Hey Friends,
I hope you’re having a great day, regardless of how distant that might be from right now.
Letters are funny like that; they're a form of time travel at their core. Transporting immediate thoughts to a distant, unknown future. As for the timing of this one, we've just finished our first successful pop-up, and our small launch catalog sold out. Now it’s time to hit the road.
As for why I’m writing this, it's partly from immersing myself in marketing these past few months.
Content, marketing, advertisements – everything has become condensed to 5-60 seconds. Attention spans are growing shorter, and content needs to establish a “hook” immediately. And well… it’s really hard to showcase passion and devotion in 60 seconds flat. It’s even harder when algorithms want you to gamify it all.
That’s where this idea comes in. To write something true, without an agenda, and provide an unfiltered window into half of Better not (we have two Co-Founders).
Hi, I’m Brenden.
I debated whether these would be “fireside chats” that could go up on YouTube or a podcast, but someone has to fight for written communication. Plus, it’s still the one medium where you can’t multitask it.
A YouTube video, podcast, TikTok – they all become mindless activities that you stack on top of other activities. Reading is singular. I understand out of all the content we produce, these will get the least views, retention, and pretty much every metric a brand is told “matters,” but that’s okay. This is for me and you to hang out for a bit.
We started Better not to be a voice, a cheerleader, to those who are conflicted about betting on themselves. To risk safety for the chance at a life of substance. To go back to the childhood wonder that anything is possible.
To lead from the front, I recently quit a cushy corporate career to go all-in on this mission. My Co-Founder was all-in, and it felt disingenuous to not join him in the trenches.
As well, it’s pretty fraudulent to advocate for you all to take the plunge without eating my own cooking and being on the same treadmill.
Going from the corporate world into entrepreneurship is a pretty unique undertaking. Heck, it’s the first time since kindergarten where no one plans a day on my behalf. I think that’s true for most of us. Since that first day of school, life has been pretty defined.
Wake up, go to school, go to sports practice, do homework.
Then, wake up go to college, go work part-time, and study. Party a bit here and there.
Then, wake up, go to work, and rally for a few hours to build something for yourself. Have some fun on the weekends. Leave all those dreams to the wayside for the time being. Take a noble route.
I suppose the biggest thing I’ve realized is actually two things.
- No one's coming to save you.
- You really get to see what you’re made of.
Without taking a jump, you’ll really never know what life could be. It will all be written by someone else's hand, for someone else’s ambitions. Rarely, if ever, will some amazing opportunity just plant itself in front of you that allows you to take off on a journey worthy of its own motion picture. You have to write that script for yourself.
The other aspect is you really never get to find who out who you are. What does your life look like when no one is telling you your lines? Will you accomplish everything you’ve been saying you’re putting off, or will you fall into laziness, debauchery, and excuses?
Better not, in a lot of ways, seems to be saving me. A clothing brand is simply a vessel to pour it all into. Creativity, language, design, art, a story – it's all here to explore. I was constantly in this pained state of wanting to do more but not knowing where to put that time.
Now, it’s all pretty clear. Get this thing going and make some stories along the way.
I’m enthralled at the idea of putting together these pieces, meeting you all on your own journey, and playing a part in that ride.
It’s actually astonishing how many ideas we have and how much we want to create for you. The moment after this first drop goes out, we already have V2, V3, V4, all in the works. I hate it when my favorite artists couldn't drop singles or wouldn't release new content because a label was deciding on an idea “strategy.”
We’re doing this all live and hopefully, we can do this all together.
If you made it this far, well, we’re probably birds of the same feather.
I’ll only drop this here because I would love to hear more about where you’re at in this game of life and what you’re focusing on. My personal Instagram is @bbdamned.
Give me a shout; let’s catch up.
These won’t have any set schedule, just dropping these when the timing feels right. So until next time my friends.
Have fun, and be “safe”
-B