Episode 313: Rustico’s Isaac Childs: How Endings Become New Beginnings

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What does success look like to you? Today, we're chatting with Isaac Childs, founder of Rustico, one of the most beloved brands who closed after a very successful run of 22 years. Rustico was known for their bespoke artisan craftsmanship in leather journals and other products. There is a tremendous amount of respect in our industry for this maker and for what Isaac and his team built. We talk with Isaac about his journey and specifically about a topic that is so easily misconstrued. What does success look like? We'll explore this, plus how that definition changed for him through the years and how we can perhaps instead learn to live, as Isaac says, inspired lives. Hi friends, I'm Bobby LeHew, Chief Content Officer at Commonsku. One quick note, have you heard about our newsletter called The Backpack? The Backpack is an emailed newsletter we send you on the first and third Friday of each month. It features trends in merch, top articles and podcast episodes, and global news impacting merch life. This newsletter is a blast for us to put together, and we've had such rave reviews from teams who see it as a bimonthly source of inspiration delivered right to their inbox. You can see examples from previous issues and subscribe at commonskew.com/backpack. Today's episode is brought to you by CommensQ, the work-from-anywhere platform that powers your connected workflow, enabling you to process more orders and dramatically grow your sales. To learn more, visit commonskew.com. Now here's my chat with Isaac Childs.

Isaac, it's so good to see you, man.

Yeah, you too, Bobby. It's good to be here.

Just last week, a distributor friend of mine sent me a message. She had an end client who saw one of Rustico's journals in Memphis, and the end client sent it to my distributor friend, and they wanted some just like it. Rustico was this rare brand that transcended mass production norms with true artistry and craftsmanship through leather products, and all began with this simple journal you created. Now you appeal to a very discerning buyer. You had major success in both retail and B2B, and one of your first orders was from Disney. I mean, this kind of success is crazy. You created something unique that most people would envy. Rustico, to me, the interesting, one of the most interesting aspects about your business is Rustico is a 22-year brand who created timeless pieces, but it felt very fresh. So after a very long run, you decided to close. Which has to feel something like the death of someone or something. And I'd be remiss if we just didn't start the conversation with what led to your decision to close.

Yeah, no, that's a great question. And yeah, 22 years in, that is, that's my oldest child. Actually, my oldest child's 21 years old. And so my true oldest child's Rustico. I started it in college. Absolutely with a couple of friends before I was even married., and it was definitely part of my purpose and my passion. And I think that's why it always stayed fresh in a lot of ways is we had this idea that we wanted things that were made, not produced. And so there was always that feeling around it. But to answer your question, why did we close? I think the right word on that is just misalignment. There's a lot of different reasons why we closed and some of it was financial. We You know, COVID was, was tough on a lot of brands for us, not, you know, we weren't immune to that by any means. And partnerships change as well as desires and outcomes and what we want. And so misalignment is a great way to put it in a lot of ways, not only with my partnership, but with me, I think in some ways where what started as my passion and purpose, there was a little bit of a mission creep, if you will, at the end of the the last little bit there at Rustico. And for me, it was no longer aligned with where I wanted to go. So the timing was right. It just, it just needed to happen as it needed to happen. And it took me a little bit to come to that, that the conclusion, but, but I'm sure that's why it was there.

Speaking of that change, and you mentioned mission creep, like, what did success look like to you either in the early days when you first began Rustico compared to how it changed as you evolved?

Yeah, I know that's a great question. Obviously, 22 years in, I look back at what I was trying to accomplish when we first started. And success is interesting. I think when you get into college, when you're kind of in that first stage, there's so much outside looking in. There's so many things that we define success by what others want for us, what we are told we need. And so, you know, success at the first was how much revenue could we do? What brands could we get involved with? What's our reach? Could we scale this to a certain level? The comparison of where we were at on the ladder, if you will, to other brands in our space at the time, to other groups and our peers, was how we kind of viewed our success or failures initially. That absolutely shifted towards the end there, especially as I went through quite a few different challenges and trials, some of them health-related. As well as business related. And success started to look more for me, what inside looking out, right? What did I really want versus what someone else wanted? And then did what I do and what I'm doing align with who I am and what I want internally? And that created quite a bit more fulfillment for me than the other way, I guess.

So, yeah, yeah. We've talked about this a little bit about how success, we end up comparing ourselves. And that's where one of the destructive parts of success is, is one thing to emulate someone, but to compare and use that as your driver for success. I guess that's somewhat you're referring to. Do you, do you think we too often model our lives off of someone else's version of success rather than that being intrinsic to outward?

Oh yeah, I do. I think, I think that's natural. And it's kind of the way that our society is raised. We have this, we have these milestones, if you will, these checkmarks and these, these events that need to occur throughout our lives. And by the time we're you know, 10 years old, we have a fairly structured idea of how our lives should go. And so we do. It's natural for us to compare where we're at in this race, if you will, to the next person. And success in a lot of ways in business means I'm better than the guy beneath me. And that is, doesn't matter how much we actually have or have achieved. It's more about, is it more than the next guy? Or is it I'm further along than someone else. And that's, I think, expanded, or it's expanded especially through social media and just our attempts in that regard to always perceive that we are, we're always at the top, right? And yeah, that's unfortunate, but yeah, it works.

There's a great book by James Kars called Finite and Infinite Games, and he talks about that a lot. And then a finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game is played for the purpose of continuing to play. But he talks about that aspect of a finite game being solely a comparison game. And, but I love what you said though. You're also somewhat generous to say, you know, that's some also how we learn is we learn by comparison, but then you had this intrinsic moment. Did you, and so our audience knows I have permission to talk about this with you. You have been through a lot personally. I mean, you had a heart attack, cancer. I mean, more than the average CEO running a business. How did these experiences sort of change the way you view success?

Yeah, I know. I appreciate you bringing that up. And absolutely, I'm, I actually am more than open to talk about these things with, with anyone for sure. These are, these are experiences that I think all of us tend to confront or will experience. And a lot of times we do them in isolation. For me, my wife calls me a healthy lemon. I'm a pretty healthy guy, but I have had some serious health issues and scares, cancer being one of them. Cancer for me happened, I think, almost 18 years ago now, 2008. And that was right in the thick of— I was literally about 7 years in business and working 120 hours a week, measuring my success the way that I measured it outside looking in. Where was I at? And so traveling all the time, trying to make the ends meet, thought that more dollars in the bank account was what my wife, my family, and I wanted. And then cancer really put me in my place and said, hey, you need to sit down. And what happens during those times, especially in a health scare when we really look at like what really matters, right? That question of like, what do I really want? Well, I wanted my health, I wanted my relationships and obviously my family and then anything else about that was just a gravy. And so it became really easy then to kind of measure success from the inside looking out.. And obviously I needed to learn that multiple times throughout the career. Most of us do.

Yeah.

Yeah. It came a little bit later for me, but those kind of experiences helped me to really look at success and how we measure it, not only for myself, but for in a way that I wanted to share that with others too.

Yeah.

That's been a huge part for me.

In your LinkedIn message, you wrote, here's to living inspired lives free from the grind. You seem to replace the word successful a lot with the word inspired. And in your coaching of executives, you've said that some who on the outside look very successful, but inwardly they're not fulfilled. Talk to us a little bit about what you see in the entrepreneurs today. You, you said work-life balance, you got a better phrase for work-life balance, which is work-life alignment.

What's the difference to you? Yeah, no, that's great. I think we talked a little bit earlier about hitting these, hitting these, these pinnacles of success, right? These rungs, if you will.

Yeah.

I kind of liken it to climbing a mountain, right? We get to the top, we get to that summit, and that, that unfulfillment that I've seen is really where that's at. They're sitting on the summit, but they're saying, this is not the success I thought it would bring, right? Or the inverse of that is, is They didn't make it to the summit. Now they're in the valley of despair and they're still unfulfilled. And early on, especially after cancer, I really leaned in on this work-life balance idea. I thought that's what I was looking for. And over time, I began to realize that's still an outside-in approach, meaning work came first, life came second. Somehow you tried to balance that. And I realized that that's really not the way it should be. Inside-out means life comes first. Work is aligned with how we live our life. And that's, that's where we find that fulfillment and that inspiration, which to me is really a true measurement of success, right? Success is more a byproduct. And that's not what I'm looking for. I'm looking for inspiration. I'm looking for fulfillment. I'm looking for that peace that comes from knowing, hey, my life is in alignment with how I work and how I play. Yeah.

What do you see as a common struggle with young executives facing today? I'm thinking of your phrase. It was a great phrase called clearing the cash. And you might have to unpack that a little bit, but what do you see young executives struggling with today more than anything else?

Yeah, clearing the cache is 100% correct. Let me unpack that a little bit because what I have noticed, especially with a lot of young employees and executives that have come to me right out of college, 2 years into their career, and they're literally burnt out. They've gone through all the productivity apps. They've checked out all the boxes. They've They're more productive than I ever was at that age. And yet they're literally looking at me going, I have no, no more in the tank. And usually when I start asking questions like, well, what is it you want? You know, these deep questions that require you to kind of go inward. What I've noticed is that they have not spent any time actually reflecting. And so for me, obviously a huge passion is journaling and putting pen to paper is one way for you to actually reflect. And what reflection actually does for you is clear your cache. It clears out all of the ruminating thoughts in your head, these outside-looking-in projections of how we should measure success, these to-do lists and checklists that we do that quite honestly, if we don't think about it, we don't check in with ourselves, we end up doing things that we never really wanted to do in the first place. Most of these young executives just have way too many open browsers. Things that they thought were important but really weren't important and they've just never taken the time to clear the cache. Oh, so good. And kind of get calm and clear again.

So yeah, that's a daily practice for you, right?

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Journaling is a practice. And I love that word. I do too. It's a way to put it because it's not like you will ever master it. It's not a checklist. It's not something you do. It's something you be.

Yeah. Viktor Frankl said that success, like happiness, cannot be pursued. It must ensue as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a course greater than themselves. Themselves. Given your journey, how would you respond to that?

That's a wonderful quote. Honestly, I'll probably respond to it with another quote if I can. It's actually one of my favorite quotes ever because this is how I want to live my life. I think happiness and success are definitely not things you pursue. I actually think it's play and excellence. And there's a quote that James Michener says, It's, you know, the masters of the art of living make little distinction between their work and their play, their labor and their leisure, their minds and their bodies, their information, their recreation, their love and their religion. They hardly know which is which. They simply pursue their vision of excellence, whatever they do, leaving others to decide whether they're working or playing. Yeah. And so, wow. To me, I feel like that's exactly where Viktor Frankl is at. It is success and happiness are byproducts of us living in that life-work alignment, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Did you feel that? That's phenomenal. I love that quote from Michener. Do you feel there was a part through Rustico that you, that you were in that zone of that quote and then things started to slip away?

Yeah. Oh, absolutely. And, and for a while there, I actually thought that was wrong for things to kind of shift, but there was definitely a good 10, 15 years there when That was, that was, I loved it. You know, I woke up every morning and I couldn't tell if I was playing or working, right? To me, it was just like this, this, this dynamic of being in true life-work alignment. Yeah. And, and that's where I, I think things shifted in, in not only the business, but within me, which is okay too, as well as just being able to recognize it and see that shift and make sure you stay in alignment with what you're doing next.

Did part of that shift have to do with any market decision in terms of where you were going or selling, or was it just other ancillary things?

No, actually, I guess you could say so in a way. I think what really came down to it is that the business as I started it, which is why I think it continually had its freshness about it, is that my purpose behind the business was more tied to what I consider my dharma. Or my purpose, which is how do I help others see and recognize their true value? And we got that through these keepsake products like our journals and our notebooks and other goods that are timeless, right? And as the business grew, it just turned into exactly what it is. It's a product-based legacy heirloom company, which was okay. I love that part of it, but that's not exactly the dharma that I want moving forward. So there was just a little bit of a shift in how that business worked. And Yeah. And at some point in time, it just became necessary for me to say, okay, I need to move in another direction.

So yeah, you know our audience very well. You know, we have probably 70% are distributors and agencies, many of whom work with you, love you, respect you. And there's 30% of our—

so go ahead, do what I said. I just want to shout out, I love— I've loved them all. It's been a, it's been a phenomenal 20 years in that industry.

Well, the respect that you have created, I'm I know you know this, but my God, I mean, it's, it's a rare, a rare feat, I think, to achieve that level of respect. And speaking of, perhaps you could speak to that niche supplier or niche supplier who's trying to create something like you did at Rustco. They're maybe they're artisan or craftsman-like product with attention to detail. Is it possible to have both artistic and commercial success without sacrificing that artistic integrity or without sacrificing your vision?

Yes, 100%. I actually was just in Mexico City a couple weeks ago and I was touring a very large manufacturing facility that produces furniture from everyone from Restoration Hardware down to Costco. And the artisanal craftsmanship that goes into each of the pieces was inspiring for me, especially at the volume. I mean, truckloads and truckloads and truckloads they ship every day to across the world. And yet their, their way of manufacturing is very much still, still the old style, which is old master apprentice cells versus the standard production line. And that's actually what is a testament to their, to their, their actual, their niche. That's what makes them unique. And that's why everyone goes through them because you still get this. They're a 50-year-old company. And each of the pieces that come off the finish line in the assembly rack are so unique, so different, so touched and crafted versus manufactured that it's a really cool concept to see. And I would say that with any new niche manufacturer coming in is if you are dedicated to making something that has a handcrafted or has a craft in an artisan field, not a production-made feel to it, then it can be done. And it, I think it needs it. We need it.

So yeah, I believe for our other audiences' sake, distributors and agencies, many of whom are your customers, I think around 10% of your sales were the industry. It may have been larger than that. I'm not sure. Is that correct?

Somewhere around there.

As you speak to like that audience and they're constantly merchandising and the sophistication and the demands of today's buyer have changed, like they're wanting more of those experiences like you created with Rustico. How would you encourage them just to look at the merch business in general? I know that's a very broad question, but you created a very unique product and people loved it.

Yeah, I think experiential is the way that I would go. I would talk about that as like products. I think we have gone past the consumerism of kind of the early 2000s and the mass production kind of mentality of like everyone needs this item and people now are looking for experiential type of products, 100%. And if you can't get that and actually through an event or a timeframe, then in a product, it comes through the way it's made, right? And how it's made and what is unique about it in its own way. So I think experiential is the way to look at it and kind of focus on that.

I'm really glad you brought that up because if the product itself can't be that experience, then like you said, maybe it's the way it was sourced or the way it was made or the way the factory operates or something like it. They want to be a part of that experience of the product. It's a really cool way of looking at it.

Yeah, or the product is there to enhance that experience. Like, that is actually one of the biggest core takeaways from us to grow is like most of our products were what we called legacy keepers, right? Like, take our journals and notebooks and photo albums. It's like you put the experiences within them and then they became timeless, right? Or our dog kits and our leather goods, our leather bags, and so on. It was like our travel items were like you use those as you created experiences that be timeless. So yeah, that's one way to look at it for sure. I also think that people want that uniqueness of something that is just theirs. You know, there's so much of, of me too coming back to this idea of like success and leveling up. It's like you kind of want something that's different than everyone else. Yeah. And if you can put your stamp on it in the process, that's even better.

Yeah. Last few questions for you, Isaac. I should have— I'm really irritated at myself. I should have brought my little stack of Rustico products here starting with a wallet I picked up in Texas like 10 years ago, I think, or so. Yeah. The community loves this question. And since you are such a fierce reader and processor of journal, what are you reading or watching now that's inspired you lately? You have some recommended reads for folks?

Yeah. Oh, wow. I'm constantly reading. So there's always something in the works. The book that I think I loved is basically made my top, top 2 from last year was this book called The Pivot Year by Brianna Wiest. And then the second one behind that is really 101 essays by her as well. Right now, this year, I know you want one, but I can't do that.

There's too many. Give them all. That's fine.

I'm reading two right now that I absolutely love. The one is The Seat of the Soul, Gary Zukav. It's an old book. Oprah, I think it was on her list 20 years ago or whatever, but it's a reread for me. Phenomenal book every time I read it. And then there's a new book out right now. Called A Life Brief, and it's a newer author, but she's a creative director at one of the major creative agencies in the world. Very cool. I'm gonna find the name just because I'm halfway through it and this is an incredible book. She takes this concept of a creative brief in most creative agencies where they go and distill onto one page a marketing strategy and plan, right? And she puts it into what's called a life brief. Brief, and she has this process for how, how do you really get clear on what you want in life. And it's Bonnie Wan is her name. And the Life Brief is the book, and it's super simple read. But if you want to look at how you view success from outside in and switch that to inside out, that is a very good book to start with.

Thank you. I'm going to pick that up for sure, both of those. I know you also love to ride your BMW bike and travel. And as we close here, talk to us a little bit about endings. You said endings can be a superpower.

What did you mean? Yeah. So great. That's actually an awesome analogy. I love my BMW. I actually have a Harley-Davidson as well. I ride motorcycles a lot. Every year I take what's called my epic ride. There's a group of us guys and we go between 8 to 10 days on the road. And the first year I did that ride, I was fairly new at riding motorcycles. And Harley-Davidson's a big bike. And I remember just pushing, pushing out of the parking lot. I was like scared to death. Like, am I going to be able to ride this thing? And it felt I wasn't comfortable doing that. And it felt like I wanted to just like kind of park it in the parking lots. And I was always looking for like, hey, let's just hang out here. Let's not travel. And what I mean by that is like where I got with that is that there's this idea like if I didn't take off, I didn't leave the parking lot, like I was never going to actually experience any new things. And so getting out of the parking lot, well, though that was scary, leaving where I was at was necessary in order for me to discover and have new experiences going forward. And that's what I mean by endings. Like, endings are absolutely necessary in order for us to have new beginnings. And sometimes we love where we're at and we think that we need to maintain that forever, but that's not actually how we experience new things. So learning how to let go, be okay with the ending so that we can start a new beginning is, is, is important.

So that's phenomenal. What's next on the horizon for Isaac Childs?

More of this. I have, man, there's a whole lot on the horizon. I think that is part of what's cool about new beginnings is there's unlimited possibility and there's a whole lot of excitement around what is uncertain. And I think there's two ways to embrace that. We tend to be a little anxious when we don't know what's ahead of us, or we can look at that and say, hey, this is going to be exciting. I think one of my favorite business guys is Yvon Chouinard. He's the founder of Patagonia. He has this quote and saying that says, it's not an adventure until you don't know what happens next. That's actually how I do all of my travel. Like, I literally plan a trip. It's to a destination. It's like, we'll see what happens when I get there. I pack as light as possible, and I literally am not excited. It until I don't know what we're doing next. So that's kind of where I'm at right now. We'll see where it goes. There's a lot of excitement. I definitely have some great ideas. And really what I'm taking is the last 22 years, actually the last 35 years of me journaling and selling journals and notebooks and really being an expert on how journaling practice can really help clear the cache, if you will, and learn from your experiences. And I've distilled it into a methodology that I call Map and Compass. And when it's ready, I'll be sharing that with the world. And hopefully, it provides some value.

Let's have a part 2 on that because that sounds phenomenal for a lot of folks that are looking for direction. Isaac, I should have mentioned this at the outset that when I was a distributor, you were an amazing supplier partner of ours. Eric Granado, I think, was the first person who discovered you and said, man, this is just a killer, amazing client, amazing supplier, amazing product. Product and craftsmanship. And you and your team are just a wonder, an absolute wonder to work with. I, I know we said it before earlier, but the respect you have for in this industry is phenomenal. So thank you for the impact you've made here, and we need to have a part 2 of this conversation when you have a map and compass a little further down the road.

Absolutely, I would love to. And thank you as well, Bobby, for the time today.

Thanks so much for tuning in to this episode of SKUcast. Be sure to keep up with our latest content by subscribing to SKUcast on iTunes or to our blog at community.commsku.com. Until next time, friends, thanks so much for listening.

Mm-hmm.