We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Cirius Seals a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Cirius thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

I started PAIN because I needed a creative outlet. Initially I was only rapping and singing but I wanted to express myself more through fashion as well. I was already making jackets, t shirts, jeans and accessories but didn’t know where to start as far as making it a business goes so I started doing a lot of research. I got my LLC, EIN, and started looking into business funding and grants.It wasn’t easy at first finding funding but through the pandemic I used most of my unemployment money to get my clothes made. I even did my first pop up shop in Virginia. I visualized my brand being more of a fashion house than streetwear but as time went on everything just came together how it was supposed to. Officially, PAIN is a lifestyle streetwear brand catering to teenagers and young adults. After about two years in business I decided to focus a little bit more on women’s and children’s clothes and made a few samples. That’s mainly what I’m focused on right now outside of men’s clothing. Within the next two years I hope to be selling overseas and doing collars with other major streetwear brands like Supreme, etc.

Cirius, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

PAIN if a lifestyle streetwear brand I started in 2019 a year after I graduated high school. I mainly make men’s clothing but just started working on women and children’s clothing as well. What mainly sets me apart from other brands is the originality. I don’t look at trends and follow them, I set them. Over the years I’ve seen other brands in Atlanta little bit here and there but that never discouraged me, if anything it inspired me to keep going even more. I’m most proud of the varsity jacket I made in 2021 that got me a lot of traction and I purposely didn’t release it to the public because of the work it took to make it. I’ve been sewing since I was 12 years old and bought the patches and sewn the entire jacket myself. Up to that point I felt underrated and looked over for my accomplishments but the jacket did a lot for my brand overall.

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

I sell on Shopify. I love the layout of my website and how easy it is to use even with little to no experience with having a website before. Compared to other sites like Wix or Squarespace not only do you get to choose a theme and full customize it, Shopify gives you a bank account for all of your sales to go into and that personally makes it easy for me to keep track of sales and revenue. I like amazon and Etsy but Etsy is more for arts and crafts to me and I didn’t like how that would make my brand look if I was to sell on there, the same with amazon. Amazon is more for wholesale brands. I don’t see anything on there that sticks out and I also think about exclusivity with my drops. If anyone can buy my brand at any time that diminishes the overall value and I never want that to happen.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

When it comes to running your brand it’s best to do it alone and let a team gradually be built whether its friends or people that you have to hire. I had a mentor that was showing me how to run my business in a different way about a year after I started but he was terrible with money and was selfish. He helped as far as making designs and even wanted me to work for him and his brand but I was telling him that PAIN is the only brand I want to work on. I didn’t care about his social media following just the fact that he wasn’t a good person and his brand reflected that. I had to learn that you can go far with others but as long as you lock in on yourself you can go way farther, even if you have to go alone.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://ciriusmedia.shop
• Instagram: personal: saintcirius business: painbeforepleasureusa
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Pain-Before-Pleasure-LLC/100095289917949/
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/areyoucirius

Image Credits

Tianna Fain, Kevin Latham