YouSaid · the spoken record

Rob Fraser

lines on the record: 120
first: 2024-10-15
most recent: 2024-10-15
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“You know, honoring my partner and that, just sharing the lessons, you know, that would be success as the kids grew up and they're in a good spot. What's more important that? And I think ultimately having fun while doing all that, operating in this zone of being healthy and being happy and That would be success, man. That would be winning.”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“This changes over time because my life's changed so much over the last few years. I feel like I'm learning a lot of hard lessons and a lot of great lessons. And I look at my young children, I'm like, I want to do the best job I can to share these with you and give you kind of a bit of a head start. You're going to go through pain. You're going to go through tough times. But I want to do as good of a job as possible to prepare them with these lessons that I've learned. And I try to do that through young entrepreneurs too. Like I do a lot of work with the local schools and I try to share these lessons on different platforms too. Just because like I didn't have anyone to go to, you know, like I didn't have that or my whole network was athletes and all that. So like when I was going through all the early challenges, it was kind of me and just internalizing and I'm like, I want to be that voice that says you'll be okay, right? And I think success looks like being able to show my kids what hard work looks like, show them what doing that while having like a great family life as well.”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Simultaneously, and maybe it comes down to seasons, but that's the thing I've ultimately been when I'm in a creative space, it's not tied to the result as much. It's not like, yeah, I'm in a place now that's incredibly hard to even imagine 10 years ago, but there's still so much more I want to go. But I'm not driven, and I never was driven. I think that's why I go back to sport is like the ultimate motivator where I said everything's earned, not owed. The goal of starting my business was never financially driven. It was this deep desire to accomplish something and that hasn't gone away, you know, and that won't go away. And so there's no level of income where.”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Something I've struggled with is like, I'm incredibly happy this year, and like, and I've been, you know, struggling with people ask, like, what's your biggest challenge right now? And I'm like, or what's your biggest problem? I'm like, I feel like I've spent two years fighting problems that like I'm in kind of like a solution phase right now. On one hand, hyperambitious, but on the other hand, content, because tent is almost like counter to ambitious, right? And it's how do you balance those two things, not to use balance. It's like, but how do those two things live?”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I wish someone told us we were in the good times, like in the good old days, right? He's like, they're looking back and they're like, I wish they would tell you before it ended. And I'm kind of getting goosebumps talking about it. It's like, I'm in the good old days right now, right? Like I know when this business is over as tough as it is or whatever we're going through or even like raising young children. I try to remind myself like these are the good old days. Like another thing I read was like, you know, like it can be hard to take your dog. I have a dog, hard to take them out in the rain. But when they're gone, how much would you pay to take that dog for a walk right now?”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I got to travel the world and see all these incredible places. I was so intense and so focused that I would not enjoy anywhere. I'd be in Spain or Italy and I would be so tunnel visioned that I didn't even give myself time to like appreciate where I was. And I always told myself, I'll be back. I'll appreciate it later. I haven't been back, right? Like it just ended. And I look back, I'm like, I think I would be a lot more fulfilled if I actually just smelt the roses, right? Because like the results are one thing, but like the experiences and the opportunities to like be there. And like we always look back and like, we don't talk about the results. We talk about the experiences in the journey. And unfortunately, I just like didn't take time to appreciate the journey. And so I'm really trying to do that now. And, you know, it's just way more fulfilling to be like, we're in it. One of my favorite quotes is one of my favorite shows, the office. It's like the final episode. And Andy says he's kind of reminiscing. He's like,”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And so it was really helpful to understand that because it, like I said, it helped me, I was already falling back in love with kind of the process, but it was like, it almost allowed me to kind of like fully commit to it again and be like, oh no, socks, you know, are enough until the next idea comes. I kind of challenged them because I was like, oh, I did all this work and like socks for my superpower. And he's like, no, they are right now. Your ability to like take a product and see how it can be improved is your superpower, but you don't have another product in mind right now. He's like, that will come. And you'll know when it comes. He's like, he's like, be okay with where you are. And that's been a kind of theme for me is, you know, I got to see the feedback and read the report and, you know, one of the things that like Rob tries to rush through life. And I do like I'm always like onto the next thing. I don't celebrate the wins. And it's just like I'm trying to rush to the next thing. And it's like, as I get older too, and I'm trying to appreciate the moments and smell the roses. And a good example of this is when I was cycling.”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Know Nike's a great business, right? It was shoes for such a long time. I was like, no one ever was like, that's a lame business, right? I was like, socks. I was like, I've mentioned a couple times the big market. I was like, why isn't this enough? Why in my head are socks, you know, not as good as shoes or rackets or some tech thing? It's like, it was just this kind of like self-imposed sort of limiter of, I don't know, of like, I guess caring what people think because I don't have a better idea right now and I really love what I do.”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The utility and how they can improve what I see there, and learning how that can be enough. Learning that I mentioned earlier, I was insecure about socks being enough. I do now feel I'm in a spot where I know a lot about business. I feel a lot of experience. I kind of had this angst of like our socks the best utilization of these skills that I've built. And I kind of mentioned that to Jack. He's like, well, that's kind of silly. If you're doing shoes, would that be enough? What about tennis rackets? And I was like, oh, I've never thought about it that way. I was like,”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Totally, yeah, it's exhausting, right? Because you're actually not living your true self. You're like a chameleon. And that's where a lot of people who think they're maybe introverted, I think, are just actually limiting a lot. They're just kind of molding to their environment. That's why they're so exhausted after this. They're just around the wrong people or they're not being authentic. So learning strategies on how not to care, that's a lot easier said than done. But asking myself that question and kind of like knowing I have to be accountable to that allows me to be more authentic because like I don't want to answer that question like here's where I moderated myself and I'm happy to say like I've only like once in a couple months had to like answer that question and not be like, yeah, I moderate myself here. It was just out of fear. It was like a public speaking thing. I didn't want to get up and talk. It's like, I don't know. I cared what people thought for some reason. It kind of affected me. Outside of not caring what people think, the real kind of unlock there was I said superpower and like it came down that you know like my love and appreciation for”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It sounds obvious, but a lot of people operate that way, right? It's very natural to want to fit in and want to kind of be accepted. And so it can be a bit scary to kind of like be really authentic.”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't want to have a fear of thinking that the other person across the table is going to not like me anymore because I disagree. It's like, is that a good friendship anyways? Yeah.”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Limited by the belief of others. I never really struggled with caring what people think unless I admired them or cared about their opinion. And I think it's important to prioritize what people you care about think, but that can't limit you and it can't change what you feel is right and what you need to do as well. And so going through that process and building the systems and kind of building the understanding of how do you deal with that like one thing I did daily is I'll kind of like do some journaling and I just started asking myself every day when did I not say or do what I was really thinking or feeling? Because I didn't want to moderate myself anymore. Some say be rude, but it's not to like if we're having a conversation and I disagree, like I want to be more willing to say that because.”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Piece really understand myself like I wanted to And need to achieve them? Why are my expectations so high? A lot of why I was moving through the world was acceptance and caring about what people thought, like attaching my worth to how other people thought about me. And that was a really unique insight of just like I wasn't living authentically, you know, and I was kind of”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Want to make sure I'm doing everything I can. And he mentioned this guy Jack Skeen who does this roadmap process where Andrew had done it and a few other people in the business community had done it. And it's this kind of extensive process where you work with Jack and you do some clinical kind of like psychology tests understand kind of your tendencies. And he does interviews of your close friends and family people that have opted in to being around you for the most part. They see something in you. And then interview calls and coaching calls with him. And the goal of that is to kind of understand yourself better and understand, you know, what your superpower is. And I didn't go into it with the goal of trying to care less about what people think. That was an outcome of the process. I actually didn't know what to expect. I just knew that I wanted to be taken apart and put back together. I wanted to actually piece by piece.”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I kind of had this current fear, or like I got to a certain level in my cycling career where I peaked, but it wasn't where I wanted to peak. It wasn't kind of the ultimate goal of, well, the ultimate goal would have been winning being the best in the world, right? I never got there one year number one in Canada, but like, I didn't, I don't feel like I kind of had unfinished business there before. I just didn't reach the top. And, you know, looking back, there were a lot of things I wish I did differently. And when I was looking here, I was like, I don't want that to happen again. So I was trying to search for like, what am I not doing? What have I never done before that I should be doing to try and challenge myself and grow? So I actually texted a mutual friend of ours, Andrew Wilkinson. I was like, here's kind of what I'm going through. I didn't know if it was therapy I needed to do. I didn't know if it was a business coach. Like I just knew I needed to work through this and understand myself better and just learn more about like what is my superpower ultimately? Like where should I be focused?”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Generally speaking, if you prioritize the long term and do good business, it's going to work well in life like even with just health, man, it takes so long. You know, it's just like you actually want to build a resilient body and a healthy body. Like it's just, it takes time. Same with the business and sport and results. It's just like be kind to yourself, I found. It's like you don't need it all right now. You know, you just like one foot in front of the other, steady progress.”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Agree with that wholeheartedly. That has been kind of the theme. Sometimes these things can work, but I think very rarely over the long term, they do. That's not to say don't try things as they come up to. I think like I always try to be cautious of telling people like, oh, don't try the hack, just focus on long term. Sometimes you need to try things and you need to like Touch the stove once or twice”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We're doing good business and we're growing and our customers are happy and we're profitable, and we can do that over 20 years. We've got a pretty damn good business.”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, exactly. Maybe a little bit, but yeah, not where we needed to. And I'm not shy to still get out there and hand-to-hand combat. I will do it. If you're focused on the work and you're focused on fulfilling the promise you have to your customers, like the results will come. If you if you do a good product and you market it well, the goal for us is socks on feet. The product is so damn good. I want to get more socks on feet because then people will come back. So how do we do that effectively? The same is true of sport, right? Every time I got to the start line to race, like anything could go wrong. There's no guarantee I'm going to win. Like if I focus too much on the result You lose sight of everything else that's important of just actually executing. Like my job was actually just to do what I trained for. And that's all you can really do, right? Like those people out there will be like, we don't have goals. I think goals are still important. I think goals are incredibly important. You need a North Star, but that's how we think about goals, much more of a North Star than like we need to hit this because those are fairly arbitrary. We're not public company. We're not having to do orange reports that are going to move our stock prices. Like, it doesn't matter, right?”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The revenue will be the revenue, right? I can't the early days where I could force my classmates to buy a pair. I can't go force people to buy socks now. And I think like.”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, that was July of 2023. I was like, this is where we're resetting. And that's really like the success we're seeing now is the result of a thousand things we've done over the last year. We're not doing anything special right now. But the choices we made in July and subsequent choices after that all built this forward momentum of doing the right thing that are now all working. And so people, you could ask me right now is like, what are you doing that's leading to your growth this year? I couldn't really answer that question because it would be, well, here's how much time do we have, right? Are we going to do an eight hour podcast? Because there's literally a thousand things we did. It started with subtraction, but it goes much deeper than that. It goes, it goes, you know, into everything that we do. And it's been so fulfilling to do that, though, because like from that point on, we've just been building and it's just been, it's felt way more like it did previous to like the tough times.”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Work and fulfilling our mission. We're just like, we're not even listening to the customer anymore, right? We're doing things trying to chase growth and that chasing growth will as a consequence force you to start doing things that aren't inherently good for your brand or you'll go into new categories that don't make sense or change messaging that's out of line with why your customers are there in the first place. And so again, as painful as that hire was and getting that wrong, it was just kind of the last straw of like another lesson learned for sure, but last draw of like, no, I need to rethink how we're doing everything right now in the internal team and”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“To force something and shorten the time horizon, and it just went incredibly wrong, you know. It turns out they were not exactly truthful about their experience, like they weren't as good at the job as they were. They were working other jobs during ours. It was a remote. They were based in the US. We're here in Canada. I got played. It felt like almost violating because it was just like totally like I never dealt with that before. It was just, it was very weird. It didn't only work. It caused a lot of internal conflict as well because like it was a big org shift the guy currently had running marketing was now replaced with this this expert and that's you know wasn't a great move on my part as well and that was kind of the last straw you know like last year midyear is where we kind of like that didn't work out that's where i just like wiped the table clean and said like here's everything we're not doing anymore because we're just going to strip this down we're going to subtract and rebuild because this just isn't working and i don't care about these growth goals anymore like we need to get back to a place where we're operating authentically and doing good”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I need to actually take what they're saying and compare it to other people as well. And so I took a big swing. This is one of those big swings that I took that wasn't authentic. It was like it was trying to accomplish something that like.”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's a really important thing do you need a person or a process, or do you need to stop doing that entirely? And so when we were half the size we are now, we had twice as many people as we do now, which is crazy because we were just so inefficient. I really didn't understand the concept of subtraction and how we could build efficiently. The biggest hiring mistake I made was thinking like, you know, going into a second year of not hitting the growth goals like I arbitrarily set ego really attached to it, like we need to do better. We need to kind of keep the good times rolling. You know, COVID was this big inflationary.”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I learned that I got really lucky early on. And so, like I talked earlier about the worst thing of hacks or doing hard things that work out for you is that you get lucky. So I got incredibly lucky with my first few hires who are all still with us. And they've scaled and grown with the company and they're leading major parts of the company, which is incredible. During the period of high growth, we had to build the team and build it fairly rapidly because we started growing pretty quickly. Honestly, I just was not experienced enough to really do that properly and hiring for what I would say now are probably the wrong reasons. Hiring for org chart, not really what needs to be executed. Hiring in ways because that's just how it's been done. Because I was just trying to like look around what I've been. I'd never done this before. Not really questioning if we should be hiring or subtracting, right? So a lot of hiring happens because there's just a lot of inefficiency in the organization.”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“With 100 people, and I'm explaining my rationale for taking a big swing, and I like to imagine that I need to do a good enough job that the majority of the people be like, that makes sense. At least that's rational why you want to do that. So I try to take myself out metaphorically put myself into a room and be like, would the would most people agree with this? And then the second question I'd like to ask is like, would I be happy with this decision in five years? So I like to extend the time horizon on that. It's like, is this solving a short-term problem but creating a long-term one is something I've had to learn the hard way, of course, but I really try to do that now. And even if it's going to be short-term, good, long-term, bad, I just know way. It's just, it's not worth it.”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Think it comes down to why are you taking that swing? So I've taken big swings that were authentic and they were like the big goals, like even just starting the business or trying to go after certain athletic goals. But then there's big swings that are trying to solve problems in a faster way. So maybe making a big hire that you're trying to rush because you think they're going to come in and be able to solve all your problems. Just choosing a co-founder because you think it'll be more fun. Like these are just never good reasons to kind of take big swings because you're relying on hope and the hope's just generally a bad strategy. The big swings I've taken where they weren't in line with my authenticity and kind of why we're doing them. Like I talked about earlier that personal mission and drive of why are you doing what you're doing? Like that's what's going to take you through the hard times. That's what's going to make you endure. And if you're going to take the big swing, you've got to know it's going to come with a lot of turmoil. It's going to be challenging and you've got to be ready to back that up. When I think about it now, I try to imagine I'm in a room.”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't want to see it do so well, but at the same time, I'm like, hey, people love it. And cool, power to them too. Like people love cats. I don't like cats. I'm allergic to them. That's why I don't like them. But I think that's really cool. And that was important is getting out of my own way, too, and realizing like that comes down to just hiring good people in general. It's like you hire them because they're better than you. It's like, so guide them and have your inputs, but you know, make sure you ultimately let them bring forth something that is better than what you would have done as well.”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Like it needs to evolve to be much more than you because I don't like, for example, one of our best on designs right now is a cat and I don't like cats. So I'm just like secretly I'm like”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Of your songs. That's the season I'm in is more baseball. I got like more of a retro inspired kind of design going on, which I really like right now. But yeah, the designs are just this fantastic way people express themselves. And I love seeing what our customers, how they kind of move through the world with them on. And I love to ask them when I see them, like, hey, why'd you choose that as well? Like, why does that mean something to you? We've got incredibly talented designers now and they use a lot of kind of insights and data. And then sometimes we'll just throw shit at the wall too. Like I'll have an idea, you know, like, of course, like founder has an idea for something stupid and we'll try it. And typically they just don't do well. One thing I have had to get better at is not letting my preferences dictate what goes out. So if I dislike a design, I have to ask myself, I have to remove kind of my personal preference, be like, do I think our customer base will like this design? Because we're now much bigger than my preference and it's no longer the million or so people that are like me. It's much bigger than that. And so that was challenging because like it is your business and you ultimately kind of want it to be in line with what you like. But again, it plays into that.”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Goal and you actually go for it. I think that's just so important move forward and kind of remove the outcome, but like really focus on getting started. And yeah, so ultimately the designs follow that kind of pathway. And we're trying to inspire people, but also just give them what we know they like, our best-selling stuff and what people buy the most of are just really basic stuff. And I've kind of evolved into wearing more basic designs.”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Kind of design things around nature, animals, food, abstract, funny, and that's really a way to evoke some sort of emotional response from people. Give them that kind of like giggle or laugh that maybe they want to buy that pair and it makes them feel a certain way. But ultimately what's super exciting too is we found that designs act as a certain level of inspiration for people. It's one of the first pieces of clothing you put on the morning and what I would do with socks is I would lay them out how I'm feeling that day is the kind of design I would use. And I heard that from customers and friends as well. They're like, oh, I've got this important meeting today. This is the pair of socks I wear for that. So I think that's a really cool aspect of the product too is like, can our product be this thing you put on in the morning that inspires you to go after your big goal? One of our internal kind of goals is to inspire personal best. That's kind of why we do what we do at a brand level. We don't really care if you get to the finish line first. We want to make sure you get to the start line you try and you set a”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Become more data driven in the early days. I designed what I liked, of course, and young entrepreneurs or people starting their first business, they have solutions looking for problems. So that's what they teach you in business school. Like come up with a solution and go try and find the problem. Whereas you should be solving problems, right? You should be looking for, and particularly if it's your first business, you should be solving a problem you deal with. Because otherwise, why are you qualified to do that? And so like I said earlier, I was solving my problem of a pair of socks that could do it all. figure out where your advantages are and you know what product path you want to go down and why that why that matters i'm not that unique what i like there's likely millions of people that are going to like these designs as well and so that was the simple start not trying to guess what people wanted i was really trying to solve my own problem that's evolved now to having core categories of what we know people like and like i mentioned earlier the designs are a way that we get people into the business so”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The focus and just the mental clarity around it and being okay with socks, you know, which is it sounds kind of funny now that I say it, but just being okay with that is so important and it's just unlocked this level of like love of what we're doing again.”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Empowers you to like really become an expert at it and really become a master of it and extend the time horizon, not to say we won't do other things in the future, but right now the best opportunity we have in front of us is what we're doing. So why would we take any of that focus away? And every time we've kind of faltered over the past years, it's been, like I said, chasing a silver bullet or trying to go down a path that is just out of line of our circle of excellence, you know, like, why are we doing this other than it wasn't really a those paths were never something I was like, this is what we need to do like the conviction I have around socks. It was advice or grasping for growth or trying to figure it out. And I think like in anything in life, like focus is so incredibly important.”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And that's like a surefire way to burn yourself out and also just not give the attention and focus to what really matters. We're taught that to get more, you have to do more. I just don't think that's true. I think to get more, you should be doing less typically. You should be subtracting. So going into this year, we're very clear on our goals. Almost like a bit of an insecurity. We were chatting about this too is like our socks enough, you know, is it a big enough goal? Outside of my own ego, it's like, Why aren't socks enough, right? It's a like I said, 50 billion dollar industry were a leader in it and we're doing really well and we're of that market size we're just scratching the surface if you would even say that right it's a massive market it's what I always go back to is like we've barely maximized the opportunity here we're at the start line still why would we do anything else and we love doing this and I think that level of focus”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Think the tendency to do more is just the common path people go down. They're like, okay, I've got some level of success. How do I replicate that by doing more? So like, for example, we sell socks, should you sell underwear? What people feel and realize there is, have you fully maximized the opportunity that's in front of you? I mean, really optimize it. I mean, the power of focus is so important. The way I kind of like explain this to our team is imagine you're running a race and you're in the lead pack and you're doing a good job. And out of the corner of your eye, you kind of catch another race going on. You're like, oh, that looks fun. And you hop the barrier and you're in that. But now your middle and back of the pack. You didn't prepare for that race. You don't really know the landscape. Oh, and you're now falling behind in the race you're running because you haven't built the infrastructure to maybe have another teammate that could run that race who trained for, for example, that'd be like hiring or developing a different line of business. But what a lot of entrepreneurs do is they try to run multiple races.”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I can't just sit down and death grip a good idea. I can't just sit there with a Google Doc and be like, good idea time. That's not how it works anymore. My work is 24-7, the mosaic. It could be something my wife says. Like she's incredibly smart. Like, she gives me tons of ideas. She's the real co-founder in the business, right? Like those early days, who am I going over everything with? Like her level of business knowledge would be higher than, you know, people going with MBAs. Like she's seen it all. Talking to her about things, walking through problems, talking to everyone. It's just like work looks like that. And so it's spending time with family, but it's, are you, can you extract something? Is there an insight that comes out of that as well? Another way to look at the mosaics is seasons, right? There's seasons where you need to be busier. And I've really identified where those seasons are. And that's communicated with my family and my wife and partner and where that's going to be kind of all in. Like, what's, and we'll just say what season are we in, right?”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Harvesting. I look at that as my job to basically go out there and collect the information, come back and synthesize it and apply it in which way makes the most sense for our business. And of course, like that's not all I do. I would love to, that's all I do, but I get pulled into business problems flow uphill. And so there's still those things. But thankfully, I've got incredible people that kind of had those off now as well. And my area of excellence and like where I'm the most effective is when I'm creative. And so I'm creative when I'm not stressed, when I'm creative, I'm thinking about those ideas and networking and kind of operating. But the lack of stress also comes from taking care of myself. And so it's been tough, though, to redefine work as that because it doesn't look like sitting in front of a computer. It doesn't look like nine to five. And so I had to battle with this. Like, am I working hard enough? And it was this realization that like, oh, I'm out of the death grip phase. That's no longer served.”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Move the needle quite substantially, and they often require a lot to go into those ideas. But I've got such incredible people working on kind of the day-to-day, week-to-week, month to month stuff. My job is to be looking six to 12 months out. And then further, but typically six to 12 months, because I think beyond that, you're guessing. In six to 12 months, we can make a pretty good idea where we need to be going. And ultimately, it's to have those good ideas. So how do I put myself in a position to have those good ideas? That's a lot of reading. That's a lot of consuming just basic information out there. So reading, even just like this publicly traded companies in our space, reading the reports, how are the CEOs thinking, you know, how is the market looking at these businesses and what are they saying? It's networking with people, extracting those insights. Call like almost like engineered serendipity as well. It's like, how do you put yourself in a bunch of different situations to just extract an idea? How can you go?”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Stuff, but our investors are also like entrepreneurs, and they're great. So they're not exactly kind of keeping tabs as much as a boss would, for example. And so you have to one, hold yourself to account and figure out what that looks like. And for me, I had to reinvent that as like work today is not what it used to be. It's not hands on the tools as much. It's not overriding decisions. It's not getting too into the weeds. It's not losing touch. I still have a very firm kind of finger on the pulse of the business. I have a lot of consumer feedback sent directly to my inbox. I want to know what's going on at that level, but it means not getting involved in the weeds and kind of doing those jobs. And so work for me is how do I like the mosaic? How do I holistically make sure I'm in the best mindset to have a good idea? I say my job is to really have a good idea once a quarter, like a really good idea. And those ideas.”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's had to evolve, right? Because I've been in a few different, I've worn a few different hats at the different scale of our business. And like as a founder, you start day one doing everything. And as the business evolves, you start to hire people, but you're still doing a lot of the things in your micromanaging. I hadn't done this before. So I do all the mistakes and you're overriding things. And you don't know any better. But eventually, you start to learn, like I mentioned with kind of how we evolved after the rebrand, like you've got to bring in better people than you and understand how are you best applied, right? How are you the most effective in your job? And how I manage all of that now is like I kind of had to for myself relearn what work is, how do I hold myself to account? How do I judge myself? Because the other kind of downside of entrepreneurship is you don't have a lot of feedback as a founder. When you have a boss, you're getting feedback. You know, if you're hitting Marx or not, and we have investors and.”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Big of a risk, and generally these things are without they're pretty baseless, but they're usually bigger companies with firepower.”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Battle of bank accounts. It's a battle of time, right? Like, how much time are you willing to spend? Like I said, it was like much more than the million dollars, it was the two years, the two years with no certainty. So I was like, that's too much of a looming, you know”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, and I'm intentionally having to be quite vague and not even mentioning what our previous name is because that's in these agreements of what I can and cannot say. But you're right. The unfortunate thing about IP law specifically is it almost exclusively operates in the gray area, right? trademark infringement in particular what they're looking for is will the non-observant consumer in other words a person who knows nothing who's not paying attention would they be confused between one brand and another that come down to logos or words and that's a hard thing to prove and ultimately who's going to prove that over time is the person with a lot of money because they're going to argue different things”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Challenges, like I said, are how we grow. And you're right, these are just part of business. It's like people are shooting arrows and you're going to get hit. It's what are you going to do about it? And learning that what seems like a death blow often is not is how you build that resiliency and the ability to keep pushing forward. So now when we got the each subsequent legal letter, that initial shock impact and how I dealt with it was better and improved a lot and how I managed those things. And that's ultimately the goal is how can you build that resiliency and how can you build the teams like we've got an incredibly great attorneys now and processes for when these things happen. You only build those out of the first time it happening, right? Like no one's building up an IP attorney team and a whole process around IP infringement if you don't have issues there.”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Dinner last night. I think David said this too is like, you know, you're not a real entrepreneur, so you get a legal letter, right? And that he's not the first person to say that to me. And it's just so hard when you get the first one. Like anything in business, you know, it's like the first time it happens to you, you feel like you're the only one in the world this is happening to. And it's very lonely, especially if you don't have a network. Like if you don't have a network in particular, that can be very scary. Thankfully, at that time, I had people to be like, oh, this happened. They're like, oh, no big deal. Like you'll do it. And now I met with a youngster, like kind of something similar was happening. I'm like, no, you'll be okay. And it felt good to kind of be that voice. I could see them kind of like start the wheels were starting to turn and start to get stress. I was like, list, just trust me. I was in your position. Like, you will be okay, but you need to do this. You need to like take care of yourself and kind of walk them through what we did. Ultimately, if we can share those lessons, I think they're so important. I welcome the challenges. I'm happy to be in a period of like smooth water right now. But, you know, ultimately like.”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Butterflies, like called it our butterfly moment. And, you know, although we look different with a new name or whatever, we're still the same thing. We're just kind of, now we've got wings and now we can fly. And it was like, it was kind of this like beautiful little way I made myself feel better and explained that to the team. And it's like, this is our butterfly moment. You know, we can either, like I said earlier, we can choose to let this unfortunate situation hold us back or propel us forward. And so we went through the mindset of like, how do we actually use this as a springboard? How do we bring the community along for us and actually walk them through this and make them feel involved and like their voice was heard and it ended up working out really well for us?”
2024-10-15 · The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish · Rob Fraser: The Power of Focus · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT