Apparel Redefined Chats with Nick Burton from Eternal Designs

In this special interview John LaRoy, CEO of Apparel Redefined chats with Nick Burton, we dive deep into his inspiring journey from corporate software trainer to full-time creative and business owner of Eternal Designs. This chat is packed with heart, hustle, and helpful lessons for anyone dreaming of building something meaningful.

Leaving the 9-to-5

Before he launched his business, Nick spent eight years working in tax software training. It was technical, it was steady—but it wasn’t fulfilling. “Teaching tax software is about as fun as watching paint dry,” he joked.

So in 2013, Nick started buying used screen printing gear off Craigslist. He slowly gathered tools and resources, and by early 2014, he officially launched Eternal Designs. It wasn’t easy, but with the support of his wife, Maria, Nick took the leap. He started from zero—but he didn’t let fear stop him.

Why Eternal Designs?

The name “Eternal” doesn’t have religious roots. Instead, it reflects Nick’s mission to create designs that last—a favorite t-shirt, a timeless hoodie, a conversation starter. He wants his creations to feel personal, powerful, and long-lasting.

Nick says, “We’re not just putting ink on shirts. We’re sparking conversations.”

The Customer Experience

One thing that sets Eternal Designs apart is how Nick connects with his customers. His website isn’t just a catalog—it’s a tool that helps visitors design, plan, and dream. With a free design studio, placement guides, templates, and shipping info, customers can take the first steps even before talking to the team.

Nick’s goal? Help customers make confident decisions—anytime, even at midnight on a Friday.

The Emotional Side of Business

When asked what surprised him most about entrepreneurship, Nick didn’t mention money or marketing. Instead, he spoke about emotions. “No one tells you how to manage your feelings in business,” he said. The stress, the pressure, the unexpected moments—it’s all real.

Nick believes that personal growth, emotional control, and mindset are just as important as knowing your craft.

Looking Ahead

Nick is fired up about AI—especially using it to create better visuals for customers. Imagine seeing how your shirt will look in a real-world event before ordering it. That’s the level of creativity and experience he’s aiming for.

And his advice for anyone starting a business?

“Know your numbers. Snuggle up to them. They’ll guide you.”

This interview is full of heart, wisdom, and motivation. Nick Burton is living proof that with a clear vision, creative drive, and the right support, dreams can become businesses—and those businesses can create art that lasts.

Key Highlights

• Nick Burton’s Background and Entrepreneurial Journey 0:02
• The Early Days of Eternal Designs 3:50
• The Name and Mission of Eternal Designs 7:35
• The Role of Art and Creativity in Eternal Designs 15:30
• Eternal Designs’ Products and Services 36:30
• The Impact of AI on Eternal Designs 36:40
• Challenges and Lessons Learned in Entrepreneurship 38:50
• Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs 39:03
• Final Thoughts and Future Plans 44:38

Transcription

Curt Anderson 00:02
Alright. John, happy, whatever day is today. Man, just every day. It’s a great day to have a great day,

John LaRoy 00:06
isn’t it? It is. You gotta make it a great day.

Curt Anderson 00:10
You gotta. And how can it be any better? We got a dear friend. We got Nick Burton in the house. Nick dude, happy today’s Wednesday, whatever day somebody’s catching us. Happy Day to you, Nick, happy day. How are you man,

Nick Burton 00:21
uh, everything’s good. Happy Hump Day to you guys. I always like the middle of the week, you know, you can count down those next two days, and then it’s, you know, have fun time. But yeah, Happy Hump Day to you guys. I’m glad to be here. Well, thank

Curt Anderson 00:32
you. Know, another way to put it, Nick is, I always like to say, hey, thank God it’s not Monday, right? So as long as it’s not Monday, we can just say, hey, thank God it’s not Monday. So that’s another, absolutely, another half full way to look at it. So Nick, we are just super thrilled, super excited to dive in. First and foremost, you have a fascinating background. I think, if I’m not mistaken, I think you’re a little bit of an artist. Is that? Is that kind of like in your DNA? Is that something, am I right there?

Nick Burton 00:55
Yeah, definitely right, definitely right. Grew up a lifelong artist, so the artist, to this day, very creative sometimes can get a little woo woo with my creative, but very much an artist through the My heart and through and through. So yeah, that’s definitely an artist where.

Curt Anderson 01:09
So alright, here’s what we want to go. We want to you have a fascinating background, if I’m not mistaken, a little bit of corporate. You did some software training, if I if I understand that correctly, and then, like you really found your passion jumped into your entrepreneurial journey. I want to go back in time a little bit. Was there a person like, what really fired this creative flair? The artistic flair like, what got you, what got the juices flowing there on the artist side? Absolutely

Nick Burton 01:33
so always been an artist. So always really creative. What kind of push this drive for me to be able to move from what I was doing in corporate to like what we’re doing now with eternal is outside of my job. I was tired of the job. I did not want to do the job. The job had some level of creative flair to it. I used to work in tax software, so we were doing training, but we were teaching people how to use tax software that is about as fun as watching pink dry. It’s not that, it’s not that great. You only can do so much, you know, in that particular industry. So my job was to create the online version of it. So you will go and you would, you know, pull up a course on, let’s say, you know, section 179 and my voice will come on and say, Hi. We’re going to teach you how to do 179 deduction. Blah, take them to the software train, everybody who bought that particular software. And also, at the time that that company had the IRS contract for VITA sites, so we did that training as well. So it was kind of part of it. But it started to get very, you know, very ops heavy, very development heavy, heavy. We had, like, Scrum meetings and things of that nature. And I was like, Hey, I’m tired of this. I don’t want to do it. I was in there for eight years, right? Really, eight and a half years, and decided, you know, let’s just get back to working with my hands. I’m feel more excited when I’m working with my hands. So I was like, let’s jump in. Jump back into screen printing. And I think back into screen printing, because screen printing is something that I did in high school. Really loved it. Try to get into out of high school when really successful at it. But I was like, let me take this skill, which I know can make money, and just go with a creative passion, and let’s just try to see if we can turn this into something. So that’s pretty much how we started

Curt Anderson 03:13
nice i so let’s go here. So if I’m not mistaken, you 2014 is when you took the leap. Is that my is that about is that when you started internal designs? Yeah.

Nick Burton 03:22
So 2013 kind of left that company there on October and then officially started, yeah, January, 2014

Curt Anderson 03:29
Alright, take us back there. So, for anybody catching us, you know, maybe their dream is entrepreneurship. Maybe they’re a corporate warrior. They’re like, man, someday I’m going to do what Nick did walk. Can you take us back? You know, back in that time, 2013 sounds like it was holidays. I mean, it’s not. It’s not for the weary, going into entrepreneurship, right? And I caught a really interesting article that you had, and it said, like, you know, I started completely from zero, right? Did I read that correctly? So just talk a little bit about, like, what was, what were the emotions, scary, excited, what? Let’s go back to December of, you know, or third, fourth quarter of 2013 when you

Nick Burton 04:04
launched. Okay? So I had two emotions. I had, I like to say I had the the realistic emotion, and then I had the ego, right? The ego was like, let’s get to this money. That was my ego. We’re going to get to this money. We’re going to drive the realistic version of me was like, Well, how are we going to get to the money? You say, sir. So there was very much two dual thoughts. This did kind of lead up. This is a lead up here, so it wasn’t something that I had a thought, and then I kind of just jumped, like the beginning of 2013 I started acquiring equipment. So I was like, I went on the Craigslist, and I started buying stuff off Craigslist. And I was like, Alright, we’re going to start accumulating this equipment and this thing and this thing, I had more than just screen printing equipment. How, like, I had a comic of a nota, like I was going to print everything. I was going to do everything. So literally, my thought process was just like, get everything I need. I start and start finding customers. But very much when I do. Took the leap and actually left. I was kind of building up towards it. So I was like, I had a month, and then I was like, I might need to push it a little longer than I push it a little longer. And eventually October was the month. End of October was the month I landed on. The feelings around it was more so, like sales, a little excited, but a little bit nervous, but I was kind of all in. I also had support of my wife. And she was like, Well, hey, let’s just do what we got to do. I’m pretty sure we can make this work. So I was like, All right, well, with that kind of boat of confidence, I was like, let’s just do it. Let’s see where we land. So that’s kind of how it started, and that’s kind of how the journey began, and it helped a lot. Definitely in the early stage of having her kind of backing you, I always say, if you have somebody who’s behind you that can back you, it means a lot. It means the world. Because you can run through walls for those people tend to you, tend to run through walls for those people because of their backing, because of how much they support you. And it definitely makes the journey a lot easier, for sure.

Curt Anderson 05:53
John, let’s get you in the party here, dude. So, you know, we you, and I just absolutely love hearing these origin stories. You know, it’s a big part of, like, our stick when we do our podcast here, what? What’s your takeaway here with Nick?

John LaRoy 06:07
Yeah, it’s super interesting. I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s somewhat different than some of the people we’ve talked to where, you know, you start out in corporate, and then you go into really, like, solopreneur, you know, where you’re, you’re really jumping in by yourself. You have to support your wife, but it’s you as a one man show to get going. But what you said, support from your wife is so, so critical. I mean, I, like we talked about yesterday, I got married late, but same thing. I mean, I was, you know, at what, 3736 I was 1615, years involved already. And it is not, it is not a journey you want to go on with the wrong person, right? You know? I mean, it’s a lot of long nights, it’s a lot of sleepless nights, it’s a lot of arguments and a lot of why the hell are you doing this type thing? And even though you get questions, the questions help cement the faith. But it’s also that’s one of the things I talk to about a lot of young entrepreneurs. It’s like, you better make sure that if you are married, or if you plan on getting married, and this is what you’re choosing to do. You got someone that really understands the life, because it is not what you see on TV,

Nick Burton 07:28
absolutely. And I’ll say to that point, John, like my wife also owns business, sure. So she she understands it. So she’s like, Hey, let’s let’s do what we have to do. I understand it’s going to be hard. I understand it’s going to be difficult, but we can pretty much kind of play off each other and make it a thing. So it wasn’t really something where I was like, okay, like two green people. It was very much like she had her business before I started this business. So it was a thing where I was like, Alright, I think we can make this happen. I don’t know how, you know, I don’t know how, so, but I know we can do it before we start, you know, I start to learn how to, like, reverse engineer things, maybe thinking with the end in mind. You know, it was always how, how? But once we kind of got a brew for things, it was just okay, this is how we do it. So it definitely worked. That’s

John LaRoy 08:15
awesome, man.

Curt Anderson 08:16
Yeah, I love it, you know. And we always say, you know, it takes a village to raise a child. It takes a village to raise a business right and John man, both you guys are hitting right on the head, but to have your partner, your life, partner with you, by your side, locked in arms. We’re like, Hey, we’re going to ride this roller coaster together. So Nick, you have a fascinating name of your business. I’m going to pull up your website in a minute, because you are doing amazing work. I want to get give us some background on the name. You have such a great name. I caught on a podcast. You shared a little bit, you know, where you came up with this name. Share it with folks, where you came up with this? Yeah, yeah. So

Nick Burton 08:49
it’s, it doesn’t have, like, a religious origin. I remember one day I was in Chick fil A, and somebody was like, she, she seemed to serve, just says internal. And she was like, a man brother. And I was like, what? And I was a little confused, but I was like, oh, it’s the shirt, so I got that. But truth be told, eternal just kind of just comes from to something that that lasts a very long time. We all have our own we have we all have either one or two garments that are our favorite garments. We wear them all the time. They have holes under the armpits. They’re probably a little, you know, musty, whatever it might be, that we have something that we just we love, and it tends to be the thing we like to we hold on to. So I wanted to kind of what eternal I wanted to create something that might be someone’s favorite shirt, or might be that favorite thing they wanted to hold on to, whatever it might be. I wanted to make sure that we did that. So eternal designs was just more or less we want to create some form of design and quality that lasts a long time. That’s kind of where eternal came from. So very creative, again, global, but just kind of thinking about how, how that applies to what we wanted to do. And almost as a mission statement, I wanted to kind of have it right there in front like we care about the quality. That lasts a long time. So that’s what eternal is. Well, I love

Curt Anderson 10:03
that you’re hitting on the head. And, you know, when you get to my age, I probably have, like, I probably have t shirts that are older than you guys, you know, so I’m right there with you, Nick, uh, let’s slide into so a little line of the question that we love to ask folks is, please share with people internal designs. We’re you’re in the apparel business. You’re an artist. How do you feel? You and your team make the world a better place. Let’s go there, and then we’re going to jam for a minute, and then I’m going to pull up your I’m going to pull up your website. Sure.

Nick Burton 10:30
So I always like to tell people we’re not necessarily creating a product per se. We’re creating a conversation. So I like to look at eternal as we want to create and be a conduit for conversation. It’s that hey, when you stop it, you’re in a story like, Hey, man, we get that shirt from, or hey, where you get that hat from, or where you get that jacket from. You know, that’s really dope. That’s really cool. We want to be able to spark conversation and some level of connectivity through just apparel. So so our job is to do that every single day that we are, you know, walking on this earth. Can we create a conversation for maybe two random people that never would have crossed paths, but they have a common interest, because maybe they are a Packers fan, like, like John or, you know, they more or less have some something that they see, that they’re just uniquely attracted to, could we be the conduit for that conversation, and could we just create more value in just people? Because I think nowadays, in 2025, and definitely beyond, unfortunately, we’ve gotten away from just true connectivity as people. If we’re not head down, we are very much anti social, because we’ve been so head down, and I wanted to try to create more of that, just in what we do, product wise, customer service wise, and in the conversations we drive through all the things that we do. That’s really the goal, and that’s kind of our mission, like, can we create some level of conversation around this Arctic artistic expression that we call, you know, printing and custom apparel. So that’s kind of our goal. That’s amazing.

Curt Anderson 12:04
Nick or John, I’m going to go back to what that woman said. Chick fil A, Amen, brother, how was that? A great line, right there. Nick, John, what do you have go ahead? I

John LaRoy 12:14
was going to say, like, that’s such a great perspective. Because, you know, I You remember as a kid, like, when you get home from school or something, and you’re, you’re growing and whatever the clothes you absolutely love that your mom gave away. And it’s like that gut punch feeling like you gave away my favorite hoodie, you know? And it’s like the emotional attachment to that piece of fabric. And it’s, it’s when you think about it. We talk about this, like when I talk about to my team, and like you’re creating memories, not just t shirts. Like, if you think about the best time you had in your life, or a concert, or a Packers game, or, you know, a Patriots game for you, there’s too many championships there, but you probably remember what you were wearing, you know what I mean. And it’s like you can attach that time and space with that shirt or with that hat you were wearing. And there’s power there, but yeah, then also conversationally, right? You know, like travel the world, and you randomly see someone wearing a Packers T shirts. Like you go up and talk to them, they come up and talk to you. It’s like you have no community or no connection, and then they see just a freaking logo on a t shirt, and it’s like they want to talk your ear off. And it is pretty cool. You know, people are very tribal, and they they align with a group. You know, it’s like, you’ll get like, not to get all psychological here, but the most basic human need is to belong to something, right? How do you identify you belong with something? And that’s through unity. And what is the unity symbol? It’s a brand. It’s a logo you can, you know, come together under a common color or a common theme, and there’s just so much going on biologically that draws people that it’s, it’s crazy when you think about, we’re just putting ink on a t shirt, but it’s way more than that.

Nick Burton 13:59
It’s way more than that. You’re absolutely right. I definitely agree, absolutely

Curt Anderson 14:04
So alright, Nick, we’re going to go into, I want to and what I’ve got a and I’ve got a ton of questions for you, dude. So we’re going to go to your website. And this is, gosh, John, where do you keep finding all these amazing guests, week in, week out? I don’t know how you do it. So, man, man, this is alright. So we’re with Nick Burton, we’re at eternal designs and just Nick, this is just phenomenal. So just talk, first off, from a website perspective, love your website. Encourage, welcome, invite anybody. Go to Nick’s website. Check it out. He’s got all sorts of exciting things going on. So Nick, we’re going to cruise around here. Just talk to us a little bit about some of your products, some of the solutions. What do people expect when they do business with you? Yeah, so

Nick Burton 14:43
again, we want to start kind of with the end in mind. So when we work with people, we’re always asking, first and foremost, like, What is this for? What do you what do you want to do? What are you trying to create here? Are you just trying to get get us to slap ink on something like, Hey. I’m sorry, but we’re not going to necessarily do that. We want to know exactly what they’re trying to do, so we can try to create the best thing that brings the best value and what they’re what they’re trying to accomplish. So if you are that’s not like this, let’s say if you want to like a uniform or something like that, we don’t if you’re like yo, we want to look like the best looking team out there in the field, even if we don’t play like it cool. And that’s what we need to know. So we can actually create some things. So we try to do that in what we call like the basic services. But we want to try to just make those basic services extraordinary, screen printing, embroidery, uniform, work, patches, throwing some online stores there for fundraising and as well as promo items for anybody who’s looking to do promo. And that’s kind of why services are at we have, we do do some some transfer work as well, but we try our best to kind of keep that to a minimum as much as possible, but we try to just get back to the basis of all of all of this. So in creating this website, we just want to give people some basic information, nothing that’s going to be too in depth, and just try to help them make the best decision possible, but actual visuals for you know, work that we’ve done. And try to also make the ordering process and quoting process easy as well, by giving them options to be able to quote and quote what they need exactly from the website. So just try to make it very simple, all like a one stop shop, but nothing really crazy in depth. We will do some different things to it, but just try to make sure it’s visually appealing as well. That’s kind of the purpose of our website.

Curt Anderson 16:34
So let’s go here. So all right, I want to, I’m going to hit on the the artistic side when folks and I know you’re a humble guy, so I’m gonna, I’m gonna make you a little uncomfortable when people come to you. Just, let’s talk about the separator. Like, what makes you guys just over the top? Like, how you bring your artistic flair, your your passion for, like you said, the branding I heard, I heard you mention a line, if you want to hit on this, you know you’re creating walking art. Did I hear you say that? Is that? Is that, yeah,

Nick Burton 17:01
yeah. I had a line that a while back. I was like, we’re creating walking fine art. That’s how I wanted people to look at it. I wanted somebody to feel like they’re wearing something that is so unique, it’s almost like a one on one, even if they are part of a collective, like a church group. I wanted them to feel like they’re wearing something that’s a one on one. Also, I just wanted to, you know, we had this vision that we would create something that just brings value to people’s life. I’ll tell a quick story. We did some jerseys for soccer team, and I was a kid that was there. He was the son of the coach, actually, and we did a jersey for him, you know, he wasn’t playing, but he wanted to do a jersey for him, because he’s part of the team. As soon as he gave that kid his jersey, he held it up. He was like, This is mine. I love it. He just walked around the house just like this. And I was like, this kid is I almost start crying because I was like, I’ve never seen anybody that enthusiastic about a jersey that had his name on the back. It was the most magical thing that I can see. And I was like, This is why we do it. This is why we create this. This is why we go through these extra steps. It’s not just about trying to find the right, you know, price point, or anything like, No man, let’s create something. That’s why it’s kind of, we use that a lot. Create something. Even when we had the call yesterday, John, on the back of that wall, it says, Create something people see that we want them to know, that this is why we do this. So it’s all about the art, and it’s not necessarily about, you know, it’s art, it’s customer service, but it’s just creating, just more, more intentional relationships around this. That’s kind of where

Curt Anderson 18:41
we’re at. Yeah, it’s like an unapologetic passion to just, like, bring out the like, just those moments, right? And John, like you were saying, like, you know, just making those memories, just that, that guy you know, like, you know, again, like, I’m an older dude. I can remember, like, John, we always talk about, like, sports from when we were younger. I remember things from 4050, years ago. Of you know, with sports, what are your thoughts with what Nick’s sharing here?

John LaRoy 19:02
Yeah. I mean, it’s, it’s amazing. First of all, website, kudos, great job. Super clean. You know, there’s a real artful way to show the work without vomiting out the work, right? You know, I feel like a lot of screen printing websites like, here’s a picture of our ink buckets, and it’s like, okay, you know, that’s cool, but, like, the way you do it is professional, stylish and creative, all wrapped into one. It’s tough to do. Secondly, like, the whole thing about creating something, right? I mean, everything is such a digital world now, and with AI, there’s an ability to create that’s not totally your own right, and having that ability to somewhat marry the digital into the physical and actually produce a product, there’s something special about that, like when we have our people here internally, you know, one of the things that we talk about is what you do here not only matters, you’ll see it you turn on TV college, you know. College football, Friday Night Lights, walking around a community and like, that sense of pride and then accomplishment again. Like, not to get back to the psychology here, but like, when you do something that matters, there’s, there’s, you know, there’s purpose to it, and it helps people, you know, feel better about what they do, rather than just hammering around on a keyboard all day, you know, actually creating a product that’s physical and it works in the physical space. There’s a reward to that. And it’s also, it’s healthy. I think, you know, it definitely keeps people mentally and physically sharp. Yeah,

Nick Burton 20:33
and I’ll add to that, like, you don’t go to museums to look at AI created artwork. True. She just don’t you’re saying somebody made this somebody head and thoughts and body and feeling conceptually came up with this thing that allowed them to visualize it on a wall, paint it, or on a sculpture and Michelangelo, and just like you’re looking at someone’s inside of someone’s head, in a sense. And when AI is here, like, I don’t think we’re look like we’re looking at people who can prompt really well, I it’s just no life there is, like creating water and Santa fish or swim in it. I don’t think they will. It’s just we need the life. We need the essence of it. So that’s kind of why we’re really big on staying with the creative side, using AI to aid it, but trying our best is to stay as humans, creating as much as possible. Well,

Curt Anderson 21:28
I love that. Nick, Jen, I’m reading that book. 10x is easier than 2x I don’t if you guys have read that book, and they open up with Michelangelo. So Nick, I love I just I’m in the midst of reading that book, and they do a great example, if you hear the cliche like Michelangelo described like when he hit, when he created his masterpieces, he just chipped away at what didn’t need to be there, you know what I mean. And so I just absolutely love that I do. John, it looks you came off mute. So I want to see what you’ve got, Nick, if you’re comfortable, I want to go back to your website, because you’ve got a digital tool assistant that I think is really cool. Are you comfortable? If I pull that up and take a peek at that, sure, peek at that? Sure. Nick, what do you or John, what did you have

John LaRoy 22:04
I accidentally came off of you? Sorry,

Curt Anderson 22:09
it’s our first it’s our first podcast. Nick, sorry. All right, so let’s I’m gonna come back to your website, and you’ve got under Resources. You’ve got right here, templates and charts. Design Studio, any, any, either one. Can I go to Design Studio? Is that cool? Sure, sure. Okay, walk us through. So again, for like your ideal client, they don’t they’ve never heard of you. Don’t know you didn’t catch how amazing you are. Don’t know that you’re this wonderful artist that’s bringing, uh, you know, their dreams, their passion, to life. What? What am I seeing here? So in the design

Nick Burton 22:39
studio, you’re seeing a lot of the options for different garments. Of course, they can search for whatever they want. You’ll notice that everything’s in black. Black’s kind of themed, so

Curt Anderson 22:50
Henry Ford, right? You can have any colors you want, as long as it’s black, right? Yeah.

Nick Burton 22:54
And also blacks there, because it’s probably the most popular printing color of all time, so yeah, black, but nevertheless, creating an option for people to come here and actually work out their creativity if they’re not quite sure what they want. Sometimes people come and say, well, we want this, but we’re not really sure. For those who have a little time, it literally just allows them to go to the design studio, choosing that option, uploading the artwork, or picking from the the default items that are there as far as default artwork, and allow them to kind of create whatever they would like in that space. So there’s a lot of different options to choose from. We’re just going to give people a space to be able to tinker and doodle around with different ideas. And that’s kind of available there on the website for them, of course, if they’re like, Hey, I don’t know if I have all that time, that’s where we come in. We just ask very direct point questions to be able to try to get the answers we need, and then come over something magical for them. So this is an option on the website for those who maybe, maybe can’t, you know, working late at night or just really want to try to work out some stuff. It’s always there.

Curt Anderson 23:58
Absolutely love it. Man. This is brilliant. You know, a little tagline we always encourage folks on their website, you know, how do you help that ideal buyer make a buying decision at midnight on a Friday without having to wait for you to open up your doors on Monday? And even it’s almost like, you know, if you’re you know, hey, we’re going to a restaurant tonight. Let’s look at the menu online. Just kind of get a flavor of what’s going on in that menu. And then when you show up, you still have the conversation with a waiter, waitress, whatever. So the thing is, so for your ideal buyer, they at least can come on here, just kind of get a scope lay the land of what you guys offer. I’m going to go to your other tool here real quick. Talk to us a little bit about this. This looks like a fascinating tool that you have here. Yeah.

Nick Burton 24:34
So this is just some stuff to kind of help people out, like, hey, kind of our placement guide. Some of our default, standard colors. Same thing with our threads. You fix that. Sorry about that. No, no, you’re fine, but that’s actually good to see there. And then some templates there where people can download certain things. So they said they’re like, hey, I want to put this on the shirt, and I want to see how it looked. We gave them some templates of some of the more popular items for them to do. Download along with just kind of default colors, placements, and then the shipping guide, so they cannot, at least see exactly how long it’ll take for things to be shipped from here to wherever they’re located at in the country. So just very simple tools to be able to give people some things that helps them along their way as they create their best project.

Curt Anderson 25:18
Well, I think what you’ve done here is you’ve created, you know, like, this is your 24 hour sales tool. And the nice thing is, again, like talking about, like, your competitive edge, why do business with Nick? You know, because, like, John, we talked about this a lot. You know, being in this business becomes a commodity, right? It’s a piece of clothing. What’s going to separate you from everybody else? And it’s you, your wife as a team, your passion, your dedication, your artistic, you know, all these things. And now, when I come on your website, compared to somebody else’s, you know, and like, grab whatever you need. Don’t worry, it’s free. Like, you’re, like, right there you’re telling your ideal customer, like, hey dude, I have your back. I know you’re busy. This is free. It’s a wonderful tool, and we got you just, let’s run through this. We’ll get you on your way to the next fire that you’re putting out today. You know? Yeah,

Nick Burton 26:00
absolutely. And also there’s, I mean, a friend of mine had this conversation. It’s like, we really hate non free tools, meaning they say, hey, it’s free, but we need your email address. It’s like, stop asking for that. Like, just give them something for free. Like, it does, it doesn’t hurt any. Hurt anything, just to get somebody for free. I remember walking through the mall, you have that lady with a toothpick, like, Hey, you want to try this compound chicken? Sure, I’ll take it. She didn’t ask for anything. Is this literally? Like, she didn’t say, well, give me an email first before you get this sample. It’s like, just give the sample. And a lot of people are really attracted to that. So we want to just try to give truly free options here. And there’s more stuff to come with. You know, the 4.0 version of this website, it’s gonna be a lot more free stuff that we give people a lot more access to things. So, absolutely awesome. And I

Curt Anderson 26:49
have down here at the bottom, I’d strongly encourage everybody connect with Nick on Facebook, Instagram. He’s got his LinkedIn profile right there. Strongly, he’s just a wonderful human being. So, alright, let’s come back here. You know, here’s a question. I’m going a little not that we had a really tight script, but I’m going but I’m going to go off script a little bit. What I would love to know for a corporate guy coming to entrepreneurship, maybe a couple. I’m I know I’m not supposed to do this as a as a person asking questions, but I’m going to anyway. Nick First off, were there any things, were there things that like, when you got into entrepreneurship, you’re like, man, nobody told me about this, or I didn’t expect this to happen. And I want to stop in there. I’m going to ask you one, then I have a follow up to that. So were there any things that when you first started? 2013, 14, we’re like, holy cow, man, nobody warned me about this with entrepreneurship. Any What do you thought hit you there?

Nick Burton 27:34
Yeah. So there’s a lot. I’m probably going to give you an answer that most people wouldn’t give you like, they can. I can give you like, oh, well, there’s tracking things is, you know how you do your bookkeeping and your accounting and things of that nature. I’m not gonna go there. I’m gonna go to a totally different place. No one really tells you how to manage your emotions when you get into business. They don’t tell you about how to challenge yourself but see yourself through challenging situations when you get into business, like there’s no there’s no book that’s like every business book out there is very much based on, you know, how you strategize. And just like nobody’s telling me about the emotional side of that, that was probably the one thing that kind of hit me the most understanding that there are certain traumas that kind of come up when you experience certain things in business, you know, maybe certain subconscious stuff that you haven’t dealt with, how that comes up in business, and when you’re hit with challenges, you you react and respond a certain way. You don’t really know how you’re doing it. I recall one time in business, I had a certain reaction to a customer. It was how they said something to me, did not really sit well. And I kind of was like, what? I paused, and then I was like, Well, hold on, but you still got to make sure you take care of the customer. I took it. Took care of the customer, but I had to analyze and say, Why did I have such a visceral reaction to what that customer said, and I wanted to punch him in the face. Why? Why did I have that? That’s the stuff that I don’t think a lot of people talk about, is that it’s the mental, it’s the businesses, like, Oh, I like to call it’s 5% business, 95% emotional and mental. I think no, nobody really mentions that. And that’s some of the biggest struggle. I would say I had the other stuff, sure, like, that’s not stuff that I really knew, kind of getting in you’re reading your research. I’m definitely one of those. I’m a jumper. So what I mean by a jumper is, I’m not one of those. Well, I think I’m thinking about do this. Let me do all my research and know everything before that. I’m like, Hey, I’m thinking about doing it. I’m jumping. So that’s kind of me. But because of that, a lot of other stuff didn’t come along with it, as far as well. How would you handle this? What do you think about that, you know, what are your feelings on this? And that’s probably the biggest thing I think people getting in business to think about. If they think the business is trendy, I would ask them, like, how is your mental, how’s your emotional? Like, can you make difficult decisions? Can you, you know, deal with maybe. Be foregoing a certain level of gratification, like, let’s talk about those things. I don’t think those things are mentioned enough in business.

Curt Anderson 30:08
Great answer, dude, we that’s a new That’s a first. That was a fantastic and, you know, and kudos to you Nick for having the maturity. Because a lot of people I know, I at times, I haven’t where, you know, you fight, you, you react, and then you’re like, Oh, why did I do that? Why did I say that? So kudos for you, you know, taking that pause and just be like, you know, hey, wait a minute. What’s going on here, John, your your thoughts on, on what Nick’s saying here is, as far as, like, you know, handling emotions

John LaRoy 30:34
so key, because you’re going to do something wrong. And it’s like, how do you learn from that? And then how do you feel yourself going through that? Because you’re not a robot, right? You know? And when people piss you off, especially your type a type personality, you know, you fight fire with fire, and you could feel yourself getting that way again. I’ve had experiences like that with customers as well. And knowing essentially what I hate this words and such a buzz word of all your triggers are that are going to make you feel that way? Because you’re not going to just ever get rid of those rights. You’re You’re hardwired that way, but knowing what you can do to take a step back, take a breath and evaluate, is this a long term play, or is it a short term? Is this short term going to affect a long term? If there is a long term, right? So, yeah, 2022 to 35 is very short term. Thinking, very emotional, very transactional, not only with employees, but I mean, not only with customers, with employees too, and that that changes. But I also think, like, what you’re saying about the mental part of it isn’t talked about. I do feel like talking to Jason last time we talked Curt, like, where he has a mentality that I really don’t, where it’s like, treat your business like your baby, but sell it like it’s a trading card, right? Where it’s like, and I’m paraphrasing. I don’t have exactly what he said, but it’s like, build it like it’s your son, your daughter, but be ready to part with it like it’s, you know, something you really don’t care about. And I don’t feel like that at all. He’s been doing it a long time as well, and I think certain people are wired differently based on what their end is and what they see. But that’s not how I operate or see things yet. But I feel like people that have been a part of multiple exits do feel like that. So it’s not something I can’t feel like. I just haven’t had that experience yet to resonate with what he’s saying. Because, you know, you write that book, you might only be talking to 10% of that population. And same thing with any of the strategy books. But, you know, doing some of these personality profiles, the disc, the God, there’s so many of them. Jordan Peterson has a couple that we’ve done as well. It’s really interesting. Like, even within our leadership team, you can mentally Peg, Oh, that person’s a D, or that person’s an S, or he leans towards this, and then they take that test, and you’re almost like, biasing yourself, like, I don’t want to be the I, I’m gonna, I’m gonna make him a C, you know, type thing. And your peers will kind of say, like, Hey, you’re fudging that you’re, you’re more of an S, you know what I mean, type thing. But having that perspective of what you think and what your peers perceive on how you’re going to react, and then knowing your weaknesses is something that it doesn’t happen overnight. You know it’s and you’re going to be put in situations that you can never predict, and you’re you’re going to react, and it’s not so much how you react, it’s what you do after that is really important. Absolutely,

Nick Burton 33:41
I agree. Totally agree. Because you know you have the disc, the Myers, Briggs, the all those other ones. Yeah. Like, I don’t really think people realize how much your personality, who you are and your makeup really says about you and what it says about you, but also it says if you if you’re really going to be successful at the thing you’re doing or not. But I think some work in that area, as you kind of grow and learn, business is really crucial to your overall success, and you have to be really objective, but also a little bit critical, just yourself in that regard. And as you learn and grow, it really benefits you in the longer term. Also, agree with you, John, I don’t know if I’m where he’s at, as far as being able to say, Hey, I raised my baby, my kid, and I can just be like, well, here you go. Take it with a bag of corn. Like, I don’t know. I know

Curt Anderson 34:32
that’s it’s a tough one. So Nick, we’re gonna start winding down here. So question I’m getting, I’m going off the script a little bit. You really piqued my curiosity starting completely from zero, right? Do you remember a day, a time, a tipping point where you felt like, and again, I know you’re man of humility, so I don’t, you know, put you in uncomfortable, you know, with this answer. Do you remember a moment where you’re like, I think I’m making it. I’m getting over the hump. Like, do you remember like. Was it a customer? It was a date. You turn to your wife, you’re like, Man, I think we’ve got some momentum. Do you remember that day? Or is there anything that

Nick Burton 35:07
comes to mind? There is a day where I was like, I think we are turning the corner. Funny enough, it was kind of really after the height of the pandemic was kind of coming out of that. And I was like, you know, this feels like we got it. And here’s what I mean by that. It was, it was a thing of, just like certain things are kind of happening, happening in a certain kind of order. And I remember looking at it, and I was like, the matrix is, I can see it. That was like, Oh, this is what we do. We just need to do this, do that, do this here, and we can just keep trucking along. It was like, I was able to see problems and situations and solutions way clearer. And I guess I think a lot of people say, if you can survive that pandemic, which is really rough for a lot of people, then you come out on other side of it in a way better and greater position. And I think that’s kind of what it was. It was just like, Man, this is like, Man, this is I see all of this, like, it’s just flipping this switch and that, and shout out to Alex hermosi. He always talks about inputs and outputs, right? So it was very much like, I was able to see what inputs we need to do to get the outputs. And that’s kind of when the turn the everything shifted, and everything stopped turning around,

Curt Anderson 36:22
for sure. Thank you for sharing that, dude, that is such an inspiration. I love that, you know, and I also like what you’re saying about COVID, you know, it’s kind of like, you know, when they say New York, you know, you if you make it there, you can make it anywhere. If you make it through COVID, you can make it through anything, right? So, you know what doesn’t kill us, just makes us stronger. So, all right, what are you super excited about with your business, company, the industry? What’s on the horizon? What are you super fired about moving forward?

Nick Burton 36:49
I’m really, I’m really fired up about AI. I’ll be, I’ll be honest, like I was kind of late to the party on AI when he was talking about it. Like, Hey, she get on this. And then I was like, No, I’ll wait for a while. Let you guys try it out. As much as I am a jumper. I’m not as much of an early adapter to certain things. I like to just let people blow themselves up with spectra gadget style versus me do it first. So AI is definitely something that really excited about, not just from what chat GPT can do, but just some of the visual stuff that is happening in AI. As I was telling John when we spoke, it’s I want to, want to be able to take the version of AI, to be able to create visual representations of our to the artwork, like make mock ups look way different. Make the whole visual experience around customer experience way different if we’re have people who are on the fence like, Oh, this looks great. I like it. But I said, Well, hold on, we’re going to give you a little little little bit more, and we create, maybe a whole virtual model and a whole visualized world. So it goes back to that initial question, Hey, what are you doing with this shirt? Oh, well, the shirts for an event. What if we can create artwork, you know, along with your pricing. And say, This is what your item is going to look like, walking through the crowded parts of this event, and somebody can see it and visualize. And we say, Look, this is what this looks like. And then we Hey. We say, Hey, see how that looks. That’s what that quality of shirt, or that quality or garment that can be yours. And we sell more of this visualized dream, because a lot of people don’t, can’t envision that. And if we can use AI to create more of a world like we see in movies and games and things of that nature, I think it’d really go a long way, kind of helping differentiate certain businesses and people who really want to take that time to create a better customer experience. That I think is absolutely crucial, and that’s what I’m really, kind of, really gear Gary and geeked up for. So yeah, AI right now in that space of creating customer experience.

Curt Anderson 38:50
And thank you. I John, I don’t think we’ve had, we have not had that answer. We asked that question, you know, quite often, and we have not had that answer. I’d say, Nick Dude, you are, what a what a blessing. You are. So inspiring man, John, what are your thoughts with what Nick just shared about AI,

John LaRoy 39:06
yeah, I mean, you could fear it or utilize it, and I feel there’s, there’s, I don’t know I, I heard from a friend of mine’s wife that I haven’t seen in like, seven years. We were just down in Tampa last week, and I, you know, she was always a good person. I just didn’t, couldn’t read her really well. And she’s like, you know, I we’re talking before you got here, like John’s kind of an extremist. And I’m like, oh, okay, you know, my wife’s like, shaking her head, like, yeah, he is, you know? And I’m like, Well, I don’t believe in the gray, it’s only black or white, so I guess I am an extremist. But I feel like that’s what’s going on in AI right now, like you got people that hate it, or you have people that love it, and the people in the middle are kind of like, just wait, you know, but the people that hate it, I feel it’s not hate it’s fear, and you can continue to fear it, or you can not fear it and just try. Utilize it, right? Because, I mean simple things, like responding to an email, creating a proposal, a lot of Excel stuff, like, you know, I a lot of the tools that I learned, like Microsoft Access classes back in college, like, I hated it, right? You know, it was horrible, but now you could take that stuff, bring it in, and it’s just the ability to be more productive with limited amount of time. God, you know, I It’s amazing what you can do with those tools. And why not, right? You know, it’s like everything’s becoming more time crunch, more expensive, more this, more that. And you can either bitch about it, you can get on board, right,

Nick Burton 40:45
absolutely. And to add on to what John said, like people are they want to do entrepreneurship because they think that it gives them back some level of time money, of course, but like, really, what’s going to probably give you that more so than anything you do is using the tools of AI to help you get that back, you know, like we wanted to create more of a customer experience around it, but, yeah, you can use, you know, AI for your forms, just another I think jot form release, like, AI agents like, that’s going to be the the wave as well. And also, like you just being really good at prompting is going to help you skyrocket your business a lot. So I tell anyone and everyone, like, lean into more than just artwork creation for AI and chat GPT to be able to make your email sound better. Like, lean more into what’s coming. Because if you don’t, the next man does, and you’re kind of, you have fish out of water at that point. Yeah, I

Curt Anderson 41:36
couldn’t agree more. Nick, great, great advice. Great answer. Speaking of advice, last question for you today, for entrepreneurs out there, maybe you’re you’re go back to Nick at Night in 2013 right? What’s the best business advice that you’ve ever received or that you would love to pass along to other entrepreneurs? Maybe again, like you know someone, if there’s a nick out there just starting out, what’s the best business business advice that you would like to share

Nick Burton 42:01
best business advice that I definitely would say I did not listen to early on. For sure, is you need to know your numbers. Know your numbers. You need to know your numbers as much as you might have that icky thing around numbers and money and you want to make money, know what those numbers are. Get you somebody that can take a look at yours, but your books analyze the numbers. Become comfortable with the numbers. Sleep, Eve, eat, breathe, just snuggle up to the numbers. It might not make sense as much. Early on, it might not make sense, maybe even the middle of it, but later on, those things help, and if you really can get what the numbers are telling you now, you really, truly can forecast your future just by making adjustments here or there. So the best business advice for sure is, is knowing those numbers. That’s what I’ll probably end on for sure. Nick I

Curt Anderson 42:55
just think you just came up with your next million dollar product line. I’m thinking, I’m envisioning, like, a really artistic t shirt says, snuggle up to your your numbers. You know, just and just be selling it to start selling it to every like, Small Business Development Center that’s working with entrepreneurs around the country, right? So, snuggle up to your numbers. Brilliant. Drop the mic. Love it. Alright, we’re going to close out. We’re going to wind down John, parting thoughts that you want to share from our conversation with Nick

John LaRoy 43:19
today. I mean, that’s just, that’s good for the old tax company too, right? Yeah,

Curt Anderson 43:25
yeah, that’s right. Every tax accountant would, right. Every, every dude you just, you just found, like, the best t shirt for every accountant in the country. That was

Nick Burton 43:33
brilliant. Yeah, no, I was getting trademarked for sure. Trademark it,

Curt Anderson 43:37
man, that’s right. So, John,

John LaRoy 43:39
anything you want to share? No, I got, I got nothing. Man, like three or four mic drop moments there from Nick So, yeah, I’ll let him, let him have the honors. But, yeah, phenomenal. Man, I appreciate you jumping on really quickly. I mean short notice and just, just honor to meet you. And you know, we, we’re in the same industry, but we’re fighting a good fight, and any way we can help you out, and vice versa, man, I’d love to continue the conversation. Yep,

Nick Burton 44:08
absolutely.

Curt Anderson 44:11
Nick, thank you, dude. Big round of applause here, John, let’s give Nick a big round of applause. So Nick, thank you, man. This was just a phenomenal conversation. I’ve learned tons, took a boatload of notes, and I just, I want to tell and before we let you go, your wife’s name, please. My name is Maria. Maria. Alright. We wish you and Maria just continued massive, monstrous success. Keep crushing it. I can’t wait to see that snuggle snuggle with your numbers t shirt. I’ll be the first in line to buy those. And so hang out with us for one second. Nick, we’re going to wrap up. But man, everybody out there just go out and just keep crushing it like Nick and John. We’ve got apparel redefined. We’ve got eternal designs here. Just, you know, keep crushing it in the apparel industry, and just you two are going to make the world a better place. So Nick, thank you once again. We’re going to stop our recording, and we’ll catch you guys next week.