A Pro Big-Wave Surfer Creates a Migraine Relieving Beanie – Nic Lamb of IceBeanie

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

Hey there entrepreneurs My name is Chantel Welcome to Trep talks. This is the show where I interview successful ecommerce entrepreneurs, business executives and thought leaders and ask them questions about their business story, and also dive deep into some of the strategies and tactics that they have used to start and grow their businesses. And today, I’m really excited to welcome Nick lamb to the show. Nick is the founder of ice beanie is beneath a cold pack hat that uses cold compression to reduce headaches and migraine, migraine pain. And today, I am going to ask Nick a few few questions about his entrepreneurial journey and some of the strategies and tactics that he has used to start and grow his business. So thank you so much for joining me today. Trep talks. I really appreciate it.

Nic Lamb  

Yeah, I’m happy to be here.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

So yeah, let’s get right into it. I know you have an interesting story you are you used to be or you’re still are a surfer. And somehow that got you or that motivated you to start? I mean, can you share the story? How you? You know, what gave you the idea to start this business?

Nic Lamb  

Sure. Well, I’m a professional athlete and be wave surfer. I was born in Santa Cruz, California, state champion, two time state champion and current defending Mavericks champion, I’ve always loved to learn and create. And while competing in the 2016 WsL final at Nazareth in Portugal, the biggest wave in the world, I slipped and fell on the 60 foot plus wave and sustained a pretty bad concussion, you know, and for for months after I pretty uncomfortable migraine headaches, and you know, just frustrated with holding ice packs on my head. And while refusing to take pills, I wanted to find an all natural solution. So at that time, I was very intrigued by cold therapy and the health benefits imposed on the body by stressing it to produce cold shock proteins that not only aid in recovery, but boost overall health. So I remember thinking while leaving the gym one hot day, like why don’t we ice our heads were told growing up, you know, if you fall get a scrape or bump or bruise to ice area, right? Like, why don’t we ice our heads? So I started to put pen to paper and draw what is a sketch of now I spinning?

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

And if there has there been some research out there that shares that, you know, it’s okay to use cold on your head.

Nic Lamb  

Yeah, there has been some studies, there was a study conducted out of Hawaii, where they had patients utilizing a cold cap on their heads to post migraines. And the results were pretty astounding, I believe, like 70% of them found relief from the migrants and their headaches. But you know, just to jump into my product, my products ice beanie, it’s a patent pending all natural solution to migraine headaches and concussions by utilizing compression Cold Therapy gel packs, instead of plush polyester adjustable beanie, you simply place it in the freezer for 45 minutes to an hour takeout place on your head. You know, we’ve had many happy customers from TBI traumatic brain injury to chemo patients finding great relief from our all natural drug free product.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

So the value that your product brings is really the design of it that you know someone can wear it because I would assume that, you know, many ice packs that are available, you know, that people can easily find maybe in a drugstore and other stores. You know, they can do the same job, but I’m assuming your product. Is it really the fact that a person can wear like a hat that differentiates?

Nic Lamb  

Yeah, exactly. So that’s kind of funny. The first couple of version of prototypes were terrible and like didn’t lay correctly on the head. And it was actually quite tricky creating the right design. If you want something like soft enough to feel pleasant on the head, but firm enough to hold it’s cold and not warm too quickly. So that took a few rounds before we had our MVP. But yeah, essentially the fact that we’re able to produce the designs of the gel pack, keep them soft enough so they’re comfortable on the head remained cold long enough. Inside a carefully crafted gel pack. Holding beanie, that’s adjustables were really give us the results.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

And how long have you been running this business? When When did you actually start this business?

Nic Lamb  

We launched in q4 2019 2019. Okay,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

and is it is the business going great so far is that is it your like main source of income? Are you working on the full time? Can you share a little bit about that?

Nic Lamb  

Yeah, absolutely. The business has been doing better Asik like I said, we launched in q4 2019, we had to raise the price twice before selling out. And the response has just been amazing. After getting on Shark Tank, again, things exploded to a level that we couldn’t imagine. And it’s just been. It’s been a fast paced learning curve, for sure. But yeah, it’s been incredible.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

So, before you actually created the product, like, how did you know that if you create this, this is actually going to be a seller in the market? Like, did you do any research? Or was it really just that, let’s create it, let’s put it on a website and see if anyone buys?

Nic Lamb  

Well, I remember initially, I created it for myself. I had a personal need that wasn’t met, I couldn’t find anything in the marketplace to meet it. And so that was kind of the genesis of ice beanie, I wanted to create something for myself, because I didn’t want to keep holding ice packs on my head, like I said, really intrigued with cold therapy and the benefits of produced with the body. So that was kind of the genesis of it.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

So can you share, like, how did you so you know, you got this idea? You did some product development, you actually created a prototype? How did you make your first sale?

Nic Lamb  

Let’s see. I remember we launched, we launched direct to consumer, from our website, I spin e.com, FDA and Etsy and immediately gained traction and things have kind of just been growing ever since. I guess apparently, there was a need in the marketplace. People liked it. And it’s just been growing organically.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

So you basically just launched everywhere, Amazon Etsy, created your own website. And, and it took off. So that so you know, did you have to do any marketing?

Nic Lamb  

Not initially, I have a bit of a following. So I was able to kind of promote it through my own personal channels. But just putting it up on the channels I mentioned, it was able to gain enough traction. And we’ve kind of just build and gain some momentum apple that.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

Initially, did you have to invest some of your own money into the business and what motivated you to go to shark tank to get some additional funding?

Nic Lamb  

Yeah, I remember after the prototype mode creation, and finalization was a few 1000, because we went through a few rounds, and then requesting the MOQ for my manufacturing, thinking, Okay, I’m going to commit $10,000 In total, to hit the MOQ. Launch and website and see if we get any traction. And if it fails, at least I’ll walk away with a $10,000 lesson in business. So I kind of framed it in my mind as a winner learn, which ultimately became you know, which ultimately was a win win.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

So basically, it was $10,000 of your own money that you put into the business. How did you feel about you know, how did you go about finding the manufacturer for something like this that’s manufactured in the US or overseas.

Nic Lamb  

Right now we produce offshore, and I had leveraged a previous business venture relationship I had with Richard Martin, who was a former president of Calvin Klein to source my manufacturer, so I kind of really relied heavily on his word of mouth and expertise. And he kind of guided me to a trusted manufacturer, and I slowly started to work with them to produce a prototype.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

And that relationship came out of your own like, personal thing, or, you know, given that you were, you know, you’re an athlete, and you you came to know this person.

Nic Lamb  

Yeah, it was a previous business venture him and I were a part of, okay.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

Can you share a little bit about your experience going on Shark Tank? You know, how did you come to go to shark Shark Tank? What kind of preparation did you do? And what was your experience, like, on the Shark Tank?

Nic Lamb  

Yeah, the the experience was incredible. We submitted the application like anyone else. And you know, they said getting on Shark Tank is about 20 times harder than actually getting accepted into Harvard. So when I submitted it, I really kind of just threw caution to the wind, I didn’t really expect to hear anything back. And, you know, especially during COVID, with all the testing and protocols in place, we had to quarantine for 10 days, and a hotel, couldn’t leave no sunlight was tested before leaving the room and before the pitch. You know, if you’re, if your test came back as a false positive, you were sent home, you couldn’t pitch that was it. And if you’re lucky enough to pitch it might not even air they tell you that and so you only get one shot to pitch and if you mess up. That’s it, sorry, you know, on to the next and so I just practice it practice as many times as I could. And I was just so ready to perform. And I was the first one ever I served into the tank, I had electric skateboards strapped my surfboard deck, with a remote trigger in my hand, that the throttle upon action, I just just write enough not to overshoot it and land on my mark. And now I got one attempt. And luckily I hit my mark, and landed. And after you land, there’s a 32nd whole period of silence where the cameras get B roll before you pitch them. And at the end of the 30 seconds, the yoke go pitch. And, you know, then you get to do your pitch and go through spiel, and then you do the q&a. And if you’re lucky, you get, you get an offer, my segment was pretty crazy. There was a bit of a shark bite, and I ended up receiving three offers. And I ended up choosing mark, because we felt his background was the best fit for our company.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

And did your appearance on Shark Tank actually help drive sales for your business? Like when you went to shark tank initially? What was your goal? Like? Did you actually go there for advertising? Did you go there to actually, you know, get funding for your business? Did you go there to you know, get a shark who is more experienced in business and can can guide you grow your business? What was your actual goal for going to Shark Tank?

Nic Lamb  

Right, so the two main value ads are like the marketing that’s free, where you’re able to reach 10s of millions of people. And then the value is from the investor that you had done due diligence on prior in relation to your industry, right, because they all expertise in different industries. And I’d advise anyone, if they were going down that route of trying to pitch an investor, make sure you do your due diligence on who you’re pitching and kind of know the room. So you kind of have in mind what value they can bring specifically to your business. And I went on there for of course, the marketing would have been amazing. That was incredible. But also I really wanted the expertise from from one of the sharks and the mentoring and the guiding that that comes with that as well as the capital, you know, the capital injection was was amazing, although we didn’t need it, because we were able to self fund through our cash flows, but just really helped us with the scale. And working with Mark has been amazing.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

So obviously, you went there with the goal of you know, you know, if you if you were to get I wanted a deal, yeah. Do to specifically go for Mark Cuban, right. What was he the your? And what what did you Why him what what specifically are you looking from?

Nic Lamb  

Well, yeah, for one, he was the primary sure him or Damon? Were the two sharks that we were kind of gunning for, because of their backgrounds. And Damon owns gyms, Mark is heavily in the sports industry, he owns the Dallas Mavericks, he has kind of that athletic channel there. And then he’s a billionaire, you know, so he’s got endless capital to deploy. And I just felt like it would have been a good fit. And either one of those guys would have been a great fit. But I had made the deal with Mark, and I didn’t want to go back on that deal. So we chose mark.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

And what has it been like working with Mark? You know, after after making that deal? Can you share a little bit about you know, does he mentor you? Does he give you advice? And how has this relationship helped you? And your business?

Nic Lamb  

Yeah, working with Mark has been incredible. I mean, he’s one of the most prolific investors of our time. He’s very well accomplished. And he really knows e Commerce and Consumer, like no other he’s advised us on a lot of different things. He’s kept us laser focused on what we’re trying to do. And you know, and he’s deployed capital and believed in us and helped us scale. So working with him has been incredible.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

Okay. What I mean, I’m almost the curious to ask what, you know, what is the one big business piece of insight or advice you receive from Mark that other people can benefit from also?

Nic Lamb  

You know, one, the primary piece of insight that he’s given me is just stay focused on what you’re doing and continue to sell the one product because I think what happens with a lot of entrepreneurs is once you jump into the game or the marketplace, and you find some success, you immediately try to duplicate that in another area or you see some other shiny object and or you want to add more products to your line and expand too quickly. And you tend to see a lot of companies fail when they go that direction as opposed to being just really laser focused in one lane and just going very deep. And so I’d say the primary advice he’s given for us has been just stay laser focus right now continue to do what you’re doing, you guys are doing a great thing. Don’t be distracted, tune out the noise and focus on the signal. Okay.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

I think, you know, working with a shark and having having that kind of funding backing is definitely a strength. You know, let’s say you were doing this business on your own, because it’s a one product business. And I would still consider that this is kind of a simple product that can be easily duplicated. Have you seen? Have you seen other products in the market that are similar kind of concept, maybe a little bit different? You know, look like products or, you know, copycats, have you seen them on Amazon or other places? And how do you compete against that?

Nic Lamb  

You know, in anything you do, you’re always gonna have imitators, but we remain laser focused on innovation and serving our customers with a superior product. And that’s why we’re the leaders in the space. So that’s where our focus lies.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

So how is your product evolved? Is it like, are you still doing product development? Is it improving over time, or

Nic Lamb  

always, you know, I feel like anytime you launch a product, it’s basically you get the MVP out there. And you get feedback. And you continue to make iterations based on customer feedback. And that’s what we’re done. We’re on v3 of IV, the next version that’s coming out I’m super excited about that will be released by q3 of this year, IV plus, which will provide more surface area more coverage. Software and stays colder for longer. So we’re excited about that

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

one. What kind of material goes inside these isbd that, you know that that stays cold? For for a certain period of time? Like what exactly is that material?

Nic Lamb  

That’s a proprietary chemical compound that we use, it keeps it cool for long enough but soft thereafter on your head.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

Okay, so it’s proprietary, so Okay. So I’m just curious, like, Did you I’m assuming you didn’t come up with that. Did you? Like are you working with some sort of chemic chemical chemistry? Yep. Lab?

Nic Lamb  

Yeah, we’re working with chemists. Yep.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

Okay. Marketing. So, you know, can you share a little bit about your marketing, and how you’re driving demand for your product? I’m assuming your or your products in retail also.

Nic Lamb  

Yeah, we just launched in Urban Outfitters, which has been going great. Continue to sell out there. But our target markets about 7030 female, us one in four households suffer from migraines and headaches, but we’re learning we have a larger application in connection with kind of the medical and sporting industry. So we’ve been exploring some partnerships there. But as I said, we sell direct to consumer, as I mentioned, from our website, isp.com, Amazon, and we really use a combination approach to Google AdWords, Facebook, IG Tik Tok, placements that seemed to be very effective, as well as influencer marketing and placement, stuff like that. So it’s been going great. Those channels, and those strategies have been working pretty well for us.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

What is it about Urban Outfitters? I have been speaking with different founders. And to me, it seems like everyone, you know, when I asked, you know, are you in retail, and they say, the first one I get into is Urban Outfitters. It seems like it’s easier to get into Urban Outfitters, or like, what is the what is the thing with that?

Nic Lamb  

They reached out to us, we didn’t apply to them in any way. That’s interesting that you say that who’s been saying it’s been easy to get an Urban Outfitters? I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t know what to compare that to.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

Well, I think the last two founders that I spoke with the they told me they’re both in Urban Outfitters. The one the one that I did recently, well, it’s kind of like this. I’m forgetting the name. Let me see it. It’s called a product called scruffy. And basically, he created this shaving kind of a thing that you can use to it has multiple blades, and it’s like a kind of around thing. And you can use this to shave your leg. And I asked him, it’s still a pretty, you know, early, early stage of the business and he said, You know, I’m an urban outfitter. That’s the first place

Nic Lamb  

Oh, Wow, yeah. No, that’s fantastic. Yeah, they reached out to us. They’ve been a great partner. I mean, we keep selling out with them. So we’re more than happy.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

Okay. Can you share a little bit about your? You know, Amazon is usually kind of a love hate relationship for online retailers? Are you still selling on Amazon? Or is it working well, for you? And what has been your relationship like with Amazon?

Nic Lamb  

Yeah, I can definitely understand that feedback. Amazon can be a definitely a love hate relationship, especially in the beginning, you know, because it’s a pretty steep learning curve, but the amount of customer that they have in one space is unparalleled to anything else in the world. So we do about, you know, 50% of our sales off of Amazon. So yeah, we’re still selling on Amazon doing something fantastic for us. The other portion going to the between our retail channels and our direct to consumer of our website. Well, yeah, but the thing with Amazon to is, you know, if you have issues with Amazon, it’s really difficult to get through to the right channel to get something fixed. And a lot of things aren’t explained. So like I said, it’s a pretty steep learning curve. So unless you have someone like guiding you, it can be pretty troubling if you have some sort of issue because it can just take months and months to get a response.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

And how did you learn? Did you just figure it out on your own? Or was there someone guiding you?

Nic Lamb  

I just jumped in and started to learn on my own.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

I mean, ecommerce have an interesting thing, because there’s so much information available on YouTube. And there are so many people trying to teach things. Did you actually watch YouTube videos to learn the some of these things? Like did you take any courses? Did you just, you know, trial and error? How did you

Nic Lamb  

definitely trial and error and you know, I just jumped in, I just went all in. That’s how I really learned best if I just kind of submerge myself in whatever I’m doing. I’m able to learn pretty quickly. You know, you just keep swinging the bat and you make revisions and try to slowly improve from there. But I definitely use the the the College of YouTube, YouTube is an amazing resource for sure. You can pretty much learn how to do anything up YouTube. I love it.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

Yeah. Can you share a little bit about your warehousing and fulfillment shipping strategy? You know, if you’re selling 50% from Amazon, like, are you using Fulfillment by Amazon? Are you using third party listings? Are you doing your own? Can you share a little bit about that?

Nic Lamb  

Yeah, we do hybrid. So we use a little bit of both. We have a great two female partner in Texas that handles the feminine aspect needs for for isbd. And what you definitely need to scale we also utilize FBA, FBA is amazing.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

And in terms of shipping, do you have you built your own partnerships with shipping carriers? Or are you just relying on other third third party logistics to give you the shipping rates?

Nic Lamb  

Yeah, yeah, we we rely heavily on our third party, our three PL partner.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

Okay. Do you sell internationally or just in us? North America?

Nic Lamb  

Yeah, we do sell internationally. And we’ve had a lot of interest actually, from distributors from Japan, Africa, Australia, but we just recently launched in the UK are selling in Italy, Spain, France and Canada. So it’s, we’ve been growing pretty quickly.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

And how do you fulfill International? Is it really just your third party logistics that that how to ship out? Or do you? Yeah, exactly.

Nic Lamb  

Our three PL and Texas handles all that we also have some warehouses overseas as well in the UK. Okay,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

and is it your own warehouse? Or is that you know, expanding cross border, expanding international is kind of, like, still challenging for a lot of ecommerce businesses. So, can you share a little bit more about you know, how is it that like, are you working with a distributor overseas or that your own warehouse you know, how how are you doing it?

Nic Lamb  

So right now, we’re utilizing FBA but yeah, can definitely be challenging, especially setting up like the vat, the value added tax, I definitely would recommend speaking with your accountant and kind of going from there because it can be a little bit complex at the start.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

Okay. What does your team look like right now?

Nic Lamb  

Yeah, so in the beginning, it was just me For, I mean, the first two years, and then after Shark Tank, we just absolutely hockey stick. So I really had to slowly start to build out a team, which is another thing that Mark recommended because he saw that I was getting close to burnout. I mean, we had over like 10,000 emails, I was trying to respond to them all myself and I was just getting unbelievably exhausted. And that’s not really why I created the business to work Mark created to create some freedom for myself and provide value to my customers and give back to the environment because I’m a member of the 1% for for the planet. But right now it’s myself, Rachel, head of ops, Head of Marketing and Social Joe, our customer support manager, Tiffany, our bookkeeper and our accountant, so we keep it lean on me in

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

all these roles, remote or do you have an office? How do you

Nic Lamb  

know we’re direct to consumer, my man? Well, an office space would be an absolute wasteful expense. So yeah, a lot of them are remote.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

Okay. Yeah. And yeah, I didn’t ask you do you actually have patent for your products?

Nic Lamb  

We are patent pending for designer utility right now. Yeah.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

Okay. But are you trademark? Yes. 100%. Okay. So, in every founder, story, there’s always you know, mistakes, made failures, lessons learn? Can you share, like one or two of your biggest mistakes that you made? While you know running your business? And what can other entrepreneurs learn from that?

Nic Lamb  

Oh, man, I’ve made so many mistakes. I think in short, you know, just don’t be scared to fail, you know. And if you have an idea, or product or service, just create your prototype, get your MVP out there, get some feedback from the marketplace as quickly as possible, and continue to refine based on that feedback. You know, there’s no perfect time to launch, it’ll always be rocky, you just have to take action. You know what I mean? I feel like, a lot of people are kind of waiting for that perfect time to take action, and there never will be a perfect time. You just have to jump in and take action and kind of just build a parachute on the way out of the plane.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

Okay. Was there any time during the journey where you said, you know, this was too hard, you know, or, you know, while that that mistake, or that failure was too big? You know, was there any time where you were like, it kept you awake at night or something like that?

Nic Lamb  

Yeah, I can say actually, right after we had aired on Shark Tank, sales exploded, all the channels are just selling out left and right. And at that exact same time, Texas had been hit with 100 year snowstorm, like the power grid was out. I don’t know if you remember this last year, it’s insane. Yeah, it was all over the news. And as I told you are three pills in Texas, so all of our product is there. And they were trying to ship out the product or 10s of 1000s of customers. We couldn’t get product out. People stopped moving. Basically, the whole economy shut down. There are three PL was closed for weeks. So that was really challenging, because you had to deal with a lot of people that didn’t understand. Most people were pretty accommodating. Because I knew on the news, like, Oh, my God, hopefully you guys are okay. But some people, you know, it’s tough dealing with difficult customers, they just want their product there now. So that was, I can’t say that was like a personal mistake. But it was definitely a very challenging time to get through a lot of sleepless nights for those few weeks. Because it wasn’t like a one night thing. It was like a few weeks. And just, it was really tough. That was really to overcome that on but what are you going to do? You can’t control the weather?

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

So to manage that, like, did you just put like, a notice on your website just saying, you know, hey, our warehouses are indexed. Yeah, exactly.

Nic Lamb  

We, we, we emailed every single one of the customers we updated on, which is, I think, something that you want to anytime you have a challenge like that, where you’re having an issue, getting the product from A to B to the customer, you just want to be in communication with them, let them know what’s going on. Most people are super cool, and most people are no worries. But I think if you if you stall, and you don’t execute on that education, because you’re scared or whatever that they might want to refund, that’s when people started to get really upset. And we did our best to quickly reach out to people but when you’re dealing in the numbers that we were dealing, there’s going to be some people fall through the cracks. And so you know, we had some people that were people were upset, but we issued out free products, trying to keep everyone happy just trying to keep the customers happy. But I think communication is is really really key especially in challenging times.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

Definitely. So now I’m going to move on to our rapid fire round and in this segment, I’m going to ask you a few Two quick questions, and you can answer them in one or two words or sentence. So the first question is a book recommendation that you would give to entrepreneurs or business people in 2022. And why?

Nic Lamb  

Like the E Myth, the E Myth is a good book. And it talks about how to scale and why most businesses fail, and how to work off the franchise model, you know, implementing systems and SOPs and processes in place to really remove yourself from the equation so you can work on and not in your business, you know, because you see a lot of people stuck working inside the business, when ultimately, I just want to build the systems, the processes, and get all the people and SOP, SOPs in place so I can remove myself and kind of work on the business from the outside and kind of learn how to grow it from there as opposed to just be stuck on the inside. So yeah, the E Myth or like that book to go on.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

An innovative product or idea and the current ecommerce retailer tech landscape that you feel excited about

Nic Lamb  

ICD, ICD plus coming out later this year, it’s gonna be insane.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

A business or productivity tool or software that you would recommend or a productivity tip?

Nic Lamb  

I’d see I like the app sales pop. I think it’s really cool. It shows social proof people buying right there on your website, and it pops up. I think that’s a great app, I recommend that one.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

Okay. How many hours a day do you usually work in your business?

Nic Lamb  

Right now I’d say maybe like two to three hours in the morning. It’s mainly just kind of checking on the team, handling emails and stuff like that. Yeah, kind of working on the design.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

I mean, that’s pretty good. That’s like you have pretty much the whole day to yourself, like you do a little surf. What do you?

Nic Lamb  

Yeah, of course, well, I mean, I, like I said, I’m a professional athlete. So I spent a lot of time working on the body, and then working on the business as well. But the first thing I do, I mean, I’m up at sunrise, I go through my morning routine, I do my Tibetan rites, drink water, and then I’ll start to respond to basically emails, I basically, like I said, that goes back to that book that emit really wants to understand how the franchise model works, which really puts the systems and the process in place and builds out the SOPs, you’re then able to remove yourself from the business. So you’re not working in the day to day, you know, I’m thinking long term, I’m thinking big picture, I’m thinking, next products, I’m thinking design. And so what I do is I really try to preserve my bandwidth for those first few hours. And I have a really good team, like I said, I built that team out, and they take care of a lot of the day to day, and I’m able to pick, think on the big picture and execute on that. So it took a long time to get to this point. Over Over two years of working, you know, 25 hour days plus, to get to a point to where I can really kind of focus on the two to three hours a day in the morning, you know, and of course, there’s always fires that come up in the middle of the night that you have to put out. But again, it goes back to putting those systems and processes in place to be able to be in this position. You know what I mean?

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

A third of our business in E commerce retailer that you think is currently doing great things without your own Tesla appear entrepreneur or business person whom you look up to, or someone who inspired you

Nic Lamb  

set your mask, you know, just because of his his risk tolerance, and how he speaks his mind. Yeah,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

but do you really think it’s the risk tolerance? Or is that? I mean, he’s he really just thinks differently, and he can think different. He can put together different pieces in a way where even though it is really risky to everybody else, he’s actually he has actually thought through the problem. So maybe, you know, the way he looks at risk is a little bit different.

Nic Lamb  

Exactly. So it goes back to his risk tolerance, right. So I think, you know, looking back when, when you’re cashing out of a company like PayPal, and then you deploy all your money into your next two ventures and you’re not going to have enough money to pay rent and you’re sleeping on your friend’s couch. That’s a pretty high risk tolerance, that that shows me that he knows what he’s doing. And, you know, it’s just incomparable to other people’s ability to weigh the risk benefit analysis and so yeah, I definitely admire his his risk tolerance for sure.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

And final questions, best business advice you ever received, or you would give to other entrepreneurs?

Nic Lamb  

I’d say the quality of life depends on the quality of questions, one asks oneself, no, and don’t be scared to fail. Everything you want in this life is on the other side of fear. So give yourself permission to shine.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

Perfect. Thank you so much, Nick. Those were all the questions that I had really appreciate your time today sharing your story sharing Your business advice, strategies and tactics. Really, really appreciate it. If anyone wants to buy your product, what is the best way to get in touch?

Nic Lamb  

Yeah, you can find us ice beanie i spinny.com. You can find us on Amazon. We’re an Urban Outfitters. And if anyone wants to reach out to me, you can just Google my name and you can find them all on social media.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

Perfect. Thank you, Nick. Really appreciate your time today. And thanks again for joining me today. Trep talks.

Nic Lamb  

Thanks. So Shawn, have a good day. Thank you