do stuff like that. And that's one of the pieces that led to ultimately Parkit joining 1% for the Planet, you know, like for for the story for our 1% experience, we launched on Kickstarter on May 6th. We did $70,000 in sales the first day, and we called 1% for the Planet on day 3 and said, "Hey guys, we just broke $100,000 in sales on our Kickstarter campaign. We want to get involved. What do we do?" And they just put us right through the process and got us signed up. And, you know, we're really proud to say that basically from day 3 of running our company, we were locked and loaded with 1% for the Planet to build our, to build our responsibility case for building that more sustainable future.

That's incredible. So walk me through the timeline from conception of this idea until Kickstarter launch. Timeframe, thought process, doubt, worrying, worries, sleepless nights. Walk us through the psychology and timeline of that.

Yeah, well, I will start with saying that these sleepless nights, I don't think ever end. I don't know when those, I don't have any timeframe of when I think those might go away, but those are definitely a real thing. So the genesis, like I mentioned, you know, for the brand, I think that's always lived within me and what I like to do. I could trace it all the way back to when I was in college and I was the brotherhood chair for my fraternity and I was the one leading the campsites. And it's like, all right, we've got 2 camping trips this year, 60 people could come, who's going? And like, I've always been that guy. Who's just building community and creating those outdoor events. And whether it's surfing, snowboarding, fishing, which I'm getting into now with fly fishing— that's a challenge, just learning the whole timing with keeping the rod going. But that was always, I think, within me. It just was figuring out the platform to present that to the world professionally. And about, you know, 3 and a half years ago was when my buddy fell through the chair at the campsite And that's where the idea really started. And it took about a year before I really started investing into product design. I kind of spent the first year like just driving around Southern California in my car to different metal shops and different woodworkers. And I was like always knocking on the door being like, when I was, I would walk in with a, with a sample of a chair from another company that was really close aesthetically to what I wanted, but just was like still built with the poor materials. And I just, be like, hey, do you guys know how to build this? Do you think you could do aluminum? Do you think you could do all these things? And they're like, they looked at me like I was crazy. Um, and now that I look back on it, I'm like, yeah, like, these guys are metal shop workers and, and woodworkers. Like, they're not here to build products, they're here to supply, like, you know, unique crafts. And so, uh, you know, not gonna— definitely barking up the wrong tree. But then, uh, got to the point where I was like, okay, like, how are we gonna figure this out? And you have in your brain this, like, concept of of the social network in that movie where, you know, like, like there's the Winklevoss twins and they come up with Harvard Connection and then Zuckerberg comes out with Facebook and then the movie goes through kind of like the lawsuit between the two of 'em. So you have this like internal, like maybe I don't wanna tell everybody about this idea. Like how do I go about this without like blasting this out there? 'Cause you're so early on that if someone else decides to take the idea, like they're, you're racing with them to get to market. So I ended up like putting like a really, really vague message on LinkedIn. Of like, hey, anybody in the consumer goods space know how to build a product from the ground up? Like, please reach out. And an old coworker of mine from Oakley like slid into my DMs on LinkedIn and was like, you need to talk to these guys in Utah called Klugonics. There's a guy there named Jason and their team is fantastic. They helped us design this entire product. And their product is basically a tailgate protection piece that has seats built into it. And I was like, oh wow, okay, this is— Perfect alignment. I see the alignment here. Let's reach out to these guys in Utah. That was about a year after my buddy fell through the chair. And then I had my first conversation with Klugonics, and their motto is, bring us your napkin sketch and we'll bring it to life. And, you know, I read that and was like, oh, that's like— from being a marketing brand guy, I'm like, oh wow, that's a good one. Like, okay, like, let's see, you know, how this goes. Signed the contract with them, and we went through the ideation round, and I was like, within a month, I was like, You guys really take these, the, the, this, this napkin sketch is like really come to life. Like the very first sketch that I got of it that was rendered, I was like, yeah, this is it. This is perfect.

Wow.

Like, I don't like, you guys nailed it. This is what we're looking for aesthetically. This is what we're looking for from a brand standpoint. This is what we're looking at from functionality. Like you guys have absolutely killed it. But then the real work began. And that's what I think as a brand builder, I absolutely underestimated. That those meetings, you know, took place, oh, a little over 2 years ago now, those initial meetings with Klugonics. And so it took us 2 years to get from, you know, initiating the contract with them to launching on Kickstarter. And I think, you know, being a brand builder at Oakley and at Quicksilver, we would basically get told, hey, here's the next season's sunglasses, or here's next season's wetsuits, and we're like, oh, these are awesome! What can we do from a creative standpoint to make these things sell? And like, man, I had no idea. Like, just the little detail of where the sew line would go on a wetsuit between this area of your shoulder or just a little below your shoulder is so important and pivotal. And that product design team, um, you know, they really dial in everything. And that's one of the things I think in the process that I wasn't prepared for. I had stuffed away enough cash to basically float myself for 6 months, and I was like, yeah, we should be able to get this thing done in 6 months. And At about month 4, I was like, yep, okay, you're gonna need to start contracting ASAP. And so I started like putting my name back out there and started building people websites and shooting photo shoots and doing all those things again to try and get it from, you know, just month 4. Like, we're talking, I vastly underestimated the amount of time it would take. Yeah. So there we are building the brand and starting the Instagram and starting to get all the foundation pieces of the brand together for that community. We're getting the foundational pieces set up for the product. And meanwhile, I'm flying around the country, like shooting photos and doing websites and meeting with clients and trying to juggle all of it at the same time. So the sleepless nights were aplenty. I get, I get a sound sleep every so often now, but they still hit. And there was a lot of them, especially in that first year of design and production, just to keep enough cash coming in to pay those guys to, to fund the design. So that was kind of— I remember there being one moment where you're like, you cut this check and you land this job, you're fully vested, like you're in. And, uh, it's a good feeling because that way you recognize that you are committed, you are delve in, and it becomes your baby at that point. And you'll do anything to keep it going in the direction that you need it to. And, and that's, uh, I think one of the more motivating factors of it being an entrepreneur and getting something started is, is having that kind of, uh, that pivotal mind shift of this is just a fun idea that I'm exploring to this is a real business that we're going to build. And it changes the game in terms of how you go about it with your mindset.

Yeah, the big thing that I'm hearing from this is, and I have this conversation with a lot of my coaching clients, where I help them determine whether what they're trying to build is a great business, or it should just be a hobby. And that's one of the biggest questions that I find people have difficulty with, because they come up with these real— everybody has a bunch of great ideas. And everyone's like, oh, it's gonna be perfect. It'll make me a million dollars the first year. And I'm like, Who's the market? And how many people need to buy it? And what's the product cost? And is there enough of a niche? And do people really want what you say that they want? Or is it just cool to you? And maybe, you know, it might be out there already. And I think that like what you have centered in on is like, it's boggling how mind simple it is, right? Because it's such a fixture in our culture, right? Especially right now, we both live out right on coastal communities. But especially like you said, in that camping world, like, like all these other companies out there, like you named a bunch of those before, like, why weren't they doing that? They do their camping tents, and they do their sleeping bags, and their backpacks. Why didn't they figure out this product? So the fact that you like zeroed in on such a cool little niche really does talk about this entrepreneurial brilliance that, you know, we get, we get hit with the lightning every once in a while. And it reminds me of the Sara Blakely story with Spanx, of going around to all these people to make— can you make this for me? And they're like, no, everybody laughed her out. Like, oh, you're 'But you sell fax machines. What do you mean you want me to make this like, you know, whatever little thing,' right? And now she's the first self-made woman billionaire in the United States, and, you know, no outside funding and all that really cool stuff. But I love what you said, that like the realization of knowing that you have to still fund yourself, going back to work, picking up some side gigs to keep yourself afloat without giving up your dreams. Because I find that a lot of people will either go too much in debt, and then really be screwed. And then the product never goes anywhere. And now they're just working just to pay back debt, right? They, you know, they got to work just to get back to zero. Or, you know, they go the other end, and they end up giving up on the dream too early. So how did you balance— like, how did— like, in the psychology of everything, how did you figure out the healthiest balance for you?

I don't know if I would necessarily say it was healthy. I would say that there's definitely an element to it where being raised by a military father was like, this is what you have to do and you do it. And so that's always been a bit of a mindset for me, like, and I learned it a lot through traveling as well. I've been very lucky. I got to study abroad in Australia and then I spent actually a couple years back before really, this was really the idea of where you're gonna come home, you're gonna commit to this. I spent about 2 months in Indonesia living in Bali. And there's so many times when you're traveling and then you're in these experiences, and this will relate to your question, where you come to a dead end and you don't speak the language or you don't know the area or you just find yourself in this position that a lot of people would go, "Oh no, what do I do? I need help. Get me out of this." and you will force yourself to get out of it and you have to figure out the solution. And, you know, doing it when you're traveling versus doing it when you're launching a company, very different scenarios you're gonna find yourself in, but the mindset is still the same. And I think that's the element of which like helped me get through the very early days of balancing the two of those was just, and I'm still balancing it now. Like, yeah, we did $500K on Kickstarter, but all of that money gets reinvested in the company and I'm still consulting on the side. I'm still building websites for people. I'm still shooting content. We're still doing email marketing campaigns for people. Like all those things are still very much a part of my daily life. The difference is now that I've got a business that's generating some form of sales. So it's extra motivating to keep it going. But oh, in the beginning of it, you know, you just look at the things that you have to do that day and you're like, we need to start filing patents. We need to start filing trademarks. Okay, what's that gonna cost? Well, you can do it through LegalZoom, but is LegalZoom really the right way to do this? Let's call our friend's dad who's a lawyer. All right, he's gonna help us out and do this. I got 15% discount, which is lawyer fees. You know, 10 minutes on the phone with a lawyer is like $300. So, you know, like I'm looking at that and I'm cross-referencing that with the amount of work that I've got consulting. I'm going, okay, you need to close another client, otherwise you're going to be out of cash by the end of the next 30 days and then you got to pay rent. And there's, there's a lot of those different things. And I think ultimately that mindset that you get when you're traveling of I've got to figure this out. I don't know how to read this street sign, but I know that I need to go north and the sun's up and you just you just get into this mindset of figuring it out. And that's the piece of the puzzle, I think, that especially in year 1 and year 2 really kept everything moving forward from a, you know, level of just persistence. Yeah, there was another element to your question, but I think it's escaped me a little bit.

If you can— It's all good. So, well, I mean, the idea of, you know, you doing this duality of, right, do I keep going or do I stop and those type of things. One of the focus factors in that process of what you're talking about, like you say, like, you know, we start off with like, who's the cheapest person that we can bring in that maybe knows something. And I had this with a client the other day. They're like, well, I have a friend of mine who is a CPA, but you know, they might, I think they're also a tax attorney, but I'm not sure. And I'm like, but is that the best person to solve this problem for you? Well, but it's my friend. I'm like, But is it the best person to solve this problem for you? And well, it's the cheapest person. And I always want people, especially in their entrepreneurial journey, that sometimes that extra couple hundred dollars an hour to invest in a good attorney, to invest in a good accountant, will make the difference on the back end down the road of exponential.

Absolutely. There's a couple, there's so many times, especially in the first 2 years too, and this is important to note, that I would like look get my girlfriend and be like, I need a partner. And she's like, you don't need a partner. I'm like, no, I need a partner. And I'm like, no, we would battle back and forth about it. And I would have this list of like people that I was like, that I was good friends with, that I knew would understand the brand, that I knew would understand what we were doing. But the problem was we were all brand guys. So like we didn't bring really different skills to the table. We just brought like another element of like what I did to the table. And, For the most part, I just needed like someone to bounce ideas off of, not necessarily like a partner. I just needed kind of like a coach in some form of capacity. And I remember getting to the point too where we launched our Kickstarter and like we had been through all the ups and downs of like wondering whether or not we needed to bring someone in to do that. And, you know, we didn't. We outsourced a bunch of this, the things that I needed help with, to the professionals that knew how to do it. You know, pay the fees that, like you said, are a little bit more upfront than bringing in your buddy who can do this, or your buddy who just passed the bar exam. You know, we're like, when you're filing those things, you want to do it correctly. And like, this is your business that's going to project the future, you know, lifestyle that you want to live. And those investments, just like, you know, you start investing, you start investing early and start saving and put that 401k and fill that, match that with your company, however, you know, you want to do that. The earlier you start that, the better off you are. And The same thing kind of goes for starting your business. It's just a different animal because it actually is cash flow heavy versus just stuffing that stuff away. But, um, one of the things that we did that I think was super smart was like we outlined exactly where my strengths were, and we exactly outlined what I was intermediate at, and we outlined what I needed help with. And that gave me the ability to look at people and say, I can help you with this, this, and this, but I need you to focus all of your, all of your time into building this company within this parameter. And we were able to bring on contractors for ad spend, 'cause I've never been a digital ad spend guy. I've always been a digital brand guy. Digital brand and digital ad spend are very different. One's all very organic and it's very, you know, organic, authentic, and user-based. The other one is sales-based and it's data-based. And that's not necessarily been my place. I'm learning a lot of it now. And I love learning that because they dance with one another. But, you know, had I not recognized that we needed to bring someone in that was an expert and bring them in as a consultant to help us with that piece of the puzzle, I don't think we'd succeed on Kickstarter the way we do with our ad strategy. And that's a huge piece of the puzzle of why the brand's successful today.

Yeah, that's amazing. And I know that, like, as, as a therapist slash coach for a lot of people in the entrepreneurial space, starting with the end in mind and building the business, not like, well, when I can afford it, I'll bring that person in. But kind of designing that org chart from the beginning, and even though you might be, you might be doing 90% of those positions, but knowing exactly that if you are already running it as a multimillion-dollar company, what would all the job descriptions and job positions you would need to hire and fill in order for it to run with all those other experts in that place is an incredible first brainstorming thing when someone is mapping this out.

Yeah. And like, you know, one of the things Being an entrepreneur, you need to know a little bit about everything. You know, there's the saying that I heard from an auto mechanic once. We were in San Francisco, my buddy's truck had broken down and we pulled into a mechanic shop. And he's asking us like, "Oh, well, what do you guys do?" 'Cause we show up with like, you know, 10 surfboards in the back of a car, camera equipment and camping stuff. And he's just like super curious, so he asks us that. And I'm like, "Well, you know, I do a little bit of everything in terms of digital marketing, like brand building, photo shoots, like brand strategy and marketing strategy." He's like, oh, all right. So like a knowledgeable of everything, but an expert in nothing. I'm like, yeah, yeah. That's a great way to put it. As an entrepreneur, that's kind of what you wanna be. Like you need to have your niche that you own, that you're the best at, absolutely. And you know, we watch Shark Tank all the time. And one of Mark Cuban's favorite questions to ask people is like, what are you the best at? And like some people, they don't know how to answer that question. For me, it's, I'm the best at brand building. I know exactly what we need to do. To build those values and present that to the community and grow that community. But outside of that, you know, I don't know all the logistics pieces to the puzzle. I don't know exactly where I need to classify these certain expenses in QuickBooks. I like, I know, I know I'm supposed to. I know that at the end of the year, I know I need to have a report, or every quarter I need to have a report, and that breaks down everything. But is it set up properly if I do all of it? Probably not. It's probably 70% of the way there. And in entrepreneurial world, 70% of the way there, that doesn't get you the passing grade, that gets you into some trouble. And so, you know, as an entrepreneur, I recommend do all of it as much as you can because you need to learn it, but then recognize where that extra 20 to 15, even 5% gets you from. If you go from 95% on a product design to 100%, you just eliminated 5% of negative reviews. And that's one of the mindsets that I've had about everything that we do with it is just make sure that you're always hitting that, that 4.0 level type of execution where you're getting A's across the board. And if you need to bring in help for that extra 10%, you know, bring it in because it's going to pay off dividends down the line as you start to grow the business because the foundation's set correctly.

Yeah. And I also find that like when people are afraid of bringing other people in onto the team, whether it's a contractor or whether it's a minority partner or even a 50/50 partner, they're always so afraid, well, they're gonna steal my idea and they're gonna start— well, first of all, right, you do an NDA, right? Now you have obviously have contracts and all of that stuff. But I always have this idea of like, well, it's better to have 50% of something than 0% of an idea that's just in your head.

Yeah. And that's 100% one of the things that we're looking at now, you know, like I'm great at the front end sales and marketing side. I'm learning a ton about logistics. Like, I was reading a blog the other day, and basically I learned that Apple's inventory for iPhones depletes— once they fill the warehouse, it depletes within something like 3 or 4 days. And so they've got to have, you know, the product lands in wherever it lands. I don't know where their warehouse is, but the product lands in the warehouse, it sells through, and they've got another shipment already en route. They've got another shipment probably leaving port. They've got another shipment leaving the factory. It's just a machine of logistics operations. And that's what I've been learning a lot of now. And it's definitely not what excites me. I get to the stage of the day where it's like, all right, you need to figure out all these logistics things. And I'm like, all right, cool. Oh, all right. The dollar figure on this kind of sucks because it's shipping. And a lot of, I think, entrepreneurs, they don't really go into it understanding. A lot of entrepreneurs too, we are the front end guys. We're the marketing, we're the brand, we're the idea people. We're not the fulfillment people. And so we get to this fulfillment stage and we look at these tariffs and we look at these customs and import fees and we're like, what are all these? And so now to circle it back to partnerships and bringing in the right people is like, you really won't know what your biggest problems are until you start really doing it. And so now I know if I bring in a partner for Parkit, I'm identifying someone who is incredibly well-versed in operations and logistics. Um, I need, you know, someone that's going to be the spreadsheet guy so I can go be the canvas guy and get this thing beautifully presented in front of people and focus on that end of it and have the spreadsheet guy go in there and isolate and find ways to make it, you know, as optimized and efficient as possible. Um, and that's, that's who the partner for Parkit will be. I don't know who it is yet or when we're going to realistically need to bring them in because I've been managing it for the most part with this first product run through Kickstarter. But it's just, you have to be able and willing to recognize where those opportunities lie and when is the right time. And I think for Parkit, we're getting closer and closer to that time.

So through this journey, who, like, by contracting with people or having conversations with people, one of the biggest things that I find that in my own entrepreneurial journey, right, starting off as a small private practice, and then branding, and then starting a podcast, and then going into the coaching world is who do you trust? And how do you learn to trust who to partner with? Because one of the things that I had, right, for social media about 2 years ago, because this person was associated with somebody I trusted, I hired them, and I ended up getting shafted big time. And it really destroyed my trust, not only in, right, in that part of that industry, but also in the person that I met this person through. So as a— right. And then obviously, at a certain point, for some entrepreneurs, or even businesses, they may— that might be their first venture into that little niche of like putting money there, or hiring or consulting with that type of person. And they might get burnt. So what have you learned about that process that you can share with us?

Yeah, so I think the— that's definitely an issue. We've come across like a handful of those types of scenarios. And piece of the puzzle that's super important is just when they talk about, you know, hire quickly and fire quickly. You, you definitely are like, all right, cool, nope, this isn't going to work, thank you for your time, appreciate the help you've been able to offer, we're moving a different direction, and you move on. Um, in terms of, you know, finding the people and the things that I've recognized in the people that we do trust, it really surrounded— it really came about, you know, understanding their motivations for why they do what they do. And none other than was the group that helped us design our product, Klugonyx. And I remember there was a day early on, we'd flown up to Utah to meet with them and Jason Wasser, the CEO of Klugonyx, he and I went and got lunch and we're sitting there and he's asking me questions about the brand and my passions about where I wanna see it go. And I start turning the questions back on him with like, well, what's your vision for Klugonyx? And like, what do you wanna do with that? And then he and his fiancée, they also have a direct-to-consumer business on the side talked about that. And he's like, my ultimate goal is to sell both of these businesses and become a VC and just help mentor more and more people along the process. And when you, when you hear something like that from a person you're working with, you go, oh my God, we brought the right person on. Like his whole goal in life is to put himself in a position where he can help fund and facilitate businesses for people and help them reach their dreams. Like we brought the right guy to help us reach ours. Yeah. And so once you get to the core motivation of that person's life, what is it they want to do, and you've broken away those other barriers of maybe it's like, you know, the contract from them was not cheap. It was a product design, and, you know, going through that is a very expensive process. And so, you know, you have your doubts. You're like, maybe they're just milking us for the savings that we put up for this. And you go through that and that discomfort, but when you start to see the work that they do and you learn more about the motivation it just helps reaffirm that they're the right people to bring in for the project. And, you know, now Jason Wasser at Klugonics, he's become like a full mentor for me in terms of becoming a direct-to-consumer brand. And we're not doing any work with him right now because, you know, we're not designing anything. We're in production. We'll have updates probably, and we'll go back to his team in probably 6 months to a year when we make some changes. But the other day I came into a roadblock and I was like, texted him, hey, can I get 30 minutes of your time today? And he's like, call me right now. You know, he's got a super busy schedule with tons of clients, and he's there for us as a mentor and a consultant. And that started with a relationship that, you know, in the beginning as an entrepreneur, you're going, here's my savings account, this better be good. And so, you know, like, just to reiterate, learning the core motivation of who it is that you're bringing in and what they want makes all the difference.

And I see this often in the entrepreneurial space where, you know, if one of these people are hosting an event or they're doing some type of, you know, you know, everybody's offering events, right? Right. These type of things. But you actually have to see like what they're doing behind the scenes. What's their actual production? Where are they experts in? What their success and track record is. But I've found that like, there's so many people out there in that space willing to mentor, A, because they're just passionate about what they're doing, but also be like, once you become part of their circle and you invest in the relationship, they're going to give you way more in return for what you put in.

That's actually like another thing that I always like to touch on for anyone who hasn't, you know, taken the jump to entrepreneurship. One of the things that led to me becoming an entrepreneur was the fact that, you know, I was working for really cool companies. I had really awesome positions within them, But I never felt like within those companies, you know, like Oakley was like 1,000 people in one building in Irvine, maybe more. Quicksilver was a couple hundred people in one building. Our marketing team was like 50 people. Like, we never really gelled. And like, meanwhile, within the company, like, there's no real ownership of like the success of the company, but there's the ownership of your own success within the company. And so people can be a little bit backstabby and like you go through the, like basically the office politics, piece, right?

Yeah.

And it's just like that, that was such a turnoff for me. And, um, when I got into the consulting world, I started to recognize, wow, now I get to like really isolate who I work with. I get to pick my clients, my clients are picking me. We're picking people based off of like core values, not necessarily the income that they come in. And you have this shift where you now like, even the clients that I, that I work with now, like they're some of my favorite people to work with. And I'm going to have, there's going to be a day where I have to tell them, hey guys, um, I have to grow Parkit and my last day is going to be in 60 days. Um, here's a couple resources for you, but I'm going to be bummed that I have to walk away from those relationships and those companies in terms of a professional aspect. Hopefully everything stays awesome on a personal aspect. Um, but when you go out there and you, you build your company and you start this entrepreneurial journey, you end up finding these people who have walked that path before you. And they are the ultimate, like, guide to your own success. Like, my uncle's an entrepreneur. He's always been, like, kind of prodding me with, like, when are you going to do it? When are you going to do it? When are you going to do it? And once I started, he was like, cool, this is who you need to talk to next. And then the next person, he gives you someone else to talk to. And then you basically, like, as you walk the path more and more and more and you become more legitimized as an entrepreneur with, like, we've built the product, we're launching on Kickstarter, we've had the Kickstarter success, Basically like people come out of the forest and they're just like, hey, saw what you were doing. This is awesome. Have you thought about this? And you're like, no, I have not. They're like, that's exactly what I do. This is what we did. This is how I learned this. I had a feeling you might need help with this. Let's grab coffee. Let's grab a beer. And within an hour and a half of grabbing a beer with the person, you know, they've basically told you their whole story and the challenges that they faced. And you're like, I had no idea. I literally thought you've been bodysurfing every Saturday morning for the last 20 years. And you learn so much from this community that kind of just starts to present itself to you as an entrepreneur that I think as an employee, like, you just have no idea would exist, right? Because of the way that the, the office environment works compared to the entrepreneurial environment. So it's a cool little experience.

Yeah, it's so interesting because I noticed that like, as I shifted more and more away from like that traditional therapist role, even though my training was not in the traditional professional therapy, like we were talking about before, the integrative mind-body medicine stuff that I do. But as I started delving more and more into this entrepreneurial space, I found my interest in my actual trained community, right, of therapists, like disappearing, because I'm like, they're playing on such a basic level. And the arguments that I see in all these like Facebook forums and groups are like, you know, how do I tell my clients that I'm raising my fees $5 an hour? Right? Those type of like minuscule things. I'm like, well, you know what, knowing about what your worth is, knowing what, you know, the marketing side of it, the psychology side of it, but these are people who are supposed to be experts in psychology, you know, psychology or counseling or therapy, but don't get the business venture side of things. And that you don't have to be, you know, having all these doubts. And the only mentors they look to are typically within our own field. They're not going to other people in different industries. That's what I love about the entrepreneurship spaces, because you have so many different verticals that one may have nothing to do with yours, but they're gonna have some tangible practical application, like you just said, that can take that influence. So now, 90% of my influence about anything having to do with my therapy practice at this point, except for my continuing education, or where the areas of niche that I'm interested in getting my, my additional training in,. But I don't go to anybody that's a therapist for any, or a coach for business advice. I go to the entrepreneurial space. So people are like, when these are the different ways of looking at it that got me here versus what's going to be the same old little bubble package that only got us to this threshold.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. I couldn't have said it better. You know, I think like one of the interesting things is, is my uncle, you know, his business has been really successful. He's a label printer. And when I say label printer, if you bought a Jack in the Box burger, when they had a little sticker that went on it that had the ketchup, the mustard, the mayo, and the lettuce, tomato, and onion thing on that, and if you got like any of those taken off, it was X'd on the sticker, he printed those for like the whole country. And so, you know, you think of like what a niche place to be. Like you print these stickers for these huge corporations, you do the salsa labels for these salsa companies, you do the beers for these beer companies, You know, like, it's a very different world. Um, but at the end of the day, like, his business needs to make money for him to keep growing and for everything to go the direction he wants to go. And I remember having a conversation with him, um, and this is one of the areas where, you know, you get to see and learn from both sides of the coin. Coronavirus hits. We're supposed to launch our Kickstarter on March 18th. Um, March 16th was the day everything shut down, and St. Patrick's Day this year was the saddest St. Patrick's Day that we've ever had on record. And my brother gives me a call and he's like, are you gonna launch? And I'm like, in my head, like, what would Uncle Robert do? What do all the entrepreneurial books you've done do? What would Phil Knight do when he started Nike? And like, in my head's like, no, we're just launching tomorrow. Like, we're doing it. He's like, I think you should probably pause and you should change your thought process on that. So my brother gives me the advice to pause. I call my uncle and I go, hey, like, we're calling, we're delaying the Kickstarter campaign. Like, what, any recommendations, any thoughts? He goes, I think that's a good idea. I think it's time for you to start knocking doors. I'm like, knocking doors? And he's like, yeah, you need to knock surf shops and outdoor shops. It's time for you to go in there and talk to buyers and start selling them. And I'm like, yeah, but that's not really what we've built this business to be. We're not a wholesale company. And he's like, no, Stephen, when I started my business, I was knocking 50 doors of businesses a day trying to find out who needed labels. And I would do that every day for basically like 3 years. That's what I had to do to build my business. Start knocking doors. I'm like, love you to death, you've given me a lot of good advice, I don't think this is the right path. And he's, I could tell internally on the phone, he's like really challenged by this thought process that Stephen's not gonna go knock doors. Meanwhile, like I've got an email launch list of X amount of thousands of people, we've got an ad budget set up of X amount of thousand dollars, you know, we've got all these pieces of the puzzle to really launch this thing online. You go through the ups and downs of the first couple weeks of the pandemic and living in Oceanside, I'm sure you experienced the same in Florida, like people started flocking to beaches. And I started to recognize, I'm like, okay, consumer behavior isn't panicking anymore. They're going outside. I can't find parking in my neighborhood, which in my neighborhood in Oceanside, we don't ever have parking issues to try and get to the beach. That's like a Newport Beach type of issue that you deal with, not an Oceanside thing. It's one of the reasons I love living here. I can always park right in in front of my house. But I was like, if this is an issue that I'm experiencing now and I see all these people at the beach and we're talking about shutting down the beaches because people are going outside to the beaches too much, we should probably launch. Like, people are traveling, people are getting out, they're going in groups. We should get this thing in front of people on Kickstarter. And so from March 18th, you know, to middle of April, we started to ramp up everything again and we launched the first week of May.. And my uncle calls me back the very first day of the Kickstarter campaign and he goes, holy crap. I'm like, what? He's like, you just did $75,000 in sales on one day online. I'm like, yeah. He's like, I'm so sorry. I kept telling you to knock doors. I had no idea. And you know, it's great because like his mindset was correct. Like nothing about his mindset was wrong. I want to point that out. It was just, it was a different generation for him when he had to build his business. Than it is for me as I'm building Parkit. And I taught him something. Like, you know, the river flowed the opposite direction. And the first thing he did was he was like, alright, you're gonna teach me how to do some of this stuff for my business online. So now I'm helping him and, you know, transition them from just a fully, you know, sales rep oriented company to how they can start funneling things online. And he's just like blown away by the technology that exists. And, you know, he's north of 60, I think he's 62. 63 years old, and he's like fired up because he's learning about all the things that entrepreneurs are doing now. And then he has his group of people, you know, that he mentors outside of just me, and he's passing them this information that he's now discovering of like, hey, this is how we use Facebook for this, this is how we're using Google to do this, this is how this is happening, this is what we did on our website. And all this is generating new revenue for his business. And, you know, it's been cool to see how, how even though the, the generational gap exists the ability to transfer the knowledge back and forth, being such a young company and such a mature company, we're still able to help each other. And that I think happens, you know, day in and day out with whoever it is I talk to that's also an entrepreneur. We're just constantly talking about what's succeeding for you, where have you made failures, and we're learning from each other's mistakes. And it's just a lot of like transfer of wisdom. And it's, it's incredible to, to, you know, unearth that side of the business and, and unearth that side of building something because I think, you know, to circle back to the corporate world, I never really could find that. And I felt like I was always searching for that. And entrepreneurship was where I found it.

It's amazing. So I know, like, his advice, you are right, he was correct. You need to get in front of X amount of people. But that's what the internet is for, right? It's not like going and knocking at one door in your neighborhood. In the same amount of time, you can get in front of your entire neighborhood By, right, by the correct marketing technique. So he was right in theory that the application of it was you needed the 2020 application of it, not the 1985 application of it, right?

Yeah, exactly.

Which is really rich, which is where I want people to hear, like, you know, all these fundamentals of marketing and branding. It's like, you know, a few years ago, my office was on the 4th floor, back corner office. There's no like signs. I don't have a billboard out in front of the building of the office complex saying, right, this awesome therapist and coaches here, X, Y, and Z. Like it was my— and I couldn't just either sit there and twiddle my thumbs waiting for someone to pick up the phone and call. So I, you know, we, I've gone through that whole thing. I now have a complete absolute black and white no on any print marketing. For it just doesn't— for my business, for my field, it just doesn't do anything. Right. And I get all that like, oh, well, you, do you want to advertise with our banner for our golf course? No. Do you want to do the back of our, you know, scorecards for our country club? No. Right? The money— I know for where my industry is that where I need to get in front of people is by now specifically this type of medium, because people want to see what you do, not hear about what you do. And it's very difficult for a therapist and coach unless you're working with them due to confidentiality and all that other stuff. So I realized that how can I show the best of what I do and how I'm interacting when brainstorming with people? Is by doing a podcast and by coaching some of the people that I have on my show. So it really does take that old school thing of how do you get in front of more people and how do you show what you do and how do you differentiate what you're doing from other people has to be updated even though the fundamentals of that philosophy still exist.

Yeah. And I think, you know, even funnier experience regarding that was like explaining to my grandfather what I was going to do. My grandfather's like, Steven, I can just walk down— this is my grandfather voice— Steven, I can just walk over to CVS and pick up a chair for $29.99. Why would I go and get one of yours? I'm like, because the entire, you know, the next generation of kids doesn't want to go and get their product at a CVS. And you touched on it at the very beginning of this podcast, you know, like, we want to invest our dollars into companies that we align with from a value standpoint. And one of the best applications of seeing that in real life isn't just, you know, going to a beach cleanup and seeing everybody wearing Patagonia shirts. It's going on Instagram and going through what your friends are posting. And the way that I relate this to people is that, you know, 20 years ago, if you bought a Harley-Davidson, you showed up to your friend's house and you were like, hey guys, check out my cool Harley-Davidson. And you had like the helmet and you had the leather jacket and you had all those things and you were showing off, you know, like, this is what I got, this is who I am, come check out my life, you know. You were, you were, you were expressing your personal brand. And what Facebook and Instagram on a more personal level have allowed everyday people to do is build their own personal brand. And sometimes I think there's an element to it that can be unhealthy. And I also think there's an element to it that is healthy. You know, we can decide if we want to get into that. I'll let you lead those questions if you'd like.

Oh, for sure.

But from a, from a marketing standpoint and from a business and consumer standpoint, Now, if you buy a Harley-Davidson, the first thing you're doing is you're calling your friend who's a photographer. You're having him take a photo of you on a windy road in Malibu or in Orange County up in the hills or down the street here in San Diego. And you're having him edit it and then you're publishing that on your social media feed saying, "Hey everybody, great day driving down the windy road." You're building, you're expressing to the world what you stand for. For. And there's an element to brands and products and businesses and consumers and that relationship dynamic today that's very different than existed, you know, even 5, 6 years ago when I was at Oakley. I tell this story to people all the time. When I was at Oakley, we were told, hey, here's your marketing budget, do whatever you want with it as long as it supports sales, right? We're like, okay, like there's no metrics to measure it. We're like creating giant big screen TVs that are in the shape of snowboard goggles to place in snow shop windows. They're awesome, they looked cool. We don't really know if they had an effect on sell-through, but today I can post a video of a chair being used by a guy in the desert versus a chair being used by a girl at the beach and tell you which one performs better.

Of course.

And that's an element to marketing that just never existed. And so for years, it was kind of like, we're just gonna tell the consumer what they need to think and what they should believe. And if they agree with it, then they'll buy our stuff. Well, now it's the other way around. They're telling us. And so, you know, with this Harley-Davidson example, that person's telling Harley-Davidson, you guys are doing everything that I believe in. I also believe in this. And I'm going to tell the world that I'm aligned with your company as a value. I want to be historical. I want to be distinguished. I want to be a little bit rugged because I'm on a motorcycle.

Like, that's who I am as part of and part of a community that also self-identifies with that.

Exactly. And that's one of the things that I knew with Parkit. I was like, we're going to nail this thing on the head. Like we are all about outdoor adventure, we are all about outdoor community building. We want to sit around the fire and we want to sit in our chairs and we want to tell the stories of who we are. And that's the piece of the puzzle that for, for us, we know that that's what's connecting with people the most, is that it's about, you know, the people and the story, and the chair facilitates the engagement. And, and in the world that we live in today, you know, with everything going on between 20— what 2020 has been and what you go online and you read when you go on Facebook and you read through comment sections and everything is we need that face-to-face, around-the-fire, personal connection again. And I think one of the important pieces for Parkit is making sure that our mission is always that, and that's the, that's the focal point, and that our product builds upon those values. And that, that way we're engaging and we're presenting that to people. When people share that, hey, I have a Parkit chair, they're also representing those values as well. And that's one of the things that we're important, or that we find really important.

Yeah, it's the like-minded individual investing their time, effort, and energy in like-minded things and the community building. And I really want to stress this because, you know, when people come to me for stressful situations or navigating stuff where it's company culture, it really is all about the connection at the end of the day, whether they're feeling it or they're not feeling it, whether it's in their relationships, whether it's with parenting, right? Employee to employer, and that's a common one. It's like, I want to I can see where my employer is struggling with some things and I know I can help them, but I don't want— right, but they're going to think that I'm going to overstep my bounds and all those other things, right? So it's that mindset of like, how can we build a better community where everybody's uplifting everybody? Such a, such a cool insight to look at. And, and the commitments that you're making, right, to all these different little niches through one product is super awesome.

No, thank you.

Cool. So I want everybody out there to check out the website. It's parkitmovement.com. And then on Instagram, if they wanted to find you, is it the same thing?

Yep. @parkitmovement on Instagram. If you type in P-A-R-K-I-T, you should find us pretty quickly. We also found out, this is a, you know, fun fact, parkit actually translates in Indonesian to parakeet. So, you know, when we first started Googling the name, we found that. But yeah, if you head over to parkitmovement.com, P-A-R-K-I-T. You'll be able to check us out, see our, see our brand, see our community, get a look at our product, the Voyager. And, you know, I can guarantee you when those things get here off their, off the first production run, we're gonna be very excited to find ourselves around some campfires. Hopefully COVID is dissipated in some capacity from the way that it's been affecting all of our lives, and we can, you know, start reaching out, giving handshakes and hugs, and tell stories about what makes life great around campfires. And if your uncle's got the big, I caught a 300-pound fish tale, you could throw them another beer from the cooler underneath your seat and tell them, keep going. So awesome.

So congratulations on the success to this point. And obviously, it's— this is such an exciting project. And I know, like, I can't wait to start seeing it here locally, as people learn more and more about what you're doing in the brand. And for everybody else out there listening, if you got any value out of today's conversation, please do us a favor and leave us a review on iTunes. That helps us get found by more people out there who are looking for this really awesome information. And also share this episode. If you're an entrepreneur, you know someone who's an entrepreneur, you know someone who's thinking about creating or starting a business, wanting to learn more about mentorship or marketing or how to figure out the right idea, this is going to be one of the best episodes to definitely listen and hear about that. So Stephen, again, thank you so much for hanging out with us today.

Yep, thank you, you guys. Appreciate it.