Advice Line with Richard Branson of Virgin

Summary

How I Built This with Guy Raz: Advice Line with Richard Branson of Virgin
Release Date: May 8, 2025

In this compelling episode of How I Built This with Guy Raz, legendary entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, joins Guy Raz on the Advice Line segment to share his extensive experience in building one of the world's most iconic brands. The episode delves into Branson's journey, his philosophy on brand building, handling challenges, and providing actionable advice to aspiring entrepreneurs through interactions with real callers.

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1. Richard Branson's Virgin Journey

Guy Raz opens the conversation by highlighting Branson’s remarkable trajectory from starting a student magazine in the 1970s to establishing over 200 businesses under the Virgin umbrella. Branson recaps his ventures, including record stores, airlines, and even space tourism, emphasizing the passion and fun that fueled his entrepreneurial spirit.

Notable Quote:
"You only live once. And I think I've had 55 years of building businesses... It would be such a waste of a life if you... didn't want to be proud of what our wonderful teams are creating."
— Richard Branson [09:15]

2. Building and Maintaining a Strong Brand

Branson elaborates on Virgin’s brand philosophy, stressing the importance of never letting customers down and ensuring each new venture enhances the brand’s reputation. He emphasizes that Virgin’s success across diverse industries stems from a commitment to excellence and consistency.

Key Points:

• Quality Over Money: Branson never aimed to build companies solely for profit but focused on making a difference through enjoyable and innovative ventures.
• Brand Consistency: Ensuring every new Virgin product or service is the best in its field reinforces the brand’s strong reputation.
• Team Alignment: Leveraging teams from various Virgin companies ensures that the brand’s values and standards are consistently upheld across all ventures.

Notable Quote:
"The key thing is just to make sure you're the best in your field. So if you launch a cruise company, it's got to be the best cruise company... you mustn't compromise at all along the way."
— Richard Branson [07:06]

3. Embracing Innovation and Facing Failures

Branson acknowledges the inevitable failures that come with innovation but underscores their value in the entrepreneurial journey. He shares personal anecdotes about taking bold risks, such as his spaceflight adventure, and how these experiences contribute to personal and professional growth.

Notable Quote:
"Even my mistakes, I would not change because I think as an entrepreneur, if you don't make mistakes, you're not going to achieve anything."
— Richard Branson [46:25]

4. Advice to Emerging Entrepreneurs: Caller Interactions

The heart of the episode lies in its interactive segment, where Branson and Raz assist real entrepreneurs seeking guidance. Three callers present unique business ideas and challenges, receiving tailored advice from Branson and Raz.

a. Lola Banjo – Silver and Riley

Business Overview:
Lola Banjo, founder of Silver and Riley, an ethical luxury brand specializing in handcrafted Italian travel and fashion accessories.

Discussion Highlights:

• Personalization: Lola emphasizes the importance of personalized customer experiences, such as handwritten notes, to foster customer loyalty.
• Challenges: Balancing personalization with scalability as the business grows.

Advice from Branson and Raz:

• Branson: Emphasizes surrounding oneself with a passionate team that believes in the brand’s purpose to drive success.
  • "If you launch a cruise company, it's got to be the best cruise company... you mustn't compromise at all along the way."
    — Richard Branson [07:06]
• Guy Raz: Advises integrating customer service deeply into the company culture to naturally extend personalized experiences as the business scales.

Notable Quote:
"The more personal one can make some of these things the better and the more genuine the better."
— Richard Branson [17:54]

b. Ross Novotny – Now Pools

Business Overview:
Ross Novotny co-founded Now Pools, an on-demand pool and spa subscription service that offers temporary above-ground pools, handling setup, maintenance, and removal.

Discussion Highlights:

• Market Gap: Identifies a need for temporary pool solutions without the commitment and cost of in-ground pools.
• Marketing Strategies: Seeking innovative ways to generate buzz and awareness for a novel service.

Advice from Branson and Raz:

• Branson: Suggests creating memorable marketing events or gimmicks, such as having mermaids in the pools to attract media attention.
  • "Maybe once a month you could just turn up at an underprivileged school and just set up a pool... Many parents might end up wanting one of your pools themselves."
    — Richard Branson [32:25]
• Guy Raz: Recommends leveraging community events, targeted social media campaigns, and sampling strategies to increase visibility and customer engagement.

Notable Quote:
"Do something fun that would get you on the front page of the papers or in the news."
— Richard Branson [30:36]

c. Andrew Perez – Juice Spot and Lone Wolf Granola

Business Overview:
Andrew Perez co-founded The Juice Spot, a healthy smoothie and juice bar in East Tennessee, and Lone Wolf Granola, a small-batch granola brand aiming to become a staple in households.

Discussion Highlights:

• Diverse Products: Manages two brands with complementary but distinct markets.
• Expansion Challenges: Seeks guidance on scaling and distribution beyond the local market.

Advice from Branson and Raz:

• Branson: Offers a potential partnership opportunity by suggesting the import of Lone Wolf Granola into Virgin’s Nashville hotel.
  • "We have a hotel in Nashville. Why don't we just stock a little bit for a while and see whether our customers like it?"
    — Richard Branson [43:48]
• Guy Raz: Advises focusing efforts on regional markets like Knoxville, utilizing sampling and building relationships with local retailers to establish a broader presence.

Notable Quote:
"If you can get one other store apart from your own to be selling it, and you can then use the statistics of how well they do to approach other stores, that will be helpful."
— Richard Branson [41:46]

5. Final Insights and Reflections

As the episode concludes, Branson reflects on his entrepreneurial journey, emphasizing the importance of embracing mistakes as learning opportunities and maintaining a fun, passionate approach to business. He encourages young entrepreneurs to leap into opportunities driven by purpose and to enjoy the process of building something meaningful.

Notable Quote:
"Look for situations in life where you're frustrated about something, leap in and try to improve on it and just give it a go. You'll have a lot of fun in the process, a lot of learning..."
— Richard Branson [46:25]

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Conclusion

This episode of How I Built This offers invaluable insights from Richard Branson on building a resilient and versatile brand. Through his interactions with Lola, Ross, and Andrew, Branson illustrates practical approaches to brand consistency, innovative marketing, and scaling businesses while maintaining personalized customer experiences. Aspiring entrepreneurs can draw inspiration from Branson's philosophy of passion, quality, and resilience in the face of challenges.

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Notable Moments from the Episode:

• Branson’s anecdote about his spaceflight dreams and realization: [04:11]
• Emphasis on never letting customers down and maintaining quality: [05:55]
• Personalization strategies and their impact on customer loyalty: [16:18], [17:54]
• Innovative marketing ideas, such as using mermaids and creating memorable events: [30:29]-[31:28]

Remember: For those interested in hearing more from Richard Branson or revisiting his original How I Built This episode from 2017, Guy Raz encourages listeners to check the podcast description for links and additional resources.

Transcript

[Guy Raz]

Wondery subscribers can listen to How I built this early and ad free right now. Join Wondery in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Thank you to our sponsor, American Express. Being a business owner means you are in control of your destiny and you get to be your own boss. With Amex Business Platinum, you can get a flexible spending limit that adapts with your business. Not all purchases will be approved. Plus you can earn 1.5 times Membership Rewards points on select business purchases. PointsCap applies. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Terms apply. Learn [e-mail] this episode is sponsored by Canva. If you make decks at work, you should make the switch to Canva Presentations. Canva Presentations might be the most visually impressive presentations you'll ever use. Start with a stunning template, drag and drop images, graphics, charts and data visualizations from Canva's massive media library. Add animations plus interactive polls and quizzes to really set your slides apart. Built in AI also lets you generate slides and text in seconds from a prompt and you can share your Canva presentations with anyone and instantly collaborate in real time. Canva is used by 95% of Fortune 500 companies. Whether you work at a small or big company in a team of two or two thousand, Canva empowers workplaces everywhere to create captivating presentations, save time and be more productive together. You'll love the presentations you can easily design with Canva. Your audience will too. Love your work with canva [e-mail] so here's something pretty cool to think about. Have you ever been lying in bed at an Airbnb? Maybe scrolling through your phone when you realize, wait a minute, could I do this too? I recently stayed at an Airbnb with a pool that overlooked an olive grove. It was incredible. Find out how much your place is worth at airbnb.com/host hello and welcome to the advice line on How I Built this Lab. I'm Guy Raz. This is the place where we help try to solve your business challenges. Each week I'm joined by a legendary founder, a former guest on the show who will help me try to help you. And if you're building something and you need advice, give us a call and you just might be the next guest on the show. Our number is 1-800-433-1298. Send us a 1 minute message that tells us about your business and the issues or questions that you'd like help with. You can also send us a voice [e-mail] and make sure to tell us how to reach you. And also, don't forget to sign up for my newsletter. It's full of insights and ideas from the world's greatest entrepreneurs. You can sign up for [e-mail] and we'll put all this info in the podcast description. All right, let's get to it. Joining me this week is legendary entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group. Sir Richard, it's great to have you back on the show.

[Richard Branson]

It's always good to be on your show, so thank you.

[Guy Raz]

You were a guest on the show back in 2017. It is an incredible episode. If you guys have not heard it, we will put a link in the episode description. Of course, Virgin is such an iconic brand. It is really well worth going back and listening. This story about how you started a student magazine in the 70s. I think you went and interviewed James Baldwin in his hotel. Then you started a mail order record business when you were 20. And then you turned that into Virgin, into, wow, an empire of record stores, cinemas, a record label, cola, vodka, airlines, trains, phones, banks, hotels, space tourism, like more than 200 businesses over the past 50 years. It's just an incredible story. Just a few years ago, after we talked, you blasted off to the edge of space in your own rocket ship.

[Richard Branson]

Yeah, that was quite a ride. And it had been a dream come true. I dreamt of going to space ever since I saw the moon landing. And then, you know, the last 20 years, we're, we're trying to build our own spaceship and our own mothership and our own rockets and finally we got to space. So it was, it was definitely a pinch, a pinchy moment.

[Guy Raz]

That's amazing, Richard. Before we get to today's callers, I want to ask you a couple of questions. When you started Virgin, right, you started this record store, you gave it this name, Virgin. At what point did you think this could be a brand that goes way beyond record stores?

[Richard Branson]

It's a good question. I have never really been interested in building companies with the money motive. And I've never really thought of myself as being a business person and I never really thought of myself as building a brand. I just was having a lot of fun doing things that, that I thought could make a difference. And, and it sort of turned out that I think because we were enjoying what we were doing, we were sticking our neck out, doing it in a fun way, that suddenly we had a brand that was, you know, perceived as one of the top, you know, top, maybe top 10 brands in the world. And. But it wasn't something that we planned. It was just something that, you know, happened over time.

[Guy Raz]

As somebody, I mean, who. Who is such an important brand builder, right. What do you think a brand. What are some of the elements that a great brand needs to. Needs to have, needs to develop?

[Richard Branson]

I think maybe the most important thing is that you must, first of all, never let people down. So every new venture that Virgin's done over the years, we make sure that it's brand enhancing and it's better than what we did before. I mean, if I take our latest venture, Virgin Voyages, we've now got four beautiful cruise ships out there on the seas. You know, every single little detail the team got right. It's Virgin through and through, adults only, you know, a really fun experience, and people who go on it get off singing its praises. And so that, that then makes it that much more easy for us to then launch the next Virgin product. And we'll make it that much more likely that somebody who's been on a Virgin voyage will want to try a Virgin Atlantic plane or a Virgin Active Health Club. And so the key thing is just to make sure you're the best in your field. So if you launch a cruise company, it's got to be the best cruise company. If you launch an airline, it's got to be the best airline. And you mustn't compromise at all along the way.

[Guy Raz]

I mean, there's virtually no other brand on earth that is in so many different categories. It's quite remarkable. I'm curious. I mean, today, obviously, there are thousands of employees all around the world involved with Virgin Group. And so there are people who can telegraph and transmit what it means to be a Virgin brand. But. But when you have to do that, how have you been able to. To really make sure that people understand what Virgin means to you so that they can take that idea and that meaning and translate it into a great product or service?

[Richard Branson]

Well, we have an advantage, and that is that because we were involved in so many different ventures around the world, if we set up a new Virgin company, I can, you know, pull in people from our trains company, I can pull in people from our airline company, and. And they already know what it is like to have worked for a Virgin company. So, you know, for instance, we're just looking at maybe taking on Eurostar through the Channel Tunnel. And the designer that I've got to look at designing trains that will, you know, make Urasar look like old trains, is the designer that created the Heathrow Clubhouse in London, which you know, has been there for many years, but anybody who flies with Virgin will talk about the Virgin Heathrow clubhouse. And she did a magnificent job there. So, you know, she'll do a magnificent job for our trains. What we're trying to create is completely fresh ideas with anything we do. So our team have to always go a little bit above themselves.

[Guy Raz]

I mean, you've taken really big swings and you have had some very public failures. We talked about them when you were on the Show Back in 2017, I remember. But you keep trying out new ideas, new businesses even now, and I imagine you will do this until the day you breathe your last breath. What, what drives you to keep at it, to keep starting new things all the time.

[Richard Branson]

You only live once. And I think I've had 55 years of building businesses, but also building not for profit organizations to try to tackle the problems of the world. And apart from our businesses, we have 20 global organizations that we run on a not for profit basis, looking at all issues from climate change through to the state of the planetary boundaries to conflict resolution issues to drug reform and so on. And it would be, I think, such a waste of a life if you, if you get, find yourself in a position where you can pick up the phone to pretty well anybody in the world and get through and by getting through, hopefully get things done, you know, get, get change made. So I don't want to waste the position I'm in. I will continue working day and night, most likely until I drop and want to be proud of what our wonderful teams are creating. And I can sort of. I'm in Canada today launching flights from Toronto to the UK and I've just zip lined down the Niagara Falls as you do. It helps to have somebody who's the head of a company to be the icing on the cake. Everybody else has done all the hard work in getting the airline up and going and getting the check ins desk sorted and the lounges built and the cabin crew trained and the pilots trained. And then I can come in and try to make sure that people know that we've launched London to Toronto or Toronto to London and then it gives it a better chance of succeeding.

[Guy Raz]

Richard, having you on the advice line is kind of like having Michael Jordan at a sports clinic. So I'm super excited for the entrepreneurs today. Why don't we go ahead and take some calls. You ready?

[Richard Branson]

I am as ready as ever.

[Guy Raz]

All right, let's do it. Let's bring our first caller. Please introduce yourself, tell us your name, where you're calling from. And just a little bit about your business.

[Lola Banjo]

Yes. Hi, guy. Hi, Sir Richard. And everyone listening.

[Richard Branson]

Lovely to talk to you.

[Lola Banjo]

Great to be here. It's truly an honor. My name is Lola Banjo and I'm calling from lovely New York City. I am the founder of Silver and Riley, an ethical luxury brand that makes travel and fashion accessories. We handcraft Italian made bags that blend gorgeous style, heritage, craftsmanship with modern innovation and functionality, all designed to elevate your journeys.

[Guy Raz]

All right, awesome. Lola, thank you for calling in and welcome to the show. So Silver and Riley, you make travel gear like purses, bags. Tell me a little bit more about what you make.

[Lola Banjo]

Yeah, so we make travel and fashion bags which include duffel bags. We have women's handbags, we have men's messenger bags. We also have small leather accessories like passport holders, wallets, card holders, things like that. Yeah.

[Richard Branson]

And I heard, I heard the story of how you were on a flight one day and it wasn't a virgin flight. I hasten to add, it was not a virgin flight.

[Guy Raz]

What's the story?

[Richard Branson]

She wanted a. And the Ciudad said, I'm sorry, but that's just for the business class passengers.

[Lola Banjo]

Exactly.

[Guy Raz]

So that experience inspired you to start a brand?

[Lola Banjo]

That inspired me to start.

[Guy Raz]

Wow.

[Lola Banjo]

Sir Richard, I'm so honored that you actually know that story. I was traveling weekly as a management consultant. Right. So that's one of the reasons I was on that flight that was really freezing. And I was just like, you know, Sir Richard, you always talk about your best ideas are born out of frustration. And I was so frustrated during that flight. Like, everyone needs to have these travel conveniences and why aren't they these travel conveniences? And that's what inspired me to start the brand.

[Guy Raz]

Well, Richard was inspired to start an airline because he couldn't get a flight back from the Caribbean, I think. Right. So there you go. Tell me a little bit about how the business is doing so far.

[Lola Banjo]

Yeah, the business is doing great. So we launched five years ago and we are a seven figure brand. We're still a young brand, but I'm very proud that we are. We have clients across 27 different countries. We have nearly 50% repeat customers from 14% of our customers own five or more products from us. And that's with an average AOV of around $600. Wow. Yeah, we're primarily direct to customer, but we're also partnered with major retailers.

[Guy Raz]

Where are you selling? Your direct to consumer mainly, but where else are you selling?

[Lola Banjo]

Yeah, we are also partnered with Nordstrom Stacks and the Summer, Macy's, Bloomingdales as well, so definitely building. And we just launched five years ago, so. So I'm proud of where we are, even though we still have a lot of work to do.

[Guy Raz]

All right, before we get to, before we ask you more questions, what is your question that you brought for us today?

[Lola Banjo]

Yeah, absolutely. So I grew up with humble beginnings and it's been really, there's been real challenges, real trade offs, rejections and failures along the way. The space is not necessarily built for someone like me to thrive in. So my question is, Sir Richard, you have built an incredible purpose led global empire and some of the most competitive and capital intensive industries. What helped you stay bold and mission driven when the odds were stacked against you and resources were tight? And Guy, I'd love to hear from your vantage point as well, what advice would you give a founder like me that's building with deep purpose in an industry where those values can be at odds and where the lack of capital remains our biggest challenge?

[Guy Raz]

All right, we'll get to them. Richard, I want to bring you in because clearly some parallels in the early part of your career. So, thoughts for Lola?

[Richard Branson]

Well, look, first of all, you've got bundles of personality. You should be able to sell, sell, sell anything, anybody, anything. But thank you so much. Yeah, so, I mean, in the early days of Virgin, you know, we, we were doing something we, we passionately believed in, which was, we had a, had a magazine and there was the Vietnamese war going on. We thought it was an unjust war. And so we were campaigning very strongly against the war. So we were, we very much had a purpose and we surrounded ourselves with other people who believed in our purpose. And so people worked enormously hard sort of day and night to make the magazine succeed. So I mean, I think, you know that with your company you have your, you have a purpose. And if you can inspire your team, you know, to embrace that purpose, I feel absolutely sure that you'll succeed. As to the second half of the question, over to you, sir.

[Guy Raz]

Yeah, Lola, a quick question for you is how, I mean, with a brand like yours, I know you've broken through seven figures in sales, which is awesome. You know, you're five, six years in. I'm looking at your website and your products are beautiful. Just very briefly, how are you connecting with customers? How are you making this a personalized experience?

[Lola Banjo]

Yeah, we actually, we probably over anchor on personalization down to handwritten notes and, you know, just how our CRM personalizes the experience as well. Our clients are family. We address Them as part of the Silver and Riley family. And I really see them as such. And I think that's why they keep coming back, you know, Almost a half, 50% repeat customer rate. And, you know, just making sure that they all feel like they're part of the support story. You know, we. I personally do outreach, and I know that's not necessarily scalable, but in the early stages, that's something that, you know, I have really leaned into.

[Richard Branson]

Is it true that you wish them a happy birthday on their birthday?

[Lola Banjo]

Yes, we do. We actually have CRM that does that. So I don't.

[Guy Raz]

But that's the great thing about many of these things are scalable, right? Like you look at great brands like Virgin, right? When you go onto a Virgin plane or a train, you know, or use a Virgin product or hotel, you're going to get a level of personalization. You look at brands like Zappos or Nordstrom, where you're working with them. I mean, they are one of the reasons why those brands are so successful is because they've leaned in on customer service and customer experience. And so to me, the question isn't how can we continue to do that? It's how can we not? Right? That's really the value proposition here. And so when you build that into the mission and sort of the culture of the organization, that's going to inform every decision you make, right? I mean, I think that's sort of the way you guys operate at Virgin. Richard.

[Richard Branson]

Yeah. And now just thinking, I mean, if somebody has a problem in one of the Virgin companies, generally speaking, I'll ask the companies to make sure I know about it. And if we deal with it properly, I mean, if I do a handwritten note and really take a bit of trouble over it, and that customer will be your friend for life and they'll tell another 30 or 40 people. So with the birthdays, the more personal one can make some of these things the better and the more genuine the better.

[Lola Banjo]

Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I think that's also what drives a really high referral rate for us as well. 17% of our new clients come from existing customers. I learned this also from my mother. She passed away, but when I was younger, she had a bakery. And I remember every single person that would walk through the bakery doors, she remembered very little details about them that made them feel good. And I always took that away from that. And so the handwritten notes, which of course is not scalable, but I still do them during Christmas time, I'm writing hundreds of Handwritten notes every day. And my team is like, just get it printed. And I'm like, I get the feedback from our clients that say, that makes me feel seen and valuable. I do worry about when we're scaling globally, how I can still maintain that. So that's something that I am watchful for. But, you know, it's something that really, really means something valuable to the brand. And so I'm grateful to be able to continue that and personalize that. Just like Virgin. I remember my first Virgin flight. I was just like, this is the best airline ever. Like, you know, I didn't even have status in Virgin and they still treated me amazing. And I just felt really great. And I felt like, you know what? I want everybody, Silver and Ray client to feel like that as well.

[Richard Branson]

So another company that we started when I was very young was a recording studio in. In the countryside in Oxford. And, you know, we'd have artists coming every two or three days and in time, you're just not going to remember all the little things about those artists. So, like, say Frank Zappa comes to the manor, you know, and you have a conversation. I would after dinner, go and write a few things down, like, you know, the name of his wife and then, you know, the name of his children. You know, his mother may have been ill or something. You know, just little things so that, you know, a year or two later or five years later, they come again and you can actually remember one or two of these personal things, which just makes such a difference. So, I mean, if you're going to a big chain of retail shops and you have a chat with the head of the retail, it's worth going to the loo afterwards and just taking a note of some of the things the person said because it's so good to be able to drop it into the conversation the next time you see them.

[Guy Raz]

That is great advice. Reminds me of how Bill Clinton used to keep index cards of everyone he met and then of course, paid back in spades when he ran for president. Lola Banjo. The brand is called Silver and Riley. Thanks so much for calling and good luck. We're cheering you on, following your very much good luck journey.

[Lola Banjo]

Thank you, Guy. And thank you, Sir Richard Guy. I have to say, how I built this has just gotten me through some of the toughest times. So you're doing amazing work. So I just want to say thank you for everything you do.

[Guy Raz]

Great having you on. Yeah, that's such good advice. I mean, this idea of remembering details when you see somebody, you know, even a year later or two years later and you remember something, the name of their spouse or a kid. Like people are just blown away by that. It really stays with them.

[Richard Branson]

Yeah, it really, really is important.

[Guy Raz]

All right, we're going to take a quick break, but we'll be right back with another caller and another round of advice. Stay with us. I'm Guy Raz and you're listening to the advice line right here on How I Built this Lab. Maybe you've stayed at an Airbnb before and thought to yourself, this actually seems pretty doable. Maybe my place could be an Airbnb while you're away. Your home could be an Airbnb. The place I just stayed at in Palm Springs with an incredible kidney shaped pool and palm trees. It was just perfect. Maybe you're planning a trip for a long weekend while you're gone. You could Airbnb your home and make some extra money towards the trip. Whether you could use a little extra money to cover some bills or for something a little more fun, your home or spare room might be worth more than you think. Find out how [e-mail] host and now, a quick vital break. A little more from our sponsor, Vital Proteins. Have you heard of vital proteins? Collagen peptides. It's a supplement that has four benefits all in one helping support healthy hair, skin, nails, bones and joints. Because of aging, after 30, our body's natural collagen production can start to decline by 1% a year, which may lead to the appearance of fine lines, saggy skin, and your bones and joints not moving like they used to. By taking collagen peptides daily, you can help support your hair, skin, nail, bone and joint health. Consistency is key. Take a serving of collagen peptides daily to help look, feel and move your best get 20% off by going to www.vitalproteins.com and entering promo code BILT at checkout. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. If you're pregnant, nursing, or have a medical condition, consult your physician. Before last year, 1.3% of the global GDP flowed through Stripe. That's over $1.4 trillion. And driving that huge number are the millions of businesses growing more rapidly with stripe. For industry leaders like Forbes, Atlassian, OpenAI, and Toyota, stripe isn't just financial software. It's a powerful partner that simplifies how they move money, making it as seamless and borderless as the Internet itself. For example, hertz boosted its online payment authorization rates by 4% after migrating to Stripe. And imagine seeing a 23% uplift in revenue like Forbes did in just six months after switching to Stripe for subscription management. Stripe has been leveraging AI for the last decade to make its products better at growing revenue for all businesses, from smarter checkouts to fraud prevention and beyond. Join the ranks of over half of the Fortune 100 that trust Stripe to drive change. Learn more at stripe.com welcome back to the Advice Line on how I built this lab. I'm Guy Raz and my guest today is Virgin founder Richard Branson, the legendary Richard Branson. Richard, let's bring in our next caller. Yeah, hello, welcome to the Advice line. You are on with Sir Richard Branson. Please tell us your name, where you're calling from, and just a little bit about your business.

[Ross Novotny]

Yeah, hi, Guy and Sir Richard. I'm Ross Novotny from Phoenix, Arizona. I am co founder of Now Pools. Now Pools is the world's first and only on demand pool and spa company. So think Pools as a subscription.

[Guy Raz]

I love this idea. Ross, thanks for calling in. I was just in Tucson during the middle of a heat wave and it was really hot. So I can imagine a lot of people might be really interested in a temporary pool. So these are temporary pools. You could basically can rent a pool and you go and put it in someone's backyard.

[Ross Novotny]

That's right.

[Richard Branson]

Yeah.

[Ross Novotny]

We take care of all the headaches of owning a pool so you can subscribe to our service. We go out and we set up an above ground pool. Then we take care of weekly cleaning and maintenance and chemicals, any warranty issues, and then we remove the pool when you're done with the subscription. So you get your yard back.

[Guy Raz]

Well, how did you come up with this idea?

[Ross Novotny]

So my wife and I adopted our kids when they were a little bit older and having sort of young rambunctious kids, wanting to send them outside in the middle of the summer in Phoenix seems like cruel and unusual punishment.

[Guy Raz]

Right.

[Ross Novotny]

So we, you know, I wanted a pool but didn't want to spend the money and didn't want to lose our yard. So I thought there had to be some sort of temporary way to make all this happen. And, and thus the Now Pools was born in that sort of crisis moment.

[Guy Raz]

As a parent, I love it. And just briefly, Ross, tell me a little bit about how the business is doing. I know you started this in 2020. What are your sales been like?

[Ross Novotny]

Yeah, this year we'll cross a million dollars lifetime revenue. So I mean you know, we're getting there. It's been slow going, a slow build, but positive, really positive reviews from clients, a lot of return clients. We've had clients for five years now that have come, you know, year, and we're gaining each year in our subscription. So slowly but surely we're growing market share.

[Guy Raz]

And I'm looking at the picture of the large pool, which is quite large actually. I mean, you could have a bunch of kids in there. How much, roughly, how much does it cost to rent it?

[Ross Novotny]

So it starts at 675amonth and then goes up to 825 for the shortest time period. So the longer you sign up for, the cheaper it becomes per month.

[Guy Raz]

Awesome. And what's your question for us today?

[Ross Novotny]

Yeah, so question regarding marketing and you know, specifically, Sir Richard, I'm a huge fan of yours and you know, all that you've done with your bold and unconventional marketing and now pools, we're trying to create an entirely new market that's never existed before. So what kind of framework or strategic approach might you take when you're trying to launch something that the world doesn't even know exists?

[Andrew Perez]

This.

[Guy Raz]

All right, so Richard, we've got, Ross has got this brand, this company in Phoenix, starting in Phoenix with I guess plans to expand where you could rent a pool for the summer and it's built in your backyard above ground and they take care of everything. How should he start to. Well, you may have some questions for him before you answer his question.

[Richard Branson]

Well, look, nice to talk to you and what a great idea. So I mean, it's definitely servicing a gap in the market. And, and presumably just for first question, presumably you don't have to get planning permission for a pool that you just put on the top of the ground.

[Ross Novotny]

Correct? Yeah. Every municipality across the country is going to be different. But no, no permit required, which is.

[Richard Branson]

Fantastic because I mean, presumably if you're digging a pool, you would have to get permission, is that right?

[Ross Novotny]

Correct.

[Richard Branson]

Yes, you would. Okay. And do you push that point a little bit?

[Ross Novotny]

Yeah, we don't necessarily think we are adversarial to in ground pools. We think we're serving a little bit different market. Somebody who wants a temporary solution, someone who may not have the funds to buy an in ground pool. And also we really push the temporary nature of it. You can have a pool for just a few months at a time. If your plans change and you want to go on vacation one summer, just don't get a pool from us and then maybe come back the next year.

[Richard Branson]

Year So, I mean, is it word of mouth that, you know, you put one pool in and then a neighbor sees it and they. They then want one for their house? Is that the main way it's being?

[Ross Novotny]

Yeah, I would say word of mouth has been our biggest driver. We've, you know, the earned media, we've been on the news and in sort of some traditional media outlets several times, but we're. We're trying to make a bigger splash, no pun intended, to be able to really get the word out there that we're even an option people should consider.

[Richard Branson]

Have you done any sort of fun gimmicks in the pools and got any interesting people swimming in the pools?

[Ross Novotny]

We were hoping you would come out to Phoenix sometime and take a dip. But other than that, we've done some events, whether it's concerts, we've done some festivals and trade shows and things like that, and even had recently a canine police dog event where they jumped into one of our pools, which was pretty fun, but haven't been able to still get that critical mass that we're looking for as far as awareness.

[Richard Branson]

I mean, with Virgin, what I tried to do was just do something fun that would get you on the front page of the papers or in the news or something. And I was just thinking earlier that if every time you opened a pool, you could have a mermaid for an hour or so in the pool or something, which would attract attention, but whenever we launched something new, we would come up with something which would make people smile.

[Ross Novotny]

And did you have a strategic approach to try to come up with those marketing events that really caught people's attention?

[Richard Branson]

Because I do it every single time we launch a new venture, I never quite know what's about to happen. So, I mean, when I turned up in Australia to launch Virgin Mobile and they drove me from Sydney out to a field and there was a helicopter there and. And I thought, oh, well, that's nice. I'm going to get in a helicopter and the next moment they're putting a bungee thing around my waist and. And I'm. I then are heading into Sydney, 100ft below the helicopter and landed on top of a big cage and I have to rip the cage open and free up everybody who were looking locked up with contracts on other mobile phone companies. So I think just coming up with something which will make people smile, a mermaid somehow fits. Somehow fits with tools.

[Guy Raz]

But all of these things are so smart because they attract media attention and buzz and hype. Of course, Ross, you're not Richard Branson, but there are elements and ideas here that I think could work. I mean, obviously you want to think about putting this up for a couple of days a week. Free swimming, even at church fairs or block parties, community gatherings. I would even think about doing something analog like radio in the Phoenix area. It's going to be a hot summer. How about a pool to cool down? Even cool videos that you could geotarget through social media just to specific types of, of customers. You want to really focus some of your attention on identifying your target customers. Right. And once you do that, you start to use stories that sort of build around the product and around the appeal of this because to me it's a no brainer, especially in a place like Phoenix.

[Richard Branson]

Maybe once a month you could just turn up at an underprivileged school and just set up a pool there and bring some fun figures that can come and roll it in the pool with the kids or something. I mean, just, you know, just surprise the parents, surprise the school. And actually, you know, a lot of the parents might end up wanting one of your pools themselves. So I think a little bit of that might, might be good as well.

[Ross Novotny]

I love that. That's a great idea.

[Richard Branson]

April. April Fool's Day. I know it's just gone by, but I always found April Fool's Day was, it was a great day where you could put your products on the map in a, in a fun way. We once built a UFO as you do, and we flew over London at 4am in the morning on April Fool's Day in a UFO. And the whole of London got into a panic and the radio stations, the police, the army were called out. We landed in a foggy field and, and the door went very, very slowly down and this little ET figure, who is a friend of mine was dressed up in a little ET figure, walked down and this policeman who they'd sent out to meet us just ran in the opposite direction. But, you know, we, we got the headlines.

[Ross Novotny]

All right, so. So mermaids and aliens is what you're saying.

[Guy Raz]

Mermaids and aliens, yes.

[Richard Branson]

It's been. Not, hopefully it's been useful to you, but doing a few, you know, I mean, since you can, you know, fill it up with water and then leave the next day, you could, you can actually, you know, you can pop into worthwhile events and make people smile as well.

[Guy Raz]

Yep, for sure. Ross Novotny. The company's called now Pools. Good luck. It's a great idea. I can't wait to hear more.

[Ross Novotny]

Thank you so much to both of you.

[Richard Branson]

Cheers.

[Guy Raz]

Yeah, thank you so much. I love it. Mermaids. He could have like scuba divers in there. I mean, maybe put some tropical fish inside. I mean, right? You've got to get attention. You got to get. But people talking about it.

[Richard Branson]

Exactly. And anyway, he's obviously got the business side and now it's the marketing. So good. Best for him.

[Guy Raz]

All right, we're going to take another quick break, but we'll be right back with another caller. Stay with us. I'm Guy Raz and you're listening to the advice line right here on How I built this Lab. Did you know that 2 in 5 homeowners experience water leak damage? That means nearly half of us are at risk of experiencing catastrophic water damage, whether it's a slow, hidden leak or a sudden pipe burst. And the worst part, most people don't realize they have a water leak until it's too late. That's why I have the Moen Flow Smart Water monitor and Shutoff, a smart device that helps you better your odds against water damage before it happens. MoenFlow has Flow Sense technology and uses AI to analyz your water usage patterns and runs daily microleak tests to detect any irregular activity, including leaks as small as a drop per minute. Moen Flow sends real time alerts straight to your phone if it detects any abnormal activity and automatically shuts off your water if it senses a catastrophic leak is about to occur. And the app is super simple and super easy to use. Visit moen.com flow to learn how to protect your home and help stop leaks before they start. That's M-O-E-N.com Flo because when it comes to water damage, Moen knows it's not about luck. It's about being prepared. Automatic shutoff and real time alert capabilities will operate when the device is configured with the proper settings. This message comes from Schwab. With Schwab Investing Themes, it's easy to invest in ideas you believe in, like like online music and videos, artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, and more. Schwab's research uncovers emerging trends, then their technology curates relevant stocks into over 40 themes to choose from. Schwab Investing Themes is not intended to be investment advice or a recommendation of any stock or investment strategy. Visit schwab.com thematicinvesting welcome back to the advice line on How I Built this Lab. I'm Guy Raz and today I'm taking your calls with Sir Richard Branson. Sir Richard, let's bring in our last caller. Welcome to the advice line. You are on with Sir Richard Branson, Please tell us your name, where you're calling from, and a little bit about your business.

[Andrew Perez]

Hey, guys. Sir Richard, thanks for having me. This, this is an honor. My name is Andrew Perez and I'm calling from east Tennessee. I'm the co founder of the Juice Spot and Lone Wolf Granola. The Juice Spot is a no nonsense whole food smoothie and juice bar. And from there what we were able to do was create Lone Wolf Granola. It's our small batch handcrafted granola that actually started as an ingredient for our acai bowls, but it just quickly took on a life of its own.

[Guy Raz]

Awesome. Well, thanks for calling in, Andrew. So you're in eastern Tennessee. Where are you in Tennessee?

[Andrew Perez]

Well, I'm in the tri state area. It's a pretty nice little interesting area in the Appalachian area. Cumberland Gap.

[Guy Raz]

Cumberland Gap. There's a national park there, famous gap where Daniel Boone went through. Cumberland Gap.

[Andrew Perez]

You know it? The gateway to the west.

[Richard Branson]

And you have a very, very, very, very small population, but lots of tourists. So you're tapping into them.

[Andrew Perez]

Yeah.

[Guy Raz]

So tell me how you are you from there? Like, is that why you opened up this juice bar?

[Andrew Perez]

No, no. Actually the story is much deeper than that. I'm originally from Southern California and you know, same with my life partner Lisa, who is in on this with me all the way. And we grew up around fresh, healthy foods. It was, you know, part of just a lifestyle that shaped both of our families and you know, with the shared belief in the fact that, you know, food's a way of bringing people together. With my degree in biochemistry and you know, I have a huge love for fitness, I think those things pair very well together.

[Guy Raz]

So how did you guys, how did you guys end up in Cumberland Gap, Tennessee with a juice bar?

[Andrew Perez]

Well, I'll tell you the story. Elisa, you know, my partner, she was feeling a little homesick and I said, hey, you know what, it would be a great thing to take you out and go visit your parents. So I bought us a plane ticket and you know, I wish it would have been virgin, but they don't fly out this way. And we'll put that right. Let's fix that quick.

[Richard Branson]

But you got your population's got to be more than 150 people in the city that.

[Andrew Perez]

So long story short, we took a hike and it was in the middle of summer, it was really hot. I told my father in law, I said, hey, smoothies on me. Let's go out and get some smoothies and some fresh pressed juice. And he looked at me and gave me this real funny look and said, all we got is about McCafe and that's all you can get over here, you know, just a McDonald's smoothie. And I was baffled because there's a private university about a mile away from where we're located. So it just blew my mind that that wasn't available.

[Guy Raz]

So you're thinking there's a. And there's tourists come through here and there's nothing like this. There's no juice bar. So clearly it made sense for you guys to do this.

[Andrew Perez]

Absolutely. I mean, I saw a problem that needed a solution.

[Guy Raz]

So you have this juice bar, but you also made granola, which has now become kind of a popular thing. Right. You guys are selling a lot of granola.

[Andrew Perez]

Yeah.

[Guy Raz]

And before we get into that, tell me what's your question for us?

[Andrew Perez]

So my question is, in today's business landscape, what are three tangible pieces of advice that you would give to me as I continue to grow these two distinct but very complementary brands, each with its own unique demand and growth challenges?

[Richard Branson]

Well, you've got a great brand. I think lone wolf granola is a very strong brand. I mean, do you want to try to get your juice bars and the granola into other outlets or more standalone places yourself?

[Andrew Perez]

That's a great question. You know, right now, what I'm currently doing, you know, with the juice spot itself, I'm working along this private university to get in and help fuel their athletes and create a program as they're working to become a D1 school. And as far as the granola, I just want to get it out to the masses. I have a great product and I think that everybody needs to get their hands on it, and it should be a staple in a house.

[Guy Raz]

Andrew, let's focus on the granola for a moment here, because I know you got the juice bar, but the granola, it sounds like the granola is really. You want to turn this into a CPG brand. Right. You want to turn this into a brand that you could sell beyond Cumberland Gap. That's correct. Right. In stores. And I guess I imagine that you want to figure out how to do that. Right. It's not easy to get. Get your stuff out there. And Cumberland Gap is a small place, even though you've got some tourists coming and buying it. Have you made any efforts or any attempts so far to reach out to any retailers or grocers to see if they might be interested?

[Andrew Perez]

I have. I work alongside of a lot of smaller farm to table grocers. I've been working with some nutrition shops just outside of my area in Knoxville, Tennessee, to try to tap into the market there. It would be my goal, and I guess, you know, I would probably need a little bit of guidance to try to figure out how to tap into that market more appropriately.

[Richard Branson]

I mean, if you could get one other store apart from your own to be selling it, and, and you can then use the statistics of how well they do to then, you know, to then approach other, Other stores, that obviously would be helpful. I mean, it's, it's, it's great to be able to say, well, you know, if you stock this, it's likely to sell X. I mean, what sort of advertising? Well, you obviously don't spend money on advertising because you've only got your one store at the moment.

[Andrew Perez]

We do spend money on advertising. The budget's fairly small, but, you know, we use a lot of social media platforms and we work with micro influencers in the area to get that product out. I do sample quite a bit.

[Guy Raz]

That's critical, what you just said, Andrea. You know, look, I think that you've got a lot of things you're interested in doing and focused on the juice spot and working with the athletes at the local university and the granola. But I do think that you're going to have to, at some point, make some hard choices about how to divide and conquer between you and your partner. Maybe one of you focuses on the juice bar and one of you really leans into the granola for a period of time. Because if you're going to try and turn this into a CPG brand, you've got to start in a city. And the closest city I'm looking at the map is Knoxville. And Knoxville is not an unimportant place. I was looking in Knoxville. Mountain Dew was found in Knoxville. Ruby Tuesdays was found in Knoxville. Regal Cinemas, White Lily Flowers. So there are brands that started there. I think you need to really get into Knoxville to the regional markets. There's Food City there, there's Ingles, the Fresh Market, Three Rivers Market. Go to places like that and you got to sample the hell out of this. You got to be there every weekend with cups of this stuff, sampling this so people can try it. I think that's the market you have to start in Knoxville because. And then you can get to Nashville, which is, you know, once you're in Nashville, you're a national, potentially national brand. But I think you have to really make some hard choices right now if you want to try and turn this into a real Brand. Richard, what do you think?

[Richard Branson]

So we have a hotel in Nashville. Why don't we just stock a little bit for a while and see whether our customers like it? And. And I'd be delighted to do that. So I'll get somebody to be in touch, and we'll get some in that hotel.

[Guy Raz]

Wow.

[Richard Branson]

Yeah. And then is your granola, do you add sugar to it? Just as a matter of interest?

[Andrew Perez]

I do add a little bit of sugar. It's a raw, organic brown cane sugar, and I add a splash of that. We do use a raw, unfiltered organic honey as well to kind of offset the. The sugar. And other than that, I have some pecans in there, some. Some oats, some sunflower seeds.

[Richard Branson]

It might be worth you. Because granola is associated with, you know, healthiness. You might. Might be worth you giving people the choice of, you know, granola with sugar, granola without sugar, since, you know, sugar's becoming such a big thing. So if you can make it, try to make it as tasty without sugar, you know, that will definitely go well in sort of health shops and so on.

[Guy Raz]

Maybe agave. Yeah.

[Andrew Perez]

Oh, yeah, yeah. I use agave in the shop. That's great. I'll work on fine tuning a formula. Sir Richard.

[Richard Branson]

Great. Well, I look forward to going to Nashville and having a breakfast.

[Andrew Perez]

Thank you so much.

[Guy Raz]

That would be. Wow, look at that. Andrew Perez, the Juice Spot and Lone Wolf Granola. Thanks for calling in. Good luck. Congrats on.

[Richard Branson]

Nice to talk to you. Cheers.

[Andrew Perez]

Thank you all.

[Guy Raz]

Wow, that's so cool.

[Richard Branson]

I mean, that'd be fun. That would be good. Really. Just look forward to tasting it.

[Guy Raz]

Do you know, I make granola because when I go to someone's house, I live in San Francisco, and so, you know, what am I gonna bring? I have friends who are winemakers and food, and I'm not gonna bring them wine because they make wine. I make granola. And then I put it in a jar and my wife puts, like, a nice label on it, and it's a really nice gift. Actually, people, you took the time to make it.

[Richard Branson]

Ah. You say you make it and give it away. It's lovely.

[Guy Raz]

I make it and give it away. I've got some in the oven as we speak. Richard, it's at 220 degrees Fahrenheit.

[Richard Branson]

You're going to have to invite me to breakfast sometime.

[Guy Raz]

Anytime.

[Richard Branson]

Nice.

[Guy Raz]

Richard, before we let you go, I want to ask you one final question. When you sort of look back on your time building virgin, you know, if you could go back to the, to the 20 year old kid starting that mailer business and say, hey, I'm coming from the Future. I've got 50 plus years of advice and experience. Now I want to give you a piece of advice. What would you have said to your former, your younger self?

[Richard Branson]

Well, look, I'm lucky. I would not change a thing. So even my mistakes, I would not change because I think as an entrepreneur, if you don't make mistakes, you're not going to achieve anything. So and I just think for other 26 year olds, they need to look out for situations in life where, you know, where they're frustrated about something, leap in and try to, you know, improve on it and just give it a go. And you'll have a lot of fun in the process, a lot of learning in the process. And sometimes you'll fall flat in your face and sometimes it'll succeed.

[Guy Raz]

That's founder of the Virgin Group, Richard Branson. Sir Richard, thank you so much for coming back onto the show.

[Richard Branson]

Well, as always, thanks very much for having us and talk to you. See you soon.

[Guy Raz]

And by the way, if you haven't heard Richard Branson's original How I Built this episode, you've got to go back and check it out. It's really, truly one of the best out of the 10 years we've been doing this show. You can find a link to it in the podcast description. And here is one of my favorite moments from that interview.

[Richard Branson]

You know, I find the bank manager sitting on my doorstep and stupidly I invited him into the house and he tells me that he's going to close the whole Virgin group down on the Monday. And I don't normally get angry, but I just literally stood up and pushed him out of my house and told him he wasn't ever welcome there again, which was not maybe the best thing to do to your bank manager.

[Guy Raz]

Thanks so much for listening listening to the show this week. Please make sure to check out my newsletter. You can sign up for it for [e-mail] each week. It's packed with tons of insights from entrepreneurs and my own observations and experiences interviewing some of the greatest entrepreneurs ever. And if you're working on a business and you'd like to be on this show, send us a one minute message that tells us about your business, the issues or questions you'd like help with with. And hopefully we can help you with them. And make sure to tell us how to reach you. You can send us a voice [e-mail] or call us at 1-800-433-1298 and leave a message there. And we'll put all this in the podcast description as well. This episode was produced by Chris Masini with music composed by Ramtin Arablouei. It was edited by John Isabella. Our audio engineer was Neil Rauch. Our production team also includes Alex Chung, Casey Herrmann, Iman Ma' ani, Elaine Coates, J.C. howard, Katherine Cipher, Kerry Thompson, Sam Paulson, and Neva Grant. I'm Guy Raz and you've been listening to the Vice line right here on How I Built this Lab. If you like How I Built this, you can listen early and ad free right now by joining Wondery plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short [e-mail] survey introducing Instagram teen Accounts A new way to keep your teen safer as they grow. Like making sure they've got the right gear for writing, knee pads, shack and helmet. Done. See you dad. New Instagram Teen Account Automatic protections for who can contact your team and the content they can see.