How I Built a $10M Shoe Company from Scratch with Sebastian Malczewski

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire. Brought to you by the HubSpot. Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like The Hustle Daily Show. Today, we'll be breaking down the story of building a$10 million shoe company from complete scratch. To drop these value bombs, I brought Sebastian M into EO Fire Studios. Sebastian is a Polish immigrant, proud father, and CEO of Mark Nolan, a rapidly expanding Chicago-based fashion brand committed to seamlessly combining style with accessibility. In today's foundation, we're going to talk about aha moments, scaling operations, marketing, and product development.

0:39We'll also talk the biggest challenges, and as well as being unique so that you're not swallowed up by the noise in a competitive market, and oh, so much more. And the big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Sebastian and our sponsors. The Next Wave, your chief AI officer, hosted by Matt Wolf and Nathan Lands, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. AI technology is transforming the way we do business and the media landscape is fragmented. The Next Wave strives to be the leading podcast on AI technology and how you can apply to growing your business.

1:13Listen to The Next Wave wherever you get your podcasts. Is this your year to grow a successful business? Attend the world's highest rated business growth workshop taught personally by Clay Clark and now featuring Rich Dad Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki and Eric Trump at thrivetimeshow.com slash EOFire. Again, request life-changing tickets today at thrivetimeshow.com slash EOFire. Sebastian, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Thank you for having me. For me, I had a lot of obstacles coming as an immigrant from a different country, from Poland.

1:58I did have a lot of obstacles. What I believe always is I believe in myself, listen to my gut and finding the right people and letting them to be, develop them to be the best as they can be. So Sebastian, one thing that I'm really interested to get into is your aha moment, your idea for starting your company, which is a very impressive company called Mark Nolan. What inspired you specifically to enter the shoe industry? It's a quite long story. I hope I can compress in a shorter conversation with it, but I'll start with the name. So the name of Mark Nolan, it's very close to my heart. It's very organic to me and it's very meaningful and hopefully the stay lives beyond me.

2:43So Nolan is my son and Mark is my mentor and my business parent that taught me a lot about the shoe industry. I've been working for him for probably 15 years, managing his stores in Chicago and New York. And I've been sitting in a store and learning, listening to people. And I realized that there is a gap in the men's footwear industry for quite bolder styles. That's what I realized that I wanted to develop my own company and not work only for mark and then he was kind of old school type of a person so he wasn't believing in an old director consumer to build your own brand so i kind of branch out on my own and i my son was born nolan i was working for mark that's how the idea of the name came up and i wanted to put those two most important male figures in my life into the name of the company because my father passed away when I was a kid.

3:44So Mark kind of substituted a role for me. So then I was working for Mark. I had the idea of shoe company for myself. He wasn't technically on board. So I'm like, I'll write it solo by my name. But since he helped me so much, I want you to be part of it. So that's how the idea of Mark Nolan was born. And what I didn't know much. I mean, I learned from the customers. I learned about the shoes, but I didn't know how to start. So Mark suggested to me like, you know he told me go back go to China where I source my shoes try to find some factories I give you some addresses and the rest is on you so on a fateful trip to China I booked a trip I flew in like without knowing much without a couple of his guidance like where to go what to do I started the company I was looking for people who can I can source the shoes I can source the shoehorns I can source the laces the boxes and etc and shipping to United States at that time I I didn't really have much money because Nolan was just born.

4:44Mark businesses weren't doing too well. So I was able to borrow some money from my friend that for some reason, he believed in me. I don't know why he did, but he did. He gave me, you know, like little loan. I mean, little at the time was huge loan for me of$100 ,000. And he said, you know what, go ahead and see what you can do. And he became my business partner. And that's how everything started. Now, what was the biggest challenge that you faced when you were in China? because I'm just picturing you, you're in China. I mean, it's such a big country. It's such a different culture than I'm sure you're used to.

5:17You know, you had some guidance, some ideas of what to do, but what was the biggest challenge once you got there? I don't want to call it luck because I think it's, I believe that what you put out there comes to you. The challenges overall, building the company and starting with China was finding the right people. And as my wife always says that somehow I have the gift to finding right people and surround myself with it so I'll all and I also always as I mentioned at the beginning I listen to my gut so I knew where to go I was going from the shop to shop from the factory factory and I use my all guidance like I think this is probably the best person that can work with me she used to work she's still I still work cashier today what to do till that day today been already five years she used to work with bigger companies not little ones like me at the time and i said you know she somehow believed in me as well so putting two and two together spending there probably 10 days going from one factory to other factory somehow i put it a little like a scrappy plan how to send the first container and and then and I sent it to Chicago, and then we sold it out.

6:30And that's how this started. That was the obstacles in China. But I also had some obstacles in the United States when I launched the company. Number one was the capital. Because as you know,$100 ,000, it seems to be a lot. But in the business world, it's not a lot. So for me, that was quite an amount of money. I didn't have any money. I was, to be honest with you, very broke at the time. and as mentioned my son was little and i was looking into his eyes i'm like i have to provide for him my wife got laid off from work so we we weren't doing the best but i believed in myself and i knew that i had to overturn my life to in order to sustain the family so anyhow when i came when we brought the first container we realized that we need money so again i was trying to find some someone some bank that loaned me the money and as you're probably aware too it's hard to get the money if you don't have great credit history you don't have collarello which i didn't have it but again my trade kicked in i was able to fight i called till today she works with me her name is diana she's our unofficial cfo she was able to put a nice business plan and apply for sba loan the sba loan fueled the money to buy more containers and kind of like ignitiate the business to roll more and more and more.

7:51So I want to talk about what happened when you were able to grow Mark Nolan into a$10 million business. How did you scale the operations, the marketing and the product development to get to this number? It's a combination of many aspects. Like what I do, and I believe I do everything in a house, like starting from warehousing number one, this will allows me to save money. Again, I was able to have some friends that after actually when COVID happened, they lost their job and they start working in my warehouse. So we create our own fulfillment center. That alone, knowing if people using 3PL, third-party logistics, they pay quite a buck for it.

8:32I was able to control everything from order be received, from customer service, anything had to get shipped the same day. So number one, all in-house. and looking at the perspective right now when I started with the business in the store in the basement of the store now having three warehouses we actually have two warehouses and almost 15 ,000 square feet and then one photo studio of 7 ,000 square feet and this also allowed me to build building creative team our own without outsourcing ever to money because I think that if you have the right people we just let them to maximize their potential and i'm kind of that person that if i find somebody i think he's doing well very well let him to be the both let him open himself let him teach me also in some aspects that i'm not aware of that so what also helped us to become put ourselves in a map i guess in this big sea or ocean of shoes was experimenting with different materials mixing them leather suede patterns prints animal prints and kind of go bold like i knew that you know i don't have a budget like those big companies like colhan for instance so i will go unnoticed if i only sell black or brown shoes but having something unique and different i know what i can get a hook and hook to the customers that seeking those type of shoes and i know those bigger companies they have a board of directors so even if they have an idea of putting something bolder it might get out because they have shareholders have to explain for me i started from nothing so the worst comes to worst i can go back to nothing so i kind of had that philosophy till today now i'm trying to be more selective with ideas on what i do but throwing the product that nobody throws at the time i think help us to get notice and start building the customer base you know and pushing the boundaries with shoes making yellow shoes pink for instance pink was very hot due to a barbie movie.

10:35We double down on pink shoes. It's still dooming gray. It's not as good like the two years ago, but those little things that I noticed in the market that it's missing, I'm kind of doubling down on them. And with having very quick turnout with a factory, I'm able to get the product in like 60 to 75 days delivered here. And that's one thing I want to dive into deeper. And I have a couple other questions around this topic when we get back from thinking our sponsors. Ever feel like your job description just keeps getting bigger? But we all know there's only 24 hours in a day causing marketers everywhere to feel spread thin.

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14:14So Sebastian, if we are not unique, we simply blend in and we're swallowed up by the noise. You know, you talked about your ability to move fast on things with the pink shoes, et cetera. How specifically did you differentiate Mark Nolan from other shoe brands? I mean, this is a competitive market. So how did you stand out? What else did you do differently? I listened to my gut and key decisions. That's just maybe semi-related to what I do. Number two, what happened, like we are a very smaller company, so we can adjust to the new realities. We're very much paying attention to customer service. Like some companies, for instance they don't have customer service by phone call we do so if you have a question on our evaporation our warehouse operates from like 8 to 5 p.m you can call and you can you can talk to somebody live you know so those little things pay attention to details to materials like all of when you receive our product i don't know if you notice like it's very well packed so you're kind of getting that luxury feel with the affordable and accessible price so very much paying to a detail is very much paying attention to comfort that's some that's something that i sometimes get unnoticed by other companies because the larger companies pay very much attention to like profits i'm still in a stage of growth that i wanted to make sure that when customers receive my product, he has it and he's very happy with it.

15:46And, you know, at first I was trying to stay away out of black and brown shoes. Now I realize in order to become more mainstream, I have to do that. But that's what I think help us to keep to be and also keeping track on what's in fashion. Like we becoming more fashion company. So I travel around the world. I go to Europe. I see what people are wearing at the time because sometimes fashion is a little bit, United States is slightly more conservative. I see, I go to Italy, I go to Paris, see what's Paris Fashion Week. And I try to resemble that and bring up to Mark Nolan. And I also, one thing what I do, I very much listen to people.

16:24I go to the store twice a week, sit down with customers, and I want to be hands-on deck with information. That I think help us to maintain the edge over somebody else. So what is your leadership philosophy? Like what makes you different as a leader? I never micromanage to begin with. I try to never micromanage people. When I had interviews with some folks, they always said that they quit the job because they've been either micromanaged or they had ideas and they will never listen. so I tend to very much listen to people and if they give me perspective on an issue I think of it like fish in my tank the fish in my tank thinks that the tank is the best for him but he doesn't know that there is something around surrounding him so I try to step out of that box step my fish out of the tank and see you know what, that's actually different than I think it is And sometimes I feel when people sit in one spot for too long, they get comfortable and they don't adjust and adapt to new situations.

17:28And I do that. I listen to people constantly. I want them to feel like they're home. So everybody at work, we have one of the guys that cook for everyone. Because I'm thinking from perspective of spending time at work. We spend more at work than we actually spend in a house. so if on average you 8 to 10 hours you spend at work or whatnot maybe less maybe more you want this time to be comfortable for you and you want to be happy so we try to organize events we have a basketball hoop and a work we are watching soccer games and i never control the guys as long as the the job is done as far as creative as far as the warehousing, as far as the store, we have to also take a part of living.

18:15So if there is, for instance, World Cup and a guy's watching a soccer game, as long as the work is done, why not, right? Like they still gonna make sure that the job is done. So I never micromanage. I always very much listen to people and I'm very happy to try new things, you know, and if somebody brings me an idea, let it run, you know, at the end of the day, I tell people we are a shoe company. we don't operate, we don't sell medication we're not a doctor's office so the worst can happen what are we going to lose, a pair of shoes or you know like it's still a monetary thing that can be always recuperate, you know we're not prescribing medication for somebody so let's run the idea let's see how it works, maybe Harry Grady maybe we'll do and whoever I work with I always let them to be the boss of themselves like guys that I give a great example of this person that started packing the shoes and now he became photographer.

19:14I have the other person, he was packing the shoes. Now he actually videographer because that was his hobbies. And I kind of like allowed him to do what he loves to do. And he's happy. I'm happy. And the whole, you know, synergy is there for us. Let's talk about the future, Sebastian, the future of Mark Nolan. What is next? What are you seeing for your company in the near-term future? What I think right now, we are a little bit in a pivot moment because I'm trying to restructure the company a little bit. I realized that those bold pink-yellow colors only got me so far, and now I need to become a little bit more mainstream company.

19:54So we're starting to bring in more traditional colors, like black, brown, navies, and whatnot. not. In addition to that, we try to move the marketing spend from meta all the way to try to find the new creative ways of spending money and getting new customers through events, to activations, to cultural events. So that's within works. And we also expanded our creative team and management team, again, doing all in-house, working with new chief marketing officer, and try to get talking to some retailers, put the shoes in some smaller stores and try to, and as speaking as a matter of fact, into larger, you know, bigger, bigger stores that I can, I'd be able to put the shoes in.

20:45And ultimately I would love to expand beyond United States and I'm kind of very much thinking of Asia, like Japan, I very much admire this American product and Europe is not doing well economically right now So that has been put on pause, but I'm more like Asian market because it's actually, it's very big markets, including China. And we want to dial in the women's shoes, bring another designer that helps me to, because we just kind of like replicate some of the best selling men's when we launch women's shoes. But we haven't nailed it yet. So that's something work in progress, work in document that has been changed on a weekly basis.

21:25So that's the future what I'm holding for myself. Sebastian, you shared your vision for the future, your leadership philosophy, how you stand out in a crowd. You talked about scaling, marketing, product development. You talked about your aha moment, your biggest challenges. Let's give Fire Nation an opportunity to connect with you. If they want to learn more about you, about Mark Nolan, what is your call to action for our listeners today? If anyone has a question, please email me at Sebastian at Mark Nolan. any time of the day i'm an open book if you have questions if you have ideas or like if you want to perhaps in the future comment board i would love to speak with everybody who who who's willing to do so i'm i'm looking at myself like i'm a guy that came from poland 25 years ago with 100 dollars in the pocket and i was able to build 10 million dollars company still using grammar when I write emails from time to time.

22:27So, you know, if I could do it, and to be honest with you, like seven years ago, I was living, no, actually right before I met my wife and Nolan was born. So let's say nine years ago, I was living as a roommate with a guy that actually works for me right now. So I still believe that America is a great country and we can really accomplish a lot. And if someone says that, oh, I don't know if I can do it. Look at me. I have accent. I never went to school over here and I can still do it and I I hire more than 20 people right now so I'm and I'm open very much to share my story my ideas and give someone a guidance because in this country there's over 300 million people so that is enough of business for everybody to exist so I'm not the type of a person that I'm not gonna tell you because you might do something Let's work together.

23:20Let's build great economy. Let's make all of us successful. And I'm very open to listen, share, and help people. Because someone helped me, and I would love to help as well, because I very much strongly believe in karma. Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with SM and JLD today, so keep up that heat. For links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com. type Sebastian in the search bar. The show notes page will pop right up. And I love what Sebastian is sharing about the American dream. Fire Nation, it comes down to working hard, being persistent, not giving up, delivering real value to real people and continuing to do that day in and day out.

24:07So thank you for that, Sebastian. And thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your story with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Thank you so much. Have a wonderful rest of your day. Thank you, guys.

24:47Spot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. AI technology is transforming the way we do business and the media landscape is fragmented. The Next Wave strives to be the leading podcast on AI technology and how you can apply it to growing your business. Listen to The Next Wave wherever you get your podcasts. Is this your year to grow a successful business? Attend the world's highest rated business growth workshop taught personally by Clay Clark and now featuring Rich Dad Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki and Eric Trump at thrivetimeshow.com slash EOfire. Again, request life-changing tickets today at thrivetimeshow.com slash EOfire.