Mitch Purgason: Stitched By Mitch

Welcome to the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode. Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Mitch Pergason with us. He is Stitched by Mitch, so welcome to the show, Mitch.

Thank you, Tyler. Glad to be on here, man.

Of course, glad to have you on. We'll dive into the first question. The first question I have for you, Mitch, is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?

I think the best story that has ever happened to me, I was in college, I was studying for finals, and I just actually watched an episode of Shark Tank. And I just randomly thought that it'd be kind of funny if I emailed Mark Cuban and just see what would happen. And I had no real expectation of if he would respond or if anything would happen from it, but I sent him a long email and just tried to make the subject line slightly different. 3 days later, I'm studying again. I look at my phone, it says RE: Mark Cuban, and he responded. And I just was freaking out, obviously, as a 20-year-old college student, and basically just started a conversation with him. And he kept responding. And as he kept responding, I kept asking more questions. And eventually he basically said, you know, I have this app, called Cyber Dust, you know, would be very interested to see what your college friends think of it, yada, yada, yada. And so I just said, well, you know, what can I do to be an intern or to work with you or whatever? And he just basically told me to get creative and lead up in the sense of he didn't really want to tell me what to do, but I had to figure it out. Long story short, I did a couple things and then I ended up getting flown up to New York City and I helped put on Steve Nash Celebrity Soccer Tournament. And just, you know, as a 20-year-old, it was probably one of the cooler experiences of my life. But the biggest lesson from that was just you never know what could happen if you just try. Even the most outlandish, weirdest things, you just, if you just try and you're creative and you take the initiative on what needs to be done instead of being wait, you know, being told what to be done. Or what to do. I think a lot of the best things in my life have happened from just those two types of thinking, those two types of ways of thinking.

Dude, that is so awesome. I can't imagine as a 20-year-old getting that email. I would have shot right out of my chair. I would have like left class, everything, be like, dude, that is so sick, man.

Thanks for sharing. It was, it was, yeah, it's probably the funniest story, the most random story, because I was not a GPA guy. I was not a classic scholar or anything like that. I just hustled and I made an outlandish attempt to get an in with someone that I respected. It doesn't always work out, but it did. You never know.

Absolutely, man. The next question I have for you, Mitch, is what's the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?

I'd say, so what I do, I design clothes that, you know, I say that fuse with people's personalities. So I try to add a slight twist on either an interview process or just understanding who I work with better. You know, the power of color is a beautiful thing. And I think a lot of people just think, oh, you know, Mitch sells suits. You know, that's not really what I do. It's more or less just getting to know the person Adding subtle details within their garments that make them appreciate it more, even if it's their subconscious, but they know it's there. It makes them appreciate it more. And then that's just kind of like, I guess, the before process, you know, with details and color. But I'd say the other part is, you know, everything that is done is a finished measurement with what we do. So basically what that means is There's a lot of companies that they will make, um, say if they measure your chest and you're a 38, they will make a 38 and then they will adjust that 38 so it fits you pretty well. And you're like, okay, cool, this is custom, this is made to measure, whatever, this fits pretty well. With what we do, we cut and sew everything, and every body part has its own specific size. We use an old tailoring technique called finished measurements and apply that to you based on your size, your weight, your age, your fit preference. and really how you move. So, um, I'd say the biggest expertise thing that with what we do and, um, kind of what makes us different within the industry and what the best companies that do sell clothes do is they apply finished measurements. And it's, it's more of an art than a science, but it's something that a lot of companies don't do if they're intending to scale. Um, and so yeah, but it just, it basically helps clothes flow with your movement better than just if you were standing.

Hmm, and what is your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry-specific.

Yeah, so I'd say the best piece of advice is just to do something. You know, the best teacher— so cliché, and people say it all the time— but the best teacher is just experience, you know, trying things. I'd say anytime you want to try something, you know, figure out— you can figure out within probably 2 days of research if it's something that even though you're interested in the original idea, if the idea actually could make sense and if it could be done pretty quickly and you could get feedback pretty quickly. But a lot of people ask me for marketing advice or sales advice or anything like that. The biggest marketing advice is just having people talk about you. I mean, I have a story where I worked with a guy 5 years ago and I did pretty well. He bought pretty much the most basic suit that I've ever sold. It was great. That's all I needed at the time. 5 years later, a guy heard of him talk about me at a wedding he went to. He ended up spending $10,000 with me. And so that's just kind of proof in the pudding that if someone says something, if someone says that you should go see this movie and it's a friend, you respect their opinion. That's probably the best piece of advice possible.

Hey, Mitch.

Yep, can you hear me?

Yeah, you dropped out for one second, but no worries. Yeah, I agree, man. Word-of-mouth marketing is the number one tool. If you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?

I've done so many dumb things that it just makes me laugh when I look back and think, like, why was this the— why did you think this was the way to handle this? Or why did you do this? There's so many funny things that I've done that are just dumb. So a lot of people, I think success is beautiful because each person can inadvertently have their own path in the most random of ways. I've had so many funny stories of success. What I wish I had done when I was little and younger is find someone within my industry and asked what they failed on, not how they succeeded. Because I think just like, you know, your personality, success can come in so many different forms and fashions. But I would have greatly benefited if I had met with someone that does what I do now and just, you know, ask them, what are the biggest failures that you've ever had? And I think anytime I plan on doing anything in the future, I'm gonna find someone in the industry and ask them, you know, how hard they failed and what they learned from that.

[Speaker] And in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?

I think the key to happiness is fulfillment within relationships and purpose. I think, you know, people make the world go round. People are amazing. People have stories. Stories are beautiful. And, you know, you can find fulfillment in people and stories and art. I think just having a balanced life of, you know, creative creative challenges, intellectual challenges, and relational challenges. I think that's the key to happiness.

And what's the best book that you've read? And what was the number one thing you learned from that?

The best book I have ever read, I'd say, you know, the book I actually just finished was called Love Does. It's by a guy named Bob Goff. And it's It's kind of just a reassuring lesson on just how to love people and how to love failure and basically to fall in love with everything you're doing, even if it's not ideal, it's not the best thing. But if you fall in love with everything that you're doing, there's a lot of good things that can come from that. But the book just basically— he has so many ridiculous stories too of just like, you know, a guy, he did not get into law school, so what did he do? You know, he had a good attitude about it. He was not weird, but He sat outside the dean's office for a week and a half or 2 weeks or something like that and said, hey, just as soon as you tell me to go get my books, I'm ready to go. And the dean is like, you didn't get in, yada yada. And then eventually he got in. He went after the same girl that he wanted to marry for 9 years. He eventually got her and is the love of his life. But he was never weird about it. He loved every situation. He loved every no. He loved every yes. And he just, you know, pretty much embraced everything that was in front of him. So that was a really good lesson for me because I think a lot of times you can fall in love with your successes and you can look back on certain failures and say, yeah, those were great, they just taught me a lot. But I think, you know, if you just look at those with happiness and everything you do, then it'll come back tenfold for you.

And what is your favorite quote and why?

Favorite quote and why? I'd say, it's kind of funny, I've always, I've kind of like the Rudy, I guess. And I played, I walked on basketball in college and I'm the classic 5'8" with a reddish brown beard, brown hair, doesn't really make sense. And I just hustled, you know, I was the Rudy of our team. And I think, One of my coaches told me the greatest thing in life is to do things that other people say you can't do. And I think it's kind of a twist on that. I do love that quote, but I think it's, you know, the best life is a life lived for others. And I think a lot of people don't think people can do that. And when you do it, you know, it really goes back to the happiness key and fulfillment.

Yes, man. Thank you so much for coming on, man. The last question I have for you, Before we let you go is where's the best place for people to find you online?

Yep. Yeah, so my Instagram and LinkedIn is probably where I'm most active. Currently redoing my website, but my Instagram is Stitched by Mitch. That's S-T-I-T-C-H-E-D by Mitch. And then my LinkedIn is just Mitch Pergison. So, you know, feel free to add me on there, reach out to me, ask me any questions. Anybody that's interested, you know, happy to help with anything I can.

Perfect, man. Thanks again for coming on.

Awesome. Thank you, Tyler. Appreciate your time, man. The podcast you just heard was recorded with Anchor. If you want to make your own, download the Android or iOS app completely free from anchor.fm/podcast. That's anchor.fm/podcast.