I was involved in service work from a very young age. My parents believed wholeheartedly in giving back to people in our community. We would often volunteer for Church functions and would serve migrant workers who were traveling to our community. Although I did not fully understand as a kid, the sacrifice that the migrant workers make to support their families is incredibly admirable. When I originally founded Cherry Willow Apparel, I did not know exactly how I would contribute to the mission of ending homelessness. Still, I knew there was an ability to serve the people impacted. My experience in the business world made me confident in my ability to create value through apparel, as I have already done it successfully. Beyond that, I knew the mission was significant enough that I had to give it my all! Before I get into my career and what led me to start my own business, I want to give you a glimpse into my thinking and how I operate.
I got my first job, as many kids do, at 16 years old. It was a fantastic job! I worked in concessions at a Drive-In movie theatre. Granted, I was only making $7.25 an hour as that was the federal minimum wage in 2009 (and still is 15 years later, which is a crazy reality). I have always been a big movie fan, and one of the job perks was that on my days off, I could bring a carload of my friends, and we would all get in for free! I worked there for two summers and saw every movie that came out. The second summer I was at the Drive-In, I picked up a 2nd job working on a farm detasseling corn. I would be at the farm from 6 AM-2 PM, come home, eat, and nap, then go to the drive-in from 7 PM-2 AM. Looking back, I do not know how I had the energy for it, but I was young and had no stress. Whereas many Americans today have to work two jobs to afford rent, I cannot imagine the toll that working two jobs, caring for children, and stressing about finances would take on a person. Some of the mentally strongest people I have met are the people who can carry that load.
I was working hard and saving up because I knew I wanted to leave Ohio for college. I loved growing up in Ohio. Specifically, in Dayton, most of my family and a lot of my friends still reside in the state. However, I felt drawn to a big city as my dad grew up in Brooklyn, and I was curious about that experience. I was financially disciplined from a young age. What I earned from the two jobs I was working, I put into a Certificate of Deposit because I was fascinated by the concept of my money making more money detached from my time. This fascination led me to study Finance at Loyola University Chicago. I also majored in Sports Management but have yet to use my degrees in a professional capacity. As an aside, do not feel like you have to have your whole life figured out in college. Learn as much as possible, follow your heart and intuition, and you will find yourself in a great place.
I took one year off from working during my first year of college, which did not go well. I tend to stay busy, and the activities I chose to fill my time with were not academic. I got in trouble for drinking and was given 50 hours of community service. This led to my first experience volunteering with people experiencing homelessness. As I mentioned previously, I had volunteered all my life, whether serving as a greeter for mass, serving migrant workers, or going to food pantries, but always with my mother. After my first year, I decided to get a job (I had also burned through all of my savings). I worked at our school's fundraising operation called Phonathon for a year; a tough job, non-stop calling for 3 hours. Raising funds for a school with an endowment of a billion dollars felt a little wrong, but mainly, I did not like having to ask people 4 times for money. That was the job, though, and it was a valuable experience. After that, I got a job working 30 hours a week as a bank teller at a local bank. I needed to get a job to afford rent as after sophomore year in Loyola, there were no options for on-campus housing other than becoming an RA, which I probably would not have been allowed to do even if I was interested; I wasn't. I enjoyed working at the bank; this was my first real experience interacting with entrepreneurs.
After graduating, I wanted to work in sports. However, this was not in the cards for me. Three weeks before graduation, my girlfriend at the time found out she was pregnant. With this exciting news, I had to shift my priorities as entry-level sports jobs were competitive and not highly paid. At that point in my life, I was not entirely sure what I was going to do, but thankfully, I always knew I wanted to be a dad! With this new mission to be able to provide for my child, I started applying for all sorts of roles. I was offered and took a remote outside sales representative job in the auto industry. In my first eight years, I was a commission-only rep, and if I did not sell, I could not provide for my kids. This was my first experience similar to that of an entrepreneur. I had bet on myself and my ability to be successful, and failure wasn't an option. I came in and had success right away; I won Rookie of the Year and earned two more Presidents Club trips in my first 4 years. I sought new opportunities to continue growing, and the leaders told me to keep doing what I was doing. After no new opportunities came about, I became stagnant. I left a few years later after being recruited by a French start-up working to support small business owners. This is where my entrepreneurial instincts began to evolve.
I began talking to many small business owners every day. I learned that I thought and approached my work similarly, with an entrepreneurial mindset. My life started drastically changing when I realized this community thought similarly to me. I started to read books written by successful entrepreneurs. I started networking, which I never thought I would be excited about doing. One of the business owners I was prospecting for my full-time job was an apparel shop. I walked in and met the owner, who offered me a commission-only sales job. I had never considered having a second job while working full-time, but I had built an apparel business within my last role and was excited about helping a small business grow. I decided to take the role and helped bring in a few customers for him before I realized I wanted to do something independently. The shop owner had a few successful apparel brands and helped me get started with my idea.
The name Cherry Willow comes from the two streets I lived on growing up in Dayton, Ohio. It was also important to me to incorporate the concept of nature being beautiful all the time, not just when flowers are in bloom. When I was able to start volunteering consistently again at the shelter, the more I thought about how the people experiencing homelessness embody that concept. At Cherry Willow we seek to highlight their beauty by empowering them to share their stories. We seek to address the misconceptions and show society that otherizing and blaming people experiencing homelessness is wrong. As I continued working on my idea to positively impact the people I served through apparel, I started sharing my idea with other people in the space to get their perspective. When I was unexpectedly laid off last November, I looked at it as an opportunity to spend more time on this project that I am so passionate about. I reached out to one of the connections I made through LinkedIn, Nick Reed Smith, and he got me connected with my Co-Founder, David Gray. We have been working on making the Cherry Willow a reality since then, and I am very excited about our progress!
One of Cherry Willow Apparel's cornerstone philosophies is "Who Not How," a great book by Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy. The concept is simple yet extremely powerful. Simply put, it is retraining your approach to problem-solving. Instead of thinking, "How am I going to solve this problem?" train yourself to think, "Who is great at this and would love to help me solve this problem." This concept has helped fuel the growth of Cherry Willow exponentially, as I only got this far with David's help and technical expertise. I am someone who has struggled to ask for help for most of my life, but embracing this concept has been so rewarding, and as David reminds me, he loves to help!
After reading this, I hope you have a better idea of the path I took to get here. Thank you for reading and your support! Please keep an eye out for my book "From Fog to Foge: My Journey to Inner Peace," which I am currently working on editing. You will enjoy the book if you enjoy reading these blogs, mainly this blog, as they are similar to my writing style in the book. I will put out another blog when I publish, explaining what inspired me to write the book! I plan to publish within a year but will take my time with the process. I will write more blogs on my personal and business philosophies to give you a better understanding of how I operate! Thanks again for your time and interest in Cherry Willow Apparel. Please contact me directly if you want to contribute to our mission!
