We recently connected with Donald Robertson Jr and have shared our conversation below.
Donald , looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
Beautiful question! Truly, my work ethic comes directly from my mother. She always explained to me that if you want to be successful in life, you have to be committed into your craft. Invest in yourself because no one else will until they see your results. During my childhood, watching my mother raise myself and my sister while being a business owner for 16 years helped build the confidence in me to have the same mentality and dedication to create my own business! She gave me the meaning to the word “work-ethic”.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I am the owner and founder of Dynasty Image LLC. What makes my company so special is that we want to focus on helping our customers with delivering stylish and unique custom apparel to their liking. What I like to tell every individual that I may encounter with is that we are creators in our own way. You may not have the proper resources or equipment to develop your image, but this is where we come in. We want you to understand that your vision is just as important as us creating it for you. Our slogan “When Imaginary transforms into Reality” is us as a whole. Allow us to be transparent, detail-oriented, professional and honest while we bring your design to life. You control the narrative, let us finish the painting. The company gives you the freedom to pick the various types of services that is most suitable for you from embroidery, all the way to heat press and everything in between. This is what makes myself and my company different. If we can see the vision, it can be done the right way!
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Personally, when I look back at my journey, the three qualities that best represent myself are public speaking, detail oriented and being respectful. These attributes are needed to form the beginning stages for success. Coming from a professional sales background, you have to be open with introducing yourself to potential customers that may be interested in buying your product. Most often, it’s not what you sell that engages the customers, it starts with you. Selling yourself is the key foundation on how you are able to control how successful the company can be. It establishes confidence to know that your presentation determines the outcome on rather you make a sell or not. Paying attention to detail is critical because you want to provide the best quality of work. I check for proper alignment and accuracy throughout the phases of production. I like to listen to what my customers’ expectations are when it comes to what they want me to create. This helps build a trusting relationship with the client that I will deliver exactly what they are expecting. Honestly, that is my favorite part of the experience. I am able to walk them through the process from the beginning stages of production to the delivery destination. Finally, being respectful is what builds my relationships because I am the face for what I do. Being respectful involves speaking politely, delivering results in a timely manner and providing a positive work environment. These are very important values to ensure your business is sustainable and making customers more likely to return.
The advice that I would give someone that is early into their journey is to understand that it doesn’t happen overnight. Realizing that during your process, setbacks are a part of the journey. Determination will drive your spirit to keep striving for excellence. Respect is always earned so be the best version of yourself to put you in a position to be acknowledged. The moral and values that you placed within you is what you follow gracefully. Public speaking is talking among your peers. Practice among a group and elaborate your objective on what you want to deliver. This will help anyone that is wanting to take their skills to the next step.
We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?
I do believe that as much as it is important to display your strengths, being well rounded is also valuable. To the strengths, you are custom to how you deliver your work. You know what works and how it will be presented. The repetition that you have created in your style of work is now perfected and the errors are to a bare minimum. You will continue to dominate your strengths since the expectations is already met. You can’t see no flaws in the effort that you display since your element in your performance is catered by your strengths. This helps because it makes you reliable and dependable for assistance in the area that you specialize in. The importance of strengths is truly on you and that separates the rest of the competition. The thing that I love the most about being well rounded within your profession is that you are able to have multiple access and range. The availability doesn’t become isolated. The complete balance to perform and to see how you operate in each area. You are never be obligated to just one source of specialty. I feel the benefits in being well rounded increases your knowledge and gives you the abilities for versatility. Enables you to see each area in your profession and gain more exposure through experience. A perfect example of this is what I currently do within my company. We offer different variety of services specifically geared towards the garments that we provide. My current strengths are drawing, creating and designing. Realizing that these strengths are important, I’m consistently creating new designs or modifying what I have to increase my range in production. Currently, I have access in digitizing (still learning), sewing, embroidery, sublimation and so much more and this helps me to extend my range from my strengths to areas that will increase my professional development. These strengths and qualities ensure that all areas of my business are maintained and valued respectfully.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.dynastyimage.com
- Instagram: dynastyimagellc
- Facebook: Dynasty Image LLC
Image Credits
Anthony Fitzpatrick
