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R.I.P. Rizzo Tees (2008 – 2014)

Posted on October 30, 2014 // 5 Comments

I Hate Pants Forever

Hi everyone. This is going to be a weird blog post, perhaps too little too late, but I’ll do my best to make it interesting, understandable, and fun.

Today, October 30, 2014, on the 6th anniversary of the birth of Rizzo Tees, I announce its death. Happy 6th birthday, old friend, and I hope you don’t mind being shut down! Today is your official last day.

This is not meant to be dramatic, and at this point, how could it be? To anyone observing, it has been readily apparent for at least two years that the business was no longer getting my attention. I haven’t debuted a new tee design in years. There are probably some steps I should have taken earlier to make something great happen with the business – either ramp it up, or sell it. I got so busy with transitioning to a new career, with trying to learn to be a great ad agency salesman, with trying to write a book, with finding a publisher, with actually writing a book, and now with trying to sell a book … there was no time for Rizzo Tees.

And really no desire either. For the first few years, I loved concepting tee designs, working with amazing tee designers to bring them to life, and I loved debuting the designs. Some sold amazingly well. Some barely sold. I quickly learned what success and failure felt like. But that list of stuff I mentioned in the last paragraph – especially the book – captured my imagination and didn’t let go.

I’ve had several people ask me if I wanted to sell Rizzo Tees. I don’t know … whatchoo got? I sheepishly told several interested parties that I don’t even have time to sell it right now. All of my energy is going into my current job, and my book marketing efforts. I have no cranial capacity to think about selling the business. I don’t feel like dickering over price, and don’t want to be told it’s not worth what I think it is, or whatever.

Anyway, the death of this business is OK with me. Even with a mixed record, I can say I accomplished everything I wanted to with it. I learned so much, met all of you, and left my old CPA career. Knowing that a career change was the goal from day one, I say “Mission Accomplished.” For any of you who have known me since 2007-2008, you know that’s what I wanted to see happen. I even made this video outlining my dream of leaving accounting by July 1, 2011. I beat that date big time, and I’m proud of that.

And now a new mission has begun. This book of mine, Happywork, seems infinitely more important than the tee biz ever did. I know that’s not true, that my feelings are being temporally affected. But yes, let’s just run with it – the message of this book is important to me now, and now is now, so it’s the most important thing going on in my life. I think my message of happiness at work is going to be my number one priority for years to come. We’ll see where life takes me.

Gary Vaynerchuk Props to my TweepsEpic Meal Time

To all the people who bought shirts, especially the bacon ones – after all, I was once known as the Baron of Bacon (TY Shelley Niemeier for that moniker) – THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart. It was a joy to make you fun shirts. It was a thrill to see the Epic Meal Time guys and Gary Vaynerchuk wear them in their videos. Mostly, it was just fun making things. There is glory in making stuff (and I draw a direct distinction between this and being a “social media guru”). When I talk to my two young daughters about their future, I tell them to never shy away from making things. Making food (chef), making living spaces (interior designer), making coffee (barista), making art (artist), making clothing (fashion designer), making buildings (architect), or making stories (author). Whatever you do, I tell them, please make something for the world. I’m happy that I did that with Rizzo Tees, and I think the greatest chapter to come will be written by my first and hopefully not last book.

Thank you everyone for being a friend of mine. In 2015 and beyond, let’s make great things happen.

 

SUPER-AWESOME POSTSCRIPT

This sort of thing makes it fun to be in business. I mean, how cool is this?

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What’s Going On With Rizzo Tees? An Update

Posted on May 1, 2012 // 2 Comments

I started Rizzo Tees back in 2007 with the entrepreneurial dream of growing it out of control. I wanted to build a big, strong, healthy business, and of course I wanted to leave my CPA/Accounting life behind. While Rizzo Tees remains small today, I was able to escape the accounting world over two years ago. I’ve mentioned this several times (here and here), but I can say it once more: you have no idea what this career change has truly meant to me.

What of Rizzo Tees now? I’ve had a few people tell me they’ve noticed a change in my content output over the last year. They say I’ve moved away from t-shirt promotion and more towards discussion of new media strategy. I believe they are right. I’d say my job at Falk Harrison has a great deal to do with that. Finally, a job that I can enjoy!

Rizzo Tees remains in business, tees are still in stock and people are still buying them (especially the bacon ones). But my interests have changed in important ways. Listen to the podcast below to hear more about the direction I’m headed.

Click here for the 5-minute podcast.

I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.

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Thank You To Everyone For The Well Wishes

Posted on January 20, 2011 // 7 Comments

All I can say to everyone that has retweeted my good news, sent me congratulations, and been so supportive of me….. THANK YOU!

I started at Falk Harrison yesterday, and I could not be more excited. A full blog post is yet to come, as I do want to talk about my journey from CPA to Scorch Agency to Falk Harrison and what it all means. In the meantime, just let me say thanks to all of you.

And thanks to Jon Falk for the kind welcome.

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Rizzo Is On UrbanDictionary.com, But Don’t Read If You’re Easily Offended

Posted on November 10, 2010 // 2 Comments

The first definition is a little “blue.” Is it bad that I voted it “up?”

(SERIOUSLY, don’t click if you’re gonna get offended. There’s f-bombs and it’s funny but if you’re easily offended, you WILL get offended. I warned you!)

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=rizzo

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Business Power-Up #1 – Order From Your Competitors

Posted on May 6, 2010 // 6 Comments

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

I am going to start a new series called “Business Power-Ups.”  The term “power-up” comes from video games – a power-up would give your player instant benefits or add extra abilities.  I grew up playing Atari 2600, Colecovision, Nintendo, and then Playstation.  How many hours did I spend playing Super Mario Bros?  It was alot.  But hey, I have a ninja’s hand-eye coordination now!

Business Power-Ups are going to give you extra business powers and abilities! They’re like magic mushrooms for business.  (The non-hallucinogenic kind.)

Business Power-Up #1 – order from your competitors.  If you sell a product, or even possibly a service, place a small order from your main competitors.  It’s amazing what you can learn.  Back when I new nothing about the tee business, before Rizzo Tees opened, I ordered tees from Busted Tees, SnorgTees, Sackwear and Threadless.  I learned:

1.) Who they used to print their postage (Snorg used Endicia, whom I am using now.)

2.) What kinds of bags they used – size, material. I then found a super-cheap supplier on eBay – ValueMailers.  I can highly recommend them.  No affiliate link here – just trying to help.

3.) What kinds of schwag they put in their packages. I put a sample of Bacon Salt in each of my orders, which clearly trumps all of them!

4.) How quickly they shipped their orders

5.) Their approximate order volume (email me if you want to know how I figured that out)

6.) What sort of packing slip they put in the bag

And I learned all this for the price of a few t-shirts.  Placing orders with your competitors can yield a great deal of business intelligence.

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Link Roundup on Rizzo Tees – What I’m Reading 5/4/10

Posted on May 4, 2010 // 4 Comments

Playing the part of Internet DJ, here’s a sampling of what I’ve been reading the past few days.

1.) Jason over at A Smart Bear breaks down American idiomatic usage in a rather hilarious way.  What does it mean when a fellow businessperson says to you, ““It’s not personal, it’s just business?” Read the post and find out!

2.) Back in March, Chris Brogan wrote about a visit to a charter school.  I took particular interest, since my daughter will be starting kindergarten at a French language immersion charter school in August. Kids in some of these charter schools are learning in vastly different ways than we did back in the day.  My daughter’s school is going to be no exception, and we’re quite excited about it. Kids are being trained in these schools to handle real-life jobs and real-life situations.  They’re even going to teach my daughter about food. How cool would that be – growing up understanding that organic vegetables are better than candy made in a factory?  Hell, she might even learn how to prepare healthy meals for herself! Why can’t a school teach this? To me, it sounds like the way to raise a healthier generation.

3.) Ari Herzog over at AriWriter.com is going through a time that sounds way too familiar to me.  Ari is trying to make a career transition, and after 18 months, he says he’s back to square one.  Starting off on your own is tough – there are times when I’ve thought that Rizzo Tees would be farther along by now.  Everything worth doing in life takes time – sometimes lots of time!  I have said this before – I am not some 150% full-speed-ahead entrepreneur that would step on his own mom’s neck to succeed.  There are times when I have self-doubt. I have ups and downs. I just do everything I can to stay in the game – stay focused, and just keep plugging away.  Half the battle is just not quitting. People completely underestimate this fact.

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Write a Blog to Enhance Your Personal Brand

Posted on April 6, 2010 // Leave a Comment

A blog is a wonderful tool to help enhance your personal brand.  You may ask, “I have a job. (or ‘I’m a CEO’) Why would I ever care about my personal brand?”  The reasons are all about the Benjamins.

1. If you are an employee of an organization, your personal brand is like your 21st Century Web 2.0 résumé.  Frankly, if I were hiring someone today for Rizzo Tees, I’d check their Twitter feed, their Facebook profile, and their LinkedIn profile.  And then I would check for a blog – through their writings, I might be able to see what makes them tick.

2. If you are the owner of an organization, your personal brand will gain you clients.  It’s as simple as that. You are your company, and your company is you.  Customers want to know who they’re working with and who they’re buying from, and this is getting more and more important.  They are more apt to buy from you if they have a sense of who you are.

Below is a redacted version of an email exchange I had with a friend who owns a business.  He was considering writing a personal blog and separating it from his business.  His goal was to enhance his personal brand. The blog would have contained his personal insights on the field of business he was in, but would not have been directly tied to his company’s website. I argued that the two should be intertwined, because as an owner of a business, his personal brand and his business success are directly tied together.

The text of my response:

The most important distinction here is that you are the founder and CEO of an awesome startup company. Therefore, your company is much more closely tied to you, and you to the company, than if you were just an employee somewhere, for instance.  Employees have great reason to privately build and cultivate their own personal brands. An employee will need their personal brand to be strong (portfolio, blog posts, a good network of people) in order to score that next employment opportunity.

You, on the other hand, are different. You’re not going to be leaving your startup company – you are no longer a nomad – you’ll be at your company until its bought out – you’re going to build up your company to be 100+ talented people, scoring ever larger clients, until you are sitting in your plush offices, smoking your Cohibas.

Let your company itself be your personal branding powerhouse. When potential clients are thinking of hiring you, don’t make them traverse two different websites.  Put your best thoughts right there on your company’s site for potential clients to soak in.  I do see the value in cross promotion (he was going to promote the biz from his blog).  However, let others do that for you. That’s what we’re here for – your friends on Twitter and Facebook – you create a great message in the name of your business (and you), and let us carry it out to the masses.

Your personal brand is your business, because you founded it. I feel strongly that you should put 100% of your best marketing and social media nuggets on your company’s site, making it the strongest, most natural sales pitch it can be.

What do you guys think?  How important is personal branding?  Should CEOs, employees, and entrepreneurs all address this issue differently?

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Learn To Say No

Posted on March 29, 2010 // 2 Comments

Over the last fifteen years of work experience that I’ve accumulated…. over the last twelve years of supervising people…. and over the last 2+ years of running my own business…… one of the most important skills I’ve acquired is something so very simple – I’ve learned to say “no.”

Yes, it sounds easy, but depending on who’s asking you to do something, it is not easy at all.  Pressure tactics, guilt, and temptation all make it quite difficult.

I have built Rizzo Tees into the tiny micro-company that it is by keeping things simple.  I have a website – that’s it.  I’m not doing wholesale, I am not in stores, and I don’t do custom tee work.  Back in early 2009, I had a very interesting offer come across my desk.  A very kind gentleman offered me a free storefront in an up-and-coming local shopping district in the city of St. Louis.

FREE.

(No, that’s not the store – I just had to spice up this post with some photography!)

I have to take that deal, right?  Temptation!  I mean, this is what being an entrepreneur is all about  Taking risks? But…… it’s free! Where’s the risk? After initially declining, the deal got sweeter. The gentleman (who was a really nice dude) offered to help me get all set up in this space.  It had broadband, a kitchen, offices, the retail area, and basement storage.  Plus, he would assist in finding someone to run the store (after all, I have a day job), and we would just deduct their wages from the tee sales.  Easy peasy. And spring is fast approaching, so we have to get started immediately.  Pressure tactics!

Who knows where the road not traveled would have taken me, but running a store, while trying to succeed at a day job, improve my website and sales by night… this just didn’t make sense.  I never pretend to know what I’ll be doing in two years – maybe a store will make sense in the future.  But this was completely offtrack – it was nowhere near where my business plan was taking me.  Who would this person be that runs the store?  Shoplifting? Break-ins at night? Insurance? For a small company being run out of my basement, this would have added so much complication.

So I said no.

My wife and I own a 4-family apartment building.  When we bought the building back in 2004, there were tenants with a chirpy dog.  During our inspection of the building, we found a nice pile of steamy excrement on the hardwood floors.  The owners of this dog also happened to like to yell at each other and throw remote controls at each other in fits of rage (I am not kidding).  Goodbye people, time to move! Ever since then, we’ve stuck to a strict policy of no pets and no smoking.  It keeps the building quiet and not smelling like smoke.

Every once in a while, we will have a vacancy that’s just a little hard to fill.  When the calls come in, and the people have pets, I get tempted!  Maybe I could just have them pay a little more.  More money is good! It is at this point where my wife contorts her face just right, shooting me that look, like “What the hell are you thinking?  Stick to the plan!”  I even told a woman no, and she said, “Well, would you like to meet my cat?”  No ma’am, I would not like to meet your cat.

I even had a person that said they had a dog, but it was dying.  So after a few months, the dog wouldn’t be around any more, and so is that OK?  No! (story was likely not true anyway).

Similar to my cases above, have you ever had a difficult time saying “no?”  Leave a comment below and share your story.

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