Start With A Win - Humble and Hopeful: A Young CEO’s Guide to a Balanced Life with Steven Izen

Episode Date: October 5, 2022

The journey of life is made up of highs and lows, pain and joy, challenges and triumphs. Even at a young age, Steven Izen came to understand this truth that connects all humans. The key to success is figuring out how to find balance in all of life’s extremes. Out of this concept, Steven created his brand Lokai. Lokai bracelets serve as a reminder to stay humble on the mountain peaks of life and hopeful in the valleys. More than simply offering consumers an excellent product, Lokai’s mission extends beyond retail into mindfulness and active participation in the global community. Izen attributes much of his success to staying focused on his values— fitness, family, and business. As a young leader in a quickly changing world of business, Izen builds relationships with his team with intentionality and isn’t afraid to have the hard conversations. Company values are woven into the fabric of every day operations, primarily open communication, work/life balance, and giving back to the community. This is how businesses maintain integrity and support a growth mindset within a company’s culture. Main TopicsHow Izen developed the concept, values, and brand for Lokai and the meaning behind the name (02:16)Izen’s personal exploration of mindfulness in leadership (06:30)Current shifts in employer/employee relationships and the importance of balance in the workplace (10:36)How entrepreneurs can be growth-oriented by giving back to community (14:40)Special offer for listeners! (16:54)  Episode Linkshttps://lokai.com/Use code PODCAST15 to get 15% off on any purchases made on elementsdrinks.io or lokai.comConnect with Steven:https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-izen-5620323b/https://www.instagram.com/stevenizen/https://www.facebook.com/steven.izenhttps://twitter.com/StevenIzenConnect with Adam:https://www.startwithawin.com/https://www.facebook.com/AdamContosCEOhttps://twitter.com/AdamContosCEOhttps://www.instagram.com/adamcontosceo/Listen, rate, and subscribe!Apple PodcastsSpotifyGoogle Podcasts

Welcome to Start With A Win, where we give you the tools and lessons you need to create business and personal here in Denver, Colorado, it's Adam Kantos with Start With A Win. It's a beautiful morning, Producer Mark. How are you doing? It is a beautiful morning. And it's Monday when we're recording this. Yes. You'll probably be hearing this on a Wednesday because that's when these episodes come out. But it's a beautiful Monday. It totally is. It is.

So I'm excited. I always say that Mondays are awesome because it gives you an opportunity to have success. You have five days of like, oh, right, what can I do today? This is the beginning of it. Five days. Well, seven days, depending on what kind of— Yeah. I only have a week to get stuff done until next Monday, buddy.

That's right. But it's like my kids are like, it's Friday. What are you going to do? I go, oh, it's Friday. I only have two more work days until Monday. Exactly. Well, I'm excited for our guest today. Steven Eisen is with us, and he's the founder and CEO of Loci, the iconic bracelet brand that motivates

consumers to stay humble at their highs and hopeful at their lows in life. Stephen currently serves as the youngest member on the national board of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list for retail and e-commerce in 2017, and was the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards finalist in 2016. Stephen, welcome to Start With a Win. Producer Mark and Adam, thank you guys both for having me on the show. Hey, glad to have you here. And we love what you stand for.

I mean, just, you know, the mindset and the dedication and the constant insight into, you know, a hopeful future. So it's pretty cool. And this brand, this is very interesting. I've been following you for quite a while here. Loci. Can you give us the story behind the Loci brand? I know we have a lot of listeners, I'm sure, that use your product,

and it's just a fabulous concept. Tell us about it. Yeah, absolutely. So about 13 years ago now, I was a freshman at Cornell and I was on vacation with my family and friends thinking about how lucky I was to be there. But that week, unfortunately, my grandfather was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and he was someone I was very close to growing up, drove me to school every day, taught me to play golf. And so that experience really brought me to a low in my life.

And it just got me thinking about the highs and lows that I was going through and how everybody goes through highs and lows in their life. It doesn't matter your age, gender, demographic, income level, we all have highs and lows. And so it got me thinking, okay, well, what are the highest and lowest points on earth? Mount Everest and the Dead Sea. And how could I take elements from those two places and incorporate them into a product that people could wear every day as a reminder to Mount Everest and the Dead Sea? And how could I take elements from those two places and incorporate them into a product that people could wear every day as a reminder to find balance in life, stay humble when you're on top of the world and hopeful when you've hit a low. I told my dad that idea and he said, that's a great idea, but everyone has great ideas. Now

go execute it. That's the hard part. And so I kind of set off on this mission to help people find balance in life. And for all the listeners, they're silicone bracelets that look like beaded bracelets. On one side, there's a white ball and on the other side, there's a black ball that hold the water and mud. That's awesome. So it's, and you see these, I mean, they're pretty much everywhere around the world now. I mean, tell us about your market, your marketplace continues to expand. I know you have, you work with pretty much every professional sports league out there, it seems like. And I mean, you're, you're spreading this thought of, okay, how do I stay mindful of, you know,

not just struggle, but of, of the high points in my life, and I focus on understanding that I can get back there. I mean, this is deeper than just a conversation. It's deeper than just a silicone thing you put on your wrist. I mean, what does this mean to people? And why did you get so deep into this? I mean, a lot of people are like, oh, whatever. It's a little trinket or something. But take me one level deeper. What from the very beginning, giving back has always been a huge part for me, especially because of my grandfather. And so we donated 10% of net profits to charity. And to date, we've actually donated $9.4 million to different nonprofit organizations.

And yeah, when we launched, we started with the classic and then we started to make different colors for different causes. So paint for breast cancer, purple for Alzheimer's, neon for Make-A-Wish. And just the stories we would hear from people who were going through chemotherapy or whose child was going through their Make-A-Wish journey. in a way that most products don't because we're really selling the message, not the bracelet. And we've always just stayed authentic to who we are. And people just continue to spread our message because their story is the story of Loci. And so we've really grown organically in that way. Now, Loci, what does the name come from?

What's that mean, and why did you pick that? So we changed the spelling a bit, but the origins of loci come from lokahi, which is L-O-K-A-H-I, which in Hawaiian means unity, and to blend opposites. And so we changed it a bit just to make it a word that we kind of owned and controlled, but to us, it's just an inspirational word about finding balance and inspiring people to find balance. your product and really what, you know, even the people that don't wear your product, how we should be thinking about life and that mindfulness. What does that mean to you? I mean, what is mindfulness

and having that understanding that, okay, there is a high point, there is a low point, and I'm going to transition in life amongst these and be a better person as a result? What is that? I mean, there seems like a lot of holistic growth internally in your organization that translates out in the leadership of your customer base. Tell me a little bit about that. You're an inspiring leader. How did we get there? Yeah, I mean, the way that I try to live my life is I always envision my last day on Earth and looking back on my life and what I'm going to be thankful for and remember and what I'm going to regret. And I really try to spend my time focused on the things that really fill my cup

and are the things that I want to look back on later in life and be proud of. And so for me, that's fitness. I try to do seven days a week to sweat. For me, it changes my mindset completely. I view myself as an inner athlete. I ran track in college. My family, a wife and two little kids, I have a three and a half year old and a one and a half year old, and then work. And if it doesn't really fit one of those three buckets, I kind of try to pick it aside. I noticed you didn't say I party all night long on weekends. I mean, it sounds like you're pretty intentional in your life and in your choices. Let's face it, you're a young CEO and founder. And speaking from a 50-some CEO guy here, it's refreshing to see your intentionality and how you live your life in order to be the best leader that you can be,

best family member you can be, parent, father, things of that nature, but also best member of your community. And you touched on giving back a little bit. I know that fits in that holistic circle of living a great life to you. But I want to dig into your leadership now, the founder CEO piece, because so much of this, it stems from those things we just talked about. But also, it is your demonstration of how a leader should be in society. So take me through this, becoming a founder and a CEO. And how did you know, okay, now that I've got a business that is recognized globally, how can I make the most out of this impactfully instead of, we see some people waste this opportunity. What, what turned you on to it more than anything else in, in, in that transition? Yeah. You know, maybe it's a cheesy line, but it's about the journey, not the destination. And listen, I wasn't always this way. When I started, it was a young, early founder. I thought

I could do everything better than everyone else, right? Do marketing, sales, customer service, production, everything better. And I micromanaged people and I was on top of people and I was really just trying to do their jobs for them. And over the years, I've really just learned that your team is the most valuable thing that you have as a leader and empowering them to build their own business and be successful themselves. And really, how can I help my employee do a better job at their job is how I look at my team. And I just try to be honest and transparent and open with them. And I'm also not afraid to have tough conversations when things aren't going well because they need that feedback too. So it's kind of just how I lead. All right. I got a question for you about that leadership question here. CEO to CEO, we've heard over the past, call it five, eight years, you can't be, you know, those honest conversations have to change or nobody wants to hear that they screwed something up or whatever it might be. I mean, how do you see employer-employee relationships changing with generational

shifts, with the evolution? I mean, obviously the pandemic made it even more, you know, bright line when it comes to mental health and things like that. But how have you seen those relationships evolve? And, you know, obviously yours has evolved because as you grow wise and experienced in the CEO seat, your relationship with your employees and your customers changes. Take me through a little bit of that. What's on your mind about how should I be acting now versus how I came rolling in? You talked about micromanaging, whatever, but now you're guiding. Take me through that a little bit. Yeah. COVID has thrown a curveball into things. Before COVID, we were in an office, right? And so you're with everyone, you're grabbing lunch with people. There was time to chit chat at the water cooler, right?

Now as a company, we're totally remote. Uh, we don't even have an office anymore and we have people all over the country. There's actually employees I haven't met in person yet. And so I think just being very thoughtful about, Hey, how am I reaching out to these people to spend time with them and talk with them? Are there initiatives we're doing as a company to get people together? New employees, how are we integrating them? Because if you're a new employee coming into a remote company, you're just sitting at your desk at home. Unless people are really reaching out at the beginning to tell you what's going on and give you kind of the backstories. So just being really thoughtful and intentional with the relationships and how you start conversations.

I think I found myself with the remote where you get on a call, you jump right into business because it's just more efficient. But how do you pause? How do you take time and really get to know the people on the other end of the call? Another thing we actually just implemented as a company is Balance Fridays. So Summer Fridays was something people loved in our company. And it's interesting. As you work remote, I think the line between work-life balance becomes even more blurred because you're kind of working all the time when you're at home, you don't have to travel. There's

no two places. And so we've basically made balance Fridays, which is essentially summer Fridays year round, which really gives people Friday afternoon to find balance themselves, right? I think if we are a company that is inspiring people to live balance in their life, we as a company and as a team need to do that as good as anyone else. And so whether it's spending time with family or getting your appointments done or working out, we really want to give our employees that afternoon to unwind. Awesome. For all the listeners out there, there's some gold here in what Steven just said. I mean, thoughtful and intentional in what you do as a leader with your employees and your company. Pause and get to know the people. That really

hits home because you're right. I can remember when the pandemic blew up, I might be on like 12 Zoom calls. I mean, just bam, one after another around the world, one hour after another, and you're going, oh my gosh. And then you turn off your video for a couple of minutes and take a bite of a protein bar or something like that, or take a drink of something. You're like, I got to fuel the brain here. And in Balance Fridays, I think a lot of companies have taken a look at that and said, all right, let's try and become a little more flexible here. That's fantastic. But I mean, here's what I would say to employees.

Use it. Use it. Don't go, oh, I still have this project I got to finish up. Budget your time better in the week to get the project done so you can use that balance time. And then how work-life balance gets blurred. Budget your time better in the week to get the project done so you can use that balance time. And then how work-life balance gets blurred. Those are incredible points, Stephen. Thank you for sharing those. And a lot of entrepreneurs listen to this show. I'd like to ask you, based on what you're just talking about here, what do you see as your future predictions for

social entrepreneurship? You're heavily involved in that, having a company with a cause, but it's a profitable company. It's a growth company, things of that nature. But how should we as entrepreneurs be thinking about our communities and giving back in order to also grow our businesses? Tell me a little bit about that. Yeah. I think it's becoming more and more important to consumers supporting brands that are having a positive impact on their communities in the world. And I guess the advice I would just give to any entrepreneur out there listening is, if you're going to do it, do it authentically and really do it. Don't do it to try to drive more sales

and make it part of the marketing strategy because consumers see right through that. They're really smart. It really has to be deeply integrated into who you are as a business. And a North Star for me has always been Patagonia. Year after year, campaign after campaign, they just continue to drive home

the importance of the environment and yeah, saving the world. I love it. I mean, what more simple can you get? Save the world. I mean, what do we all have in common? We all live at the same place, this big blue thing floating around in the sky. So that's awesome. And what about predictions for just the entrepreneurial landscape itself? If you were to give a piece of advice for entrepreneurs, what would that be? Product first. If you don't have a great product, it doesn't matter how good your branding is, your marketing, your ability to sell. It all comes back to the product

and don't cut corners on it. And I think as you're thinking about products to make, is it going to improve people's lives, make their lives easier? Or are you just another version of something that already exists? Awesome. That's a great point. I mean, it puts some effort into what you deliver to the customer base, to the community. And speaking of which, you have a special offer for our listeners. Tell us about that. I'm sure they'd be excited to hear about it. Yeah. On loci.com, you can use podcast15 for a little discount code. Right on. Podcast15 on loci.com. That's L-O-C-A-I. And Stephen,

this has been a really insightful and inspirational interview here. We appreciate you being on. But I have one more question that I ask all of our guests on the show. And I'm sure you're going to have a great answer to this because I love where your head

and your heart are at and how you live your life. So Stephen, how do you live your life. So Steven, how do you start your day with a win? Workout first thing in the morning. I love it. I love it. Steven Eisen, thank you for being on Start With A Win. Locai is an amazing brand. Keep doing amazing things and we'll talk to you soon. Thanks, Adam. Hey, and thank you for listening to Start With the Wind. Are you wondering how to grow your business? You know, it might be something you're missing and it's not sales and marketing. It's something most people don't even think about

until it's too late. And that's leadership. Whether you're leading yourself or a team, leadership is the key for next level growth. Now, if you're wondering what exact steps you need to take to grow as a leader, head over to adamcontos.com slash leadership to find out more. And until next time, remember, start with a win. you