Dan Martell - Create a Million Dollar Brand with Trent Kitsch @ SAXX Underwear

00:00:00.000 And my wife and I, Ria, we could undo the Saks van side door and like set up a little booth in like a minute.

00:00:07.440 And then the police or the like bylaw would be coming and we'd see them coming and then we'd like shut up the van.

00:00:14.280 And then they'd pass and then we'd open up the van again.

00:00:17.840 It's crazy.

00:00:30.000 Trent Kitsch, how's it going, man?

00:00:33.300 It's going very well.

00:00:34.640 Dude, I'm so excited for this conversation.

00:00:37.900 Trent, you have such a cool entrepreneurial journey

00:00:40.600 from founding Saks, which we've got here.

00:00:44.420 If you guys are not familiar with this, Saks Underwear.

00:00:47.240 I'm a customer way before, obviously, we've ever known each other.

00:00:50.540 Then we've got Doja, which is an awesome story in the cannabis space.

00:00:55.080 So we've got Kitsch Wines that bears your name,

00:00:59.580 which is one of the most beautiful wineries around.

00:01:03.780 Actually, I got a special present.

00:01:05.480 I can't even, I should have even said that.

00:01:06.780 Anyways, for another day.

00:01:10.680 But I wanted to talk about just your approach to creating.

00:01:13.960 We've got to spend some time together

00:01:15.720 and the journey has been crazy,

00:01:18.200 but take us back to the early days

00:01:20.760 because I seen the prototype at your house,

00:01:22.580 the original Saks.

00:01:24.120 How do you even decide to build a men's garment?

00:01:29.760 Like, I'm assuming you didn't grow up, you know, as a designer per se.

00:01:34.060 No, I had no prior fashion experience.

00:01:37.200 But the inspirational moment is the story of entrepreneurship, problem recognition.

00:01:44.980 And I just was uncomfortable on a boat and was thinking, how could I, you know, be more comfortable?

00:01:52.980 So, you know, the actual story of it and how it came to be was when I was fishing in the

00:01:58.740 Queen Charlotte Islands in 2007 on my way back to going to my second year of grad school.

00:02:07.320 And so I was fishing with my dad in the boat and been on the boat for like three days with

00:02:12.200 my dad.

00:02:12.960 And you're not really like talking much after that much time in a boat with someone.

00:02:16.980 it's just quiet time and I was looking off into the sea and and because of the big red ocean suit

00:02:24.680 that I was wearing it was like you know kind of like deadliest catch type of like inflatable red

00:02:30.340 suits and things I was like really compacted and pressed for days and so I was kind of like on

00:02:37.540 myself for like a few too many days and I thought to myself like how could I prevent or how could I

00:02:43.520 reinvent men's underwear to prevent contact and be more comfortable. That was the question I asked

00:02:50.660 in my brain, just to myself as I was staring off into, you know, as I say, like towards China and

00:02:57.180 just, you know, quietly. And in my mind's eye, I think three dimensionally somewhat, you know,

00:03:05.080 kind of plan view, side view, front view, all those ways. And so I just started like looking

00:03:10.880 in my mind's eye and thought of what became the Saks side panels, which was the patented technology

00:03:17.640 that was the differentiator ultimately. And I drew from my background as a baseball player

00:03:24.640 and how I was a backcatcher and I'd always been in a position where your package was really

00:03:33.160 tightly packed or like uh with hard materials so i just was transforming it in my mind to soft

00:03:40.900 materials and that's where it started it kind of grew from that inspirational moment and how do you

00:03:47.800 go from that idea which all of us have had like these crazy ideas of like wouldn't this this would

00:03:52.820 be better to actually like getting one built well the actual steps i took were going back to grad

00:04:01.780 school was abundant, like close. It was within a few days or a week. And so I literally started

00:04:09.420 drawing the sack side panels on the fishing trip, just in the cabin and in a journal or

00:04:15.920 on a piece of paper, just, you know, like queen Charlotte lodge, uh, and, and then I went back

00:04:25.080 to grad school at University of Western Ontario. Um, and I had to present the idea essentially

00:04:32.360 for two channels. You could do the new venture project or Ivy client field project, which was

00:04:38.420 like a consulting project, but to get into the new venture project, you had to pitch essentially

00:04:44.880 your idea. So I pitched my idea without much, obviously just a framework of this dream and the

00:04:51.480 school, a few of the professors, not all took almost offense to it. Like they thought I was

00:04:57.260 taking the like piss on the school a bit and what a terrible idea and underwear and like lots of 0.58

00:05:05.260 things that just didn't seem right. And then a few professors really backed me and they were like,

00:05:11.640 no, that sounds interesting. Like good idea. Maybe sounds weird. It sounds like different,

00:05:18.800 but you know if you believe in it like let's let you go to this next stage so i had to write a

00:05:25.080 business plan as part of my ivy field work but then at the same time i really believed in it

00:05:32.440 personally so i had a tuition receipt from ivy for around twenty thousand dollars and i took that

00:05:42.180 to the Royal bank and said, I needed money for tuition and student loans are really easy to get

00:05:50.280 if you're a student and you've got this document that even proves it. So I got $20,000 in like

00:05:57.460 half an hour or whatever it was so easy. And then instead of putting that into my tuition,

00:06:04.040 actually i delayed that payment and uh took it to toronto basically and started developing with

00:06:12.920 a pattern maker and fabric suppliers and a garment manufacturer and that's where i spent the first

00:06:21.200 20 000 is that the prototype i saw your house yeah yeah wow so i spent the first 1500 on the

00:06:31.280 patterns so the actual I knew you needed to have patterns in making t-shirts or hats or whatever

00:06:38.460 that's about as much as I knew and so I paid a really talented girl Cara Megan a fashion designer 0.82

00:06:46.160 who had already designed a men's underwear just by chance and I found her by going to the fashion

00:06:51.860 college Fanshawe College which was in London Ontario and went to their head of their fashion

00:06:59.140 design school and I was like hey I've got this idea about sex and and keeping you know like your 0.97

00:07:05.420 like balls off your legs and just more comfortable underwear and she's like just by chance this girl 1.00

00:07:10.360 did a program or a project on underwear last year and now she lives in Toronto and she's really 0.80

00:07:17.560 talented and and so I was like awesome I've got to convince that girl to think it's interesting

00:07:24.320 So I gave her the proposal to pay for the patterns.

00:07:27.700 And that's when we started working on it.

00:07:30.720 And it was a really fun, interesting, hilarious, iterative process that in four months went

00:07:41.680 from idea to my first 200 pairs.

00:07:46.260 So that's like four months.

00:07:49.100 And so like, how do you sell those first pairs?

00:07:51.220 i sold them out of the cafeteria at the university of western ontario like okay so i'm i'm in the

00:07:59.760 cafeteria i'm a student does trent come up to me do you stop me as i walk by my little table you

00:08:06.500 got a display do you have do you need permission to set this up i think you probably would have

00:08:10.400 and you were just like i don't i didn't get it but yeah i was set up okay so you had like a back

00:08:16.120 thing like uh no it was pretty amateur it was okay it's just the table okay just a table just a table

00:08:21.780 and i had some kind of packaging neatly folded them into uh showing the brand in a bag like a

00:08:29.100 really like a sandwich bag basically and uh i had printed off the sticky like avery labels that you

00:08:36.500 get from staples for the first like front of the bag yeah back of the bag we're talking like a

00:08:42.180 sandwich bag with a sticker. Yeah, for sure. Really nice sticker from Staples. And I printed

00:08:48.560 off the first labels in my apartment in London and basically had 200 pairs. I went to the

00:08:56.340 cafeteria, sold them there. And then I also went to Toronto to Queen Street West and sold them in

00:09:04.180 front of Lululemon on the weekends. Okay, so no display, I'm assuming, on the sidewalk.

00:09:10.300 No displays on the sidewalks.

00:09:11.760 So what's the conversation look like?

00:09:13.460 So I walk out of Lululemon.

00:09:15.120 Yeah.

00:09:15.580 Great, great idea for target customer,

00:09:17.380 because if they're into like, you know,

00:09:19.240 kind of like a technical apparel, you've got something.

00:09:22.520 What do you say?

00:09:23.860 My hook was always, have you heard of sax?

00:09:26.820 Knowing 100% that they've never heard of it.

00:09:30.540 But, you know, people are kind, Canadians are kind.

00:09:32.660 They'll say, oh, yeah, maybe.

00:09:34.240 Yeah, yeah.

00:09:34.720 Or politely, like, not just diss me off.

00:09:39.480 And I knew they would say, no, they haven't.

00:09:42.120 And then I would be approaching either a male or a female a little differently, you know, with my message.

00:09:47.400 But essentially, it's the best underwear in the world, like high pitch, like going right to the top.

00:09:52.540 You went right there.

00:09:53.040 Right.

00:09:53.260 It's the best underwear in the world.

00:09:55.540 And I still, like, feel that way and believe that when I came up with the invention.

00:10:01.740 So that was like a bold statement to a stranger, you know.

00:10:04.380 So you got to, like, get their attention.

00:10:06.520 And then the price also used to get people's attention that it must be good

00:10:11.960 because I was asking at that time $25, $30.

00:10:15.180 Now they're $35 more.

00:10:17.900 So that's the premium underwear category.

00:10:20.300 So that was also a way to get people's attention.

00:10:23.500 And people are usually willing to give a try to something,

00:10:26.620 even if it's a little like they haven't heard it before.

00:10:30.860 And gifting as well.

00:10:32.940 So a lot of girls buying pears for their husbands, boyfriends, family.

00:10:36.900 And that's how you pitch the women that would stop. 1.00

00:10:39.600 Be like, you know, this would be a great gift for a man in your life.

00:10:43.560 Totally.

00:10:44.120 That's exactly the words.

00:10:45.740 You nailed it.

00:10:46.600 Your intuition is 100%.

00:10:48.200 That's what I would do.

00:10:48.960 Yeah.

00:10:49.300 Yeah.

00:10:49.620 So, I mean, obviously you built this incredible brand and product.

00:10:54.040 I think I first heard of you guys on Dragon's Den.

00:10:56.180 Yes.

00:10:57.740 How did that go down?

00:10:59.440 You know, like Dragon's Den, you know, for those that are the Americans listening, it's kind of our version of Shark Tank.

00:11:05.220 Yeah.

00:11:06.360 You know, I think it was like season two, maybe you were on?

00:11:09.440 Season two.

00:11:10.060 Season two.

00:11:10.900 Yeah.

00:11:11.260 How does that come to be?

00:11:13.180 What did you, what was your thought process going into the den?

00:11:17.520 It was an extension of that business plan competition.

00:11:20.660 So going through the Ivy business plan competition, I had to pitch to the national business plan competition.

00:11:26.960 I won the Ivy one with some of my classmates, credit to them as well.

00:11:32.580 And then in the audience was a producer for Dragon's Den.

00:11:38.160 So just by luck, I essentially was pitching the den without knowing I was pitching the den.

00:11:43.700 And so after the IBK business plan competition, I got a phone call from the producer saying,

00:11:50.580 we'd like you to pitch your idea to the Dragons.

00:11:53.740 And I'm saying, yes, I'd love to pitch the Dragons, but I'm going to China in like four days to figure out low cost region supply was how it was like defined at business school.

00:12:07.960 Right. And they're saying, oh, well, we're shooting right now.

00:12:13.040 Like we can we can do that. We'll fly you out to Toronto to pitch and then fly you back.

00:12:18.860 And I was like, I mean, I can go tonight. I'm ready to leave right now.

00:12:22.360 You know? And, and then I was in Toronto like the next day. And then I was pitching like,

00:12:28.480 you know, that afternoon and basically getting ready for the den. I was just really nailing

00:12:34.780 down on the numbers. Cause I knew the den as vis-a-vis Shark Tank, they'll test you right

00:12:40.640 away on your numbers and see where you are on your like, you know, journey as an entrepreneur.

00:12:46.060 And also how well are you knowledgeable about the key numbers in business?

00:12:51.940 So I really just was excited and, you know, anxious to get out there.

00:12:57.300 But also throwing a number of evaluation out of 10% for $250,000.

00:13:05.700 So post money of $2.5 million with about 400 pairs under my belt.

00:13:11.180 So sales.

00:13:11.940 Yeah, that was a high valuation.

00:13:13.820 It's a big multiple.

00:13:14.660 but my pitch and I would share with other entrepreneurs when I was doing my first round

00:13:20.060 which was a really great MBA professor of mine Stuart Thornhill who's a great entrepreneur

00:13:26.520 he gave me 50,000 for five percent and that was a million dollar valuation yeah and the million

00:13:34.700 that was at no sales that was at about 200 pairs okay so so but that was based on I think it's a

00:13:42.400 million dollar idea. You know, you think it's a million dollar idea. Otherwise you wouldn't even

00:13:47.280 be interested. So that was my rationale that I would share to your listeners is like, if you

00:13:53.140 feel like you've got a million idea and you want to raise that money, it's like, that's what it's

00:13:57.260 worth. It's a million dollar idea. No, I don't have any sales, but I'm going to dedicate my time

00:14:02.060 to it. I'm going to do, you know, forego other opportunities that are worth X, Y, Z, you know,

00:14:08.620 So you can kind of paint that picture.

00:14:10.460 And then you have to have someone who is believing in you and the vision, obviously, before that time.

00:14:17.380 But that was the first money I actually took was $50,000 for 5%.

00:14:21.980 Really, without me even knowing about how to do any of that, but my professor offering it and saying,

00:14:29.480 this is what I think you would need and this is what I think you should do with it.

00:14:32.660 And what happened as a byproduct of going on in the den?

00:14:35.100 it was in amazing really it shot in like the early summer and then it didn't air though until

00:14:43.540 october so i had done a lot of things until that point and i'd been to asia and i'd got new supply

00:14:51.340 and more inventory and got our website up and we're ready to sell online which back in 2007

00:14:57.520 was a little bit bigger than it is today yeah yeah and so we were prepared and we didn't know

00:15:03.540 how it was gonna go but we would sell maybe like $1,500 or like $2,000 a day pre-Dragon's Den

00:15:10.680 and then the den aired and that night we sold like $60,000 like that night you know and then

00:15:16.560 the next day was like $40,000 then the next day was like $40,000 it was just like like what you

00:15:24.160 know so I don't think the sax would be where it is today without the den no chance you know it's

00:15:30.400 almost like in hindsight looking back you see little boosts you got and that was a big boost

00:15:37.300 for awareness at that time audience was like one point something million viewers in canada which is

00:15:42.960 a big audience for our nation yeah and then also we ended up winning the armchair dragon award

00:15:49.040 for fifty thousand dollars which was a free investor yeah and that was a kick so dragon's

00:15:57.600 was huge for us and i throw a huge love to dragon's den and all the producers we just had lane

00:16:03.360 and all the dragons yeah yeah i love lane yeah the newest dragon but um i mean when you look at

00:16:09.480 the sax journey there's got to be you know a couple moments where things didn't look like it

00:16:14.040 was going to turn out too good yeah for sure what were some of those and and how did you deal with

00:16:18.700 that i was very flexible and nimble at that time meaning it was like myself and and then it became

00:16:27.640 myself and ria my wife now but we were kind of young and single or young and just wild and free

00:16:33.340 and there wasn't a lot of expenses so like the first year of sacks we had like 26 000 in revenue

00:16:39.160 maybe so i wasn't making any money so we were basically living off of proceeds and just a little

00:16:45.760 bit of uh income you made as a employee you know and then the next year was you know kind of like

00:16:53.140 200 and some thousand and then the next year was like 600,000 then plus millions and then it went

00:17:00.200 on from there so the first few years were definitely had to be huge optimist had to

00:17:07.120 continue to educate people that this thing even existed that your brand even existed

00:17:13.800 you know what that is like right as a starting uh little concentric circle and you're this little

00:17:21.120 thing in vancouver and then you have to tell someone about it in edmonton and tell someone

00:17:25.020 about in seattle and in los angeles so i would be doing road trips in the sax van all marketed up

00:17:31.640 you guys had a sax van sax van was a big part of our marketing budget and promotional strategy

00:17:38.000 It was a big white van, which we totally vinyled up,

00:17:41.540 saxapparel.com, best underwear in the world.

00:17:44.860 And just driving down I-5, I knew I was getting like 1,000 eyeballs a day.

00:17:50.580 And we parked it, for example, on the good spots in Vancouver.

00:17:54.440 I would take it to Robson, which is like the shopping street.

00:17:59.000 And my wife and I, Rio, we could undo the sax van side door

00:18:03.580 and set up a little booth in like a minute.

00:18:05.940 and then the police or the like bylaw would be coming

00:18:09.640 and we'd see them coming

00:18:10.920 and then we'd like shut up the van

00:18:12.620 and then they'd pass

00:18:14.360 and then we'd open up the van again.

00:18:16.720 It's crazy.

00:18:18.020 We'd sell it like Tim Hortons parking lots.

00:18:20.480 Yeah.

00:18:22.000 Boxing Day is an easy sale at a Tim Hortons.

00:18:26.540 You know?

00:18:27.140 Layout.

00:18:27.680 Yeah, this is early days.

00:18:29.280 And then I always thought if you could get it

00:18:31.580 to 200 stores and 10,000 pairs,

00:18:34.960 that was a milestone did you where'd you get that from I invented it just to think 200 stores 10,000

00:18:42.520 pairs yeah because that was the target hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue and you're

00:18:47.920 kind of proving it in different segments and you know repeat purchases I thought that was always

00:18:53.500 the best metric that you were on to something yeah the repeat purchase through the retail store

00:18:58.700 online. So all these little milestones and indicators that you should invest another,

00:19:05.640 you know, 50,000 or a year of your life. So you were legit thinking like,

00:19:11.120 should we keep doing this year two, year three? For sure. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Because it's,

00:19:17.260 it's obviously a different strategy than, than I was planning to take. And then also, again,

00:19:23.400 there's there is definitely no certainty that it's going to make money yet but you're still

00:19:29.760 just trying to figure out how to make profit you're like putting all the money back into

00:19:33.460 inventory you're learning about forest growth multiplier basically it took me years to figure

00:19:39.300 that out like i sell one i can make two i couldn't do that for a lot of years so that was really a

00:19:46.900 major thing I would share too, is just if to any product CPG, can you get your margins to the

00:19:54.620 point where you can sell one or like, you know, let's talk about, you know, Louis Vuitton or

00:20:00.320 something, sell one, make five, make 20. Yeah. So that's, that's something that I still am learning

00:20:08.320 today. Crazy. You mentioned that 210,000 pairs, which I know that we've, when we've talked

00:20:15.980 hanging out, you've shared with me like a goal card.

00:20:18.860 Was that on your goal card?

00:20:20.200 Yeah, exactly.

00:20:21.020 So talk about the goal card concept,

00:20:23.560 you know, who you learned it from

00:20:25.240 and how you made it work.

00:20:30.120 Basically, this is my goal card.

00:20:32.920 This cool little laminated card.

00:20:35.660 How often does it change?

00:20:37.500 It changes every 12 months-ish, 12 to 16 months.

00:20:42.140 That's a small font, dude.

00:20:43.360 It's not rigid.

00:20:44.020 It's the smallest font in the world.

00:20:45.980 isn't it? I know, it's funny, it's so small.

00:20:48.700 It's like Zoolander, how are people supposed to get in there?

00:20:52.980 It is a really small plot, you're right. Yeah, well, I think it's been crafted over the years

00:20:59.420 into what is now a pretty great setup, but at the start, it wasn't as organized or as

00:21:07.600 kind of polished as it is now. And it started in 1999, when I was dreaming of being a big

00:21:14.960 leaguer, major league baseball player, and, and thinking about what are the things I need to do

00:21:20.380 to get closer to being a major league baseball player. Right. So like, you know, how do I get

00:21:26.000 my SAT score so I could go to a university or how could I, you know, um, lift weights or things like

00:21:33.980 that? Where did you learn to even do this? It's interesting. I kind of look back to,

00:21:40.160 uh, like certain sports illustrated articles where it had athletes and how they regimented

00:21:46.960 their day, for example, you know, to one point, I definitely know I drew some of that from there.

00:21:52.380 And then also eventually this is like 2001 at my university, UNLV, Nevada, Las Vegas.

00:22:01.600 I was playing baseball there and I was in a, a course where this professor really promoted

00:22:08.800 setting goals and how to do it and a measurable thing and accountability and writing them down.

00:22:16.460 So it became an exercise I actually had to do in 2001 in this one class. And since that time,

00:22:24.020 I've done it with repetition and annualized and just gotten better at it too. So something I

00:22:32.820 have on my goals is to share my little goal card with people so you're helping me achieve my goals

00:22:39.860 dude isn't that crazy you wrote it down yeah and what makes the what are some of the elements that

00:22:45.060 make it a good goal card process i think you have to sit down and look at yourself in five years

00:22:52.500 in even 10 years and have a conversation with yourself a bit and say you know what are the

00:22:58.100 the decisions I'm going to make today, which will help future me in five years, 10 years,

00:23:04.460 and then categorizing them in your priority of what's important to you. So, you know, defining

00:23:11.560 your own level of success, you know, not relative necessarily to everyone else, because there's

00:23:16.240 always someone richer, you know, faster, smarter, but what's your level of success? And what are

00:23:22.760 the things that are important to you so like you know for me number one is health then family

00:23:29.420 uh you know then after those things are like 80 of my importance then there's 20 left for like

00:23:37.420 you know career and you know real estate hobbies and then I have some mottos but that's how I set

00:23:45.700 my card whereas maybe in my early days of sacks it would have been like sacks number like 1a

00:23:54.340 because my health was getting like you know hammered as well being such a push of building

00:24:00.880 a business and entrepreneurship so they change over time quite a lot yeah and have you kept all

00:24:06.900 these goal cards over the years yeah i do i have you got a stack i do that's so cool it's pretty

00:24:13.020 funny actually looking back over time at the humorous things and what was important to me

00:24:18.360 at that time and what's important to me today and then also being okay with not hitting all

00:24:24.640 your goals and changing your view maybe or where you're setting your sail a little bit differently

00:24:31.540 but you can also see the things that I think a goal when you write it down however the universe

00:24:37.820 works this way i you know leave it for others to figure that out yeah but i just have been a

00:24:44.440 believer in evidence of that when you write something down the world starts spinning

00:24:49.580 differently it literally does i think it colludes in your favor yeah it's just like grace and favor

00:24:57.040 start spinning a different way because you're asking the universe for it you've actually

00:25:02.040 focused enough to think about what are the things you want and now you're writing it down you're

00:25:08.520 really asking the universe for it you're saying I want this commitment yeah and if I think if you

00:25:13.780 don't know what you want you're never gonna get it right that it sounds so simple Trent but you're

00:25:20.280 right some people literally ask them tell me what your life looks like in five years and they'll

00:25:24.280 stare at you blankly and go I don't know that's a good question you're like oh my gosh you yeah

00:25:30.700 Like, how are you supposed to hit a target if you don't even know what it looks like?

00:25:34.380 Yeah, and I think over the last few years, I've brought this context into 80 springs, right?

00:25:41.600 We kind of talked about, Jim Rohn talks about that.

00:25:44.380 Yeah.

00:25:44.820 And 80 springs, and that we're not going to last forever.

00:25:48.560 And then even in those...

00:25:49.800 Unpack that for the listeners.

00:25:51.960 Well, he speaks about that all of us might, you know, I don't know what the average men's life age, but it used to be 78.

00:25:58.320 Yeah, I think it's like 84 now.

00:25:59.880 Yeah, so we're doing better, right?

00:26:01.840 So we've got 84 springs, Dan, right?

00:26:04.600 Me and you left.

00:26:05.700 We've got 40-some springs left.

00:26:07.940 Other people have 60.

00:26:09.420 Other people have 20.

00:26:10.880 And in that seasonal context, you can actually ever only put in the work in the spring.

00:26:16.740 From a farming contest, yeah.

00:26:18.420 From the farming context or in a business context, the business plan, that's the spring of your business, right?

00:26:24.800 The annual planning.

00:26:25.600 Yeah. And the like putting in the seed in the soil into the idea of what is this going to be? And then summer and, you know, winter and fall, those ones are more about working the plan. And some days it's going to rain. Some days it's going to snow. You can't even work that day. You know, those things are metaphors that really apply in business and in life.

00:26:49.020 So I'm on that kind of track, or I'm trying to be on that track, appreciating that we only have so many years, and to not take that negatively, but just action, make things, do things, and live it up while we're here.

00:27:07.060 Well, clearly, I mean, when I look at even the table, and this isn't even a representation of all the different business activities that you're involved in, but you're the definition of a serial entrepreneur in my books.

00:27:19.020 you know, for the young entrepreneurs starting off,

00:27:23.040 you know, hearing your story, you know,

00:27:25.100 Sachs went on to exit to a private equity firm.

00:27:28.280 And then you've got Doja

00:27:29.800 and we've got so many different entrepreneurial stories.

00:27:34.560 What did you learn to, like,

00:27:37.280 what do you know about yourself

00:27:38.640 that makes this just the way

00:27:40.560 you're going to create in the world, right?

00:27:42.900 Like, how do you decide

00:27:43.740 what is an idea worth pursuing or not pursuing?

00:27:47.200 Well, I would also add from the story earlier, like Ria was a huge part of Saks.

00:27:53.480 And I had some really amazing partners with Doja.

00:27:56.740 And, you know, Ria runs Kitch Wines. 1.00

00:27:59.320 So every entrepreneur needs to understand they can work very hard and do a lot of work,

00:28:05.760 but they are going to be so blessed by having a great team.

00:28:09.280 So that's something I would share as an entrepreneur is this singular word.

00:28:14.000 is it's actually has to have like an S or something else,

00:28:17.500 entrepreneuring or like, you know, something else.

00:28:19.500 Cause you can do a lot of great things alone,

00:28:22.460 but I would present that you really can do so much more with a team.

00:28:28.880 So I would disclose first that I've got this great team that has helped me,

00:28:33.360 even though I've come up with some good ideas from there,

00:28:36.100 I could have never done it alone. And, and then additionally,

00:28:39.700 I think that I look at the world as so opportunistic.

00:28:45.020 There's so many opportunities at everyone's disposal.

00:28:52.040 It's just about how do you see it?

00:28:53.600 So you don't see lack,

00:28:54.500 you see abundance and opportunities all around us.

00:28:57.960 Yes, so much opportunity.

00:29:01.320 Then how do you choose?

00:29:02.660 How does Trent today choose what strings to pull on?

00:29:06.940 And I choose it right now going back to the values of what's important for me today and going forward.

00:29:14.520 How am I reinvesting or how am I changing my portfolio either publicly or with private placements?

00:29:22.520 You know, the things that I'm getting behind, you know, in the next future.

00:29:27.440 So I think about things back to my values and then basically try to put my time and energy and capital behind those things.

00:29:36.240 When you say values, you mean things that are interesting to you.

00:29:39.700 Yeah, things that are interesting to me.

00:29:41.340 And then also, I really think, for example, today, I'm like this morning had lots of conversations about problems with climate change and what's going on with regards to, you know, the transition to, what is it, zero emissions from 51 million tons a day.

00:30:00.300 That's a big difference.

00:30:01.440 so you know carbon credits things like that are the things I'm looking into today as an example

00:30:08.140 what did I do this morning that was like what I was looking into today and then problems are easy

00:30:15.300 to find but I think a lot of people get hit with the problem and they almost take the negative side

00:30:20.600 of it like it's like negative like a problem I'm part of the problem but but I think it's really

00:30:26.440 just stepping aside from it and looking at it and saying is there a solution or is there a way to

00:30:31.860 combine existing things into a solution which is what i usually try to do and is that problem big

00:30:39.440 enough where a lot of people would be interested in the solution to make it largely economic

00:30:46.260 business yeah so that's problem recognition is like if you just search problem google news you

00:30:54.420 You can go page next, page next.

00:30:56.520 And where other people see everything that's wrong with the world,

00:31:00.920 you see all the opportunity with the world.

00:31:03.620 Yeah, I do.

00:31:04.940 I do, definitely.

00:31:05.720 And I think it's also try to align that problem recognition with your passions

00:31:11.700 and the things you're interested in, which I've been able to do.

00:31:15.520 If it's fashion, people, cannabis, the agriculture and farming industry,

00:31:24.420 So, you know, I think those are all opportunistic places,

00:31:28.680 but it's really, yeah, how do you look at the problem to the solution?

00:31:33.980 So I believe you had on your goals card way before you, you know,

00:31:38.440 even understood business, like, I want to bring a company public.

00:31:41.520 Yeah.

00:31:42.060 And I think that came true with this company.

00:31:44.700 Yeah.

00:31:45.360 Talk about that, because I think the through line that I've seen

00:31:48.340 with so many entrepreneurs is this vision for possibility,

00:31:52.540 but disconnecting the how, not like taking action,

00:31:55.680 but like you said, the universe spins differently

00:31:59.180 and you sometimes can't anticipate

00:32:01.920 how it actually will happen because the...

00:32:04.900 So talk us about that story.

00:32:07.180 So Doja was born this day

00:32:11.420 when I was like at my friend's house

00:32:13.440 and we were having a hoot and just talking about cannabis.

00:32:16.560 And this is like 2013.

00:32:18.800 And he says, Health Canada is coming out with this thing

00:32:21.940 for legal weed, legal cannabis.

00:32:25.160 And I think to myself, interesting.

00:32:29.320 That sounds interesting, you know,

00:32:30.900 because I'm kind of interested in it

00:32:32.700 from growing up in the Okanagan

00:32:34.040 and it's just part of the culture and so on.

00:32:37.000 And whereas most people took the approach of like,

00:32:39.600 oh, that's too bad, you know,

00:32:41.540 like government weed or whatever it is, right?

00:32:45.300 I just kind of think that anytime legislation changes,

00:32:48.980 it creates this big vacuum of opportunity.

00:32:51.180 So if you look at when governments or, you know, anything changed significant policies, then I know there's this big vacuum of opportunity in there.

00:33:00.280 And so I looked online for the application and basically figured it was going to be a lot of work and like some money to put this all together.

00:33:10.160 But I just sold a portion of sacks and it was opportunistic time that way.

00:33:15.600 another friend of mine, you know, Ryan Foreman was, uh, working or free at that time too. And,

00:33:22.860 and Rhea. So we decided to put our capital in time and energy towards the application,

00:33:28.740 towards the federal licenses, which at that time we were, you know, like one of the very first

00:33:35.060 applicants. So we had this vision of Doja cannabis at that time. It was called Northern Lights,

00:33:41.640 a marijuana company. And eventually the world kind of was trending towards medicinal cannabis

00:33:50.200 and low quality, low cost cannabis. And we brought our brand and appreciation for high quality

00:33:59.260 products to the industry from a West coast Okanagan perspective. The medical component?

00:34:04.880 It was medical then, but we went kind of blue ocean over here, adult use rec retail.

00:34:11.640 That was our little quadrant over here.

00:34:13.460 And there was like no one there.

00:34:14.940 Yeah, because the laws didn't support it back then.

00:34:16.800 The laws didn't allow that.

00:34:18.020 So we were already trying to kind of like bend or like not go in that group.

00:34:24.220 Yeah.

00:34:25.040 Because that isn't us anyways.

00:34:26.500 It's not authentic us.

00:34:28.460 And then we did this and we put in our own capital,

00:34:35.020 like a lot of our own money, millions of dollars,

00:34:37.700 you know, me, myself, Ryan, and Ria.

00:34:39.660 and then we're fortunate enough that another person who sold their business who was a friend

00:34:45.800 of mine uh jeff barber came back and helped us from a financial perspective put in some more

00:34:51.640 capital and these things are happening just as the legislation is continuing to be fought in court

00:34:58.300 and the conservative government at the time didn't want to do any of this stuff and the liberal

00:35:03.260 government wasn't in but they were like pro-legalization and pro all these things

00:35:07.780 And so we just timed it so perfectly that the Liberal government got in, we had this really different, unique strategy, we had a facility built, we went public, we did very smart financings, we then had a currency with our shares to do further acquisitions or mergers.

00:35:31.700 we met great people from ontario the the gertner family with behind tokyo smoke

00:35:38.600 and so on and so forth and and they were instrumental in our success as well and so

00:35:45.540 we created this really cool canadian brand house which was a new term at that time brand house but

00:35:52.440 it became the term everyone followed it after that and um and we'll come back to the the going

00:35:59.700 public part but um what did you invest in you invested in growing and yes and a brand and we

00:36:08.340 had a coffee shop retail and website to sell online we had medical patients even though the

00:36:15.060 medical uh so this is when the days where you could go to a medical store they would do an

00:36:21.620 assessment no those were illegal dispensaries okay so we were fully federally legal so we took that

00:36:27.060 approach from the start, no compromise. So you were going to be above the law,

00:36:33.800 but know that someday we're going to go wreck retail. Hopefully. And then we also at this time

00:36:41.760 were in a frothy or a very backwind, upwind market for cannabis. It was legalization. It was just

00:36:51.180 coming on to the kind of public awareness. So our company went public and our stock by

00:36:58.620 the timing got, you know, supported and we had a new currency to do more deals and things like

00:37:07.200 that. And so over this short window from, you know, 2016, 17 to 2018 at around 40 some cents.

00:37:16.860 still you you brought a company public which was this crazy thing you wrote on your goals card

00:37:21.860 yeah it was incredible it is still incredible and and i think it's something that we thought

00:37:30.540 was going to happen we looked ahead and thought the timing was going to be great the timing

00:37:34.660 turned out to be better than we thought and we found a partner or or attracted attention from

00:37:42.320 other larger players so we got a strategic investment from afria for 10 million dollars

00:37:49.120 we essentially were creating enough noise just like i did with with other brands to make your

00:37:55.280 larger competitors be aware of you not necessarily that they're worried about you but they just know

00:38:01.440 you're around oh interesting this person's taking a little bit of our market share you know and and

00:38:08.400 And then how do you fit?

00:38:09.840 We always had designed or designed all of our businesses into how do we fit into an exit strategy for someone else.

00:38:17.060 So we had always written up with Doja to try to build this brand and then get acquired by a Canopy.

00:38:23.420 That was our dream, you know, because Canopy was like the Nike of the space at that time.

00:38:28.900 And so ultimately that manifested again, right?

00:38:34.780 We wrote it down and long story short, that is ultimately what happened to our company.

00:38:41.040 It's bananas, man.

00:38:42.820 It's so cool.

00:38:43.640 Yeah.

00:38:44.200 Yeah.

00:38:44.600 So it's, it's, it's not just like write it down and then the world spins and it comes

00:38:49.180 up to your doorway.

00:38:50.300 Yeah.

00:38:50.440 It's not that it's definitely, it's, it's not, uh, without a lot of hard work and, and

00:38:57.820 putting a lot of chips on the table and backing yourself.

00:39:00.800 so i've done that a few times to where i could have lost you know everything but what's an

00:39:08.580 example of that where you put doja doja oh you went all in on doja yeah basically yeah yeah and

00:39:16.280 it could have been a full reset pretty much yeah yeah but that's no reward yeah and also just like

00:39:22.360 pushing it forward and and having you know now like kids and a mortgage and those things which

00:39:28.160 is different than when i was in vancouver just with ria and you know so things change a bit yeah

00:39:34.860 but that's how i ended up uh putting in the capital for for doja and and i believe that

00:39:43.940 as a philosophy all the time and you and i've talked about that too that what's the return

00:39:48.620 on capital on yourself and what's the return on investment on yourself and i don't think you can

00:39:54.180 go as an entrepreneur like you know 40 years like i was going with sacks or like i've gone with other

00:40:00.780 businesses but i treat it kind of like back to my baseball experience spring training the season

00:40:07.460 and then when you sell the business it's like the off season then you got to come up with a new idea

00:40:12.520 that's spring training and then you develop the season and you go to the world series and you like

00:40:19.460 sell the biz and then you take it off so that's what i really believe in that that cycle yeah i

00:40:26.540 love that um trent as we uh we wrap up um one one question i love asking my guests is you know who

00:40:34.460 do you think you've had to become to be the entrepreneur sitting here today and the success

00:40:38.900 you've achieved i think i've had to become self-confident and not egotistical but believe

00:40:47.240 in yourself I definitely think that you have to believe in yourself or I've come to believe in

00:40:52.680 myself and I've definitely believed that I can outwork most people in the focused area that I

00:41:02.200 need to like really understand versus that was like from learning by failing you know and my

00:41:08.200 first kind of ideas spending too much time on like the fun stuff that I'm good at like marketing and

00:41:14.320 product development and design and not enough on finance versus now when I look at something,

00:41:20.260 I can like narrow right in on what is the important thing. So I think that is something

00:41:25.380 I've come to be and saved me lots of time. And then social capital. So, you know, character,

00:41:35.680 capital, credibility. So the credibility side of things, once you have a certain track record,

00:41:42.220 there's a pressure you're only as good as your last deal but also the opportunity for you to do

00:41:48.940 new and different things is easier or for us to raise capital today is much easier because you

00:41:56.520 have a track record of success and that's again only as good as your last deal but until further

00:42:02.560 notice i've got a great track record of success until further notice it's going to continue on

00:42:08.180 Trent, I really appreciate the time, man.

00:42:10.040 Appreciate your generosity.

00:42:12.300 For those that don't follow me on social media,

00:42:15.900 you've been kind enough to invite the family and I to your house

00:42:18.960 and have the kids over to Skating Rink

00:42:20.820 and even open up your personal network

00:42:24.100 so that I can get to meet some new people in a new city.

00:42:27.540 And it's really appreciated, man.

00:42:29.540 Yeah, well, thank you for everything you do for entrepreneurs.

00:42:32.620 And I'm a student of yours as well.

00:42:35.240 Thanks, man.

00:42:35.820 uh where do people find you online if they want to reach out and say thanks um you know basically

00:42:40.480 kitch wines if they want to reach out come by the winery in the summertime and then also i have an

00:42:45.700 instagram uh trent kitch and i'm i'm around hit him up on instagram uh appreciate you trent thanks

00:42:52.520 cheers

Dan Martell - October 25, 2021

Create a Million Dollar Brand with Trent Kitsch @ SAXX Underwear

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