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- [00:00]
A
This is a great place to enjoy the randomness because you really can be sitting next to David Dobrik, to like LeBron James, to like the CMO of Coach, like, it really is a funny place to be.
- [00:11]
B
Then once I gave myself permission, I realized halfway through the day, let's just give permission to have a good time and support each other. And then all of a sudden, people just started flowing into our path.
- [00:19]
A
If you make three or four good connections, it was worth it. Evan Spiegel launched this week a new company and brand called spac. If Elon launched this, if Zuckerberg launched this, people would have praised the tech. But because kind of the like redheaded stepchild of the social platforms launched it, people are laughing at it and are like joking. Reddit has become a really strong platform for basically people seeking the truth.
- [00:43]
B
Like, that's where you're going to get the actual. Does this work? Is this worth $180?
- [00:48]
A
Ryan Sirhand had a viral video where he almost lost a $50 million deal because of a chat GPT search. This is happen single day in less extreme ways where people can be googling and asking questions to a chatgpt and they can be hurting your business without you even knowing it. Drake is selling 50% of OVO to Authentic Brand Group.
- [01:12]
B
If you're a CEO or you're a founder, you're a celebrity. The big danger to you is you. You start to buy your own bs. You need every once in a while to insert new thinkers into your ecosphere.
- [01:23]
A
That is the theme of this week's episode. Consume and go to can. What a brand, what a brand, what a brand, what a mighty good. Say it again now. What a brand, what a brand, what a brand, what a mighty good brand. Well, Philip, first I want to welcome you to the female quotient.
- [01:39]
B
Thank you. I feel. I feel I'm in a safe space.
- [01:41]
A
Oh, that's. I'm so glad you're here. We are recording from Ken Lions.
- [01:46]
B
Yes. The hottest days in the history of France.
- [01:49]
A
Very hot. Yes. Yeah, Yesterday was the hottest day in the history of France according to Instagram. So I did not fact check that coming into here. However, I did believe it and experiencing it. Apparently France is also the hottest place in the world right now. Heard that from from someone once. I said my Instagram stat. So this could just all be a bunch of bs.
- [02:06]
B
Yeah. The Cannes Lions festival feels like Vegas on the beach. It's very interesting.
- [02:12]
A
Indefinitely. A South of France way, a hundred percent. What has been your best takeaway so far? From Cannes Lions.
- [02:18]
B
Well, definitely it's our first year here. We'll come every year. I would do more planning in terms of setting up some better meetings, but you can be overwhelmed just like you can be overwhelmed in Vegas with too much to do. So you have to, you have to manage your health. You know, don't party too hard the first time. But I'm really enjoying the intellectual quality of some of the speakers. Yeah, it's. You're really getting an intimate chance to learn from people. Not just people who are saying what everybody else is saying, not just people who are saying the corporate boring stuff. Like you're actually getting insights from people in intimate venues that I think are really useful to grow.
- [02:51]
A
Here's my download. Coming into this, I didn't know what to expect, which is natural with anything that's new. And the first day I had a lot of self hating thoughts because I didn't feel organized. The thing that's overwhelming about this place is like there's so much opportunity and I find that it's, it's rare and, and the reason why it's worth going is that everyone is really primed and open for conversation, which I find is very hard in high powered environments where people are really like welcoming random conversations. You know, like we'll be outside and someone will come up to you and it's like a cmo, one of the largest companies in the world and you're like shooting the shit. There's no like awkward small talk or like transactionalness of like what do you do and where do you work?
- [03:36]
B
It's amazing how many love your content and watch it too.
- [03:38]
A
But I would say though, what I've learned, and we were speaking with someone that I really respect, is if you make three or four good connections, it was worth it. And that was the thing that was really hard for me on the first day is you have this sense of like there's so many events you can go to. Are you at the right one, are you speaking to the right person? And that it's a lot of pressure because there's so much opportunity. And I would say that if you're a business owner, you, if you're in marketing, I would find a way to get here. It is such a great unlock. And I think the people who try to get here are the people that make waves in the industry because where you're connecting with people in real life,
- [04:12]
B
the other takeaway, going to conferences is there's so much structure in everybody's life. It's so hectic. It's nice to just give yourself an afternoon to just turn left, go into a building and see what you find. Like, we discovered some things.
- [04:23]
A
Oh, yeah.
- [04:23]
B
That we. We didn't know existed just by wandering in and having a conversation. There's just a lot of this opportunity that the universe can bring you to if you give yourself permission to take it easy.
- [04:32]
A
I was talking to a powerful woman today, right before we came in here, and she said exactly that. She's like, the serendipity of the randomness, but in a way that feels like it was meant to happen. If you're really dialed into your industry, this is a great place to enjoy the randomness because you really can be sitting next to David. Do like LeBron James to, like, the CMO of Coach. Like, it really is a funny place to be. And if you're in marketing and being a founder, like, there's so much to get from here.
- [05:00]
B
Yeah. And I'm not. I'm not overly in that airy, fairy, like, manifestation vibe. And I found myself, like, on the one day when I was stressed about getting a lot of work done and making sure we're using every hour efficiently. It created a tempo and an aura that wasn't welcoming. But then once I gave myself permission, I realized halfway through the day, let's just give permission to have a good time and support each other. And then all of a sudden, people just started flowing into our path.
- [05:22]
A
I let go on Tuesday, and I had the best day yesterday. So I love that. Well, you know what actually is a great way to kick off today's show is Hyrox. Right. The power of experience, the power of in person. So Hyrox is probably being purchased by El Cateron, which is LVMH's private equity arm, and they're the same fund that put money into Peloton, into Soul Cycle, among tons of other brands. But it's looking like they're going to be putting a billion dollars into Hyrox, which is crazy because Hyrox is a community. There's a system to it. There's a structure to it. But, like, they're not saying spending a billion dollars on burpees and brick and mortar or brick and mortar.
- [06:04]
B
Right. It's interesting because I don't think most people would think it's a natural kind of collab or merger between a luxury brand house and a fitness institution that's taking off, but it's reinforcing what we've been talking about in the past, that the new luxury is sporting events. Live events and I think they're seeing the power of community because High Rock's, they don't have brick and mortar, they just have tents. They go set up and then they get. People are excited about it every year and then it moves. So the valuation at around $1 billion is really interesting because it shows that the power of attention and experience is more valuable than real estate.
- [06:39]
A
So Hyrox was founded in Germany in 2017 and it has in 2025 had revenue of 140 million euros and they had 650,000 participants. Revenue grew 86% per year since 2023, with a 20% EBIT, which is how
- [06:58]
B
they got 86% a year. Yeah, that is, that is a growth trajectory.
- [07:01]
A
But it also, it's, it's become a massive unlock for brands to tap into those community and cultures. Puma has been the sponsorship for Hyrox and like, when was the last time that Puma felt cool? And you're. I'm seeing especially because our, the gym that we go to, they were one of the first people to really adopt to bring it into Canada. And it's crazy. I'm seeing so many people at the gym wearing Puma. And it shows you to a brand like El Casseron that basically invests in brands. This is a massive unlock to get devoted buyership for people who are or
- [07:36]
B
are kind of taking into community. It was usually kind of New balance was the CrossFit brand. But it's interesting that Puma got into Irox. I didn't know that.
- [07:44]
A
Well, it makes sense.
- [07:44]
B
It's European. Like it's got that. It's a European brand. It's a very cool brand too.
- [07:48]
A
Puma has such an opportunity to be cool, but instead of them being more like retro Ferrari, like they're cool, like sleek running shoes, they just like kind of go tacky.
- [07:57]
B
I used to love their little driving shoes. Like they were cool. Why is every sports brand just as an aside, why is it hard to pronounce? Is it Puma? Is it Puma? Is it Nike? Is it Nike? Is it Adidas? Is it Adidas? Something about, is there an option for
- [08:11]
A
it to be Puma? I thought it was just Puma.
- [08:12]
B
I don't know. I always called it Puma.
- [08:14]
A
Well, it's Lily a Puma.
- [08:15]
B
I also call those cats Pumas.
- [08:18]
A
No, you don't.
- [08:19]
B
Yes, I do. Really, they do.
- [08:21]
A
Evan Spiegel launched this week a new company and brand called Specs. Specs is a self contained pair of augmented reality glasses, meaning the entire computer is built into the frame itself, what a sad time to launch it because they like sponsored literally everything at Cannes Lions and The stock dropped $10 billion because I didn't provide a story like there's a massive value gap. And it's been interesting talking to people this week because everyone is fixated on the price point and lack of how it's, it's communicated, how it plans to change the customer's journey.
- [08:58]
B
People that are criticizing the price point of their glasses probably haven't built a company in their life.
- [09:03]
A
Well, they put 3.5 billion into those companies.
- [09:06]
B
I'm saying the people, there's always people who want to hate on something, oh, it's too expensive, they're wearing $5,000 bags or you know, $20,000 watches and they want to criticize. But the tech that's in that is I think spectacular. And the reason why I agree with you on the storytelling and this is where if we were talking to Snapchat, you could have avoided that billion dollar loss evaluation if you would have invested more in the story. Because as we saw with Elon and SpaceX, wealth is what people think the future value of your company is. When your wealth goes up in terms of stocks, it's people believing in the future value of things produce in the future. And so SpaceX is a story people can get. Unlimited power in space is something you can get.
- [09:50]
A
Snapchat put $3.5 billion into the R and D and development of this product because nothing at this computing skill, at this like weight and availability had ever existed before. And the price point is not dependent based on where meta has has positioned theirs, but it becoming a much more powerful computer that can really augment and change your life is, is sitting at like evaluation. And then also the criticism on the four hour battery life. You get four additional battery packs in your case with you that can like that auto charge and you can swap them out giving you 20 hours of battery life. So you have to basically charge them kind of at the end of every day. It goes back to your point of that where the brand faltered is that they didn't storytell. We were speaking with someone that worked at Snapchat and their initial kind of knee jerk reaction was like if Elon launched this, if Zuckerberg launched this, people would have praised the tech. But because kind of the like redheaded stepchild of the social platforms launched it, people are laughing at it and are like joking.
- [10:55]
B
First of all, don't pay attention to the people laughing at it. Most of the people laughing at it are employees and employees don't have agency. Entrepreneurs invest. They put their mortgage on the line. Right. Employees get paid and then judge the world because they want to be heard. Right. They don't really put any risk out there. And so for them to criticize what Snapchat is doing. But the point I think that you're making that's amazing is you could have really storytelled this so much better, like if they would have had an avatar or somebody who could capture. Because I really think Snapchat is talking to a young demographic. You know, Elon is talking to an older one, per se.
- [11:28]
A
But I don't think that's the point. I think they deserved to be judged when they didn't explain the value prop. If you don't explain the story and you come out with something that looks. It's a $2,000 price product where the market has anchored it to 2 to 300. Like the Metas, people place value based on future potential. And Evan was trying to sell this future vision where he's kind of at the heart of, like Chang, the future of glasses. That's not making the customer the hero.
- [11:55]
B
Yeah, yeah. It's making Snapchat the right.
- [11:57]
A
And he's not known to be a strong storyteller. Snapchat doesn't. It's not a profitable company. It doesn't make sense to people. Right.
- [12:04]
B
I think it's going to become a very cool thing for the young people. It's. Young people love Snapchat. I think it's built to augment the Snapchat universe. One of our favorite brands is Gentle Monster. I would see if I could do a collab with your Snapchat glasses because Korea is really big on tech, and then come up with a gentle monster version of it that makes it like Tekken. Because they kind of got into Tekken for a while in those games.
- [12:28]
A
I find I want the meta glasses. I don't find that, like, my style is there yet. And I think that'd be a very simple thing for them to fix, especially
- [12:37]
B
with a lot of women love big glasses. Like fashionable.
- [12:41]
A
Give me some meta shield glasses.
- [12:43]
B
But you know what I mean? Like, you could make it big so you could put the tech in a big set of very fashionable glasses.
- [12:47]
A
You know, it's Kylie Jenner when you could hire Camille to design your glasses. Right. But what I was going to say to your point is I actually find the specs design quite high fashion. I think that they should have done a more like how they did the Wayfarer as like a Better entry point design. The way that they did it is quite fashionable and that's really not a style for everyone. So it's a hard launch to do a style like that because that's a very unique shape for the average face.
- [13:10]
B
Fashion makes a statement and while the tech is clunky, they need bigger. So I would have brought in a team to say let's make a fashionable glasses that sets a trend. Yeah, it's interesting, but they're. I would make it, I would almost make them overly big because you know how fashion always goes too big. You know how like they do things too big. Like, so I would have Gucci logo on it. I would have put it into an overly big. Because every year the tech is going to get smaller. So eventually you're going to have the same capabilities in a much smaller glass. So I would have launched with a very fashion forward big set of glasses.
- [13:43]
A
Love it. Totally agree. Basically we got into a pretty cool constructive debate with, with, with an individual that is involved with Snapchat. The big unlock that she experienced at Cannes is that people articulated that they still used Snap and they were like almost embarrassed by the behavior. And my initial knee jerk reaction was like, yeah, because I've aged out. Like so. Snapchat is like a very well used platform by younger people. In fact, they don't even give their phone numbers anymore. They all communicate through Snapchat. And there was a point in time where I wasn't a part of that, like that hardcore Snapchat generation, but we used Snap quite a bit. And I felt like I aged out of the platform. Like I don't even have it anymore on my phone.
- [14:27]
B
I don't even know. Maybe it's time for a brand refresh because it does give you that sense of the kind of small cartoon characters that bounce around. Like it looks like a children's television show in some ways. Like it's branding to me.
- [14:39]
A
But what I thought was most interesting though that he shared is that they've done so much data and like the, the like people who use Snapchat over Instagram are happier people because it's not focused on being perfect or comparison polished or comparison. It's just a moment and it's more like real life because it comes and goes.
- [15:01]
B
Yeah, right, Interesting.
- [15:03]
A
And what I thought was also really quite interesting and deep around it is that the pockets that use it the most are like Utah and like suburb and they're. It's where the families are the closest. And I thought about it, I'm like, man, the families that I know that are the closest or the friendship groups that are the closest, like, my mom and her group of friends have been best friends through high school. They all use Snapchat. And what I was thinking about is probably a reason why I've had some strain in friendships is because it hasn't been convenient. He's like, the. The time it takes to send a photo on WhatsApp is nine clicks on Snapchat. It's like two or three. And you can show someone in a very easy way that you're thinking about them without having to, like, send a full text.
- [15:47]
B
There's a really cool unlock in there in that because a lot of people are complaining that social media, you have so many followers, but you can't kind of amplify the people close to you, you know what I mean? Because you're just inundated with this constant newness. But it's almost like getting that thing where I want to have a hundred people, like, even if I'd like to have a Snapchat community of family, but then a Snapchat community of thought leaders and only have a hundred, and if you could share it, like, you could really amplify each other.
- [16:12]
A
But even imagine our family, right? Like, for how much we travel, for work. Like, imagine if we adopted the behavior of just sending them, like, quick snippets of like, hey, we're in here recording. And like, look at the beach. And like, the thing is, my God bless my poor mother. I haven't sent her a photo since I've been here. And I'd make her so fucking happy if I did.
- [16:28]
B
That point, too, that I was saying with Meta, why I like the glasses is if I need to go open an app or, like, I can say, hey, I want to listen to a song, or, hey, make a call. It's like, how many clicks you have to do to check out, like, how many things you have to do to get access to it. The beauty of these glasses for Snapchat is you just take a picture and
- [16:45]
A
say, well, that's how I was going with that.
- [16:47]
B
Send it to my friends. So you reduce all of the friction between the communication.
- [16:51]
A
Like, I imagine how many more friendships I'd be able to keep. Yeah, because I'm just not work. That was what he was even saying too, which was so interesting, is she gets really stressed out because she wants to keep these relationships with all these people and feels the pressure to respond. But instead she's like, hey, look, like next year, if we don't come to this restaurant, I could send you a snap and you would instantly know that, like, we just reconnected in that moment and like it really wasn't any work. And that's where I think with things these, these specs is exactly that. And the other thing that was interesting from the conversation for you to listen to, there's a lot of businesses that are having a lot of success on Snapchat. But this is a really important. But the businesses that are successful on Snapchat are people who are Snapchat users. And that was a really big unlock, is like trying to just add the Snapchat in your ecosystem. So basically she was saying that they went and studied where businesses were the most successful. And they weren't businesses that were in Paris or these major cities. They were like in Marseille. They were like in these kind of like these pockets. The core theme is that every person that was successful on Snapchat advertising marketing were core Snapchat users. So the people who aren't seeing success on Snapchat marketing are people who are just like adding it as a box to check, like, as if like they're adding LinkedIn and Twitter and YouTube. They're not native users of the platform. And the people who are in the platform and using it every day have a better understanding of how to use it to market their business.
- [18:19]
B
So Snapchat needs to get more business owners into their platform, probably through a rebranding and not that I can give legal or financial advice based on this conversation. I'm gonna go take advantage of that billion dollar drop in valuation because I think the product has the legs and the story can be improved.
- [18:36]
A
Philip always given the gold on the show. Okay, so do you wanna do a quick little unlock on Reddit? Because we also learned quite a bit about Reddit this week.
- [18:47]
B
I think people, I think a lot of people need to know more about the value of Reddit. So yeah, let's do it.
- [18:51]
A
It. So Reddit is a social media platform, but it's not about being visually social, it's being socially connected. So Reddit has become a really strong platform for basically people seeking the truth and wanting to have a conversation in a way that's like more anonymous and like, less for like it being their entire life on socials and like commenting on something that they align with and like, fear of like losing their job over it. And it's an anonymous, this platform where people go and connect and it's where a lot of really, like if you were to grade your customers, it's where a Lot of like a grade customers go because they're not buying based off of vibe or hype. They're really looking for like quality things.
- [19:31]
B
You know how there's different categories of consumers? Yeah, they're kind of early adopters and researchers. There's people who then share. So Instagram is cut is where those people are like the sharers. But Reddit is where the people are doing the investigations, doing the research and kind of early adopting. Like, like to me it's like where actual useful influencers are is on Reddit.
- [19:51]
A
Totally. So people who end up being super influential but also very loyal because they're, they're not the people who are like looking to buy seven moisturizers and never re, like repeat by. They're doing the work now to find their brand that they will stay with. That they will stay with. And that's actually where Reddit, I believe started to get more awareness from brands is that there was an article, I believe it was in Vogue or was business of fashion that was saying how many men are going to Reddit for purchasing decisions because they're overwhelmed by influencers, just like being purchased and the product being really crappy. So like winter jackets, luggage, like things that are more like investment pieces. But where has been a big unlock is like that narrative really skewed to like men are on Reddit. Go to Reddit if you want to catch men. But, but the beauty industry and, and fashion for women especially like designer bags. I feel like women want to buy nice things but there's so many options and choices that Reddit is becoming such a, a great place to be. Like what are we actually buying and using and liking without having to be like hashtag paid without putting the hashtag.
- [21:03]
B
The other takeaway that was spectacular in the beauty industry is that the people who know the most about beauty in terms of product formulations, what they're on Reddit, like that's where you're gonna get the actual. Does this work? Is this worth $180? You know what I mean?
- [21:17]
A
So let me break that down because that was really to me, one of the most interesting things about this conversation was two things. Number one, the brands that are built with, with strong intention and efficacy, this is your place to shine. It's very hard in a top of funnel and hook based world about your like your superior formulation or talk about your research and development or talk about why you selected the four or five actives. Reddit is your place to storytell and sell yourself because in a visual first world on Instagram and TikTok. It's very hard to get that message across in a way that's as impactful.
- [22:03]
B
I've actually started telling some founders and CEOs that they should have no barrier between their brand and Reddit because Reddit is where you. There's so many people in these businesses that are filtering information that fits their worldview. But if you're a founder or a CEO and you really want to know what's going on with your brand, Reddit is where you will see some of the best and most accurate commentary and then it's actually a great place to evaluate and build your brand because there's nobody's lying there about it.
- [22:31]
A
Great point. And that's where actually where I also want to unlock is like, so how do you use this as a brand? So there's two pieces to this. Reddit is traditionally an anonymous platform where people anonymous will talk about your product. The term astroturfing has been this. It's a Reddit based term because they were banning accounts through like a pretty sophisticated AI of like if you only showed up and talked about Peter Thomas Roth and commented on Peter Thomas Roth, there's a very high chance that you are with Peter Thomas Roth. So therefore you get astroturf. You get kicked off the platform because they want people that have like having balanced commentary and are truly not here from a paid environment. But what Reddit did that's super intelligent is as a brand you can have a Reddit page so that people can come in an anonymous way and actually ask you questions as a brand and you can respond and you can talk to them and you can explain more of that. Like almost as if you had a beauty counter, right? And if someone was coming up to the beauty counter and they wanted to ask you questions and compare, you can do this on Reddit. And then what's cool is in addition to this, there's ways that you can advertise with Reddit doing like AMAs where you can leverage the platform to have better sell through. We met here, actually a bunch of agencies do this. So if you want to learn more about this, I do recommend doing it with like a, with a team of experts. Send me a DM and I'll do an intro to one of them. Because I learned so much this week and I think for brands wanting to get, especially with AEO and AI, which we need to talk about next, the R hand piece. But Reddit is like the number one indexed platform for AI because it's like, it's genuine Feedback from real people. And what's complicated is the question that you ask. AI is not what Google queries used to be. They weren't simple questions. Now they're like deep calling.
- [24:21]
B
Well, because if you look at what people, the conversations in Reddit, AI can understand what they're asking, what they're looking for. Like it Reddit is like the CIA or the F. Like that is the place where you go to get the real intelligence to have a good strategy. It's something that I was going to talk about. I'm surprised at how many marketing people can't spell the word strategy. Like literally I've asked them what's the last book on strategy you've read that wasn't like in biz school done by an academic? Like, because business is warfare and marketing is that arm of the warfare where you really have to get good intelligence and wisdom so you can build a strategy. Too many people are just making campaigns without a real strategy. Reddit is where you get the intelligence that helps your business build a strategy.
- [25:05]
A
That also leads us to the next very important topic. So this week Ryan Sirhant a a incredibly famous New York based Realtor had a viral video where he almost lost a $50 million deal because of a chat GPT surge. So the story goes that he had a buyer and seller that was using ChatGPT for effectively advice to move forward because they wanted a secondary opinion and which is pretty reasonable to not just want, you know, your Realtor that's like, yeah, this is a great deal. And they went and asked the chat GBT and the chat GPT reinforced its question. So his was am I overpaying for this? And Chachi BT said yes. And ChatGPT is also though an arbiter of wanting to please its, you know, its user. So the point goes is that this is happening every single day in less extreme ways where people can be googling and asking questions to a ChatGPT and they can be hurting your business without you even knowing it.
- [26:07]
B
Yeah, it moves me to the point I'm just researching. People are going to ask what's the best strategy book. I'd recommend Robert Greene's book on warfare. It'll just kind of teach you about every different type of political and you
- [26:18]
A
should have asked that question. I'm so glad you're ahead of it.
- [26:20]
B
And more strategy. You really need to know this if it's your business. But you need to start thinking in loops, not prompts. So you don't say, you know, is this the best neighborhood to live in you kind of say, based on what you know about me, what are the best? What are the best? Imagine, you know what I mean, that somebody moved in there and hated it. What would be the 10 things that would hate it the most? Like you have to ask like a series of 10 questions. Like, I've helped some law firms do it. You just don't say, hey, can you write me the best factum? You, you, you put all the stuff in. You say, imagine you're my opponent and you're assessing it. Identify the 10 weaknesses. Now practice a cross examination. Now revise this like you're a judge. So you want to make loops with your AI. But if you just ask, hey, am I handsome today? AI is going to go, you're looking wonderful today. You know, I particularly like this. And so it can sense that it wants to please you and it will do the same for business decisions. Whereas you have to say, make a counterfactual argument against me buying this property at this price point, knowing that I'm interested and then walk me through all of, all of the obstacles.
- [27:22]
A
Yes. So there's a bunch of things that, that I want to share for getting ahead of AI because that's obviously what's on every business owner's mind. So first is understanding that there is AIO and there is ge. So AIO or AEO is the overarching strategy that the AI is using to optimize and then GEO is how to do it. So it's important for you to sound super smart and ahead of the game.
- [27:46]
B
GEO came from the engineers in the software world and it was, it was talking about how they were optimizing the code, finding the answer.
- [27:54]
A
Great point. And the, so there's a few things to know for that is that you should be optimizing your brand should be optimizing for AI. And you can do this professionally. Like there are agencies that are doing this, which I can again do some intros to you because you met some great ones while we were here. If you want to send me a dm. But separate from just paying people to do it, you should be asking AI questions about your brand. So ask it as many questions as most often from different angles, from different viewpoints and get a series of answers. What you don't like that it's pulling or what it's saying is where you need to create content to change how it's reading and, and taking in those answers to those questions.
- [28:36]
B
I would go, I would go so far as to say you should have a project with your company. If you're a founder and put all of the information that you have into it, business plan, brand, core, all of that stuff, go through the process of identifying my ideal target customer or somebody who has the shared values, and then ask it to come up with what are the 10, the top 10 questions they would have over six months that would be relevant to my brand. Like, you can really dig into it, and if you get AI answering it for you, then you can create content pieces that answer the questions that AI thinks your customers are asking.
- [29:09]
A
The other thing that I wanted to say that was really interesting was the AI doesn't understand gaps. So I actually heard this at the Female Quotient dinner on Sunday night, which is really interesting for women who are changing their names, like from getting married, AI isn't making the connection that there was a past version of you with a different last name than a new version of you. So the. The leader of Female Quotient, her name is Shelly Zalas, and she was saying her maiden name was Flesh or Fleshman. And she was like, there was a whole career that she had that was super impressive that isn't indexed because now her stage name is Shelley's Alice. And because of that gap. And it's also happening for women that take, like, mat leaves. So, like, if there's like a three or four year, like, period where, like, they're not findable or indexable, how that's also creating, like an AI gap.
- [30:01]
B
So, Shelley, obviously I wasn't invited to the dinner because I'm a man, and that's fine. I would seek an investor right now based on that story who would help you develop an algorithm that solves that problem, because you identified a really cool problem that needs to be fixed to preserve the brands of these powerful women who are doing great things. So it's a good story. Find an investor. People love your organization, and let's build a way to bridge that gap. Maybe you just create like a separate link on a page and you connect it or you create a piece of content so that no woman ever again has some of her history erased because AI doesn't know how to fix it.
- [30:40]
A
Wow, that was a really nice little message for Shelley.
- [30:43]
B
Next time, invite me to the dinner. We got things to say too, over here.
- [30:48]
A
We're so fortunate to have inherited really good people into our circle within our industry. And they told us that we should 100% be going to Cannes Lions. It wasn't on our agenda, it wasn't on our radar. And we are right now in this stage in our life where we are accepting opportunity as it comes to us. And Philip was like, you know what? This is a good idea. Let's do it. Which I need his blessing because, like, I would go to the moon and back with, you know, with very little because I just, you know, love travel. Everyone told me that the people to connect with were the female quotient. Like, they really are at the center point of connection, of thought leadership, of storytelling, of eventing. And I looked them up and they had like 5 million followers on Instagram. I'm like, this is just so unattainable. I'm never going to be able to get in. And I ended up through a woman I really respect, Joanne. She did an intro and they've been.
- [31:39]
B
Now we're helping them in some branding issues.
- [31:40]
A
Yeah, we're now happy. But I just. It any woman out there that is looking for, like a community and connection. What I think the female quotient does so well is like, it's so top. Like, it's really like class. It's class and it's like, it really is attracting people where I'm like, it's hard to be in rooms that are such. With such impressive people that are so disarmed and wanting to help. And that's really what the female quotient has built. So if you're looking, looking for that in your life, seek them out, find their events and connect with them because they're amazing.
- [32:10]
B
Their story is really interesting and they've been. I think they've spent so much time focusing on helping others that they haven't invested in telling their story as much. But that's exactly the type of people and organizations you want to be around. The people who give more than they ask.
- [32:23]
A
Apparently. Drake is selling 50 of OVO to Authentic Brand Group. So two Toronto kings. Drake is selling a 50% of his brand to Jamie Salter, who owns Authentic Brand Group, which is actually an interesting move because so apparently Drake really hasn't been an ovo, which is his clothing apparel line, for a few years because he's got so much on the go. He's so busy. He's a successful businessman and his 60T shirts are apparently needing some, you know, better vision and advisory. And ABG is kind of who comes in and buys brands and then like licenses them and kind of of blows them apart. They're. They're kind of infamous. Like, they're. They're doing big things. Jamie Salter understands there's value in brands and you can disseminate them and kind of, like, scale them large to make money, because the brand isn't going to be successful if you don't do that. Like, it's not for brands preserving the art of the brand. It's for brands that can make way more money by going wider, but not in the effort to, like, preserve, but to, like, maximum maximize. Is how I would explain abg. What do you think of this?
- [33:31]
B
Part of what we talked about in the past? Like, there was corporate rating where you would. You would build. You would buy a cor. A company that's been built for 20 years, and then you would just piece it off. It was more valuable if you pieced off the parts or if you did something, but it broke apart the company's legacy. That's what's happening in brands. So a brand gets built, somebody comes, and then they have no intention, like you said, of keeping the brand or growing the brand or making it a greater brand. They just want to extract all the money they can out of the brand. And it works in the public markets because investors will invest in it for that purpose. So this is a sign that he's given up on the murder.
- [34:06]
A
Clearly, he's given up on the brand. You know, like, the Puck headline was, like, he hasn't been involved since 2020, and it's, you know, 2026. But what I think is interesting about it is that there is a gap right now in the market for the, like, urban streetwear brand. Right. Like, streetwear is such a big thing. And OVO was kind of set up to be this, like, Canadian supreme or a Supreme that kind of came out of Canada. Yeah. But it didn't really get the lift because it didn't have distrib. It kind of stayed interesting in Toronto and, like, hypebeasts around the world that, like, were in the know, they kind of picked it up, but it never had that fashion backing to become, like, a Rockaware or like a fat farm. I think there's space for that in the market right now, which is why it's interesting that ABG is picking it up, because that's what he knows the best is this mass market retail. Yeah.
- [34:52]
B
I just think if I was. If you're a CEO or you're a founder, you're a celebrity, the big danger to you is you. You start to buy your own beer.
- [34:59]
A
Yes.
- [35:00]
B
You need every once in a while to insert new thinkers into your ecosphere who. Who haven't advanced by kissing your ass. And so Drake could build a legacy brand. Right. But I don't think he's getting the right advice in that way. He's just being told by his business people, you should farm this off. You didn't like if he would invested the money at the time and the effort, he could have done it. But now he's just farming it off and making money.
- [35:24]
A
I think you really, your dislike for Drake is really coming through.
- [35:28]
B
I'm not saying, I'm saying he should have better advisors to help him make decision decisions because he has so much potential.
- [35:33]
A
I think the opposite. I think that, that Drake built a glorified merch brand that could stand on its own and be sold outside of arena tours. And he's not that interested in it, but he can sell a significant portion of it for money. It had the potential of, but it wasn't really focused on that. And like OVO is also his label. Like it's kind of his moniker her. So it's, it's kind of glorified swag. Like it's not particularly well designed pieces. It's just like OVO on the T
- [36:05]
B
shirt and coming here and talking to so many CMOs. One thing, if you're a founder or a CEO, go to that C Suite executive or use AI to diagnose if they think they know how the world works. Because I see so many people who are certain about the way the world works in terms of politics, in terms of business. This and the best strategy in the world comes from curiosity. But when you have certainty, you're not asking questions. You're just facilitating and perpetuating what you want to have happen in the corporate environment. You need to get people who are curious and the CMOs who I'm meeting here, I'm asking them questions. There's no curiosity. They're just telling me how the world works. Like they know how the world works. And I guarantee you, you don't know how the world works works. You learn something every week. And I'm the industry. The marketing world and branding world is so certain about things when the most important characteristic is curiosity. So embrace curiosity next year.
- [37:02]
A
Yeah, I love that. Well, I think the perfect example of that is you were just talking with a super powerful C suite executive about their brand. And the brand is more well known for its two letters, not its full name. And she just explained to us the name and I was like, I thought she did something completely different. And then I realized what it was was. And then I'm like, oh. And then we started asking about the sound and the mnemonic and the name. And we were like that to me is a great storytelling piece because it's an iconic brand that's been around for a while. And she just, she dismissed the entire idea because of the person who created it. Being a middle aged white man was like off brand for how she saw the world. We're so sure of something. Opposed to asking the question of why do you want to hear the story story. What benefit do you think would come from that? Like it. It's just people are so sure of something and it's what's actually holding a lot of brands back is it's not doing more of marketing, it's that they don't have strategy. And it's what you said earlier in the episode.
- [38:01]
B
Yeah. So Seth golden talks about this in the last point. You hear people say, well, I'm, you have to, if you're going to cut down wood, spend more time sharpening the ax. And I think that's what I see in a lot of these agencies. You know, they're sharpening the ax, they're going to professional development. But because they don't have strategy, they don't know what tree they should be cutting down. And so before you sharpen the ax, you gotta understand why are you cutting down the tree? Is it the right tree? You have to get strategy. Strategy comes from curiosity.
- [38:26]
A
I loved Mel Robbins speech yesterday. Yeah, I, I think I'm gonna talk about on our day three point of coffee and cans. I loved this week of reinforcing the simple messages because I can just get, we can get so in the weeds and like reinforcing this simple is so powerful. And the powerful thing that she said to give you the highlight is she said whenever you do something, you gotta focus on these two, two things. Number one is who is it for? And two is what is it for? And by keep answering and going back to those, you, anything you do in your marketing and branding will be good if you're focused on those. But the criticism of what I had that she said is she says stop consuming, start creating. And her issue was that people are so focused on consuming and they're not doing the creating that because of that, it's that they're just consuming too much, that it's holding them them back. I actually would flip that and I would say that yes, you need to create and get over yourself because it sucks and you need to just start doing it, but you also need to consume because that's what's going to make your perspective better. That's what's going to create better content. That's what's going to allow for better in like, you got to that point of the marketing versus strategy because you constantly listen and consume other people's content and you're buying more opened. Yeah, but.
- [39:40]
B
But not dribble.
- [39:41]
A
But the premise is consume right like you're consuming. Like you're only going to become the best if you broaden your horizon and consume more. So that is the theme of this week's episode. Consume and go to can don't consume more.