Mission Driven Business Bringing Your People With You with Braxton Fleming
On the episode, Braxton tells how his passion for Stealth Bros and Co.’s mission keeps the company rooted and fuels its growth. He also shares why consistency yields results and explains how he came up with the idea for his company after following his father’s advice to find a void.
Episode Highlights
Mission-driven businesses are born from your passion.
Braxton describes Stealth Bros & Co. as his life’s passion. As a result, he sees his business and its mission to help the transgender community as directly related to who he is as a person.
“I am really on a mission,” he said. “I’m on a mission to build a legacy for me and my family. And I feel like my life’s path and my passion for my community has really pushed me to be on this mission.”
The simplest ideas will make you rich.
Both of Braxton’s parents are entrepreneurs, and his Dad would give him business advice in the car on the way to school. He recalls his Dad saying that the simplest ideas will make him rich.
“He would always say that you need to find the void and fill the need,” Braxton said. “That stuck with me for a really long time.”
Braxton had his father’s advice in the back of his mind when he was thinking of business ideas to fund his top surgery. He noticed transgender men did not have good options to store all of their injectable medications in a way that was safe and convenient.
“This idea really stemmed from the need of transgender men to place their hormone replacement therapy medication somwhere,” he said. “I pretty much ran with that, and I realized that it was more than just a want. It was a really big need within our community.”
Bring your people with you.
In the years after Braxton first launched his products, he realized that other communities also need discreet and stylish medical storage kits. His products have especially resonated with people in the diabetic and IVF communities.
“It’s been a really exciting mission for me to push my own life’s path forward, but help so many other communities that are impacted as well,” he said.
Although the product has expanded beyond the female-to-male transgender community, Braxton still keeps the people he founded Stealth Bros & Co. at the heart of his company. He plans to keep his initial mission in mind no matter how big the company gets.
“Because at the end of the day, the people that are working for my company will be LGBT, and I will bring my people with me,” he said. “I will make sure no matter how far my business goes, that they understand the foundation of the business.”
Resources + Links
- Stealth Bros & Co.: website, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook
- Braxton’s Social Media: Instagram
- Brian’s Social Media: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook
About Brian and the Mission Driven Business Podcast
Brian Thompson, JD/CFP, is a tax attorney and certified financial planner who specializes in providing comprehensive financial planning to LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs who run mission-driven businesses. The Mission Driven Business podcast was born out of his passion for helping social entrepreneurs create businesses with purpose and profit.
On the podcast, Brian talks with diverse entrepreneurs and the people who support them. Listeners hear stories of experiences, strength, and hope and get practical advice to help them build businesses that might just change the world, too.