Passion Struck with John R. Miles - Christina Sparks On How to Turn a Passion For Giving Into a Business EP 90

Starting point is 00:00:00 Coming up next on the Passion Struck Podcast. When you look at something logically, you're like, this may not work, but when you look at something with passion, it like you kind of like jump over that fence or you go under that fence or you go plow through it, you know, passion will allow you to kind of take a obstacle and move through it. And so I think that's part of like the entrepreneurial spirit a little bit. Welcome Visionaries, creators, innovators, entrepreneurs, leaders, and growth seekers of all types to the Passion Struck podcast.

Starting point is 00:00:32 Hi, I'm John Miles, a peak performance coach, multi industry CEO, maybe veteran, and entrepreneur on a mission to make Passion Co-Viral for millions worldwide. In each week, I do so by sharing with you an inspirational message and interviewing high achievers from all walks of life who unlock their secrets and lessons to become an Ashen Struck.

Starting point is 00:00:55 The purpose of our show is to serve you the listener. By giving you tips, tasks, and activities, you can use to achieve peak performance. And for two, the Ashen driven life, you have always wanted to have. tasks and activities you can use to achieve peak performance and for too a passion-driven life you have always wanted to have. Now let's become passion struck. Hello everyone and welcome back to the Passion Strike Podcast. Thank you to all of you who come back every week to listen and learn to live better, be better, and impact the world.

Starting point is 00:01:25 We have some extremely exciting news. We just learned that the PassionStruck Podcast is now ranked in the top 0.1% of all podcasts. Said another way, there are over 2.7 million podcasts globally, and we are now one of the most popular of those 2700 podcasts out of that group. Thank you so much to everyone in the audience for helping us reach that goal, which tells me that our passion-struck movement is certainly gaining momentum. Now, if you're new to the show or you'd like to introduce it to a friend or family member, we now have episode starter packs. These are collections of your favorite episodes organized by topic

Starting point is 00:02:19 that will introduce you to everything that we do here on the show in a very simple way. Just go to passionstruck.com slash starter packs. And if you're new to the podcast as well and you haven't checked out our YouTube channel, you can go to John Armiles where we have over 200 videos, again organized by playlist, that you can watch and get your daily dose of inspiration. Today's guest is a personal friend of mine, Christina Sparks, and Christina is a technology executive to turn e-commerce fashion CEO. And she has such an impressive background

Starting point is 00:02:58 is founder and CEO of Selgani Active Wear. She was formerly the SVP of account management at Marksend Labs and Chief Product Officer of Next Tech. She holds a BS Palade in cream medicine from the University of Dayton and a Master of Science and Technology Management from Columbia University as well as being a certified yoga instructor. In today's discussion we go into her origin story about how she entered the tech world, what, learning the ins and outs of product management taught her, and how those lessons have become indispensable in her latest venture. Her trip to Peru and why

Starting point is 00:03:38 that experience launched this new venture that she's doing today. How she came up with the name, so Ghani, and what it means. For biggest advice for entrepreneurs and small business owners, why she feels people are living the reverse of what they're meant to do in life? For focus on charity through her brand, and the recent collaboration she did with former astronaut, Nicole Scott, and so much more. Thank you for choosing PassionStruck and choosing me to be your hosting guide on your journey to living an intentional life. Now let the journey begin.

Starting point is 00:04:19 I am so excited to welcome Christina Sparks to the Passion Struck podcast And it is always awesome when you've got a friend who comes on the podcast. Welcome, Christina. Oh, thank you, John. It's so exciting to be here. And I love everything you're doing with the podcast. So this is gonna be fun. Yeah, well, I can't wait to dive in.

Starting point is 00:04:38 So we were talking about for the audience, maybe the best starting point is for them to understand your journey to where you are now and how you have this amazing career and in technology and tech management, but you realized there was something else at the end of the day that you wanted to pursue. So why don't we start there? Yeah, so I'll actually take you guys way, way, way back. So when I was a very young child, I remember taking pieces of paper and I would draw a business plan in a way, but I didn't even know it was a business plan.

Starting point is 00:05:16 It was ideas of businesses I wanted to start or ideas of fashion. And I would draw stick figures and clothes on them. So I knew from a young age I I always had like an affinity towards like fashion and creating and business. But when I was in college I had thought I wanted to be a doctor because that was just kind of like the trajectory I was kind of on because I was good at like math and science and like all of that. And so in college I was pre-med and I got into med school and I had like this moment where I said to myself, you know, I don't know if I could see myself being a doctor the rest of my life and I don't want to take a spot away from somebody who is maybe waitlisted, who is like, that's all I want to do.

Starting point is 00:06:06 So I kind of deferred a year and said, let me just kind of think, think about it. And in that year, I jumped into the tech world. And so I worked for a startup called Next Tech and we were in Dayton, Ohio at the time we're in from. And they had just created that practice management software for plastic surgery offices, and had been doing really well and plastic surgeons were loving it. And they came to them and they said, we need something for our paper charts.

Starting point is 00:06:37 We need an electronic medical record. And me being pre-med, and then going into the tech world, I was like, oh, this could be like a really cool thing I could like help with, you know? And in that, in that position that I was in, that's where I really found my passion for creating things. It could be anything, but I have a passion for taking something that's like a concept in my mind or your mind, and then seeing it through, that's just like concept in my mind or your mind and then

Starting point is 00:07:05 seeing it through, that's just like my favorite thing of like seeing it through like that process of creation to where it's like an actual product to market. And so in that position at NextTec, I worked with like a team of plastic surgeons, a team of computer programmers and myself and I translated what the doctors needs were into something that the computer programmers could create. And then from there, we created like a really amazing product that I think probably over half the industry uses right now in classic surgery and about 30%

Starting point is 00:07:40 40% in-derm and then we went into ophthalmology too. Well, that's awesome. So you really got into product management and big time. Yeah, which is really exciting because if someone isn't familiar with that, you really have to understand what the customer wants and then kind of back into how do you deliver it for them? Yeah, I was doing product management. And I didn't even know it was product management at the time because I just,

Starting point is 00:08:07 it was just out of college and we were a startup. So I think like the key to product management in general is just listening and then listening to what like the need is, not exactly what their want is, like what their need is and then translating that into something that they may want, or may want even more, like kind of taking your ideas and their ideas and meshing it together to create something really fantastic. And while I was at next tech, I was in charge of, I moved up into being over all of product and development and then strategy and then business development and working with like the third-party partners and creating integrations and creating business

Starting point is 00:08:51 relationships with them. And that to me is like one of my favorites because again it's creating something, it's taking an idea that another business has and we have and meshing a partnership together and creating like a really great, maybe new business line or, you know, something like that from there. And while I was at Nextech, we had like a few design patents. We had some, it was really, it was really fun, it was awesome. And then we sold the private equity and I stayed on to, you know, help grow the business and we helped scale the business.

Starting point is 00:09:25 So that was pretty amazing to see too. And then from there, I took a trip to Peru and on that trip, I had already been like taking like yoga classes to like help with like stress management and that kind of stuff. And then on that trip, I saw like a beautiful rock on the side of a mountain. I know that sounds like kind of stuff. And then on that trip, I saw like a beautiful rock on the side of a mountain. I know that sounds like kind of silly, but it was really pretty. I had like yellows and blues and all these different kind of striations in it. So I took a picture and I turned to my best friend and I said, this needs to go on a pair of yoga pants and she kind of thought it was crazy and it probably did sound crazy. And from there, I just kind of like,

Starting point is 00:10:05 how that in the back of my mind. And while I was in the tech world, I was kind of just, you know, a lot of times when you get an idea, you can either like sit on it or you can like do something. And I sat on it for a little bit and let it like stew in my mind.

Starting point is 00:10:20 And it just wouldn't go away. So I just started thinking, but what could it take to take this picture and incorporate it into yoga pants? And so I exited next tech, and then I started at another tech company, and it was a startup in the AR VR world. And they were doing some really great things,

Starting point is 00:10:42 but it wasn't my passion, where I just wasn't like passionate about what they were doing and what we were creating necessarily. And so I started working on my idea more, like in the nights and weekends and all that kind of stuff. And then a little less than a year, I just said, you know, I'm gonna, I'm gonna grow my business now.

Starting point is 00:11:08 And so I left and started my current business now, which is an e-commerce fashion business. The PassionStruck podcast will be right back. I am so excited about today's sponsor, Athletic Greens, because it is a product that I personally use and love. In fact, athletic greens is completely transforming nutrition and helping so many achieve peak performance. This product is so easy to use and make part of your daily morning routine and that's exactly what happened to me. I just come down every

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Starting point is 00:12:35 Go to athleticgreens.com slash passion struck to get started. Now, let's get back to becoming Cash Instruct. Well, that's an awesome story. And I'm not sure if you knew this about Dayton, but did you know that that's where the cash register was invented? No, I thought the plane was invented. Like Kitty or at Night Kitty Hawk. The Wright brothers, they were from Kitty Hawk, but then they flew the first plane in Dayton. I didn't know that was the best register was, yeah.

Starting point is 00:13:07 Well, I used to be on the advisory board for NCR and NCR is headquartered there, and that's where they originally came up with the technology. In fact, if you go into their headquarters, they have the first cash register still there. I know that they've now moved most of their stuff to Atlanta, but yeah, cool story. So, you know, that other intersection point that we had is back the person you worked for that you did when I was at Catalina as when you were with this company. It just felt like I was sitting there doing the motions, but I wasn't really enthralled by what I was doing. And can you tell me like when you're in that situation, what emotions was that bringing up for you?

Starting point is 00:14:05 How did you feel when? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's kind of, yeah, I would say the emotions is a little bit frustrating, and it's a little bit, I'd say a little bit of anxiety and a little bit of frustration. And I think people go through that every day, even if you are passionate about something, those emotions will creep up. But I think when you're not passionate about something, you kind of just get a larger dose of those emotions when you're in the midst of maybe an industry or a project or something that you're working on that you're not passionate about.

Starting point is 00:14:40 So for me, the way I just kind of, I handled it as I said, well, if this were my business and if there was somebody that wasn't passionate about something, how would I want them to act and to work. And so I just kind of like checked myself and gave it my best and my all, even though I wasn't passionate about it. But I knew in the back of my mind that I needed to create a pathway for myself outside of that that I could go down on my own and leave eventually. Yeah, one of the major premises of becoming passion struck is so many of us spend our careers and our time because what you do for work makes up about 30% of all your time. Creating other people's dreams instead of making our own dreams come true. And so part of what we're trying to do here on passion struck is to give people clues and how to create their own dreams

Starting point is 00:15:45 and live a self-realized life. So how did you come up with the name for your company? Because I think this is always a cool story to hear. Yeah, so my roots, my background, even though I don't necessarily look at, is I'm 100% Middle Eastern. I'm Arabic. My parents are originally from Iraq.

Starting point is 00:16:11 So in Arabic, Ghani means abundance. And so as the time I was very into yoga, and I actually became a yoga instructor, and I would teach on the weekends. So I knew that if I was going to create something, I want it to have the word soul in it, just kind of popped in my mind. And so I'm like, soul, soul, soul, what could go with that? And then all of a sudden, in the word, Ghani just popped in my head and I'm like,

Starting point is 00:16:38 oh, soul, Ghani, abundance of soul. That would be pretty great for a yoga active or business. So that's where I came up with the name. like, that would be pretty great for a yoga active or business. So that's where I came up with the name. Yeah, very cool. So I guess the next thing I wanted to lead into is your in a business that you could say was crowded before you came into it. You know, there are lots of people who are doing yoga pants or that sort of thing.

Starting point is 00:17:12 Passion struck was kind of the same thing when I got into it. Lots of people were saying, you know, there are millions of podcasts, why would you even want to do this? And that's not what passion struck is about. But I think for me, I just felt a calling inside of that it was the right thing to do. But after that, it takes a lot of deliberate actions to get there. But what caused you to think that at that point in time, you could come out of this from nowhere and make an impact in an industry that you'd never been part of before. I mean, I think it's like one part like a little bit crazy. And then another part maybe just like a little bit ego and another part of like just like a dream. Like there's just something inside that just pushed me to do it. I can't, I can't exactly explain it. I do remember like Windows at the gym and I had just like, you know, left the company I was at

Starting point is 00:18:07 and I had really started putting 100% of my focus into Sultani and I was like on the roar, like at the gym and I'm like thinking about something and I'm like nuts, like why did I do this? Like am I gonna, I questioned myself and I said am I gonna be able to like, create a living out of this? Am I gonna be able to create a big business

Starting point is 00:18:30 and, you know, really kind of take over? Will I be able to do something like that? And I said to myself, well, I don't know unless I try, you know? And I think that's like half the battle is like, just getting outside of your head and just doing with intention. I really like how you say that. And so that's just what I did. And I think every entrepreneur has a little bit of crazy

Starting point is 00:18:58 in them, because that's what allows you to move past the logic of saying, when you look at something logically, you're like, this may not work, but when you look at something with passion, it like you kind of like jump over that fence or you go under that fence or you go, you know, plow through it, you know, passion will allow you to kind of take a obstacle and move through it. And so I think that's part of like the like the entrepreneurial spirit a little bit. Does that answer the question?

Starting point is 00:19:26 I don't know if you even know if I fully answered it. Yeah, I mean, it did. I'm going to keep going down this path for a little bit. So I remember it was Race Weekend in St. Petersburg. So for those of us, especially if you live in the building that you used to live in, it's a very fun thing because you can see the whole that you used to live in. It's a very fun thing because you can see the whole indie race from your condo. And I remember you and I were sitting in a mutual friends condo at the top of that condo building. And you told me right at the beginning, I'm going

Starting point is 00:19:59 to do this yoga thing. And I remember six months later, it seemed like no time at all, all of a sudden, you're on KVC and I'm like, how in the heck did she pull that off? So it was six months, but yeah. I mean, it felt like an instant. I know for you, you'd been working on it longer than that, but is the bystander who's looking at it, you know, time just seemed to happen very quickly. Yeah. So with QVC, to actually, the way that I got on QVC was actually at the time, I had another

Starting point is 00:20:40 brand locally here that asked me to talk about their brand on air on home shopping network. And so I was like, they're on air guest for that. And while I was on air guest during that show, and I was like talking about their product and this Matt and selling it on TV, one of the hosts was talking about how HSN QVC, because they're HSN is owned by QVC. They were talking about how they're doing the next big find. So it was kind of like shark tank,

Starting point is 00:21:11 but like keep for QVC. And so while I'm on air, I'm like thinking in my mind, I'm like, oh, I have to enter that for Solgoni. Like that would be like perfect. And so I filled out the application. I went through like a long, long process with them. I think persistence is just as important as passion

Starting point is 00:21:32 because I stayed very, very persistent with QVC. And I made it up to like the level of meeting. There was a whole row of judges in front of me. And I went to HSN's network here and a bunch of the QVC and HSN judges were there and I got up there and I just started like, I brought my little sister with me and I just started like pitching my product and my business and like just you know I really I think spoke with like a ton of passion and they they were like, they loved it. And at the end, I got this thing called a golden ticket, and that takes you to the next round, where you get to meet with the head of buying for that particular product line.

Starting point is 00:22:17 And from there, but that doesn't guarantee that you'll have a product on air or deal with QVC or HSN. product on air or deal with QVC or HSN. But from there, I just kind of stayed persistent and just kept moving like everything down like the whole like sales process with them. And eventually got to the point where we signed a deal and I like have my product and like brand on QVC, which is amazing. But it doesn't just happen overnight. It was like a lot of work, a lot of like patients, a lot of grinding to like get it to that point. But that's good. It seemed like it was overnight. Well, that's what people say now about the podcast. They're like, you know, you started it. Now you're at over 200,000 downloads. How am I? I think that that happened so quickly. And I'm like, well, you don't understand

Starting point is 00:23:05 what it took to do, you know, 88, 89 episodes and plus the six months of planning before that, because if you create something with a goal, but that goal isn't clearly defined, you're gonna go off tangent. So I think probably like you, I spent a lot of time like narrowing in like who am I trying to serve? What am I trying to do with this business and then how

Starting point is 00:23:29 do I start achieving it? So yeah. And I think also like even when you do that and you don't get results from it right away, that can be like this heartening a little bit. And I think like the biggest thing that I have found, like if I like hone in on, okay, these are the retailers I want to hit, these are the products I want to make sure get into their stores, and like you keep getting nose and you keep getting, sorry, my phone just felt, keep getting nose and all that kind of stuff. I think the biggest thing is just kind of like stepping back and like reassessing and saying like, why am I doing this?

Starting point is 00:24:07 What can I be doing different? What's not working? And how can I like shift to like try to get those results now? You know, just constantly like shifting and changing to try to get your end result. I think it's been really helpful because you're not always going to get a yes right away. You're not always going to get a yes right away. You're not always going to get a sale right away. You're not always going to get 200,000 downloads right away. It's always a matter of changing.

Starting point is 00:24:32 Well, all you have to do is look at someone like Stephen King who tried to sell his book to a publisher countless, countless times and finally persevered or I was reading a story about this person who wanted to be a cartoonist and he submitted a thousand cartoons to the New Yorker and they all got turned down so considering what you're saying he could have just given up but he then started to look at what are all the people who are getting in the New Yorker doing that I'm not he could have just given up, but he then started to look at, what are all the people who are getting in the New York are doing that I'm not doing?

Starting point is 00:25:09 And it came down to the one thing that he was missing is they put out a subconscious question to the audience in the form of their cartoon. And then he also adopted Sirot's kind of dot format for the way he created them. And he became the most published person in history in the New York Post over time. But it took him thousands of tries to get there. So I call this the physics of progress. And I think what it ends up becoming

Starting point is 00:25:45 is an endless loop of momentum that you have to create. Because if not, you run into the second theory of physics, which is over time you're going to have entropy. So if you don't find a way to keep the progress going, you're eventually going to get distracted and get off. Yeah, so kudos for you for finding that physics of progress and keeping it going. Thanks so always trying to do that. Well, that's the thing is you can never stop.

Starting point is 00:26:17 And I think that's why so many companies end up being prominent. Catalina marketing is a great one, but if you don't keep reinventing yourself on a continuous basis or even yourself in your own career, you're going to get stagnant. So you probably don't know the story, not many people do, but I almost worked for a QVC. In fact, I really wanted the job. Mike, who's the CEO, was a paramount, he was chief marketing officer at Dell. And he kind of recruited me to become the CIO at QVC. It came down to, do I take this job with Catalina or do I go to QVC? And, unfortunately, my ex-wife did not want to move the Pennsylvania. I was all

Starting point is 00:27:06 in on it because I'm from just outside Philly. So I would have loved it. But so crazy that life can go like that. But where I'm leading up to with this is I have a good friend whose name is Steven Salaji. He's a well-known two-dimensional painter, but he developed a jewelry line, and he to this date is the largest independent artist by revenue and volume that heVC has ever had. But I remember him telling me, like his first time he ever got on KVC, he was just amazed because as you're on there, you've got a finite period of time to sell what you're selling.

Starting point is 00:28:01 And he said the whole time, he was so nervous because there was like this ticking time clock of how much product he was moving and he was like I was just so anxious because I'm trying to let the passion come out but I'm like seeing that I'm not doing as well as they think I should be doing and he goes like panic started to come in and he goes long and behold you know it ended up out. But can you kind of tell the audience about maybe your first experiences working with them because it got to be pretty nerve-wracking? So you know what's funny is I actually absolutely love public speaking. Like some people are like, oh, I get so nervous.

Starting point is 00:28:39 Like I don't know what is, I just absolutely eat it up. I love it. So I wasn't nervous about like, I just absolutely eat it up, I love it. So I wasn't nervous about being on air or being on TV to me, because I had already also had experience doing that for another brand for HSN being there on our guest. So for that, it wasn't that nerve-wracking, but what was nerve-wracking is that I wasn't used

Starting point is 00:29:03 to doing it from home. So I was used to always being in a studio at like HSN for that other brand. And when I aired on QVC, it was like during the pandemic. And so everything had to be like set up from like your home kind of base. And we were actually in the midst of renovating our house, but I had like a little area set up in the house to be able to like do like the show. And I have like workers like in and out of my house like being quiet as like I'm on air.

Starting point is 00:29:34 Like all this stuff or if like my dog like I'm trying to like he's blind and like Jerry Attrach so he can't always like see and know what's going on. So I'm like praying that he'll just be quiet like during the show and not like maybe I have to like put him outside for like 10 minutes or something. So there was like a lot of like background stuff going on while it was on air and like so you're just trying to like you know keep cool and like just pretend like there's nothing happening crazy in your house during all of this. and just pretend there's nothing happening crazy in your house during all of this. That was the biggest thing for me. But I think the coolest thing when I was on air and the very, very first show

Starting point is 00:30:19 was they played back video from when I entered the next big fine. And while the host was talking and they had the B-roll going, I just thought to myself, this is surreal. I had an idea a few years ago and I moved on that idea. And then today I'm standing here in my living room on air with QVC while she's talking. I'm like, this is so cool. This is amazing. Like, wow. So that to me was like the biggest, the biggest like, like, wow, moment I have with like QVC in the very beginning. Wow. A couple of years ago, I had the fortunate pleasure

Starting point is 00:30:57 of meeting Sarah Blakely, which for the listeners, the founder of Spanx. And she told this story that as she was coming up with this fledgling brand, things weren't going well. And it was either Neiman Marcus or one of those stores of that stature. She finally got this pilot that, you know, you can bring your product into this store and we're going to test it out and that will help us determine where we're going to go with it. And so at that time she could have sent a designate to do it because it was, you know, I think it was up in Seattle where they're or

Starting point is 00:31:39 or Dallas where they're from. Yeah. I can't remember where they're based out of, but she ended up saying no if someone's going to sell this product It's got to be me. So she'd go into their store every day and she would be at the spokesman and she was so passionate about it That that was the turning point that she had success there and then they started bringing the line into the stores And that's where you know spanks got off the line. So I love that my goal is to To get to that level to that's theirlically level that she's at with my business. So that's wonderful to hear that. So if you're a listener on the show, whether it's a, it could be a man who might want to buy

Starting point is 00:32:17 this product for their partner or a female who's watching or listening to it, like who do you design these pants for? Is there a specific person in mind when you created or is it really for anyone? It's really for any woman. So our customers range from anywhere from like 18 upwards to like 65-ish. And so like our target, like our main demographic is probably in like their 30s to 40s kind of range. But we really have customers from like in that whole spectrum because a lot of times like a mom will buy the legging

Starting point is 00:33:03 and her teenage daughter will steal it from her a lot of times because a mom will buy the legging and her teenage daughter will steal it from her. A lot of times because they're just really cute. And then also with our with our brand on QVC, it's opened up like an entirely new demographic to us with QVC. So we have women in all ranges of it and you can find it on our website, sulgani.com, SOulgaenai.com, or you can find it on QVC, and you just go to QVC's site and then you type our name into their search bar, and like our entire, like we have a lot of collections with them will come up, and then we're available at other retailers like Coles, bar method studios studios and kind of others like that. But I'd say in the main two would be our website in QBC.

Starting point is 00:33:51 Okay. And if someone wanted to go there and buy them right now, is are you running any discounts or? Yeah. So we have a few things. So right now for the holidays, if you like, you know when you go to the website, you'll have like a pop up and you went to your email and you'll get 20% off.

Starting point is 00:34:09 But then also we have this really cool. I think it's really awesome, especially for like a guy who wants to buy a gift for his like wife who's girlfriend, his mother's daughter's sister, but doesn't know exactly what to get. We have something called a mystery box where you get $170 worth of product for $75. And so with that, it's really cool. You're getting a great deal. And, too, we're picking out the outfit for you. And all you have to do is wrap it and give it to your loved one. The Passion Struck Podcast will be right back. So Ghani is extending a generous and exclusive 20% discount on all their products

Starting point is 00:34:48 for passion struck listeners. Enter Passion 20 that's P-A-S-S-I-O-N-2-0 at checkout on so ghani.com. That is S-O-U-L-G-A-N-I. com with the discount code passion 20 now back to the passion strike podcast. Well, that's great So I wanted to talk about a different element of your your business. So one of the things that I found really encouraging was the fact that With every sale that you do, you give a portion of it to different charities. And one of those on the podcast, we've had three astronauts who've come on the podcast. One of them happens to be on the space station right now, okay, LeBaron, but unbeknownst

Starting point is 00:35:42 to me, there's an astronaut who lives in St. Pete where we both live in a coal Scott and you got to do a collaboration with her and then ended up donating to her charity. So I was hoping you could talk about one why you decided you wanted to have a charity focus and then to maybe the story of partnering with her. Sure.

Starting point is 00:36:04 So the reason why we give back to charities, because when I was on that hiking trip in Peru, where I saw the rock and I got the idea to start Solgani, during that trip, we would go to like little villages, and before that, we would go to the market, and we'd buy like fruits and things like that. And while we would walk through the villages a lot, times it would be like all these little kids,

Starting point is 00:36:25 just kind of like sitting on like the pathway. And so we'd hand them like fruit. And this one little girl, never forget her. I handed her like this green apple. And she looked at me like it was like Christmas day in her eyes when I handed her this apple. And so I said to myself, like, if I start this business, and if I make one dollar, or if I make millions of dollars, I want to give

Starting point is 00:36:50 back to charity because it would just be full circle from this trip where I got that inspiration, that idea, and then just seeing the effect of just giving a piece of fruit to a child, what that did to her, I said, I want to be able to do good with this business and help others. So that's why we give back to charity. And a lot of times we associate the charity that we give back with, with the design inspiration too. So like if something's designed in New York, we'll give back to NYC Food Bank or,

Starting point is 00:37:23 like the collaboration with Nicole Stott, like that's why we give back to Space for Art Foundation with every sale. And with Nicole, I was invited to this like Tampa Bay woman's like luncheon. And so I went to this luncheon and she was like the keynote speaker there and she was sharing like all these pictures from from space that she had taken. And they were some of the most beautiful photos I'd ever seen. And during her presentation, I just said, I'm going to do a collection with her. These are awesome. These are going to look great on leggings. So I went up to her at the very end of the presentation like a groupie.

Starting point is 00:38:00 And I was like, hey, we need to talk. And I gave her my business card and said, let's meet for coffee. I have this great idea where we can take your photos and put it into clothing and just sell it would be amazing. And she loved that. The concept and we met for coffee a few times and then put together some ideas and then launched a few collections from there. Yeah, very cool. Are any of those still out there or once you do a collection and you sell through it, do you then move on to the next collection?

Starting point is 00:38:34 Yeah, so typically what we do is once we do a collection is limited edition, and once we sell through it, it's done. But with her universe collection, there's been like a few prints that have been really, really like people love. And so we've done like a couple runs of those to just like, you know, the market wants the market gets. We've done a few, a few extra collections of hers. We've done a few extra collections of hers. So, I now want to ask you just a few questions of, you know, being a successful entrepreneur and an entrepreneur who might be listening to this, regardless of stage they're in.

Starting point is 00:39:20 What do you think if you had to boil it down were two or three of the keys to the success that you had? Well, I think I'm still I'm still always you know moving forward and moving towards more success. I think that's one of the things but I'd say the biggest key is um is when it gets hard because there it's like almost every other day there, there's a setback when there's something that's hard. But when it gets hard, that's just a moment to like recollect and say like, what can I be doing different or what can I be changing to get closer towards my goal? Because I think as an entrepreneur, you don't have like your CEO,

Starting point is 00:40:04 you are the CEO, you don't have like your CEO, you are the CEO, you don't have people above you really to kind of like help guide you towards that. And so I think it's kind of trying to be like your, your own boss and saying that like, being objective and saying what can I be doing different to get different results. I think that's one of the biggest things when it gets hard and like doing that. I think the second thing is having like a balanced approach to like all the different facets of a business. So like I was thinking about this this morning, like some entrepreneurs are really heavy on like sales

Starting point is 00:40:38 and marketing, some entrepreneurs are really heavy on like the tech side or some are really heavy on like the accounting and finance side. So I think having a balance in your focus through all of those I think is really important. And that's something that I learned from my father who is also an entrepreneur. He's very successful entrepreneur. And his background was always on the tech side, but just because he was an engineer, didn't mean he couldn't sell, just because he was an engineer, didn't mean he couldn't get

Starting point is 00:41:09 into the finance and the accounting, like an accountant would. So I take that, learning from him, I take that and put that into my own business too. Okay, that's some great advice. So one thing I did want to ask you about is, and I'll lead into this by saying I happened to hear this news story last week. I can't remember what it was on, but they were saying that they went into four typical middle class houses in the United States. And they took out every single product that was made outside of the United States. And they said when they did that in the typical house, they were left with only about 5% of their possessions. And then they did the cost analysis of had they bought those items manufactured in the West versus overseas and this is what really

Starting point is 00:42:07 shocked me. The difference was only 10 to 15% higher. But it's leading me to the question, you know, in your industry, everyone seems to outsource everything and you made a strategic decision which at the time could have worked against you because it could have been more expensive but you decided you wanted to manufacture in the United States. Why did you do that and has that paid off for you? Yeah so I'd say it was really it was two reasons so one it was to me I wanted to create something that would not just create corporate jobs here as the business grew, but I also wanted to create something that would add to the economy here

Starting point is 00:42:53 of factories that are here based in the US. I wanted to support them as opposed to overseas. So, I really wanted to focus here on the US because it's just like important. America, I wanted to have an American-made brand. And then two, the American factories are a little bit more receptive to a smaller brand starting out too because they have a smaller MOQs, minimum quantities that you have to do. And so it was really kind of like a perfect marriage between that. Well, that's awesome. That you figured out that niche and that it worked for you. And also that over time as the company continues to grow, you'll be able to offer jobs that are absolutely

Starting point is 00:43:41 needed. So I did want to ask you a couple more questions around the whole entrepreneurial space. And that is, you know, why do you think so many people, and I call this, they live behind a shroud of credence, meaning they're pretending to be someone they're not, why do you think so many people do the reverse of what their true calling is? That's a great question.

Starting point is 00:44:15 I think a lot of times people do the reverse of what their true calling is because maybe they don't have a clear vision or a clear understanding of what their calling is, or maybe they do, but there's certain responsibilities or certain circumstances that make them feel as if they can't push forward on that calling or that dream. But I really think that like where there's a will, there's a way, you know, and like, you're not gonna bite off everything in one bite.

Starting point is 00:44:55 It's like if you have a dream and you have an idea, break it down into like little bites and create a pathway for yourself to get there eventually. You don't have to get there tomorrow, you know? But I think like, for instance, there might be some people who have a dream to do something that may not be as financially lucrative as what they're doing now, but they have the responsibility of a family that they have to support. So I think when people are in like that kind of situation, I think it's finding a way in parallel

Starting point is 00:45:28 to what they're doing to try to get there eventually. I think it's kind of the biggest thing that people don't always do. Maybe just get discouraged and say, well, it's just not gonna be for me. And I'm just gonna keep forward with what I'm doing now. Okay, I think that's great advice.

Starting point is 00:45:46 And then I did want to ask you about yoga. So like you, I practice it a bit out of practice right now because the studio you and I went to, a lot of my favorite teachers left it, unfortunately. But you know, I now use walks and other ways to meditate to get what I was getting from yoga, but I still, I still really miss it because it's a great way, you know, when you really zero in and clear your mind to allow the unimportant things that seem to be coming up in your mind to just push them out and to try to

Starting point is 00:46:25 really super focus on the most important things. But for you, what has yoga meant for you in your life and what did it bring that you were missing before you went down that journey? Yeah, so when I was doing yoga, I had a lot of stress that I needed to kind of like I had a lot of stress that I needed to kind of like unwind from. And so I found a yoga class and I just started taking it and I was like, oh, this is like really, this is great. Like I feel wonderful after I leave a class because I think it's one part, one part exercise. And then it's like another part like meditative as well, like you were saying. So I think it kind of has those two aspects to it. So I think yoga is like wonderful in that sense. And then when I became a yoga teacher, it actually drew

Starting point is 00:47:15 me closer to my faith to my faith and Christianity as well. So it kind of opened up that door a little bit more too because yoga will tend to kind of opened up that door a little bit more too, because yoga will tend to kind of like, be around like the spiritual side. And so that spiritual side really helped me tap into my faith and my faith is really what it helps guide me through like really, really, really tough times too or like really stressful times. So like a mixture of the two. Okay.

Starting point is 00:47:45 So, I now wanted to go through kind of a series of fun questions with you. Okay. So, if you could be on a late, late show and you got to do an episode of doing car karaoke, what would be the song you sang? I can't sing. Like I am a horrible, horrible singer, but I love Mariah Carey. So this time of year, I would so basic, but I would sing like Mariah Carey Christmas. that's probably what I was saying. Okay. We will be right back to the PassionStruck podcast. This episode is sponsored by ShipStation. The holidays are the most wonderful time of the year.

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Starting point is 00:50:31 support us and make the show possible. Now let's get back to the Passion Struck podcast. On this theme of Nicole Scott, one of the questions I'd love to ask people is, if you had the opportunity to be selected as the first group of astronauts who got to go to Mars, what one law or premise would you put in place if you were given the opportunity? Like for all of Mars, like what would... For this new world, like one thing that that you would put in place. He kind of others. Okay. Yeah. Great. Is there a favorite book you're reading now or one that really inspires you that the audience could learn from?

Starting point is 00:51:18 So actually the book that I'm reading now because we're and it has nothing to do with business, but it's all about because we're in the midst of trying to start a family so the book that I'm reading now is it's called, I forget the name of it honestly, but it's all about the foods that you intake and what you eat and how it affects your baby's health and like brain development from like even before your pregnant and like in the first few months of that.

Starting point is 00:51:53 I'm very into like health and nutrition and like kind of understanding all the natural ways that like our food can heal our bodies or our food can make us better and stronger. So I'm very into those and And I think when you're stronger physically, it actually allows you to be stronger mentally and emotionally too. So I just love reading books along those lines. Now, when I was with a previous employer, I was the editor for a while of their digital publication. And I was curious on this topic, so ended up doing 20 articles around gut health. And it is quite amazing how many things it impacts

Starting point is 00:52:34 from your mental state to different diseases you might get, such as diabetes or Alzheimer's or other things. And it's there truly, a very clear link between your gut health and your mind health and how you function. So, you know, I think that's a great thing. And if you, you know, after the show, I want to give you the book, I will put it in the show notes.

Starting point is 00:52:59 So people can download it. Is there a particular motto that you like that you've lived your life around or used to inspire you? I'd say like there isn't like a typical quote or typical motto exactly but what I what I like to live my my my my life by is kind of like always like be kind to others Whether it's in business or whether it's in like your personal life And be honest because I really feel that that always comes back to you It may not always be immediate But I think when when people see that you're kind and you're honest,

Starting point is 00:53:45 it actually has them put their guard down a little bit and it allows you to kind of create like a special, either a relationship or a business interaction. And like the other thing is, is like, I think that people should dream, but you should also do at the same time. Those are kind of my my main key ideas I live by. Okay great and the last question would be if there is a person that you have never met before living or dead that you had the opportunity to meet who would it be? So there would be so many people.

Starting point is 00:54:25 So I actually would love to meet Paul from the Bible. I know that sounds funny. And like most people would be like, why don't you want to meet like some type of business or something like that? But for me, I think that would just be amazing because it's the idea of somebody who persecuted a group of people, he persecuted Christians, and then became the most prolific person to spread Christianity all throughout the world.

Starting point is 00:54:54 It would be really cool to sit down with somebody like that, and I feel like he probably has a bad-ass personality to be able to be that way. So I would be kind of one person I'd love to. able to be that way. So I would be kind of one person I'd love to be. Okay. Well, Christina, thank you so much for joining us today on the podcast. It was really a joy to be able to spend this time with you. Thank you. It was really fun. So thank you for having me on. I appreciate it. What a great episode of the Passion Start podcast. And if you're new to the show and you haven't been there before, we also have a YouTube channel under John Armiles. And on that channel we have well over 200 different inspirational videos all aimed at helping you learn how to live an intentional life.

Starting point is 00:55:37 They're grouped and playlists similar to our starter packs, so you can go to the topic that you would like to hear about and watch those videos. And, if there's someone like Christina that you would like to see me interview, or there's a topic that you would like me to do in my solo episodes, please DM me at JohnRMiles on Instagram or connect with me on LinkedIn and JohnMiles. Christina also mentioned a book today, and I also wanted to draw your attention to passionstruck.com backslash whoops, where we have curated a collection of books that are my favorites and also ones that were either written or mentioned by guests on the podcast.

Starting point is 00:56:22 There are affiliate links for those books and all the proceeds go to keeping the lights on here and helping us produce a show that's free for you to absorb. Thank you again for joining us today and hearing Christina Sparks, incredible and inspirational story. Now go out there and become PassionStruck. Thank you so much for joining us. The purpose of our show is to make Passion Go viral. And we do that by sharing with you the knowledge and skills that you need to unlock your hidden potential. If you want to hear more, please subscribe to the PassionStruck podcast on Spotify, iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to your podcast ad. And if you absolutely love this episode, we'd appreciate a five-star rating on iTunes, and you sharing it with three of your most group-minded friends, so they can post it as well

Starting point is 00:57:17 to their social accounts and help us grow our passion start community. If you'd like to learn more about the show and our mission, you can go to passionstruck.com where you can sign up for our newsletter, look at our tools, and also download the show notes for today's episode. Additionally, you can listen to us every Tuesday and Friday for even more inspiring content. And remember, make a choice, work hard, and step into your sharp edges. Thank you again for joining us. you

Passion Struck with John R. Miles - Christina Sparks On How to Turn a Passion For Giving Into a Business EP 90

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