Eight years ago, Brett Bowden had a big idea. Tapping into his past experience touring with a band, he quit his 9-to-5 and decided to take a risk to follow his true passion: providing bands’ branded merchandise.

So, he started screenprinting T-shirts in his garage with one press. Five years later, his business, Printed Threads (asi/529006), was named a Fastest-Growing Company by Inc. magazine. Today, it’s a multi-million-dollar company.

But through all the growth (and failure), Bowden never lost sight of his original passion: Printing band merchandise. He knew the importance of merch to groups on the road, and he knew he could help them out.

“Merch is their lifeblood, it pays their bills, it gets them to the next town,” he told the audience during a Power Session at the ASI Show Dallas on Thursday. “I speak their language. Find what you know and start there. It makes you an expert on that market segment, and then those people start sending more clients to you.”

In fact, said Bowden, printing for bands led to music festival clients, which naturally led to beer festivals, breweries, restaurants and server uniforms.

“All these clients came to us willingly, wanting what we had to offer,” says Bowden. “I’m passionate about helping people. To be successful, form a passion, combine it with an interest, and it grows into other things, those unintentional sales. Your passion will make you even more excited about what you do.”

Unfortunately, entrepreneurs often start with big dreams when they establish their companies, but then let the realities (some unpleasant) of being business owners cloud their vision.

“Aspirations and dreams are reasons to start a business,” said Bowden. “And when you first start, you just want to have fun, and you want to be excited to get up and do your job the next day. But there are things you don’t like about running it. Maybe it’s sales, or dealing with unpleasant clients and people you don’t necessarily like.”

To get back on the path to that original laser focus, Bowden recommends reading Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by strategist and TED Talk star Simon Sinek. 

“You have to have purpose, and it has to be deep down inside you,” he said. “It’s why you’re getting up in the morning. And if what you do is meaningful and powerful, it makes you more passionate about what you do.”