CEO & Founder Of Blenders Eyewear, Chase Fisher

Chris Ronzio  (00:42):

Welcome back everyone. I'm Chris Ronzio today. We're here with Chase Fisher. He is the CEO and founder of Blenders Eyewear. What's up Chase?

Chase Fisher (00:50):

What's going on, man? How are you?

Chris Ronzio  (00:51):

Great. Thank you for being here. I can't wait for you to share this rocket ship story of yours.

Chase Fisher (00:56):

For sure, man. Excited.

Chris Ronzio  (00:58):

Before we get into it, I'm going to ask you to just really quick share what Blenders is all about, but for anyone that hasn't seen, like the Instagram ads and the amazing content you guys put out, I actually bought my wife like four pairs of your sunglasses before vacation we went on, because I could. It was like, let me just, instead of getting her one pair, let me go buy her all these different kinds. I gave it to her before we got on the plane and she's become a huge fan.

Chase Fisher (01:21):

I love that, man. That is so cool.

Chris Ronzio  (01:24):

Yeah. So tell us real quick, like what, what is a Blenders Eyewear all about?

Chase Fisher (01:29):

Yeah, so I started Blenders back in 2012. We are a lifestyle brand here in San Diego that specialized in all different types of sunglasses, really bold design, vibrant color ways, at an affordable price point. And kind of the whole idea is just really came from when I went to go see my favorite DJ at a nightclub. And I wore some neon green sunglasses from target that received crazy amounts of attention. And later that night, you know, it was the idea was born on the dance floor. I was working as a surf coach at the time. So I was spending all my time at the beach and couldn't afford the sunglasses that I liked, and saw a real big gap in the market between your high-end fashion sunglasses and your low end beach knock-offs like the ones I was wearing. And so, dove in headfirst, borrowed 2000 bucks and built blenders all around that like active lifestyle culture of San Diego. We've been in business for just past nine years now. So it's been a crazy run.

Chris Ronzio  (02:24):

Amazing. Well, if you think about the success and kind of the turning point, how much would you attribute to the brand and the lifestyle component versus the product or the pricing? Because it seemed like kind of a perfect storm. So how would you break that out?

Chase Fisher (02:37):

For sure. I mean, I've always been a big brand guy since day one and I knew the value of building a brand just from being a, you know, a surfer in high school and being sponsored and working with a lot of companies. I knew that the brand was extremely important to our longevity. So I focused on that since from day one. And then in today's day and age with like social media, like you have to marry that with a great product, because if you have a bad product now, it's just word of mouth travels faster than ever before. So, um, yeah, you really need to focus on those two things. In my opinion, those are held in very high regard as well as customer experience.

Chris Ronzio  (03:11):

Yeah. So the product is kind of table stakes. Like it has to be good. It has to work otherwise you're not going to keep customers, but if you didn't have a brand, no one would know about it. So you were able to master that. I remember I had a mentor of mine that was sitting outside, like this little furniture shop and he's like, they make amazing stuff, but they're going out of business because no one knows about them. When you were building this, what was the intentional strategy of like, how do we get this out there? How do we tell people about it?

Chase Fisher (03:38):

Yeah, so this was back in, I mean, this was kind of pre social media, right? A little bit before Instagram was even a thing. I mean, when I started, I was selling shades out of my backpack on the beach, like grassroots owning the pavement. I was going to pool parties. I was going to music festivals. I was going to surf contest. I was going to street fairs and literally building the brand organically. Cause that's all I knew how to do. I didn't know how to build a website. I didn't know how to drive traffic. It was all about just getting the brand out there on an organic level. And for me that was extremely valuable because everything was born face to face. And it was born with like people in relationships in the real world. So it was a lot of just me running and gunning early on. And then when social media started to kind of take shape and Instagram got popular, that was like, okay, all of our tactics really migrated to building the brand and our presence online. So yeah, it was a lot of manual work, a lot of, you know, long days and sun, but I want to just want to trade it for anything.

Chris Ronzio  (04:39):

That's great. So five years ago, or so you were a small team, you were like seven people and this year you're going to be like 60 people. So you've had this big explosion over the last few years in the people side of the business, and I'm sure you've had to grow a lot as a CEO. So take me back to like, when you were selling out of your backpack, how did you first realize, wow, this is a business and I need to take this seriously?

Chase Fisher (05:01):

Yeah. I mean, look, when you just start and you bootstrap, like you're wearing every hat in the book. And so for me, it was like trying to figure out how to do marketing, how to do social media, how to do operations, how to do logistics? I was literally doing everything because I couldn't afford to hire anyone. So it's a blessing and a curse, right? I mean, as you grow, like you become so attached to the business that sometimes it's hard to let go, but on the flip side, it's really important to know those positions. So you know how to hire for them and you know what to look for. So the mindset and me trying to let go of certain areas of the business has been a challenge over the years, for sure, especially on the brand and marketing side. But, um, you know, as I started to kind of let go and put more people in command, that's when things really grow. I mean, at the end of the day, you cannot build a business by yourself. You have to have a good team behind you. So yeah, it's definitely been a huge focus.

Chris Ronzio  (05:51):

I want to come back to delegation because I know that's hard for all of us, for a lot of people, but at the very beginning, who were the key roles that you surrounded yourself with that really made an impact for you?

Chase Fisher (06:02):

So we hired a really good designer right off the bat. I mean, that was like our first main hire. Um, second was just more like intern work just to kind of really help us with like reaching out to athletes and influencers to send product to. And then we just started working externally with a lot of content creators to kind of help build our, our brand look and feel, which I thought was really really important because most people miss that. And if you're gonna build a brand, it needs to be visually like it needs to look good. So yeah, more on the creative side was some of the early hires. And then we hired some just customer service people to help with customer service and slowly built our way up. But everything was built from the ground up versus the top-down.

Chris Ronzio  (06:43):

So a lot of people when they're focused on making the product or delivering some service, they've got that early team and it sounds like yours was the designers and creators. So what were your first couple like manager or executive sorta hires? Cause that feels like a turning point for a lot of businesses.

Chase Fisher (06:59):

Totally. Yeah, we didn't get much manager level in it for at least a few years. You know what I mean? It was just kinda like, there wasn't enough work, like for one department to bring in like a specialist, we just had like a bunch of jack of all trades coming in. But I didn't really build out a leadership team until 20, 2018. Which is pretty crazy. So I was pretty late in the game, to build out a strong leadership team. So, I mean, it's still an area of focus, but that that's been a challenge for me over the years is building a really strong, you know, exec team.

Chris Ronzio  (07:31):

Yeah. So are there areas that you've had to learn to let go of things that you were actually really good at that you've had to pass on to someone else? It's easy to give away this stuff we don't want to do?

Chase Fisher (07:42):

No, for sure. I was running the Instagram for like seven years, man, like six years almost. For me giving up Instagram was like giving away my baby, like my child. It was so difficult for me to let go of that. And I'm still involved. But at the same time, like that was probably the hardest thing for me to let go of was a lot of the creative, the brand, the look, the feel, the photography, things like that that really mean a lot to me, were very hard for me to let go of.

Chris Ronzio  (08:14):

And I'm sure when you brought that first person on to help with it, you were probably really critical of how they were doing it because you had such a way you wanted it done. Right?

Chase Fisher (08:23):

Totally. Yeah. You become so like zoned in on the way that you want it done. And like, it's like one words off, or that's captions wrong or like the edits a little cropped weird. You're just looking for every possible flaw and it can make you go crazy sometimes. So sometimes you got to step away from it.

Chris Ronzio  (08:40):

Any insights on like, you know, if someone is trying to train someone else on, on a thing that they're really good at, what's helped you to be able to step back or to be able to give some grace, like what have you learned through that process?

Chase Fisher (08:53):

Yeah. I think for me setting templates has been huge, right I'm a guy that needs, like I need to visually see things, you know, personally. And I would assume that others do as well. So for me, I just try to make it as simple and visually pleasing as possible. And just be clear with your message and communication and I think that's, sometimes it's always a big challenge. The smallest things are sometimes the hardest things. Right? So, I think it's just kinda like, letting them take first stabs at it, providing feedback and then knowing how to give proper feedback. Right? Like there's a whole framework for giving feedback versus just saying what you don't like and what they need to change. So I'm constantly trying to get better at that every single day.

Chris Ronzio  (09:37):

So with a brand like Blenders, I bet you guys get a ton of inbound interests, people that want to work for you because you're just out there people know about you. And so how do you vet through all those people that just want to be associated with you because they think you're cool from the ones that can actually do the job and like move the business forward?

Chase Fisher (09:55):

Yeah. I mean, that's a tough one, right? Because as you hire new people and then they have to have certain skillsets, right? Like you want them to be coming in and adding value. At the same time, like I just try and scale it back. I just try and really get to know them personally. Like when I talk to people or we're interviewing people, I'm not like grilling them with questions. I'm just like, Hey, what do you like to do for fun? Where do you like to travel? Like, what makes you? And really try and connect with them on that level, find out what their values are, what their passions are, what brands they like. You know what I mean? Just connecting with them on a personal level is my way of kind of understanding, are they going to be a cultural fit? And if they're going to be cultural fit, there'll be, there'll be trainable. There'll be, you know, we can mold them, things like that. But yeah, it's important that you build a brand that has cultural values that people that truly identify themselves with whatever it is we're doing.

Chris Ronzio  (10:49):

Yeah. I'm right with you. I mean, just being able to get to know the people that are going to work at the business, I think is so important. So once, once you decide someone does have the fit and they're going to be a match for the team and for the role, how do you get them indoctrinated? Like how do you share with them the Blender's story and culture and like make them part of the team?

Chase Fisher (11:10):

Yeah. So I mean, obviously there's a whole onboarding process and it's still not perfect, but you know, it's definitely different per person. We bring people in, we get them comfortable, we ask them some questions. We get them meeting with every single person on the team, which I think is important just because it really gets them involved and in the business and gets them understanding certain parts of the business, even if it might not pertain to their department. We like to have them meet with a lot of people. I'll meet with everyone. We'll go over certain things and kind of like vision kind of brand values, things like that, what we hold in high regard. And then, we kind of just start to really just do check-ins and we do like team happy hours, introduce them at company meetings, but everything's remote now. So it's kind of like keeping that connection and that cultural, like building culture through Zoom is pretty hard. So, got to find new ways to keep people engaged.

Chris Ronzio  (12:05):

Does everyone get to pick a set of sunglasses or something when they get started?

Chase Fisher (12:10):

Yeah, no, for sure. There's definitely like a certain amount of sunglasses you get per year. We have like team swag that we give everyone like hoodies and hats. And so that's exclusive for employees and team writers. We have stuff like that, which is pretty cool. Um, but yeah, I mean, it's all about the people at the end of the day, you know?

Chris Ronzio  (12:27):

Yeah, totally. Well, I would struggle to work at an apparel and kind of accessory company. I worked at Abercrombie when I was in college and spent my entire paycheck on just like the new stuff that came out. So I'm sure, I'm sure your people are your great customers too. Looking back, if you had to pinpoint some key turning points on how you really like unlocked a new level of scale, a lot of people struggled to get past the backpack stage and then they struggle to get past the group of seven people stage. And so are there things that happened, you know, in the market with the product, with the team that you felt like really propelled you forward?

Chase Fisher (13:05):

Yeah. I mean, I think there's a lot of, there's definitely some like, you know, early wins, right? I wouldn't say there are home runs. There's no home runs in this game, it's all just small, small wins and, you know, getting on base a lot. But I think we did a lot of things wrong at the beginning, which made us understand how to do things, right? You got to make mistakes in order to kind of know, like to correct the course. I would say definitely like the rise of social media, Instagram was a huge win for us, to really like migrate from the sand on the beach to building a business online and then figuring out how to like take that and drive traffic to our website. That was big personally, figuring out paid social as well was also another big one.

On the product side, it was definitely like we saw, we went from 7 to 30 million in one year, because of just changes we made in our marketing efforts, and in our product. We were so heavily male focused for so long, but when we started designing women's products and marketing to women specifically, we saw massive increase because women are buying two to three to four to five pairs of shades at a time and they shop a lot more than men. And that was huge for us. So things like that, as well as taking bigger risks on certain kinds of colorways and frames that were more progressive and a little more wild, ended up being huge wins for us. So, yeah, I mean, you add all those up and then just the brand building and things like that kind of accumulate to larger ones over time.

Chris Ronzio  (14:29):

At what point did you have to add some external e-commerce experience? You know, you had this intuition for the product and the culture and the brand. But, when you're doing those kinds of numbers, every little bit helps in terms of what they're adding to their cart and this sort of thing. So what was that point?

Chase Fisher (14:48):

Yeah, I mean, for sure there was, we have so many different and agencies that we work with externally that are like email, social, things like that. A lot of that was kind of done on the marketing side. You know, we didn't have much internal focus on the site, so to say, most of the internal team was just kind of customer service, just trying to, being able to like feed the growth and like service the growth. But yeah, it was more so just kind of like mid tier marketing people that would come and help with social media, things like that, but we didn't have anyone like specific doing like CRO stuff until like, now.

Chris Ronzio  (15:26):

Cool. So looking forward, I mean, you've built this enormous business, huge success, awesome articles. I saw an article recently. I don't remember if it was New York Times or it was some big article, so everybody go find Chase on LinkedIn, check out the articles, but where to from here, what are you excited about in the next few years?

Chase Fisher (15:45):

Yeah, so we're definitely at a very awesome, exciting stage for Blenders. We just launched internationally, which is really exciting. We just launched in Australia and Canada about two months ago and we're seeing really big success there. So definitely gonna focus on scaling our international side of the business. We also launched prescription earlier this year, so we're trying to kind of like figure out the nuances with that because that's also a huge market. A lot of category expansion with our snow, things like that. Uh, retail is also very exciting for Blenders. We're opening up our second flagship store and we plan to open about 15 to 20 over the next 5 to 10 years. So scaling retail, which I think is really interesting because most brands are running away from retail. Those are definitely like the kind of the key areas, right. And then just continuing to build our online presence and stay and stay true to the brand and making sure our customers are stoked.

Chris Ronzio  (16:39):

I love it. Well, everyone that's listening. I mean, you probably have seen Blenders online. So you got to hear a little bit of this inside story about the stages that Chase has grown this business through. Like I said, seven people to 60 people and it sounds like growing and scaling tremendously from there. So follow this guy, get on his radar, watch this story because this is only the beginning. Chase, if people want to find you, where should they go?

Chase Fisher (17:03):

Definitely, check us out online. Blenderseyewear.com. You can follow me on Insta. I'm always available @chasefisher. And then, just, @blenderseyewear everywhere else.

Chris Ronzio  (17:11):

Amazing. All right, everyone. Well, you heard from Chase how to invest in your brand, how to grow your team, how to take some responsibilities off your plate and scale your product or service. Like he has. Amazing story. Hopefully you can take a page from his playbook and put it in yours. Chase. Thanks again for being here.

Chase Fisher (17:28):

So happy bro. Thanks man. Appreciate it.

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