{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"EP 14: Brian Smith \u2014 Founder of UGG's","description":"For most brands that have reached household-name status, there\u2019s a perception their origin story must\u2019ve involved a robust line of investors from day one, or close to it. Take the UGG Australia brand. Perhaps most famously associated with early-aughts fashion, there\u2019s little doubt these iconic sheepskin boots, after being cooked up in a boardroom, landed in Macy\u2019s shoe aisles overnight. Right? The truth, as founder Brian Smith will tell you, couldn\u2019t be further from that. It was the 1970s, and Brian was an accountant \u2014 briefly. The day he graduated with his accounting degree was the day he quit accounting, a field he\u2019d decided he hated. A native Australian and dedicated surfer, he determined that California \u2014 with its surf brands and Levi\u2019s jeans and waterbeds \u2014 was the mecca for Big New Things, and he wanted to be behind the next one.  \u201cI landed in LAX with my surfboard and my suitcase and rented a little house in Santa Monica,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI spent about a month surfing up at Malibu. I made a lot of friends, but I kept looking and couldn\u2019t find the next big thing. The next two to three months I spent still surfing and making a lot more friends, and it was now October or November, and the water was chilly.\u201d (~2:15) Reaching for his sheepskin boots that he\u2019d brought with him from Australia, he realized something: \u201cI just got covered in goosebumps and I thought, \u2018Oh s***. There are no sheepskin boots in America.\u201d  (~3:00) That may have been the moment the idea for UGGs was born. But, as Brian would later go onto write about in his book \u201cThe Birth of a Brand,\u201d there was a lot more in store for his business before it\u2019d mature into something that could stand on its own. On this episode of The Anthony Sarandrea Show, Anthony and Brian talk about the three years that Brian and his business partner spent selling UGGs out of a van up and down the Californian coast, what changed his mind about quitting the whole project, and the guerilla marketing tactics that would ultimately turn UGGs into a billion-dollar brand.   What You\u2019ll Learn: How the first six UGG sample boots turned into 500 \u2014 and what Brian and his partner did when that 500 produced just 28 orders (~7:15) What led Brian to realize that \u201cin advertising, you have to have emotion and you have to have relevance\u201d \u2014 and that the early UGGs ads lacked both (~13:30) How he pivoted and kept UGG from going under just four years after it was founded when the company\u2019s primary investor died in a motorbike accident And much more!   Favorite Quote: \u201cYou can't give birth to adults\u2026 If you look at the stock exchange page of the Wall Street Journal, every single one of those companies had to start with $1,000. And so with every company, you have the idea, that conception, the birth; buying six pairs of samples was the birth of UGG. And then every business just lies there and lies there and it's really frustrating. And there\u2019s no amount of feeding the baby or jiggling the cradle \u2014 it can't get up and go to college. It has to be an infant. But eventually, it starts toddling. And that's when the first true believers are buying your product.\u201d \u2014 Brian Smith (8:15)   Connect With Brian:  LinkedIn Facebook   How to Get Involved: Anthony Sarandrea, the founder of SiteFlood, is a philanthropist, entrepreneur, and keynote speaker known as a renowned customer and lead generator across the globe.  Be sure to follow him on LinkedIn, Instagram, and gain access to his consulting and speaking engagements via his website. Let us know you enjoyed this episode by visiting us on Apple Podcasts and giving us a review! We love hearing from you and appreciate your support of the show!   ","author_name":"The Anthony Sarandrea Show","author_url":"https:\/\/www.anthonysarandrea.com\/","html":"