We recently connected with Kirk LaVecchia and have shared our conversation below.

Kirk, appreciate you joining us today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

Persistence, time and energy conquer all things. The biggest struggle anyone faces while starting a company is the dip. The dip is the post excitement of starting something new that is refreshing and filled with hope. Eventually you hit obstacle after obstacle which tends to seem insurmountable. This is where most people fail because they quit. It’s not due to a lack of talent or skill yet a lack of perseverance to push through the pain. That’s why it is critical to pick a company not for profits, money, fame, etc…yet to select a mission that serves its customers while being deeply fulfilling to the owner. Melanie (my wife) and I have been theme park fans our entire lives and we love making people laugh through edutainment. We teach folks how to have a better time at Walt Disney World through hacks, snacks and fun facts surrounding the parks. If we didn’t love making clothes, theme parks and education we would have failed as it’s not fun pushing through sticking points. It’s not fun forcing yourself to learn all of the admin functions of operating a business. However, the impact our community has had on one another is incredible and the most rewarding experience of our lives.

Kirk, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’ve always been an entrepreneur and wanted to make a massive impact in my favorite space, theme parks. After wearing these awesome patterned woven shirts to work, I would receive tons of compliments. I wondered why those types of shirts didn’t really exist for theme park fans and certainly not at a decent price. So without a single idea on how to manufacture clothes I set out to create a woven shirt. Countless hours of research poured into the creation of a tech pack which is the template for how the shirts would be made including material blends, patterns, detailing and plackets. We soon would add manufactured polarized sunglasses to our offerings. Both of these products featured theme park snacks which our customers are super passionate about.

Why on Earth would you call the company Walrus Carp? That’s ridiculous. Well yea it is but on purpose. Our name is derived from my favorite Disney film, Alice in Wonderland where there is an allegory acted out about a Walrus and a Carpenter in search of food. We wanted a memorable name that was completely original so shortened Walrus Carpenter to Walrus Carp. It’s ridiculous and means nothing until it means something which fortunately it means a lot to our community. Alice was created from nonsense words and stories to be funny and light hearted. We set out to provide humor through our edutainment style content while we live stream in the theme parks. Doesn’t hurt that the Walrus and the Carpenter in the story were always hungry and ran into some curious oysters. Like us we are constantly learning about the parks and trying the latest snacks. So the name works.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Start. Make one piece of content that makes you happy and post it. It’s going to be awful. You’re going to be unhappy with your content for quite some time however with enough posts, videos, edits and time you’ll start to stink less and less. At some point you’ll keep trying new styles and find a few that fit your personality. The key is to post more than once per day (the more reps/posts the better) and never quit. Don’t take breaks. Just keep moving. I suggest starting with one social media platform and go all in. This will change as the apps change however in 2022 Tiktok is it. If you’re a brand you have to be on Tiktok. I’ve used a combination of static posts and live streams to grow my account to 105,8k followers on Tiktok over the span of 2 years. Instagram reels, Youtube Shorts and FB fan pages are all nice to haves as well. You can repurpose content when you’re starting out on those platforms.

Don’t fake who you are. It’s impossible to put up an act sustainably over time. People will see right through the lack of authenticity. I pride myself on being me. All the flaws and all the skills. People love my dumb dad jokes and expert advice in the theme parks. I can geek out on little details in a queue or trip over a curb in the next moment. That’s life though. It’s messy and not pretty yet there are moments of brilliance. If you can create those moments with an audience while serving them entirely and selflessly you’ll have loyalty for life. Be willing to give without expectation of reward.

Have you ever had to pivot?

We started out having only 2 products to sell: 1 button down short sleeve woven with pineapples, ice cream and flowers on it plus a pair of sunglasses with chocolate ice cream bars on them. That was it. Although gorgeous and amazing products our customers kept asking for t shirts. As I visited the parks more I noticed tons and tons of t shirts. Now I’m not normally a t shirt guy yet our customers were demanding we add them. Since we are a small business and cashflow is king we had to find a solution to offer t shirts without the upfront cost of bulk order inventory locally or screen printing equipment. That’s when I found print on demand. That allowed us to have an infinite amount of designs across multiple offerings in clothing style from hoodies to jackets to bathing suits. Honestly, it’s been the best way to test products as well. See if they sell then if needed buy a bulk order. This was a major shift from the original offerings yet we are here for one thing…to serve others. The only way to provide for our customers’ need was to add more products.

I feel that pivoting is one of an entrepreneur’s greatest assets. The market will ebb and flow. Trends will change. Customer preferences will shift. You can’t control most aspects of a market however you can respond effectively to its needs. Just because you are entrenched in one route it may not be the route that’s correct moving forward. I feel companies get large and feel less nimble. They forget all of the quick changes that need to be made to be effective starting off. I mean we are just trying to keep the company alive. That’s all you can do when you play an infinite game. Just keep the business going. Don’t worry about change, it’s going to happen. Focus on how you react to the change. Pivots are good. Innovation that serves is great.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://walruscarp.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/walruscarpclothing/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/walruscarp
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/walrus-carp
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/walruscarp
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/walruscarp
• Other: Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@walruscarp Discord: https://discord.com/invite/jefze82TfV