His Side Hustle Became His Store | Andy Buss

When Andy Buss founded mi State of Mind, a Michigan apparel brand, he went door to door selling stickers to stores, and eventually to figuring out t shirts, hoodies, and wholesale pricing on the fly.

Then Covid hit. His wholesale accounts shut down, blank hoodie costs nearly doubled, and a year of orders disappeared.

So he adapted.

He doubled down on the store and the website. He built tastings into the retail experience with hard cider and Michigan wine. And earlier this year he launched a new MCHGN logo that's pulling in a whole new generation of customers.

What we covered:

→ Going door to door with a box of stickers

→ How Covid doubled his costs and wiped out a year of wholesale

→ What a brand protection attorney actually does on Amazon

→ Why MI State of Mind will never be sold on Amazon

→ Hard cider tastings and making retail an experience

Chapters

0:00 Intro

1:00 Meet Andy and mi State of Mind

6:06 From stickers to a storefront

10:32 Covid and the wholesale crash

15:28 Going direct to consumer

18:32 Where the MCHGN idea came from

20:07 Juggling the side hustle and the 9 to 5

28:11 Brand protection: the day job

31:32 Why the brand stays off Amazon

39:21 Tastings and experiential retail

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