THE STORY OF MELIN

What happens when the CEO of a startup luxury headwear brand attends Business Mastery?

Major breakthroughs and a path to geometric growth, resulting in a major lifestyle brand purchasing a majority stake – a partnership that ultimately scales the business to reach its potential.

The Story of Melin: Origin

Brian McDonell and Corey Roth, college friends that were both passionate about sports and had a shared desire to build a company that inspired others, founded Melin – a Southern California premium lifestyle brand focused on creating the world's best headwear through luxury materials, unique designs and relentless innovation. Within one year, they generated over $1M in revenue.

Breakthrough

In August, Brian attends Business Mastery in Las Vegas, where Tony helped him identify that the personality differences with his co-founder did not weaken Melin, it made the company stronger. Tony told him, “The greatest gift you have is your different opinions.” 
SEE BRIAN'S BREAKTHROUGH

100% Revenue Growth

The year after Business Mastery, Melin’s revenue doubled – it was 100% revenue growth year over year. “But as a startup, we had outlandish expectations and high standards for ourselves, so we were not satisfied. We knew in order to maintain and increase geometric growth, we needed investment.”

STEP 1

Build a Raving Fan Culture

The Core Team

It Starts at Home

As Tony says, an essential part of growing a business is to create “raving fan” clients, because satisfied customers go away when something better comes along, but raving fans stay. Melin had an extraordinary product, with a strong, loyal customer base. But they also needed a strong, loyal internal team, and to do that, you must treat your employees as well as you do your customers, if not better


Here's how Brian took massive action to create “raving fan” culture. 

1

Morning Rituals

"I love Tony’s 10-minute morning ritual: the breathing exercise, the expression of gratitude, the feeling of connection and the visualization of your success that day," says Brian. So they immediately implemented this with every employee, every morning, to get everyone "in state."


*Ed Note: Soul Cycle CEO Melanie Whelan, upon returning from BM, did the same thing with her employees.

2

Visual Reinforcement

Many business owners return from Business Mastery full of excitement and ideas on how to grow their business, but struggle with “translating” these to their team. Brian made copies from the BM handbook and pinned them up on the wall, so all of the new processes and approaches were spelled out, visually.

 

“It’s become a guiding system for our company,” he says.

3

Email Database

“We wanted to start providing daily inspiration to our Melin family – employees, investors and friends. So we began a rotational flow within the organization where we all take turns sending a video, quote or story to everyone. We called it the Melin Movement.”

 

With this personalized, viral approach, their email database exploded, from 30 people to over 1000.

STEP 2

IDENTIFY LONG-TERM GROWTH STRATEGIES

2015

The Ideal Investor

But when you’re only two years old – still in infant/teenager stage of your Business Lifecycle – traditional financing is hard. Melin leveraged all its credit lines, but needed more to execute on the 18-month business MAP they had made. “We wanted to find an investor that would not just provide growth capital but also help us with long-term growth, with operating infrastructure and other benefits that would boost the business.”

2016

A Perfect Match

Brian and Corey’s network by this time was so strong – due in part to the “Melin Movement” culture they had started – that founders of incredible companies like Nixon, Stance and OluKai were connected to him, and interested in a partnership. “We ended up with OluKai; our values were perfectly aligned, and they had everything we knew we needed.”

 

step 3: after the deal

LEVERAGE NEW OPPORTUNITIES

"The only problem we really have is we think we’re not supposed to have problems. Problems call us to a higher level – face and solve them now!”

TONY ROBBINS

M&A

Facing New Challenges

As any startup knows, making the jump from early-stage growth company to becoming a part of a larger organization brings with it a new set of challenges. But as Tony says, identify your problems, but give time and energy to your solutions. Brian’s new goal was to focus on how to leverage Melin’s new assets and opportunities.

CANI

Brian’s Personal Growth

As a leader of a fast-growing company, Brian knew he had to “level up” his own skills. “I thought about getting an MBA, but instead of wasting time and money on that, and spending time away from my wife and new baby, I subscribed to Jay Abraham’s monthly mastery calls for 6 months. It was the best decision I could have made.” Jay then conducted for-trade clinics and program training for Brian and his whole staff, taking the entire team’s game up to a new level.

WHAT'S NEXT
A COMPELLING FUTURE

STEPPING UP

Constant and Strategic Innovation

Brian knows that strategic innovation in customer service and adding more value than anyone else will drive Melin forward.

 

“Looking at the apparel landscape, there is obvious room for disruption – and we want to be the brand that does that. We want to serve the client of the future. How can we create stronger relationships with our clients, inspire them, and incentive them to pursue their dreams?”

 

Through influencer marketing and celebrity-forward ad campaigns, Melin is building an aspirational brand for the next generation of consumers.

Want to create this type of success in your business?

Join Tony Robbins and the greatest minds in business for a live 5-day immersive event. At Business Mastery, you will learn the revolutionary skills to create a thriving business in any economic environment while discovering how to apply actionable strategies and tools to generate geometric growth.