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Wam Bam's Podcast
Adrian Pascual | How He Went From BROKE to Making $2.9 Million Selling Cologne!!! | #150
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This week,
I sit down with Adrian Pascual, the owner of Arvella Fragrance. Adrian shares how he went from being a broke college student riding a bike to building a fragrance brand that has generated millions in sales.
We talk about the early struggles, the mindset it took to keep going when things weren't working, how he built Arvella from the ground up, and the lessons he learned while scaling a business in the competitive fragrance industry.
Adrian also breaks down entrepreneurship, branding, marketing, and what it really takes to turn an idea into a successful company.
Links:
https://arvellafragrance.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrianpascual21
https://www.instagram.com/_adrianpascual/
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Yo yo yo, it's your boy, it's Phil Wham Bam Benamino, baby. It's another Wambam Wednesday, the show about ordinary people who've done extraordinary things. And as always, we're gonna ask you, give us a little bit of love, baby. Click the subscribe button. It costs zero. Just click the button right there. We appreciate it and we get to bring you all these fantastic guests. And let's uh I gotta tell you, if you are a child out there, you are a kid, you are a youngster, or just you know, trying to find your way and uncertain whether or not you can find something that can make you rich quick. Well, turn up the volume because I got a 24-year-old entrepreneur here in the house today who's already made millions. We got Adrian Pascual in here. What's up, Adrian? How are you?
SPEAKER_00Doing great, thank you for having me. Absolutely, man.
SPEAKER_01We gotta we gotta tell the viewers real quick, how did we make the money? What is your business?
SPEAKER_00Okay, so we sell authentic luxury fragrances and we sell them at a more accessible price, but um, we just sell all types of cologne. We're your retailing joint, you know. So if you need niche designer, middle eastern travel sizes, whatever, if it smells good, we sell it, right? So YSO, Christian Dior, uh, MFK, Creed, it doesn't really matter. We've got everything on deck. So if you're looking for something, you know I'm close too. So you know, I got you taken care of.
SPEAKER_01Our Vela. Our Vela is the name and the browser. Now, would you come up with our Vela fragrances?
SPEAKER_00Dude, I'm like so not creative. So I typed into, you know, AI is only gonna work as smart as the user is, right? So I was like, I need to think of something witty. I want something. I've always been into like space, stars, mythology, like, you know, like just Greek creatures and stuff like that. So I needed to come up with something that sounded like a name, but not really a name to where I can brand it. So my prompt, it was Chat GPT. I put, I need a celestial dog name. So like just something that would come from like the galaxy. It gave me like Luna, like Valexia, and then Arbella was one of them. So that's just kind of what I went with.
SPEAKER_01That was the over a dog, the galaxy dog. I like it. Yeah. So now Arvella, it's it's been you've been open, what, a year and a half?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's been about a year and four months.
SPEAKER_01Now, we got to tell the viewers, you bootstrapped this business with 50 bucks.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Okay. You were you were in college fraternity. Tell us a story how this all began. So why cologne?
SPEAKER_00I so this is actually a funny story. Um, one of the biggest guys on the internet right now, Cal Cologne. I had messaged him when I kind of I was kind of just like buying stuff off TikTok shop, you know. Like I was like, oh, I kind of like the cologne. So I'm gonna go ahead and purchase that. But Cal Cologne was the first guy I had ever messaged. He had about a thousand followers or two thousand followers at the time. And I was a gym guy. I had a gym account. Like that's my background. So I messaged him and I said, Hey, look, I kind of want you to look in my collection and let me know what I need to get. I had like four colognes. There's a photo of it that he posted on his page, and I've got it on my page, it's in Arvella Fragrant Story. But I had like a shelf of like 12 colognes, and I just said, What else do I need? He said, YSLYEDP. So went and picked it up on Facebook Marketplace, came back, we kind of chatted it up about buying that. Um, but we kept in touch and then he ended up being the biggest guy on the internet. He just hit a million followers on TikTok in Grass Cow. Yeah. Um but then you know, so we spawned out from that. But as far as starting the actual business, that's kind of what got me into cologne. I always carry it around my curve cologne, though. So whenever I had my backpack in high school, it was keys, wallet, cologne. If I didn't have one of those, I always went back. But at least I needed to have that cologne on me, you know?
SPEAKER_02Right, right.
SPEAKER_00So um had to make sure I had it on this, but that's how I started. But following into it, I was in my college fraternity house. Um, it was coming up on my, it was my four and a half year, right? So I had the extra semester left. All my friends graduated. Dude, I sat in that apartment or in that house and I was like, dude, I just feel like shit. Like I didn't know what was going on. All I had seen all my friends posts on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, like, just got my dream job, just got my dream salary. We're moving to our dream location. Dude, I was sitting in there like, what the hell happened? Like, I had got back there the semester after summer where everyone got their jobs. I had three missing windows because somebody fucking broke the windows over summer. So I had gnats all over my room. My mattress was on the floor. I held it in place by my two 30-pound Wilson dumbbells. Um, I had a I had a TV like not like wall-mounted, but like bolted into the wall from the four corners. I was like, I literally Googled if I can bolt this into the wall, if it'll break the internal circuit. So bolted the TV into the wall, and then I had an L-shaped desk in the corner of my room. And I was like, instead of sitting in bed all the time, why don't I go figure something out over there? So I just kind of like started collecting more colognes. Like it was collecting, it wasn't ever really a business. But I saw people online, like they were selling travel sprays, and that was essentially the idea. So, like, I was saying, instead of me selling exactly the same thing as Sephora, Dillard's, Macy's, or any of these big retailers where they sell the full bottle, like I can't compete, you know, like my my margins are gonna be too high, my prices are too high, I have no reviews to show for it, and why would you ever shop with me over, you know, these established guys? So, um, what I essentially started doing was I took a syringe with an adapter, and then you take the top off the atomizer on a on a coolant. So the thing that sprays, there's like a stem under it. Okay, and you pull juice out of it. So with this juice, I made the travel sprays and I just basically like split the bottles. And so my You buy a bottle and you just kind of break it down into multiples.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So my ideology was if I had a catalog with one item on it, why don't I just split that in half and then put that other, you know, that other um cash flow that I had received here into another item? So I would essentially just end up with instead of one bottle, like two half bottles, but it just expanded the catalog. So that's how I just eventually ramped up and ramped up the catalog. And then um, I just kept on selling, dude. Like on Facebook, if any I'm not joking, if you pressed the like button or I saw you like interact with a story press, hey, what are you doing? You like cologne? You know, like I'm a salesman, that's what I like to do, you know. Um, so made sure I called all these guys. Like, if you had a phone number, you were dialed. It didn't matter who it was. I was calling, you know, mom, grandma, family, extended family. You know, you looked at my LinkedIn profile. Like I called somebody, but I was like, you know, I like I can't reach enough people here. Like, I just feel like this is not enough. So I just started posting content. Like I didn't know that it was, you know, like I didn't know what to do. I didn't know how to do it. Everybody always wants the perfect template of how to start shit, but you know what they say? Um, the best time to buy real estate. The the best the first best time was 30 years ago, the second best time is today. Right. So don't ever wait, you know. So I didn't have a perfect setup, I didn't have a perfect camera, I didn't have perfect lighting. I popped my damn iPhone up on a desk and I held it up with a Pringles jar and I just put it there. And I just I my first video was a Pringles jar. So my first video was um, hey guys, I fucked up the marketing budget. So this is it. And I was like, I'm just gonna start talking about colognes. I'm gonna leave my complete 100% honest reviews. If I like it, I like it. If I don't, you're going to hear it. And I still do it. If you go look at my brand page, you know, I'll talk about a product and I go, don't fucking buy this. It smells like shit, but we have it for sale. And people still buy it. I don't know why. I did that.
SPEAKER_01I wouldn't know if it smells like shit.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I know. I do.
SPEAKER_01It'd be a good gag gift, yeah, you know, for somebody.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah. We actually did that recently with an item and it sold out. I was like, what are y'all doing, dude? There you go.
SPEAKER_01That could be.
SPEAKER_00But yeah, so I just I kind of started making content, and that was just like, you know, that was my way in my head where I was like, oh, I can reach a few more people, right? Like a few more people would be able to interact with me or ask what it smells like or do this or that. Like once I have that lead gen, I get you, right? Like, like you, you, you know, you're a salesman. I'm a salesman. That's it, you know, like we, I if you'd had if you never had a need for cologne, I'll make you need it. You won't be able to breathe without it. Uh so um just started making more content. And then my original brand when I first started, so I had kind of started the business like August 2024, but I didn't really know what I was doing. That's just kind of when I was collecting and selling stuff. When did you really consider that? Okay, I'm in business, February of 2025. Okay. So every ever so I started the business as AP Cologne or AP Deacons. Like I kind of shuttled between the two depending on what I was selling. Um, but then I had just started making content, it started blowing up, and I was like, I don't really know the direction.
SPEAKER_01This is all online. Yeah. Or did you go door to door too?
SPEAKER_00Oh no, I literally did this sitting in my bed. I don't like I probably sat in bed longer than I did walked when I built the business.
SPEAKER_01I sat in bed and it's just unbelievable, dude. That's the power of social media. Yeah, that's the power of how easy it is today to be able to get in front of somebody, right? You gotta leave your home.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, everybody's like, you gotta have this epic morning routine, uh cold light plunge and work out. Dude, I'm like picking my nose at 11:30 and I'm like making calls, you know? Like it's not that big. Like, I'll literally sit in bed like this and just I'll make all my important calls. Like my team will be like, hey, we have a big important business meeting. I'll literally sit there and just kick my feet up in bed and I'll like be watching TV. You know, but it's just it's comfortable. Whenever I put myself in the position where I feel like I'm working, then I then I don't perform. So like I make everything very organic. Like I tell all my guys, I'm not a suit guy, I'm not a professional guy, I'm just an ordinary guy. Like there's nothing, there's nothing to it. I just like to work hard. Um, but you know, I started making the content in February, I can't remember, 8th or 9th of 2025. So it was about a year ago. Um, I made a Facebook post and it was a very long appreciation post, and it was just essentially saying, Look, I'm gonna give this all I've fucking got. Because I watched all my friends graduate, I watched all these guys make it in life. I thought that these guys were gazillionaires in my head, and I had nothing. Like I was just sitting in my fraternity house going, like, nice, this guy's posting his brand trip, his business trip. I was like, dude, like, I can't catch up. So I gotta figure it out. I gotta set myself aside from these guys, you know, like you can't be extraordinary doing ordinary things. So I made the post and I was like, look, if you've supported me up until this point, I just want to say thank you guys so much. Like, this business is nothing without you guys. The customers are everything I value and cater to you guys, and I will leave no stone left unturned to make sure you guys are delivered the best products humanly possible. And I said, I'm going to pursue this full time. If I make it, it works. And if I don't fuck it, I'll try it again. So that was that was always my philosophy. So last year in February is when I was like, you know what? I either make this shit work or it doesn't. But um, I only got a plan A, there's no plan B. So you know what? Might as well give it all I got on this stage.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, what they say. Plan B is don't fuck up plan A. Yeah. I like that one. I'm taking that one. That's right. That's the way. I'm taking that one. Start us with 50 bucks. Yeah. What'd you turn that 50 into? Like, what was it for? Did you flip it to make a hundred or did you 50 times 60? Was it small margins, big margins?
SPEAKER_00How did you do it? I didn't, so I had always like like watch business podcasts and watch people talk about it. I never realized anything I was doing was business. Like I didn't understand that what I was doing was business. Like, like, so when I had my first bottle of Aqua to Geo, that's what I had. Um, and then I had my curve bottle. I couldn't sell that one, bro. That one was too close to me. You know, like I would have bought it. Your boy Wam would have bought it because I got something. I was like, I have to keep this one. So I was I had a few bottles where it was my Aqua to Geo. That was my first one I had. I remember my first guy on Facebook, his name's Guzman. I'm actually gonna message him after this. Yeah, my first customer ever. He he messaged me. I don't even think I would have made it to where I am without this guy, but he was like, dude, look, you've got something special. You've worked harder than anybody I've ever met in my whole life. You clearly want something more than anybody else does. Like, you will make it work. And I was like, I haven't even sold anything yet. Like, how can you say that? And he was like, Because I'm about to purchase. So that's why I was like, Whoa, like it was just that easy. Like, what why did you buy from me? He was just like, I like you. And I was like, So it wasn't even about the clin at that point.
SPEAKER_01That's important. Say that again because the viewers need to hear that.
SPEAKER_00That I he just bought from me because he liked me, but I didn't understand.
SPEAKER_01You are liked. People will buy because they like you, right? But again, if they don't like you, well, chances on buying, they gotta really need a product. Yeah, they gotta really need it at that point. Yeah, so it's nice to be liked. Yeah, you know. Go to Amazon today and purchase money management for beginners, a book for everybody, especially younger kids. Kids that get money don't know what to do with it. This is the best $20 you'll ever spend. We'll save you millions. That's right. I said millions of dollars if you start young and earn you the same. A M A Z O N Amazon.
SPEAKER_00With that, so with that bottle, I literally I made the travel sprays for my first sale to sell to Guzman. And then the additional money that I had made off of those, I just bought another one. Like I had just bought another bottle. You know, like marginally, you're gonna work a lot better from, you know, it's like wholesale terms, right? You buy a shit ton, you get a larger discount. If you're only buying 15% of the bottle, you're probably gonna have to upsell a little bit just so we can pay for costly.
SPEAKER_01Go buy the product. How do you know where to go get the product? Amazon. Like it's it's just so not difficult. You were just going to Amazon, getting it shipped to you, and then reselling it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. No, so okay, so the product itself, I had originally just started buying it from Amazon or like Facebook Marketplace. I didn't know anything better than like authentic fragrances, or you got to buy from these guys or those guys. I didn't even know. So I just bought it from them. Um, and then the travel sprays, Amazon, syringe, Amazon, um, the actual fragrances itself, I was getting it off Amazon. Like everything came from there. I didn't know that there was an industry out there. Like, I just started playing and I liked what I was doing. Um, but I flipped that into two, two into four, four into eight. Like, I have spent zero dollars like anywhere. I don't do anything. My biggest expense is taking my team out for dinner. That's it. Just you know, reinvest in my guys, make them happy. You know, happy employees equal happy customers. So hundred percent. Um, like that's my biggest expense. I don't spend any money. I just love the game. I don't care about the money. I've always been it to provide value to my customers.
SPEAKER_01So I mean, how many employees do you need to really shovel cologne? What how many employees you got?
SPEAKER_00Well, so we've got 18 now. What? But that's you got 18 employees now.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So you went from one to 18 in a year and a half.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, we actually hired our third employee. My mom helped me pack orders for about the last eight months or so.
SPEAKER_01Good for you, man.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, she, you know, I at first I was like, I don't want to get any family involved. That's never what I want to do. But she was like, listen, this is what I want to do. She calls it like brainless work, like just kind of packing a box. She likes to do it. And I was like, listen, if you are dying to do it, you can do it. But like this is something that I feel like I am obligated to do, right? Like I didn't, I didn't understand delegation at the time. I didn't understand I could give stuff to people. So I was like, I was like, I'm gonna do it all myself. And she was like, No, I got it. And I was like, wait a second, I delegating is key.
SPEAKER_01The only way you can scale, the only you can grow. Yeah, it's the only way to get it. So it's important that people understand that as well, because you know, a lot of times people are afraid to delegate because they want job security, you know, as well. But it's like, boom, in order to elevate, you have to duplicate yourself. Yeah. The only way to do that is to delegate some of the work around.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Well, it's I mean, like, if you're not delegating your job, essentially you're just the highest paid job of, you know, if you die, this job doesn't exist anymore. Or if you know, if you're not delegating your jobs the right way, now you're just the highest paid babysitter of all time. So, like, you know, you got to create a good process for these guys and always set themselves up to set them up to win. Like, if you set these guys up to fail, like, hey, welcome to the team, no onboarding process, you got nothing. Like, these guys are gonna fail, right? Like, you just like, hey, welcome to it. Like, bring your knowledge here, and I'm gonna give you, you know, I'm gonna tell you the picture to paint, but I'm not even gonna give you the canvas. Good luck.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00So, um, but yeah, two and a half months ago, I hired my third employee, and then I just hired a fuck ton more after that. Because I was like, wait, I didn't realize like where I was in business. Because with my mom alone, I had already done a million and a half dollars by myself from the 50.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and how long?
SPEAKER_00It was it was about a year.
SPEAKER_01About a year. So years time, you already hit over a million dollars worth of business. Yeah, just selling cologne, just cologne, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Just cologne, battling it up and selling it.
SPEAKER_01It was only the travel sprays. Did you make any money doing it? Yeah, what was your profit margin?
SPEAKER_0075% on this. But that was just the travel sprays, right? So we had just like I said, it's 15% of the bottle. Why would you pay X amount? Like, it's obviously gonna cost the labor, you know, you got your cost of goods sold, your raw materials, stuff like that. Um, but that was just travel sprays. And then I had gone to a convention in August where I met a lot of other people and that and they were selling bottles, and I was like, whoa, like I didn't understand that's something you can do. I just like I said, I was so oblivious to everything. I never asked any questions, I just did something. Like doing something is better than nothing. Sure. So um, yeah, but like I had every every moment up until about I don't even know, like this February. Like we had gotten into our warehouse January 2026, so January this year, and then I had hired my third additional employee in February, and I was like, I can do this all myself. Like I was editing, I was buying, I was marketing, I I recorded all my videos, I posted all my videos, I did all the customer service, and then I hired this guy, and I was like, Holy shit, I don't even have to worry about this warehouse anymore. Like, I don't understand why I don't just do this all the time. So I like took a look at the numbers, and then our accountants were like, hey, this is what you're looking at probably. Like, we gotta get rid of this, you know. So I was like, Okay, whoa, okay, so what do I do? And they were like, Mark it and go higher. And I went, Great, you know what? Like, I just so I just I like slung out everything one by one, right? Like the tedious task that could be easily replicable. I started at the bottom and I worked my way up. Like I just hired my brother full time. He just graduated college. He's he's our new ops coordinator and data analyst. But I was like, I I would have never known a year ago that this is someone I'd even need, right? You know, so it was just like kind of tedious, slowly delegating my processes, and I kind of really sat back, create good systems for these guys to succeed and win. Um, but when I started, I had no idea that what I was doing was a system, right? Like I had created the sequence to make these bottles. So, like if I wasn't in town, my mom would go, like, hey, how do I do this? And I was like, Oh, okay, let's just write it down as like an instruction manual. Like the way I describe SOPs to my guys is um if you get a box of Legos, right, and you're looking at the photo on the front of the box, this is your final product. Now I'm gonna hand you no instructions. How well do you think you're gonna build that set? It's nearly impossible. So you have to write that instruction manual as easily as humanly possible for literally like a second grader to understand it. Like connect images, make it colorful, highlight it. Like, you know, those guys in like elementary school, those girls in elementary school where they make it look like a like a wonder book in there? Make those SOPs beautiful, make it easily replicable.
SPEAKER_01And now you can do videos, which is even easier. Oh my god. So now you just watch how you do it. Yeah, you know, so though you didn't have to read it anymore. Yeah. So that's the nice thing about that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that was that was kind of like when I but when I was going through the motions and just kind of starting with business, I didn't understand that what I was doing was an operation. I didn't would know that what I was doing in terms of how I spent my money was finances. Like, I didn't understand that me recording videos was like marketing. I I don't know why it just didn't really occur to me. I just it naturally I was like, this is what I have to do. I need to reach more people, go post videos, right? Like, I'm not gonna be here to do this, so I need to teach her how to do it. Like, that's that's literally the occasion that happened. Like, so the first occurrence was like we had a $200 product, but there's a bigger size of it. The next upsize was $500, right? Um, she $500 for perfume, yeah. Cologne? Yeah. Was it girls or guys? It's it's unisex. Killian's Angel share. It was a 3.4 ounce. If anybody knows cologne, you'll know what I'm talking about. Monumental mistake that happened here. So the customer ordered a 1.7 ounce, which is like the 50 milliliter. Um, I didn't have a system to be able to pick anything. So she had packed the 3.4, which was double. And that was not a that was not a margin that I was like willing to lose at the time. And I was like, holy shit. So instead of like, you know, you could easily have just gone in and started bitching at your employees, but I sat back and I was like, how do I fix this problem? Um, and then I I put like codes in front of everything, and then I realized that that was skews. Like I didn't understand that what I was doing was anything. It was just like, it just came natural. Like, but um that was like the first system I had I had created, and then I wrote everything down that I had done, and then I I Googled one day like how to hire someone, and they go, Oh, hand them this set of instructions. And then I went, Holy shit, I have that. Like, I have all this. So I just gave it to them and it worked. So, like, I don't know what I'm doing. I really don't. I'm gonna just like take a stab at it.
SPEAKER_01You know what you're doing, it's just natural for you. Yeah, like that's the thing. You're you're figuring it out. Like you you went ahead, you're hustler, and that's what it's about. But you know how to build relationships, you know how to build trust, and you know how to resell, which is extremely important. Yeah, you know, the question is what's more important, selling or marketing?
SPEAKER_00I don't know. I think they kind of work synergistly, but I would definitely say marketing.
SPEAKER_01Bing bing ding ding ding, you got the right answer, kid. Yeah. It's marketing. Yes, you gotta learn how to market. Marketing is the key because if you can't market, you can't scale. Yeah, and that's it. You can sell, but you can't scale. Marketing is what's gonna get you to the next level, and clearly that's what you're doing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, marketing to me is just you know, universal selling. You kind of just sell to everybody to a mass catered audience. So, like, you know, if you want to get in front of them, yeah, you know, especially these days.
SPEAKER_01You know, you talk about algorithms and different things and how to get caught on people's feeds. You know what I mean? Yeah, I mean, shoot, dude, I got friends that I used to be friends like I don't even get to, I don't see their post. You know what I'm saying? I don't know why I don't see their post. I'm friends of them, you know what I mean? But for some reason I'm not seeing them. So obviously they're out of my algorithm. So, you know, so you can't control that. So you gotta find other ways too that if you're not an algorithm, how are you gonna how are you going to get to them? Yeah, you know, whether it's you know, flyers, whether it's boom, giving things away, whether it's billboards. Like there's all different ways, obviously, to market. Yeah, but you know, what's working if it ain't broke, you know, don't fix it. Exactly. Just do more of it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Dude, so our my philosophy with marketing is like, and this is just kind of how I operate. I don't like skipping. I'm a creature of habit. Like I eat from the same spot every day. I work at the same spot, I do the same sequence of events, workout. It's the same thing every day. Yeah. So I started putting these things in and I was like, I can't stop. Like, like there's this something in me to where it's like, yo, you could take a day off. Like as much as I like my body wanted to, I couldn't. I couldn't get my fingers to stop moving. Like my brain wouldn't shut off. Like I would sit in bed at 2 a.m. Like, I haven't done my video for the day. Get the fuck up. Like, that was always my thing. Like, I can't control it. Like, I just want to win so bad. I will do anything humanly possible that it takes to win. It doesn't matter what it is. I tell my team all this all the time. If my last waking moment on this earth and my last blink is that I see my guys win, I will die for this. So I've never been in this for the money. I'm been I'm in this for the dynasty, you know? So, like, if you're if like God forbid Adrian goes away someday, who can take over? Hopefully, my guys can, and I've taught them well. Yeah. So um, I just want to build something that people see value in, like our customers see the value that we have to offer as well. And I just like to make people happy, you know? Like there's people out there that are wearing our cologne right now, and in my head, I'm like, damn, like, you know, I just we did something, you know, we made some kind of impact, you know. I feel like I did something. But it kind of all relates back to that guy that was just sitting in that fraternity house, and I was like, dude, what am I doing? Like, I'm such a loser. Like, I have nothing going for me. I was going out, just like drinking every night, hanging out with the guys, making the worst possible decisions of all time, you know? And I was like, let's just let's let's take this dedication towards you know, degeneracy and like let's put it into something cooler. So I was like, Yeah, let's do let's get you.
SPEAKER_01What's your life like now that you're not like now that you you know grabbed a little bit of success and you see that you see a different road, are you still going out drinking and hanging out and doing those things?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, like not not but yeah, I'm doing this stuff too. So not all the time, right? Like we so I actually had the opportunity to fly my entire team out this weekend. So I got every all of our guys that live in the United States. I had flown them down to hang out with us. Um and we took them out, you know, like and I the thing about it is going out with your friends is very humanizing, right? If me and you only sit down at the table with a with a suit and a briefcase all the time, like cool, you know. Like we're not friends. Like we we just sat down and we handed each other papers and we swapped and signed it with a pen. But um, I think that it's very humanizing to just go and hang out with people sometimes, you know, like maybe like laugh a little bit, sling a few jokes, you know, cry a little bit, whatever you need to do. But I personally team building, baby. Team building. Yeah, I think that personal relations will bring you further than any business school you can ever acquire. Like I had ran into something on the way here on the car. I had to make a phone call. I was talking to her, I was like, dude, I'm so glad I have friends. Like, that's you got to expand the network. Like, you just gotta have somebody. So um, yeah, just it's my lifestyle has not changed. When I first started, I was a student of business. I got up, I worked out, I went to the gym. Um, I ate the same food every day, and I uh and I just I make sure I get my eight hours of sleep. Like that was kind of my thing. Occasionally on the Saturdays, I'll go out with my guys. So now what's different is I wake up, I go to the gym, I eat the same things every day, I work at the same spot every day, and I occasionally take my guys out on the weekends. So nothing's changed. Um, it's just the scale at what I'm doing has changed.
SPEAKER_01I I love when you say, you know, now, like, you know, you've been in this for so long. You're 24 years old, man. You're 24 years old and you figured out a lot already. So you're way ahead of the curve. So kudos to you, man. I appreciate it. You know, let's talk about your product a little bit. You know, obviously, cologne, we can buy cologne anywhere. Yeah. Why do people want to buy for you? Besides the people that don't know you, right? They're gonna know you now, they're gonna know about you. You know what I'm saying? But people that don't really know you and who you are and what you stand for, you know, why do I buy your cologne over somebody else's?
SPEAKER_00Okay, so I'll give it to you like this. If you stayed at a Motel 6 or you stayed at the Ritz-Carlton, your essential outcome was that you got a place to stay for the night, right? Yeah. So what we have to offer is like we all sell very similar products. We all sell YSL, we all sell DSO or Dior, we all sell Creed, MFK. But we we want we want our brand and our experience to our customers to hold more value than the product itself. And what we do is we curate collections on our website versus like if you go look at any other website, you'll look at the shop all or the men's bestsellers or the women's bestsellers, which are collections we have. But we curated everything with a very developed team of guys, and I have these guys that they've gotten their nose on everything, bro. Like these are cologne snobs. Like I thought I was. I don't, these guys got 10 strips in their hands and they're smelling everything at one time, dissecting notes. I'm like, y'all got it, y'all help me out. You know, so um, you know, if you wanted a date night scent, we help and pick that out for you. If you wanted a professional or a special occasion or uh, you know, you're going to a wedding, anything. We have curated collections for everything. So something that happens with my brother a lot, right? Is that he goes into a gas station and there's so much candy that he gets overwhelmed that he can't choose. So we help the customer choose what they want versus just going and blindly looking at a catalog. Um, something else we offer is a highly curated quiz as well that we cater to our customers. So um they answer questions that are personalized to them, and then we literally tell them what colognes best fit the scenario that they chose. But aside from all else, I want to build a luxury brand where people like the shop. I don't want to, you know, like I said, there's a Motel 6, but there's also the Rich Carlton. It's no hate on either. It's just you would rather stay at one over the other. Experience. Yeah, but it's about the experience. I want like the way that I feel like shopping just like at any kind of luxury store, like Louis Vuitton or Christian Dior, there's just something different. It's the ambient lighting, it's the people that they have there, it's the way that they hold themselves, the standard. And they all sell purses and they're all made from the same material. So, like, why buy this over, you know, the coach or like the Walmart bag? It's just the way that they carry the experience for the customer. They make them feel valued, they make them feel like they're part of the brand and part of the team. So anybody that buys from us is their family, right? This is we're customers, we've built this together. Everybody has seen my story online, and I make sure everyone's included. You know, even if you have a customer complain in my comment section, I'm there, right? You go comment on any other's brands, like it's kind of hard to reach them, you know? Like it's it's nothing to it. It's just like I'm just hyper addicted to making my guys feel like they're part of the team. Um, any questions that people have, we go ahead and cater that to all of them. Also, the value of our sale is just we we want to give more, right? So uh complimentary travel sprays on almost all orders. And we actually just ran a promo recently where we're actually launching something. I know I was telling you about it, but I wanted to keep it. All right, let's hear it. Let's hear it, yeah. Um, so we had we had a promotion recently where it was X amount of orders had gotten a complimentary travel spray, and everyone was like, Oh, I want to like try and get this, try and get that. Everyone put order notes in. But we had actually made something ourselves, which is something that we're working on right now. And we sent it out to all of our customers because I wanted feedback. That's all I wanted. I didn't want to hear like, oh my God, praise like this is the best thing ever. You know, by all means, like that was that was my desired outcome, but I wanted to hear what everybody had to say. Um, I didn't have a single complaint on it, so it was just all my guys had received the product that we my team had been working on so hard. But we're looking to release one of our fragrances here soon. So you're only going to be able to shop at Arvella Fragrance to get these items. Um, and that's just kind of been my dream the whole time.
SPEAKER_01Um, yeah, what is the cost of acquisition right now to get a client, though?
SPEAKER_00Right now, our customer acquisition is $25. And it's only because I had never spent money on paid media. Um, we had never ran Facebook or meta ads or uh TikTok ads. Everything prior was organic and it was just me, and I had no expenses. I had my one employee. So everything is kind of translating from there. So I'm able to spend so much more on marketing now because prior I had no overhead. I had nothing. I just bought new products all the time. Right. Um, but now I'm to the point to where diversification is probably not the best bet. And I want to just give more of what people already want instead of testing a bunch of bullshit, you know? Like there's a bunch of brands out there that it's, you know, I'm not saying that I don't want to market them and they don't have good products, but it's gonna be a harder sell. So why am I gonna pick that item up over the the stuff that already sells and stuff that I can personally move myself, right? So, like customers value our opinion heavily online of like what we think and what my team thinks about these fragrances. So I only tell them what we like, and then they usually just end up liking it. So, like, one of the ones that we really like right now is I like a Zoro Chrome. That's one of the oldies. I don't know if you know about that. Yeah, I know. I'll try that one. It's like a little ice cube shaped bottle. And everybody had told me it would have been.
SPEAKER_01You could have left me one.
SPEAKER_00Dude, I can't I can't be promoting for free. You're not.
SPEAKER_01This is this is gonna be clients right here for you.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, fair enough.
SPEAKER_01Hi, I'm Phil Benamino, CEO and founder of Cost Plus Processing, the company that provides financial services to your business. We provide things such as POS systems, ATM machines, and check services. One of the biggest things that we strive ourselves here at Cost Plus Processing is our customer service. We are an A plus rated with the BBB customer service. And we're proud to say we're here in the United States with all of our customer service agents. Our objections is to actually teach you and educate you about the costs that you're currently paying and show you ways where you can eliminate those costs that you no longer have to pay. One of the biggest programs that are out there today is our dual pricing program, where you actually can offer your customers now a choice of how they want to pay. Do they want to pay with cash or do they want to pay with card? And if they pay with card, it actually helps you to absorb the card fees so you no longer have to pay the fees like you've done for many, many years. Costless processing aligns ourselves with some of the top POS companies out there in the industry today. For example, we have perfected the car dealership industry, and our dedicated team are equipped to manage a variety of online payment forms and financing options that merchants require in this advanced ecosystem of payments. If you have a restaurant, we are proud to be able to manage the ongoing difficulties that arise from this fast-paced industry, and you're looking for pay at the table where customers can easily swipe their cards, tap their cards, and make their payments with tip and also have a choice of how they want to pay. We have the solutions for you here at Costco. We want to help other small business owners make their dreams come true from providing the best financial support from barbershops to liquor stores. Having the ability to take payments scheduled online and make calculating tip sharing an easy task only helps business owners put more attention and money into what really matters the most. Also, cost plus processing is on the front end of AI. We can also provide you kiosk for your business so customers can walk over to the kiosk and order anything that they want. Likewise, if you're having a problem getting employees in the kitchen to work, we can also provide you robots that will actually deliver your food straight to the customer. I want to thank you for the time that you took to learn a little bit about cost plus processing. And most importantly, why we are the future of merchant processing.
SPEAKER_00Nothing. I pay them as a matter of fact. Yeah. So um that was just one of the products that I really liked, and we started promoting that. But I just I had I had just kind of wanted to let my customers know that you can trust us. You know, like obviously, what I like to say is it's subjective to everybody. I'm an ordinary guy with an ordinary nose. Nothing about me is superior. I'm not gonna just generate a great scent out there that everyone loves, but I will say that most of you guys will like it. So that's kind of the curation that I like to do on my end with my what about pricing and stuff? So pricing is going to be a little different. We we like to, we're our prices are definitely a bit higher than everybody else, but the value that we have to stack on top of that is going to be much better. We are essentially the Amazon prime of the retailers. Um, a lot of these other guys like they don't want to hold up money, which is, you know, it's part of business, right? So you have to choose. Um, it's the project management triangle, right? You get good, you get fast, and you get cheap. You only pick two. So we chose good and fast. We deliver high quality products, high quality experience, high quality customer service, and we have to ship that shit quick. So these pre-order guys, they're able to take very slim margins and they get to, you know, essentially pre-order the item, right? So, hey, you can buy this item, but I don't have it yet. It's in Italy. So they got to wait three weeks to get it. We only ship stuff out of the warehouse, right? So cure uh cure corrugated boxes, very premium, but or very premium packaging and bubbling. We've had like three items break in the last 15,000, I think, or something like that, which is a very good metric. Um, but we pride ourselves in shipping a lot faster. So if you want your items quick and like, you know, entrepreneurs, if you want to buy your time back essentially a little faster, it's gonna cost you a little bit. But like I said, we're always reliable. We'll never be the guys to do that. So we we can't charge the prices we do without providing that value to our customers. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01How do you scale it next?
SPEAKER_00There's a lot of good questions there. There's a lot of good questions there. Um we actually had a meeting about this earlier. So, you know, we kind of want to slim down on diversification on the back end of stuff of like testing products, right? Because like, how do you know something's ever gonna sell if you don't ever try and sell it? So we want to slim down on that, get stuff moving a little bit more. But the new fragrance on deck is is heavily in our favor to be the next brand or be the next scaling um idea. Um, another thing is I would like to whitelist more of my top performing affiliates, but um, there's a lot of guys that I just really like working with. Um, there were guys that had believed in me when I first started the business that I still give a shot to, so they're always in the budget. Like those guys are always taken care of. I told you guys if you believe in me now, I'm bringing you to the top, right? Nick Saban said be careful who you're nice to on the way up. You might need them on the way down. Exactly. So this the cologne is definitely number one. Get something internal, get something exclusive to our brand. Um I don't know the next step.
SPEAKER_01What do you do as far as warehouse? Because you said you ship everything out of your warehouse. So you got a warehouse now, which you know, we're gonna we're gonna flip up some photos here where you started. Okay, your warehouse and your little in your in your fraternity home, okay, where you started and where you are today. Now you have a nice huge warehouse. Yeah, you say you buy products. What if people aren't buying those products? What do you do with what's left over? Is there a shelf, you know, time on those things or what?
SPEAKER_00This is where it wouldn't necessarily cater to our direct customers, but like if it doesn't move and a lot of our customers don't like it and we don't talk about it, then I don't want to promote it. Like that's just kind of how it is. So we kind of just have our guys price. That money's sitting on a shelf, though. Yeah, we price it to move and it always moves, you know. So like there's people that are waiting for an item. We want to see if our guys want it or not. But if nobody wants it, then you know we don't want it. So you guys can have it. That's essentially like the ideology there, right? Like, if we bought it for 100 and we can't sell it at our price, you know what? Screw it. We'll try and sell it at 100, you know? So um, we price a lot of our stuff to move. And another thing is maybe the price point for the fragrance, they find the value to be a little bit too high, but we can't get to the desired price that everybody else wants. Because A, we're a smaller company, so like we don't get, you know, the 20, 30, 40% wholesale discount that these other giants are because we're not purchasing in that volume. And we also don't want to purchase that much of a single particular skew, right? So um we would just make travel sprays and let people try it. And another thing is like a lot of people don't know about these back-end fragrances, the stuff that doesn't move, and they don't know that it they're fantastic fragrances. They smell great. It's just the brand around the fragrances in it. So we make the travel sprays and we'll literally just empty out some of these bottles into travel sprays and just throw them into order sometimes and just see if people like it. So it's complimentary on top of the order that they already got, and they go, Oh, wait, I kind of like this. Um, now they know where to find it, right? That's a very easy way to start moving products that you don't want, but that has worked tremendously with us, you know. Like somebody's gonna like it. Sure, sure. Yeah, it's essentially sampling. Like, and it it uh it's very low cost for us and it's very it's extremely high value for the customer. So, like I said, I just like to make people happy. And at the at the end of the day, if you're buying cologne, you're you want to smell good. If the thing that I sent you smells good, you probably you know want to purchase it for yourself.
SPEAKER_01So let's talk about authenticity. Yeah, how do some of these people know that wow, his prices are so low? Are you sure it's creed? Are you sure it's really creed? Or is it a knockoff version of the creed, right? Yeah, how do how do people know?
SPEAKER_00Like, you know, this is are you selling the real deal? This is the strongest objection between everybody, right? So, like if you go into our reviews, um, or not even really our reviews, because everything is always authentic. So um the number one is everything is 100% authentic. We get it from uh trusted suppliers and vendors only. Um, but the way that we show these people that everything is authentic is we just send it to regular people to you know show our product, right? Like, there's nowhere in a contract where you can go like, hey, we have like bullshit, go ahead and promote bullshit, right? Like we tell our guys, this is what we're gonna send you. No contractual binding, just tell us what you think about the service, right? So, like in terms of the service, it'd be like the shipping, how we handled you, our guys that took care of you, and then obviously the fragrance is very important, right? Um, so there's e there's many ways to check it. You take the top off, you can see the atomizer stem um and then the ring that goes around it. There's batch codes on the bottoms that sometimes those are easy to fob. Um, but you kind of have to have an eye for it. And this is what a lot of people don't understand is like these big retailers, um, they have like boxes and anybody can essentially sell through them. And then fakes do get into the market. But like we hand eyeball uh or we eyeball check everything, we run everything through our systems um and we make sure that our vendors are trusted, right? So, like if you if if you're a vendor and you can't get vetted by like six of our guys because everybody knows everybody, um, then we don't work with you. So we make sure everything's authentic. And like I said, we attach our customers are allowed to attach photos with their reviews, so they just post exactly what they receive, right? So um we on our official reviews platform that we have on our website, we have about 4,100 reviews alone there, um 4.9 stars. And you can just literally scroll through and just see customers and what they received, right? Is the bottle good? Is the smell good? Is it legit? Is it authentic? And then the UGC is very important. When we send these products out, a lot of these guys just like to make videos. So they show the camera and they say, Hey guys, just want to let you know everything is authentic, right? Um, and it's a trust thing. That really is a trust thing.
SPEAKER_01So I think at the end of the day, you know, you people there are buying it, they know what it smells like. Yeah, so if it smells like it, they're gonna assume it is, yeah, right.
SPEAKER_00You know, sometimes that's not always the case, though. Right, you know, because there's oh, there's some good knockoffs. Oh, yeah. Yeah, there's very good knockoffs. And another thing is it puts a little bit of a trust badge of of me being able to sit behind the camera and confidently say everything is authentic, right? Like there's not a spokesperson for a lot of these other retailers because um, you know, it's it's a lot of a lot of people don't want to do it. You know, you don't want a celebrity brand, that's what they say. So they they don't really want a spokesperson to do it, but I'm able to sit behind the camera and tell all my guys that this is legit, everything is authentic, and then we verify everything through our UGC, our reviews, you can kind of check in on everything online. So, you know, we let our customers kind of do the heavy lifting there.
SPEAKER_01When you had this group of friends back in the in the college days, when you're in your dorm, was there anybody that just said you were not? You know, they didn't believe in you, they were like, you know, cologne, why cologne, man? Yeah, I mean you know, go sell something, you know, a little bit different. Like, why cologne?
SPEAKER_00I started this business on a spreadsheet, so on a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. So, like, as I was telling you, I didn't understand anything I was doing with a business. I just didn't understand that what I was doing was like operations, marketing, financing. So I had a spreadsheet and I would post it on my fucking Snapchat story. I would just go, like, hey, look, I'm selling cologne. If you if you're looking for something, let me know. You know? Um, any inquiry, any view I got on that, any screenshot, like you heard from me, right? Like I was calling. Um, but these guys were the like I there were so many guys that lived in the house going, like, what are you doing? And I was like, don't worry about it, you know? Like it's it's none of your business. Um, and then like other fraternities were kind of on campus, like just a bunch of people around and they saw me posting the stuff on the internet. Um, and they were like, You look, you just look like an idiot. Like, what are you doing? I was like, Don't worry about it. You know, like I never cared what anybody thought. Um, but that's like a big thing with people getting behind the cameras, like they're scared to do it and what their friends and family think about it. I never gave a shit. Right. But um, they just they they were just asking me like a superpower right there, though.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and you know what? If you're out there, learn and listen about that because everybody should feel that same way. You shouldn't give a crap. Like, who cares what somebody thinks? You know, at the end of the day, you know, it doesn't really matter, yeah. You know, they only laugh until it works, you know. Of course. I'm I mean, I've been told I've been delusional many times in life. That's but that's how that's how we usually work. Now all of a sudden you're a genius. You know what I'm saying? You know, they're like, then they want to be just like you. Yeah, exactly. You know, it's like I'd love to make somebody just like me, you know, type of thing.
SPEAKER_00But yeah, but those guys, I mean, I got so much slander doing that stuff. And you know, we go out to the bar, um, we'd hop out to Velvet Elvis uh on Tuesdays and grab our dollar beers. I'd never heard the end of it. Like, what are you doing? How can you afford this? Don't worry about it. You know, it does like it's it's like I had a vision, I had a purpose, and I I had to see it through. Like I said, there was never any plan B. I was I was set on the vision, I had a goal, um, and I just wanted to take over. And there was a guy really early on in business that talked a lot of shit to me. I devoted everything to it. Like, oh, you had some stuff to say to me, I'm coming for you. You know, um, I I recently went on a business trip too, and one of the guys had walked up to me and they're like, Hey, we don't like when people step on our toes. I said, Well, you better watch out, fucker. I got big cleats, you know? So like I never let anybody walk on me. I never let anybody tell me what to do. Like, I will walk with pride, shoulders back, head held high. You can't tell me what to do. Um, and you're never gonna hear me, you're never gonna uh stop me from coming after you, right? Like that's heat's hot. You better get moving because I don't got anywhere to go. I don't have any, you know, like I don't have any family to take care of, no dogs. I barely clean, like I'm work. Let's go. Come on, get after it. Like, I'm coming after you. Yeah, so these guys have been in the business for 20 plus years. I'm dealing with billionaires. I'm just a 24-year-old guy that, you know, figured something out, but um, I'm still here to figure it out. That's why I texted you. I was like, hey, I got some questions. There you go.
SPEAKER_01We're gonna talk about those too. You know, being 24, let's talk about this. Do you ever feel a little pressure now that you have employees? So you got people that are looking on you, and if things don't go well, I mean, I know things are kick clicking right now. Well, you know what? You have some down months, or you get used to things clicking, and all of a sudden, boom, you got an off month. I mean, and all I mean, that could change change the game a little bit. Do you worry about, oh man, I'm I'm letting my employees down, letting these people down one because your payroll is a little different. Because you started with one, you said you had three, but now you got 18. So um those payroll checks still got to keep getting cashed.
SPEAKER_00I don't stress. Um, I d I don't know how to do it. I don't know how to stress because what stress is is an impending doom that you're not taking care of, right? So if something is incoming and you have no solution to it for the problem that's incoming, you will feel stress. I just attack the problem every time. If we're not selling, I will produce 500 videos in one day if I have to, or I will move items that need to move, or I will promote something or manufacture virality. However, it needs to be done. I don't give a fuck. I will find the solution, right? Um, but I've never felt pressured, I've never felt stressed, and we've done better the month prior to the month we're at now, every single month since I started. So, like, yeah, we've so last February when we had started, I did $1,300. This February we did about $680,000. A little different. Yeah, it's a little different. But it doesn't, but nothing about it had changed. It was just the person I had to become because like the person that you become from zero to a million is gonna be different from the one from a million to ten or ten to a hundred. Um I'm just figuring out how to kill the guy that I was yesterday, every day. And uh, there's never you're never gonna hear an excuse out of me. Um, I'm always working. Like I'm on Discord all the time. That's the platform we use to communicate. It's awesome.
SPEAKER_01Um you know, it's funny you say something because I say this every night to everybody. At midnight I die every I die every night. I die every night at midnight. 1201, I'm somebody new. Yeah. And I just want to be better than I was the guy the the guy before. Yeah, you know, the day before.
SPEAKER_00You know something opportunity. I run away from it every day, but I can't like seem to conger this idea that I just I'm not doing enough. Like I it's I started and I wasn't doing enough, and now I feel like I'm doing even less. Like I just can't get away from it. But I don't think I want to. I think I like it.
SPEAKER_01So what scares you more, man? Failure or success?
SPEAKER_00I hate losing more than I like winning. I will not fucking lose. Like, there is no, by all means, if I have to give up everything I've got, I will win. It's just there's a there's a type of person that that comes with being an entrepreneur. And I mean, you know this too. You hear a lot of people tell you, like, I want to. Run my own business. Like, I want to make a lot of money. No, you just wanted to make a lot of money. But you don't know that, like, hey, I want to make my own hours. Like, I don't want the nine to five. Cool. You just signed yourself up for a 20-hour day, seven days straight.
SPEAKER_01Right?
SPEAKER_00Like, so I love it.
SPEAKER_01People all the time when they sit there and they think, oh, I just want to work for myself so I can call my own hours.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01No, there are no offers. It is 24-7. There are no off days, is my brand as I tell people all the time, because that's what being an owner is all about. Yeah. And if you're not in the under those phase, it's going to eliminate the amount of success that you're going to have along the way.
SPEAKER_00So something else is that I learned very fast, and especially with the guys that I work with. If you're in, if you're in business for the money, you will lose every single time. It's just like there's a there's a bigger purpose. Like I've got nothing to lose. So if I lose all the money, I'm getting back up. I'll just start another one. You know, like cool. Now I know even more than I did the first time. I'll get it back even faster. Um, but I've never been in this for the money. I want to build something that people, you know, it's worth remembering. I want our customers to be happy. I want them to feel satisfied. The same way I shop anywhere that I enjoy shopping at, I want them to feel the same way. Like the way, so Christmas is something that I like.
SPEAKER_01Get the same experience though, online though. So it it truly depends on Were you thinking about maybe having brick and mortar stores out there one day?
SPEAKER_00Brick and mortar is not something I would ever want to do because you narrow down your dreet geographic to the area. If I did, it would just be for people to want to visit if they wanted to. But I wouldn't be able to reach the amount of customers that I am now if I was brick and mortar. It's, you know, like I mean, we recently went to the mall of Georgia, it's dead. You know, like e-commerce is booming. So, you know, whoever can create the strongest landing page, the strongest phone, the strongest value and offer, you're gonna win. And it's, you know, like I'm a guy that sits in bed. I told you this. I built the business sitting in bed. So who's to say that I want to get up and go to retail stores? So I, you know, I was like, this business feels like it's not doing the best. So I think I'm just gonna cater to everybody. I'm gonna ship online. Like, like I'm shipping to guys in Seattle and California, like that's not possible at a brick and mortar.
SPEAKER_01So you can probably go out of the country too. Yeah. You're shipping to India and some other places. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00We've shipped to Australia, Canada, a lot of Europe. There you go. Um, but it's I don't know if brick and mortar is the way I want to go. You know, just e-commerce is just how you reach everyone, right? And so, like, I mean, essentially what you're doing at a brick and mortar is if you have somebody walking through the door and you have to sell them, and then you actually have to make the sale, you have to talk to them. I was like, you know, if I make a video of what I would have told a customer, I can hit I can reach a thousand people instead of just reaching one. And then I can sell a thousand people off that video instead of just selling to one. So I was like, the video in the e-commerce kind of just felt like the way to go. Um, but and it's also very easy to start, it's so easy. Like everyone's like, I want to start my own other online store. It's so easy. Create an account, set up the payment processing or processing and sell to somebody. That's how easy it is to do. Right.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, you do payment processing. That's right. We do a little cost plus processing. Go ahead and plug them in right now. We'll flip our commercial up right now. Absolutely. So but um, you know, talk about uh, you know, what is something that maybe people think is easy about your life that actually is really hard.
SPEAKER_00Get good at doing the repetitive, boring stuff every single day. You know, you're gonna wake up, you're gonna have to check your KPIs, you're gonna have to check the finances, how you were doing the previous.
SPEAKER_01Tell me what KPI stands for.
SPEAKER_00Key performance indicator. So, like basically how you did last month, where you want to go. Like, and another thing about KPIs that I tell my guys, and it's hard to tell everybody on my team this, is you don't invite the accountants to the visionary group chat, right? What we did last month, cool, I'm gonna tell you what we do next month. And then I ask them, like, so hey, our accountant said that we did X amount of revenue last month. Is that true? They say yes. And I say, Hey, let's do a million next month. They say, I say, is that true? They say maybe. I go, that's me. I'm the visionary. Like, if you want to, if you want to be the helm of the ship, you have to paint the picture that everyone needs to see. And then we need to lay down the processes and the systems in order to get there.
SPEAKER_01Well, I was just making a comment as you know, what do some people look at you and think is easy, but it's really hard. You know, we were talking about understanding KPIs and the different, you know, visions of it all.
SPEAKER_00Dude, I mean, so many people think it's just like it's it's just easy to run a business in general, right? Like, even me, I was like, oh, like look at him. He's just he barely does anything. He's running a business. I didn't realize that, you know, I don't set an alarm anymore because that phone goes off. You know, like that phone is always going off. Something I actually just implemented into my guys is hey, look, 30 days onboarding, I'm gonna teach you everything I know. Ask me every question you ever got. Any answer but call Adrian is the right answer. You talk to your director, right? So um, but that's just kind of that's just kind of me giving people more power and it's empowering to them to make their own decisions. But um, everybody just thinks that running a business is easy. I will tell you right now, probably the hardest thing ever of all time, right? Like, like let's just say, God forbid that you laid down when you first start the business. Like, I'm not fully operational without me yet. I don't know how we perform. Hopefully it goes up, but like I don't think it would grow at the level it does. It's pretty stagnant. So, like taking everything that you could possibly ever do in a business and giving it to somebody extremely hard. Like, that was not something that I ever thought was hard. Um, waking up and doing the same thing every single day of your life. Like, people like to see the flashy cars, the watches, the this and that, like the you know, the the glamour lifestyle. But what they don't realize is it's not that glamorous, and like everything that everybody else does is the exact thing.
SPEAKER_01That's what it took to get there. That's the thing. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? Like it, you know, half the time, you know, it's not not even people what people have. Yeah, but they but they don't understand the journey of what it took to get to those those milestones.
SPEAKER_00So I kind of had to like draw myself out of that question to answer it because it was never hard to me. It really wasn't. Um, when I first started the business, like for a year, literally from February to February, and then prior to that I didn't really understand what I was doing was significant. Um, it was very lonely. Like nobody ever tells you that it's going to be extremely lonely when you first start this thing, unless you got a partner or whatever. I did this all by myself. So like I didn't have anyone to talk to. You know, you go out with your buddies after work, I didn't have that. All my guys were online, so I just FaceTime my guys. Like, all my guys, um, they're all over the United States. Like, I don't have any guys in Georgia. So um, you know, it was just very lonely. Like, if you can get used to being very lonely and very boring processes all the time, you know, you might be able to make this shit work. Right. Um, but that was but in my head, I never understood that it was hard to people. It was just how I had to do it. Like there was no ulterior, um, there was no ulterior motive there except that I wanted to win. I will do anything it takes, and I find joy in winning. So it was never like I don't I can't sit down and relax. I don't relax, I can't watch TV. Um, I hate walking outside. I hate like playing games. Like I just can't do it. I have to, I'm I'm addicted to this. I can't get away. Like I'm glued. So everything that it took to getting up to there, I didn't realize that what I was doing was slightly psychotic. Like I talk to them about it all the time, and my mom, they're like, you know, you're like kind of significant. I go, I'm just a regular guy. And they go, Do you know what you do on a daily basis? I go, no, what do I do? I wake up at 10 a.m. and I go to sleep at six every day like clockwork. And they didn't, I didn't realize that everybody didn't do that. So, like, because like, you know, I was by myself. I didn't understand. So I had nothing to compare myself to. So I never understood that what I was doing was hard. And then I started listening to people, I went, wait, oh shit, maybe not everybody does this and it's not meant for everyone. Right. So nothing truly has been so extremely difficult that I couldn't do it. But I like the challenge. I like waking up. I always played my video games on expert or hard mode, right? Like, I don't like the cheat codes, you know, the Lego Star Wars, you get the 10 million tokens. Like, I just like to play the game. It's always been a game to me. It's never like been work where I wake up and feel like I have to, you know, put on the tie, get in the cubicle, and I'm dying. I'm just like, let's go, baby. I'm after it. You know, like I wake my guys up, I'm energized, I'm hyped. Like, let's go. It's another day. Fuck yesterday. Like, this is new. We gotta go. Right. So that's just always been it. But in terms of like, you know, actually subjectively being hard, everything is hard. But that's how it's supposed to be. It's not supposed to be easy.
SPEAKER_01How much are you gonna do revenue this year?
SPEAKER_00So for the year, in terms of so what for viewers it's June 1st. Yeah, yeah. So where we were last year. Where we were last year, I'm gonna kind of just ballpark a number because I can't really entirely remember. But last year, I think we did about a million. I can't remember what I told you. I showed you on my phone. Yeah, it was one. Um, for this year, we are at 2.9 million, just in since January to now. Right. Um I have no idea how I got here. I really don't. Yeah. I just, like I said, I just kind of sat back and I looked at it. And the numbers, if you're so focused on a revenue goal, you're gonna lose sight of the entire vision, right? Especially with new additional overhead, you've got marketing expense, you got to buy new things, you got to test new things, take bigger risks. Like if you have that revenue goal, it's gonna make what you're truly doing for the brand extremely hard. So have a have your KPIs. Your KPIs are extremely important. But um, in terms of numbers, like I said, I don't want to set a revenue goal, but I want to do as much as humanly possible. Sure. Like, money's never been a my my main motive to work, but like we went to Atlanta the other day. I was like, I've never looked at like a skyscraper and gone, that is attainable. But I looked at it and I went, I can do that. Yeah, I just don't understand. So like I have a new thing. I got like that's where's your skyscraper? You know, like it's just it's not even really that I want it. It's just like I want to do what it takes to get there because I know nobody can get there. But if somebody did it, then that means it was hard for somebody else. And if I give up now, somebody else beat me.
SPEAKER_01It's all about the journey.
SPEAKER_00It is about the journey.
SPEAKER_01Okay, but you know what? Let's be real. If you were to lose uh $2.9 million right now and all the shit got washed away and you had to start over, what would you do?
SPEAKER_00I just do the same thing again. Like, I'm hopping behind the camera, I'm gonna take my products and I'm gonna start flipping. Like one of my best friends right now, he has a clothing brand and he likes to do this thing like, Well, I gotta wait like next month or the month after that. I'm like, you have a shirt, right? And he goes, Yeah. And I go, and he goes, All right, ask him, you have a camera? He goes, Yes. Sell that damn shirt, you know? Like, you got something to sell. So if I lost everything today, number one thing that I probably would put in my head is there's no stress because it was never about the money. But I like let's just say I lost the brand too, right? Like I've got nothing, I gotta rebrand, I gotta do everything. And let's just say I have the knowledge I do now. I pick something up and I start selling. That's how it's always been for me. You know, like don't wait. Um, the the longer you wait, the longer you procrastinate, the more that I'm gonna get ahead of you, right? Or somebody's gonna get ahead of you. Like, I have this figmented guy in my head to where when I sit down, he's at it, right? So, how do I beat that guy? I don't ever stop either. So if if that's how I have to beat him, and if I can't ever lay off the gas, then you know what? I don't care. I'm gonna keep going. So find a product and sell it. That's it. That's the first thing I start doing, you know? That's it.
SPEAKER_01That's it. That's great advice out there. All right, man. This part of the program where I do rapid questions. I'm gonna ask just a few rapid questions. I want to know exactly what comes to mind right away. All right, we're gonna keep it fragrance. Okay, we're gonna keep it into the fragrance. Fragrance. Best fragrance under a hundred bucks.
SPEAKER_00Ooh, Azaro Chrome or 9 p.m. night out. I love those two right now. Most overrated fragrance. Oh my gosh. Anything from X Nihilo, that brand is just not for me.
SPEAKER_01All right. Most underrated fragrance.
SPEAKER_00There's a lot of them out there. I would have to say Azaro Chrome again. Putting two together is actually something that you know you can create something new out of one. So Y S O I EDP, Vanilla, one Swiss Arabian. That's been something I've been wearing a lot.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, a little spray, both of them. Yeah, yeah. Ah, that's different. Best date night fragrance.
SPEAKER_00Ooh, it kind of depends where you're going. For for the younger guys, it's going to be 9 p.m. night out or JPG Ultramil. For the older gentleman, uh Da Vinci Gentleman Reserve Pre-Vay or Dolce and Gamana, the 1 EDP.
SPEAKER_01All right. Best fragrance for CEO.
SPEAKER_00Aventus Absolu or Mont Bloc Explorer Extreme. All right.
SPEAKER_01Fragrance that gets the most compliments.
SPEAKER_00I will say something on that. It really is more entirely dependent on the user than it is the fragrance. Like if you don't go anywhere, you're never going to get any compliments. If you're around people all the time, you know. But my most complimented fragrance of all time, and it's also my dad's also my brothers, JPG Ultramil. It's just the best. If you want to smell great and you want someone to tell you smell great, you got to go ultra male. What fragrance are you wearing today? Oof. I'm wearing Rasassi Hawas. I love I love the cheap stuff, dude. I always told people like for Hawas, like don't use the word cheap, man.
SPEAKER_01It's not cheap. It's just less expensive. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just less expensive.
SPEAKER_00Well, it truly is it is less expensive. But like for the price tag, it's universally the kind of the same everywhere. But it does such a good job at what it's trying to do. Because, like, um, you know, she's coming over the other day and I was, she was like, Hey, have you cleaned the house? And I was like, Yeah. But I really took the Hawas and I sprayed all the curtains. I sprayed my bed. I sprayed the door when she walked in. She was like, Oh, you cleaned? I was like, Hawass.
SPEAKER_01You know, it's good to ask you about that. Can you can you can somebody wear too much? When when do you know you have too much on you?
SPEAKER_00I mean, that's entirely dependent to the user, again. So, like, it's always gonna be.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, there's some people, man, you could smell them was there, you know, they open the door and you can smell them already. And if you don't like the smell, it's not always pleasant.
SPEAKER_00So is is wearing too much fact or opinion? I I would have to say that it's opinion totally.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So if the person wearing it doesn't think it's too much, then it's gonna be a difference of opinion. But um, you know, realistically, like let's just say it set like a borderline standard, right? So this is why you have the curated collections, right? So at Arvella, we would like to, you know, if you wanted to go wear a scent to the office, we're not gonna recommend you wear the ultra male. The ultra male is loud, it's like a sexy bubblegum, younger audience kind of leading fragrance. But like, you know, maybe four spritz to the shoulders, two to the chip.
SPEAKER_01What are you saying? I can't wear the younger. Oh, you can wear whatever you want.
SPEAKER_00I'm saying to the office. Okay, dude, they say that all the time. I'm like, I'll wear whatever. Yeah. So um, but like just an office scent would just tends to be clean and fresh. You don't want it to be overpowering. There's guys that wear like extremely heavy, smoky, woodsy ood fragrances to the office. You're like, you're fired. Like, you got to send that guy to HR right now. You got to go home. So that would be just acceptable there. Now, a date night would be slightly different. You like it's it's not unacceptable to wear something fresh there. I do all the time. But generically, the people online like to say you like to wear something darker, a little bit more sexy, maybe even sweet. So, like, it's never gonna be that you're wearing too much or too little. It just kind of depends what you're wearing and how you wear it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's good advice. Good advice. Because some people think the opposite. All right, man. Well, listen, I can't tell you how excited I was to have you come here. You shared so much, you know, of your success. I know you got big things ahead of you. You know, where do you see yourself 10 years from today?
SPEAKER_00So that's a part of being the visionary. Um, I don't want to set the bar too low. So, I mean, let's realistically just set it as high as humanly possible. I put down everybody that ever counted me out. So, you know, there's guys out there doing, you know, $565 million a year, and you're trying to count me out. I don't give a shit. I'm there to win. Um, I want to, in 10 years, I want to build the brand that everybody knows and loves, and it's a household name. I want you to feel at home shopping here. I want you to feel like a luxury customer shopping here to where it's not just a cash grab, but it's a value offer. Um, and aside from that, there's there's a man that I'm gonna have to become, and it's not the guy that I am right now. So I'm gonna have to wake up and I'm just gonna have to figure that out by the day. But something that that lives extremely deep inside of me is I don't ever think too far ahead because you know, thinking too far into the future, you get anxious. Thinking about the past is you you feel depressed. But if you're if you live in the present moment, you feel at peace. So I try not to think too far back or too far ahead. I like to kind of just live right now. But realistically, if I want to say where I'm gonna be in 10 years, I want to beat everybody.
SPEAKER_01That's my ultimate goal. Yeah, I think it's gonna happen too. I think it'll happen. I think it's I know it'll happen. I'll put my money on you, man. I'll put my money on you. Yeah, anything else? Tell the viewers, anybody out there, maybe young, trying to start something else. What do you got for them? Last thing.
SPEAKER_00Being young is is so irrelevant. It doesn't really matter what you're doing, just give it all you got. Like, I'm just a regular guy. There's nothing special about me. Like, people are asking me, like, what colognes smell the best, or what's the best thing to do here or there? I don't know. Just go do something. Something is better than nothing. The hardest part about starting a hobby or a new goal or a new subject is the first five minutes of it in the 24 hours. So if you can start something, give it five minutes, and then you endure it for 24 hours, you will walk away with more than nothing. So it, you know, give it all you got. You got to wake up with a grit and a passion to actually want to win. If you don't want to win, then you gotta just, you know, take your money somewhere else. But if you really truly want to make this shit work, whether that's school, the girlfriend, work, a profession, a hobby, going to the gym, sticking to a goal, it doesn't really matter. You're doing yourself an injustice by doing anything else but giving it all you got. So, you know, it's it's not unattainable for anybody. Age is extremely irrelevant. Get up and get after it every fucking day of your life, and then maybe you'll make it work.
SPEAKER_01There you have it, folks. You heard it right from himself, man. Go out there, get started. The key is getting started, baby. And as your boy Wam Bam always says, remember if your life was a movie, would it be worth watching? And if the answer is no, stop being ordinary and start being extraordinary. Till next Wednesday, baby. Stay positive and keep testing negative.