25 - What's Up Wake - Coastal Cool - Holden Bierman
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[00:00:00] 

Melissa: Preparing for today's episode of What's Up. Wake had me reminiscing about what my life looked like when I was in sixth grade. This was way back in the 19 hundreds.

Practically in the pioneer days before the days of texting friends and streaming shows, but I sure did a lot of writing handwritten notes to friends, folding them origami style. Of course, I was [00:01:00] definitely watching tons of tv, like The Cosby Show and Saved by the Bell. I can honestly say that creating a business was the furthest thing from my mind.

But my guest today did just that. At the age of 12, the age of my youngest son, he presented a business plan to his parents. Now at the age of 17, the age of my oldest son, he's got a legit, full-fledged, successful e-commerce business. Not that I'm comparing, but I am wondering how his mom raised such a go-getter. He's obviously smart, definitely driven, and very cool. Please welcome Teen Entrepreneur, Holden Beerman of Coastal. Cool. Hey, Holden. 

Holden Bierman: Hey, thank you for having me. I'm really so excited to meet you in person.

Melissa: Yeah. I've followed you online and always thought it was so cool. Obviously Yeah. What you're doing. So I'm really excited to meet you. Thank you for being here. Yeah. Thank you for having me. So you are a student at [00:02:00] Fuqua Marina High School, entering your senior year. And you've already accomplished more than what most people do in a lifetime.

Where do you get your entrepreneurial spirit? 

Holden Bierman: I think both from, equally kind of from my parents. My dad's in business, but my mom, she's an author. She wrote children books. She was a counselor. So I think I get the creative aspect. She's a heck of an artist too. Mm-hmm. So I think I get that kind of creative marketing side, and then I get like the business kind of leadership from my dad.

So I'd say it was an equal mix and. I've always kind of surrounded myself with adults. A few gave me a room of adults in a room of kids my age. It's, it's kind of bad to say, but I would choose the room of adults any day. Mm-hmm. And that's something I've always done since I was young. So I think that's kind of we're the maturity level and kind of just the creative aspect that I've been able to receive.

So 

Melissa: you mentioned art. I saw that your original business was geared more towards like t-shirts and hoodies and stuff. Did you do the art for those? 

Holden Bierman: Yeah. Yeah. That was original. The first ever designs I came up with the first [00:03:00] logo, in the second logo, the current logo we have, I came up with completely hand drawn sketch, like everything.

Mm-hmm. That was everything we come up with. So yeah, that was the original stuff. Yeah. And. 

Melissa: Is coastal. Cool. Was that your first idea and attempt for a business? I think I read that you always had like a business mindset and you were always trying to sell stuff in your yard. 

Holden Bierman: Yeah, that was it. I literally used to take stuff from my family's room, the living room, tatum's my sister's room and just sell it.

That was literally, I'm sure 

Melissa: they appreciated that. Oh yeah. 

Holden Bierman: They, they hated it. But I would literally lay out a table, I'd put a tablecloth over it and just have all this kind of like little stuff and I would sell it. It was always like, here's 

Melissa: mom's crystal vase. Yeah. 

Holden Bierman: Yeah. Literally just. Sell, sell, sell.

And then when the idea of Coastal Cool came out, it was my sixth grade year of middle school. I was at Holly Grove, I was 12. It was right when COVID happened that like March-ish of 2020. Yeah. I had all this time and I was like, gosh, I gotta do something. I never clicked with the video games. Nobody was hanging outside and doing anything.

We were all trapped indoors. And I was spending my time in my beach house, in Carolina Beach and kind of just growing up going there and seeing like that island [00:04:00] lifestyle. Mm-hmm. I was like, why don't we just make a few t-shirts and hoodies and see what it does. And that's exactly what we did. But my parents were like, you gotta do it the right way.

And that's get the LLC. And they pushed me to do it the legitimate way. 

Melissa: Mm-hmm. So, yeah. So did your dad walk you through the process of setting up an LLC? I would have no idea where to begin. 

Holden Bierman: Yeah. No, it was, I think I. I sent out the initial letter to Shelly Pennington and she was my attorney who created the LLC for us.

Okay. And it was, I think I gave her a call and I think she was kind of like, who is this kid? Who is this kid? Yeah. Yeah. I was 12 at the time. Mm-hmm. And I was just like, yeah, I gotta get this LLC. And it was figuring out kind of where do we aim the business at? Kind of what industry? And it was app apparel.

And that was it. But yeah, dad was there and he kind of helped me walk through like, Hey, if you're gonna do this the right way, you're gonna get the LC, you're gonna do it right on paper and you're gonna make it legit, whether it succeeds or not. 

Melissa: So yeah, 

Holden Bierman: and having that, I think that step of doing it the right way allowed me to push and continue it on.

I think if it was kind of like a little side hustle, I wouldn't have continued it. So let's take one step back. I [00:05:00] didn't really explain to our listeners what coastal cool is and what you create. And I also wanna know in that same sentence or same question why Beachwear? 

Yeah. So it started off t-shirts and hoodies, like I mentioned, and then kind of growing on as an entrepreneur and realizing like, hey, connecting to an impact and connecting to kind of just a community, right?

The sustainability market is huge, and it was honestly just kind of trial and error. The t-shirts and hoodies were selling, but I wanted something more. It's kind of boring. You can get a t-shirt and hoodie anywhere and yes, you can get swimsuits anywhere, but having the, connecting our fabrics to an impact and now to a community was huge for us.

And it was a complete rebrand for the company as a whole and for me as an entrepreneur. So we kind of just repositioned ourselves. We got into sustainability, tested out new fabrics. So all of our stuff is made from 90% recycled polyester, which is made from recycled plastic bottles. And then we've got an amazing contract with tidy and ocean organization.

Which I'm a board member of, and we remove a pound of ocean plastic with every purchase. So we removed almost 20,000 plastic bottles from the ocean last year alone. So [00:06:00] 

Melissa: let's just rewind and. Listen again, the fact that you are a board member at the age of 17 with an amazing organization. Yeah. So kudos. I mean, I'm just blown away by you.

Yeah. Thank you. I wanna talk about the sustainability, the recycling part. I've always wondered how that even works. How do you, where do you get the recycled material from? How has that process then turned into fabric? 

Holden Bierman: Yeah. Everybody always asks it. It's really cool how it works. So luckily I've got a great team of manufacturers and suppliers who were able to give the idea in general obviously we're not the first people to do sustainable fa mm-hmm.

Sustainable fabrics, but we were able to reposition ourselves in a market of kind of this Gen Z approach, obviously with the young entrepreneur doing it. But in terms of our fabrics, plastics are collected from the ocean, from landfills, everything. And they're literally melted down into these tiny micro fabrics and it takes a million of these to make just one garment.

And it's really cool to see, and in our fabrics, the ones we collect from the ocean organization are not the same as the ones that [00:07:00] go into the to the fabrics, if that makes sense. So, okay. What we do with tidy and that ocean plastic removal, that's different. So the fabrics itself, it's different plastics, it's like bags, plastic bottles, everything.

And it's basically collected, melted down, thinned out and combined. 

Melissa: Is that a very expensive and time consuming process? Yeah. So we do a system called Print on Demand, so we don't have any inventory, which is really cool. So that is cool. Yeah. So we don't have a set warehouse where we've got a thousand pieces.

Holden Bierman: If it sells, if it doesn't, like, we're not stuck with anything. Mm-hmm. So everything's made to order. So our upfront costs are a little more compared to having a low. Kind of high inventory business where we're able to buy in bulk, right. At a cheaper price. Mm-hmm. So everything's made to order. You go on our website you pick the pr, you pick the print.

It's literally produced then and there and shipped to you in three to five days. So it, it, it's really cool with our model. So obviously we have more of an upfront charge. Yeah. But we don't have inventory laying around. And once again, that's another sustainability impact that we're doing at Coastal. Cool.

So. 

Melissa: Yeah. You're not stuck with a whole bunch of inventory Yeah. Every year that you have to [00:08:00] sell and try to get rid of. Yeah, we 

Holden Bierman: don't have to do, yeah, we don't have any of that. And hey, if a design sells great, and if it doesn't, we take it off. Mm-hmm. And that's really cool 'cause we're able to test the numbers and we're able to test to see what the customer likes and what selling during a training season.

We actually just took off a lot of designs off the store that weren't selling and weren't kind of hitting our numbers that we wanted to see. So. We're able to kind of refresh. Once again, I love refreshing our designs and kind of styles and seeing where the trends go for each season. And this will be our second year of doing swimsuits kind of full time now.

Mm-hmm. And we're able to really track the numbers and see, hey, what do people want? What are people liking? 

Melissa: Are you noticing anything that is in for this season that might not have been in last season? 

Holden Bierman: Yeah, I think this season, the trending kind of couple suits, that's doing really well. It did really well last year, but I think again, with social media and everything and kind of travel, it's kind of following the trends.

But a lot of young couples love to match. So yeah. So 

Melissa: the girls are picking out the bikinis and the boys have to match, match with the matching swimsuit. Yeah. 

Holden Bierman: And sometimes they're forced to. Yeah, exactly. 

Melissa: That's why I [00:09:00] said. Half to match. 

Holden Bierman: Yep. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, and it's awesome to see, like when I have adults and old teachers of mine and friends in the community kind of send me pictures of them matching on vacation all the way from Bahamas to Florida to California.

I've gotten so many submissions and we feature those on our website too, so it's really cool to see the community. I did 

Melissa: look through those and it is really neat to see that. 

Holden Bierman: Yeah, it's cool to see like my local community and people who have been in my life and supported me and. Just been there for me now wearing the product and love the product.

We have a lot of customers that are returning and that's basically the foundation of coastal. Cool. It's loyal customers who keep buying year after year. Mm-hmm. And they love the fabrics, they love the product and they love the impact So.

Melissa: so tell me again what is the name of the organization, you're the board member 

Holden Bierman: Tidy.

Yep. 

Melissa: How do they see through their mission? What do they do? 

Holden Bierman: Yeah, so basically they're based out in Guatemala. They're based out in Utah, but they do all their work in Guatemala and they've got a local team of amazing people so that not only are they funding the poverty crisis out there, by supporting these local communities impoverished communities by fulfilling this ocean [00:10:00] plastic removal.

But they basically, they go out there, they have campaigns. We removed 500 pounds in May. We did a collaboration with them. And they basically, they go out there and they collect it from local oceans, beach cleanups just water and landfill environments. Like it is so filled of plastic over there.

It's unbelievable. And I really wanna make a trip out there to see it. 'cause you only can see so much online. Yeah. Until you're actually there and seeing exactly what they're doing and what we're putting our money towards. Because a donation's great, but until you actually see it hands on and see the work being done in the community out there.

It's truly remarkable what we see online, but I really wanna see it in person, so 

Melissa: I'm sure you can pull some strings to get out there yourself. Yeah, it sounds like you have some connections for sure. 

Holden Bierman: Yeah. We did a collaboration too with Quana High School, our National Honor Society. I think we did almost 30,000 plastic bottles with that too.

Wow. Yeah. We had, we did a donation kind of type collaboration with our school and the kids were able to donate and we were able to fund the ocean plastic removal with coastal Cool and tidy. And it was great to see, once again, the school now committed to this kind of ocean plastic removal mm-hmm.

With the [00:11:00] brand too. So 

Melissa: that is really neat. Nowadays, fast fashion is a massive business. Mega retailers like Amazon and, and Sheen I don't even know if I'm saying that right. My, my daughter says it differently. I have no idea which is the right way. They have taken over the marketplace because they have super low prices.

And fast shipping. So how can a small business owner compete with that? 

Holden Bierman: Yeah, and that's one thing I learned originally from the t-shirts and hoodies was you can get that anywhere, right? Mm-hmm. But the moment you connect your brand to an impact into a mission, and one, it's the story, this Gen Z entrepreneur creates this company out of his bedroom.

Like I think the story was one of the selling points, but now that absolutely we've connected it to a mission. Is even cooler. And once again, like I mentioned, seeing people love the product. I think that sells any day. Seeing the community want the product and be involved in it and see the numbers of what the environmental impact that we're doing.

And then beyond, I'm speaking at schools now, I spoke at UNCW, I spoke at all my local middle schools, in [00:12:00] elementary schools, in Wake County, and sharing the story and I think seeing that local touch I think being involved in the community, you can dream so big. But don't forget where you came from.

Mm-hmm. And that's, that's been a big part of my success is embracing the community that's built me up. So, 

Melissa: and I would also think that the idea of doing something good. Encourages your, your buyers. Yeah. Mm-hmm. 

Holden Bierman: And I think seeing what their money is going towards. Yeah. You supporting these fast fashion companies that are bringing in billions a year, you know, they're spending it all on marketing, right.

We're spending it on ocean cleanups, we're spending it on supporting local. Event we're doing the Salamanders game tomorrow night. We're supporting that. We're sponsoring that game. So it's like putting your money towards seeing something actually happen in light rather than just a social media campaign.

I think there's a big difference. Yeah. In today's world especially. Yeah. 

Melissa: And people nowadays especially can spot a fake, a mile away. Yeah. You know? And the whole influencer life and that that's not at all what you are about. Yeah. You are really about something real. 

Holden Bierman: Yeah. Yeah, [00:13:00] we're definitely, I think there's realistic influencers are great for brands, right?

Mm-hmm. But you also wanna partner with the right influencers, with the right mission. I've partnered with a lot of influencers that helped us, but they've got different brands, right? Everybody's got a unique brand. And that's something I'm learning. I've got a brand for Holden Biman, I've got a brand for Cool, so Cool.

T's got a brand. My eyewear brand that I'm partnered with has a brand, like everybody's got a different brand. And I think you have to partner with the right people behind those brands to actually make something good happen. I think. You have to have the right, like a line partnership to do good. I, I genuinely think that.

So 

Melissa: what are your favorite parts about owning a business? 

Holden Bierman: Freedom. And then the community, once again, I've connected with so many awesome people. Mm-hmm. And have been blessed to do so many opportunities. I used to play out on the Ting Park stadium field, and now I'm sponsoring a game night. Like that's crazy to me.

You know, I was featured in Forbes my sophomore year. 

Melissa: Oh yeah. That was one of my questions. The fact that you were. In Forbes Magazine. Yeah. 

Holden Bierman: And we did Daily Mail last month. I've been on Oh really? I didn't see that one. Okay. Yeah, that was a big [00:14:00] one. I've done multiple media appearances. Spectrum came in.

CBS 17. We did WRL. There's been so many things I've talked with, connected with celebrities and influencers around the world and reality TV show stars. It's just being able to connect with people. And then once again, the impact, I think if you're a business owner and you're able to see change happen right in front of you.

Being able to do it in high school. I think that's pretty cool. I would 

Melissa: say that's pretty cool. Yeah. 

Holden Bierman: And you know, you see your name on the headlines and everything and it's cool to a certain extent, but seeing it actually happen in real life action that's what's cool. And to see the kids, every school that I speak at, even the college students at UNCW, seeing them reach out to me on LinkedIn, they're like, Hey, we love the story.

And seeing the kids reach out to me on Instagram, you know, wearing the stuff. Like I went to Herbert Akins and kids were wearing our swim trunks. Oh yeah. As I was speaking to them and. Seeing that local touch mm-hmm. And seeing, being able to inspire the kids. I was sitting in those seats once listening to speakers come in.

Yeah. And now I'm able to do that. Like, it's, it's just crazy. It really is. So 

Melissa: I'm sure that's pretty mind blowing. Yeah. And I would think you, you've mentioned [00:15:00] U-N-C-W-I would think they're clamoring to get you Yeah. On their campus as a student. 

Holden Bierman: Hey, that's an option. Yeah. I mean, it's 

Melissa: a, it's a great location for coastal.

Cool. Yeah. And they've got a great business school as well. Absolutely. But. Where, what are your plans for college? What are you wanting to do? So I'm looking at, or are you just gonna be a CEO of a big business? No. Yeah, 

Holden Bierman: college is definitely, that's not a 

Melissa: wrong answer too. Yeah. No, 

Holden Bierman: I definitely want to continue the impact and continue the brand building of coastal.

Cool. But definitely college is an option. The high school years flew by, so I definitely know the college years will fly by too. But looking in Florida, but I'm always looking in North Carolina too. You know, it's hard when I've built so much here in this local area. Mm-hmm. It's hard to leave that, but it's also, I'm sure it's.

I'm born and raised here. Born and raised in Holly Springs. So you know, it's figuring out kind of where I want to be. So I'm looking in Florida, Tampa, possibly Miami. I just don't know kind of what group I fit in yet either, but I think that's also for you to discover in those college years. It is, yeah.

Kind of what group you fit in and where you want to be, but. Born and raised here for a long time. I, I feel like I need a little bit of a change, so, yeah, we'll see. But it's [00:16:00] also where I think the company will grow best in Florida. Hey, we do a lot of work in Florida, so we'll see. There's some 

Melissa: pretty coastal cool places in Florida, that's for sure.

Absolutely. I love 

Holden Bierman: that. Yeah. 

Melissa: And North Carolina. Yeah, we're, we're not gonna rule that out. Yeah. So I asked you your favorite parts of owning a business. Let's talk about the flip side. Are there any downsides that you can talk us through? 

Holden Bierman: A lot of, I think putting my name out there and doing all the big press, even with the Forbes article, the Daily Mail, there's just, there's a lot of people that I don't understand.

It's, it wasn't my parents handing a business to me. It wasn't them [00:17:00] giving me funding. We have no outside investors. I literally took $500 and got an LLC and the rest was funded by myself and that was t-shirts and hoodies and I was doing it all. And everything we make, we put back in the company. We don't have one investor.

And for a company to do that. In today's world, everybody's got outside funding. Mm-hmm. And investors and partnerships and everything. We don't have any of that. And I think a lot of people see online the facade of, Hey, we've got this successful business, but they don't see all the work I'm doing. I'm the only employee I do.

Are you really? Yeah. 

Melissa: I was wondering that. Yeah. 

Holden Bierman: I'm the only employee. I literally do everything from marketing campaigns to email campaigns, connecting with influencers, connecting with manufacturers, making sure, hey, our products are getting to our customers. When somebody emails, I'm the one responding to make sure UPS is delivering the product.

And if it doesn't, making sure that product gets to the customer. Like people won't see the behind the scenes of mm-hmm. A day in the life. And that's what CBS 17 and Spectrum really wanted to pick up on is. 'cause I think there's, they see everything online and you, once again, you only see so much until you're really behind the scenes and I'm doing it all.

Melissa: So what [00:18:00] would an average day in your life look like? As a high school student? As a business owner? 

Holden Bierman: Yeah. 

Melissa: And trying to maintain a, some semblance of social life, I'm sure. 

Holden Bierman: Yeah. Yeah. It's hard. I wake up about six o'clock, go to school, seven 15. I've got two classes, and then my other two are online.

So I leave the building at 10 30. I go to the gym, hit an hour workout. That's kind of my clearing up my mind space. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Do an hour at Gold's and then I come home and I'm work and I'm on the computer. I sit at the computer. Sometimes I'll be in the driveway walking back and forth on a phone call and photo shoots every once in a while, and doing kind of media campaigns like Spectrum CBS, we'll do those every once in a while.

So it's busy. It's definitely, I don't really have much time for social life, I'll tell you that. It's, I'm sure you 

Melissa: don't. 

Holden Bierman: Yeah. And I feel like I've missed out a little bit on that. But then once again, being able to see what I've been able to accomplish. It's kind of weighing out pros and cons again, you know, it's, I'm sure it's hard sometimes, but then I've been blessed with every opportunity I've been given and the people I've connected with.

I never would've thought I've met. So 

Melissa: you've been blessed, but you've also put in 

Holden Bierman: the [00:19:00] work. I, it was, I never thought we would come this far and I used to, like, literally, I had this dream and envision that I would be on podcasts and I'd be on tv. Mm-hmm. And I'd be. Working with these awesome people and like it all came true and it all came to light.

So I definitely I'm forever grateful. So 

Melissa: that is amazing. And, and to think that you did it without the in investment side, you know, and that's what, 

Holden Bierman: that's what I speak at the schools and UNCW. I'm like, you don't need this. If you've got a goal, you're dedicated, you've got the vision and you lay it out in front of you.

I lay it out essentially. My mom always told me, make a vision board. Okay. And I laid out everything that I had initially when I started the company. Everything I wanted, obviously not swimwear and swimsuits at the time, that was never in my brain. Mm-hmm. But it was, I want a big following on social media.

I want people to love the product. I wanna travel and I wanna meet people and I wanna speak. And it all came true. It literally all came true. 

Melissa: So what is on your current vision board? 

Holden Bierman: Definitely continue to expand our business, to continue to expand on [00:20:00] e-commerce continue to grow our social media followings.

I believe we have one of the largest social media followings in Wake County. I think we've got a hundred thousand followers on Instagram. We've got about 45,000 on Facebook, and we're doing big numbers. We're reaching half a million to a million people per week on Instagram alone. Wow, that's, it's incredible.

And that's all from influencer management and having people post our products, love the products and sharing. We do a little bit of paid advertising. We're getting into that. That was one thing I was kind of skeptical about. Mm-hmm. Because it's hard to compete against the big guys. They're spending millions on ads.

Yeah. When, you know, we don't have those budgets. 'cause I'm sure 

Melissa: that seems overwhelming. It 

Holden Bierman: is overwhelming. And. From sitting from a 17-year-old against the big guys that are 40 and 50 years old with multi-year of marketing experience. The old men out there. Yeah. Yeah. And college degrees. Yeah.

And with funding and everything it was very hard when I first started, but I just continued to dedicate myself to learning it. And I think once you learn where you fit in as a brand and where you fit in as an entrepreneur and me representing the brand, that was kind of when we began to took off.

I began to story, tell what my [00:21:00] story was. Mm-hmm. But I had to figure out where I, where I was in my story. And essentially what I wanted to do as an entrepreneur too. 'cause I'm the face of the brand, right? Yeah. I'm the one out there selling, I'm the one doing the media interviews. So I really had to kind of come to, come to life with what my story is and who I want to be as an entrepreneur and where I wanna be as an entrepreneur.

Melissa: What advice would you give to your younger self, maybe even before you were 12 or after you came up with the idea for the business? If you could go back and just whisper something in his ear, what would you say? 

Holden Bierman: Quit stressing so much. 

Melissa: Oh yeah. I, gosh, I, you were stressed in the beginning. I was so 

Holden Bierman: stressed 'cause all I wanted to do was become successful.

All I wanted was. Business. You 

Melissa: were looking at the end goal. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And I think it was '

Holden Bierman: cause I surrounded myself with adults. All these adults were doing these cool things, doing business. My dad was traveling, connecting with these business entrepreneurs, talking with people. And I, I think I saw that.

And me being so young, I think I, I wanted to do it so bad. Yeah. You wanted to fast forward. Yeah. And that's what allowed me, and I do think I rushed a few of my years. I missed out on some middle school [00:22:00] times and stuff, but I was dedicated. And being able to see what I've been able to build is pretty cool.

Melissa: So really I'm thinking about how you started and it was during the COVID time. Yeah. Everybody else your age was definitely on video games and, and trying not to go stir crazy. Yeah. But you really took that time and, and ran with it. Do you think that you would've even been able to do this without that, you know, COVID?

No. The, the pause, the COVID pause. 

Holden Bierman: No, never. I, I, I don't think I would've, I kind of went crazy almost in, in my time management. Mm-hmm. And I was like. I can't just be sitting around all the time. I think if it was consistent figuring out my middle school years, and that's also an awkward time of 

Melissa: it.

Certainly. Yeah. It's an 

Holden Bierman: awkward period of time. So I honestly, I think I grew up in the years of being at home. 'cause when sixth grade happened and COVID happened and schools were declared shut down, I never went back to school. Till freshman year. Wow. Okay. So half of my sixth grade, seventh grade, and eighth grade year, I was virtual.

I was behind a computer. Yeah. 

Melissa: Yeah. And if I 

Holden Bierman: didn't do that, I would've never [00:23:00] been able to grow the business because behind the scenes, I would go on my calls, I would do my work, and then I'd leave early and I would go be building this brand. Mm-hmm. And I'd be working on designing shirts, connecting with influencers, doing all that.

If I didn't have that time, there would be no coastal. Cool. So I definitely, I obviously it was a terrible time for a lot of things and the shutdown and everything, but I used my time wisely. 

Melissa: Yeah. You turned something so negative into a, a huge positive Yeah. For yourself. And I 

Holden Bierman: was eager to learn too.

I think as a business owner in a. Entrepreneur and a student, you have to be eager to learn and you have to be dedicated. If you're dedicated to anything, you'll make it happen. And that's one thing I've really learned. I know a lot of athletes who have been dedicated to doing certain things and they've pushed themselves and they achieve those things.

Mm-hmm. And I see a lot of kids that wanna start businesses, and once you just set your mind to it, it all kind of comes true. And obviously it takes a lot of hard work and it takes a lot of dedication, but just having the vision, so many people don't have the vision. Once you have the vision, the rest is, the rest comes true.

Melissa: So, mm-hmm. So you mentioned that you are your own, your only [00:24:00] employee. Yeah. But you have worked with your mom and dad throughout the years of setting the business up and I'm sure you still work with them. Yeah. Getting their advice or whatever on a day-to-day basis. Yeah. I've always heard people say, don't work with family.

So is there a drawback to working with family? Do you ever disagree with each other or butt heads 

Holden Bierman: there? There have been some disagreements, like I, like I pretty much forced them to change the logo and that was one of the best things I've ever done because our logo, yeah, first starting out, me and my mom came up with it and my mom actually came up with the coastal name.

That she initially came up with that and it kind of just stuck and I was like, let's do it. Yeah. But then we came up with the first logo. It was flashy, really colorful. It was good to start out with, but I realized once again, marketing, you need to have something that's versatile, that can go on shirts, that can go on, bags that can go on, anything that can go on balloons.

Anything. So that's essentially what we did. We completely rebranded ourselves and that was when we shifted towards one war two. But that was kind of a, a fight that I had to do with my parents 'cause that was a big step. Yeah. You know, your first logo, your kind of [00:25:00] baby in the business. And this was year two and I wanted to change the logo immediately and I think they were like, yeah, but you haven't seen where this business has gone.

But I was like, I wanna take it here. I think I have to do this. Yeah. And it was a risk. But I did, and obviously my dad handles all the legal tax stuff, business, kind of the banking stuff. 'cause I can't. I'm 17, so, yeah. I definitely, I look over everything, even though 

Melissa: if I was a banker, I would totally trust you.

Holden Bierman: Yeah, no, I, I look over the stuff and I see where the company's grown, but there's certain stuff I can't touch. Mm-hmm. But I'll be 18 in August and I'll be eager to learn kind of that side of the business too, because yes, I'm doing the marketing, yes, I'm doing the kind of the product design and everything, but you also, being an entrepreneur, you gotta see every aspect.

Yeah. And there's certain stuff that I'm eager to learn about and eager to do too. Cause I wanna be a full all around entrepreneur as well, so. 

Melissa: You just celebrated five years in business. Yeah. And threw a big party. Yeah. And I'd love for you to tell us about the party. Oh yeah. Did you plan the party yourself?

Holden Bierman: Yeah. No, I had an amazing event team. I had an amazing event [00:26:00] planner, DJ event rental company. They came out, they took my vision to life. I said. I wanna celebrate five years. But I, I had the idea, I wanted to do a whiteout party 'cause our products are kind of colorful and tropical. Yeah. So I was like, why don't we have a whiteout party and allow our products and our banners and our colors to pop.

Oh, that's smart. And we had a photo booth come in with our neon sign. Absolutely amazing. It was great. We had over 200 people there. We held it at Bass Lake Local and Holly Springs community. Mm-hmm. Everybody came in, they looked great. We have amazing video online of, we had a drone guy come out and film and everything.

We had balloon arches and our stepping repeats and photographers and it, I mean, it was. Blown my I mean, 

Melissa: yeah. Yeah. Mind blowing for sure. I did see the video. Yeah. And it looked really, 

Holden Bierman: really cool. It was awesome. It was, I started planning that in December. 

Melissa: Okay. And 

Holden Bierman: it took, yeah, five months of planning and hard work.

I was over there almost every day, me and my event team and mm-hmm. I was blessed to have a team. 'cause they took my vision to life. And that was one thing I learned as an entrepreneur too. You can't do it all. Yeah. And you have to be open-minded and work with other [00:27:00] people. And that's one thing I'm still learning.

Be open to ideas and connecting with people and I was blessed with a great team that helped me take my vision to life. And I think we threw a very successful party. 

Melissa: Yeah, it looked like it was a great one. 

Holden Bierman: Yeah. 

Melissa: What is one piece of advice you would give to a young entrepreneur? 

Holden Bierman: Take risks while you can.

You know, I, that was one thing I was forever grateful for that I took the risk while I had all the time. Mm-hmm. You know what, what could go wrong? You, you waste a few, you waste a year or two with the design or, or a, a vision and stuff. Yeah. You, you waste those years. But you did it and you could say you did it and you could say you came back from it.

And I think to do it now and learn and take the risk, now you've got so much time in your life to figure out what you want to do. And I'm still figuring out what I want to do, but I think taking those early years. To kind of just take the risk, build this brand, trust myself, it's taught me so many life lessons in itself in just the last five years alone.

So take risks. 

Melissa: You're about to finish high school. We talked about how you plan on going to college. I. Where do you see the [00:28:00] business in five years or 10 years? 

Holden Bierman: Yeah. Well, I mean, we're already selling on a global market and we're selling worldwide, Australia, New Zealand. I mean, we're selling in a lot of other countries outside the United States.

I think definitely growing continue to grow and kind of the worldwide kinda landscape going around the world, selling our product and spreading our mission too. And I think continuing, I would love to get into in-store retail. I'd love to start selling in-person retail. And that's a whole new market beyond e-commerce.

'cause we're all e-commerce. Yeah. So kind of taking that step in-person retail. I would love to land some major network outlets or something and getting our products in stores and really seeing the brand grow on that side of things. 'cause that's a whole new world. And that's something I'm eager to learn.

So 

Melissa: yeah. Maybe when you're down in Florida, that'd be more of a, a temperature environment. Yeah. That, that could handle a year round, you know, bathing suit, store, swim, swimsuit. 

Holden Bierman: Yeah. And going, yeah. And going to those boutique stores and pitch mm-hmm. And send those pitches. It's when you're in high school, 'cause you can't just go into a store and pitch when you want to.

You're, you're still constrained in your time. And my schedule's pretty [00:29:00] free and flexible, but. Being in the environment where there's beach doors every block you go. That's the type of environment I need to be in, especially for Coastal. Cool. And me as an entrepreneur, 'cause this isn't the only brand I'm focused on, I'm a partner in an eyewear company.

We do floating sunglasses, which is really cool. That is, yeah. Yeah. So I'm, what is that called? It's called Slings Eyewear. And I joined their force. I'm a board member there too, and a partner in that company. Hey. 

Melissa: What have I done with my life? 

Holden Bierman: No. So I partnered with them to help them grow the same way we did on Coastal.

Cool. I'm helping them out on the direct to consumer side, and now we're expanding all across Texas too. We're getting into optometrists. We're popping lenses into the sunglasses and they literally float. There. It's incredible. So 

Melissa: perfect for boaters or water sports people. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

Holden Bierman: And that's, that's essentially where I'm at too as an entrepreneur.

You know, we've grown so much at Coastal Cool. And now I wanna help other brands do that. So now I'm helping them with marketing, direct to consumer stuff, building the website, figuring out where you stand as a brand. 'cause I think. So many people, even me starting out, I didn't know what branding was. And I think a lot of people, they have the idea, they have the product, but [00:30:00] they don't know where to market it.

Mm-hmm. And that's one thing we've done Okay. At Coastal. Cool. I think so. Now, if I can help other brands do it I love doing it. So 

Melissa: it's always a great idea to get, put yourself out there, help other people, because then the universe sends it back to you Absolutely. When you need it. Absolutely.

Mm-hmm. And 

Holden Bierman: once again, building a community and a network, I a thousand percent believe your network is your net worth. Being able to connect with people and learn from other people. Especially my network is pretty much people that are forties and fifties. And I think that's allowed me to do what I've been able to do mature, maybe a little faster.

I don't know. Mm-hmm. Kind of separate myself in different circles and learn, but it's definitely taught me different lessons and taught me where I want to be as an entrepreneur. So 

Melissa: it's time for our, what's up Roundup, where I ask a lightning round series of questions before we say goodbye. My first question is about Shark Tank.

Okay. My family loves to watch Shark Tank. If you could partner with any of the Sharks. Or any other celebrity. If you don't like the Sharks, [00:31:00] who would it be? 

Holden Bierman: Barbara. 

Melissa: Oh, that's a great answer. Yeah. Okay. A thousand 

Holden Bierman: percent. Yeah. Why her? Actually, a buddy of mine, he just partnered with her for his charging company.

Melissa: Oh wow. And 

Holden Bierman: I'm really eager to, I'm trying to talk to him about possibly meeting her 'cause she's a huge inspiration. Yeah. And I genuinely think she loves the brand she partners with. And I think that's what you need to do as an investor that comes 

Melissa: across. Yeah. And I And she also shoots it straight?

Yeah. Oh yeah. She'll tell you straight up. I like that. Yes. I like that about her 

Holden Bierman: and I need that. And that's one thing I've kind of learned as an entrepreneur. Like I'll tell you straight up what I think about something. Mm-hmm. And I wanna partner with people that think the same way. And that also want to help you grow.

It's not, there's a lot of investors out there that I believe they just kind of send you the money and they move away. I want somebody that's active helping me grow Yeah. Grow with them 

Melissa: that knows the business scene. Yeah. We grow together. Yeah. Yeah. 

Holden Bierman: Absolutely. 

Melissa: If Coastal Cool had a mascot, what would it be?

Holden Bierman: Oh I would think like. I would love a palm tree. I don't know if you could do a palm tree mascot, but like that is 

Melissa: in your logo, right? A palm tree. Yeah, the palm tree is everything. [00:32:00] You could have a dancing palm tree. I 

Holden Bierman: think that'd be awesome. 

Melissa: I thought you were gonna say shark or something. And just the easy out.

But a dancing palm tree would be nice. 

Holden Bierman: It's, it captures the island lifestyle. The beach or from the water to the coast to the palm trees to the. Beach sand, everything. Who 

Melissa: doesn't wanna be sitting under a palm tree? Exactly. Yeah. Especially a dancing palm tree. It's a nice 

Holden Bierman: swimsuits too. You know, 

Melissa: if you could trade places with another entrepreneur for one day to see the behind the scenes of their business.

Who would it be? 

Holden Bierman: Oh gosh, that's a hard one. There's so many people that I would, oh, okay. There's Austin Maxwell. He's the founder of Congo Coolers in South Carolina. Okay. Yeah, he was on Shark Tank. I would've, maybe 

Melissa: that's where I know the name from. Okay. Yep. 

Holden Bierman: He was on Shark Tank. I've connected with him.

He's awesome. Huge inspiration of mine. He went to Clemson. Both of my parents went to Clemson. Okay. So I would definitely like to trade places with him one day. 'cause he's, he's always on the go. He's always doing stuff. He's. Working with top influencers, doing huge things, collaborative stuff, so, and he's, 

Melissa: that would be a great collab with your business too.

Yeah, we 

Holden Bierman: [00:33:00] talked about it last summer and I hopefully we do something this summer. I'd love to, 

Melissa: yeah. And I'm sure he wouldn't mind letting you sneak and look behind the curtain sometime. Yeah. And 

Holden Bierman: do a, do a cool cooler or something. 

Melissa: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. What is your favorite pastime That has nothing to do with business?

Holden Bierman: Oh gosh, that's hard. I don't know. Sounds 

Melissa: like business is life. 

Holden Bierman: Yeah, business is life. I would honestly say. I think my elementary school years, it kind of taught, I don't know, it taught me, I was always connecting with teachers and I'd used to, instead of going to the cafeteria, I'd literally sit with my teachers and talk.

So I think you were 

Melissa: teacher's pet. 

Holden Bierman: Yep. Yep. Mm-hmm. And I always got called that, but I think it honestly literally put me kind of ahead in some ways. Mm-hmm. And it allowed me to hold a conversation with adults and everything. Absolutely. Yeah. And that's helped me big time with starting a business.

'cause my life is being around adults and connecting with adults. Mm-hmm. And asking questions. And if you can't hold a conversation in today's world, I know so many kids. I can't hold a conversation with a belt or make 

Melissa: eye contact. Yep. Yeah. 

Holden Bierman: And it's just, I think that's a huge [00:34:00] trait of any career you go in, being able to have a conversation like this.

Yeah. And be able to do that. So. 

Melissa: Well, congratulations on everything you have succeeded in so far. Thank you and will in the future because I have no doubt you're going big places. Thank you. Tell us where we can shop Coastal. Cool. Yes. And follow you on Instagram. 

Holden Bierman: Yeah. Instagram is coastal cool.

Underscore and our website's www.coastalcool.co, not.com. We couldn't afford that domain when we first started, so. Oh, okay. Yeah, we went with.co and it's been pretty cool ever since. So yeah, coastal cool.co. Yep. 

Melissa: Perfect. Thank you for being here today. Thanks for having me. Good luck with everything.

Holden Bierman: Thank you. 

[00:35:00]