At all times Make It Enjoyable: Interview with Chad Dime, Co-Founding father of DIFF Eyewear

I lately went one-on-one with Chad Dime, co-founder of DIFF Eyewear.

Adam: Thanks once more for taking the time to share your recommendation. First issues first, although, I’m certain readers would like to be taught extra about you. How did you get right here? What experiences, failures, setbacks, or challenges have been most instrumental to your development?

Chad: Thanks for having me. It’s all the time an honor to share my journey.

I co-founded DIFF Charitable Eyewear in 2014 alongside my associates Zach Gordan and Chad Jernigan. But in a method, the muse for the enterprise was laid lengthy earlier than we launched. I used to be actually born into the eyewear business, the place my father spent over 50 years manufacturing, importing, and distributing sun shades and studying glasses. Some of my earliest recollections are of me sitting beside him at commerce reveals, watching him shut offers with ease. By 15 years outdated, I used to be touring abroad with him, studying firsthand how product, folks, and processes come collectively on a worldwide scale.

But working with my dad wasn’t all the time simple, in truth, it was one of the formative challenges of my life. His enterprise was rooted in old-school wholesale, which was a grind-it-out, very volume-driven mannequin. There was no real interest in e-commerce and no pleasure round constructing a model, which is the place I wished to focus my vitality. I noticed a world altering, and I felt this deep inner pull to innovate, to inform a narrative, and to create real impression. 

Along my path, I’ve realized that nothing value doing comes with out resistance. I’ve confronted loads of setbacks with operational breakdowns, monetary stress, and folks not believing within the imaginative and prescient. But every problem grew to become a catalyst to sharpen my management and all the time jogged my memory why I began. Growth doesn’t come from consolation; it comes from the choice to maintain constructing even when the trail forward feels unsure.

Thankfully, I’ve been fortunate to have an outstanding staff round me. We introduced on a world-class CEO to assist scale the corporate, and collectively we’ve grown DIFF right into a acknowledged identify within the business. Thanks to my staff, I’ve been capable of shift a few of my focus to what fulfills me most, like working immediately with our nonprofit associate, Vision to Learn. That hands-on involvement in giving again and seeing the real-life impression of one thing that began as an concept between associates continues to be essentially the most humbling and motivating a part of my journey.

Adam: How did you give you your corporation concept? What recommendation do you might have for others on methods to give you nice concepts?

Chad: Working alongside my father within the eyewear business taught me invaluable classes. Probably the largest lesson I realized throughout all of these years was that your entire business was antiquated. So many aged manufacturers had been doing issues the identical method for many years, and I believed that one thing new and recent was going to have the ability to compete with the massive canine. It wanted a “why,” although, and that was the place the charity got here in. During school, I labored as a model ambassador for TOMS and was deeply impressed by their “One for One” mannequin. That was the second I spotted eyewear could possibly be greater than only a product and that it actually needs to be a platform for goal. I believed that if we took the identical product however made it higher high quality, extra reasonably priced, and charitable at coronary heart, it was going to resonate with the long run generations.

Advice I’ve for others which might be attempting to give you the following nice concept is maintain your ear to the bottom and by no means be afraid to reinvent the wheel. Some nice issues have a tendency to come back again round full circle, so if it labored nicely up to now, what will be finished otherwise to make it work even higher sooner or later? 

Adam: How do you know your corporation concept was value pursuing? What recommendation do you might have on methods to finest take a look at a enterprise concept?

Chad: Working alongside my father positively taught me that there was a profession in eyewear value pursuing, in order that was the first step. It additionally confirmed me I had actual ardour for this, however was a reminder that I wished to do it very otherwise.

When my co-founders and I launched DIFF, we truly began by promoting sun shades at music festivals. This was the place we determined that this was going to be value pursuing. It was grassroots, scrappy, and a ton of enjoyable. However, an important factor about these festivals was that we noticed folks craving daring, fashion-forward kinds at an accessible value level, and so they had been energized by the concept their buy would give again. That early traction gave us the momentum and confidence to scale the model into one thing larger.

My recommendation for anybody seeking to give you an excellent enterprise concept is that this: Be ready to take dangers and all the time make it enjoyable. One very critical bit of recommendation I like to provide when launching a brand new enterprise isn’t let or not it’s a facet gig as a result of if it’ll achieve success, it’ll take all the pieces you bought!

Adam: What are the important thing steps you might have taken to develop your corporation? What recommendation do you might have for others on methods to take their companies to the following stage?

Chad: At DIFF, our development has been rooted in group and trigger. Influencer advertising and marketing was big for us early on, and we partnered with individuals who genuinely cherished the model. Our give-back mannequin, the place we’ve donated over 5 million sight-saving therapies, gave the celebs much more inspiration to work with us, and most significantly, it gave clients a cause to be ok with their buy, too. Additionally, our omnichannel method actually helped propel us with superb partnerships at Nordstrom, Dillard’s, and about 2,000 different specialty and boutique retailers has actually helped us develop. 

Advice on taking enterprise to the following stage: Build an incredible staff round you. One of essentially the most impactful steps we took to speed up our development was constructing the suitable staff. In 2019, Bob Ross joined DIFF Eyewear as CEO, and we’ve seen constant development ever since. As a founder, it’s not about being nice at all the pieces; it’s about surrounding your self with folks whose strengths complement your imaginative and prescient. Building belief with the suitable management and staff is vital. 

Adam: What are your finest gross sales and advertising and marketing ideas?

Chad: Building communities by working with influencers has been highly effective for us. At first, it was all about A-List celebs, and now micro-influencers have been an enormous unlock for us. They have tight-knit, trusted communities and drive actual engagement. 

Selling our glasses at festivals initially was an unimaginable method for us co-founders, to fulfill clients face-to-face and to attach with them in actual time. When you’re working with little to no advertising and marketing finances, you need to get scrappy. We determined exhibiting up as founders was the most effective advertising and marketing software we had on the time, and that have was invaluable to our enterprise when it comes to studying about our market. 

Equally necessary are the relationships we’ve constructed with our retail companions. We view these partnerships as a two-way avenue the place our aim is all the time to create a win-win that helps each our development and theirs. We began as a DTC model, however prioritizing variety in gross sales channels has allowed us to faucet into totally different pockets of our shopper base in a number of methods. Amazon is a beast, and also you gotta try this dance as nicely.

Adam: In your expertise, what are the defining qualities of an efficient chief? How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their management abilities to the following stage?

Chad: Great leaders pay attention first. I’ve realized that you just don’t have to have all of the solutions, however you do have to empower your staff to discover the solutions collectively. When I co-founded DIFF in 2014, it rapidly grew to become clear that neither I nor my co-founders had been the suitable match for the CEO position long-term. In 2019, we made the pivotal resolution to herald Bob Ross, who continues to guide the corporate as our CEO at present. Bringing on Bob was the most effective resolution we have now ever made, and he has been an unimaginable chief and mentor. To develop as a frontrunner, make investments time and vitality into a superb staff and keep humble. 

As a frontrunner, I’ve realized that aligning your staff round a shared goal is without doubt one of the strongest methods to foster drive. Humans, by nature, wish to be a part of one thing. At DIFF, our partnership with Vision To Learn provides each staff member, throughout each division within the firm, a way of goal and a transparent reminder that we’re working towards one thing larger than ourselves. I additionally say that as a frontrunner, it’s all the time our job to assist these round us achieve success. If you carry on a brand new staff member, it’s your accountability to spend money on their success!

Adam: What is your finest recommendation on constructing, main, and managing groups?

Chad: My father all the time used to inform me that “we are only as good as the sum of our parts,” and I reside by that. I all the time say I may by no means do that with out the assistance of my superb staff. However, as you develop and add new heads, it will possibly really feel very tumultuous at occasions. It’s necessary to spend so much of one-on-one time with people coaching, strategizing, executing, and so forth., each day to make sure I hear immediately from every staff and that everybody is aligned with the overarching imaginative and prescient of the corporate and maintains motivation to be a part of the larger image. 

Adam: What are your three finest ideas relevant to entrepreneurs, executives, and civic leaders?

Chad:

1. Adaptability: I can truthfully say one of many greatest issues I apply on daily basis is what I realized my complete life as a surfer. You should be like water: you should adapt and circulate with each single problem that comes alongside.
2. Learning from Loss: As they are saying, you all the time be taught essentially the most from the losses. Every time we have now gotten in a bind and when issues felt like all the pieces was crashing down, that was what made us stronger. That was what taught us by no means to make the identical errors twice.
3. Profit and Purpose: For these pondering of incorporating a give-back part to their model, my recommendation could be to not let this be an afterthought. If you’ll do it, go for all of it the way in which, and don’t let or not it’s one thing that sits within the background. Bring it to the forefront and make it current in each contact level. It additionally have to be finished in a method that feels real and genuine.

Adam: What is the only finest piece of recommendation you might have ever acquired?

Chad: The finest recommendation I ever acquired was from my father. He would all the time inform me that “I’ll give you a penny for a starter and a dollar for a finisher.” He believed in seeing issues by means of till the top and by no means giving up. There have been occasions when all of it felt like method an excessive amount of operating a enterprise of this dimension, and it will have been simple to only throw within the towel. However, I can all the time hear his voice at the back of my head reminding me to by no means surrender.