Building a Million-Dollar Retail Brand Community, Connection and Conversation | David Levich, Sun-Staches

Season 3 of Let’s Talk a Little Shop is here! This season, your host is Emilie Lewis, the VP of Marketing for ASD Market Week. 

At ASD, our team sees that the retail landscape is changing. So for Season 3 of Let’s Talk a Little Shop we wanted to focus on “What’s Important.” The next 10 episodes are dedicated to discussing what is happening retail business, trade shows, and the events now, and what’s important to focus on. 

In this episode, Emilie interviews David Levich of Sun-Staches on how he built a retail brand based on fun, connection, and conversation. David shares his brand’s origin story, what it was like to build a company on less than $500, how he learned to embrace failure and success, and so much more. 

Listen or watch as Emilie and David’s conversation that talks about: 

• How David’s Childhood Experiences Inspired Him to Become an Entrepreneur
• David’s Biggest Fear Was Being Broke; How He Overcame Negative Money Stories
• Seasonal Sales Require Creative Marketing and Sales Tactics
• Sun-Staches’ Origin Story; Hollywood and Hip Hop Shaped the Brand
• How to Pivot Your Business in a Recession
• Offering 10,000 Pairs of Kanye West’s Shutter Shades to Claire’s for Free
• David’ Wife Demanded He Answer the Open Casting Call for Shark Tank Experience 
• The Shark Tank Process took 10 Years, not 10 Minutes
• Daymond John Chose to Them over Mark Cuban
• Daymond Trusted David to Build the Company; Not Micromanaging Was Critical to their Success
• Your Business Needs Values; Moral and Ethics are Not Negotiable
• You Have to Take Care of Your Customers, Vendors, and Employees
• The Balance of Success and Failure; You Win Some, You Lose Some
• Taking Calculated Risks in 2024
• In Financially Risky Times, Look at Impulse, Price Sensitive and Best Sellers to Drive Merchandise Sales
• It Takes Years to Develop a Business; You Can’t Just Do One ASD Show, You Must Invest in at Least 4 Shows (2 Years)
• ASD is an Order Writing Show, You Diversify Your Distribution and Types of Accounts
• No Matter How Great the Digital Landscape is, Face to Face Interaction and Seeing Products is Critical to Retail
• Starting with $200, eBay and Putting in the Time
• Believe in Your Product or Store, You Can Find Success 
• If You Have Brick and Mortar, You Need Great Customer Experience
• If You Go Online, You Need to Learn to Talk to and Entertain Your Customer

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