Playbooks and Portfolios: Bengals Center Ted Karras and The Cincy Hat

It's an amazing feat that you've been able to accomplish.

Obviously, Non-profit, for-profit, it doesn't really matter.

Scaling a business is the same.

Liam and I definitely have seen that as we've continued to jump into entrepreneurship.

You're an entrepreneur in your own light.

When it comes to scaling Cincy Hat, from the 144 that you get to then the 70,000 pre-sales as you're waiting on inventory and trying to figure that out... to then now what it's become.

What has been the biggest key to your success when it comes to scale? I mean, obviously, you have a great team with Matt.

I've had the privilege to be able to meet Matt.

But beyond just that team, how have you seen scale happen? And how would you say to other business owners to put yourself out there? How do you continue to scale up a business?

Well, I think, well, the first thing I have to do is credit Matt.

I mean, all the scale comes from him.

He's an amazing operator.

Obviously, we believe in the mission wholeheartedly.

But, I mean, Matt, for the first four years, and we finally started, you know, putting some processes in place, took the orders, got the inventory, packed the hats, shipped them out, customer service, sales, you know, design team.

I mean, he did everything.

We're a very lean organization.

We have one employee, which is Matt.

Then I'm a free employee.

And then we pay a young woman on commission because so we have how we scale the business.

We have several income streams.

One is hats.

The number two one we have right now is just Ted's NIL.

My name, image, and likeness is all donated to the Cincy hat.

So Angeline Wellington star, by the way, and we brought her in and she's sold close to $800,000 worth of my name, image, and likeness through sponsorships.

and commercials, like you see me in Kroger, see me in Christ Hospital, those all go to the Cincy Hat.