Sebastian Malczewski, a Polish immigrant and proud father is CEO of Marc Nolan, a rapidly expanding Chicago-based fashion brand committed to seamlessly combining style with accessibility.

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Guest Resource

Sebastian’s Email – Connect with Sebastian.

3 Value Bombs

1) Believe in yourself , listen to your gut, find the right people and develop them to be the best they can be.

2) Give the luxury feel with affordable price to your customers and pay much attention to their comfort.

3) Never micromanage people. Listens to them and try to step out of the box.

Show Notes

**Click the time stamp to jump directly to that point in the episode.

Today’s Audio MASTERCLASS: How I Built a $10M Shoe Company from Scratch.

[1:44] – Sebastian shares something that he believes about becoming successful that most people disagree with.

Believe in yourself , listen to your gut, find the right people and develop them to be the best they can be.

[2:20] – Sebastian talks about his Ah Ha moment and what inspired him to enter the shoe industry, and his first steps to bring his vision to life.

The name Marc Nolan is close to his heart. It is the combination of his son’s name Nolan and Marc, the name of his mentor and business partner who taught him a lot in the shoe industry.
He worked with him for 15 years and manage his stores in Chicago and New York. By learning and listening to people , he realize that there was a gap in the men’s footwear for bolder styles. He thought of developing his own company. Marc did not join him so he decide to branch out on his own.
Though he know a thing about shoes and customers, he didn’t know where to start. Marc suggested him to go to China and find some factories and addresses, but the rest was up to him. He went to China without much guidance and looked for people to source the shoes, shoe horse, laces, boxes and shipping. He didn’t gave money and just borrowed $100K from a friend who believed in him and became his partner in the business.

[5:16] – Sebastian talks about the biggest challenges he faced in the early days of Marc Nolan.

In China, his challenge was finding the right people. He doesn’t call it luck but his wife said to him that he has the gift of finding the right people. He listen to his gut, went from shop to shop and factory to factory until he found a lady who worked for bigger companies. She somehow believed in him and they put out a plan to send his first container to Chicago and sold it out.
In US, his obstacle was when he launched his company and he doesn’t have the money for the capital. He had difficulty getting a loan from the bank because he doesn’t have credit history or collateral. He had Diana, his CFO who was able to come with a plan to apply for a SBE loan to fuel his business, buy more containers and get the business rolling.

[7:58] – Sebastian talks about how he grew Marc Nolan into a $10M business and scale the operations, marketing, and product development to reach this number.

It’s a combination of many aspects. He started with warehousing to allow him to save money and get his friends to work in his warehouse in the time of Covid.
He controls everything in house and now he has 3 warehouses that allowed himt o build his creative team without outsourcing.
Have the right people and let them maximize their potential.
They also experimented on different materials, mixing and going bold. Having something unique and different and a hook on customers who are seeking those kind of styles of shoes.
He has this philosophy that he started with nothing and he can go back with nothing. Throwing the product that nobody throws at that time helped them to get noticed and they start to build their customer based pushing boundaries for shoes.
He doubled down on those things in the market that he noticed that are missing. He also had a great turn out in the factory having his deliveries from China to US in 62-75 days.

[11:04] – A timeout to thank our sponsors.

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[13:59] – Sebastian tells how he differentiate Marc Nolan from other shoe brands in such a competitive market.

He listens to his gut for his key decisions.
Because he is a smaller company, he can easily adjust to new realities and paying attention to customer service.
They give the luxury feel with affordable price to their customers, paying much attention in to their comfort. He keeps in track of what is in fashion going to Italy and Paris Fashion week and they become more like a fashion company.
He listens to people and goes to his stores 2x a week to listen to his customers and get the info to maintain the edge.

[16:01] – Sebastian talks about his leadership philosophy.

He never micromanage people. He listens to them and try to step out of the box.
He organize events and never control his employees as long as the job is done and he is happy to try new things.
He lets people to be boss of themselves and allows them to do what they love to do because if his team is happy, he is also happy and the whole synergyg is there for them.

[19:01] – Sebastians talks about the future of Marc Nolan.

They are in the pivot moment and trying to restructure the company a little. He realized tto bring more traditional colors and move the marketing spend for Meta , find creative ways to spend money and get new customers activating cultural events,e xpand his creative team and management team and doing everything in house.
Talk to retailers and put the shoes in smaller stores and get bigger stars to advertise it.
Expand outside US to Asian market and bring a designer for women’s shoes.

[21:15] – Call to action.

Sebastian’s Email – Connect with Sebastian.

[24:41]– Thank you to our Sponsors!

HubSpot: Stop spreading yourself thin, and start making major moves with HubSpot! Visit Hubspot.com/marketers to learn more!
ThriveTime Show: Attend the world’s highest rated business growth workshop taught personally by Clay Clark & NOW featuring Rich Dad Poor Dad Author Robert Kiyosaki and Eric Trump at ThrivetimeShow.com/eofire!

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