How to grow a brand with intent, Izipizi: Charles Brun

Charles Brun, co-founder of IZIPIZI, talks about how to start a brand from a simple idea and grow it into a global consumer business without losing sight of the initial values.

This episode is about spotting overlooked opportunities, building a brand around design and accessibility and scaling internationally while staying true to the original idea.

Keep listening to hear how IZIPIZI turned an everyday functional product into a global lifestyle brand - and what founders can learn about how to start a brand that truly resonates with consumers.

Charles’ advice:

• Considerations like carbon footprint, sustainable delivery routes, general effect on the environment all contributed to our decisions and led to gaining B-corp certification
• We also find it important to consider the team and the staff and make sure this company is a great one to work for, with a positive atmosphere
• Our customers need good value/good quality product/good design; we need a good place to work
• From the outset we intended to make this product in a good way; we need the team to be happy
• We consider each other and make allowances for each other’s personal needs
• We had great mentors who gave us an education in producing and marketing something
• It’s important to keep talking to each other - sharing both the good things and the problems
• It’s also useful to network and meet other founders
• Always look around and consider other brands and the competition
• Take your time choosing your partners and have a strong partnership agreement in place
• Start marketing your product through the right outlets; be selective
• Every so often take a break with your partners away from the business and discuss long-term plans
• Always put the team before the product

FF&M enables you to own your own PR & produces podcasts.
Recorded, edited & published by Juliet Fallowfield, 2024 MD & Founder of PR & Communications consultancy for startups Fallow, Field & Mason.  Email us at hello@fallowfieldmason.com or DM us on instagram @fallowfieldmason. 

MUSIC CREDIT Funk Game Loop by Kevin MacLeod. Link &  Licence

Transcript

Charles Brun: [00:00:00] I see this especially in the US here, people are obsessed by being fast and raise a lot of money,  when we started our company, we had no money. We only injected, 5,000 euros each.  we had the first product that we launched in 2010, which was a disaster. ​

Juliet Fallowfield: I've loved Izipizi sunglasses for five years. So when the PR reached out to see if I wanted to interview the founder, Charles Brun, I jumped at the chance. we talk today about how to start a brand with intention. We talk about purpose, and we talk about how.

B Corp certification can play a part in that, but also we talk about how to maintain your enthusiasm for starting a brand with purpose. Charles launched Izipizi in his early twenties alongside two longtime friends after noticing their mothers was struggling, finding reading glasses that were stylish, comfortable, and affordable.

At the time, the market was split between cheap pharmacy products and expensive optical frames, and leaving the clear gap for them to come in with well-designed but accessible. Readers what began as a simple solution quickly [00:01:00] evolved into design-led eyewear, brand stocked in thousands of retailers and worn in millions of homes worldwide for men, women, kids, ski, sun, reading night, vision, you name it.

They've got sunglasses and glasses for everyone. This episode is about starting a brand with intention and keeping it. So keep listening to hear how Izipizi turned an everyday functional product into a global lifestyle brand, and what founders can learn about how to start a brand that truly resonates with its consumers.

Charles Brun: hi Charles. Thank you for coming on. How to start up today to talk about how to start a brand with intention. I would love it if you could start with an introduction as to you and a bit about the brand that you've started.

Yes, indeed. so my name is Charles. I co-founded Izipizi 15 years ago with, with two friends, two friends from high school. They are my best friends and my partners, Xavier and Quentin. so the company is based in Paris. we are doing glasses. We started [00:02:00] with readers reading glasses, and now we say that we do glasses for all the family and every moment of, in life.

And how long ago did you start? 

so it was end of 2010, 15 years, a bit more than 15 years ago. And we are around 250 people now. between France, other countries of Europe and us. We have a subsidiary in the US now.

Juliet Fallowfield: Incredible. And I discovered your brand six years ago, I think, in a coworking office, and everyone was wearing you. It was like, they're really cool, they're really functional, and you'll never lose them or break them because they're not that expensive compared to luxury sunglasses. At 250 pounds, you can buy into the brand, I think for 35 pounds.

40 pounds, and they're. Gorgeous frame, super stylish. And I go on holiday and I might treat myself to a new pair because why not? And it, I went to the Antarctic and I bought myself some Glassier glasses. So you are right. It is for every occasion. And then obviously with age, my eyesights going and I have reading glasses.

So I love them because I feel like I can wear glasses and look cool at [00:03:00] the same time or attempt to look cool. But for you, you started with two friends and presumably you are all still friends now. You also started a brand with some good intentions. How important is intent when you start a brand?

Charles Brun: since the beginning. Our aim is to do great products, great design, great quality, affordable price. but with, a very selective distribution. And since the beginning, our aim was to sell our products to the best, fashion stores, design stores, concept stores, high-end optic stores, department stores.

and yes, since the beginning, our intent is to build a brand, to build the. Worldwide brand. it's funny because we have always been passionate by brands. we come from Paris and, I think a bit like London and other cities. We are surrounded by, amazing brands. and when we decided to start our company with my friends, it was sort of challenge At first it was a game.

We, we were 24 years old, so we had just finished our studies. We had not much experience, but we wanted to do something together. It was, both doing a business and a brand. [00:04:00] And 15 years, after I can't say we have a worldwide brand, but we are trying to build this worldwide brand. We still have,many examples for us, but yes, we are always looking forward.

Juliet Fallowfield: And what year did you become a B Corp?

Charles Brun: BO was four years ago, so I think it was, 2022, 2021 maybe. since the beginning we tried to do things in a good way with the good materials,how we produced, how we distributed, how we shipped, our products. And in 2018, we measured for the first time our carbon footprints. And this was, Big exercise. It's, it took us a lot of time, but we had a number of,emissions per pair of glasses, and we said, okay, within three years. We want to reduce this number by two. So we changed the materials we use, which completely changed our, the way we ship our products. Before it was only air shipments because we were always out of stock and needing,to deliver our customers very quickly.

and we decided to change completely that, so we replaced our air shipments by boat shipments between [00:05:00] our suppliers and our warehouse. So it means you have to change our forecasts, the manage you, the way you manage your stocks, et cetera. now all our products are ma made out of bio-based material also.

We changed some stuff in our office, in our stores, So, we achieved to, to reduce, this, because it's our philosophy, to, to we are here to build a business, to build a brand, but to do it in a good way. And, I think in the fashion industry, in the, accessories industry.

There were so many companies doing some, greenwashing. we were a bit, afraid about that. So for many years we, we had decided not to talk about it. and after we, we started to get more and real, more and more requests from our customers saying, I like EZPZ, but I would like to know how are they produced?

What are you doing, And we did, we decided to talk about it. Before talking about it, we wanted to do things and so the first thing was this, carbon footprint evaluation and then this B Corp certification, because [00:06:00] for us, B Corp is the best label. it's for the planet, but it also proves you do things in a good way for your team, for all your partners, all your suppliers around you.

we are also a great place to work, but among the top great place to work. So, We don't want our customers to buy ZPZ for this. we want our customers to buy ZPZ because they like our products. They like the quality, they like the design, et cetera. But for us, being big op is, important also, but on top of the rest,

Juliet Fallowfield: And it's almost on the inside, isn't it? Well, we know we do this. We don't need to broadcast it, but it's just the right thing to do. That's why we did it as well. It's like me as a business owner, I can sleep at night knowing I've been audited and that I'm doing good in the world. I'm still a profit in business.

But for you, you started at 23 was in, you could call it intention, you could call it purpose, you could call it sustainability. Was that always important to the three of you or did it kind of grow with you?

Charles Brun: yes. Since the beginning, when we started our company, so end of 2010, we had [00:07:00] launched a first product, which was before our readers. And this product was already made in France. It was assembled by, disabled people since the beginning also our obsession was to do these products in a good way and,and with a team also 

I think if you meet some of our team, I think everybody's happy to work for Easy pz. it's a great challenge. It's a great journey, but with good values also. and this has always been the case and it'll be the case for the long term also.

Juliet Fallowfield: I was gonna say, it does make things harder for you when you are starting a business. Also it starting at 23 where you haven't necessarily had much work experience elsewhere. You then make another rod for your back of, okay, we're doing something that hasn't been done before. We've not done this before, and we're gonna add in all of these values.

Do you think setting up a brand with values from the beginning makes it easier or harder in the long run?

Charles Brun: I don't know if it's easier or harder. I think it, it depends on what are your values. we wanted this company to, to be a [00:08:00] projection of our values with my partners. I think we are lucky because we are friends. I think we are good people and we wanted this company to be a good company.

Also, we want our team to be happy to come working every day. We are called Easy pz, so it's very important. Also, I think our name defines our company, so we want our customers to be happy. Also. It's a joyful brand. It's a colorful brand. It's affordable. When you go on our website, you'll see the smile everywhere and I think this is us.

We are. Happy people. We are smiling people and we are like this every day when we wake up. So I think the company is a bit like us at the beginning.

Juliet Fallowfield: what you preach? Yeah. 

Charles Brun: Yes, exactly. and now we have an amazing team around us. But I think the, all the values we had at the beginning, we are lucky because even if the terms we use are not exactly the same, finally the values are the same since 15 years.

and I hope they will continue for the next 15 years also.

Juliet Fallowfield: Well that must keep it quite simple in some respects, that like attracts like you know [00:09:00] each other and you know the kind of people you wanna work with, and it's sort of quite obvious when someone potentially wouldn't fit.

Charles Brun: Totally. Totally. And we take a lot of our, it's very important for us when we hire people, all the onboarding is very important also. we have our way to, to onboard people and I think this is the one of the. Main success of EZPZ is, we get the feedbacks from our team.

and after three days. After three weeks after three months. and what one of the good things we did at EZPZ is this, onboarding and the way we select our team and the way we hire them.

Juliet Fallowfield: Amazing. And how did you learn all this? Because you've come into this new brand at 23 years old with two mates like, right, we're gonna start a product-based business, which as everybody out there will be listening going, that's not easy. Adding that extra layer of kind of vigilance to it. How, have you taught yourself all of this?

Charles Brun: we talk a lot. We try to learn a lot. since the beginning. Luckily we had amazing mentors. when we started our company, we had no [00:10:00] money. We only injected, 5,000 euros each. So it, it was not a lot. luckily we had won some prices, competitions, so, we had, Bank loans,on the company, but this was not enough to really develop.

so after three years, we raised money. but for us it was money to raise. But it was, among, selected person. And luckily we had amazing mentors. It was, French businessman, successful businessman who invested in Izipizi. They don't, they didn't invest to make more money because I think they had enough, they invested to, have a new, entrepreneurial life with, three young guys, which were with my partners and these guys have been first business angels, but amazing mentors like, I would say great uncles and we learned so much from them. I remember business lunches, which were doing, I don't know, two hours, three hours, four hours. And at first we were talking about numbers and after 10 minutes we were talking about life and values and how did they succeed and what they were doing in their company, [00:11:00] how did they develop internationally, their brand and their business, et cetera.

So we learned a lot from them. And then we tried to join, networks. Since the beginning at EZPZ in Paris and Entrepreneur Networks. And to meet other founders. To meet other leaders and to try to learn from them and say, okay, what do we like from them? What could we apply to EZPZ immediately or after six months?

and we tried a lot and we changed also. So it's a bit our magic sauce, if I may say.

Juliet Fallowfield: Well, how important was your gut feeling in all of this? Like you going into business with your friends and if you, did you disagree with them at any point? Your two? 

Charles Brun: Yes, of of course. 

Juliet Fallowfield: Yeah. Three minds and starting a brand you must have clashed a little bit. Who had the final say? How did you work through conflict?

How are you still friends with each other today?

Charles Brun: it's funny because we often say that we are a triple, so it's, a couple of three [00:12:00] people,and I would say a bit like, a couple, a business relationship. You have to take care of it. So we spend a lot of time together. we discuss a lot. when we argue, we take time to.

To talk about it. Luckily, it's never the same two against one. and I think we, we always took time to, to share our frustration, to share when we were in disagreement also, but to find a solution on which we align, the three of us. And we may don't agree sometimes, but when we are in front of our team, it's always important to align and to be on the same path, the three of us.

Juliet Fallowfield: Yeah, I always talk to founders that have co-founders 'cause I'm a sole founder and I don't have anyone else I have to ask or. Think about, I can make a decision and it's done, it's final and it says a lot about me, but I also miss the support of having a co-founder. I think with three of you, it's actually probably easier than two of you because it will be two against one.

You are always gonna have a majority [00:13:00] vote, whereas if it's one against one, that could be quite hard. So, odd numbers, this is where we go with this.

Charles Brun: and also being three I think is great because, when you have difficult times, you can share. When you have good moments, you can share, also share the success, share when you, when the, we faced ups and downs, as every, Company and every leader, but we often say, said to each other, luckily, we are free because I, I think sometimes we took more time to take our decisions, but at least being free when we take a decision, we thought about it and I would say it's better decisions.

Juliet Fallowfield: Oh, I'm renovating a house by group mentality and Instagram, so I put things up going right, guys, you will tell me what to do. This color or this color that or this. And it's so much easier when someone else, and I have so many friends to stay going, right? I just need to pick your brains and. No matter what, someone will have a good idea about something once they've come in with fresh eyes.

It's like, 

maybe I should be doing this. The business as well. 

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Juliet Fallowfield: But given purpose, obviously when we are talking about starting a brand with intention, we're talking about purpose here, I think, what advice would you give to new founders starting a company, how to define their purpose or how to kind of lean into their values?

How did you work out? What mattered to you?

Charles Brun: Yes. it's. It depends of who you are, what you want to do, what are your values,what you want to bring to your company. how ambitious are you? Is it for [00:15:00] your market? Is it for the world? Is it a service? Is it a product? on our side. We knew since the beginning that we were very ambitious.

We didn't want to limit ourselves to the French markets and not to the European market. We wanted to sell our products worldwide. we also knew we wanted to develop a brand, so we had several examples of brands that we loved. one of them is swatch the watches. and we always loved what Swatch was doing.

and when we, when we started, we say, okay. We want to become the swatch of the vision. So it's a bit less the case now, it changed, but, but in terms of quality, colors, design, affordability, timeless, also, and produced in a good way. So I think it's important to look around you.

who are your mentors, who are the examples you want to follow and apply it to yourself. I would say also take your time to choose your partners, because I met so many compan companies who, found their partner, like, speed dating. And it worked well for three months, six months, two years.

And after two years,they found it was, [00:16:00] not the good relationship. And, and, between the products, for the company or the partners, I would say that the partners is so much important. So, take 

time to, to choose your partners. 

Juliet Fallowfield: Yeah, and get a really solid partnership agreement in place because I can't remember who it was in season one, probably five years ago, saying just sit down with a lawyer and ask all the horrible questions is if you, my business partner has an affair with my wife, what happens to the business?

If you run over my cat? What happens to the business? If I am on life support? What happens to the business? Carry the umbrella and it won't rain. And that's, I think, quite a good lesson. For you 15 years in, is there anything you would do differently with the brand in terms of values or proposition or sort of building that brand with intention?

Is there anything you would've gone? Oh, had I known I'd have done it differently?

Charles Brun: it's a good question. there's a lot. when we started our company in 2010, e-commerce was way less developed than today. We had no [00:17:00] money. So for us, building a worldwide business was had, was to be done through wholesale. So our obsession since the beginning was to make sure we had the best stores selling easy PZ all around the world.

at the time there was an amazing place in Paris called the Collette, which was the temple for fashion, the temple 

for 

design. 

and luckily first after maybe 10 or 12 meetings with Collet and her daughter Sarah, we finally convinced them to take Izipizi. It was tougher because at first they were saying, we are not opticians.

We don't want to sell readers. It's not a product for us, And finally they accepted to make a trial. Luckily, for us, it was a great success. I think it was after five or six days, they had sold everything. Being at Collette for us was amazing because thanks to that we could enter in all the best other stores around the world, ridges and hers in London, the MoMA New York 

isan in Japan, et cetera, et cetera.

so I would say the sixth, seventh, first years of our [00:18:00] company, we were focused on wholesale. and after these years we, we noticed that wholesale was great. That if we wanted to build a brand, it was not enough. we had more and more products that we couldn't present. We couldn't expose our brand, DNA, our brand universe also.

So we opened our first, easy P store in Paris, I think it was in 2017. So it took us seven years to open our first store. and then our websites, has always been there, but during the first years, e-commerce was not, Like today 

I feel a bit like an old di saying that, but at that time, stores were seeing internet as a competition, and they didn't want us to sell easy P on our website. So we had to hide and we didn't, communicate on our website. So I think our website really emerged also, 2016, 2017, something like that.

but sometimes I feel we were a bit too shy. We were a bit too discreet. We were a bit, too much good guys following what our customers were saying. So maybe I would say today we should have start, [00:19:00] opened our first stores earlier. And we should have, focused more on our e-commerce business, earlier.

Juliet Fallowfield: It's so hard though because I, remember when I was traveling before university and I read on a hostile Lou door, it said experiences. What you get after you've needed it and you can look back and be like, oh, had I known that then And starting a business that rollercoaster, that level of responsibility.

The resilience you need. Those three R's are so hard and they can take their toll on you to the point where you're exhausted and you're making bad decisions and you dunno what you're doing. But then you look back and go, oh, had I known that it'd been easy? But this is why I love the podcast, right?

Because there's people like you who have been through the hard yards, who can go, Don't do that. Focus on this. Look at this, and for you, how, given that you can get caught up in said weeds, how do you pull yourself out and kind of think big picture, long-term view without getting caught up in the day to day, because that's quite hard when you've got a brand with huge purpose [00:20:00] that the core of it, you need to think big picture.

How do you keep thinking long term?

Charles Brun: I think it's rituals we have put in place with my partners. every Friday we see each other to talk about, day-to-day business. However, several times a year we take 1, 2, 3 days. The three of us, we go out of Paris. We talk long term. So we have a long term business plan. Now we are working on the 2032 business plan, for example.

 per channel. per country. And we are talking about, products, the products of today, the products of tomorrow, the markets of today, the markets of tomorrow, what kind of innovation we want to bring, what kind of changes we want to bring with our company. So we have this exercise, the three of us.

Now we have an amazing team around us with, COMEX, which are great people, and it's, something on which we work with them. So at least two times per year, we go with them out of Paris also for two or three days. And with them we talk about, long-term projects. So, yes, [00:21:00] this is really important.

Juliet Fallowfield: This makes a lot of sense. 'cause every time I come into this. Store and I'm like, what's new? What's, it's like a candy store. It's like there's gonna be something new and exciting, but you always know the frame shape and how it works. So the mechanics of the store and the brand are the same, but you always have an exciting lens, color or shape or something.

And. You, want to go in to discover what's new, but this makes sense 'cause you're working on a lead time and to anybody listening that is thinking about marketing and pr, you need a lead time. And we often meet clients that we do. We train people how to do their own PR and keep PR in house and let founders enable and to own their storytelling.

But they'll go, well, we're launching tomorrow. What press can we get? I'm like, absolutely none. You should be thinking about this. Six months ago. So you thinking long term, it just then trickles down and feeds through the whole business. Obviously the design team, production team shipping, and you've got the option to ship sustainably because you've got lead time.

This organization. And forgive me for saying this, I've worked for many, French brands. [00:22:00] This is kind of unusual in the brand world to be this strategic. I've worked for Chanel and Chy and all sorts of brands and I'm like, oh God, this sounds like a really gorgeous spreadsheet somewhere in the business.

So I'm sure your team are very grateful for it.

Charles Brun: But we are in March, 2026. I can tell you that all our products for 2027 have already been confirmed, validated, et cetera, whether we know what we launch at what time, all our marketing plan for 2027 is already finalized, month per month, week per week, 

Juliet Fallowfield: I'm gonna clip this and send it to every single client and be like, learn from these guys because it worked. 'cause you know you've got the, you've got the production schedule for the photography, you've got all the assets and you can really put the support behind it to launch, which is why it looks so slick.

This makes perfect sense. 

Charles Brun: after you have to remain agile. And we are also bringing newness sometimes, in within one or two months. But at [00:23:00] least the core collection is all really anticipated minimum one year in advance. But yes, as you were saying, we don't have choice because, that's the, production lead time.

Shipping lead time,and all the identity you have to work on, the brand assets, you have to work on. All this takes, ages. Even if with thanks to ai, you save time also.

Juliet Fallowfield: Yeah. Well, given you've obviously got great intentions for the brand, how do you keep that refreshed for yourself? How do you not let the day-to-day business wear you out? How do you keep 

enthusiastic for that part of the business?

Charles Brun: I think first of all, we are enthusiastic, people with my partners. we love our products. We always say the good thing with the, with glasses is that it's the first thing on people's face. So, and it's really a fashion accessory. It's, it's easy to shape. it's light. It's,it's something you you like. 

Juliet Fallowfield: Yeah. 

Charles Brun: and we try to make sure all our glasses are light. it's something you are happy to wear. with our readers, we are lucky because some of our customers have [00:24:00] 5, 10, 15 pairs. They change every day depending on how they dress, the color of their bags, the color of the shoes, the color of the nails. And it's the same for kids.

It's the same for adults. We really have this, mini me, asset also. So, we like the products. we develop. all is done internally. We have an amazing, brand marketing team. It's, I think, combined 25 to 30 people to work on the product, to work on the identity of the brand, on our shooting, on the space design, the how we, arrange our stores, our popups, our corners, 

so all this is done internally with really, Talented people. We test a lot. we launch a lot of novelties also. so this is part of our magic source also is, since the beginning we wanted all these assets to do things,to do it internally, because we felt that if we want to different differentiate ourselves, it'll be done on the how we sell it and how we conceive it, right?

Juliet Fallowfield: So, But how do you keep your energy up? Like when you are looking at making sure you've got good [00:25:00] brand values, you're looking after your people, you are making, you've got ethical pipelines of supply. And you are looking at the materials you are using, that's quite a lot there on your shoulders. How do you keep optimistic about that and not, I mean, the world is a heavy place at the moment.

How do you keep going?

Charles Brun: Yeah. But of course world is tough. But I would say world is tough for everybody. So, there's two ways to see it. First, first way you, you see it positively and you say, okay, the world is tough, but at least I'll try to make sure that. For my team, every day is a good day and we try to improve every day for our team, for our customers.

we read a lot, we learn a lot. we meet a lot of people. We are always out of the office, to see what are the new trends coming. as I was saying, we have a subsidiary, the US since, three years now, and very often here. I try to catch things coming from the us. We try to catch things coming from Europe.

We try to catch things coming from Asia. Also, of course, we work well in, in Japan. We work well in Korea. [00:26:00] So all these brand trends, social trends, we try to catch them as much as possible. with our marketing team, with our brand team, with our design team, with our communication team.

and I think we are. requiring a lot from our team Also. We always want to learn and to improve with our supply chain, with our production, We always aware about the new materials coming. For example, we are trying new materials, recycled materials, bio-based materials, yes, it's always,I would say, being alert on, on what's happening.

Juliet Fallowfield: Yeah. Incredible. And as you have grown internationally and quite phenomenally, how have you balanced that growth and scale with staying true to your values?

Charles Brun: it's a good question. I think you, you can combine both, Today's ZPZ, we are sold in nearly 90 countries. We have, around 8,000 stores selling EZPZ around the world. we have 25 easy PZ stores and we are opening four to five stores per year. And we are even, willing to open more. [00:27:00] but we still do it in a good way with great products, great quality, great design, great people.

so what I'm it's, it's values. We still have,We are called Izipizi So, as I was saying before, I think our name defines who we are. You were mentioning the fact that you are coming to our stores. We really take care of making sure we have a great staff, great customer service in the way we welcome our customers.

well, Izipizi has to define the relationship with our team, the relationship with our customers, how 

Juliet Fallowfield: It's an easy, enjoyable experience and you walk in and it's interesting, the one in Carnaby Street is opposite liberty, and you get a very different vibe when you go into a retailer like that. You come into your store and you are welcomed and you look at the price point and you go, wow, the customer service you're getting It is not reflected in the price point in the best possible way you'd expect 'em to be five times more expensive for the customer service level that you're getting. And I think that's what I love about brands like yours, is that every single touch point from imagery to delivery to the people.

Everything is [00:28:00] touching the same value. And that's quite a rare thing, but quite an incredible thing to be super proud of. So 

Charles Brun: Thank 

Juliet Fallowfield: done. 

 and also just really fun product, as you said, it goes through everything. what would you say to somebody that's starting a business that wants to do the right thing?

Can't get towards B Corp at the moment, but where should they start if they want to become like an ethical, sustainable brand? should they do first?

Charles Brun: it's, good question. I would say take your time. take your time to choose the good partners. Take your time to choose the good product or service or good business. for example, I know at Izipizi when we started, after two or three years, we had, big chains coming to us, willing to sell Izipizi, and.

 we took a hard decision at that time to say no to, to these big chains. so we said no to a big turnover, big potential turnover. But we wanted to remain consistent and saying, okay, if we have a selective distribution, 'cause we want to build a brand on the long term, [00:29:00] we have to take our time.

and for us, going too fast would have killed, the brand, the perception and the 

image.

So, and I see this especially in the US here, people are obsessed by being fast and raise a lot of money, and they are in the sprints. We always said with my partners, we are not in the sprints.

We are in a marathon. And in marathon, you have to be on track and you have to be real trained and your performance is on the long term and. We really see us as doing, as being in ma Marathon, marathon on the long term. and this is our philosophy. It's still our philosophy now,if you are always running a sprint, you burn out.

and this can be terrible. So for us, there's our company, there's our team, there's the brand, and then there's all the life we have with my partners. luckily we have wives and kids and we always took care of, Having time for our wives and our kids as much as possible.

It's not always easy. Yeah. but especially now that we have kids, we really try to preserve our families and to manage our time better than we did that first. So I 

think the [00:30:00] way you manage your time is really important also.

Juliet Fallowfield: God. Yeah. Time is the most precious resource. I think I've said that on every single episode. That money comes and goes. Time is finite, and I just turned 45 and I realized it's like, goodness, I might be over halfway. You know thatthat like if I'm lucky that it really reframed my future and it's like that could be, if I'm lucky, 20 more ski trips, if I'm fit and healthy, who knows?

And it started going, hang on a minute. This is all very finite and it's now that matters. And that's where I think where with good people, wonderful clients that we respect, that respect us back, your day to day needs to be enjoyable. And when you start a business, it can be fraught with stress and mitigating that.

Managing that can be very difficult. just one last question on that. How do you manage to avoid burning out? 

Charles Brun: yes,it's, it's a good question, but it's a bit what I said before. It's,talking a lot with my partners. Once again, we are lucky because we are three. I think it's different 

when it's, [00:31:00] when you are a 

single founder. So 

In three, we always talked a lot. we had our ups and downs and we always supported each other a lot.

one of my partners had kids a bit, earlier than us and earlier than me and my other partner. and since he had kids, we always said, okay, you have kids. Of course that's Izipizi, but you need to have time for your kids. You need to have time for your wife, et cetera, et cetera. so it's. I think it's being tough, with yourself, saying, okay, there's my job, but I have my family, I have my friends.

I want to make sport, So it's blocking your agenda. We try to block our agenda with my partners for the next year. I already know what I have to do in April, in May, and June in July after we can add that. But, and at least we block schedules. For us, three, for our team.

the big important moments for EZPZ. We know them one in advance, And on that, we block moments for our families. We block moments for our kids. We block moments for the sport, we wake up very early, the three of us. But this [00:32:00] is, we have always been, like this,we like to party also, we party now, less now than before, but it's,

Juliet Fallowfield: live a life. 

Charles Brun: of all this.

Juliet Fallowfield: If you block it in your calendar, you see what's actually feasible and what you're trying to jam in, that there isn't time for. And I often sit there going, okay, we do podcast production, we do pr, we do podcast media training, we do affiliate marketing. And it's like, my brain's happy 'cause I like doing all these different things.

It's like I could make my life a lot simpler and just do one thing and go narrow and deep on it and I will get there eventually when I decide which one it is. But yeah, it's, a kind of. I catch 22 in a way. 'cause it feeds all the other things, but the focus, the attention. But yeah, you block calendars and you're like, ah, 

Charles Brun: Yes. 

Juliet Fallowfield: I'm trying to do three days in one.

That's not gonna work.

Charles Brun: But I think for you it's exciting to do many things. Also, if you do only one specific thing, maybe you are more focused, but it's a bit boring also. 

Huh? 

So,

Juliet Fallowfield: better at all of the other ones 'cause they all feed into each other. 'cause affiliate marketing's [00:33:00] impacting PR and podcast production is impacting comms. And yeah, so for me, in my day to day, my brain is happy. Have I got a sustainable business that could scale? No, but I'm fine with that.

Today, next year, maybe that will change. And I think that comes down to values of like, what am I trying to achieve? What does success look like to me? And those are the big questions. something that we do is a question from the previous episodes guest, your episode. And their question for you was, how do you build a brand without.

The Self or without the founder promotion. And this was coming from Nick, from White Rabbit, who's deleted his Instagram. He's like, I don't wanna do, get Ready with me and look at me at this event. And the bragging founder, and there was an article last week in the press saying that founders of the new influencers, and I get it, there is hunger and appetite for that type of content, but how do you build a brand without it?

And this is coming from Nick and from me, who also refuses to do Get Ready with [00:34:00] mes.

Charles Brun: Thank you Nick, and thank you to you. I think this is a good, great question. I think it really depends on your personality. Who you are and what you want to do with your brand. for us, with my partners, we have always been willing to be under the radar and for us, easy. P it's not us, it's our brand.

It's our company. We never talked about us. We always talked about Izipizi about our products, how great they are, about our customers, So I see more and more founders who build the brand and the brand is, it's finally themselves. us We really distinguished our company and us, and we have never talked about ourselves.

We have really never promoted ourselves when we talk and in, in front of journalists, influencers, it's not to talk about ourselves. It's really to talk about our company, about our products and if we want our customers to buy Izipizi. It's not because of, you know, we don't care about that.

It's because they like the brand. It's because they like the products. It's because for them it's the great, price ratio quality. It's because they like the color, they like the feeling, [00:35:00] they like the fact that it's lights. They like the fact that, they have been welcomed in our stores because we have a great customer service, 

So, so yes, For, we never did self-promotion and we don't plan to do, self-promotion.

Juliet Fallowfield: Yeah, so you let the brand speak for itself.

Charles Brun: Yes, 

Juliet Fallowfield: brand. Yeah. Oh, we've taught this at Chanel that no one is bigger than the brand. So the brand comes first and you don't post anything on Instagram about company. And now it's changed a bit that prs are also becoming influencers, but they, I keep saying to my team, there are other ways we just don't see it.

'cause it's not on Instagram. So we will find the other ways. And for me it's, building us, well, it's very different. It's a service based business, but it's building on reputation and testimonial and referral because they are our biggest prs, you know, when they tell other people about us and put us in the room, which is fantastic.

And what would your question be for the next guest? on Entrepre?

Charles Brun: I was rethinking about what we said before between the partner. what is the most important? Is it the partner or is it the product? The [00:36:00] company,and I think this is, an important question. I have the answer to that, but I think,it's an important question. I remember when, I did my master, my, my entrepreneur master.

It was the question the jury asked me. One of the questions the jury asked me, they were saying, according to you, Charles, what is the most important? Is it the product, the business, or is it the team? and I had answered something at that time, 15 years ago, and I would answer totally differently today.

Juliet Fallowfield: 

Charles Brun: so, so I think this is a good question to 

ask. 

Juliet Fallowfield: well. I'm curious 'cause now I know a little bit more about Izzy Zippy. Izzy Zippy. Easy peasy. Tell me how to say it.

Charles Brun: Izipizi 

Juliet Fallowfield: Izipizi 

Charles Brun: expression. Easy peasy lemon 

Juliet Fallowfield: So, you know, because we say easy peasy, but you say peasy in French. Uh, accent. 

Charles Brun: But depending on the countrys Italians say it peasy In 

the US they say, IZ peasy,

 Yes, 

Juliet Fallowfield: I I oscillate because for me, the people make or break a job. It's for me, it's our team and it's our clients, but then we're a service-based business. But for [00:37:00] you, 'cause you have a product-based business, what is it?

Charles Brun: For me, it's the team. Of course. Also,we had the first product that we launched in 2010, which was a disaster. We are lucky now because, we have a product which works really well, but I think it's the fact that us, Quentin , Xavier, and myself challenged ourselves, worked really hard. To launch this new product, which is,working well now.

But, I think what makes the success of a company, of course, it's the team who's behind it. so you could have a great product, but if the team is not great, you destroy everything very 

quickly. 

Juliet Fallowfield: Completely. I mean, I had this job, and I won't mention the brand, but very well known luxury brand. It was the same job on paper, year one, year two, year one. Phenomenal, amazing, mentored, wonderful people. Year two, the CEO started having an affair with her of training, and the whole culture of the whole company disappeared, and so many people left and it.

Tense and stress and I was like, my job description hasn't changed an iota, but I'm leaving the business because of the people and it just wasn't 

working. So it, I learned very [00:38:00] quickly. It's the people that make or break a job.

Yeah. 

Charles Brun: Good. 

Juliet Fallowfield: Amazing. Thank you, Charles It's been so exciting to chat to you. I've been such a big fan of your brand for so long, so when I got the pitch, I was thrilled and jumped at it to have the 

chance to chat to

you. 

It's like meeting one of your idols. 

but 

Charles Brun: thank you 

Juliet Fallowfield: And 

Charles Brun: are a great ambassador. 

Juliet Fallowfield: I really am yeah, I wear you all the time and I love what you've done with the stores and the so thank you so much for your time. It's been great chatting

to 

you 

Charles Brun: Thank you. It was a pleasure.

Juliet Fallowfield: ​