000: Becoming The Sleep Entrepreneur

000: Becoming The Sleep Entrepreneur

Are you passionate about sleep and entrepreneurship? In this very first podcast episode 0, Kris Nowak shares his story and talks about the new exciting stage of his career - becoming the sleep entrepreneur.
Reading 000: Becoming The Sleep Entrepreneur 21 minutes Next 001: How Many Hours Does Entrepreneur Sleep

Timestamps

00:00 Podcast introduction
00:25 Welcome to episode 0
00:42 About myself
01:14 Mindset shift about social media
02:12 Moving to Canada
03:37 My first job
04:12 Petroleum engineering diploma
06:26 Transition to entrepreneurship
07:08 Pivoting moment in my life
08:11 My experience with MLM
08:24 eCom beginnings
10:10 The importance of having a solid credit score
10:30 Not having credit is not an excuse
11:46 Sucess tip #1 visualize success
13:25 Sucess tip #2 stay hungry
14:35 Sucess tip #3 work hard and focus
15:45 Sucess tip #4 have a support system
16:25 Sucess tip #5 focus should be on the customer
17:16 How sleeprlo brand started
18:44 What I'm looking for with this brand
19:25 The goal for sleeprlo
19:38 Episode 0 recap

Podcast Description

Welcome to the Work Hard Sleep Well Podcast with Kris Nowak, where we explore the million dollar question - how can we optimize our sleep for maximum performance, productivity, and success in our busy lives as entrepreneurs and working professionals? Join me as I document my journey of discovery in real time and share practical tips and tricks from successful entrepreneurs, working professionals and sleep doctors to help you achieve the best sleep possible.

As we explore different sleeping schedules, proven tricks, and changing relationships with sleep over time, this podcast is tailored for entrepreneurs and working professionals who want to improve their sleep quality, increase productivity, and perform at their best. We understand that you have a lot on your plate, and our aim is to help you manage stress and achieve a better work-life balance.

Through interviews with successful entrepreneurs and sleep experts, we provide unique insights and perspectives on sleep and rest, with a focus on productivity and performance. You can look forward to hearing from a diverse range of guests and answering intriguing questions that you won't find elsewhere. Join us on this journey to discover the secrets to unlocking your true potential through restful sleep.

Episode Transcript

Welcome to Work Hard Sleep Well Podcast with Kris Nowak, where we search for the answer to the one million dollar question. What can we do to sleep the best we're capable of to achieve maximum performance, productivity and success in life as entrepreneurs and working professionals who are dealing with busy schedules, every increased amount of responsibilities and stress. So welcome to the episode number zero.

This is the very first episode of this podcast, obviously. I'm your host Kris Nowak, and I'm going to get right into this. So probably many of you are wondering like, who am I? I'm Kris Nowak, obviously I'm 28. I've been an entrepreneur for three years now. I actually deleted my social media for about three years when I first really started going into e-commerce. I deleted my social media.

which had its advantages and disadvantages, but it's very hard to have a successful e-commerce business when you don't have social media because you actually need to know how to use these platforms and you can utilize these platforms to your advantage. Right? I used to really think like social media is a waste of time, but now obviously I'm on every platform again and no, you can actually utilize this stuff to your advantage. You can post content online to promote your stuff.

The algorithms are working in your favor. You know, I think like you could either trip about it. For the longest time, I didn't want to post online. I just felt like I don't want to be this guy that kind of like promotes himself. And I just hated this like entire idea of like self promoting and just being like center of attention. But now I moved way past that already. And I just see it as an opportunity to tap into.

to utilize these algorithms and this technology to get additional exposure. And as you do it more and more, it gets better and better. I'm actually just getting started here with this content. Just really getting the feel for it, but anyway. So my story. So let's go back to the beginning. Actually, I was born in Poland. I moved from Poland to Canada when I was 17 with my family.

And it was hard at first, man. Like I didn't speak English. So I remember like, I knew some very basic words and I thought I kind of knew how to speak English when I moved here. But then I moved here and I realized in high school, well, first of all, everybody speaks fast. And then second of all, high school kids, they use slang. So it's very hard to like understand what they're saying. So basically went back to nothing, had to start from the scratch.

And so it took me like two years actually to even start to have like any friends and be able to communicate with people. So it was hard. I felt like an outsider. I kind of came like from that introverted, like closed off kind of personality to start with. So that like even amplified it even more.

So it was hard, it was hard man, but you know, I overcame that and obviously I'm speaking fluent English now, most of you can probably understand what I'm saying. So, so we're good, we're good. And I remember like one of my first jobs here, like moving to Canada was actually like waiting tables and I'm being a dishwasher at a restaurant. So, you know, it was an entry level job, but I was grateful for it because.

Like compared to back home, I was making you know decent money like even like working for $10 per hour then Felt like decent money decent money compared to what I'll be working for in Poland So I was happy to do it. I was you know, I was just hungry and I'm still hungry nowadays for success and for better life So in high school I bought into this idea of going to post-secondary and I became a

I studied petroleum engineering technology. I live in Alberta, which is like Texas of Canada, except the weather because the weather is colder here, of course. So I did oil field work for a bit there.

And you know, like the money was good. The money was good for being like entry level guy after school, just having a diploma, not really having much experience, but it was very hard work, like physical labor. Uh, remember like we were doing perforating a pad because this was wireline job. And we were working like 12 to 14 hour days and I was making like best money like I was ever making on the time. Just like working like a slave for it. And.

for like seven days straight or even more than that. We worked like 12 to 14 hours, worked from 3 a.m. And then like day three or so, I was sharing a room with a coworker of mine and we both like woke up, it's like 3 a.m. It's like so early, we were so tired, exhausted and like he looks at me and he says, I don't want to man, like, yeah, like we're making decent money when we have.

absolutely no control over what we do and it just felt miserable, you know. And I felt the same way. I didn't want to do this shit. Like, yeah, like I was making good money. I thought then, but realistically compared to what's possible out there, I wasn't really making that much money. Like, you know, the owners of the company obviously were making the most money. And I was just like slaving and working my life away. So I got out of that job, actually. Oilfield.

I got out of it and it was hard. I got fired. I got fired by station manager because I didn't want to do some stupid shit they wanted me to do. Uh, and probably I, I could probably be more, uh, humble at the time because I was, you know, didn't really have much experience, but everything worked out well for me, uh, the way it worked out. So it was hard at first because I got fired and then like, I realized I don't want to be in this oil field niche.

And I dedicated a few years of my life and studying engineering and all of this stuff. So I had to start from nothing, had to start from zero. And I was kind of drifting too at the time. Um, not really having like a set purpose, not really knowing who I wanted to be. Um, you know, and just partying, just associating myself with people that are also drifting, just not good. It's, you know, like it may feel like, uh, like

You know, it's fun in the moment, but like realistically, it's not that it's not that fulfilling at all. So the pivoting moment for me would really change trajectory of my life was when I broke my ankle. I was kind of like training gymnastics at the time, just recreational, like nothing like professional. And once like end of the practice and I did like one too many backflips and of the practice.

and I broke my ankle and like really bad. Ambulance to the hospital had to wait like 48 hours for the surgery. They're giving me like morphine. They're giving me oxys, all the nasty drugs that like you can imagine. I felt like crap. And I remember just like talking to my older brother like he came to visit me. And I was just like, I didn't want him. I felt so low, like so miserable. I swore that like I'm tired of the way things are.

and I'm going to change it. And I never want to be in the same spot again. And I did that. I never been there again ever since. So became an entrepreneur at the age of 25 from very humble beginnings. Actually the very first venture that I went into was MLM. Had some mentors like Appline. I realized I didn't really want to do MLM. And at the time I actually, a friend of mine.

I knew he was trying to generate some traction in business himself, but as it is in business, like not always it works out. So he tried some other businesses before me, before we actually connected and we reconnected and we went into e-commerce together. And you know, ever since we had our first sale in e-commerce, it was like a dream come true. Like it was like a dream come true, man.

understanding that it's possible to live in a different way where you don't have to sell your time. If you don't want to do that, it was the best feeling ever. And the second I had the smallest chance to go full time, to go all in on my business, on the e-commerce, I did that. And I never looked back because at the time I was actually working construction job just to pay some, pay for the bills, to have some cashflow.

The second I had an opportunity to go all in on e-commerce, I did. And I think that's also partially why I am today where I am today. Um, so ever since I started e-commerce three years ago, I've made 4 million dollars worth of sales online and continue on selling more. I'm not telling you this to brag. I'm kind of hoping like you may get inspired because a guy like me, honestly, I had nothing when we, when we started, I had nothing.

Both me and my business partner, we managed to put together like $1,000 each. We had like 2K total. He had like derail credit. I had a better credit. So the one thing I actually did have was good credit. So there's a tip for you, man. Take care of your credit. Like just make sure you don't have any late payments. Make sure you have good credit score because dude nowadays, like if you have a credit score.

If you have access to credit, you don't even need to have your own money. You can learn to use others people money to get it started. That's how beautiful it is. And even if you actually had derailed credit and if you had no money, that's still not an excuse to quit and, you know, just really try to justify to yourself that like you can't do it because you don't have credit and you don't have. Uh, like any cash man, like if you believe, if you literally believe that like you're gonna make it no matter what.

You're gonna manifest it. If you believe that like you can't because you don't have access to credit and like you don't have any cash, then you're gonna manifest it. So choose what you manifest. So now I'm going to actually give you some tips. I actually thought about it a little bit. What helped me get to the point where I am today? And because I'm not really bragging, but I just wanted to let you know like it's possible man, because if I did it from nothing, literally had nothing.

at like 40K of student loan debt when I was just getting started, really had no cash flow, no experience in e-commerce, just a sole desire, just hunger. Hunger to actually change my life and to live in a better way than I lived at the time. If you have that, that's all it takes. You can actually accomplish it. You can change your life. So the biggest thing for me probably is visualization and meditation. I...

actually still do this stuff today. And repetition of doing it, you know, visualize being a successful person already. You never have, you never wait for your circumstances to change, you wanna start making decisions from a point of where you wanna be, not where you are. So for me, that was literally like visualizing being successful, being wealthy, all the time, like every single day.

Just coming from this mindset, I can versus, you know, getting caught up and I can't, or just like watching news and like constant fear and like other stuff like going on. So I went into business, like e-commerce, we started in 2020. So obviously there was a lot of stuff like happening around the world at that time. A lot of people were like very concerned and you know, like just constantly listening to media is kind of toxic. They always show you the worst parts of everything that's happening.

They always kind of try to like show you the fear side of things. So really isolating myself from that and understanding that does nothing good for me. So may as well like stop watching it and stop listening to that and getting on the frequency I want it to be on. So there are lots of different like videos and like recordings you can listen to that can actually uplift you and like bring your frequency up. So why would you voluntary bring your frequency down by listening to these like negative like

media news and other stuff. It makes no sense to me. So, you know, maybe stay away from that. Another thing for me, and I'm still hungry today, but like, you know, moving from Poland to Canada, that itself was a huge blessing for me. And I think a lot of people saying like American dream is dead, or Canadian dream is dead, because I live in Canada, man, it's not that.

The problem is people are complacent, people are not hungry. People used to be much more hungry. And like you see immigrants like me moving here, so hungry from nothing and we come up to something. The only reason why is because we're hungry, man. Because like we never had an opportunity to have something like this before. So when we do, it's absolutely amazing. And I'm still hungry today. And I think like if you can be hungry for success and not complacent.

It's going to allow you to have an advantage because a lot of people are not hungry. They're not trying. So if you know everything is out there for the grabs man, there's more opportunity now that there's ever been before. So why wouldn't you take advantage of it? You know, it's all it's literally out there for the grabs if you take it. Working hard and focusing. That's another big thing. There was a period of my time for like six months or so when I was starting my first

I was waking up at 3 a.m. in the morning to work three hours on my business before I went to work because I was working construction at the time. And so if I actually work on my business after construction job, I'll be too tired. I'll be exhausted. I couldn't focus. So I realized I have to switch things around to give myself an advantage. And I did that. And that's, you know, like, so maybe look around.

Like, can you switch things around? Like, are you really that hungry? If you want it, you can switch things. People say they don't have time. Man, like you have time, but like you choose not to do it, you know? Look at all the time you're wasting in a day. Like if you really wanted it bad enough, you would change things around. So you can actually make it happen. And that's what I did. Woke up at 3 a.m. in the morning for six months and just work on my business before I went working construction job.

because I knew that would allow me to get an edge.

Another thing is having a support system. So for me, that was like finding a business partner, which I still have nowadays, and I still have another e-commerce company, but it could be in different forms. It could be mentors, coaches, it could be business partner, it could be joining a community, getting some courses, try to close the gap of where you're weak at, so you can focus on the stuff you're strong at, because we're all different. So, understanding what your differences are.

and your strengths and weaknesses is going to allow you to get an edge.

And then lastly, okay, so this is something I learned a lot from my business partner. He emphasized this like very, very much from early on when we were starting our first e-commerce business, the focus should be on the customers from early on. The focus should be on the customers from early on because by focusing on customers and providing the best experience for the customers, you're going to actually collect the feedback and improve your processes and systems.

and you're going to provide everything your customer needs so they can buy from you, they can refer you further, and it's kind of like a word of mouth loop, right? So focus on that and everything else will take care of itself.

So that's it in terms of the things that allow me to get to where I am now. And now a little bit about the sleeper, how it started. So I was actually living with the roommate at a time and he had a cat and this cat, he was like super loud and being an entrepreneur, like I need to get my sleep. I need to get my rest, man. How am I supposed to perform the best?

If at night like there's a cat that's like howling and like noises and I can't sleep. So, you know, I started looking into like sleep accessory market. And I realized a lot of it is kind of like saturated with like lower quality products and whatnot. So the idea itself was born from an actual need that I had. And as I talked to more entrepreneurs and business owners, I realized like a lot of people are actually struggling with sleep. So that's how sleeper will started. It was literally created from.

problem that I had and I wanted to solve for myself and for others. Uh, and you know, we're on a mission to help entrepreneurs and working professionals sleep the best they can. So they, so they can increase their performance, um, increase their productivity and focus on living their best lives because I think that's what it's all about. You know, you think about your productivity when you wake up in the morning and you had an amazing night of sleep.

versus when you struggle to get through the night and you woke up and like now you still gotta do everything but like you actually didn't sleep well enough. Like that's just like a day wasted, right? So I wanna discover all the ways and tricks that business owners and other entrepreneurs have for sleeping well consistently. Because I just see a lot of value in this and everything I wanna learn and study for this, I'm going to share with you guys.

So if you're interested in how to improve your sleep, like sleep education and getting some high quality sleep accessories, check out sleeperlo.com. This is the brand I'm starting now. I've been building this company for a year and a half now. It's definitely been way more challenging than I thought it would be, to be honest, but that's okay. My goal is to build the biggest sleep accessory brand in the world for entrepreneurs and working professionals and make a huge impact in the world.

So we will see how far I'm gonna take it in the next few years here or so. So that's it for the episode number zero. I hope that you actually got an understanding of who I am. I hope that like you got inspired a little bit by what I was able to accomplish. And you know, if you're just thinking about starting a business, you don't really know if you're capable of it. Man, like if I did it, I promise you anybody can do it.

as long as you have the desire to achieve it. Because I had nothing, no experience, no money. Like I had student loan debt. If you think about the circumstances I was in, everything would say that like I was the person that couldn't do it and I still did it. So if I did it, I'm sure that like you can also do it if that's what you want, man. Okay, I will see you in the next episode, peace.

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