What's going on, Pursuers? Welcome to The Pursuit
of Calling, the podcast that provides you with
the strategies and tools needed to successfully
discover and pursue your calling. Whether it's
through inspiring stories, thought -provoking
interviews, or quick, insightful episodes on
personal growth and development, we've got you
covered. I'm your host, Thomas Carney. Enjoy
the episode. How's it going, everyone? So, for
those who don't know, recently I decided, well,
not recently, a long time ago I decided I wanted
to launch some new merch. And it's almost time.
Oh, wow, that was loud. Sorry. It's almost time,
though. First, I have to tangent and say, it
is hot. Like, it's literally 81 degrees in my
room right now, and I'm dying. But I knew I wanted
to record an episode about the merch. It's Saturday.
Tomorrow wouldn't be a bad day to do in the morning.
But I was sitting down at my computer, realized
I hadn't done it yet, and I wanted to stick with
what I want to record on Saturdays. So that's
what I'm trying to do. But anyway, we got merch.
I'm waiting for some concepts to come in the
mail to see if I like them, to see if placements
are right. However, I'm pretty excited about
it. Currently, this is going to be what I'm calling
the pursue line of merch or purpose line. I guess
I don't really know yet. But essentially what
it says on the front and on the top left breast
of the shirt, it says pursue. And then underneath
of that, I wish I could be wearing it so you
could see it in the video. And below that, it'll
say. Follow your purpose. I forgot for a second.
Oh, no. But it'll say follow your purpose. And
then on the back, for everyone that looks at
this shirt, this is actually the part I'm way
more excited about than the front. I'm excited
about the back. And it says, you were made for
more. And the reason I did that, the reason I
wanted a shirt that says something on the back
that's not for the person that's wearing it,
but it's for the person that's reading it. is
because that's the whole purpose of, that's a
big purpose of this podcast. Your calling is
not for you. It's for everybody around you. So
if you're a person of value that values others,
this, this shirt is for you. This shirt, the
hoodie, there's a mug that just has the original,
the front logo, but I think I want to make one
that also has that you were made for more as
like a personal reminder to yourself to whenever
you're drinking your coffee or your tea, you'd
be like, yeah, reminder that you were made for
more. Now, what does that mean? You were made
for more. Whenever somebody reads that, the point
of it is to kind of Get your mind thinking. It's
a thought -provoking statement, isn't it? There's
a lot of people out there that don't believe
they have a purpose, that don't believe there's
a calling on their lives. And the point of this
statement is to get their mind thinking like,
man, maybe I was made. Maybe I was made for more.
And yeah, of course, it has those Christian undertones
of being made, being created. And the great part
of it not being a Christian brand, but it being
built on Christian values, is that I can instill
those values into everything that I do without
throwing it in people's faces. And all it's to
us to do is be thought -provoking, just like
coaching. Coaching is a thought -provoking conversation.
That's what I love about it. I get to ask questions.
That would be like another great piece of merch
would be something with a question on the back.
That is a thought provoking coaching style question.
Wouldn't that be, that would be fun. And this
is just a first design. I'm going to see how,
how, how it goes, how people, how people like
it. I am not an video editor. So maybe I will
throw the, a picture of the, maybe somewhere
I would have thrown up a picture of the merch
somewhere on the screen. I'll show it now. if
I figured out how to do that. And I have been
posting the videos for the last two episodes.
So if you want to see that and you're listening
to the audio version, go to YouTube and search
Pursuit of Calling, and you'll be able to see
the video version of this episode. And also,
if you're watching the video version of this
episode, one, you'll see that I'm wearing the
OG merch that I did for the Technically Short
podcast with Sean Short. And like, I remembered
how fun that was and how fun, like how easy it
was to be honest with you. Merch is easy. All
it takes. I paid a Fiverr designer, $15 plus
tip. And I spent some money to get like some
store set up, maybe like a hundred dollars in
total. I'm like, dude. And then like. shirts
and you make like ten dollars a shirt maybe uh
fifteen dollars a hoodie and i'll make about
ten dollars a mug so like it's it's kind of crazy
don't you think that like something like this
like some something so simple now i'm going on
a tangent but it prepare it something like this
now can propel people forward into their purpose
into their calling because like that's what a
lot honestly that's what clothing does a lot
of the time I know I'm tangenting all over the
place. This is a no -note episode. But a lot
of the time, the clothing that I like a lot is
clothing that makes you think. That's why I did
the statement on the back. It's because one of
my favorite shirts is a shirt I got from Funnel
Hacking Live that is a mantra, essentially, about
surrounding yourself with the people that are
going to build you up and not tear you down.
I think it's a reminder for you, but it's also
like when you're wearing the shirt, you can't
see it on your back. So therefore, in my mind,
that's for everybody around you to remind them,
in that case, surround yourself with the people
that are going to build you up, not tear you
down. And it's like, I don't know, it's a couple
sentences. It takes up the whole back. It's sick,
and I want to do a shirt like that too. But then
also, just to tell you the business side of this,
I can then use the merch to build out the email
list for my coaching, just for the brand in general.
So if anybody wants to join a mastermind or wants
to join coaching, the people that are going to
buy this shirt, in my mind, some of those people,
hopefully the majority of those people, are people
that would join coaching or into personal growth
and development. Sorry for my phone there. Because
if you want to wear a shirt that's going to provoke
other people to think about their purpose and
their calling, you're already thinking about
what you can do for other people. And one that's
valuable, that's a valuable trait to have. But
it's also whenever you're thinking about your
purpose and your calling, you realize it's not
just for you. And you're showing that how you
value others by wearing the shirt. And by wearing
the shirt, you then, you are then like, to me,
that means you are a person that would buy this,
a person that would like coaching, that would
like to be. Um, and a mastermind about personal
growth and development. Hmm. And it's really
exciting. I found, so this is exciting because
I, I found, I think I found how I'm going to
build my business. And it's like nothing, it's
not something that how I, it's not how I would
have ever thought I would have done it. Once
I get the general consensus from people that
I know, once I go through my church and ask people
to buy the merch and see if they're interested,
text people that I know, and manually I'll bulk
order all of that and I'll manually deliver these
items to them and get direct feedback. The plan
is to then make an ad. The plan is then to run
ads on Facebook and Instagram. to before this
merge and then that's going to be building out
my um my email list and it's so exciting to think
like like think about it like people do um sorry
i i i'm apologizing but to who i mean to i guess
the listeners but i mean i'm the only one i'm
looking at a camera right now but the But it's
awesome because people do a free plus shipping
book all the time. What if one day I do a free
plus shipping t -shirt? Get this free t -shirt.
All you have to do is give me your email. And
then your email is put into my list and I can
read down to you about the podcast, about coaching,
about other merch drops, about other things that
I'm doing. And I know that because you bought
the merch, because that merch sparked something
in you when you read you were made for more or
follow your purpose or whatever other thing I
decide to put on the shirt in the future. Using
the same Fiverr designer, probably, because he
did a good job. His name's also Thomas, by the
way. Check him out. Thomas F. I don't know his
last name, but he also spoke Greek, which is
kind of fun. He also owes me another design.
Not that I paid for it, but he told me he would
give me a second one. So I'm like, I should probably
reach out and do that. Guys, I know this was
kind of a very large tangential episode, but
it's really an update on where I'm going with
the business, where I'm going with my coaching.
I just coached somebody today. Guys, it was so
much fun. They told me about the merch. They
were like, I'm going to buy it. I'm like, yeah,
let's go. Okay. That's the update for the day.
That's the update for this week. Guys, if you
would like some merch, I'm going to put a form,
a pre -order form in the description. It's going
to be a Google form with... It's funny because
I wasn't even planning on doing this. It's just
this is all off the cuff. I'm going to put the
link to this form into the show notes. All you
have to do is go to it and put in your order.
And if you're not around me, if you're not near
me where I'm at, I'll also put a section to be
able to put any extra information like your address.
I'll put maybe an address section for you to
put your address so then it can be shipped to
you. We'll figure that out. I will have an actual
store set up at some point where you can go to
and order it personally. But until then, I'm
going to order them in bulk and maybe I'll mail
them to you directly. We'll see what happens.
If you're not close by. We'll see what happens.
Until then, until next time, guys, thank you
for listening to this episode of the Pursuit
of Calling podcast. I had so much fun, actually,
with this episode. I'm really liking these off
-the -cuff episodes for some reason, maybe because
I just like to talk. I don't know. But it's just
so much more relaxing just to do it. But yeah,
if you like this episode, if you like the idea
of the merch or you like the direction that my
business is going, Please give this episode and
this podcast a five -star review. Like Dave Ramsey
says, if you've got nothing nice to say, don't
say anything at all. If you want to give a five
-star, four stars is okay. Anything below a four
-star, I don't know. Give me some honesty. I
guess I want you to be honest. And then share
it out with your friends. Let other people know
about the merch, what I'm doing with my coaching.
And guys, I will see you next time. Peace. Oh,
yeah. Keep pursuing your calling well. It matters.