Meet the Filipino who became Teespring’s youngest millionaire

Hopelessness consumed Norlito Baclayen the moment he realized he would have to drop out of university. His parents are farmers, and his family had a rough season—they couldn’t afford to pay for his studies. To top it off, Norlito was young and lacked work experience. After job searching for weeks he had to come to terms with the possibility that no one was going to hire him.

Norlito was completely lost with no idea how to get his life back on track. Little did he know in just a few weeks time, he would make enough money to support his entire family. He would become one of the first, and youngest millionaires to ever sell on Teespring.

So how did Norlito decide to start selling with Teespring? The story is similar to ones we’ve heard before. While cruising Facebook he came across an ad for a t-shirt.

One day I was killing time on Facebook and I saw a shirt ad on my Newsfeed. Although the design wasn’t that great, it was still pretty catchy. I clicked on the ad’s page and there I discovered that the shirts were selling like crazy! I thought to myself, “If I were to choose, I wouldn’t wear a shirt with such a cluttered design. But why are tons of customers buying it?” It was this curiosity that led me to explore the page and learn more about the business. From their relatable memes to their quiz posts, I was instantly hooked. Soon I began researching about their niche with the mindset that if a lousy shirt design like that can earn big, then so can I.

Norlito shares his story at E-commerce for Everyone (hosted by Teespring, Payoneer, Facebook)

Norlito created his own Facebook page and began promoting it organically (without ads). He followed other pages and joined groups related to his niche. Soon he had 30k followers on his Facebook page. He tried sharing Teespring products on his page and in Facebook groups but only managed to sell about 10 items. He tried using ads too, but was only able to break even. He began to lose hope.

I was on the brink of losing hope and motivation, until that fateful morning. I woke up to an overwhelming number of Facebook notifications. I found out that one of my posts went viral overnight. From 30k followers, my page’s audience jumped to 80k, then to 100k, until it hit over 250k—all in just one night! Not only that, purchases for my shirts rose from 10 to 50 then to 100. What occurred was such a blessing to my business and my page. I thought what I had started was a hopeless case but I was happy to learn I was wrong.

Elated by the success of his viral design, he gave Facebook ads another go—three times in fact. And still he only managed to break even. But then something amazing happened.

I tried the same method of creating a listing and then using Facebook ads to promote it. All attempts concluded in the same, break-even results. The same repetitive cycle went on and on. The cycle was only broken when a shirt design, which I honestly didn’t expect to gain that much hits, skyrocketed in sales. It was also that particular design that turned me into a MILLIONAIRE.

Norlito teaches a two-day Teespring seminar and workshop in the Philippines (organized by Springboard)

Norlito continues to use Facebook for promoting his Teespring products. Every day he monitors related niche pages and sees what kind of content gets the most engagement from followers.

Whenever I see posts are going viral on other pages, I really exert the extra effort to produce a better version of it and that’s what I post on my page. It works wonders! I usually post about 5-8 posts (memes) daily on my Facebook pages.

One of the most important lessons Norlito has learned from his success is that it doesn’t pay to cut corners with designs and audience research. It’s necessary to dedicate time and energy to building your business with Teespring, and you should go into it with a long-term mindset.

There’s no such thing as perfect shirt design or perfect audience. Just keep on testing designs as well as audiences until you hit the winning combination. It took me 6 months before I hit my winning campaign. This is not a get-rich-quick scheme so if you’re planning to do this shirt marketing business, prepare yourself for the long haul.

Taking a break from selling to enjoy a family trip!

Norlito’s story is inspiring, not only for our Filipino community but to our global Teespring community. His story proves that no matter where you come from you can achieve great things with perseverance, Teespring, and a little bit of luck!

I can’t fully grasp how a simple Filipino living a modest life in the Philippines like me, could build an empire on his own and sell thousands of products worldwide. Even though I went through some tough times, today I’m able to financially support myself, my family and am living the life I always dreamed of…and Teespring helped make it all possible.

Ready for your own success story?