We recently connected with Brandon Cheng and have shared our conversation below.

Brandon, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?

I am definitely happier as a business owner. But I would be lying if I said I didn’t think about what it would be like to have a regular job. The thought of working a regular job crosses my mind often. Owning a business is very overwhelming at times. I have to make sure things are being marketed right, books are in order, customer service is on point, inventory is updated & much more. Sometimes you want to take that weight off your shoulders.

I just turned 20 years old a few months ago, most of my peers are at college enjoying their lives to the fullest. The temptation of joining them gets stronger at times, especially during slow seasons. Very often I have to take a step out of my shoes and see how truly blessed I am to be able to run my own business, despite everything. Having just a regular job to me is like settling in life. I’ve dealt with a lot of adversity throughout my life, but one thing I never did was give up. Thoughts come and go all the time about quitting.

Honestly as I’m writing this, the thought of having a regular job crossed my mind today. But one thing I will never let myself do is quit or settle. At the end of the day, I’ve come way too far to turn around. Deep down I love adversity, I believe it shows your true character and/or builds it.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Brandon Cheng and I own Soleinspires. Soleinspires is a buy & sell after market retailer for sneakers & fashion. I’ve resold shoes for the past 10 years of my life. There was a time period where I did take a little break. I started putting my focus into football. Growing up I was a huge sneakerhead, but I had dreams of playing in the NFL. I was very undersized, I remember when I told my coach I wanted to play Division 1 football. He told me since I was underweight and undersized I’d have to work harder than everyone else. My coach played Division 1 football, so he knew what it took. He started treating me as my goals would. I strongly believe that’s where my work ethic came from. We used to train everyday, study film, work on mobility and more. I didn’t make it far in football, but that mindset I had back then never left. Training everyday became working on improving Soleinspires daily, studying film became studying marketing/networking, working on mobility became working on creativity.

Everyday I want to make sure everyone who sees or buys off Soleinspires sees the difference in us. Most of the time these online after market retailers take ages to get customers their pairs. Our goal at Soleinspires is to always make sure every package is shipped out the same business day. We have one of the fastest and safest shipping services. We use UPS as our carrier & everything takes about 1-3 days to get to customers. Here at Soleinspires we take pride in the experience we provide. Our sales team is available 24/7 to help anyone & everyone get the proper size they need. When you shop with Soleinspires you shop with confidence.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Back in June 2022 about a year ago from when I’m writing this, I was in a very dark place mentally. I had just quit my job 5 months before. The transition itself was hard enough, but things just kept getting worse. I made a lot of bad decisions that led up to what happened. I lost most of my capital, but more importantly I lost myself. At the time being, I didn’t see things getting better. But in the moment when I looked back at what I had to fall back on, it was nothing. I got up and got to work. Not just on the business, but on myself. I put myself through a mental and physical challenge called the “75 Hard”. During this challenge I had to do 2 workouts a day, follow a diet, read 10 pages of a book everyday and take progress pictures. 75 hard made me dig deep inside as a person, man and business owner. Everyday I got up and I chose to fight, regardless of how tired I was. The challenge helped me fight for my happiness and peace again in life. From the day I quit my job (January 2022) up to June 2022 I definitely lost sight of my purpose. But through all the pain I was in mentally and physically I didn’t quit. Every time I looked at myself in the mirror during this 75 day period I reminded myself of 3 things I was grateful for, 3 things I accomplished the day before and 2 things I embraced accomplishing the day.

After the challenge ended, everything changed. Soleinspires had gained around 2,000 followers, my body fat percentage was at an all time low of 6%, I was starting to impact the community, and I had a completely different mindset. Most importantly I found inner peace & created a new Brandon Cheng. I built myself into the person I’ve always wanted to be.

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

The most effective strategy for growing clientele for Soleinspires has been social media marketing. During the summer of 2022 I hit a huge slump. The page wasn’t growing very well. My mentor Joshua Pleasant and Content Creator Matt Choi put me onto Instagram reels. I started to use them daily and slowly started seeing results. Fast forward to today (June 2023), we post content on all platforms daily. YouTube Shorts, TikTok, Instagram Reels and Instagram Stories. Social media marketing completely changed the game for the business. Instagram reels is our strongest platform, we have 36K accounts engaged this month alone. Soleinspires has built a reputable name in our local community thanks to our content.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://soleinspires.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soleinspires/?hl=en
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@soleinspires
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@soleinspires1