We were lucky to catch up with Michael Loretta recently and have shared our conversation below.
Michael, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?
I started a clothing brand, Faith & Based. The brand was a response to a lot of negative messages I’ve seen come into the market. I noticed a lot of clothing and messages targeted towards kids that have cool looking designs represent symbols of evil. So I wanted to do the opposite and create good messaging with a modern aesthetic. The name of the brand is Faith & Based, a play on the phrase “faith-based”. Faith meaning the faith in God and based which is the internet/youth way of saying something is “cool” or very itself without concern about societal backlash.
Michael, 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’m a designer based out of Miami, Florida and I’ve been designing for roughly 15 years. I’m born and raised in Miami and I went to college in Cincinnati, Ohio. I used to work for Yahoo! for roughly 7 years and I got laid off right when I had a baby girl. When I had my baby this is when I was awakening to more of the spiritual realm and the spiritual fight that everyone faces. It became apparent the more I became closer to God, I was getting further away from the connection to corporate life. When I got laid off, amongst other things in my personal life I decided to launch Faith & Based as a response to a lot of negativity and ugliness I’ve seen in the fashion industry. Instead of skulls, demons and negative messaging I wanted to create clothes that uplifted those who wore it or people who saw it.
Have you ever had to pivot?
I transitioned from working in big tech to focusing on my small business. Faith & Based is my clothing brand but I recently started another ventured called 333 Oil. This is a brand focused on selling anointing oil, holy water and blessed salt. All of these are to be used for religious purposes. While I was working in big tech I realized the spiritual implications of this reality and I had the epiphany that God is real and it matters what we do here on Earth. I wanted to make a clothing brand that showcased positivity and demonstrated my love for God, first and foremost to God but also to change society around me.
I was laid off working in big tech as soon as I had a kid which seemed very disrespectful also I was in the middle of having marital issues because my wife was dealing with postpartum and I wasn’t doing the best job of being there for her. Instead of crawling back into the big tech world I wanted to change my life and focus on the positive instead of emboldening big tech. The more of information I was given while working in big tech the more I started to realize it wasn’t for me, spiritually. I started working with a friend of mine’s CBD business. Physicians Preferred which I liked because I was helping people with anxiety, arthritis and even cancer. From someone who lived his life behind a computer I was able to actually help those who were ailing and in need. This opened up my eyes to the possibility I have more to offer this world than collecting a paycheck helping some multi-billion dollar company make cool advertising on internet websites.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
A lesson I had to unlearn is the getting paid for everything I do. I think when you work a 9-5 or in my case when you freelance and do design work for people you have a “wage slave” mentality that you must get paid for every action you take. I had to unlearn the notion that all of my work needs to be quantified and I bill for it. Instead I have to think about the value I’m bringing. I have worked a lot on a lot of these endeavors I’m taking on with Faith & Based, 333 Oil, freelancing and more. Even with Faith & Based, in order to generate buzz for my products I’m heavily investing into my social channels such as YouTube as a result a lot of the work of creating, shooting, editing all falls on me. I’m playing the long game where I want to grow myself in a way where I have a real self sustaining business that lasts a long time, as opposed to a flash-in-the-pan, here today gone tomorrow. I know many people are looking for connection and spirituality but they look in places that they are left astray. I know this because I was one of those people. I want to be able to use my story as a way of demonstrating to others of how they can find God and use their gifts for the benefit of humanity instead of using their gifts to emboldening nefarious entities that are out there.
Contact Info:
- Website: faithandbased.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/faithandbased
- Facebook: facebook.com/faithandbased
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/89580924/admin/feed/posts/
- Twitter: twitter.com/faithandbased
- Youtube: youtube.com/@faithandbased
- Other: tiktok.com/@faithandbased (I upload my youtube shorts on here via desktop)