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- [00:00]
A
All right, so we're back to our roots. Sweat equity. The AC is bugging.
- [00:04]
B
Yeah.
- [00:04]
A
This is back to episode one.
- [00:06]
B
This is what it's all about. No matter how Hollywood it may look from the outside.
- [00:09]
A
No, we're sweating.
- [00:10]
B
The truth is it's 94 degrees in this office.
- [00:12]
A
It is. So we both just came back from Europe. I. I started journaling while I was there. And the funny thing was we got a comment that was like, no, like, because in the last episode we talked about, we were getting.
- [00:24]
B
We were. We were getting way too deep.
- [00:26]
A
We were. And then somebody kind of chirped us.
- [00:28]
B
Like, the minute you leave America, you just feel like hustling and everything's not worth it, you know?
- [00:32]
A
Yeah, a little bit. A little bit. And so we got chirped. Not chirped, but, like, funny comment about. Not like, like they need us to hustle.
- [00:39]
B
Yeah.
- [00:40]
A
Anyways, adding to the fire, I journaled Jake, who's one of my good friends and also works for Market Exam. And he was. He was journaling. I was like. And I've always wanted to try to build a habit, but I never wanted to spend ample amount of time on like 10 minutes journaling in the morning.
- [00:56]
B
Yeah.
- [00:57]
A
But I was like, you know what? Let me try it there. And like, let me try to do, you know, continue to do it when I get home. And so been doing it since the. After the wedding, ongoing until today. And so something that I wrote down was just like lessons from Europe, like little things that I was observing because for the first time in, I think it was three years, I legitimately shut down my laptop or I didn't open my laptop. Like, I wasn't looking at emails, I wasn't looking at Slack.
- [01:24]
B
Yeah.
- [01:24]
A
I was only opening my laptop when I wanted to. Like, I was inspired something. And then I want to do more research on it that night or whenever it was. And so I wrote down some. Some things that I. That I thought about a lot while I was there. So first one, the smartest person isn't the person that makes the most money. It is the person that wants us live a specific life and then figures out how to live it.
- [01:47]
B
I like that. And lifestyle design.
- [01:50]
A
Yeah.
- [01:51]
B
Yeah.
- [01:51]
A
Cuz and then the second thing added to that was you could be making $100 million a year. Right. And be absolutely miserable because of the life that. That you live to attain that. That money. Like, at that point, you just have a skill. Like making money is really just a skill. And so the way I thought about it was, you know, if you are a bank, you're either can have daily withdrawals or daily deposits. If you are miserable and you have that, you're living that life that, that does make you miserable. You're current every day you're having withdrawals, you're getting withdrawn. Your energy from stress, anxiety, overworking. Not like not being in like your, your, your strength zone. Like all of those things, those could be things that are essentially withdrawn. All of your energy and getting into you into a place where you, you know, you're not happy. Not to just say like, well, time is the currency.
- [02:45]
B
Right. I mean ultimately that's the funny thing about like the Sahil blooms of the world is they're actually, they are right. Even though it sounds like a fortune cookie, like they are correct that you know, time billionaire has more money. Like Warren Buffett would trade places with both of us right now, you know. And so yeah, daily withdrawals is a good way to look at it. You're losing time and really your soul. Dude. Dude, when you're doing stuff that doesn't really align, like that's what you're getting.
- [03:12]
A
Killed on 100% and but then the inverse is you can be making a million dollars but have deposits every single day of like, of. And again, this, this goes back to what that guy said about like being soft. But you could have daily deposits of gratitude and being happy and like spending time with your family and getting to and freedom and like all these deposits where every single day you can't wait for the next day, right. Like you go to bed like, oh, I can't wait to do the thing again.
- [03:38]
B
Are you going to grow your hair out and pivot to like, like ayahuasca and kind of like there's, there's a direction that's brewing here that might concern.
- [03:46]
A
The, this is the only, the only. I'm just curious that I wrote.
- [03:50]
B
You can let me know. I don't even know if it's Aaron Rodgers so much as like the guy that like is always the like you've seen couples retreat.
- [03:58]
A
Yeah.
- [03:58]
B
You know, like the guy, the karma into you. Yeah, yeah, exactly like the life coach, you know, he's just handsome and jacked and 45 and my might take your wife by accident.
- [04:08]
A
Never going down that route. But I, I, I was. And that's where the, the conversation started about like even what you and I were talking about earlier of like, okay, how can we design our life and what products can we create and what things can we do that we can, we can. And part of it too was I had so much fun with Zara these last two weeks, and I've never. I don't say never, but, like, you.
- [04:30]
B
Get to be really present with her.
- [04:31]
A
Yeah, I got to be super present with her, and I have a blast. Yeah. So the other one was sell with passion. So I went into you and I talked about trying to find, like, stores, like, kind of just finding, like hidden gems while you shop. Right. You and I both love fashion and shopping.
- [04:50]
B
And so, I mean, I got a see through shirt on right now.
- [04:53]
A
That's fair.
- [04:54]
B
That's a love of fashion.
- [04:55]
A
The other one was they're so focused on exposure, experience, and again, American vintage. I walk in, but there's a. There's multiple stores that walked into Louis Vuitton. And Louis Vuitton, obviously, they. As soon as you sit down, like, you're ordering something. Right. One, they get you a. Like a specific person to help you shop. Yeah, that was cool.
- [05:16]
B
Concierge.
- [05:17]
A
Yeah. And then as soon as you sit down, they bring you a mimosa, they'll bring you champagne, they'll bring you O.J. they would bring in Zara stuff. They were bringing Vanessa stuff. Stuff. Right. And so in Louis Vuitton. And they're. They're tailoring the experience and making it, like, such a. A good experience so that when you spend more. What I noticed though, as well was a lot of European stores, because Europeans drink so much coffee. We would go into American vintage. I forget the. We went into some running store, dude. And they all had these counters with espresso machines on it that you can just make an espresso or have somebody make you an espresso right then and there.
- [05:51]
B
Nice.
- [05:51]
A
And so when I think about that, I think about, like, ALD and they have their cafe, but at the same.
- [05:55]
B
Time, cafe's separate from the store, though.
- [05:57]
A
It's separate from the store and you also have to purchase it.
- [06:00]
B
Yeah.
- [06:00]
A
Versus here. It's like, just have a coffee while you shop.
- [06:03]
B
Yeah.
- [06:05]
A
The other. And so that just made me think so much about experience and how you can do these little things that. That are like the cherry on top to a purchasing experience that make you more or you have more affinity towards a brand, but also get you to spend more money. Like the fact that I walk in and, like, he starts talking to me and starts talking to me about everything and then makes me an espresso. I feel like we're friends now.
- [06:28]
B
I've spent money because I'm guilty that I'm about to not spend money on the person who was taking care of me.
- [06:34]
A
Yes. At this point, I'm investing in this person, not the brand. And then that person's why. Then I like the brand.
- [06:40]
B
If they're getting any sort of commission, I do this at stores. They'll be like, do you want to sign up for an account? I'm like, what do you get? Yeah, like, yeah, I'll give you my number if you get like a little bonus.
- [06:49]
A
Yeah.
- [06:50]
B
And then if they say nothing, I tried to slip the guy. I haven't told my passport story publicly, but I almost didn't get to come to your wedding because my passport was expiring a month from the date of the travel. And I go to CVS in Houston. And initially they told me they weren't going to help me. And then this dude was like, yo, I'll just, I'll get you real quick, whatever. So to help, you know, to take care of him, I was like, yo, here's a hundred dollar tip. Please take it, bro. Couldn't take it. And I was like, come on. Like under the table. He was like, no, I can't take it. It's tough, you know, like, they're not allowed at cvs, like, to take. He was like, it's on camera, whatever, you know, and so. But just to that point, it's like people, people, you know, a lot of these retail folks, like, they do get commissions. They, you know, if they become a stylist, if they actually take care of you, they make money.
- [07:44]
A
And then the last two, these are fast. One dress better, the other one dress better. In Paris, man, like we, we stayed at a nice hotel. We would go down to breakfast at 8am Everyone is dressed to a tea at breakfast at the hotel.
- [07:58]
B
Totally.
- [07:59]
A
They look phenomenal. You did. You couldn't differentiate who was rich, who was middle class, who was poor, because everyone looked great and it wasn't. And when I say great, I don't mean they had a bunch of jewelry. I don't mean they were like extremely fashy. I mean, they just looked. Their outfits were so well put together. And then I actually did more research on it and it's almost like a rule in Italy. And like with the French people, it's like, it doesn't matter what you do, you always look your best.
- [08:24]
B
Yeah.
- [08:24]
A
And I love that. And it made me and Vanessa me. Both me and Vanessa were paying attention so much to what people wear. Not from like a envious standpoint, more so looking at, in like learning and trying to take some of it home.
- [08:37]
B
Yeah.
- [08:37]
A
And one of the days. Vanessa was wearing, like, this. These jean shorts and, like, a corset kind of thing. And she was like, I feel like I can make this look so much better if I just went and got a blazer, and she goes and gets a blazer, and it completely flipped the whole fit. Like, she. She literally, like. I don't know, like, she just looked more mature because of it. Yeah, right. And you don't see Athleisure in Paris. At least I didn't. And I was paying attention. You don't see, like, women in leggings. No, you don't see any of that. You don't see people, like, just chilling in sweatpants, walking around from place to place and so just dressing better and. And caring about how you look. Even if. Because you. You go about your day so differently. Even if you're going to the coffee shop or you're working at home. Like, yesterday, I worked at home. I was in a nice fit the entire day until, boy, I looked. I looked solid yesterday. Shit was tucked in. I had loafers. Like, I was looking.
- [09:31]
B
This is like a Covid take, you know, it's like, if you're going to take that zoom call, take a. Take it in a blazer.
- [09:36]
A
But, like, I felt different. And I also felt like I could just power through. That was one thing. I felt like I could just power through my day. Even though I. Yeah, I've been sleep deprived and kind of feeling sick. I just felt like I could power through through my day. And then the last one is just walk more, dude. I felt. I never crashed. And I was eating creme brulee, like, every meal. Yeah, I was eating creme brulee. I was. I never drink Coke. And, like, I was drinking a Coke. Like, all of these things. I never hit a wall because we were just constantly walking. We ate and then walked from here to there.
- [10:07]
B
Yeah, I. I will say that being so close to the American food system from a content perspective with a lot of these, like, supplements and food brands. So I'm always trying to look for the new kind of scare tactic. I'm always looking for the new scare tactic and then going to Europe and being like, wow, this strawberry has color to it. Like, why are strawberries gray in the United States? Like, it really is crazy how much of an impact that lifestyle has. But ultimately, it's American money, European time. You can't. You know, when we were talking to the kids at your wedding, it was really interesting because a lot of them were like, yeah, I would do anything to go To America, because I would actually have, like, a chance.
- [10:48]
A
Yeah.
- [10:48]
B
And I was like, what do you mean? And they're like, we don't. Like, there's nothing I can do here. You know, so it goes both ways, 100%. They got plenty of time to. To walk around because they, you know, they really got no potion. I don't even want to say it. I love the Italians, but I think.
- [11:04]
A
It'S different in poutine than.
- [11:06]
B
For sure. For sure.
- [11:07]
A
Place like Paris.
- [11:08]
B
Yeah, definitely. I think the Parisians, they're chilling too, though. Don't get it twisted.
- [11:12]
A
Yeah.
- [11:12]
B
I mean, I'll never forget coming out of a club in Paris at 4am and I walk. We're walking the streets, and for whatever reason, every single cafe, like every single patio is just jumping.
- [11:23]
A
Yeah.
- [11:24]
B
They're eating dinner. It's 4, 4am and they're just eating a full meal. You know, pasta with clams. You walk down, sit down like, you know, smoke a cigarette, drink a glass of wine with a random Parisian. It's just a different system they got going on. Yeah. Yeah. I don't get. You can't run your life waking up at noon the next day.
- [11:42]
A
No.
- [11:43]
B
You know, but they don't care. So that's great.
- [11:46]
A
But to the actual marketing stuff, so today I'm going to be talking about imaging, right?
- [11:52]
B
Yeah. Imogen and Willie.
- [11:54]
A
Okay. Imogen and Willie.
- [11:55]
B
Yeah.
- [11:56]
A
Clothing brand in. In Nashville, but also here in Austin and this project that they started called the Cotton Project. Essentially.
- [12:08]
B
When I was looking them up, I saw the Cotton Project. It raised an eyebrow, the name. Yeah. I was like, the Cotton Project with that state outline.
- [12:18]
A
Okay.
- [12:18]
B
I was like.
- [12:19]
A
Because it's an Alabama. Alabama. Yeah, I just said that. So weird.
- [12:22]
B
It's like, you know, Louisiana through North Carolina. And you're like, what is this outline here? I've seen this in a textbook. Whatever. Let them cook. Let him cook.
- [12:33]
A
But I'm going to be talking about essentially the power of storytelling and how you can use it to sell a $10 shirt for a $10 basic T shirt.
- [12:41]
B
Yeah.
- [12:41]
A
For $56. And I'll be. Be doing a deep dive on how they leverage the. The hero's journey, how they do their social rollout, how they leverage the storytelling within that, all of that.
- [12:51]
B
What you got, Honestly, let's. Let's just cook on that.
- [12:54]
A
Here's what's. What I think is amazing about imaging and Willie. So. And this is, to me, the power of storytelling where you can sell, again, $10 shirt for $56. So for people that don't have context. This is a clothing brand started in Nashville. They have a store here in Austin. But the biggest thing about them is they're a brand committed to producing all of their clothing in the U.S. okay. And so that is, that is like they're the core of that brand. And that brand's narrative, I think, which is what you're going to talk about next week, is manufacturing everything in, in the U.S. but they just launched a basic tea for $56. I'm talking about a white tea that you would get at H and M for $6. And again, it probably feels a lot different, but I just mean like a basic white tea.
- [13:38]
B
Yeah, yeah.
- [13:38]
A
One white tea costs 56. Two. Two of them cost. I think it's like 98.
- [13:42]
B
Pricey.
- [13:43]
A
It's pricey, right. And again, this is coming from people that like to shop. We like to buy clothes.
- [13:49]
B
I can't anymore. I gotta cut myself off. Yeah.
- [13:52]
A
After Paris, I'm. I'm done too.
- [13:54]
B
Yeah, yeah.
- [13:55]
A
But the reason then that they can sell and charge at that price and the reason people will buy is because of storytelling. So let me walk you through it. So there's the hero's journey. You're familiar with it. I'm familiar with it. If anybody isn't familiar with it, the hero's journey is essentially when there's a movie or some story being told is the, the journey that the individual goes on to then achieve a specific thing. It's used in almost every good movie from the Lord of the Rings. Right. Like you could actually look at a lot of breakdowns of the hero's journey for Lord of the Rings all the way to man on Fire just to show range.
- [14:29]
B
Yeah. Shout out to Intel.
- [14:31]
A
Yeah. Again, talking about being jet lagged. 1am today and I can sleep. I was like, let me just put on man on Fire.
- [14:37]
B
Throw it on and banger.
- [14:39]
A
But just to show range, like you look at both movies, there's going through the hero's journey. So what is the hero's journey and what are the steps? I'm just going to read them out loud. We'll show a graph. I know you guys been saying show more images. Charles, put this in the video. The first thing is they get this individual gets a call to an adventure. They have the refusal of the call where like, like maybe it's going to be challenging, like, I don't want to do it. Then they meet with a mentor, somebody that then is like, hey, you can do the thing.
- [15:05]
B
Here's how you're going to get Obi Wan Kenobi.
- [15:07]
A
Yes.
- [15:07]
B
He just appears before Luke.
- [15:08]
A
Yes. Then you cross the threshold. You have test allies and enemies. You start approaching the challenge. You start going through an ordeal. You start getting a reward, and it starts to be promising. Then you have to take the road back. There's a resurrection. And then you return with the thing. Right. And this is, as I break this down, this is more so for a movie. But when you actually look at the Hero's Journey, you can take your products and you could take what you do as a company and you can run it through a hero's journey as well. So and be able to tell those stories to people and get people to align with your brand and your product and essentially get them to buy the $56.
- [15:46]
B
And the call to action, or the call to purpose, what was it called at the beginning?
- [15:50]
A
Starts with the call to. To adventure.
- [15:52]
B
Call to adventure. The call to adventure. You see this over and over and over again and we kind of talked about it on. I talked about on the last week's episode is I launched this company because I was personally victimized by this problem. Like that singular hook is so effective for telling your hero's journey because you're immediately connecting with people that also experience that problem. The protein cookie guys talked about them a million times. Like they, you know, they could not find a dank protein cookie. So there were two meatheads that wanted to produce protein cookies and they didn't think that there was any out there that fit their standard. Like that is such a simple way. Carne shabu OG sweat equity. Right. I wanted to get my protein up, but I couldn't. I didn't like any of the current sources because of xyz. Because you say I didn't like any of the sources of current protein. Now you have opened up the opportunity to say why, yes, they are not. They have GMOs in them or they are processed or they're not ethically raised. They have too many hormones in the beef. Whatever it is, what you've then done is set the table for. For your unique selling propositions. You now can say, we're none of that. You know, I wanted to create a solution because I was personally victimized by these specific things. Now our product doesn't have any of those things in the customer's head. Those are all bad. Therefore, please introduce it to me. So it's like the Hero's Journey. It kind of gets talked about storytelling wise, but you can laser it into a business sense and just think about Like I was personally victimized by this thing. So I was called to go solve that problem. This is the reason I was called.
- [17:30]
A
And that's exactly so, like if you let me send you the link. But if you go to this link and you read their actual story around the cotton project. Yeah. You'll see the hero's journey being told. So it starts with, four years ago, we embarked on a challenging but incredibly rewarding journey. Right. That's their call to adventure. It has the refusal of call, meeting with crossing the threshold, all of those things. Four years ago, we embarked on a challenging but incredibly rewarding journey out the gate. The idea itself was simple. We wanted to take our commitment to domestic manufacturing to the next level, beginning with our tried and true staple, a plain white T shirt. To accomplish that feat, we would work to oversee every step of production for a T, all the way from the planting of a cotton seed to when the tea is packaged and sent to its forever home. After embarking on that journey with a lot to learn, going through years of both challenges and victories, we're excited to see the long labor of love come to fruition and to do it all within 400 mile radius from Nashville. I can take bits and pieces of all of those different, like those sentences and attach them to each part of this hero journey or a part of the hero's journey.
- [18:41]
B
Yeah.
- [18:42]
A
And so this is a phenomenal way to understand, hey, my product has a story where my brain has a story. But in this case, my product that I'm launching has a story where so many brands will just be like, hey, we're working on this collection. Let's launch the collection imaging. And Willie was like, hey, this is the story behind the last four years of this collection and why we're doing it. And they do it to a point where they know so they know their customers so well and I'll get into this as well that they know what hero's journey to tell. That's the other important thing here. But again, when you break this down piece by piece, the hero's journey is very obvious. They embark on a four year journey with a specific goal. They didn't think it could get done. They had to challenges along the way and they, but they ended up persevering through it and they returned with a finished product. That finished product is now this white tea.
- [19:31]
B
Yeah, right.
- [19:32]
A
That is the hero's journey and that is how you get somebody again to not see this as a $10 product. Whereas I go to H and M and I'm just like, that's a $10 tee.
- [19:41]
B
This was made in a sweatshop.
- [19:43]
A
Yeah, bro. Yeah, exactly. I. Now look at this is. There's a story here. Yeah, we talked about this on, like, episode. You know, I don't know what it is in the first 10 episodes where there was a study done that it showed, hey, if I went to, let's say, Best Buy, and I buy a record player, and I buy a record player, and I. And it cost me a hundred dollars, and I don't think anything of it. I just wanted a record player, and I went and bought a record player. Right. I got the thing. But if I go to a. A garage sale and there's a record player for $100, and I start talking to the person that's selling the record player, and they're like, well, like, that was my. My great grandpa's, and it was passed down to my grandpa. Now I'm selling it just because, you know, we're moving. We want to take minimal stuff. But, you know, that was the. The record player that, like, was the life of our parties growing up.
- [20:30]
B
Yeah.
- [20:30]
A
All of a sudden, you're good. There was a study that said, like, you're going to value that so much more than going to Best Buy and buying the record player.
- [20:37]
B
Totally.
- [20:38]
A
Right. Just because of the story that's attached to this record player. And so by Imogene and Willie, by. By taking the story that they created for the product, you now value this T shirt so much more than the other T shirt that you can buy. Czars or H and M or. I don't want to say Buck Mason, because I'm sure they do some storytelling. But like any other brand, unless that brand is doing.
- [20:56]
B
But this is. This is Imogen and Willie differentiating from Buck Mason.
- [21:00]
A
It is.
- [21:00]
B
Make no mistake. Those are very, very similar brands. And now they're giving you a reason to root for them, rather than Buck Mason just being retail, you know, 100%.
- [21:10]
A
And the other interesting part here is the key is how well they know their customer base. Because in reality, you can tell a lot of hero's journeys or a lot. Like, a lot of stories around a hero's journey. Right. There's a lot of stories you could tell. As a marketing team, it's your job to be able to tell stories. And there's a ton of stories that could have been told. For example, like, why it's priced roughly $60, who's making it, why they wanted to keep it close to Nashville. Like, those are all stories that they could have told. But my guess is by looking at the data within email, sms, their paid ads, anything that they've done in the past, there's data points to point to. Hey, our customer base really resonates with the fact that we're trying to keep everything manufactured in the US So we're going to build the hero's journey around that. And so for anybody that wants to figure out like, okay, what hero's journey should I tell be looking at your top email and your top SMS and your top organic content and paid ads and whatnot to find out, hey, what stories are people resonating with? What is that core story that somebody resonates with that now I can build a larger story or I could world build essentially around that. This. Unless you want to add anything. This, this is the first amazing thing that they did for this kind of launch.
- [22:24]
B
Yeah, keep cooking.
- [22:25]
A
Cool. The second one is, I think it was two, three episodes ago I talked about how important BTS is and why brand should integrate BTS into their content strategy. So the second thing that they did amazing was they started sharing the BTS process. In that same article I shared, if you actually scroll down a little bit, they start to share the three step process to completing the cotton project. So step one was the farm that they partnered with to plant all the cotton. Then step two was the other company or the other manufacturer that they sent for all the cotton to be turned into threads. And then the third and last one was, hey, then this was the manufacturer who eventually turned it into a T shirt. Now the thing that I love was how they supported all of that with the BTS imagery. That is key. They actually took you onto, they took you along for the ride and kind of helped you visualize that story. Right. This is where that saying is, is a picture's worth a thousand words is.
- [23:25]
B
Yeah.
- [23:26]
A
All of these, this imagery helps me see it getting made versus just you telling me how it was made. I think this is key.
- [23:34]
B
Whether it's not replicable.
- [23:36]
A
It's not replicable. This is your one of one. You, your, your process is your one of one.
- [23:40]
B
Totally. Or just highlighting who. That there are real people doing this job. Every. Everyone feels so disconnected from the goods that they're buying day to day. And if you're hoping to charge anything reasonable like this, then I, I would almost say this is like the bare minimum. You know, you have to talk about like what you at least have to layer on some sort of story. Like the, the, the brand I was going to talk about is that one I sent you drole demons. Did you get a chance to go to their store?
- [24:06]
A
I didn't go to the store, but yeah, I know you're talking about.
- [24:08]
B
Everything about them is very similar.
- [24:10]
A
I just stopped going to stores.
- [24:12]
B
Yeah, yeah. This one would have cleaned you out too, because they charge a lot for their stuff too. It's kind of like designer and it's the same thing where it's like, okay, well, there's at least like a consistent narrative applied to every single thing that they do, rather than just like. I think you see this a lot with a lot of American brands. Actually, I can think of like five that are just like, Taylor Stitch. I don't know. Have you ever seen Taylor Stitch?
- [24:38]
A
I have them in two of their pants.
- [24:40]
B
Yeah. So I feel like they're a brand that does zero storytelling. They just are banking on esthetics. They're banking on. This is a great on trend static image ad. And we're going to run a, you know, cost to acquire LTV game.
- [24:55]
A
Right. Another company that did that as well was like Cuts.
- [24:59]
B
Yeah. But he's. He's doing better now.
- [25:01]
A
He's getting into storytelling now.
- [25:03]
B
He's doing the Soho trouser. You saw that. Yeah, they did a pretty good.
- [25:07]
A
But don't you remember, for like three years, every Cuts ad was just like a guy walking going, for sure. Yeah, your move, your move.
- [25:14]
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Let me shoot me up.
- [25:17]
A
Yeah, yeah.
- [25:18]
B
No, it's. It is very much so. I think, like, you know, he's got a great opportunity with this current collection. He's trying to move into lifestyle clothing and apparel. It's actually a pretty good on trend product. The trousers made with the cuts kind of more comfortable, like Vori and all. He. He's currently competing with Vori and Lulu. L. Not going to win that. So, like, why would you not compete in a different realm, which is on trend Designer. Not necessarily designer, though. Approachable price point. But, you know, talk a little bit about, like, the story behind it, the why. I think he's done a better job there. You. It's just the bare minimum these days because people are just so used to everything. You know, there's so much flooding I experienced myself. Dude, if you click on an ad for shorts, you will see five shorts ads. You know, like, Meta knows what they're like, oh, this guy's maybe interested in shorts. Let's give him five more options.
- [26:12]
A
Having you like, I. I want to get like certain necklaces. You know, like in Italy you always have like two, three gold Necklaces. I was looking at gold necklaces.
- [26:20]
B
I mean, I don't.
- [26:21]
A
I. I guess. Yeah. That's not your movie.
- [26:23]
B
This is. This is the edgy saw Go.
- [26:24]
A
Yeah.
- [26:25]
B
Freeing the nipple right now.
- [26:26]
A
Wearing. Took Vanessa's wedding dress, cut that up and.
- [26:28]
B
Yeah. I don't know how 4k this is, but hopefully people aren't seeing.
- [26:32]
A
That's like when I used to have a pair of air forces that were see through back in the day.
- [26:36]
B
That's crazy.
- [26:37]
A
Yeah. And then I thought about. I'm like, it's so gross because it like eventually turns yellow and it's like. It's disgusting.
- [26:42]
B
Yeah. Yeah.
- [26:43]
A
And like when your feet are hot, it like gets. It gets foggy in there. It's like, it's such a bad idea.
- [26:48]
B
That is crazy.
- [26:49]
A
Yeah. You've never seen that?
- [26:50]
B
No.
- [26:51]
A
Oh, interesting.
- [26:51]
B
Yeah.
- [26:51]
A
You should look that up.
- [26:52]
B
See through air force.
- [26:54]
A
The third thing that, that they did that was amazing was how they rolled this out. Yeah.
- [26:59]
B
These are gross.
- [27:00]
A
They're disgusting. They're disgusting.
- [27:03]
B
This is a real mid 2010s, like.
- [27:04]
A
This some real Florida swamp boy type.
- [27:07]
B
Totally. Yeah. That's crazy.
- [27:10]
A
I was wearing these in eighth grade.
- [27:12]
B
Yeah. No, got the see through, no socks. Yeah. Just parading around. I bet you ran middle school. I know. You were big as hell. So big in middle school, though.
- [27:24]
A
The funny thing was I went into middle school playing center and like power forward. By the end of middle school, boy, I was the point guard.
- [27:31]
B
Yeah.
- [27:32]
A
I was like, what happened? Why did everyone grow and I'm just the same height?
- [27:36]
B
Those guys had all the fun, though. I'll say that, like being. Being like sixth grade and like oversized, that must have been sick. That's a good life because you're just abusing people.
- [27:45]
A
No, this, this TMI for the pod. But we'll leave it in there, bro. I just like, I was oversized too quick in third grade. I'll never forget. You know, it was like summer camp. My mom was a teacher and so we had like after school programs and all of that. And so I was in third grade and I remember we had like a water balloon fight because them shits were popping back when we were kids.
- [28:06]
B
A huge target.
- [28:07]
A
No, it wasn't, it wasn't that. But like everybody had a cut off shirt, right?
- [28:10]
B
Oh, yeah, yeah.
- [28:12]
A
And nobody had like hair on their legs, bro. I had armpit hair, like full armpit hair.
- [28:19]
B
Yeah.
- [28:19]
A
And so I'm like, I'm trying to do like throws like this.
- [28:22]
B
You're going side on, you know, instead.
- [28:24]
A
Of throwing like this because I'm like, yo, nobody else has this. I just remember being like, oh, there's, there's something up here. Like, why can nobody else touch the net? Like why can nobody else touch the backboard? Like it was, it was funny, but it was imaging. And Willie, the third thing that they did amazing was they. Their social rollout. So I always talk about like tease, hype, launch, push, pull, right? Like when you're actually launching some initiative, when you're launching a product, you know, what framework are you following? And they did it very well. And they're also doing it with the things that are. Are hot and relevant on social, right? Like BTS carousels. They're working right now. Like they're. They're working tremendously well for all sorts of brands. And so to kick it off, they had one post that was their teaser post coming to in the Cotton Project, one of the biggest endeavors xyz. And it was kind of like a carousel of a little bit of like the BTS process, right? The. Then they launched it, they introduced it. They could have done a little more to hype it up and like share. I. I think they should have, which I'll get into, but they should have done another carousel with like, with just kind of one shot videos. But anyways, the next thing that they did was they introduced the actual Cotton Project. One thing that I liked was they were storytelling in the caption, not just introducing the Cotton Project link in the bio for the full story. Like they legitimately told the story in the caption. And then the carousel that they essentially walk you through is this mix of BTS and product. And so it would show like all of the threads and then product and then the cotton getting cut and then product. And I really like that mix of Jacquemus does a really good job of it as well. Where they'll show like a BTS of something or they'll just show something that catches your eye, then product. Catch your eye product. And they did a very good job of this. And then they continue to then educate you on then the Cotton Project. Tea right?
- [30:25]
B
You're still tuning in. We can't fake this. Okay. Yeah, this is, this is the sweat equity shots.
- [30:30]
A
Basically. The power just went out.
- [30:32]
B
There's an extreme heat warning.
- [30:33]
A
Yeah, the power just went out. I think it was too hot. And we're going to continue recording the pod. We opened up the bay doors. Hopefully we don't get robbed this time. Yeah, we're going to finish the pod. All right. So third thing that they did that was amazing. Was again, carousels are popping on, on ig. They introduced the actual product which they had. They've been kind of telling the story, they teased it, then they told a story about the Con project and now they're introducing the actual product again. I actually like that they're telling a larger story in the, in the caption again, driving you to, to the cta. The carousel is now a mix of the campaign, the team behind it and the actual product getting, getting developed, which, which I like. Obviously our WI fi went out, so I can't keep going through everything. But the one thing that I added to this, that I, I look at this and I say, okay, well what could be better? And I, I think that's just how our brains work. And so there's two things that I think could have been, could have been better in my opinion. They could have dialed in long form or short form. A lot of it was a carousel and then they had one short form clip and maybe they have more coming out. But there was one short form clip that was like, about the Cap Cotton project. The first thing is I think this could have been a 30 minute, two hour long documentary.
- [31:47]
B
Yeah.
- [31:47]
A
You know, I think they could have hit a yeti Patagonia type doc that showed the four years of development to try to manufacture something in the US that isn't just pushing the T. It is setting the standard for manufacturing in the US and is now like the blueprint for other brands to be able to manufacture in the US this is.
- [32:08]
B
One of the craziest things that I think has transformed all of marketing in the last few years is their investment in this campaign. It was a great campaign. It might go nowhere because they did not take enough lottery tickets by investing in the content piece.
- [32:22]
A
Yeah.
- [32:22]
B
If they had tripled down this type of thing, you should be able to have, you know, 25, 30 short form videos. Easy money. Right. A couple of long form. YouTube, like you're saying, great, great ideas. Totally. And a savvy brand with great brand marketers still does not understand at all the impact that that would have on the rest of their business. If they just invested in the content piece more 100. This would be completely viral. Right. If they had really, really doubled down because you put this into the TikTok algorithm, I promise people are going to start talking about they're doing the Cotton Project. Like there's going to be so many different ways that this plays into culture. People just don't take those lottery tickets when they should because they're kind of they're like, oh, this is cool, you know, and that's not enough anymore.
- [33:06]
A
Again, going back to the phrase of, of a picture's worth a thousand words. Like, well, how much is video worth in this case?
- [33:12]
B
10,000, right?
- [33:13]
A
Like is it 10,000? Is it a hundred thousand? Is it a million? Like what is it actually worth? And so when we talk about this hero's journey, what do you think would be more impactful? Them writing out the hero's journey or a one hour doc or 30 minute doc showing the hero's journey. Right. Now the second part then is the social pillars. And this is now where I'm thinking more short form. When you look at the hero's journey, right, there's like 10 or 12 different pieces to the hero's journey. Every part of the hero's journey. When you're going back to 25, 30 pieces of content, each part is its own story. The call to the adventure is one story. The, the returning back or the challenges, the enemies. Like all of those things are different stories that can be told in micro stories versus the, the macro story. Right. There's a reason why movies like Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter and like those movies will sell millions of dollars in merch every single, every single year.
- [34:03]
B
Yeah.
- [34:03]
A
Right. And so you want to think about that through that same lens of okay, I'm gonna, I'm basically creating movie so that I can sell product right now. That's part one. Their BTS carousels we talked about Lacoste last time. I think they could have done better with the BTS carousels where it's a lot of simple one shot video videos focusing on, on like essentially piece by piece. So whether that's the cotton getting cut, whether that's cotton getting turned into threads, like just simple carousel showing one shot videos. And then I also think they could do styling. Like they have that kind of dope Charles styling. So the way I, I feel like, you know what I mean? Like that like kind of edgy white guy. Yeah, yeah. Styling loves IPAs 100%. Doesn't like IPAs. Just drinks IPAs because of like what it is.
- [34:50]
B
Yeah.
- [34:51]
A
And so I think styling is the other thing. And so like having those social pillars. So understanding documentation bts. And then again, going back to what I learned in Europe about being a stylist. Be these people stylist on, on, on ig show them how to style that white tea for specific occasions that your customer base would do.
- [35:10]
B
So.
- [35:10]
A
Yeah, that's what I got. I know we got to wrap up. You have a call in seven minutes. I have a call in seven minutes. I had no power.
- [35:16]
B
Yeah, we have no power. I'm hotspotting. I was thinking about it. I'm. I'm a hop spot from here. I think so. I'll lock.
- [35:22]
A
I'm hot spotting right now. I'm just hot in this spot.
- [35:24]
B
Yeah, it's to. It's toasty.
- [35:26]
A
That was terrible.
- [35:27]
B
We're going to get out of here right now.
- [35:28]
A
Yeah, I'm getting in the whip.
- [35:30]
B
We'll catch y' all later. All right, y' all.