WORKFLOWS & LIFE
Growing With Your Business
5 minute read

Written by Andrew Chong

True life changes - will you change with it?

Some days can feel like a glacier, while others hit us like a tsunami.

Although we’re never fully certain of our futures, we try our best to be prepared anyway.
Whether we’re going with the flow or fighting the tide, we all have approaches for coping
with our life’s changes.

In business, there are systematic ways of handling change. You’ve probably heard of the
term ‘workflow,’ before - but if you haven’t, a quick Google search will define it in
relation to project management. This is because workflows are often used in projects as
a means of change management.

That’s right, I said it - managing changes. It almost sounds paradoxical. How can we
possibly control change? The sudden, unforeseen changes that we may experience daily,
quarterly, seasonally, or maybe even constantly. What does a workflow have to do with
anticipating change?

I think the answers to these questions are explored thoroughly as an entrepreneur.
Without a doubt, starting a business will test your personal workflow, as life throws its
own flow at you - changes.

Entrepreneurship requires a mind tuned into the past, present and future - a mind that
calculates risks and balances it with physical actions, amidst the flow of daily life.

Whether you’re solidifying brand stories, preparing marketing strategies or investing in
your business’s financial health - becoming self-employed is a path of constant
unknowns. Venturing into that uncertainty takes something of yourself - and if you hope
to create something worthwhile from nothing, then you’d better be prepared to involve
yourself with changes.

Drew Howard, co-founder of Always True Lifestyle Company, describes starting a
business as ‘a big game,’ in The Always True® Show podcast:

‘... being an entrepreneur is a big game of being really attached to the outcomes of life.
Everything that is happening with this life is something you need to pay attention to because it affects your business. That’s the adventure part of being an entrepreneur.’

For Drew, managing changes is the name of the game. Embracing change, as a business,
is something that Drew is happy about when he thinks about the lifespan of Always
True.

‘We kind of understand where our lives are at, and we understand what’s actually happening
within us and we follow our intuition. Which is kind of hard as a business - trying to run a
business and trying to bring in sales constantly, but also going with the flow. It’s a very
contradicting thing in the business realm and the artist realm as well’

According to co-founder Kevin Masaro, one of the ways that Always True navigates its
lifespan is through the experience of life itself.

Well, what does this look like?

Practicing and balancing a mindset of change within the business, Drew and Kevin
release a lot of their gear in collections, based primarily off a concept. Most of the time
these are concepts based on real-life, relatable experiences.

For instance, the Chill Pill Capsule is a collection grounded in the idea of ‘just chilling
out,’ Kevin says:

‘We’re all going through these crazy scenarios - whether it’s physically in the day-to-day...or we have a lot going on in our minds. The Chill Pill Capsule teaches the idea to just kind of relax and take a chill pill. Whether you’re relaxing your thoughts or experiences - just relax, and kind of just chill on it. Be a part of it, be aware and be part of the experience versus reacting to every situation.’

In this way, the collections become invitations for people to purchase clothing and
embody some of these ideas. Being able to work with this type of unrestricted creativity
allows room for growth - as individuals and as a business.

That’s why Always True’s collections don’t end with their apparel - they also have
paintings, collectibles and furniture available.

The paintings themselves can be allegorical for Always True: unrestricted,
heavily-layered, multimedia collaborative efforts guided by the flow of a creative
process.

The painting’s thick surfaces are coated with clear epoxy resin, often concealing and
revealing the text, symbols and patterns embedded deep within them. Many pieces are
open-ended, multi-visioned team efforts. According to Drew, he may spend a 2-hour
session painstakingly painting a portion of a piece before Kevin comes over and says, ‘I
don’t like that,’ and goes over the whole thing:

‘So, another aspect of painting and art that I love is that we can take these pieces (and the
amount of time and ef ort we put into it) and go over it in 2 seconds. It’s similar and parallel to
life. You make all these plans, you work so elegantly on these plans, but life comes and wipes it out...so a lot of our paintings are like that too.’

Throughout Always True’s lifespan, Drew and Kevin have pushed themselves past the
boundary of what they believed was possible and what they thought they could achieve.

Taking those risks along the way is what pushes them to the next level. Whether it’s a
physical risk, or a risk you take in your head, everyone’s risk is different. Which is why
Always True supports the practice of knowing who you are and understanding the
awareness of who you are - because it affects how you go about your day and how you go
about running your business.

This mindset is how Drew and Kevin were able to grow with Always True as individuals
and as a company:

‘That’s the thing that keeps us going - the constant growth and the process...to put myself in a position where I constantly grow and push myself. That’s the challenge, that’s the motivation to keep doing what you love.’

Embracing this process is an important foundation for anything in life - especially if we
plan to do anything worthwhile with our time here. If we truly hope to manage change,
whether in business or in pleasure, it will take time, attention and care.

Our workflows may drift in the tides of life - but learning to embrace this uncertainty
will, hopefully, empower the goals within us and inform our decisions for the better.

Written by Andrew Chong

:: Web ::
https://alwaystrue.co/

:: The Always True Show ::
YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBAzwjDvwnWf-SmOvm5JwmbaBfaJ4t621
Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/show/4kYpSMg5sO9B3UgXGrTBhh?si=c3KIm8IHRgSq6Mo
YLPyI-A
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/watch/alwaystrueco/1182244142130904/
Apple Music
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-always-true-show/id1527434612

:: Drew Howard ::
https://www.instagram.com/drewkhoward/

:: Kevin Masaro ::
https://www.instagram.com/kevinmasaro/