How To Run A Successful Print On Demand Business (Successful Print On Demand Stories)

About this video

R.J. Martinez interviews Eric Patrick Thomas (aka Mr. Inspire), founder of the Inspire clothing brand. Eric shares his full life story: childhood love of wordplay, Dr. Seuss and hip-hop; college for photography and graphic design; and in September 1997, at a house party celebrating his music project, being shot in the back, with the bullet lodged vertically between his third and fourth vertebrae. He recounts surviving on life support, communicating by eye blinks and tongue clicks, and months of rehab in Englewood, Colorado, where his goal was simply to breathe off a ventilator again. The ‘Inspire’ brand grew out of people calling him inspired, starting with shirts he wore while speaking at schools, then opening Easy Awareness by Design in November 2011. After Damon John attended their academy they moved from a self-built site to Shopify. For business operations, Eric explains the evolution: they started printing in-house with a plotter and heat press (plus a nightmare stretch doing cutthroat road signs, which they offloaded to partners), then partnered with a local print shop for wholesale bulk printing, and finally moved to print-on-demand with Printful integrated into Shopify — a ‘game changer’ that freed their time for customers and projects, and kept the business running through more than 820 days of bed rest (March 2018 to December 2019) with a recurring bone infection, since the brand operated entirely remotely. On growth he stresses workflows and systems: collect data, be honest about what failed (a targeted Facebook ad that ‘failed miserably’), test new keywords, and re-target the 32% of people who opened a Shopify email. They run mostly Facebook ads, want Amazon ads (Merch/brand page secured after a long trademark process via attorney), sell on Etsy, hold a Redbubble account they don’t focus on, and publish Inspire journals on KDP. On customer service, he describes the Q4 2020 shipping chaos, where proactive communication turned angry customers into patient ones, and he only refunded one order. He closes with his motto — ’never say can’t, always say how’ — and goals: an accessible house, a book of stories, more music, and growing the Inspire brand.

Key takeaways

• Eric’s Inspire brand began from his disability-advocacy story and school speaking gigs, moving from in-house printing to a local bulk print partner and finally to Printful-on-Shopify print-on-demand.
• He credits POD with saving the business during 820+ days of bed rest, since orders could be printed and shipped without anyone touching product.
• Consistency and accountability are his core lessons: watch your own work, collect data on ads/keywords/emails, and pivot off failures honestly.
• They sell through Shopify, Etsy, Amazon (with a trademarked brand page), Redbubble, and KDP journals; Facebook ads are their main paid channel.
• Customer service and proactive communication during shipping delays turned a bad Q4 2020 shipping season into a customer-loyalty win.

Episode details: published January 27, 2021 · 1:11:10 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are RJ Martinez’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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