David Simnick is the CEO & Co-Founder at Soapbox, and Managing Partner at Impact Driven Brands.
David once believed that he would get into politics. During middle and high school, he was constantly active in student government. Throughout, he continually offered his services as a volunteer for leadership roles.
His desire to pursue a career in politics changed after entering college. He knew he was suited to be an entrepreneur.
He was working as a subcontractor for the US Agency for International Development when David became aware of the need to improve water sanitation and hygiene. He started making soaps in his college kitchen, where he developed the idea to sell soaps made using more sustainable methods. This is how Soapbox got its start.
They started getting into regional supermarket chain businesses and received investments from friends and family.
Soapbox has been donating millions of bar soap to local communities in need. They were able to fund local soap makers through a wide variety of different Non-Governmental Organizations.
Previously, Soapbox was recognized on the Inc. 5000 with the highest rank of 1703 in 2022.
David has been able to reach new heights by acquiring Bushwick Kitchen and Good Nest while carrying on his 13-year commitment to serve individuals with sustainable personal care.
Routine | Time Is Not The Most Precious–Energy Is.
David recognizes the value of knowing oneself, maintaining good health, and producing things worthy of his time and effort. He always sees to it he takes time to write and organize his thoughts and makes sure he gets things done by following these routines:
- Waking up early
- Working out
- Writing 5 big things to accomplish the day
- Understanding his body
- Conserving his energy
- Surrounding himself with positive people
Success
David identifies success as having a win for the right reasons. It’s reaping the rewards for all the time, energy, and blood you’ve put into it. One of his most notable achievements was Soapbox’s ranking of 472 nationally and 7th fastest-growing private company in DC by Inc. 500 in 2017.
Book Recommendations:
Burn the Boat by Matt Higgins
Connect With David Simnick
Website: http://soapbox.co
Website: https://goodnest.com/
Website: https://bushwickkitchen.com/
Get a 15% discount on your first online purchase of any Soapbox, Bushwick Kitchen, or Goodnest products. Just use the code SUCCESSISTHEROUTINE15 at checkout.
Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/soapboxcare
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidsimnick/
Transcript
Hannah Mitrea 0:05
Hello, everyone, this is Hannah, your host, and you are listening to the success is routine podcast. Our show is on a mission to talk to leaders in life and business that have achieved success, and to learn what their routine is, if you’re ready to create your routine to success, you’re in the right place. Now, let’s get started. Welcome back, everybody to success is routine podcast. I am so excited to have David Sibenik, CEO and founder of soapbox and managing partner of impact driven brands, here with us today to talk about his routine and his company. So welcome.
David Simnick 0:40
It is a humbling honor to be here. And thank you so much for wanting us to be on your show. Yeah,
Hannah Mitrea 0:46
definitely. Like your brand. I know that a big part of it was the impact to it. And so I loved hearing that, of course, I didn’t want to talk to you last time, I’m always looking for good shampoo. So I’m still super excited to try that shampoo. But share with us a little bit about your story, how you got started and about your company.
David Simnick 1:03
So it’s it’s been 13 years, we started in my college kitchen, where I basically Googled how to make soap. And that’s how we made the first batch. And thank God, we’ve come a long way since then we’re no longer making it in my kitchen. But the mission has stayed the same since day one. So every time someone buys any product from soap box, whether it be one of our shampoos, or whether it be one of our liquid hand soaps, or body washes or lotions or whatever, we don’t need a bar soap. And we’ve worked currently at 34 million bars that we’ve donated. And we’re doing about two to 3 million bars per quarter. Which essentially, you can work that back to like two to 3 million units, a quarter that’s being sold and target Walmart, Rite Aid Wegmans HEB, Amazon Grove, just a ton of different locations. So if you’re hearing this now, and next time you’re in your grocery store, or your drugstore, or a mass retailer, or wherever it might be, just go down to the shampoo aisle, and you might see us or body wash or liquid hand soap or lotions, potions, whatever it might be. So soap box started, because I was a subcontractor for the United States Agency for International Development, I want to change the way that we were doing like a lot of our water sanitation and hygiene work. And that’s where a light bulb went off, it was like, Hey, we can start a one to one company that does it a little more sustainably, or through more sustainable methods. So imagine that like you’re a filmmaker in northern India, the last thing you want is me popping out of a shipping container. And like, you know, all of a sudden dumping like 40 or 60,000 bars of soap within your community, I gotta just put you out of a job. But more importantly, I told the whole community to like wait till awkward white guy shows up and gives it to you for free. So the way that we turn that on its head is we actually then fund the local soapmaker through a wide variety of various different NGOs that we had the privilege and honor of supporting. But that is soap box, we decided that we were gluttons for punishment. So we acquired Bushwick kitchen back in 2018. And then we also acquired a baby company called good nest. And this is the most sustainable baby bred to launch to target period. Sell ani to shampoo to baby products.
Hannah Mitrea 3:22
Well, suitable, how you do it and how you’re funding like the people in those countries not just showing up and dropping a bunch of soap, I really written neat ways to be able to help those places. Versus just like, you know, other ways that people are doing it, where they go in and just give a lot. So I think it’s really incredible that you did that. But from what it sounds like, Did you always hope to be like a business owner? Or did that just kind of happen with the light bulb of how we’re going to help people?
David Simnick 3:50
Yes, it’s a great question. No, the thing that we, I always wanted to do something that was in in trying to make the world a better place and trying to really focus on the fundamental like, base period of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, like food, shelter, like hygiene, whatever, do not just basic needs that I think that every human should have the ability to access. So and it shouldn’t be, you know, based upon you know, who you’re born to, or where you’re born in the world. And I always just thought that was a grave injustice. So I’ve always been focused on how do you build on that base level of the pyramid. So I knew that I knew that in college, I thought it was going to be in politics. And then I came to school in Washington DC at American University. Absolutely love my experience, had an internship every pretty much every semester. And towards the end of my experience, I was like, Man, I don’t want to go into government anymore. So I was I was kind of lost. I was just like, well if I thought I wanted to go into Are men you know, throughout middle school and high school, I was always in student government and I always volunteered for leadership roles, all these types of things. And as like a workaholic, you know, growing up as a kid, and I just loved it. But I think what I mistook was, you know, along the whole journey, it was actually being an entrepreneur, it was actually starting new things and starting in clubs, somehow convincing my teachers to allow me to, like, run off with the truck, or, you know, get some school funding to do XYZ or whatever it might like it was, it was always within the confines of school, and or Boy Scouts, and or, you know, we started a local newspaper where I like, went door to door. So, you know, basically, my father’s printed copies off his like, dot matrix printer of this terrible newspaper full of grammatical mistakes, every line, and people bought it. And I think, you know, they bought it probably just because there was a, there was a kid in fifth grade at their door, just trying to all come the brush Hill times, which was the name of our coldest sack, but, you know, that’s it, that we, you know, is I think, what I didn’t realize all through college and, and through high school is that it was it was being an entrepreneur that I actually was well suited to be, if I can say that, or I think just what I was probably thinking that I really wanted to do. So that was it was a big wake up call. Because I graduated a year early. It was 2009 really bad time to graduate early because there weren’t any jobs. I was interning for this USAID subcontractor, they offered me a role. I was like, Sure. And then while there, I was like, this isn’t what I meant to do. So took a took a big leap of faith and started making soap in my college kitchen, because I was still living with all my college roommates. And then went off into Teach for America, wonderful experience, amazing organization, if I could call myself and still be in the classroom. And then so bucks started to take off little by little. And then we started getting into regional grocery store chains. And eventually, we got some investment from friends and family and then just kept on building and growing and made as many mistakes as you possibly could. We launched with terrible branding, we had an awful supply chain, we had no idea what we were doing and margins, we everything that you possibly could do wrong, we did wrong. So we just learned the hard way. And then I think the thing that our team absolutely does deserve the credit for is resilience. They just refuse to give up.
Hannah Mitrea 7:30
Now, I love that I love the whole wanting to go into politics, that writing a newspaper, injustice of where we are born dictates so much of our life, something that I definitely have like this passion for it. I don’t know how to figure it out, because a lot of our team is overseas. And I see like this huge difference. And I’m just like, why are we not just one world? Like, what are we, based on where we were born dictates so much of us, we’ve had exchange students. So learning cultures is something that we are very passionate about in our house. And so I really love that, that you’re doing that. And you’re thinking that way too. I love that you wrote it. You have newspaper as a kid, and you’re an entrepreneur, a little entrepreneur, but the kind of like leads me to So did you always have a routine in your life? Or was that something that was born later on? And when did that switch flip kind of for the routine?
David Simnick 8:25
Yeah, and the biggest routine that I can see a thread line all the way back to, you know, almost first second grade is I would always try to write down notes to organize my thoughts than to organize my day. And to figure out in the morning, like what are the top five things that need to get done? Because one of the things that I’ve realized, especially as our company has grown, as we’ve hired more people, as there’s been more roles and responsibilities that thankfully, I’ve been able to delegate, and have had the privilege to delegate. The other thing that’s been really interesting is that the amount of meetings you’re pulled into or firefights that you’re called to or decisions that you have to be made that we were not planning to tackle that day increase. So there’s, I’d probably say I’m still getting better at delegation. So still figuring out you know, what are the things that I do better than the people that we’ve hired? One of the things that that people that we’ve hired, thankfully, always hire people who are better than you, always 100% if you know if you are a team leader, if you’re a nonprofit, executive, if you’re I don’t care what industry you’re always hire a people. You know, just just kill your ego and allow them to run circles around you and you will be incredibly grateful. One of my all time favorite quotes is from Harry S. Truman, where he I’m probably paraphrasing this but never underestimate what can be accomplished if you don’t care who gets the credit. And like that, I think a model lot, I think about like, okay, cool, just because you weren’t the shining star just because it wasn’t your idea. Like, if it’s the best idea, let that win. And we really try to instill that in the culture of our company. But coming back to your initial question, note taking 100%? How do I organize all these thoughts that are in my head, all these new ideas that are in my head? What are the things that really need to be done today? And then in terms of that short list, it really is like, don’t do more than five, there are five big things you need to get done today, there’s gonna be a ton of things that are thrown at you. How are you triaging and the other thing more recently, in the past, I’d probably say six years is that love working out in the morning, it’s a great way, you know, you kind of sleep actually wake up, and like stumble into your kitchen or whatever I take, you know, pre workout in the gym about 15 to 20 minutes later. And it’s just, you know, an hour of time where not only you’re taking care of your health, but you’re also able to plan out that day, and really think about, what are the things that really need to be accomplished. So if you have a short list of things that absolutely need to be, you know, tackled each day, on a consistent basis, you’re able to assess that triage. So if something doesn’t get done that day, it’s on the top for the next day. And then you know, other things that that come in, that are important, but not the top five for the day, then those are loaded in for the next day or the weekend, or whenever you can take care of
Hannah Mitrea 11:34
awesome, so the two things that kind of come to mind with, you know, kind of creating a routine almost around like taking notes writing down. One question is, you know, I know you started doing this when you were really young, was it something you saw somebody else do? And the second question is, when you say no taking anything like you’re physically writing, or have you kind of defaulted to apps and phones to write it down, like electronically, like, What’s that process really look like?
David Simnick 11:58
They’re a ton. So like, it really is. I think tactile feel, to me as best, but it’s not always, in this day and age, it’s not always the best way to do it. So I’ve tried out a ton of different notetaking. I’ve tried every now and I’ve tried OneNote notes on, you know, Apple, you know, just more documents. And I really loved OneNote, because it was incredibly flexible within the Microsoft suite. It was just fantastic. But there have been a couple times where it crashed, and I lost like a decent amount of my notes. So I was like never again. So I’ve gone back to like Apple notes on my phone, which then syncs with my Mac. But then also, you know, just keeping a running Word document. And I have three different monitors throughout the day. One is primarily for my email. One is for slack and text messages and WhatsApp. And then on the other one is a running Word document of the things that that need to be done that evening, or that day are really just focusing in on honing on this top five.
Hannah Mitrea 13:04
So kind of in the electronic space, not physically written somewhere. How do you avoid being distracted? When you’re going to your phone to write the note from all the other things that hit us.
David Simnick 13:18
So for me, I don’t think I can be really fully present with someone, unless I have the ability to offload ideas and concepts and to do items that may have misled notes or missed, you know, me loading into my own life task organizer. So having the ability to write those things down, whether it be my phone or whether it be you know, in a notebook that I carry with me, you know, anywhere I have my my backpack or you know, whether it be on a computer like I think it really for me is is on has been since a very young age, the ability to be able to fully focus on someone because I think, you know, someone, man, I did this all through college, a lot of people made fun of me, and I just didn’t care. Like I was by college, I was just like, What do I have, you know, like, no, like how waiters or waitresses have the flipbook like those short Yeah, it’s kind of all the time.
Hannah Mitrea 14:22
Yeah. And like writing so then makes such a difference. I had a professor in college econ, and he would give us a nose where it’s like fill in the blank. And I would take like five pages of notes every single class and he would come up to me every class and go ahead and just download my notes. You just have to fill in the blanks and I refused. At the end of the year. I have like a 98% his class and he came up and was like, Hey, do you want to join me and as I do not have no interest in you. I was like, but I knew that writing down stuff was going to make a bigger difference than just filling in the blank or putting we all learned
David Simnick 14:55
we all I think there’s a there’s a great article out and I forget As a New Yorker as the Atlantic, but it basically goes over and this has been this has been well studied for a little bit. How people think, like, do people think visually do people? You know, and some people don’t think like that, you know, like, there’s actually a not insignificant part of the population more like a mustard talk you you’re conversing with people it is, it is empty, right or not empty, silent. Right. Right. That’s it is I am thinking all the way till like I am asleep, or wake up in the morning. First thing, I wake up in the morning, and it’s literally a damn, like bursting in terms of all the ideas that just immediately like, hit you. And I’m just like, okay, these need to be organized, right? I can’t. Yeah, I can’t not.
Hannah Mitrea 15:46
Yeah, well, it’s actually so I was watching a tic tac. And you know, I’ve heard about it before, how some people can like visually, like, they can see images, they can see pictures in their head, they can close your eyes, and like, actually see something. And I realize I can’t do that. Like, I’ve never been able to do that. I never knew that was a thing that people could do. And then like, I was talking to my husband, I was like, seriously, you can like he’s like, yeah, if you close your eyes, like you can’t see me. And I’m like, no. So it’s very interesting how people think in such different ways. Like, do you see pictures when you close your eyes? Like, can you see actual images?
David Simnick 16:20
Yes, I just tried to like me. Yeah, if anyone’s actually watching this video, you just totally said be like, shut my eyes and try to do that. Yeah, but but the way my mind works is, imagine six different little bottom tickers. Like, like that you see on like, you know, CNN or, you know, whatever news program you’re watching. And imagine, like seven of them. And like, that’s literally like, I will need to visually see it. And or I will think about it, and it will be like a concept. And they hit all day long. So it has been 35 years of training my brain to be like, You need to be present for people, you need to be focused for people. And you also need to be able to actually, like focus your day on that. And I also think what’s really interesting is that, and you see this a lot in school administration, how organized a school is, starts at the top, right, like the leader of a school will set the cultural culture as well as the expectations that like, you know, what is measured? Is what, like people care about, like, what is enforced, what is what the standards, you know, like so it’s not saying like, you know, you want to be this like Gestalt crazy person who is pushing people to not have a life and or have no work life balance. Like that’s not, but I think it really is about finding the right KPIs that matter. And that starts with you. Right. So one of the things that I think is really interesting about this podcast of like, your success, is routine is like, yeah, like, Success to me is is some luck, some timing, but a lot of it, at least in my personal experience is like perseverance and like your character, your habits, become your character, right, like, like, what you practice. And what you do on a daily basis, does add up. So I think a lot of that comes down to routine, I think it’s about it’s about choosing healthy routines, it’s about enforcing good habits. It’s about being setting positive intent. So thankfully, that has worked out so far. And I hope that it continues to, because I absolutely love what I do. And I love the team that I had the privilege to work with.
Hannah Mitrea 18:46
Yeah, definitely, I think you hit it, right, there were the things you’re doing. So we may not even see them as routines. But the things that we’re doing every day, are those habits that are routine that impact everything we do, and we can set it better, really. And so going back to your routine now. So notetaking is a huge one waking up kind of organizing, you know, all those tickers going up putting those top five rocks that are like really important there, narrowing it down, and then going to the gym. And so I know it sounds like the gym was something kind of came newer to you. It wasn’t something that you were doing since first grade.
David Simnick 19:24
Yeah, right. Yeah, out there on the jungle gym was doing like pull ups. So it’s, it’s a bit for me. I really genuinely love. I really, really genuinely love learning. And I love people. And I’m an extrovert on steroids. So I think a lot of it has been figuring out how you learn and also figuring out another, you know, big part of, of growing up, I think becoming hopefully more so active leader is really deeply understanding how you need to organize yourself. Because a lot of and then like, you know, like creating systems that you can stay on top of people, and you can manage and like. And I think the other thing that that I’m realizing more these days is, it’s not the thing I’m most precious with, right? It’s not necessarily time bothered people, I think think of like, time is the most precious thing. And it is precious. To me, energy is more precious. And I say like this, right, you have had conversations in your life that may have been like two or three minutes. And yeah, they are completely energy draining. And you’ve had conversations that have been three, four or five hours that are completely like energy filling, right, they, they can charge your whole battery backup and an energizer bunny, and you’re ready to go. So I’m very protective. Of, I’m less protective with my time, I am way more protective of my energy. So if I, if I get on a call, and you know, I got introduced to this person, who might be a new distributor of ours, or, you know, someone who might be a prospective investor, or whatever it might be, and they just tend to be a jerk, I find a way to get off the call as fast as possible. Because to me, that’s like, I was bad. This is the worst, this is it worth the energy. It’s definitely not worth the time. But like, to me, it’s, I find that to be that has been a very interesting paradigm shift. So someone’s just like, hey, do you want to, you know, you want to come over and spend time, you know, my kids birthday this week. And I really don’t have the time, but that will give me a lot of energy, on the joy that, you know, like, I’ll enjoy that I also want to be there for my friend, I also know that that would be the right thing to show up for him and his family like that, to me is is a worthwhile endeavor, even now, technically, if you were to look at my calendar, you would say, I probably shouldn’t do that with my time.
Hannah Mitrea 22:07
But it’s the energy and it’s worth making the time for where the energy, right. And like, I can see that because if somebody sucks your energy out, that’s gonna affect your whole day. Like the rest of your day, you’re gonna now be drained, and you’re gonna be taking a shot or Red Bull or just a shot, maybe whatever you need to get back into a better state of mind. So I really like that. And I haven’t really heard anybody say it in that sense of, you know, energy is more valuable than time because everybody talks about time is money, money is time. So what are you going to give up your time or your money, but it comes down to your energy too, because maybe you’re gonna make money, but it’s gonna take you twice as long because your energy sucks. So was it really worth that money to waste all that time?
David Simnick 22:56
Yes, 100%. And to build off, you know, the whole focus of this podcast, the other thing is, like, figure out what time of day you’re most productive, and protect that religiously. You know, like, for me, the morning hours are my best time to think they are my, you know, they are my best time to get work done. I really make sure that I had that time. If I you know, if you load up a bunch of meetings between eight and you know, like, I have about eight to one, like 8am to 1pm or just prime hours for me. And usually what I find is that, you know, the, the blood flow going down to you know, help digest whatever you ate for lunch kind of makes me a little fuzzy. So, like, if I have like standing like, you know, one hour huddle with our team, I’ll put that in the afternoon. Because like, you know, I can listen, take notes, I can understand where you know, people are, are saying, Okay, this is a major issue within the marketing department, or we have this issue with a couple of our customers not paying us some time the finance department. That stuff is that stuff can easily be listened and action upon in the afternoon. But if I really want to think about like, okay, where where are we in terms of this month, KPIs? What are the levers that can be in think creatively about how, you know, we might be able to move the ship slightly, halfway through the month in order to achieve those KPIs, then that’s a morning activity.
Hannah Mitrea 24:33
And that’s perfect for routine is finding when you’re gonna be able to do those routines and kind of stick to them. I think, that makes a big difference. Being able to stick to that routine by finding that time that in your day, you’re energized to do it. And that kind of like leads me to the question that take you a lot of time to kind of stick to some of these things. Were going to the gym, to you know, blocking out those energy times. And, you know, because we’re so focused the world we live When I said books, some money, and Time Time is money. So was it hard to make that shift where you put energy first? And if it was, or was it, how long did it take to get there? I think for
David Simnick 25:13
me, I’ve always found that if someone invites me to something, it’s I have to come up with a really good reason to say no. Right? If someone’s saying, like, hey, I want you to come be a part of this party that I’m struggling, or whatever it might be. And I don’t have anything that evening, right? I’m the type of person that says, hey, you know, like, I will come, but I will not stay for long, right, just because I have this thing the next morning. And whenever that’s true, those things happen. Like those activities. That was the plan. But I still want to show up for people. I think that the thing that I’ve started to shift in terms of being okay with putting severe limitations on my activities with others, based on what I know, my energy levels app, so if I’m really exhausted, and it’s been a whole week, and someone invites me at the last minute, I’ll try to write like, Hey, man, you know, there’s this panel that I want you to speak on, I’ll be like, I am absolutely exhausted, I will show up if you absolutely need me to, but I’m really tired. Right, and that’s me saying to them, like, I will show up, if you need me, I want to be there for you. To help you, you know, whatever this event is, but at the same time, I want to let you know where I’m at, in terms of my depletion of the week, and so on, so forth. And if that person really insists, I’ll show up, you know, like, if, like, I’ll make that commitment, I’ll show up. But that’s really helped. And in terms of the other thing, I would say to your listeners that I think helps a lot and this has done wonders and my relationship was my girlfriend now my fiance is we’re really clear with each other up front in terms of clear communication and clear expectation and, like parameter setting, like all of that credibly important. The other thing I will say that I think, really opened my eyes is Jeff Bezos, early on when Amazon told his investors and, and then eventually his shareholders, as it went public, he was like, I am not going to stay up, you know, to one 2am Every night, like, I’m gonna get sleep, and you’re gonna want me to get sleep, because it’s gonna lead to better decision making. You know, I’m gonna be more sound mind. And I think the bigger saying that that I really took away from is early like day warm letters, was it’s a marathon. This is not a sprint. Like, you have to you have to know yourself, you have to know your own health, you need to take care of that. And like, there are definitely times where like it is go time and is crunch, you have to put your nose to the grindstone and there are no excuses. But in terms of the long, like, doing this for 13 years, like, oh, yeah, you really got to, you got to learn how to throttle was so that you can go the distance?
Hannah Mitrea 28:08
Yeah, that’s definitely something I have to learn. It’s more balance on the thing. So I appreciate you sharing your stories and how you’ve kind of adapted and changed. It’s gonna help me and I hope I’ve helped other listeners as well, kind of making this time that work for them, work for them and putting their energy first one, which I have now is kind of leading into this success. How would you define success? And kind of how did your routine really help you create that success in your life?
David Simnick 28:36
Successes is personally defined, right? There are some people who believe that success is having a wonderful family and raising great kids. There are some people who use success as a number. Is that is that a monetary amount? Is that a? Is it a title? Is it a duration? Is it a? There’s a ton, so for me, I like to, I like to say you get a win for the right reasons. So, you know, within our team, I say we’re going to win, but for the right reasons. So I what success looks like to me. Can we go up against Procter and Gamble and Unilever, and Colgate and SC Johnson and these behemoth and be David versus Goliath, no pun intended, because that’s my dad, and like and genuinely compete and fight and win and take market share, because each and every unit that we sell is another that we’re going to donate, we donate around 4% of our gross revenue. Like, that’s insane. Like all these like 1% for the planet no like that is on their profit. We’re donating at the top in terms of how much we actually select. It’s kind of cool. We have turned into on an annual basis, essentially, like a small grant writing office of like millions of dollars that we’ve been able to donate to charity. And that’s amazing. I personally never would have been able to do that. Right 35 If I were taking another career path, I would not have been able, potentially, right if I went and started like the next Facebook and all the different, but I don’t, I don’t think if you were to take enough role odds, that that would have been something that we were able to, or I would have been able to do. So I still I feel incredibly proud of our team, we have a lot of challenges that we face, we have a lot of things that we got to get right. And I beat myself up daily, I have about, I have a very unhealthy expectation of myself. And that’s something I’m still trying to unpack and work on. Like myself, I don’t think I’d love myself every day, which, you know, for your listeners, I’m fine. I’m five. But I think that’s also just like my kind of Midwestern like, we don’t talk about ourselves, don’t sing your praises, have other people sing it for you, if there appraises to be sung, I really genuinely believe that your team is what makes it happen. And I’m here to support them and push them. So Success to me is winning for the right reasons competing on a national and global level. One day, we will get bought by a strategic, I’ll be able to go to our investors and say, here’s a handsome return. Thank you so much for believing in us. And for all the effort that you’ve put in. There’s a bunch of people that I think have put a lot of time energy and, and blood sweat and tears into building this not in the products, my into that rad. It’s just, it’s awesome.
Hannah Mitrea 31:54
Well, thank you for sharing, like the vulnerability there of like what you’re going through, and there’s many praises to be sung for what you’re doing. And the incredible work that you know, you’re helping not just people in their hair and their shampoo, but globally, helping people who can start businesses and build their own businesses. And then all of your employees that you have on your team over the last 13 years or so, definitely recognize, like, you’re doing incredible things, whether somebody else says it or not, you are definitely. And you know, hearing the routine and success and just kind of, you know, you’ve had a ton of success, but I love how you can look at it more than just one scope. You’re not just looking at it a number. So, so thank you for sharing those things. And then I have two questions before I let you go. One is going to be if somebody’s listening to this, and they don’t have like, maybe everybody has a routine in some way. But it’s not a positive routine isn’t healthy routine, as truly helping them strive for what they’re looking for. What’s that one thing they can start doing tomorrow? To kind of start creating a positive routine for the life.
David Simnick 33:02
I like to be super realistic, right? I think the unrealistic expectations lead to like a failure to achieve them. Like there’s a there’s a certain aspect of if you want to get in better shape, and you go to the gym like two or three times, and you’re now like, Well, why don’t I have abs? Like that’s not, that’s not realistic. Like you have to, you have to be patient with yourself. You also have to like, find out the things that are going to be helping you achieve that. I think it’s the same way that like you think about how you learn, right? Do you learn through people? Or do you learn through searching and finding and reading something yourself? Right, if you learn through people, then go to meetups, and ask your friends and ask your friends to introduce you to other friends who know that subject or pay for a tutor or go to classes or like like if you learn by doing research and then create that space where you’re isolating and allow and then you’re not going to find distraction. It’s the same thing with like, whatever the goal is, you don’t have to always like have a montage sequence and do it the hard way. There there are tons of different like life hacks that you can surround yourself with people who are making healthier or better decisions or you can find yourself an accountability partner that is somewhat not your friend, right? Like someone who’s going to like basically hold you to it and gently push you in that direction. There’s the biggest thing I would say is like, start small. Start with something that’s like baby steps that will get you moving in the right direction. And then reward yourself as you move in that direction so that you’re consistently reinforcing that that start of a habit and our routine So shameless plug for your podcast.
Hannah Mitrea 35:03
Thank you, like simple.
David Simnick 35:07
I mean, it’s so much easier than it’s so much easier said than done, right? Like, there are too many times where the plethora of excuses is so abundant around us and why we shouldn’t couldn’t, can’t do something that it really is about like, start incredibly small. It started incredibly small, so that you can move in that direction. And then once you start building that momentum, momentum works both ways, right? positive momentum and negative momentum are still momentum. Like I’ve seen it, I’ve seen companies that have been incredibly successful, and they have, you know, a couple bad weeks, and then a couple bad weeks turned to a couple bad months, and then everyone starts getting this, you know, dystopia of what’s happening around them, and then you know, good people leave the company, and then all of a sudden, it just continues to spiral, like, like, that is the same type of momentum that you started on a journey, you start making a healthy decision, surrounding yourself with people who are reinforcing those decisions. Before you know it, you’re encouraging other people to do those same type of and make those decisions. So like, it’s you surround yourself with people who are going to make it easier, you don’t have to do this journey alone, don’t have to, you know, Rocky theme song montage this all by herself don’t. And I would just say that, like, how people are able to figure out ways in which they can achieve the goals that they are, and you don’t always have to do it the hard way. And figuring it out, you still have to do the work. Notice no, oftentimes, there, there is no pill that automatically gets you to wherever you want to go. But it’s like, it’s there are easier ways doing it than than others.
Hannah Mitrea 36:52
Now, I love the ELA because it is you have to do the work. But you don’t have to do it alone. But you don’t have to do everything at the same time. And you know, anybody that’s on social media, they’re being told all these different ways to do it. And everybody’s a guru, and everybody has the answer. But the end of the day it it comes down to small steps, and creating a routine. And really, I think, ultimately, is that positive energy, and being in a place of good energy, just like you talked about, because it’s going to be hard to make any small step if you’re surrounded by negative energy in a place that you’re being drained constantly. So my second question for you, though, is a book. So is there a book that you really recommend? It doesn’t have to be necessarily this specific book or oh, there’s a book.
David Simnick 37:41
Okay. All right. So literally just came out today. This is my good friend call up his Matt Higgins has been on Shark Tank. And long story short, is he just launched this, the title is, like supposed to be catchy and grab your attention and everything else. But it’s really interesting, because the whole idea is that like, there are certain decisions, where if you don’t know the mythology behind us, it’s like, the army lands on the beach, and they’re storming the beach, and the general decides to burn the boats, there is no retreat. Right. And because of that, and the army knows that there is no retreat, they fight even harder to take the beach and to move on to the land. So there are so many great nuggets of running a business, ascending the corporate ladder, you know, starting creating building a non for profit, that are universal across you know, your career growth, that I would say, Absolutely. This book is amazing. Just launched today, got a quick pre read. It is number one right now and Amazon would love to see it keep and stay that way, but totally worth it has tons of essential life advice, whether in business and or for your family or your personal endeavors.
Hannah Mitrea 39:05
Well, it really like I’m definitely gonna go look at that, because it touches on some stuff that we’re dealing with in our side of the company right now. There is no retreat. I love that. So burn the bow. I’m going to check it out on Amazon as well, because I think it’ll help us in our company. But thank you so much, David, for sharing everything being vulnerable and being honest about you know, the tough sides of it, the good sides of it. And thank you for what you’re doing for the world and helping other countries because it doesn’t matter where you’re born. We’re all humans, so it shouldn’t matter. So thank you for joining me, your hand
David Simnick 39:39
up and one last thing, whether you want some soapbox products, or whether you want some delicious Bush wood products, or if you want some amazing, sustainable baby products, the discount code is all the same. So if you go to goodness.com If you go to the soap box.co or Bushwick, kitchen.com If you type in success is the routine 15, you get 15% off your first purchase. And that is my gift to any listener who has stayed with this for the past 42 minutes. Though, thank you so much for the time. Thank you so much for hearing me Yap. And hopefully, there are some nuggets of what I just said that could be helpful on any of your listeners journeys.
Hannah Mitrea 40:25
Definitely, that definitely is and thank you for adding that in. So we will make sure that all of those links are down below. And if you’re watching this, you’ll see that coupon code pop up earlier than when we set it. So you’ll see it there. And it’ll be in descriptions for everybody. So go check out those places, get some Serato tasks, get some soap, or get some baby products. And thank you so much, David for joining Thank you for listening to success is routine podcast. If you found value in this episode, share it with a friend episodes go live weekly on Sunday at 8am. Every week with the right routine, like follow and review the podcast on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Amazon music or wherever you’re listening during the success of routine movement and get exclusive downloads and content from the guests go to www dot success is routine.com and follow the conversation there or on social media. Until next time, remember, I would
David Simnick 41:18
always try to write down notes to organize my thoughts and to organize my day. And to figure out in the morning, like what are the top five things that need to get done, figuring out how you learn and also figuring out you know, big part of growing up. I think becoming hopefully a more effective leader is really deeply understanding how you need to organize yourself. Your success is routine. Success to me is is some lock, some timing, but a lot of it at least in my personal experience is like persevere. And like your character, your habits. Become your character figure out what time of day you’re most productive and protect that religiously. For me the morning hours are my best time to think they are my they are my best time to get work done. I really make sure that I have that time.
