Yeah, so I'm Alexis Nido Russo. I'm the founder and CEO of Local Eclectic and I started Local Eclectic in November 2013, so I think that's seven years ago were an e commerce jewelry company based in the US specifically out of Chicago, but we ship everywhere including internationally um, and we sell jewelry from emerging and independent designers from all over the world.

00:04:32Edit And one of our biggest designers is based in London carrie Elizabeth. So cool that your based there. So cool. I'm super excited to learn all about the beginning of your story. The humble beginnings, can we go back to life before you started local eclectic and talk about what you are up to and what got you interested in starting a business in the jewelry industry. Yeah. So, um, before I started, like the very, very beginning, I studied psychology and fine arts in college. Um, I thought I wanted to be an art therapist. But then I realized that I had too many of my own problems to help people with. There's so I'm only kidding. I went in, I just, I actually realized that I had to go to school for another to get like a PhD and I really hated school. So I was like, this is not the direct yeah, no more. It's an odds therapist. Um, so it helps, It's basically like a therapist.

00:05:36Edit Like go and see a therapist, but they help people deal with their problems using art as the medium. But a lot of times you would be maybe working with Children to like work through emotional problems or really using art as the medium for therapy. But it's used for adults as well. I actually did an internship when I was really seriously considering the profession at a women's shelter. And I went in and like started and art therapy program, which really was just like introducing art as a way to be like this calming and healing medium, which for me, I think as you know, someone who is interested in the arts, I that's the way that I've always used art as like this way to like calm myself and sort of as this like emotional release. So, um, I think that's like where my basis of being interested in art as therapy is sort of like rooted but that's so interesting.

00:06:36Edit I love that. Yeah, but I realized it was gonna be a lot more school and really just after pursuing it, I I realized it wasn't probably the profession for me, I did study my undergraduate art and psychology. I got a double major and then after I graduated I moved to Chicago and I worked um I did a bunch of like random job sort of things for probably a year and a half when I was like trying to find my footing because if you can imagine having a degree in fine arts with a basis in painting was like my focus and psychology, not really the most marketable degrees in skill sets for like trying to find an actual professional job. So I did a bunch of random things like promotional marketing. And I went on tour with Miley Cyrus doing like interactive promotional marketing for her fan club during her best of both worlds tour.

00:07:38Edit So I did like a bunch of random stuff, fun. Yeah, but then I came back and I finally um got a job at the Museum of Contemporary Art, in the marketing department and that's really what sort of set me off on this path of working kind of in the arts in like more of a professional setting in the marketing department of like the arts world. So I did that for about five years and I was working at the Chicago artists Coalition, which is one of the oldest arts organizations in Chicago when I really was feeling like, and I felt for a long time that I wanted to start my own business and do something entrepreneurial. I come from a family of entrepreneurs, my family has always owned restaurants, so I grew up like seeing my family not working a typical 9 to 5, but having like that entrepreneurial drive and like how your work and life are really flowing as one.

00:08:43Edit And I was just, I grew up in that environment, so I think I always knew that I wanted to do something entrepreneurial, but I didn't know exactly what it was going to be. So after about five years of working professionally in Chicago, I kind of started thinking about like what it was, I wanted to do what I wanted my future look like and at the time, well I actually, I had like many ideas that I tried to start a, I prior to starting local eclectic, wrote a business plan and spent probably a year trying to build this other business, which was sort of a nail salon concept, which is funny that we were just talking about nails because I always just have been someone that has like invested in like getting my nails done and have really enjoyed that and um I, there, there isn't this like one nail salon experience that is like if you're traveling or this brand name of nail salons and so I kind of wanted to start that.

00:09:48Edit So it was also at the time of like dry bar had just kind of launched, do you know what dr bars? The blowout arm? Yeah. Yes it's like yeah so they have blow dry bars like all across the country and so I wanted to start like the nail salon version of that which would be a really consistent and um elevated nail salon experience that could be not necessarily franchise but like duplicated all over the country and like eventually the world maybe. But as I was doing research into trying to start that business, I pretty much had outlined that I would probably need about a half a million dollars to start that business and not having had any experience in raising money or really business or you know having that like business background or an M. B. A. Or you know I was just like no one's going to give me half a million dollars to start this business. I also am not a nail technician, I've never worked in a nail salon.

00:10:51Edit So I sort of let that idea kind of fizzle out although if you can't tell, I still think it's a wonderful idea that I'm quite passionate about. Sounds great to me. Next venture. Yeah. Next thing on the list. Um But so I kind of just kept thinking like considering like and I feel like that's just how my mind works. Like thinking what, what is this thing that I can start? What can I do? I always have a million ideas of like, oh, this would be a great business or this. And so I think it was around the time where like renegade craft fair, which is not in London but it's like this, um, you probably have something similar, but like an outdoor market that brings together a bunch of independent designers and you can like walk around and shop like indie designers, it would come for like a weekend. You can shop indie designers from like all over the country. People would travel to come in and like sell their wares. There were a bunch of like little things like that kind of around Chicago and then also sort of coupled with like my love of when I would travel going to local boutiques and just seeing like the independent designers that I had never heard of and like all of the incredible things that people were making in like London or you know, new york or whatever, like go into those small boutiques and getting that like discovery elements of getting to discover those like local designers.

00:12:24Edit So amazing. That's really, I think where the concept for local eclectic kind of blooms, um, etc. Was also having a massive moment. But um, I think at sea, I felt at the time was like a pretty crowded and definitely is today, like a really crowded marketplace. And so, um, I had the idea, I wanted to start this like online boutique that would be a marketplace for a really curated selection of independent designers. And when I first started local eclectic, it was actually across categories. So we sold clothing and handbags and um, home goods and all like anything that was an independent designer wasn't just jewelry, although we did tell some jewelry as well and I did that for about a year and a half, just kind of like figuring out while I was working full time at the Chicago artist coalition, kind of like figuring out what was working. And then after about a year and a half, um, pivoted to be just jewelry.

00:13:28Edit And was that because you saw that jewelry was, you know, was it better margins or was it easier to ship or was there a particular reason why you thought, oh, jewelry is the way to go? Well after about a year and a half of running the business. Um we honestly, we're not selling that much, but you know what was selling was jewelry. And so after about a year and a half of running the business while working full time, I decided to quit my full time job and go all in and I really took like a hard look at what was working and what wasn't and jewelry was the category that was really selling. And so I feel like I had kind of an aha moment of, let's just sell jewelry, like we're not selling any clothes, not selling like bellows like let's just go all in on jewelry. Um It just so happens though that jewelry is a lot easier to ship its collar doesn't weigh very much, doesn't take a lot of space to store. Um pretty good margins and I also think there are so many incredibly talented people in the jewelry space that don't necessarily have like a huge platform that is representing them.

00:14:43Edit So I think like that's probably the reason why it was also selling really well was because it wasn't as easy to find either. But I definitely got a little bit lucky in the sense that like it's also easier to ship and good margins and like great holiday is attached to jewelry. Um so yeah, totally in that early time in that first year were you actually investing in the stock and you know like having it at your house and shipping it out or were you kind of doing more of the drop ship model where you were selling it and the independent designers were sending it out themselves. So in the very beginning and for the first probably 2.5 years it was all drop ship. So, and that's how, so I started with $0. I had like a little bit of savings, but really not that much money and it was working at a nonprofit. So that's why I said like my first business idea was half a million dollars to start.

00:15:48Edit And I realized I really needed something that was I needed to come up with an idea that was going to take little to no money to start because I really didn't have any money. So I started as a drop ship. So yeah, basically we would take at the very beginning we were just taking the designers photos using their photos online so many times. I never even saw the physical products before we were selling it and we were just putting the photos online, selling the products and then when the orders would come through we would send them to the designers and designers would fulfill the orders. Once we started to see real growth, we realized that that was not, it was a really bad customer experience because for a couple of reasons, one, if someone orders something from five pieces of Jewelry from five different designers, they're going to get five different packages that look different. It's that like I think you, you want to have this like really wonderful unboxing experience especially with online shopping because we don't get to have that in person experience.

00:16:59Edit So we want to make sure that that like first in person touch point with the customer is going to be a really wonderful, beautiful experience for them. And with drop ship it makes it a lot harder to create that to control that experience. So that was one reason, and the second is that because we're working with independent designers and smaller makers. Some of the designers don't have the product on hand, so they're making it once the order comes in. And so it was taking longer for the designers to ship, then I think customers wanted to wait. And so for that reason, I also really created a poor customer experience. So after about 2.5 years of doing, drop running the business as a drop ship business, I slowly started to invest in buying inventory from some of our bigger designers and um shifted from drop shipped to a more traditional wholesale to retail model where we buy it up front and then we manage the process from when a customer places the order to actually doing fulfillment, which we also still own that experience.

00:18:11Edit We don't outsource our fulfillment. Um we do that in house, so we ship out the products um and then we handle all of our customer service in house if someone wants to return something or has an issue or question um everything from A to Z. Has really managed in house that we can be sure to create a really wonderful and special customer experience. I love that. And it makes total sense. I'm interested to know for anyone who's listening, who might be interested in kind of, you know, starting a platform or a website whether compiling different brands and selling a range of different products from different companies. What kind of investment did you need? You know at that two year mark when you needed to start investing in product? Are you able to share any numbers around that kind of like early capital? That's a really good question. And to be honest, I can't really remember what official orders looks like. I would say as like a benchmark designers typically would have maybe like a it was a little bit different for us I think because we had a history and a relationship with the designers so We were able to like ask for more favors I think in the beginning because we have been working with people for a couple of years and have like that relationship, but typically designers will have anywhere from like a $500 to $1,000.

00:19:42Edit And this is like in jewelry but all you know, if you're doing, if you're trying to buy a wholesale for really any type of like category, there's going to be a minimum order that a brand or designer wants you to hit in order to like be able to buy a wholesale. So for jewelry it's like typically around like 500 to $1000 with our bigger designers probably at that like 2.5 year mark. I would guess we were over that threshold already. But like I said, I think we were able to like have more like wiggle room with the designers because we have that history of working with them. So it wasn't like kind of dry like you have to order this many units and we're not going to sell to you totally. Yeah right. Um you could pull some strengths. Yeah. We also have a handful of in house lines that we um design and produce to manufacture ourselves and The manufacturers that we work with also have like minimum orders.

00:20:47Edit So those could be anywhere from like 200 units or up depending on like you know they, they try and hit like a value threshold that they want you to hit in order to like let you buy from them. Got it totally. I'm interested to talk about going back to the very beginning and in those first couple of years, how were you starting to find customers and spread the word about this new incredible platform that you created and these designers that you were bringing together? Yeah. So in the very beginning like I said I had no money, I wouldn't be investing in advertising to acquire customers. So I really was like how can I acquire customers for free? And I focused on social media. So facebook and instagram very heavily in the beginning. Um Obviously word of mouth from all of my friends but then also building an email database. Um so I feel like it's kind of like uh huh now like everyone has doing those things but in the beginning those were like the three things that I really focused on were facebook and instagram instagram specifically, I really like went hard on wanting to build an authentic brand and like authentic brand voice an audience on those on that channel specifically.

00:22:20Edit And it still is our biggest channel of like organic customer acquisition. We have like a pretty strong loyal um and very authentic like following on instagram but I did that by just trying to like interact with our followers as much as possible and just like building that element of conversation um replying to customers and really using it as a channel to like be this place that you can reach out to the company or the brand local, eclectic in a really like authentic and easy way. So those were like the main channels and then building our email database, I would say today one of the biggest channels um for us is actually text marketing. So for looking to start your who is in the process of starting a brand, we started our text marketing program probably like a little over a year and a half ago.

00:23:21Edit Um And I tell everyone this like if we I think we should have started it sooner, so like getting um so we still collect people's emails but we do that in tandem with also collecting their phone numbers um and use that as like our one of our main source of main marketing channels. And so when you say text marketing, can you go a bit deeper in terms of like, are you sending a text every day or you sending a text a week? And what are these texts say? Yeah, so we use it so it's a lot less frequent than email because you're texting people which is like a bit more invasive. And with email, people's inboxes are so flooded and we're so used to getting like marketing messages from companies that it's like almost like auto delete, you know, and you just are, it's um it feels like a little bit less personal and less invasive. So you can email people more often than you can, you know, text call them or whatever.

00:24:24Edit But with felt, you know with your phone, it feels a little bit more personal and a bit more um invasive. So you don't, we don't text our customers um more than once a week. And typically it's to announce like new product launches or sales and will announce like sales early through text messaging. So we had a big beach every year to a big black friday sale and we started it early with are people who are subscribed to our text list. So that's one of the incentives of being subscribed to our text marketing um channel is that you get early access to new product launches and sales and promotions that were running. So those are like the main things that we're sending, you know, promotions that we're sending to people. That's so fascinating. I'm also wondering how did you actually start building your text list? Like did you start that through your email list and then be like, hey you can also subscribe to text or did you just like put a pop up on the website?

00:25:28Edit How does that get started? Yeah, so we work with a company called Attentive and um it's through a pop up, but there are a lot of with email, you can pretty much like email anyone and there's kind of no rules with text. There's actually quite a few rules and laws in place, like you can't just text someone without them opting into like allowing you to text them as a company. So um we use Attentive and there's like agreements that our customers have to kind of sign off on along the way, but it's pretty much just to pop up on our website and then they go through there's like three steps and then you'll get like a text message thing like you have to opt into it. So yeah, wow, that's so cool. I love that. Yeah. Right, there's a bunch of companies now that will like offer the text solution for you in the same way that I hear that Clay vo is your is one of your sponsors.

00:26:30Edit Um So uh flavia like in the same way that Clay vo is like a um actually clay vo has text marketing as well as like Oh right. Um But yeah so we use we use clay vo for email and we use Attentive for test, amazing, cool shout out to them, Love Clavier. What do you think the tipping point was for you guys? Like you've been in business for seven years now, obviously that first year you were kind of really hustling figuring out to find your feet and take that pivot direction and then two years in or 2.5 years and you're able to quit your full time job and really go all in what was the tipping point or how did the tipping point happen? And since then in the last seven years what have those kind of you know leap step changes been. So I think that tipping point, one of the biggest tipping points in the business was after I quit my full time job and was really focused on it and had you know it was kind of like sink or swim, I kind of gave myself a year to figure out can I make this work?

00:27:42Edit And every day was just you know, working harder than I ever have in my life, trying to, you know, working from home, trying to figure out doing one little thing every day to try and like push the needle acquire more customers grow the business, figure out what was working what wasn't working, doing more of what was working less of what wasn't. Um, but I think one of the biggest tipping points and levers for growth that I identified in after, after I had quit my job was facebook advertising, which I think so many people probably say no and especially in like 2015 where it was still kind of like the Wild west and not every company was doing it, it was like, I just had added fuel to the fire when I, when I realized that we could advertise to acquire customers in a profitable way. So that was like, I think the first tipping point now, I think obviously we're still advertising on many different, just like all the channels to acquire customers, but now we have, I think more of a focus on like my goal for the brand is to build like a long term best in class jewelry brand that Is around 100 years from now.

00:29:10Edit So um, I think the thing that we really focus on now as like our long term lever for growth is just our brand and making sure that we're producing and working with the best designers and producing really excellent products and doing really great brand storytelling um, and having like a focus on creating a really incredible customer experience and doing the things that we know might not get us those like quick wins, but in the long run are going to be the most beneficial for growing like a long term world class brand. Yeah, absolutely. I love the name of your in house brand family gold, I think that is such a great name. Did you come up with that? Yeah, so actually it was like a placeholder name for when, when I was coming up with the concept for the line, um it was based on like the concept for the line is I wanted to create affordable heirloom quality jewelry pieces and it was sort of inspired by um a really simple like diamond necklace that I inherited from my mom and a vintage like diamond ring that I had for my grandmother and now that I have daughters of my own, I think I think about like what are these things that I'm going to pass down to them and I really wanted to like make heirloom quality fine jewelry that was made to last with really solid materials, um but also it was affordable, so it would have like some really nice entry price points for solid gold jewelry that could be accessible to a wider audience of people.

00:31:06Edit Um so when I was coming up with those concepts, I heard the idea for the line, I just put like a placeholder in like a spreadsheet that said like family gold. And then when I shared the concept with the team and everyone, everyone was kind of like, I like the name family gold, like that's the full name. And so it just kind of stuck, it was like, I just typed it in as like a placeholder that is genius. I really love it. It's so cool. What's the impact been of that brand on your business? I think I read that you launched it last year and no sorry, the year before 2019. Um No, 2020 2020. Yeah. It's been not even, I think our first collection launched at like the end of january um in 2020. And it has been that that line has done incredibly well for us. It's one of our top selling lines now and I think it goes back to a, it just is like really, we invested so much time in like actually producing products that were really high quality but with um and and just like meant a lot to me and my and like the whole team, I think we invested a lot of time and like making the best line that we could and I think that really shows to customers that it's not this line that we just try to get out as quickly as possible.

00:32:39Edit We really invested a lot of time and like sampling if there's like a ring or a necklace that we sell. We probably sample it with like three or four different partners before we actually select like the one version that is the best and so I think that like comes out to the customer the time and effort that we put into um investing in the quality of the products. So I think that's one thing but I also think now with everything that's going on in the world, people want to treat themselves to like one little thing and they want it to be something that is going to last and feel really meaningful and special. And they're also just like very classic timeless simple pieces. So it's like a simple goal to for like a simple time instead or a simple chain or you know just really like evergreen styles that you can where while you're lounging on the couch in your loungewear but like kind of dress them up if you're going somewhere really fancy like the grocery store these days, you know totally pieces you can wear again and again and love forever.

00:33:52Edit Yeah they're really versatile but also really high quality so you know that they're gonna be, they're gonna stand the test of time and you know that and I think that's another thing is like people especially now when we're spending money, we want to know that like we're investing in something that is going to be made to last and um really thinking even more about like where we're spending our money and so I think that has something to do with the success of the line as well because customers know that it's such high quality and it is really gonna like seeing the test of time. Amazing. So special. Yeah where is the business today and what does the future look like? What's coming next? Well more of more of what we're doing, you know? I think um We're like I said seven years in um we have seen a lot of growth this past year um and we're continuing to see growth this year and I think I want to keep doing more of what we're doing, creating more incredible lines, finding more incredible designers that we can work with.

00:35:05Edit I'm really investing in the brand. I think that's like where I really want to like focus my attention is like investing in more lines and brands that are going to help to like lift the company up. I think there's you know we ship internationally but I think there is some there's a lot of like growth potential for us in like expanding more into some of our like bigger international markets. I don't know if that's going to come this year, I think it's sort of like we'll see what happens with the world, you know, we're not we're not going anywhere anytime soon. But last year we did a handful of, yeah it was at the beginning of last year in february. We did like our first pop up in new york so we had a little showroom or a little storefront for just a weekend. Um The plan was to have done more of those throughout the year. Obviously that didn't happen in in retrospect was probably good that we didn't have like actual things like planned out because you know in store shopping was shut down anyway, but I think doing um more like live events, I think as a like community, we're all going to be really craving like in person experiences and so um I think once the world starts to open up a little more, I would love to explore what that looks like for local eclectic and possibly doing like in person events kind of all over the country.

00:36:45Edit So but um I'm really just waiting for things to resume, some semblance of normalcy before you know, trying to get too far ahead of ourselves totally. I think we all need to just keep on ticking along and wait for things to be a little bit um more stable before taking any leaps and jumps. Yeah exactly. What advice do you have for women who have a big idea and want to launch their own business um face I would say we'll just get started like start somewhere wherever you are, you know, um my husband is actually in the process of like launching uh wine business and my advice to him has just been like just like launch your website, launch your instagram launched, like just get going, start somewhere, start like talking to customers like do a survey, collect like information, just like start doing something to get a better understanding of like whatever the idea is that you're wanting to start, if it actually is something that is realistic and viable, like I said, I had 100 ideas before I started local eclectic and toss them all out the window after like exploring, going into depth and exploring that like some of them really just, we're never going to work um so I think like starting anywhere to really get a sense of like what the idea is and exploring if it is a viable idea um and then once you have made the decision that like this is something you want to do and I think this is something I did when I started local tactic, I made a list of all of the brands that I was really inspired by and um when I looked at the list, I realized it was like brands that have been around for seven, 10, 20 years, it wasn't brands that had just started six months ago, so being really realistic and honest with yourself about how long um it's gonna take to like get your footing and find success and just never giving up and like saying you're going to keep working at it until it works and like doing one little thing every day that's going to like push the needle forward to like identifying those like little bits of success that you can build on every day and building it brick by brick.

00:39:28Edit Yeah, I think the compound effect is so key and I speak about it on the show often, It's just showing up every day, putting one ft in front of the other and just taking steps and in a year's time or seven years time you're gonna look back and be like, wow, all those small things really added up. Yeah, you might not feel it on every day, You might feel like you're just spinning your wheels. But I think like you said, like when you look back six months or a year later, you'll really see how far you've come and I'm sure it's like a podcast, you probably felt that too. Like in the beginning you have zero listeners, right? And then you keep making episodes, building, building, building and every week your audience is going to grow and you might not see it in the beginning for the first 3, 6, whatever however long it takes, but like eventually if you keep showing up and keep doing the right things, keep listening to your customers, you're going to find traction and ultimately that will be the biggest lever for success totally.

00:40:33Edit We are up to the six quick questions. I'm conscious of the time. We only have four minutes before before six o'clock. Are you on a hard finish line? No, I don't have a few minutes. Like it's usually come rushing in at noon, so good. Well bring him in love to have some kids on the show. Why not? Hasn't been done before? First time for everything. Okay, Question number one, what's your why? Oh, these are like rapid fire questions. They don't have to be, you can take a moment. Don't worry my why? I think my personal why is like freedom if that makes any sense. I wanted to start local eclectic because I wanted to feel like I have freedom over my own life and like ownership over my own life and like path. And I think that is like the root of the why of why I started local eclectic on a really personal note. Yeah, I really resonate with that.

00:41:39Edit I I agree. I think there's a sense of there's freedom in terms of day to day freedom in terms of you choose what you're going to be doing, spending your days. But there's also freedom in in financial freedom and building something for your future and the future you're building with your family. Question number two is what do you think has been the number one marketing moment that made your business pop? Oh, # one Marketing Moments. To be honest, I don't know if it was like a marketing thing that happened or a marketing moment necessarily that made the business pop. I would say the number one thing that made the business pop is when I identified what the customer wanted and did more of that. So it was finding the right designers. So identifying those designers that were selling and resonating with our customers and then being like, oh, this is what our customer wants and then trying to find more of that versus trying to be like I really love this, I'm going to sell this thing and try and get my customers to invest in that also.

00:42:55Edit But I think it was that moment of like listening to my customers and understanding that that was going to be the biggest lever for growth in terms of like how we could move forward. So yeah, love that Question # three is where do you hang out to get smarter? What books have you read lately? What are you subscribing to podcast? Yeah I would say podcasts probably are like the biggest thing that I do to try and like expand my knowledge base. Um I honestly love your podcast and not just saying that oh my God saying yeah I think you're gonna make me Bush, you bring people on that. Like have really insightful like very tactical meaningful um advice for just like business growth. So I think that's really amazing. I also like I like hearing people's um like origin stories and how they started like from the beginning and then you know how they built from nothing to something so podcast like how I built this.

00:44:02Edit I think it's called Boss Files by Populist Hman. Okay I didn't know she had Yeah cool. Huh? And there's another one on CNN and I'm like spacing on the name of it but I like to hear like female entrepreneurial, you know startup stories, I like Gary Vaynerchuk a lot. He has cool podcast. Um he's great, yeah, Tony Robbins as much as he's like kind of cheesy, he's pretty inspirational. So I kind of like to listen to his stuff sometimes. Um, but yeah, podcast I say I would say are the number one. I um, I used to read a lot of business books, but now I try to read for more like relaxation and fun. So I read a lot more like novels. But yeah, podcasts love it. I'm a big podcast fan obviously, question number four is, how do you win the day?

00:45:06Edit And that's around your am and PM rituals that keep you feeling happy and successful and motivated. Um, I would say, you know, I wish that I could say that I have these like incredible morning rituals that I do, but I have a two year old and one year old. So my warnings are usually typically like extremely chaotic um, and just centered around whatever they want. But I'm gonna say some really basic things that I do every day, which especially in quarantine, I shower every day and I put on normal clothes, you're winning the day and I win the day, like brutal honesty. Oh, that's great. I'm also, I do try and um, have a peloton and I try and jump on the bike like every day or every other day and that really helped me feel like grounded and gives me like peace of mind.

00:46:07Edit I feel like a much more focused if I work out. But those are like the three big things, a shower, get dressed and I try and work out at some point. Great love all of that for you. I'm glad you make it to the shower, brilliant question number five is if you only had $1000 left in your business bank account, where would you spend it? Mm in the business bank account. Well we would be in a lot of trouble if we'll answer our bank account. Uh huh Bonuses to everyone on the $100 to everyone on the team because we're like going out of business and filling $1,000. Um No, seriously, so I would probably invest it in one of the designers that we work with and like I said, I think like the thing that has grown our brand more than anything has really been investing in the people that make our brand what it is.

00:47:13Edit And so I think it's like trying to um you know, hopefully take a shot on a designer that I think would like hopefully add more money to the bank. Nice. Yeah, I love that Question. Number six, last question is how do you deal with failure? Um just keep going? I think I um I use failure as a lesson to and there have been like, you know, I think we deal with little failures every day. um and it's like how we learn and grow from those failures that are ultimately going to like, take us to that next level of, you know, whatever it is that we're trying to do. So I think it's like looking at failures, not as um a failure, I don't know what the other word for that would be, but like not looking at it as this thing that is going to like, tear us down, but how can we look at failures as a thing that will lift us up that we can learn from and um really grow from any, like, mistakes that we've made.

00:48:25Edit Yeah, thank you so much. Thank you so much for taking the time to be on the show and share your incredible journey. I've loved meeting you and I love what you're wearing. Oh, by the way, thank you. So fun. Usually don't wear silk shirts, but you know, I'm talking to like, another human outside of my small bubble. So you made sure you shout and put on some real clothes.