Maceoo Raad | $100M Fashion Brand Secrets Finally Exposed!!! | #152

This week,

I sit down with Maceoo Raad, founder and CEO of Maceoo, the luxury fashion brand that has grown into a global business serving customers in more than 80 countries. Combining science, engineering, and fashion, Maceoo has become known for its innovative approach to clothing design and premium menswear.

We talk about how Maceoo was built from the ground up, the challenges of scaling a fashion company, what separates successful brands from those that fail, and the mindset required to build a business in one of the most competitive industries in the world.

Maceoo also shares lessons on entrepreneurship, branding, marketing, leadership, product development, and the secrets behind building a fashion brand that generates millions in revenue while standing out in a crowded market.


Maceoo's Links:

https://www.instagram.com/maceooshirts/?hl=en

https://www.maceoo.com 



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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:12

Yo, yo, yo, it's your boy. It's Phil Wham Bam Benamino, baby. It's another Wambam Wednesday. You know the show about ordinary people who've done extraordinary things, and today I mix it up a little bit. That's right. You don't see the Wam Bam brand because you see a brand by Mike Guest, who's here today. He's not just a former engineer, but he actually left becoming an engineer to brand and to go ahead and start a business and a company, and it turns out to be one of the biggest brands that are out there today. Masio is here in the house today. What's up, Masio? How are you? Good to see you, my friend. How are you doing? I'm doing great, man. Thanks so much for being here. But thank you for having me. Absolutely, absolutely. So let's jump right into this, man. Kid growing up. Where'd you grow up? Where'd you grow up from?

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Born in France, uh, raised in Lebanon, traveled quite a bit, and then uh arrived to the US around that in the early 20s. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Yeah. And then uh did some engineering and worked for ATT, Apple, Ericsson. Uh some of the dream jobs for engineers, man. Dream jobs. It was fun. Yeah. But you know, uh, always that has had that design of creating product in me. So shifted to fashion.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

How did you get into fashion? Like when did you know that fashion was something that you wanted to do?

SPEAKER_00 1:26

It's what it makes you feel. It's like putting art on your body. So the minute you put a nice garment on somebody and you feel the confidence changing, and that's what it's all about. And then you can see the spark in the eyes, the way they behave, the way they look at themselves. And am I sparkling?

SPEAKER_01 1:41

They're like, it does make you feel better. But let's be honest, it's not the cheapest that's out there, right? You pay for a good brand, for good material and everything, you know. So that that is what you how do you figure out what you're gonna price something at?

SPEAKER_00 1:59

So with the factory that we use, are very like high-end quality factories. The craftsmanship, it takes at least 18 to 20 days to make one garment. Wow. So the length of the pro the process is so lengthy. And we use factory that does uh big brands for LVMH. The the fabric is all made in Italy, and we don't cut corners for a garment that costs $200, few hundred dollars, it's actually very uh affordable. So we have and expensive here.

SPEAKER_01 2:27

Absolutely. Well, the one thing nice about it too is not everybody has it. Do you make just a certain amount, right? So there's a limited quantity.

SPEAKER_00 2:34

So a lot of the garment that we do is 50 pieces, 60 pieces, 100 pieces. So you could see like a lot of style, but limited quantity. So we don't want two people at the same party, you know.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 2:44

That's what happened with Shakira not too long ago. You know, they have two of the same dresses. We don't want that happened.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

Don't want who wears it better. That's what it turns out to be, right? That being said, you know, obviously, you know, becoming the you were an engineer and moving into fashion. Did your family, anybody think you were nuts when this happened?

SPEAKER_00 3:02

My mom said, you know what, why did you study old half for this and that? And and you know, there's a lack of respect from people when you say, Oh, I'm a designer, you know. Everybody could say, Oh, you you design garment. People don't take you seriously at first.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

Right.

SPEAKER_00 3:15

So everybody thinks you're gonna fail. And they don't understand that creating any product, it doesn't matter what you do. You could be creating a car or a phone or a garment. It's the same process. You're still running a company, you still have all these departments, you know, of production, uh, a production line, accounting, manufacturing, marketing that you have to do. And I think people look down a little bit on designer when they get started. And you know, so it's hard. Coming from an engineer where you're respected, you work so many years.

SPEAKER_01 3:43

Sure. Uh well, you're a smart guy, obviously. You know what I mean? So, yeah, you're a smart, smart guy, but to sit there and draw a pen, take a piece of paper and a pencil and start creating garments and stuff and fashion. You know, you're sitting there thinking, okay, here it is on paper, but now to bring it to life, it's not easy. Like, how do you where do you go about somebody out there that's young right now and they they want it, they're big into fashion and they're big into clothing and stuff. How do you start? Like, where do you where do you go? Do you have to go overseas? Because everybody seems like they got to go to China or they got to go to, you know, to to some of these foreign countries to get what they need. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

That's the beauty of everything. Looking and listening is always free. And especially nowadays with everything on YouTube and all the social media. So if you have um the curiosity to find something, I think eventually it's just a matter of making a process and you'll figure it out. Uh it's not easy at first, but like you do, look what you did with yourself, you know. Sure. Kudos to you. Thank you. Uh you you you figure it out. And you know, if you're street smart, you know, you grow up in the streets like we do, yeah. Eventually you figure out anything you do. And you make it a process, you make it an algorithm or whatever you want to call it, and then you create a brand.

SPEAKER_01 4:49

What was the first thing you created? What was the first thing you did? And and and did it fail, you know, or or did it actually take off? Tell tell us about that.

SPEAKER_00 4:57

How I got into fashion, you know, my my dad is a doctor, and they uh they always like, you know, he was a good-looking guy and always dressed up, wearing suits, and my mom the same, you know, she went to the bakery, she always put a scarf on, you know, it's a very elegant lady. So, you know, when you grow up around that, you look at it, it has a lot of influence. And I could tell you in Lebanon and in France, because you know, it used to be a French colony, people over there are very um, they have swag, you know, they like to dress well, even though they may not have the money, but they always dress well.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:30

So you get influenced by that. And one day I was in Paris, I was 22 years old. I'm going for an internship in India, and my brother tells me, hey, uh, I'm gonna take you to that shirt shop. And I bought a dress shirt, simple dress shirt, uh, light blue with multicolor button. And I wore it. The fit was amazing, you know, on that shirt. Uh-huh. I wore it in India everywhere, and I felt like I was the center of attention. I I got compliments from everybody. That's what you know. And that's what you say, you know what? That's so cool. And I got to meet a lot of tailors over there and try to do my first jackets and stuff like that. And one day I was like, you know what, that's what I want to do.

SPEAKER_01 6:07

So you end up making relationships over there, and that's how it all started again.

SPEAKER_00 6:11

Yeah, you you know, you go to a tailor, it's like, I want to do that. You do a one-off and you see it and you do it for yourself at first because you can find, you know, what you like or what you do. And your creative mindset becomes like, oh, I want to do it better, I want to do it great, I want to do that. And then you jump, you know, onto creating a business.

SPEAKER_01 6:27

It's so funny because retail is not very easy. And you didn't just create a business, you created a massive business. I mean, how many locations do you have now currently, right?

SPEAKER_00 6:35

So, right now we have 28 locations. We just did a merger and we acquired a big company. So I'm very excited about that. Congratulations to you. Thank you. Uh, building a brand is hard, but building an experiential brand, it's even harder. So, how do you make it different? How do you make it like you're not walking to Louis Vuitton or Cushion Dior and just buying a bag? How do you keep a guy like you feel for like an hour and a half, make you have a good time, great experience where you feel like we took your heart out of you and we kept it with us? That's the whole motto of Maseo. It means a gift from the God. We say to have style is a gift from God, and it relies on the five F F for fashion, F for fitness, F for fine art, and F for fragrance. And if you don't like us, F4, fuck you. So that's that. We're gonna have to put that up there. That's nice. So as you walk in in Maseo, your eyes cannot stop gravitating everywhere. We have an olive tree that represents the rebirth of the man. We have an ice cream bar, we infuse ice cream with alcohol.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

Wait a second, I didn't see the ice cream bar.

SPEAKER_00 7:37

Where is the ice cream bar? Man, I'm a big ice cream man, you know. You know what? Steve Jobs, you to tell me, you want to make everybody happy, sell ice cream. There you go. Everybody loves ice cream. Everybody loves ice cream, that's right. We to measure, you know, we married with the UFC. We have a great relationship with Dana White. Uh met him on a parking lot here at the ARIA. Uh huh. And then we did a statue of him to honor him. We designed a collection. We do all the UFC Hall of Fame. Uh, we have fighters every single day coming in. It's pretty cool, man. It's like I can't wait. I can't wait to, you know, I know you're familiar with most of our locations.

SPEAKER_01 8:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

And uh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:13

But they're not just here, you're not just here in Vegas. You're Miami. You're new. I mean, you're you're across the world. You're you're in Paris and so we have offices in many countries, including Paris, Dubai, and uh Turkey, uh, so managing them how, you know, let's talk about that because you know, obviously, like I said, retail is up and down, you know, and you have to gauge it, you know, you got cost of goods, you got you got a lot of different things to look at, you know, um, you know, how to acquire a customer and the cost of those types of things. How do you manage all that when you have so many locations? What is this the number one key?

SPEAKER_00 8:45

You know, when you start a business, you have to figure out your identity because what you think you're getting into, as soon as you start figuring out your business model and what works and doesn't work, would be totally different five years down the line. So, you know, you always say, like that saying, you know, you always connect the dot looking backward instead of connecting the dot looking forward. You know, you always like, oh my God, I understand now why that person told me so at that time. Right. But you know, you had a lot of ego and then you didn't want to listen, or you understand why God puts you in a certain situation, you know, to learn that it's gonna help you down the line, you know? Um so it's not easy, but you end up figuring it out. You end up creating processes, understanding, and the main goal is scalability. Yeah, how do you scale a business? Once you figure out one time, how do I make it 10 times, 20 times, 30 times, and once you have a model, then after that, it's just a matter of re keep being creative. Yeah, you know, all the time, innovating, making sure that you keep all your clients on their toes. So every time you have a new product, it's like, oh my God, I've never seen anything like that.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

Right.

SPEAKER_00 9:52

Innovation, innovation.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

I gotta say, too, just from the experiences myself, and one of the things that I've noticed is the people that you surround yourself that work within your company, okay, is really representation of what you are of the brand itself. Because without that, you lose track of things. And and that's the one thing that's very consistent throughout all your stores because I've been multiple as once. Thank you. So, you know, that is important. And I always believe that you got to surround yourself with the good people, right? So true. Especially if you're not there. You can't be everywhere. You're here in Las Vegas today. You're not you're not in your stores out there.

SPEAKER_00 10:25

It's a tribe, it's a tribe. You know, we call it lion tribe, you know. Yeah, you have a bunch of lions sitting around that head ready to eat.

SPEAKER_01 10:32

So let's talk about the lions. Let's talk about the lions and then and the logo and your name. How did you come up with a name and the brand?

SPEAKER_00 10:38

So, Mateo comes from the word Mateo, Matthew in the Bible, uh, the gift of God. So we're very, you know, religious people. Yeah. Uh the line we grew up with a lion cup back in the days, and that's why our logo is a lion wearing a suit. And you can see the line is made of geometric pattern that is influenced from the algorithm that we have. We capture a bunch of data and we created the optimal fit. Uh, so the process for us to create a perfect garment, it's about three things, you know. First of all, it's a fit. You want it to fit perfectly, uh, a design, you want it to be appealing, and you want it to be comfortable. Right. Once the three main factors meet, that's how you create a perfect garment. And as you said, it you add an amazing team on top, and then you create a magical experience in your store. Um, so that's it, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:30

So the name itself with the lions and all that, it was very thought-through. It wasn't just something that came up. You weren't a Leo, you weren't born in August or something. My daughter is a Leo, yeah. Your daughter is a Leo? Okay, all right, there you go. So um, lions obviously are a big, you know, king of the jungle, obviously. So didn't know if they had something to play.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

It does because I uh I lived in South Africa for quite a bit. And uh from Cape Town to Johannesburg, I used to go to the lion park all the time. I grew up in a farm and we had a lion cup uh back there. So I was very close to lions, and uh there's an attachment to that creature. It's majestic.

SPEAKER_01 12:04

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 12:04

And you want I want my guy, you know, my demographic, the people, my tribe that wear maseo, such as yourself, an entrepreneur.

SPEAKER_01 12:12

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

Uh they're all lions, they're all alpha, they're all salespeople, they're leaders in their industry. And you could see it, then they don't scare, they're not scared. They know they dare to wear something, right? Stand out. And that's who you are. Look at you. You wear, you represent it well, you're you're a successful entrepreneur. That's my guy. You know, I don't want to, I we don't want everyone. Yeah, but we want to transform people to become lions. Sure. It's a possibility. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 12:36

And um and you can be a lion. All you gotta do is show up, go in the store, and check it out. That's all it takes. Walk in, open up the wallet, and they'll help you. So that's the nice thing about it. But you know what Deion Sanders said it once. You know, if you if you dress good, you feel good. If you dress good, if you feel good, you play good. And if you play good, they pay good, baby. That's the way it is. And that's like that in all sports, whether it's sports, whether it's in you know, uh, work and business or anything else. It's the same. Go to Amazon today and purchase Money Management for Beginners, a book for everybody, especially younger kids. Kids that get money and 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. And obviously, you know, you have a lot of people that you know you branded. You talk about the professional athletes, you talk about different people. Is there anybody that you can remember that's came in though that kind of hurt your feelings because they didn't like something that you liked? I mean, think about it. I mean, you're you're you're designing a lot of these products. Does every product go through you before they put it on the shelves? I I go through almost every single product. That's amazing. That's amazing. So you're going through every product you're seeing that. Did you ever have a product that you loved? Like you were like, mmm, I love this.

SPEAKER_00 13:54

I know that was every single product. I feel like I feel like that. My children. So, but uh to answer your first question, uh, when I started the brand, I went to Los Angeles and uh I was showing my line. You know, you go, you knock on every door, you know. I I had a job from eight to five, and after five o'clock on the weekend, I used to go visit the stores, try to sell them B2B. Because you know, you have two types of businesses, B2B, B2C, and you're like, all right, I'm gonna tackle the B2B business. So the dream was to get in Nostrom, Neiman, Sachs, and all this big department store, but as well, you had all this elevated specialty stores. So that was the goal. So I met uh this gentleman in LA, went there, and then uh he's like, oh, come see me on Saturday. I used to live in San Diego. I drove again on San Diego and San Diego and he kicked me out of his store, you know. So you drive four hours, you just had my daughter at that time. So you like, and you you're respecting your industry as an engineer.

SPEAKER_01 14:49

Right.

SPEAKER_00 14:49

So you pride, you ego, you always, you know, people look at you like you're very good technically at what you do, and then you start a new industry, and then a guy just kicks you out. I you get your ego get bruised.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

Yeah, you get bruised up a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 15:01

But you know what? 10, 12 years later, when you grow a business to be making over a hundred million dollars, then I saw him again, and then you know, you want to in a way rub it in his face, but you you don't have to, but you don't have to. You take the high road and you like say hi. I hope you guys are doing well, and then he ended up buying again 10 years later.

SPEAKER_01 15:20

So there you go.

SPEAKER_00 15:21

So you see, but it hurts. I'm I would be lying, but I think it fuels your energy as a perfectionist, as a sales guy, as a competitor. Uh you like sport, I do too. I played a lot of them. You don't want to overachieve, you know. You you feel like you know you're here to conquer, you want to take over the world. And it's not even about money or financial, it's about creating and making an impact and create leaving a legacy and making sure that people are like away and a piece of what you created. Right. And that's the beauty of fashion.

unknown 15:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:51

Well, it's definitely a different set. But see, the thing is, it wasn't about money. Like you have it's all about the culture, it's all about, you know, the product. And a lot of people forget about the product and they think about the money, right? And then they let the product fall because the margins are not making the money they should be. They're not getting this. And that's one thing that I think that success, you know, differs between certain levels is those who compromise. You know what I'm saying? And the one thing you don't, you don't compromise your product. You don't compromise. You know, I I've been in some of your meetings and I've you know heard you speak, you know, and stuff. And you're not gonna compromise. I'm not as nice as I am here. No, no, no. But you are a leader the way you're supposed to be.

SPEAKER_00 16:31

I'm putting my charm face on. Yeah, but listen, it's like exactly what you told me when before we started that interview. Yeah, you play blackjack and you're an expert at it. It's consistency of playing. You cannot lose if you're consistent in the way you play. Right. And that's why you're up in blackjack. Yeah, and that's what we do here. You gotta be consistent. You cannot change, you cannot cut corner, you gotta have the best fabric, the best experience. And trust me, the minute you lose that edge, or you're cutting corners, or you're trying to sneak in here and there, there's somebody in there waiting for you. And they all wanna fuck you.

SPEAKER_01 17:05

Right.

SPEAKER_00 17:06

That's right. And excuse my French, but they're all here waiting for you. So that's why, you know, I always tell my team, when you sleep, I sell. So that's right. When you up, I'm when I you're up, I'm awake. When you're sleeping, I'm awake, and when you sleep, I sell. So, and the keys to success are three things follow up, follow up, and follow up. So I like that.

SPEAKER_01 17:29

I like that. Your closet's gotta be ridiculous. I'm just kind of curious. I'm trying to think about all the things you design. Really?

SPEAKER_00 17:35

White t-shirts, black t-shirts. I really that's I'm behind the scene. I don't show my face a lot, you know. Uh thank you for the invite here today. Of course. Uh I'm not a podcast guy, so I got invited a lot, but you're a friend and you're a client, so uh I wanted to be here and then uh support the brand. That's great.

SPEAKER_01 17:53

So you don't have nothing in your closet that you've designed yourself for you, one of one.

SPEAKER_00 17:58

I have, you know, multiple series. Sure. So what do we got?

SPEAKER_01 18:01

But you know that would be the craziest thing that you have. If we went over your closet, you'd show me, be like, this year is this. Why why is it so special to you?

SPEAKER_00 18:08

I try to make people like you look good in front of your audience, your clientele, uh, your show, you know. But when you I'm sitting behind the scene, I make sure my people look good, like that, you know, people aspire to look like them. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:22

That's great.

SPEAKER_00 18:23

So, yeah, so you tell me you're an entrepreneur, so uh for the next three nights, I I could tell you I did not sleep. And he was right. I said, if I really believe in that business, I gotta go all in. I gotta go all in. Yeah. So I called my mom. You know, you always gotta call your mom. Yeah, of course. Coming from our culture, Mediterranean, and I told her, obviously, she puts more doubt in my head, it's like, no, you work so hard and you have a great job and this and that. And then um by the time uh so by the time uh I made my decision about leaving, I got I had a new manager that he didn't know me. Uh he looked at the paid at the you know the pay stub of the whole team and it was too expensive. So he called me in with HR and they laid me off.

SPEAKER_01 19:06

Just like that.

SPEAKER_00 19:07

So he made a decision for me. Oh, God was talking to you. So God was talking to me. Two days later they call me back. They're like, oh, we did a mistake, or the client is not happy, we need you. Anyway, but at that time I was like, all right, I made that decision, and then uh we just gotta go all in.

SPEAKER_01 19:21

Hi, 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 with customer service, and we're proud to say we're here in the United States with all of our customer service agents. Our objection 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 cards? And if they pay with cards, 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 for 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 problems 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 virtual processing. Obviously, building a hundred million dollar business, you know, let's talk about some of your falls because not every day was roses.

SPEAKER_00 21:40

You know, I mean, until now it's yeah, you know. It's like it's like I always say, like every morning I wake up, you know, I go to work at the end of the work, I at the end of the day I want to give up. Every single day almost. And then the next morning you wake up, you have a little bit of energy. You put your two feet in front of each other and you keep going. And you act like everything is okay. Because you also want to show and motivate the people that you work with. Because if you keep complaining all the time, you know, nobody wants to work for you. It's negativity. Who wants negativity around? Yeah. So you always gotta act like everything's gonna be great, everything's gonna be magical, and you have to be motivational and act like a leader, you know. And people wanna be uh inspired by what you do.

SPEAKER_01 22:21

Right.

SPEAKER_00 22:21

It's like at least here I don't get bored. Because it could work anywhere else, maybe for the same amount, even maybe for more, but they don't have a say. It's uh I call Maceo uh like you know a startup. And we have to act like a startup our whole life. Because when you're in a startup, you know your triangle of leadership is very like, you know, it's not laser focused. It's yeah, so the connection to who leads and who steered the ships on the left or on the right is connected to the staff. So I listen to everyone and I'm I'm connected to everyone at all time. I know every problem at all time, and you know, that's what it is being an entrepreneur. You get every single problem. Right. If they don't come to you, if there's no problem. True and that's true.

SPEAKER_01 23:03

Facts, facts, 100%. Yeah. You know, you talked about a little bit, you know, obviously being an engineer, you know, having a job versus being in sales. You know, if you could go back and start all over again, would you go right into sales and doing your fashion and wish you never became a or did the engineering help you in business today?

SPEAKER_00 23:20

It helped me a lot.

SPEAKER_01 23:21

Tell us a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_00 23:23

I'm a big uh logical, uh, methodical person. I love Excel sheets. Uh I'm an Excel guy, you know, everything has to be I love Excel. You're the Rain Man over there, aren't you? Listen, I love Excel. Everything goes through the sheets for me, you know. If you put a good path forward, you know, you have to have a creative mindset in any product you create. Uh the the things that that maybe I am weak in is uh maybe the marketing side of things. Uh we could do a better job at that, and we're working on better getting better uh because our brand is phenomenal. The product is amazing. We never sell a product like you discover Maceo by like by chance. You know, you walk in, you try the product, you get a million compliments, and you come back. You're like, oh my God, that was the best thing that happened to me. It doesn't shrink, it lasts forever. Uh and it's different, and nobody wears it, and everybody gives me compliments. And then we call that the power of one. So you get the first garment, and all of a sudden you buy like many others. Like you, you have over a hundred, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_01 24:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:22

I've seen your portfolio before I walked in. Uh so nobody walks in and says, Hey, I'm coming here to buy maseo. We know like, you know, you could put a literally uh a piece of cloth or garbage can or whatever, and then you put your Gucci on it, people would buy it. Right. They don't care about the quality. They they are they want attention, you know. They think by wearing brand is attention. But there's some people that appreciate designs, craftsmanship, product. And when they see a cool thing, they just buy it, no matter what the brand is, right? Right, yeah. And that's what Masseo is all about.

SPEAKER_01 24:54

How do you take somebody that's got maybe $500 in a pocket? How do you make them look good? Can you make that person into something at Masseo?

SPEAKER_00 25:01

You can.

SPEAKER_01 25:01

Yeah. Tell a little bit about that. Because a lot of people, I think, you know, they're they're intimidated going into a store like that. You know, they see, they see one of those nice leather jackets for nine, ten thousand dollars and they go, whoa, what's going on here?

SPEAKER_00 25:12

But we have a full entry-level address shirts for $200, a blazer for three or four hundred dollars. Sure, but not everybody has that.

SPEAKER_01 25:18

That's what I'm saying. You know, you know, but the thing is, why and how, you know, how should why should they invest into that? I see. You know what I mean? Because honestly, like, that's what it's about. Because I remember being in sales, like being in sales, being in my job many, many years ago and stuff. To dress nice, it cost money. And it was hard. It was like, hmm, do I really want to spend the money on on looking like this? And to me, it was an investment into myself. And it was an investment into my future. It was an investment of what was going to make me stand out differently than the other sales guy, right? It's not just what you say, but it's how you look, how you treat people, what you know, what you think. But you have to also represent yourself well too. And a lot of people don't do that. They don't realize that, hey, you're investing in you. You know what I mean? So that price tag is just a small investment into yourself. I agree, I agree.

SPEAKER_00 26:06

You know, so you know, Phil, it's cultural. I come from a country overseas where people, like in France, for example, uh, being a show-off and showing that you have a lot is not perceived well.

SPEAKER_01 26:18

Right.

SPEAKER_00 26:18

But in, for example, my other side, where my dad comes from, like Lebanese, uh that's what's all about. You know, the Mediterranean culture, they love to do that. And when you come to America, first, when I when I arrived here, when I was very humble, you know, I was like, I'm still humble guy. I'm still I I think I am, at least. Oh, you're very honorable. Very humble. I I try, but uh, but then the perception in America, people applaud when you succeed.

SPEAKER_01 26:44

Right.

SPEAKER_00 26:44

That's not what we have in Europe. So when somebody is successful here, they're like, hey, tell me how you did it, and you share. And they applaud you, and they're like, oh my God, good job working so hard. Right. Right? Yes. And that's what's the beauty of America. Not only is the right market, but also the people are here and they they're clapping and they're telling you, hey, good job, you did that. And and that's what's all about. You know, it's in people love entrepreneurs, it's the land of the dream, you know. Right.

SPEAKER_01 27:10

Now you've done very, very well, obviously online and stuff. So talk a little bit about how you scaled that and what that's like. Because people shopping online for clothing, it's hard because a lot of times they get it, it doesn't fit. You know, it's not the right proper fit. They got to send it back. There's cost in shipping. There's, you know, how does that work? And when did you really realize that, okay, I have this formula that works for this?

SPEAKER_00 27:32

It's only common. You know, there's a lot of metrics here you have to look at cost of acquisitions and you know, long-term value of each client, how many times they buy, the cost of your product, and uh how much it costs to acquire one new client or an asset, as they call it. Uh, and to break through that, once you know your number and then you're able to make it work, you can scale. Great marketing is what matters, right? Uh, you gotta have good videos, you know, clickbaits and hooks, they call them.

SPEAKER_01 28:03

Well, today now social media is huge, right? You gotta have that. You have to be all over the lot of affiliates that work for you, um, you know, selling your products and working through that as well.

SPEAKER_00 28:11

Uh we have quality affiliates and not many because you know, we're trying to be very exclusive with the brand. Uh, so we only sell like, like, you know, we only allow like certain quality website title to have it. We we're not trying here at Maceo, we're not trying to be everywhere. We just want to be where we perceive the value is perceived well. Like we sell Nordstrom, for example, is a partner of ours, right? Nemo Marcus and Sacksfifth Avenue.

SPEAKER_01 28:35

Uh what was it like getting into those stores? Let's talk about the it felt good. Yeah, I'm sure it did. I'm sure it did, but how many nodes did you take before you got in? Like so many. I mean, what did you do to start? Like, did you have a hit list you wrote down and said, Listen, I want this, I want that, and boom, I'm gonna walk us through how you went and actually to the day where they finally said, Come on, let's bring in your product, let's let's do this.

SPEAKER_00 28:57

So I uh when when you like a lady and then you you feel like she's always gonna say no, no, no at first. But you know, as a salesperson, as a persistent person, rejection means nothing to you. It's like it fuels you to come back and show up again for another day. And the people appreciate that because they're like, you know what, this guy's not gonna give up. Right. And then uh all you gotta do is find one guy that gives you a chance. And then once you're in, it's all about you, you know?

SPEAKER_01 29:23

That's right. Mark Cuban said that once. He said, you know, you can have all the ideas in the world, you only need one to be right. You know what I mean? So you need that one time that they say yes, that one time that it's right, and and that could change your whole world.

SPEAKER_00 29:34

It changed changes, but you know, in fashion, it's very hard to get in. It's even harder to stay in.

SPEAKER_01 29:40

Right.

SPEAKER_00 29:41

So getting in on it now with everybody.

SPEAKER_01 29:43

People can they grab their phones right now and create something at home. And yeah, they're they're creating their own product right there, you know, and they're um, you know, they're doing the the funds and and people pre-ordering and stuff. They don't even have to have product. You know what I mean? They can just do it with a display and with a picture. Heck, chat can do it now. AI can create something that they want and throw it up there and they can say, hey, it's for sale. And once they get so many sales, then they can ship the product. Yeah, yeah. So it's real easier today than it's ever been. You know, how's that affect your business?

SPEAKER_00 30:12

Not much, to be honest with you. You know, I feel like we we don't look at the competition. We stick to in our own lane, we do what we do best. I've never analyzed what other people do, to be honest with you. I just focus on what we do. I literally don't look at anybody else.

SPEAKER_01 30:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:26

At first, maybe the first six months, I used to do that. And I'm like, it gets you nowhere. You know, you always gotta it gets you nowhere. See, you know, we're not doing uh battery, a car with a battery or electrical car. We're not trying to we're just trying to because you know, in fashion, if you look at what other people do, you end up being like all the brands. When one brand does one thing, they all do the same thing because it's on trend. I wanna do what I think looks good. Yeah, you know, when you're in wholesale, because when we started our brand, we were in wholesale, the middleman was dictating what I do. Oh, I don't like this, I don't like that, I don't like the logo, I don't like this. So they dictate how you design. And when we got into retail, you know, you you close the cycle, the end-to-end process from manufacturing all the way to distribution. Nobody can tell you what to do.

SPEAKER_01 31:11

Right, shown at all.

SPEAKER_00 31:12

If you're right, people will buy. If you're not right, it's a bust and it's all on you.

unknown 31:16

Right.

SPEAKER_00 31:17

That's the key here.

SPEAKER_01 31:18

What's been one of your biggest busts that you remember and you're like, you know, I wish I didn't do it this way.

SPEAKER_00 31:24

I think it's not about it's not really about a bust, it's more about there's some people that scale faster. They manage maybe, you know, equity in a way that they can scale faster. Like private equities get in, uh, cash investments that get in. We were steady and we had a growth year over year, you know, that except you know, maybe the first year of COVID that we had to um scale back a little bit. But every single year we like between double to maybe 20, 30 percent growth every single year. That's awesome. But you could do it way faster.

SPEAKER_01 31:59

But and I think this is where we lacked experience. So if you could turn back time and change anything that you change, oh so much. Well talk talk a little bit about that. Like, what what are a couple things that we should do?

SPEAKER_00 32:11

If I knew what I know now, yeah 15 years ago, oh my god, I would do all this like the experience in like two years or in a year.

SPEAKER_01 32:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:19

Because you know, at first you don't know, you think you could do everything yourself.

SPEAKER_01 32:22

Right.

SPEAKER_00 32:23

You know, ego, yeah, uh I'm better than everybody else. I don't know how to do it better, you know. Uh you know, it's like I read a book, it's called Buy Back Your Time from by Dan Martell. It says 80% of somebody's doing it in a good way is pretty damn good. Right. So the minute you find a good team around you and they do 80% of the job right, then you're like, fuck, man, this is success here.

SPEAKER_01 32:51

Right. You know? What's your days like personally? Let's talk about your personal life. What what what do you do when you're not working? Uh you know, you know, people talk about entrepreneurs and stuff. The reason why people work for themselves is so they can have their own time, you know, and they can do what they want when they want. Let's talk about that. Is that is that is that what your life's like? Tell those, tell those people out there that are out that want to be entrepreneurs.

SPEAKER_00 33:13

So you work way more as you know you used to work 10 hours, you work all the time, but you get to decide when you could do whatever you want. So you could work 24-7, but at any time in the day, you're like, you know what? Fuck it, I'm gonna do that. So you manage the time, but definitely, man, yeah, you're an entrepreneur.

SPEAKER_01 33:33

Of course, you work every single minute. No, it's funny because I I heard that person like, yeah, I want to work for myself and the younger kids. I want to work for myself, so I can call my own hours. Yeah, yeah. Like you have no hours when you work for yourself. Are you kidding me? It's NOD and no off days, as I said.

SPEAKER_00 33:45

Even when you're having lunch with friends, whatever, you're like, what your brain is doing, and you're texting and calling and emailing, you're never present. And that's the hard part. I think I think the only commodity that we have today is time.

SPEAKER_01 33:56

Yeah. Right? As you get older, you know. We try to buy it back. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:01

And that's why you go buy back your time. It's like, how do I optimize? You don't want to become in jail of your business.

SPEAKER_01 34:06

Right.

SPEAKER_00 34:06

And then, you know, he says that in the book, which is I I think it hits me early on when I read it. Is like you worked for a corporation and now you created a job for yourself. Right. So, how do you manage that? You know?

SPEAKER_01 34:21

True.

SPEAKER_00 34:22

I I recommend it, by the way. It's a pretty good book.

SPEAKER_01 34:24

I don't know if you read it. We'll throw it, we'll throw it out there. No, I have not read that one. But I know Dan pretty you know pretty well. I I know his material is really good. So I'm gonna look into that. All right, this is part of the show where I like to do a little rapid fire questions. Go for it. So I'm gonna throw some rapid fires and you let me know. Okay, you ready? Here we go. Rolex or AP? A P. Paris or Las Vegas? Ah depends.

SPEAKER_00 34:46

Uh uh.

SPEAKER_01 34:46

Gotcha. I would say Las Vegas here. Las Vegas? Okay. Suit or a leather jacket? Suit. Okay. Elon Musk or Steve Jobs? Steve Jobs. All right. Engineering or fashion?

SPEAKER_00 34:59

I think both are the same, you know. There's engineering and fashion.

SPEAKER_01 35:03

Well, you gave up engineering for fashion. Yeah. So you get them both, though.

SPEAKER_00 35:07

Yeah, I got them both.

SPEAKER_01 35:08

You got them both, all right. First million or your first store? First store. All right. Best dressed celebrity.

SPEAKER_00 35:14

Best dressed celebrity. Best dress celebrity. Oh, that's a tough one. Best dress celebrity. Best dressed celebrity. Um I'll I'll I'll get back to you on this one. Come on, man. Come on, man.

SPEAKER_01 35:27

No, no, you have to get back. What about worst dress celebrity?

SPEAKER_00 35:34

You want to get me in trouble? I don't want to do it. Okay, okay, okay. We'll stay away from that. Favorite city in the world. Favorite city in the world. Uh there's a few actually. Rome. Yeah. Um, Johannesburg, okay, and Beirut. Of course. Beirut, number one, yeah. All right. One word that defines success. Success, success, success. Um to be able to legacy. One word that defines failure. One word that describes failure. Um procrastination.

SPEAKER_01 36:06

Long sleeve or short sleeve?

SPEAKER_00 36:08

Long sleeve.

SPEAKER_01 36:09

All right. Listen, imagine you're sitting across from a 25-year-old version of yourself right now, before Massayos existed. He's comfortable, he has a great engineering career, and life is safe. Knowing everything you've been through, what's the one thing you tell him before he takes the biggest risk of his life? It's gonna be okay. It's gonna be okay. It's okay to be okay. Yeah, it's okay not to be okay, too. I like it. I like it. Well, listen, Masayo, I really appreciate you being at the time. Thank you for having me. I appreciate that. Yeah, I really enjoyed it. Phil, you're a great guy. One last thing, man, to any of the viewers. You got a lot of young people out there trying to be entrepreneurs, all young people that want to start a brand, that want to start a business. Um, what's the one thing that you can leave them? For sure. Give them something right now.

SPEAKER_00 36:51

Don't do it.

SPEAKER_01 36:52

When I'm good old nuggets, don't do it. Love it.

SPEAKER_00 36:56

Don't do it. Don't get involved. Time is limited, you know. What you gonna live? 80 years, Max? Right? There's a way. I think every entrepreneur that is obsessed by the business, that sleeps, eats, it's go to work, sports, you know, everything is focused on one idea that they've created. And they're so passionate about it. It consumes you, it eats you alive. It's it's a tough thing. Um I always don't recommend it. You gotta be really mentally ill to get a beating every single day and come back the next day and ask for it again. Uh so I always say if you want to have a quality of life and a better life, it's just you could find a job that pays really good and just be the middleman in anything you want to do and just enjoy life. Because at the end of the day, when you're 80, like you're always, you know, we're thinking about it the other day. It's like you do you know who created Rolex? He passed away. You don't even know what he looks like.

SPEAKER_01 37:48

Right.

SPEAKER_00 37:49

Eventually we all fade, we go back into the universe and the energy, and then people forget about you. Louis Vuitton, Louis Vuitton, like, do you even know what he looks like? No. So what matters is what? What's around you? It's your friends, it's your family, it's your kids, it's your parents. And as an entrepreneur, you don't get to see that. I'm sure your kids look at you. I mean, you're lucky because you work with them now, but they're like, hey, my dad was never around because you know what? He was trying to make a living for me. Your parents, you get to see them three or four times, max a year. So my recommendation is don't start.

SPEAKER_01 38:20

There you have it, folks. You heard it from him himself, Missel. Remember, as your boy Wham Bam always says, if your life was a movie, would it be worth watching? If the answer is no, stop being ordinary and start being extraordinary. Till next Wednesday, baby. Stay positive and keep testing negative.