We recently connected with Eric and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Eric, so excited to have you with us today, particularly to get your insight on a topic that comes up constantly in the community – overcoming creativity blocks. Any thoughts you can share with us?
Creativity blocks are a common part of my creative process. I overcome creativity blocks with a lot of patience and a lot of persistence.
Personally. I’ll set a time each week to crank out twenty or so clothing designs. Out of those twenty designs, at least ten of them are immediately trashed for being derivative or just plain bad. In the end, I’ll whittle my twenty designs to just one or two that are tinkered with until I feel like they’re ready. I think I got that idea from Paul McCartney, who does the same thing with songwriting. He must be doing something right.
I’ve noticed that there are people who so focused on perfecting things that they never actually finish anything. I feel like perfection is overrated. I have a lot of admiration for people who show off their finished products even if they’re unrefined or unpolished. Finishing things is a skill upon itself that is really underrated.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
Every idea starts with a problem. In 2018, I went to the mall to go shopping for clothes that fit my style. To my disappointment, there were barely any bright or colorful men’s clothes to be found. The clothes that I did find were either too expensive, cheaply made, or ill-fitting. When I complained online, others came out of the woodwork to agree. Everyone shared the same question: where could men find bright, colorful clothing at a reasonable price?
I decided to answer the question myself by making my very own clothing brand: Sleepy Peach. The brand launched in 2018 with a $200 advance. It started gaining momentum in 2019, and it continues to blossom today.
Sleepy Peach is an independent clothing brand. It is run by Eric (me), Juliet (my wife), and Matilda and Wendy (our cats). We don’t like how corporations run everything into the ground, so we are funding this brand with our own pockets. Because we are independent, we’re able to provide higher-quality items at our own pace, without having to constantly worry about meeting sales goals or increasing revenue every quarter.
We believe that your clothing should reflect your personality, which is why we make bright and bold patterns to help you stand out. We also believe that the freedom to be who you are and love who you choose is a fundamental human right. We are proudly aligned with the LGBTQ+ community, and have donated thousands of dollars to Planned Parenthood.
Over the past year, we have exploded in popularity. We have vastly expanded our selections and are excited to have an official collaboration with the Heathcliff Comic, which is scheduled for later this year.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Three qualities that were most impactful in my journey have been resourcefulness, audience profiles, and maximizing luck.
As it turns out, running a successful clothing business is really, really hard, especially in the beginning when you have no money and no one knows who you are. If you want to start a business, you have to be a jack-of-all-trades. When I launched Sleepy Peach in 2018, I was creating designs, making clothes, building my website, running targeted ads, and shipping orders in tandem with my full-time job. It was grueling work, but I knew that it had to be done if I wanted my brand to outperform my teaching career.
Building audience profiles was a big one for me as well. Initially, I made designs in a bubble, with no feedback from my customers. It took me a long time to realize that my audience are the ones who are going to make or break my business. Thus, you should take your audience’s feedback very seriously. I’ve taken feedback from customers over the years in the form of surveys, order notes, and even Instagram polls. Once you know what your audience is looking for, the business runs itself.
Finally, maximizing luck is crucial. Luck is like money: it comes and goes whenever it wants. Sometimes your business will be lucky. When it is, you need to make sure that you can take that luck for all its worth. In the last year, we’ve gone viral on TikTok dozens of times. Had I not had enough inventory or a way to collect emails for an email list, this luck would have amounted to nothing. Because luck is so sporadic, it’s important to maximize it whenever you can.
Once your business starts to accumulate money, it’s important to fully invest in your business to help it grow. I was teaching fourth grade when I launched Sleepy Peach. I told my wife that if Sleepy Peach’s income outperformed my teaching income for an entire year, I would quit teaching. It took four years to get to that point, but once it did, I quit my career and invested in Sleepy Peach full time. It would be simply impossible to scale a business while still having a foot in a career. Nothing will make you work harder than knowing you don’t have a backup to fall onto.
What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?
The number one challenge that I always face is having enough money. Our sales numbers are huge compared to what they used to be. One good day of sales can easily top total sales from an entire previous year. We’ve grown exponentially, and money is flowing in rates that I literally could never have dreamed of.
We make a ton of money, but we spend a ton of money. Bankruptcy is constantly staring us in the face. Right now, the vast bulk of our money is being reinvested into new concepts and products that are consistently in development. On the horizon are new products that we’ve never worked with before, such as denim jackets, corduroy, and home goods. Without saying too much, I have bigger and more ambitious plans that involve Sleepy Peach in new retail spaces. All of these things require a comedic amount of money, so there’s a lot of give and take in regards to what we can release and promise without going abruptly bankrupt.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sleepypeach.clothing
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sleepypeach.clothing
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sleepypeach.clothing
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@sleepypeach.clothing
