Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Brad Namdar. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Brad, thanks for joining us today. Your ability to build a team is often a key determinant of your success as a business owner and so we’d love to get a conversation going with successful entrepreneurs like yourself around what your recruiting process was like -especially early on. How did you build your team?

This is a great question, and through my various experiences over the years as a small business owner, GM for a professional soccer team, business consultant, and even a professional indoor football player, I can say with full confidence that every experience I have has different approaches, with unique challenges and dynamics involved.

Starting my Own Business:

When I started my home decor, candle, and art company in 2016, it started as a small operation from a hobby I had (which was making scented candles from my apartment), into an opportunity to being represented by a showroom in the Dallas Market Center.

It started from me just making candles, seeing how they sold at a local market, and creating candles to see if they were marketable and of the quality to be sold at retail stores across the country.

Once I signed with a showroom, I used my savings and got a small manufacturing office in Richardson, Texas.

I had a good friend help me start the Namdar Decor operations, and we of course had to wear many hats!

We had to learn, operate, and be able to keep up with all the logistical details required, in creating a home decor, art, and candle company that produced a good product and operated just as good if not better than our competitors (who were often multi-million dollar companies with years of industry experience).

Nevertheless, once we were able to have our first “show” at the Dallas Market Center in our showroom, we gained more retail accounts, and were very conservative in order to grow in scale with the demand for our products.

In our first 3 years of operation, Namdar Decor was able to bring on more employees onboard, we had our products carried in over 300 retail stores, in 11 countries, as well as had our products sold in some of the most luxurious and well-known retail stores in the country.

Our art line was created later in 2018, and it quickly grew, allowing us to participate in countless well-known art exhibitions, activations, and even creating luxury art collections for vendors like Formula 1 USA (COTA), expanding to the production of customizable weatherproof art for commercial clients, working with interior designers/firms on custom projects, and providing fine art for well-known art galleries across the country.

Throughout this process of growth, expanding into new design sectors, we always reinvested back into the company to continue its grow.

We had a humble small office staff, but when we signed with more showrooms in other locations across the U.S. and/or galleries to represent our products and/or art, our brand was obtaining more sales through the showroom sales reps (the showrooms employed sales reps to represent/sell your brand to buyers), which allowed for our brand to obtain more clients, while allowing us more time to create and master other logistical items required of a manufacturer.

Professional Soccer General Manager and Sporting Director:

The experience I had as a former soccer player, a coach, sports administrator, and director at all levels of U.S. soccer, combined with the “business” knowledge I gained from owning my own business, put me in a unique position at a young age to be an effective GM & Sporting Director in the professional soccer arena.

When I took over as the Texas Outlaws GM (MASL) in 2023, the front office had 1 full-time employee prior to my arrival, with a few PT/seasonal employees.

However, I knew what to do based on my past experiences in business and soccer, to have a successful season both on and off the field (utilizing the tools and resources that were made available to us, and maximizing them.)

In August of 2023, after it was announced I was the new GM, our season was right around the corner, and I had to bring in a completely new operating front office staff very quickly, while maintaining the best quality of front office staff members to help us have a successful season.

Any Business Owner, General Manager, or Director will tell you that the recruiting, hiring, and onboarding a staff member is not a short process, nor is it an easy one.

You have to find the right talent or the best available talent, offer compensation to retain that employee/talent, and ensuring that the team you put together can reach the goals you set.

With that being said, in under 3 months prior to our first game, I was able to onboard a small but very hardworking front office staff (where again, like when I started my small business, we all had to wear many hats.) Due to our hard work, the fantastic job of the team’s front office, our club had the most successful season in the club’s history financially and growth in our fan base.

We accomplished this by empowering both our staff and interns to really get to do “real work”, creating an atmosphere where we were empowering our staff, and always believing that we can be successful given the tools we had to become successful.

We created new revenue streams for the club, surpassed all revenue generated sections from ticket sales, apparel sales, season ticket, rental space usage, obtaining non-profit partners, and donation contributions to various non-profit organizations and initiatives that make positive impacts across the State of Texas.

Our media presence and exposure grew with multiple written, TV, and other media conglomerate outlets doing various feature stories on our program, as well as media highlighting our teams performance during the season (the best performance on the field in the club’s history).

Additionally, we had multiple players selected to represent the US Men’s National Futsal Team, we took pride in being a program that was attainable to our fans, and were more than happy to attend community events, school functions, and support all of our community stakeholders, sponsors, and supporters, in any way possible.

Regardless if it was starting my own business or being a professional soccer GM, each had their own challenges.

My business was not on a ticking time clock with a kickoff date circled on the calendar, adding additional pressure everyday (which made a big difference in how we aimed our time in growing the team vs. how I grew our brand/products with my decor companies) .

Lastly, this year, I wanted to challenge myself and, after 12 years without kicking in a competitive football game since college, I was still able to play, have the leg strength, and ability to play professional indoor football for the Frisco Fighters (IFL), Corpus Christi Tritons (AIF) , Wichita Regulators (AFL), and Tucson Sugar Skulls (IFL) after the end of the indoor soccer season.

The things I learned being a pro-indoor football player also has added to new experiences that I will implement in my daily & business life. I had a fantastic time playing, but suffered a season-ending injury on June 22, 2024 playing in Tucson, and (just as I have done before) am going to put my mind to it, to get my leg strength back to 100% soon.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

The businesses I started, the various programs I have worked for, and the endeavors that I have been able to pursue were all based on the culmination of my early years.

I grew up in North Texas (Plano) and loved playing sports, mainly football and soccer. Like many kids living in North Texas, I played club soccer since I was in 7th grade, I later was a member of the Olympic Development Program & US Soccer Youth Pool, and I played PDL soccer after for the DFW Tornados during the summer on college break.

While I was in high school, I played varsity football for as a place-kicker and punter at Plano West, and due to my kicking & soccer abilities, I was able to be involved and play both sports at the collegiate level.

I had the opportunity to play NCAA Division 1 Football at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX under the late great Head Coach Mike Leach, and then later transferred to SMU where I also played football under another legendary Head Coach, June Jones.

Both at Texas Tech and SMU, I was lucky enough to play with extremely talented players, coaching staffs, and programs where I was part of two NCAA Division 1 Bowl Winning programs.

While I was a student-athlete, I loved playing, coaching, and working in soccer. During my undergraduate studies, I played soccer, coached at St. Mark’s School of Texas, I was the Cooper Fitness Center Soccer Pro, and started a social entrepreneurship at SMU that won many awards, called “Dream Big Soccer,” where we focused on utilizing soccer as a median and education, inspiration, and mentorship as our outlet for at risk children in Dallas.

Also, during my undergraduate studies, I also obtained the opportunity to be the first “Estagio” (coaching apprentice) in the history of FC Dallas for the “first team” (professional team), learning, working and being mentored by the well-respected, and well-known MLS Head Coach, Schellas Hyndman, and equally from FC Dallas’ USDA program Head Coach Oscar Pareja (current Orlando City FC MLS Head Coach).

These two coaches, along with the countless other coaches, administrators, and front office staff members at FC Dallas really mentored me, and gave me the knowledge and experience to have some insight in understand 1.) Learning how a professional soccer team is operated, and 2.) How a successful professional soccer front office is run (from ticket sales, marketing, production, and fan engagement departments, I learned a lot).

I had all these experiences by the time I graduated from SMU, where I earned my B.A. in Journalism, with a minor in Philosophy in 2012.

After I earned my Bachelors degree in 2012 – 2014, I became the SMU Men’s Soccer Director of Operations under Head Coach Tim McClements, and it was at SMU I was given a new opportunity to really have even more hands on experience in the administrative, back office/soccer side of how an NCAA Division 1 soccer program is run.

After graduating in 2014 with my Masters in Dispute Resolution and Conflict Management, Executive Coaching Certification, and Mediation Certification from SMU, I then embarked on my next journey where I could continue to pursue my passion of coaching soccer, and helping others by becoming a soccer coach and teacher in DISD.

After a year of making a positive impact for many of my students in DISD, setting various academic/athletic records with our soccer program (including record numbers of seniors graduating from DISD, and the number of players that graduated to go on and play college soccer), an opportunity presented itself where I could move on to become a college soccer head coach.

While still being a young coach, I became one of the youngest college soccer coaches in the U.S. at Mountain View College, as well as was given the additional responsibility of coaching two college programs at the same time; our college’s Men’s and Women’s soccer programs (at the same time).

I had to balance many aspects of running a program, obtaining sponsors through our booster account, recruiting, growing our team’s identity, growing our programs and college relationship together to attract student-athletes, and obtain quality assistant coaches.

While I navigated the season without a recruiting class, to have both or mens and women’s programs into having record setting seasons (both on and off the field), it is easy to say I was very proud of our programs.

While I was very proud of the success we accomplished as a soccer program at Mountain View College, I was also very proud that one of one of my former FC Dallas/SMU players accepted his first coaching job to come and be my assistant coach at Mountain View, Jaime Ibarra.

Jaime is currently the SMU Men’s Soccer Assistant Soccer Coach, under Kevin Hudson, and I can’t state how proud I am of Jaime’s growth in the soccer world.

Nevertheless, by the end of the season at Mountain View, there was a rare, unique, and intriguing opportunity for me to step out of my comfort zone (soccer), and try something new to diversify my work/life experiences, which led me into starting my own business creating luxury candles & home decor products.

As stated earlier, my candle, home decor, and art companies reached various levels of success, but what I value the most is what I learned along the way with those companies.

I learned how to start a business, hire, negotiate with vendors, showrooms, be a tenant, work with third party platforms, buyers, how international trade and commerce is conducted, learning about the supply chain, customer service, sales, and countless other business sectors were involved in my every day to day experiences.

Through these experiences, my knowledge, and success we had, I was then able to be more involved on civic side in my local community and support various initiatives. I became a Paul Harris Rotarian, a member of the Richardson Chamber of Commerce, and I was appointed to the US Chamber of Commerce Small Business Advisory Council. Additionally, I was invited to speak at various organizations, chamber events, engagements, and in March of 2020, I was appointed by the Governor of Texas to be a Board Member over the OSF.

All of the experiences I had above shaped a big part of who I am today, as well as, the knowledge I gained from those experiences. I am blessed to be able to look back at those countless experiences, moments, and times; and believe I know what I did right that made certain projects successful, know some things I could have done differently in some areas, and ultimately, when I reflect, I realized how I operate my life, projects, business, etc., today is largely shaped from all of those experiences; both the good and the tough.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

This question is by far the most important question for any small business owner, manager, or director.

While I admit sometimes I have to make sure I don’t get too caught up with the “end goal,” or “objective,” it’s important to remember that you as a leader are always the person that sets the tone for your employees and staff. This includes the team morale.

I have worked with people who do not believe morale is important (just the obtaining the results), however, I feel that both are important and if you have high morale you will have high productivity.

Sure, there may be times when you’re frustrated (everyone has their moments when they are frustrated or don’t feel always “pumped up”), but a good manager works with his/her staff, encourages them, and instills belief in them.

You also have to see what makes your team have high morale, I.e., taking your staff to lunch once a week, and talking about life might contribute to that, recognizing a member of your staff for doing an awesome job, and ensuring you give them ownership of their successes is important in having high morale.

While my advise above is not a one size fits all approach, I really want to stress that (in my opinion) the best Business Owners, Managers, or Leaders are those that have the talent/ability to bring out the best from their staff.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

When you own a business, or are a manager operating a business, you have to know 1.) who your clientele is, 2.) what your clientele wants, 3.) who are your competitors, and 4.) how you can provide a quality product for your clientele that will attract them to you and not your competitors.

Often times I see many teams, companies, or organizations that try to force a culture on a market as opposed to embracing the market that is already available. Far to often I see various markets ignored, or entities will try force a product (they entity thinks) the consumers SHOULD WANT vs. developing a product that consumer WANTS.

For example, the most effective strategy for growing our clientele (fans/supporters) for the Texas Outlaws this year was when we changed the name to The Texas Outlaws (from Mesquite Outlaws) mixed with our community outreach.

At first, some fans had mixed feelings about the name change, but when we showed what the name changed represented, along with maintaining our roots in Mesquite, they quickly loved the new clubs new identity, as that identity reflected the pride, presence, and changes they wanted to see in the club.

Our front office was able to successfully implemented over 38 fan engagement/community outreach initiatives prior to the start of our season (August 15 to Dec. 15). This resulted in nothing but positive growth and fan engagement.

By getting our team involved in various Texas communities, demonstrating that we represent and care for our local communities, our fanbase was excited, and growing fanbase was a result of our outreach.

By making our team accessible, taking our fans inputs seriously, and being a constant positive presence reflecting our team the Texas Outlaws (embracing the entire State of Texas) worked out very well for us.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.texasoutlawsfc.com. www.namdardecor.com. www.houseofnamdar.com
• Instagram: @bradnamdartx , @texasoutlawsfc, @namdardecor, @houseofnamdar
• Facebook: @bradnamdar
• Twitter: @bradnamdar
• Youtube: @bradnamdarkicking
• Other: www.namdardecor.com
  www.houseofnamdar.com
  www.texasoutlaws.com

Image Credits

Tuscon Sugar Skulls Kicking Photo – GPOP