
646: How Jesse Built A $450K/Year Brand Whilst Still Working in the Mines
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31:27
Most people with a full-time job, 14-hour shifts, and zero business experience don't start a brand — Jesse did, and he's closing in on half a million dollars a year to prove it.
After 16 years working in the mining industry, Jesse knew the gear handed to workers on site was genuinely not fit for purpose. So he did something about it, building Wolf Workwear — durable, functional workwear for heavy industries — one hour at a time between fly-in, fly-out shifts. He still hasn't quit his day job. He's doing it anyway.
In this episode, Jesse gets brutally honest about what those first two and a half years actually looked like — overspending $40-50K on a launch, building 4,000 Instagram followers who had zero intention of buying anything, and the UGC pivot that changed everything overnight.
What you'll learn in this interview:
Why 4,000 followers didn't translate to sales — and the critical difference between an engaged audience and a buying one
How Jesse validated his product idea by handing samples to his workmates on site before ever building a brand
The real cost of launching with too much conviction: a $40-50K first run and what he'd do differently
How to build a business on 1-2 hours a day while working 14-hour shifts — and where to spend that time first
Why switching from static product shots to UGC ads was an overnight game changer for paid performance
How to find and iterate products on Alibaba without a design background — function and comfort as your only brief
The B2B opportunity hiding inside a D2C brand, and how supplying mining companies unlocked a second revenue stream
Why disappointing a customer hurts more than any slow sales period — and what that tells you about building a brand worth caring about
The honest maths behind staying in your day job longer than everyone says you should
What it actually feels like to build something from nothing when nobody's watching yet
If you're trying to build something real around a full-time job and wondering whether it's worth the grind — this episode will change how you think about time, patience, and what early traction actually looks like. Jesse's story is proof that you don't need the perfect conditions. You just need to start.
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend with the code FOUNDR50. Just head to https://your.omnisend.com/foundr to get started.
WANT TO GROW YOUR BRAND WITH META ADS?
Join the Foundr Operators Waitlist → https://foundr.com/operators
HOW WE CAN HELP YOU SCALE YOUR BUSINESS FASTER
Learn directly from 7, 8 & 9-figure founders inside Foundr+
Start your $1 trial → https://www.foundr.com/startdollartrial
PREFER A CUSTOM ROADMAP AND 1-ON-1 COACHING?
→ Starting from scratch? Apply here →
https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-start-application
→ Already have a store? Apply here →
https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-growth-application
CONNECT WITH JESSIE LIM
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/wolf_workwear/
Website → https://wolfworkwear.com/
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
YouTube → https://bit.ly/2uyvzdt
Website → https://www.foundr.com
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/foundr/
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/foundr
Twitter → https://www.twitter.com/foundr
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/foundr/
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast
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