How do you build a billion-dollar brand? It rarely starts with a billion dollars, that much is certain.

Brian Smith has charted his own course to become one of the great entrepreneurial success stories of our time. In 1978, he imported six pairs of sheepskin boots from Australia, with a dream to build a business where every American would eventually be wearing the product.

That is how one of the world’s most recognizable brands began, and sales of UGG products have exceeded a billion dollars in each of the past six years.

It was a chilly day in California when inspiration struck, but it wasn’t long before Brian learned that his entrepreneurial idea wasn’t going to amount to anything without a profound amount of work.

Brian’s book Birth of a Brand highlights the most fundamental truth of any entrepreneurial idea — just as you don’t give birth to an adult, your fledgling idea won’t immediately appear as a successful, profitable, fully-functioning business either. Breakthrough-breakdown is the cycle that every growing business has to navigate, and Brian has serious wisdom about the growth and branding that took Uggs from tadpole to billion-dollar success.

Despite the moments when Brian thought he had failed, he never gave up. You’re never really defeated until you give up on yourself. Brian shares the experiences he had that taught him what it takes to stay in the game until you’ve changed the world.

Interview Links:

Brian Smith

Spend a Day With Brian

Resources:

20,000 Scaleups

Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.)

Bill on YouTube

Recruiter .com Short List (use code scaleup )

Brian Smith — Building a Brand

Scaling Up Business with Bill Gallagher