The Epic Story Of How I Created GloveStix And Landed 11 TV Shows

Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?

My name is Krista Woods and I am the Director of Stink Operations at GloveStix LLC.

I live in Virginia with my husband Chris and we have 3 children ages 26, 20 and 18. Raising 3 kids in sports and spending thousands of dollars on athletic gear and even more money and time traveling to various States to watch them play meant lots of time trapped in the car or hotel with their gear, after they played. If you have any idea how bad they smell, after a hot day of playing multiple Lacrosse games, then you will know why I spent my middle son’s college fund to start GloveStix.

When I first started GloveStix I was simply trying to solve the problem of stinky lacrosse gloves, hence the name GloveStix. It wasn’t until they came out and my customers started using them in shoes and cleats and sending me the most amazing feedback that I even started selling them for shoes. About the same time, my sons’ cleats were starting to get rank, so that’s when I came out with my second product ShoeStix.

The ShoeStix are virtually the same thing they just have different features that make them more versatile for smaller shoes and taller boots. My customers are a broad range but mostly athletes of all age ranges, but I do have a ton of people that use them in everyday shoes as well. What started as a mostly lacrosse and hockey product, has turned into a product that is also used in soccer, boxing, MMA, baseball, football, volleyball, dancers, not to mention my many Military customers who struggle with boot odor, skiers, equestrians, hunters, fisherman, fireman, police, and even just your everyday runner has got stink. There is so much odor out there to cure!

I never would have dreamed the last 3 years would have turned out like this. When I started, it was just a fun little side business and then I realized how expensive it was becoming and there is nothing fun, about not making any money so I had to do something different. I went out on a limb and applied for The Today Show's Next Big Thing Contest and a few weeks later, I was being sent to NYC to pitch my product live on National Television.

I made it to the finals and then before I knew it I won the whole thing which sent me to sell live on QVC and I sold out in 7 ½ minutes. That was 3 years ago today actually and it was that contest that really put my company on the map. Since then, I have won 6 more awards from large organizations, been written about in over 30 articles, been on 11 TV shows including ABC’s Shark Tank and even filmed a Pitch Pilot for a Reality TV Series. It sure has been an amazing whirlwind!

What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?

As a working mother of 3, I was always very busy especially during their sports seasons. I spent more time in the car running from event to event and I had less time at home. I had spent years trying different products to help with the odor in their gear and wasted so much money, and time, trying to get the odor out especially from those lacrosse gloves.

Everything I found on the market was either a type of chemical spray that simply masked the odor with some overpowering chemical scent or some kind of wash that would ruin the glove, but nothing really worked and as soon as he played, everything would smell again. I even tried every trick on google I could find; I would have done anything to not smell that horrendous odor every carpool night. It wasn’t only my problem, every parent of an athlete I knew also had the same odor issues.

I looked at my husband and said, “That’s it! I am going to invent something!” With absolutely no experience in manufacturing, e-commerce, logistics or marketing, or actually anything I do now, and with the help of my husband, my family and friends I went from idea to prototype then to having an actual product for sale in 1 year.

There was a battle of the smell between my 14-year-old and I because he was also very particular about what I could do. When you wear expensive gloves in sports like Lacrosse, Hockey, Soccer, and Boxing, you actually have a bond with your gloves. I don’t get it, but trust me, it's true. The fit and feel of the glove is extremely important to the athletes and every time I would try a new spray or wash, he said I would ruin the feel of the glove and he hated the overpowering scent designed to mask the odor.

So 4 years ago, on the way home from a Lacrosse Tournament, my youngest son's gear bag was making me want to puke… again and I looked at my husband and said, “That’s it! I am going to invent something!” With absolutely no experience in manufacturing, e-commerce, logistics or marketing, or actually anything I do now, and with the help of my husband, my family and friends I went from idea to prototype then to having an actual product for sale in 1 year.

I spent the first few months researching what the odor actually was. All my free time was spent googling odor, and I became obsessed with it. I found out that sweat doesn’t smell, it's actually bacteria that you smell. Odor-causing bacteria like staph, e Coli, mold and mildew is actually what was living in my son's gear which is why I could never get rid of it. I learned that I had to make the product Antimicrobial which would help inhibit the growth of odor-causing bacteria. I also found out that it was the moisture from the sweat getting trapped inside the gear that caused the bacteria to grow. So when my son would sweat and throw his sweaty gear in his gear bag the bacteria babies would have their hay day inside his gear creating an odor that is absolutely foul so having my product also absorb the moisture was a must.

The actual design of the Stix just popped in my head. I wanted to create a product that not only was “cool” looking, so the athlete would actually want to use it, but after several months of research, I also knew…

• They HAD to work
• They HAD to be affordable
• They HAD to be chemical free and non-toxic
• They HAD to be easy to use, to help out us moms always on the go

I had no experience whatsoever in this field. I actually never went to college or took a business class for that matter but being in the sales/customer service industry what I do have is people skills and desire. I taught myself everything I could through the internet and read through over 2500 Patents and Trademarks and found nothing like what I wanted to create on the market. Whenever I had a question, I could not find an answer to online or just wanted to speak to a human about, I would post on Facebook. I realized super quick, that in my network of friends, were all the answers I was looking for. Not many people can say they actually created a business on Facebook… but I can. I am not afraid to ask for help, so I did. I asked a question on Facebook and I would have friends comment suggestions or even offer to connect me with a friend they knew that might be able to help. I took all their suggestions, wrote them down and used the ones I liked and disregarded the ones I didn’t, but I didn’t stop asking. Every time a friend offered to connect me with someone they knew, I took the time to make that call or answer that email. You cannot be afraid to ask questions and get help. Pride can work against you when you are starting a business and the feedback from others is essential in your success. Ultimately it was those friends that took the time to answer and connect me with people they knew how I found my manufacturer. If it wasn’t for my friends and families help, I could have never done this, and I will never ever forget how important those people were to my success.

After I had a product I knew worked, a design, and a plan I went to the bank and applied for a loan. Despite my husband and I having great credit and great jobs, we got denied for a few business loans.

I was surprised how hard it was to find money to get this started. My husband and I don’t have a lot of money but we have always worked hard and had good jobs so I thought we would be able to get one. I was wrong. We are very fortunate to live comfortably but at the time, we were paying for our daughters’ education who was in college and we had only saved up a small amount for our next son who was heading to college in a few years. That college money was the only option if I really wanted to do this. After careful discussions, my husband and I decided it was worth the risk so the college fund it was.

Take us through the process of designing, prototyping, and manufacturing your first product.

My husband Chris made the first prototype in our garage out of PVC pipe. It is pretty awesome to look back at that now and think what we did with it! My son Jackson tested the GloveStix after every practice and game, he would take the GloveStix and put them inside his gloves and he just left them there. We tested many different products to absorb moisture and Jackson was essential in the process. He was only 14 at the time, but since he also hated the way his hands would smell after a game, he was all in to help. We tested different plant based essential oils in combination as well since I knew the scent of them had to appeal to boys and it could not be overwhelming. Jackson would have his friends smell the different scents and vote on their favorite. I knew that in order to make this product sell, I had to make sure it was boy approved.

If you compare yourself to others you will always find someone smarter or better at something than you. Never waste your energy comparing yourself to others, use your energy to look inside of you and find YOUR greatness!

During that time, I was also researching manufacturing. How, when, where and who! I spoke with many different companies, just by googling and calling around but most had huge up-front fees for the official prototype and Cad designs. I got laughed at, hung up on, and put on eternal hold many times. I kept calling and calling and then once again, before I almost quit, I posted on Facebook. “Anyone out there know anyone ever who has manufactured something?” A few friends responded and were kind enough to connect me with people they knew, who happened to know other people, who could do this for me. That is when I spoke to a sourcing company and a few weeks later I had an estimate to get started. It was of course, higher than I initially planned but at this point my son had started coming home from practice saying his friends were asking if we could make them one too. The GloveStix were working so well and the kids loved it. I did too of course because that foul disgusting odor, was gone!

Even with a sourcing company, I found the manufacturing process really difficult. We went through the initial processes of prototyping and CAD designs and of course, everything was so new and exciting during that time. We ordered our first 1500 units and waited months before they got here. There were several delays, and the excitement started to become very stressful. When they finally arrived, they showed up with incorrect inserts, they were not the ones we approved. We ended up having to have the correct inserts rushed in and then we had to stuff each stick with the corrected inserts ourselves. One night when we were “stuffing stix” (that’s what we used to call it) and preparing for a big event we had to leave for the next day, a big storm came through and the electricity went out. We literally had my entire family sitting around the kitchen table by candlelight, stuffing stix for hours but it didn’t end there. We spent hours upon hours, 4-5 nights a week for months sitting on our family room floor replacing every insert with the correct ones, in every set of GloveStix. It was insanely time consuming and definitely one of the many memorable hurdles we overcame to get through this point.

What I know now is that this was just the first of many hurdles to come. You just get better at dealing with them, accepting them and recognizing that every time you get through that hurdle, it makes you stronger and tougher for the next round. I look back now and giggle at the things I used to think were stressful and think… that was nothin!

Describe the process of launching the business.

After I secured the manufacturing component it was time to go to work on the rest.

Admittedly, I completely underestimated the time and money needed to plan for something like this and thought that just inventing a product and finding manufacturing would be the hardest part. Boy, was I mistaken! There was so much to learn and wrap my head around, I was starting a brand-new career, from scratch and had to teach myself everything about this type of business. Initially I found a website company and they were awful. After a month of working with them, I got my rough draft and it was so bad that they even misspelled the name of my Company! I posted on Facebook, again, and a friend of mine commented that she had started her own website company and she would mock me up something. In 24 hours, I had a landing page that I loved, it was amazing how well she knew what I would like, and I am extremely grateful to Jennifer and her company Hello You Designs, she was an essential part of my launch.

As soon as I had my website up and running, about a month before I had product available, I did a “pre-sale” with future ship dates and shared on all my social media. I asked all my Facebook friends to share my social media pages and websites, and did they ever, it was amazing to see how many people felt personally invested because they literally watched GloveStix be “born”. I also started looking for a few influencers that allowed me to send them a sample, they would try it out, and then all I asked was if they liked the product to make a social media post for me. I looked for people who had great engagement with their followers and I could see that they interacted with them. I did not focus on the number of followers they had or offer any payment, my only ask was if they liked the GloveStix that they make a post. I messaged a bunch of them, and several were happy to do it free of charge, especially if I could help them with their STINK. By the time my order arrived, I already had hundreds of units pre sold.

Doing a pre-sale was awesome, and I was able to get some traction and buzz going about the product before it even arrived but as soon as product arrived, we started working events. Since I started as a product to get the odor out of Lacrosse gloves, I started with what I knew. Lacrosse is a travel sport, especially in the summer, so I found out in advance what tournaments my sons’ team would be playing at and then I contacted those tournament directors about vending opportunities. I purchased a tent, which I still use, and made some cheesy signs myself on Vistaprint (omg I look back now how bad they were, lol) but they fit in my marketing budget… of zero… so it worked. Having no clue what we were doing, my husband and our 3 kids drove to the first tournament and set up shop. While my youngest played in games all day, my 2 older kids helped work the tent while my husband and I would take turns switching off and watching Jackson play in his games. We sold out of every unit we brought that day and I will never forget what an amazing feeling that was. Our first event and we sold out! I have no clue how, that is the best part, like everything else we just did it!

That day inspired us to work as many tournaments as we could, although there is a fee to vend and it is a lot of hard work our goal was to spread the GloveStix love wherever we went. We knew we had to most importantly have fun, sell enough to pay for our trip, meet new customers face to face and have them personally invest in our company and brand by buying a set and if they loved it, we asked them all to share with their friends.

We even gave discounts on refills if they made a social media post with a testimonial and tagged us in it. Being we were there personally asking, made all the difference, since in the beginning word of mouth was the only budget we had. So, in addition to the 3 tournaments my sons’ team was attending that summer, my husband and I would work all week at our other jobs and then pack up Friday nights and go to Tournaments almost every weekend. We had a lot of on the job training and learned really quick that not all Tournaments are created equal and that Mother Nature can be a mean momma sometimes. You run the risk at every event that if it is windy, it stinks, if it rains, it really stinks and if it's windy and rainy together, you might as well pack up because no one is shopping.

We also had ordered funny t-shirts that said, “Got Stink?” and gave them out to a bunch of my son’s friends, they wore them everywhere and soon the shirts became something all the kids wanted. More and more were asking for a GloveStix shirt, parents started buying them and whenever I would see the kids wearing them, I would snap a picture and tag them on my Instagram. They started to send me their own pictures and even started making videos about how much their stuff stank. It was hysterical but it also helped with the buzz around my area. Those kids have no idea how much that meant to me, but they really were such a huge support system for our little business and their joy and excitement of GloveStix pushed me to grow. It really was an amazing community effort all around.

That Fall, we ventured into the Hockey scene as well. We had taken every penny we made over the summer and reinvested it back into the company to expand our reach. We drove a lot, including an 18-hour drive to Minnesota for a 3-day Hockey event, where we sold out, to the month later a 15 hr drive to Florida, where the whole event got rained out. Then the month after that, a huge Lacrosse Convention that we had paid to go to got canceled due to a blizzard.

The highs and lows of our new life was insane and if it wasn’t for the amazing support system I had at the time, I am not sure I could have handled the disappointment when it came. It was so much work, it still is, but working events almost every weekend on top of our other jobs was starting to take its toll. Some events were profitable, but some were a loss, and it was hard to wrap my head around how I could keep this up for much longer. I worked constantly, day in and day out, at both jobs and this job was without pay and sometimes without any profit. I decided, I HAD to try something else as well in order to bring awareness to GloveStix.

Shortly after there was an opportunity to apply for the Today Show's Next Big Thing Mom Inventor Contest. I decided what the heck, and I applied. Well I not only made it to pitch my product live on The Today Show, but I also won the whole darn thing and they sent me to QVC the next day and I went on QVC live and completely sold out in 7 ½ min. That week completely changed the entire trajectory of my business overnight. It was almost surreal and after that moment, I have never looked back. When we got back after that amazing few days, reality set in, and now I had to ship out thousands of units in a certain time frame and we were still working out of our home at the time.

My kids, parents, sisters, nieces, nephews, and TONS of my kids friends came over every day for weeks helping me ship out thousands of orders, all for the price of free pizza. The only thing I look back and think about all of it is gratitude. I am so grateful to my family, my friends, my kids friends, the Today Show, QVC, and to God because despite thinking it and feeling like it many times…I didn’t quit and that experience will be one of the most incredible ones of my lifetime.

What I learned in the process is that you either find an excuse or find a way to get it done, those are your only options. Having money may seem like it’s easier, but when you don’t you can either use that as your excuse or find other ways to put your skills to use. Spending the first year relying on your friends help, traveling and working events, getting a chance to meet so many customers in person, as well as all the relationships built with the other Vendors and Influencers (that I still maintain today) is an experience that no amount of money could have ever provided me with and those people and those moments cannot be replaced. My story wouldn’t be my story, without them!

Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?

After winning the Today Show's Next Big Thing and hearing all the amazing product feedback that year really gave me confidence not only in my products, but in my self and the new path that I was on. I started spending more and more time on GloveStix and less and less time working leads for my other job.

Because of that, I made a lot less money in my other business and our personal finances were really becoming a struggle, we had to sacrifice doing a lot of things we normally could afford. Although GloveStix was now profitable, it still wasn’t profitable enough to take money out of. We still needed to grow and in order to do that, you need inventory and inventory cost money. We knew we had to just keep reinvesting profits back in so that the next order we made, would be larger than the last.

So again, I started thinking outside the box and finding creative ways to generate PR. I applied to Woman’s Net Amber Grant Monthly Contest, hoping just to make it to the finals, and I won. More PR and a check to the winner too. I did this a few more times in 2017, when things would start to get a little stagnate, I knew it was time for my next challenge so I would find a contest somewhere and enter. I didn’t win them all, but I won some big ones including SCORE and Sam’s Club Small Business Championship that gave GloveStix award money, free national PR, a year of free small business mentoring and even a trip to Dallas. I am a very competitive person especially with myself, so I took each on as a challenge to learn something new and get better. Each experience was valuable not only in my growth as a person but also as a Small Business Owner.

Around that same time, I also started getting asked to speak. I have never had any Public Speaking classes, but I was really enjoying this new way of producing adrenaline by trying new things, so I said yes. I started in schools at first, I was so happy to give back to my community. I speak to all ages, from elementary to college kids and interestingly enough, I find a way to relate to them all. I share my story, how I solved the odor issue (which all of them relate to having) and my highs and lows, and what it really takes to run a business. Talking about odor to teenagers, can be really really funny! I also started speaking at other types of events, all over the place, from Woman’s Conferences to a Marketing Conference and anywhere in between. I have met some incredible people along the way, meanwhile I am sharing about GloveStix to more and more people. I have to say; speaking is definitely one of my favorite parts of my job. Getting out and sharing my story and inspiring others, also inspires me. I plan to continue to get better at this and grow and I know my audience size will also grow with me.

One of the craziest things that people say I do, that I do, is my own customer service. Ok, so it might be a little crazy but hear me out. I am a people person, a total extravert and most days I spend in my office working alone. GloveStix is much bigger than it was a few years ago so I don’t go to nearly as many events as I used to. I can make much more managing my website, social media ads and Amazon business from home. So, I handle customer inquiry emails and calls and any issues that may arise mostly because I like to talk to people. I am very lucky, I don’t have many issues but since I am not paying anyone to handle it, when I do, I am able to make spot on decisions and I am able to provide a better level of customer service to my customers. If they broke or lost a cap, I send them a new one for free no matter how long ago they bought a set, if they broke an Insert by accident even though it was their fault, I send them a new one, if they have any questions or concerns ever, I eliminate the problem right away because I can help. Most people don’t even realize they are speaking to me, and that’s cool, but I have hundreds of emails and testimonials that specifically talk about our Customer Service and what brings customer back? Exactly that! That is why I do it. The customers first interaction with a representative from a company is one of the most important, and I personally feel like companies forget that a lot.

How are you doing today and what does the future look like?

I have had some inventory issues this year due to some delayed shipments and that has really held me back, but I hope to be through them in the next month or so. Sales have been great, but I know they would have been much better if I had enough inventory. I run GloveStix a lot like my finances at home and try to keep my expenses to a minimum so that I am profitable in all times. I focus on the bottom line, not the top, which I know is not how most people do it, but it is what makes me the most comfortable.

I try to focus on direct to consumer sales vs retailers so that my margins are bigger, and I am more profitable, and I don’t have to finance my inventory which can rack up astronomical fees. It has worked for me for now. I do have several hundred retailers’, but that is just not my focus. After I won the Today Show's Next Big Thing and went to QVC I did have to finance that inventory because my business was still super small but I didn’t take a paycheck for many years, kept my expenses low and ultimately just kept putting all the money I made on sales, back into new inventory. A year and a half later I aired on Shark Tank and because of that, I was able to pay off all my loans and still had enough money to order more units. Needless to say, I did an entire year’s business in 2 months after my air date, so it was a very successful airing.

Amazon

Amazon is an amazing source of revenue and after I aired on Shark Tank and sold out of the 3 months of inventory I had there, in 48 hours, I really started to take it seriously.

Before then, I spent a lot more time on retailers and trying to grow my business that way but since Shark Tank I realized how much of a profit center Amazon is for businesses. I am an Amazon choice product; an Amazon best seller, have a 4.9 out of 5 seller rating and my products rate from 4.0 to 4.6 stars.

Customers trust Amazon and my conversion rate is at 34% right now vs the typical 3-4% on a website because Amazon has made it so easy for customers to buy. I only wish there was a better way to maintain a relationship with your Amazon customer, but I do send emails through the Amazon Seller Central portal to everyone who buys just to introduce the product, the technology, and offer any assistance if there is ever an issue and that helps. I do occasionally get a response to those emails.

There is definitely a learning curve to Amazon and I play around with sponsored ads, banner ads, coupons and lightning deals, I find some months they work better than others and that you have to constantly be checking and updating your bids and keywords so I set aside a time every week to make sure I am getting that done. I also made sure that I protected my Brand on Amazon, I feel like that is extremely important, so I have registered my Trademark and my Brand with them, and I prohibit any 3rd party seller to sell on Amazon as well so I can stick to MAP pricing.

I let Amazon do all my fulfillment as well so every few months I send them a new supply of units and they pack and ship them. It’s actually less expensive to have Amazon do it, then it is my warehouse and that Prime Badge is also really helpful to have. I have played around with being merchant fulfilled and FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon) and I always sell more, and it cost me less to be FBA.

I also have been doing a lot of public speaking. Giving my time to help inspire others is actually what fuels me so I have been doing a lot of it on the side. There is nothing better than being inspired, by inspiring someone else. The feedback I get from the audience, and the messages sent to me after I speak are what I carry with me through my hard days and I am so grateful that my story, can make someone else feel like they can do anything. That’s the point I try to make, if I can do it, so can YOU! I see a lot more of that in my future, the more I speak, the more I get asked to speak and I absolutely LOVE IT!

I am getting ready to launch my 4th product, which is very exciting! Same Stix just red/white and blue branding that I think will be huge. I have found a non profit to Sponsor because I also like to give back so I will be donating 10% of every sale of my new Limited Edition USA Stix to Stephen Sillers Tunnel To Towers Foundation. It is a non profit that raises funds to help the families of our military and first responders who sacrifice their lives and limbs to keep us safe. It’s the least I could do to say thank you!

Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?

I have learned to bend and not break. To shift and pivot constantly as I am always competing against my previous month of sales, but I seem to run into obstacles, different ones, continually.

So, I have learned to set goals for my company as well as myself, but my goals are not always money oriented. Some are my goals are just to try and enjoy the process of this crazy entrepreneurial journey. I have learned that for me, sometimes overcoming obstacles and pushing past them are just as important as hitting the goal itself.

I have also learned that mistakes are all part of it. I have made bad hiring decisions, bad marketing decisions, spent too much time on one thing and not enough on the other. You name it, I have done it. Since I had no previous experience in this business, I chalk it up to learning lessons but I have come to find out that the more people I meet that own their own businesses, some who have years and years of experience, they still make mistakes too. So, get over it quickly and keep going!

One of the best decisions I made from the beginning is to learn to trust my gut. Your gut is a powerful instinct and so often we brush our gut instinct aside because we don’t trust ourselves. We may reach out for advice from others and try and do what they do but then we can’t figure out how we went wrong. Every business is different and although we must reach out and ask questions to gain more knowledge (knowledge is definitely power) we must also follow our own path to success and do what is best for you. I ask so many questions and fill my myself with as much knowledge as possible but at the end of the day, I take a little from here, a little from there and then drive my own truck up the mountain.

What platform/tools do you use for your business?

I use Shopify and have several apps connected to it. Some of them are…

• Klaviyo
• Bold Recurring Orders and Subscription Box
• Shipstation
• Product Reviews
• Facebook Marketing
• Quickbooks Online
• Sales Pop by Consistent Cart
• Free Shipping Bar by Hextom

Of course, I also use Social Media, the three I focus my time on are Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Usually in that order.

What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?

I have really become a Podcast girl in the last few years. I listen to them several times a week. Sometimes to start my day and other times when I need a good kick in the pants.

I have two favorites, Rise by Rachel Hollis is one, she gives great information and she also resonates a lot with me. Often times I find myself listening to her and thinking, “OMG I just said that same thing last week when I was doing that speaking event”. We think a lot alike.

The 2nd one is the MFCEO Project with Andy Frisella. I make sure I listen to him every week, he is my favorite and he is such a badass (Oh wait, am I allowed to say that? LOL) He doesn’t EVER sugar coat it, that’s why I like him. He is all about no excuses, stop whining and just get it done. I highly recommend his Podcast to many people but I always preference it with, if bad language bothers you, then he is not your guy.

My favorite book of all time is The People Code by Dr. Hartman. I have read it multiple times and in my previous career, I taught Color Code Workshops.

I believe it is important to grow professionally but even more important to grow personally. I think a lot of people make that mistake, they forget that understanding yourself and what motivates you is essential, but you must also learn about, understand, and accept others and know what motivates them. We are all different and unique and building relationships with people who are different than you is what will separate you from the rest.

My faith has been essential in my life journey, so I also like to read Jesus Calling for daily reminders that HE is always by side and ultimately in control. I recently read the book Chase The Lion by Mark Batterson. Although it is faith-based, it’s more of a motivational tool as well. He talks a lot about pushing yourself and that if your dreams don’t scare you, they are not big enough!

Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?

I often talk to and I even mentor some entrepreneurs who have a business idea. In my experience I have found that people are not in the right mindset. When I listen to them talk all I hear is the reasons why they “can’t” instead of why they can. Your mindset is one of the most important things and you need to have the attitude of, “Yes I CAN, I just need to find out HOW”! You must train yourself to speak words of affirmation. I put little post it notes around my computer of things that I need to hear every now and again. Here are some of my favorites.

• If you compare yourself to others you will always find someone smarter or better at something than you. Never waste your energy comparing yourself to others, use your energy to look inside of you and find YOUR greatness!
• Every person has something special to offer and is blessed with a gift of their own. Your job is to find yours!
• You can’t just be smart, that doesn’t get you very much if you don’t also have grit! Grit is the ability to pick yourself back up and keep going even when you make a mistake!
• You must have a conviction and a desire to prove people wrong, even if it's just your own voice in your head that tells you that you can’t.
• Say YES to yourself FIRST even if you don’t know how to do something just say “Yes”. By committing to do something you don’t know how to do will cause you to commit to learning how to do it. By learning how to do new things outside of your comfort zone and accomplishing “more”, that is when you actually create your own confidence!
• The relationships you have with people is the most important! The sooner you realize that everyone has the ability to teach you something the better off you will be. It doesn’t matter what that person’s job title is or how much money they make. Every person, regardless of race, sexual orientation, religion, political affiliation, job title, what they did in their “past life” or how much money they have in the bank will bring added value to your life if you respect and appreciate your relationship with them!
• Be real and be vulnerable… you may not fit in but you will stand out!

And lastly, this pretty much sums me up!

• Excuses are like assholes, everybody has them but they are always shitty!! DON'T MAKE EXCUSES!!

Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?

Not necessarily but I am always open to talking to anyone who may have a passion for my products or feel like they could add value to my business.

Where can we go to learn more?

• Website www.glovestix.com
• Facebook https://www.facebook.com/glovestix/
• Instagram and Twitter: @glovestix

GloveStix has provided an update on their business!

Almost 3 years ago, we followed up with GloveStix to see how they've been doing since we published this article.

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