Jack Murphy is a 23-year-old entrepreneur and digital marketing expert out of Kansas City who is showing that not only can someone in their early twenties “make it”, but they can look great doing it too!

Jack is the mastermind behind an e-commerce store called I Love My Freedom that sells patriotic clothing, which in only a few short years has scaled from being worth nothing to now over $25 million.

So what does a young millionaire dress like? How does he design the top selling items that sell millions? And what are his keys to success? We ask Jack it all in an exclusive one-on-one.

 Why is it important for a leader to dress a certain way?

 I believe that first impressions really matter and the more professional you can present yourself, the more serious people are going to take you. Having command of your style and your appearance gives you subconscious leverage over people you’re meeting with or collaborating with.

 How would you describe your own "look & style" today?

My look and style really depends on the situation and where I’m going throughout the day. When I’m traveling to events or doing deals, I tend to wear a much more business professional style but when I’m working from home or meeting with very close business partners, my look and style is nothing outrageous, generally business casual or more of an athletic approach.

What is your go-to outfit on a regular work day?

On a regular day, it’s very casual but really depends on what I have going on or if I’m traveling. During the pandemic with so much being digital, I haven’t  had to be dressing top notch so we’ve tried to maintain a casual work environment and atmosphere so people can be comfortable and get still productive while working from home.

You mainly sell shirts and other men's/women's fashion. Why are t-shirts such an easy sell these days? Have you ever thought of expanding the line?

T-Shirts are an easy sell for us because with our audience, we’re selling their identity and their beliefs right on their shirt. Our shirts do a great job of allowing people to express how they feel while also providing a stylish look to their everyday wardrobe. We have a lot of requests for traditional women’s cuts like v-neck shirts & scoop neck shirts and different long-sleeve shirts so that’s something we’re putting a lot of time and focus into doing right. Apparel is a very interesting game because everybody always wants something different related to the endless styles, colors, sizes, cuts and textures.

What is your process in creating new types of designs that you know your customers will love?

Our process is honestly very data driven. We know the general style and design that our target audience is looking for so we don’t extensive testing and try to let the numbers tell us what designs, styles and colors are hitting the best with our customers. Once we’ve identified a winning style, we scale it to our entire audience or we use it for new customer lead generation. We aim to test 7-10 unique styles and designs every week to allow us to find the winners quickly, run bulk runs and take it to a massive scale. 

How do you go about selecting the models you use for your clothing items?

It’s really quite simple, we select models and lifestyle images that align with our target Demographic and try not to overthink it too much. For us, simple sells well at scale.

We are a New York magazine, so we have to ask: Has New York inspired you or any of your designs?

Yes, I’ve actually had a number of designs that featured the Statue of Liberty which is obviously an iconic attraction in New York City. 

What advice would you give to others wanting to start their own company or get into design work?

The most important thing, particularly in apparel, is finding a designer and a team that can bring your vision to life. That was what really started changing the game for me when I no longer was wasting time in Photoshop and Illustrator and we had people who were 1,000x better than I could ever be.

As for business in general, the best advice I could give is to pursue something that you’re passionate about, that makes an impact, that has real scalability and has a realistic ability to get to those consumers. Finally, be prepared to put in a lot of work and don’t expect things to just magically start working without a strategic plan and consistent action executing that plan.

What are you most excited about for the rest of 2021?

Every Friday, we release a brand new t-shirt to our entire audience. We started “Freedom Friday” at the end of February and have been gaining more momentum and better results with it every single week so I’m incredibly excited to see how well it continues to grow and set records for us as we continue to adapt and optimize that weekly campaign.