00:00: The Benefits of No Staff and Overcoming Challenges
04:09: Smashing the Olympic Record
07:44: The Beginnings of a Toy Distribution Business
11:36: From Direct-to-Consumer to Retail: The Evolution of Sales Strategy
15:16: From Distribution to Manufacturing
19:00: The Impetus for Creating a Manufacturing Company
22:38: Overcoming Challenges in Manufacturing
26:16: Finding the Right Team Members
29:54: Growth and Shedding of Skin
33:48: The Process of Becoming the Person You Can Be
37:15: The Importance of Firing People Fast
40:59: The Challenges and Joys of Working with a Team
44:55: Losing Control of My Destiny
48:47: Creating Sustainable Products
52:20: The Parallels Between Endurance Athletics and Entrepreneurship
56:14: Overcoming Mental Challenges to Achieve Success
59:49: Introduction to Beyond a million podcast and website
Brad (58:03.771)
Yeah, I love this question. Look, as I think back on my journey, the key to my learnings to this point in time is that…
there is a compound effect that comes from consistently showing up and doing the work day in, day out. We see success, you see like the Zuckerbergs and the Musks and you just see like achievement and awards and things like that. But what you don’t see behind that is the hundreds and thousands of hours put in doing the work.
Like you’re just seeing the very shiny tip of the possibility. But behind that, it was mostly boring and monotonous and in some cases heartbreaking. So as I think about ultra racing, you can’t do ultra racing’s just at a whim. This is something you have to be willing to do the work. So the parallels are, are perfect that, you know, when I first started training, so I decided to do this race real quickly. The background, I was going to Hong Kong. There had an officer as you already heard about.
And I learned about the Gurkhas, right? These were basically the badasses of World War II. And they were Nepalese warriors who had incredible endurance and the British forces would send them in for kind of doing their seals work back at that time. And they trained in Hong Kong and write a passage to their sort of final feat is they had to run this hundred kilometer course through the mountains of Hong Kong, which…
If you haven’t been there, they’re not big mountains, but they’re really challenging. They’re steep and pitchy and going through jungle. The trail’s not awesome, it’s hard. And they had to wear these heavy packs and they had to complete it in a very short period of time. And I always was amazed at that. And I asked the question of myself, could I do that? Right? I don’t know. One of my mentors, Jim Rohn said, in life you may not be able to do all you find out, but make sure you find out all you can do. So it’s like, well.
Brad (59:56.371)
Can I do that? And so I set a goal to try, even though I’ve never been, I was a sprinter growing up, not an ultra or distance runner, but I just had the goal to test myself. And I attempted in 2016, we got 60 kilometers in. Oh, by the way, I should back up and say, my very first run training for this event, I did three kilometers and it almost killed me. But, you know, like I was like at the end of three kilometers, like, this is crazy.
NNam (01:00:20.667)
the
Brad (01:00:26.233)
Um, but you know.
NNam (01:00:26.706)
Let me also do quick conversions for the stupid Americans. 100 kilometers is 60 miles. Just frame a reference. 62.
Brad (01:00:33.543)
Yes, exactly. Exactly, thank you. So I started from very humble beginnings, but it’s that like, you know, mastery is found on the mountaintop of mistakes and just continually pushing and persisting through the pain. There’s gotta be purpose on the other side of your pain. And like I said, the struggles will build strength, the challenges help build your character. And so that first race, I got the 60 kilometers, so it was about…
NNam (01:00:37.771)
Mm-hmm.
Brad (01:01:02.303)
35 miles, I think. There was a freak ice storm. I was in the back of the mountains in Hong Kong. I was actually pictures of my pack with ice on it. And I went into a tent to warm up and I got hypothermic and ended up having to not complete the race that time and felt really distraught. Cause a lot of training to get to that point only to fail. And I was later consoled by the fact they canceled the race because of the extreme weather and the ice storm and some.
There was a bunch of runners that were in the hospital from falling in hypothermia and stuff like that. So that was somewhat consoling, but I decided the year after I had to go back and finish it. And so I did. And all I can say is 21 and a half hours. I don’t think there was anything left. I actually write about it in my book. Like I just kind of unpack like everything that happened along the mile markers, cause it was literally what I’ve come to learn is it’s a six inches between your ears that ultimately determine.
the outcome because your body can do incredible things, but your mind is telling it all kinds of silliness. And I think it’s true for entrepreneurship as well. It’s not what the thoughts you think, it’s telling yourself the thoughts you need to have. Because what comes to your mind is often just a very immature, not well thought through. I tell people my first thought is rarely my best thought. And it’s more about telling yourself what you need to hear to overcome the six inches that’s telling you what.
potentially is holding you back or why you should quit and why there’s too much pain and now it’s time to stop. So speaking through the possibilities is something that race really taught me.
NNam (01:02:39.678)
Love that. I have a, a very good friend, uh, who is a musician, Jay Hobbs, and he has a song and a line. Uh, I am not.
Brad (01:02:45.397)
Hmm.
Brad (01:02:50.859)
Hmm
NNam (01:02:52.482)
very much is along the path of we all have these thoughts rushing through our head nonstop. Uh, that does not mean that is you. And it does not mean that is where you have to go. Um, I love that. That’s great. Uh, well, Brad, I appreciate you carving out time. It is awesome to get time to talk to you, whether it is in a lodge in the middle of nowhere, British Columbia, um, you know, or
perhaps on a trail in Hong Kong someday, probably not around three for you on that one though I imagine. Your book is going to be out shortly, Startup Santa, A Toymaker’s Tale of 10 Business Lessons Learned from Timeless Toys. I’m looking forward to reading that. Is there anywhere else you want to point people in the meantime?
Brad (01:03:24.563)
No.
Brad (01:03:41.447)
Look, I think if you want to learn about the businesses, go to Pela Case.com or Lomi.com. I said, you know, we’re committed to creating a waste free future. And this is the idea having a mission with a company. And I think you’re going to learn a lot about our culture and what we do and why we do it. And if you want to find out about me personally, you can go to my website, which is brad peterson.com. And Peterson is spelled not the way you think it is. It’s all with E’s and D’s. So yeah, brad peterson.com and or
Startup Santa book calm and you can find that we’ve put some free resources and things like that there as well. So
NNam (01:04:18.286)
but we will put all of that in the show notes and probably the next time we’ll be in British Columbia. So I will look forward to that.
Brad (01:04:29.383)
Yeah, man, can’t wait. It’s coming up quick. Winter is an exciting time in this part of the world and look forward to hosting you in our lovely province once again. It’s a beautiful place.
NNam (01:04:39.182)
Can’t wait. Brad, thanks for the time, man.
Brad (01:04:41.675)
Cheers, all the best.
