Redefining Luxury: How to Disrupt the Fragrance Industry | Raquel Bouris

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CU I got sick of working for rich men and I wanted to be the rich man Rael Boris is the founder and creative director of who is Elijah one of Australia's most Innovative fragrance brand I sort of said I need to get into the retailer so I DMD the fragrance buyer on LinkedIn and she wrote back the next day and now we're one of David Jones bestselling fragrances what is that regret and what do you think that would give you had you documented everything I wish I documented the early years like I hate myself for that

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there's like a few photos and anytime I post those photos like that everyone's just like oh my God like this is the start of who is Elijah from scaling who is Elijah from her garage the brand continues to disrupt the luxury fragrance industry and her straight talking and personality continues to take who is Elijah to incredible Heights we talk about like all the mistakes that we've made and how hard it is financially and the non-filtered version It's Like on paper we're very successful

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but the bank account isn't always successful I just should I say it come on tell us if I was doing that 3 years ago oh my God we'd be billionaires now so you're the founder and creative director of who is Elijah yeah and you're one of Australia's most exciting fragrance Brands and who Elijah is a $20 million e-commerce Empire and I'm sure that that number is going to double and triple very soon and this year alone you made over 3 million in a Black Friday sale with a 400% year on growth which is

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absolutely crazy silly that's so silly uh and thank you for joining us uh on the agency podcast thanks for having me and what a nice intro yeah we're excited to hang out and this has been a journey for you and it's been 5 years going into six years six years going into seven now which is crazy but I feel like the first two years was we I don't really count those two years which I mean they were important but we sort of start from like year3 as like year one so we think we're

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going into the year four as like a proper business the first two years was just me like in my kitchen and garage like filling perfume bottles like I got away with for so long but I was working as an executive assistant um for a hotel company I was like in an office in s he was like a beautiful office like getting all my stock delivered there posting it all out like I would just shut the blinds of the the um boardroom and just operate my business in there and I never got in trouble you never got caught

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never got caught that's gangster I probably I've say it on the podcast all the time but like they probably know now but I'm sure they're proud yeah they're like oh well we always knew that should be great we made it like that um but you know that's what I did for like the first two years cuz I was getting like the first two years was predominantly wholesale like 90% wholesale so I was like packing like big wholesale orders in the boardroom and just like not getting in trouble take me take me into

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the mindset like okay so so you're meant to be running this other organization yeah you got the boardroom how how this sounds like a bit of an ocean 11 set like how are you planning this coordinating deliveries packing boxes without the staff getting upset or people catching on well I run I run the office so like there was no one else like there do you know what I mean like um like I sat at like the front of the office for these first two years so everything that was coming was just coming directly to me so like there was

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no one else in between me and the deliveries or anything like that and I don't know I I did my work I was a very good assistant so no one ever I think had to question what I was doing I was like I was getting the job done so no one ever really had to bother me yeah so you're so good at your job no one ask any questions and then they're like she must just be super busy today she so busy yeah that's incredible so you're doing that for two years and um at what point were you're like hang on a second

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this is kind of getting serious um it was 2020 like Co here and cuz we're a hotel company half the office lost their job or got stood down I kept my job but got on what was it called like reduced hours to 3 days and everyone was working from home and then I came back to the office and then because so many people had lost their job like I was just getting like mountains of other people's work and expected to do it in 3 days but I was working 5 days a week so I was kind of just getting like over it and

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then um I said this is summer the other day and they laughed at me but it was like what motivated you to do it I'm CU I got sick of working for rich men and I wanted to be the rich man I love that yeah cuz I did I worked for very rich men and I love them like they're lovely but like I want to be the [ __ ] rich man so I became the rich man and that was my motivation and then how I did that I gave myself a goal I was like I'm going to get into David Jones thought it might take like six months I think I got

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in within like within the the month of me dming them on LinkedIn sent them a brand deck and they said yes without even smelling the fragrance wait hang on a second so so you were uh working 3 days and then with them within a month of deciding I'm going to be in David Jones I got in you got in through a DM yeah I I found that um I was just laying in bed one night and I was like [ __ ] I don't want to do this anymore so I'm like I need to get into the retailers like the big retailers cuz we had like

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boutiques and we probably was I was probably making like $40,000 a month at at that stage but I didn't understand profit and loss so I was just like I didn't know what I was even doing with that money um but I was buying like um like little amount of stock for a lot more than what you know you buy in b so our like I didn't even know what our profit margin was back then i' I'd love to know um but we I sort of said I need to get into the retailer so I DMD the fragrance buyer on LinkedIn and she

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wrote back the next day and I still speak to her now Kate she's like shout out to Kate yeah love you Kate um and now we're one of David Jones bestselling fragrances or Niche fragrances there you go so that was year three yeah that was um I got into David Jon no year to um August 2020 okay but you weren't working working at that time no I was working and then I quit my job I got like I got the okay from DAV Jones walked into the office and I'm like I'm out they're like where are you going you're like I retail

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D Jon down they're like hang on a second cuz I still hadn't like openly said to them that I had another bit like I had a business like I kep it so on the download like I've never spoken to them about it I love that um but yeah that's sort of like that was like the the first big sliding door moment where I went fulltime so I've been full-time who was Elijah I think it was July 2020 That's so exciting M That's so exciting I love these stories and I love how you said you didn't know what your profit margin

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was such a classic startup entrepreneur just going hell for leather bootstrapping everything and then you ask them what their margins are and they're like I don't know busy as hell I'm in David Jones leave me alone yeah it took a few years to like on I don't even want to tell you like how long ago it was until we actually started properly like operating a profit and loss and it was when Paul Wy came into the business and he like he's like you guys like you need to know all this

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stuff but like now we know like more so Adam like he's the numberb guy in the business you can ask him a question he knows like exactly I'm a little bit still like creative weirdo in the corner like wo it doesn't matter um but someone's managing it but yeah I can't believe we made it this far because I did not know how to run a business cuz it was just me at the start like by myself for like two and a half years yeah there's some data that came out recently and you know uh they were

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studying like startup entrepreneurs and this whole rhetoric around you know you need to have a business plan is kind of a myth uh never had among entrepreneurs so typically people like yourself that like bootstrap and get started they don't have a written plan they're just hellbent on like pursuing something it lights them up that's their Obsession and they just scramble and figure it out until it gets to the point where we're like we need a profit and loss yeah and like I think

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it's so much fun like I wish I like um I wish I documented the early years like I hate myself for that like I didn't film anything like there's like a few photos and anytime I post those photos like that everyone's just like oh my God like this is the start of who is Elijah like we went from the loung room to the to the garage to a storage unit like so much cool stuff there yeah that I just didn't document at all well that's an interesting point you make so this is going back about yeah like what would

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you say like six five six years ago years and I would say like right now it seems to be a common content pillar that okay we need to build founder L marketing that's a new thing that wasn't in the Z Guist 6 years ago oh and like so we I started doing that like like 3 years in I think and ever since I started doing that like I think like who Elijah has just grown so much because of that and now it's like a package deal like you get who is Elijah and they want Raquel as well like the retailers um

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which is cool I mean like we've got two platforms now that we can like tell the story over and over again and you know some people might not looking at my Instagram page but they might looking at who was Elijah's Instagram page so I think it's um I think they people like really hold on to that like almost like a I don't know if it's like a success story or like an inspiring story like I get DMS all the time from you know especially women and some guys being like how have you done this like please

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like I'll like offering to pay me money to help them like oh I'll just help you like it's it's actually not that hard but like do this this and this and this and it's like I get messages three months later like oh my God you've changed my life and it's just like I think you just need someone like to just talk about like the the non-filtered version and I think Adam and I are very good at that like we won't sit here and be like oh business is great and it's all fluffy like it's [ __ ] hot and it

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sucks but we love it um but I think we talk about like all the mistakes that we've made and how hard it is financially and you know especially lately we've been doing it a lot and we're getting so many messages from people being like thank you like I thought I was failing and I'm the only one but it's like if you guys me and Adam look like we're so successful and like yes the business is successful but we're not like living this like humongous successful life like you know

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some weeks it's really tough and you know you're scrambling to get invoices paid because no one's paying us like on paper we're very successful but the bank account isn't always successful so I think like that's important yeah like I think in business um cash flow yeah the hardest profit and Equity are three very different beasts your company can be worth a lot on paper um you can have a ton of equity in the brands and a huge fan base and it's like cash flow is just not coming in for whatever reason which

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could be brutal and terrifying and scary um so so take me into the mindset I guess around the time where you started realize hang on a second like hey I regret not documenting everything is that a recent um Epiphany or or is this something that you're you have realized in in the previous couple years yeah I think it's been probably like the last two years I've really been like I wish I had like videos from then and that and so I could like show and talk about it more I talk about it but like to show it

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it's another thing um but that's what I like tell everyone now like if you're starting out like film everything and you might not even use it now but you'll use it later exactly and I think um so for you what what is that and what do you think that would give you how you documented everything I don't know I think selfishly like I just want to be out of SE cuz I can see it like when I close my eyes and I think about it and you know I think it would like speak to a lot of people um I mean it's great

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content like whenever we like um post content about me or like me talking on Instagram it's always the most engaging content so I think like it's just like such missed opportunity there do you think there's something around unlocking emotional and like um memories and things of that nature as well so for example um we just came back from Mexico and I was on stage with Gary V now before we came on the port I told you the story about how Gary inspired me to start the business and I'm like next to

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the stage and I'm about to go up and like talk to Gary and just share with him like Hey man this has been my journey you inspired me to start my business had it known before here I am now not really like he he's aware of me but he wasn't like fully aware of the weights wow that he had on me anyways I'm standing on the side of the stage and I'm like oh yeah 5 years ago I was $200,000 in debt I was broke as [ __ ] and I was like I started like shaking oh wow cuz I I went back to all the memories of

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like how I felt and and the distinctive Terror I had 5 years ago and I was like reliving it and I was like man if I had like filmed those moments that would be palpable cuz I think there's something powerful about having contrast of where you were just to give you like way more confidence in where you are today wow that's incredible and what did he say was he like thank you he was just like w dude he's like holy crap like wow I'm proud of you man that's awesome like he was just shocked but I remember like I'm

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trying to talk to him on stage and I'm like gasping for air I'm crying and I'm like I'm so panicked and I'm like dude like thanks so much um but I just remember like distinctively like how helpless and hopeless I felt like not being able to pay my bills and not being able to like do what I wanted to do scary a question I have for you is like if if you go back to the beginning and and you're at the perspective that you are now like um what what's been that that Chasm of growth you like what do

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you feel like you've um you've gained as a human being from that Journey at the beginning to where you are now think like confidence comes to mind straight away like I mean I've always been like confident enough but I think like now like from what from I feel like I've gone from like a girl to a woman like like I started was I was 23 I'm now 30 like I think like no matter what you're doing in between those years of life like that's such a life change you know I've had kids in between that time got

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married like the business has like I don't know like I feel like what I wanted to be and it was like that powerful rich man and that might sound weird to some but you know you get it like I I think um yeah like I just wanted to I've always like wanted to just be in charge of my life like my parents used to hate me growing up but now they're like oh my God that's why you were like that like they couldn't like you couldn't hold me down or like be a parent to me like I just knew what

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I needed to do and like that was it and not so good when you're a teenager but now it's like you know I'm confident to walk in those like big scary boardrooms with like men that are running these big retails and be like no no no like my products great like you need my product like you need me more than I need you yeah um excuse me have you met me yeah like have you met but like and I think like you know I'm such just like a short little girl but I think I've got this like big six foot man energy yeah dude

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like you're spirit animals like a 6ot Navy SEAL dude um but yeah I think like becoming confident um has been like the best thing that's come out of how would you how would you describe confidence like just not afraid to like you know like at the beginning like like even my dad was like you're a [ __ ] idiot like who the [ __ ] going to buy perfume like stay in your safe job and I'm like everyone's going to buy my perfume and so it's like confidence to like back yourself it's like confidence

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to walk into those rooms and you know sell your product and like sell your dream and we haven't gone down investor route yet but I you know that will happen one day and like I listen I was actually listening to a podcast on the way here about someone um talking about like um doing that like in the whole investor journey and you know like you need to like be confident to walk in there and like you're not just selling your product like you need to sell like I feel like a lot of investors buy into

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people so I think like me being confident enough to go out there and tell my story to the world over and over and over again like it gets not tiring tiring is not the right word but you think that people get sick of hearing it so you stop doing it sometimes and then when when I stop doing it like I do see the growth stop sometimes interesting yes I feel like you just need to like tell the story over and over again confidently um in different ways or like different ways it's more like different

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ways for yourself so you're not getting sick of saying the same words again but you're telling it to so many new people every time I had that I had that Revelation like like last week as well cuz I was telling everyone the story about the Gary thing again and I'm like yeah this is like old news to me but everyone's like that story changed my life yeah and it's in the book and people like man I read the book and like that story hit me so hard the book's great but that story and I'm like to me I'm like it's

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it's just my story know but to someone else they're like oh that's what he went through what do you think it is about a story that uh allows people to connect I feel like it might bring up emotions like from their own past or something that they're going through at the moment like it's just like that human emotional like connection like a a book I feel like a book can do that but if you're like you're the person that wrote the book telling the story like I think that's just so much more impactful

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so around that take me into personal branding for yourself so you're you know packing boxes in a boardroom um I mean I imagine if you started an online program you be like step one like get a job at a hotel it's great you can receive the packages you can use the boardroom it's like free St everywhere there's resources everywhere free internet electricity great contacts coming into the hotel how bad isn't it's almost stealing uh it's a great business strategy um for those listening okay so

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but take me into like the personal branding piece so like I what point were you like you know producing content and then deciding hang on a second I'm going to start like putting my face in front of this brand and like producing online content cuz I feel like that really gave you a lot of traction as a brand yeah I knew I needed to do it and I think this is something that people say a lot today it's like I just didn't know how and that sounds so silly right just get an iPhone and start talking but as we said

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it here before what' you call it camera itis yeah we call it camera itis which is like you sit down you're like I'm going to make content you turn the camera on and then you like speechless yeah like what do I do with my hands you know what I'm going to I wasn't going to tell anyone my tip but I'll tell it um I just should I say it come on tell us every going to know like it's not even that big of a deal but like I found this like teleprompter app on my like on the App Store and so I just like write what

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I want to say and it like the words are like on the camera and it's like you know like when you see like the news people like reading the teleprompter so like that has made it so much easier now I don't really use it anymore but I feel like it was just like the practice and we did that for a long time it's great I've only like just discovered it like 6 months ago cuz then you just focus on your Annunciation you sound super articulate and everyone's like wow you put words together I'm like I wrote I

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wrote them but if I was doing that three years ago oh my God we'd be billionaires now how did you how did you like realize it like what did you start to do did you have it all figured out like take me through definitely didn't have it figured out I think people were telling me to start doing like people in my team obviously watching other um BR brand Founders doing it like I want to do that but like I just don't feel confident like it almost felt like like um like unauthentic okay do you know but like I

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was being authentic but I think cuz it was just so something that I'm not used to doing and I felt out of my comfort zone I didn't want to do it at the start and I would do like a 100 takes and be like oh like maybe there's one there that we can use but I mean practice makes perfect I just kept doing it and now like someone asked me to do it I'll do it on the spot gotcha so at the beginning okay so like you know when when you first had the epiphany of like hey we need to make foundl content quote

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unquote was this two or three years ago probably like three years ago but we've gotten really good at it in like the last two years I want to say so about three years ago who were you watching that you're like oh okay they're on to something I want to try that who have I been watching like every Beauty brand like um uh like Priscilla from bang and body uh and then like all the all the like American I feel like it's I feel like I started watching like Americans do it first I think like the big and

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like like this like the Selena Gomez is from Beauty obviously Gomez but like you have like triny London try London like yeah like any anyone that I'd find on like a podcast and I'd go and look at their brand and I could see like oh they're doing that like I don't even think I called it founder Le content them but like they're getting in front of the camera um yeah I think it was just like see from seeing other people do it and then like people in my team also seeing that and be like Rael you

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should start doing this yeah how many people did you have on your team at that point oh 3 years ago like maybe 10 yeah so you're dragging your heels you're like oh fine let's do a tele thing film it 100 times pick one take at what point were we like oh this is working it started to work straight away like and then I was like oh and then like you know you keep going and confidence keeps building and when then we started showing like behind the scenes like cuz you know I think I don't know if we are

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but one of the only fragrance brands that do it like how we have been doing it this whole time like we now don't feel by hand but up until like a year ago even less like we've been feeling by hand so like we started showing um on Instagram how we fill people's perfume bottles and everyone's like wow we thought you were you were lying about that like you actually do it like that like yeah now we actually do it like this so then we're showing that a lot as well which which like we still show that

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today and like that's amazing that's remarkable and do you think that that was building the dominant fan base yeah yeah yeah was seeing you understanding that this is the human behind the brands um did you find that it was a certain type of audience that were connecting with you online or was it a mix no I think we've had a really good mix like everyone asked like well who's your who's your avatar and I'm like I don't know if I can answer that like we have like so many different walks of

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life that we're wearing her as Elijah and like we like we can um people can um like choose to enter their age if they want like we've got 18y olds up to 65 year olds like we've got like such a wide um group of people and community so I think we're talking to like everyone it's remarkable yeah and and was there a certain crowd that kind of like grabbed onto the brands initially like the first stter crowd the people that seemed mosted to the when you who5 or they probably buying someone else is buying

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it 25 to 35 year olds like sort of like people who are my age I guess um that's our biggest audience um but yeah and I think like they're showing their moms and like their little sisters and then their Partners so I think it's the amazing 25 to 35 year olds yeah very cool and and then they're discovering you either through content but now it seems to be changing well we were very retail dominant from like for the first 3 years okay through David Jones David Jones um Sephora like we had like I

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don't know 3 to 400 like independent boutiques as well like like your moms and Dad's like Little Stores um so like we you know where you can find Hills laij in the most random shops around Australia like you know like in our like very like not remote but like kind of remote areas so I feel like we like spread ourselves probably a little bit too thin and maybe this is something we can talk about about it cuz we like in July this year we like kind of stopped all wholesale except for David Jones and

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Sephora Okay and like kind of said goodbye to everyone we needed to cleanse like that we were just like almost like too accessible I think and it decided like the way that our products were being like presented in stores was just like we'd see photos and I'd be like oh my God like that looks so bad um and it's because we let um wholesale Agents from day one sell it anywhere because they're selling for commission they were just putting it anywhere I see so we really had to do a cleanse I'm excited

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to fully unpack that um and let's come back to that in just a moment regarding the personal branding piece um what what would be the recipe for someone to replicate some formula of what you do with f Le content I think just like being really authentic like I think because I think when you're authentic it's you don't have to think about what to say you're just you're just talking about the truth right and I think um and this is something that I heard recently and I really like loved it um like

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really understanding and living and breathing your brand DNA which is something that we have like done all along but you know we look at like our brand D of H Elijah as a person like they they change it changes so like our brand DNA has changed throughout the years as I've grown the brand has grown so I think just like really talking about those changes as we go and just speaking about who is Elijah like it's a person and then speaking about my EXP experiences along the way and that's

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what everyone else should do as well I think like that's easy interesting okay you look at the brand like it's a human being and you look at this human being like they're evolving changing and growing and you're filming uh your uh Unapologetic experience growing the business behind the scenes yeah yeah and like show like the hard stuff like show the PE like show the stuff that people like will like almost like appreciate your product more more for I think like cuz when we were showing like the girls

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in the warehouse like working till 8:00 p.m. at night hand filling bottles and we're like sorry your orders are a little bit late everyone's like oh my gosh so fine like you're not mass-produced in some Factory and God knows where like you're here in a factory and it's like look at the team Like Blood Sweat and Tears are going into it um so I think people really appreciate that so if you would to hire me as a content creator and you would have sit me down and go okay these are

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the things that we want to film so it's like uh behind the scenes what really plays out with the pack packaging the manufacturing uh what else what else what other things are you capturing yeah like going into like our retail stores and like you know me just fixing the shelves I could go in there and I like dust the Shelf really yes they get so dusty yeah this is my shelf my shelf um you know we've got a great product that we can sample so a lot of things we're actually about to start doing this um

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next week um just going back on I feel like we're known as like our Gorilla Marketing like we love Gorilla Marketing so like going out to the streets and filming me handing samples out to people talking to people asking them what they think about the fragrance and just getting those like really raw um what's it called like RAW reviews like in person from people that you know we're not paying them to do it they're actually just doing it very cool um and then you know and I think like showing

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showing the team's personality I think like that's I'm was it EGC employee employee generated content which is another thing that's happening at the moment just starting but um Jazz um my creative and content manager did a EGC video for Black Friday and last time we checked I think it's done like nearly a million doll in sales c one video she needs a pay rise I was like did she get a pay raise she's going to get something um but you know like I think that's the new thing now and like I think there's a

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few um lots of Australian brands that are really starting to do that so like we're starting to do that now fascinating yeah yeah Kim we need to start doing that okay yeah um what else okay so you're doing the gorilla stuff G dusting shelves dusting Shel giving out pay raises to people does um just like trying to like show personality and like oh like um so we got into boots recently in the UK so they're like they're like a Mecca SL Price Line oh okay I think I've seen them yeah um so

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they're huge they were like 2,000 stores wow so they said no to me in May last year because they loved the fragrance but no one knew who we were okay and so I was like [ __ ] I'm going to make you know who I am so I jumped on a plane like 5 days later or 10 days later with jazz my content girl and we flew to London with 500 discovery so our Discovery sets have like all of the little two M bottles inside and we stood out at the front of boots stores and handed them to the boots customers going

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in and out of the stores the boots um employees were running out and taking them from us and I filmed it like tagging boots like annoying them and um they'll just like this isn't how we take new brands I'm like and anyway so I thought it didn't work so then I went um went home and I was like whatever and how did they complain though they didn't complain but they were just like it was just like the social girls like just being like Oh like this isn't how we take new brand applications and I'm like

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well this is how I'm putting in my brand application um dude that's diabolical and I love the fact you're like I'm getting on a flight and I'm going to get right in their face and I didn't think it worked nine months later I get an email in March this year from the head of fragrance saying hey can we have a call spoke to him a few days later and um they said on this SP like yeah let's launch and I was like oh my God I like did you see what I did and they're like yeah we've been watching you ever since

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yeah yes and we just launched them last month yeah I think if anyone did that and I I ran a company but like yeah so I think like filming like that stuff as well like getting into we still like I've been getting into retail the same way the whole time like I still do those like you're like I'm going to get my six foot dude energy out and I'm going to get in your face intimidate you until and I think like you know an email and a brand deck isn't enough anymore like these big retail to some retailers

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yes but these big retailers like can you imagine how many brand proposals that they're getting every day like I'm chasing after Sephora and alter in the US at the moment and they both like the product it but they're just waiting for those like Big Brand moments I think so I think America will be 2026 for us we do something amazing fascinating so so you're using Gorilla tactics not just to create content but to get the attention of retailers and to try to disrupt the the chain of how they do business yeah

00:28:17 - 00:29:06

cuz we don't have the budgets of the Dior and Chanel perfumeries you know so we have to be different what's the weirdest thing that you think you've done to get uh retailers attention probably the boots thing that's crazy man I think it's the coolest thing that's the coolest story oh and then actually we done some like we'll like every Christmas we'll send like a thousand perfume bottles to like Sephora and Ulta cuz they've got like thousand staff just like keep in front of their

00:28:41 - 00:29:24

mind like I know we'll get them one day but I just like don't want them to let it I don't want them to forget us you know that's a clever tactic so you're sending them a th000 bottles you're like give these out to your stuff you give wrap them yeah yeah yeah so just like you need like to get their and like that's expensive and like we put that under like a marketing card but I know it'll I know it'll work out in the end there we got amazing perfumes so I'm

00:29:03 - 00:29:59

sure the Sephora head office is wearing them every day that's fascinating yeah gorilla tactics I love it treating business like Warfare beautiful stuff okay so so you were inspired by other content creators you started to do it yourself you start to get traction social media really starts to take off retailers are taking you on now take me into the retailer space and and the full I guess psychology of like what it is that retailers want a brand how do you get your foot in the door how do you get

00:29:31 - 00:30:33

traction like how do you begin these relationships well get on a plane and stand out the front of their stores and annoy them um but with with Australia Australia's been like really easy for us I think cuz I mean we're Australian made product I think cuz I'm here it's like been easier International is another story but Australia David Jones was like you know I can't believe I pretty much just walked in there um Sephora again we got Sephora Australia in February 2021 um and that was because we had built a

00:30:02 - 00:30:59

brand I don't think we would have gotten into Sephora the same way we got into David Jones so do you think like the retailers of today are looking for you to build your own brand Equity what do they look for do they look for followers do they look for retail size like what exactly are they hunting they look they look at your follow they look at everything to be honest and some some retails are different um like they look at your followers um they want to like know what re when you're doing um and

00:30:30 - 00:31:28

like what are your best sellers um what PR have you got out there like what not notability is that right yeah right not yeah not um I think I think I'm not in PR video team will like put text over the screen if we're wrong um yeah like it they want like the full picture and I think the more of everything that you're doing the um better chance that you have of getting in there and I think only this year this sounds stupid but only this year I've only really realized the power of retail

00:31:00 - 00:32:04

so I think once we started getting good at Ecom we like Adam started to not like push retail away but I think got in his mind like they're we're fighting for the same customer I see which yes we probably are at times but you know we're working with like retail Giants that have been around for years and years like decades and decades and you know some of our new retailers in the UK they their like email database is 26 million people that's a whole of Australia I think so it's like you know let's use

00:31:31 - 00:32:29

that to our advantage and you know really like partner with the retailers to you know get our product and get our information into their databases hands because otherwise it costs so much more money to do it um without their help I think so well imagine how much it would cost to get 27 people's 27 million people's emails email like we don't even have a million emails at H SL I don't know how many have but it's nowhere near a million emails so I think that and Adam agrees with me now like agrees with

00:32:01 - 00:32:51

me CU I'm the retail side of the business he's the Ecom side of the business so we like battle it out but um I think like the power of retail is huge and I only learned that this year so I'm really excited for next year to like really um you know we we've got like good marketing plans with retailers next year like we have grown so much in David Jones without without doing like almost zero marketing and then this year we did like a a window on Elizabeth Street right next to the Louis Vuitton store

00:32:26 - 00:33:18

wow and there's this massive photo of me with with our new fragrance bottle and our sales were like insane from that launch so we're doing it again in February and we got two windows this time for a month in Melbourne and Elizabeth Street and it's like the investment isn't even that much I just assumed I couldn't afford it but it's it's really like it's so much cheaper than like I can I ask you what it is $115,000 to do two windows right next to Louis Vuitton yeah that's nothing I know

00:32:52 - 00:33:47

yeah have you heard about the halo effect no so Simon be from cult Kings taught me this and he goes if you put a pair of Nikes on a shelf and then you put an unknown brand next to it the market assumes the brand next to Nike is worth the same oh so it's like you leverage the Halo wow of the big Brands you put something next to it and it makes that brand look like it's equal oh makes so much sense right so if you're putting your Lou yeah you're putting your brand right next to Louis vit on

00:33:19 - 00:34:07

it's like hey it's same guys like I when I saw it like I started crying I was like I can't believe that I don't know I felt like such like a I don't know I just like got covered in Goosebumps I was like wow like I don't know how to explain it but it was just like euphoric yeah yeah and it say those magic moments that you want to turn into content yes and remember we did yeah cuz when you're a billionaire 5 years from now and you forget who I am and what's going on here

00:33:44 - 00:34:39

you're going to look back at that photo be like oh yeah I remember that I remember that but like now like when something like that happens like we like run to make like so many pieces of content like last night um we we got approached by Porsche or porsa I think Porsche sounds at Porsche to um they had their Porsche Penthouse event last night in um Ben long lawn near the opera house and then we got approached by them to um do the gifting so we every person that came I think it was like 350 people got

00:34:11 - 00:35:02

a 50 mil H larer bottle and we like co-branded the the bottle label like Porsche Penthouse ex who was Elijah that's so cool so cool um but I didn't go I was actually so sick yesterday like nearly went to hospital oh my gosh I was so I'm fine today it was like growing up all day sorry edit that out um but you show up for us but not Porche yeah I wasn't missing today AB was like do you want me to cancel the podcast I'm like no no no I'm going to be fine I feel so special yes um but the team went and um

00:34:37 - 00:35:27

you know like that's going to look so good in our brand deck like when we want to like you know like the halo effect like okay well Porsche partnered with her Elijah right then why shouldn't I yeah and this all adds Equity to your brand right like by association oh she's in David Jones oh she's with por oh she's next to Louis Vuitton this builds brand Equity yeah yeah and that takes a long time and I feel like but if I knew now what if I knew then what I knew now I think we could have done it so much

00:35:01 - 00:36:00

quicker but um I think I think there's like so much more information out there now so much so many more good podcasts now to learn from than there was six years ago when I started I think so too and I think the Dynamics are changing the the people that are doing it like it's almost like more competitive it gets the better it gets you know what I mean so true um so regarding yourself in the personal brand versus um I guess who was Elijah do you ever have any fear that like one's going to overshadow the

00:35:30 - 00:36:18

other do you ever try to like reduce how much you're putting your face in front of the brands you know things like that should I no I'm just curious I'm just curious if you've ever had these fears or concerns the reason I say that there's a lot of people like well you don't want to overdo it cuz like you know what if something happens to you blah blah blah like people just have these fears I think I think who Elijah stands on its own for sure which I think like um at the start of who Elijah I

00:35:55 - 00:36:46

actually had a business partner and he wanted to call it Rael and Elijah I never wanted to use my name right and because I feel like it's hard to not that I was even thinking back then I'm going to sell it but it's like it's hard to sell when it's got your name on it I don't know I would agree yeah it's a little strange um so I think like who Elijah definitely stands on it on its own but I think like the Rael brand like helps it as well and vice versa like I don't think I'd have a

00:36:20 - 00:37:12

I wouldn't have aand personal brand myself if who Elijah didn't exist yeah but who was Elijah would if I didn't exist I think interesting Okay so now regarding the name because it is an interesting name and I think you know some people say you know brand name isn't important other people are like it's everything I think it's important I think it's important I think it adds strategy someone's name or stage name or what have you certainly impacts how people perceive them feel about them who

00:36:46 - 00:37:43

is Elijah just has a great math feel it's got a nice ring to it it kind of creates a story and it creates mystery what what was the intention of a name like that and where did it come from it's the most like not amazing story but it's funny um well the it was going to be called Rael and Elijah so my friend Matt um do you know the how I started whoah the Coachella story I don't know the Coachella story person should I quickly tell that cam knows it but yeah go ahead I'll quickly tell it so I went to

00:37:14 - 00:38:04

Coachella in 2017 I just asked Adam to be my boyfriend CU he was coincidentally going there as well yeah and he's now my husband we got two kids um but we I went there with my group of friends and he was there on a box party so my group of friends I went with Matt and and some girls and then Matt brought along a friend from Queensland and she just smelled amazing and I was like what is that and then I took a photo of it and it was an oil from an oil fragrance from India and I took a photo of it and when

00:37:39 - 00:38:28

I get got home I kept thinking about it so I tracked it down bought it started wearing it around Sydney and I had like 100 people come up to me and Matt over like a two-month period like tapping me on the shoulder like chasing me down the street cuz it was such a strong fragrance wow and like I'd never experienced that before and I was like it just like planted that seed in my head like and I said to M like let's make a perfume and it wasn't even let's make a company it was let's make a

00:38:03 - 00:38:54

perfume we started it and then so when we're trying to think of a name um he wanted to call it Raquel and Elijah he just liked the name Elijah I didn't even know an Elijah and then when he decided to not move forward with it he just I know I guess and you need to believe in it when it comes to like putting like the financial investment into it I think that's like it's like the Tipping Point for some people right big time Big Time um so then he decided to leave and I was like I don't want to call it Rael and

00:38:29 - 00:39:25

elij Rael and Elijah so I just said like who the [ __ ] is Elijah and I was like hang on that sounds cool and so I wrote it down and like I was like that looks really cool and then I was like it kind of creates this like mystery like who is Elijah and then I sent it to Adam and he's like yeah that's really cool and that was it wow yeah fascinating and it's like a weird mix of like reasons yeah I know I need to like lie and like think of like a story I just like I again like I think these are my favorite

00:38:57 - 00:39:45

stories and it's like you know the whole um we had Marcus Collins on the podcast uh last week and he was telling us about how Nike came up with a tagline just do it do you know the story behind it yeah Mark Boris actually told me this it's crazy like like the guy who was building the ad campaign was watching the news there was a serial killer was just like you know they're like this guy's getting the chair he's like just do it and he's like that's a great campaign but like

00:39:22 - 00:40:12

it's not a fascinating story but it works yeah and I think in your case it is an interesting story it's like you're this person who found a fragrance and all these things played out and then you're like yeah who is Elijah that's kind of cool and mysterious let's roll with it people love these stories yeah yeah it sounds easy but try telling that to the head of fragrance of Sephora friends I had to clean it up a lot what did you tell them what was the story for them oh like the Cella story didn't say

00:39:46 - 00:40:46

FK um and then I was like oh you know I want to create mystery yeah I think there's mystery around it no there is there definitely is and that's how like if if we were to scroll back to um like the very of who Elijah Instagram I archived it since then but it's like I did really lean into that like there was like no faces like there was like people with mask like like cool like um like Darth Punk sort of like mask like like there's no face to it for like two years so I did really lean into that um but

00:40:16 - 00:41:09

then I when I started to become the face of the brand like it's kind of evolved past then but you know um it's like it's everyone walks up to our retail shelves cuz it says who is Elijah and it's like what does that mean like is who is he so it it has worked so much in our favor like it it creates that Intrigue for people to like approach the shelves and smell it like as a brand strategist my mind goes crazy with the amount of campaigns you could build around your brand name let's talk about that later I

00:40:43 - 00:41:41

think I think it's really fascinating because I think you know a good a good brand name should evoke feeling and it does that it should be distinctive and unlike anything I've seen and I've not seen other brands put who is in front of it personally yeah no neither I can't think of any um don't start now the only yeah the only thing the only thing I can think of is like the brand who gives a crap but it's not who is right but I think there there are brand names that are phrases and it's really rare for a

00:41:12 - 00:42:22

brand to use a phrase as a brand name but obviously it sticks it works people like it they love saying it it's it's become a part of the cultural zist so for you when it comes to the brand name and the brand Equity like what is the brand you at this point you talked about the DNA and it's like a person if you had to describe who is Elijah like a person how would you describe it [ __ ] um okay so we we are luxur accessible luxury you know like our fragrances are the using the same level

00:41:47 - 00:42:39

of ingredients as a $700 bottle of Tom Ford but you know we don't cost $700 like the quality is incredible um I think like we're just we're rebellious like we want to shake up the fragrance industry we've done something that everyone told us that we wouldn't do so I think we're like the [ __ ] you to everyone but in a good way so what do you think that [ __ ] you is is it is it the fact that you're doing the same caliber of product at a fraction of the price yeah and I like it wasn't even

00:42:13 - 00:43:11

like like when I did start who was Elijah like my parents would buy me BYO um the perfume and they're like $350 a bottle yeah and like 21 I could not afford that like what 21y old it's ridiculous right like I I wear Tom for and even I'm like I don't need a refill yet um so at the start like I did say like I don't want it to cost a lot like I want people my age to be able to afford it so that's where sort of like the accessible luxury thing came and that's been you know from the start um and you know I

00:42:42 - 00:43:37

think we're just I don't know it's not even like a [ __ ] you but it's like a I think it's like it's inspiring to others out there that like there's there's nothing that you can't do like we we took on like the luxury fragrance industry and it honestly wasn't that crazy hard like it was hard but it wasn't like I didn't haven't spent millions of dollars on marketing like I think it's been like a gradual build for sure but I think it's like you know it's given me and

00:43:09 - 00:44:13

others the confidence to you know make that product that yes there might be a hundred others like that out there but you just need to do it better um maybe for a cheaper price um and have a really cool story to tell business owners if you're stuck using one platform for every project you're probably stuck in a growth bottleneck more clients means more hires which just adds noise and cuts into profits to break the loop you need flexible tools that don't stretch your resources Wick studio is a smart

00:43:41 - 00:44:49

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00:44:15 - 00:45:32

meaning you can redirect the client budget towards real growth initiatives think more value for clients steady income streams and stronger relationships to get started simply go to wixc / studio so if you would to be selfish and really pinpoint what it is that you bring to the equation that might be rare because let's be honest here it what you've created is a rare outcome but you seemingly you sorry you seemingly continue to um surprise what can and can't be achieved frequently like what is it that gives

00:44:53 - 00:45:44

you the edge The X Factor the advantage over other people trying to do the same thing I think that I like just don't care what people think like I will go out there and stand in the middle of the city and just be like hey I'm Rael smell my perfume like I'll get in people's faces like not in like a crazy way but like I'll I'd argue it's slightly crazy yeah I don't know like I just like I know people are going to love it so like I just want to get it into their hands so

00:45:19 - 00:46:15

like I'll do the crazy Gorilla Marketing things and just like do do the like do the hard work myself I think yeah and and if would to add anything that gives you a force multiplier to do that like is it just consistently showing up and guerilla marketing and consistently going into these meetings and just pitching why the product's great like what else can people bring to the equation that that you might be doing that others might not be even thinking about I mean I don't know there's so

00:45:47 - 00:46:32

many things like the first thing that came to mind was like I've got a really good team like I'm fortunate enough to have a team and you know we had a small team for a very long time so you don't have to have a lot of people on your team I think you can just have like like we've only got one or two people now on our marketing team and for a long time it was just me and Jasmine and we would go and speak to other brands and they'd be like oh we've got like 15 people on our marketing team but they're like the

00:46:09 - 00:46:57

same size company as us and they're like do you Outsource and we're like no not really like we're just doing it ourselves like we haven't let go of that startup mentality like I don't even know if we are a startup anymore but like we want to be like we love it we we never not want to be a startup so for you what what is that startup mentality it's get getting your hands dirty like you know I'm I'm I'm doing as much as like maybe not as much as the employees I don't

00:46:34 - 00:47:26

want to take that away from them but like I feel like an employee to who is Elijah like I've got I've got to get up and go to work every day like so many times people like oh like do you want to like go to the beach I'm like no I'm going to work like and like I they've got jobs but like I can go and do that but like I very rarely do so like I think it's just like never like the minute that we've ever like taken out like let go of the range it's hasn't gone well so then like we'll

00:46:59 - 00:47:59

go and take the Reigns back and like let like people kind of got into Adam and I's ear I think this year and we decided to hire like you know these like executive people like Marketing Executives and Senior roles which we've never really done before and it didn't work out and so like we did like a massive restructure we went from 44 employees to months ago we now have like 22 and um the business has grown since then so I think like I think like listen to people's advice but don't take

00:47:30 - 00:48:20

everything on board I think is a big thing I saw a famous video on the internet where Steve Jobs was describing you know a period where Apple went and hired all these Executives and he said they just didn't do anything they don't I think you get to that level and it's like especially if they're coming from a big company right they've got teams under them yeah like the marketing executive is not coming to who Elijah with a team of 10 people like you've got one person and you're

00:47:54 - 00:48:45

expected to get your hands dirty and um I think it's just like you maybe once you get to that level like you forget that or like you know you don't know people don't know that like startup environment yeah it's like now we like only want to hire people that are coming from a startup yeah and it's a great thing to be able to delegate but if there's no one to delegate too yeah you just end up being an executive without a team and you're like I'm just going to look busy yeah cuz I imagine executives

00:48:20 - 00:49:09

are great at looking busy and just like and it was like you know working on things like a year in advance like we don't do that at who elah we're working for today and next week I don't know what we're doing in a year Well actually that's a lie next year is the next year we've actually made like a bit of a plan for like not everything but we do have like a bit of a plan and it's it actually feels quite nice but that's year seven yeah like it took us seven years to have like a a plan and I'm so

00:48:45 - 00:49:38

excited for it but um we will still like we're still going to like I think it gives us more freedom now to do those extra things cuz we're like we know what we have to do but now we can go and do like let's think of something really [ __ ] cool to go and do so I think it's like yeah but again we've never planned before so when you're looking at like the list of things to do in the company how does your mind tend to prioritize like what the priorities are so that's called Abby to me my assistant

00:49:12 - 00:49:58

she's amazing ab's like this needs to get done you're like I'll do it she's the best I'm I I mean I used to be an executive assistant I used to be her role um and I was so structured but I don't know I'm now like I'm not structured and I love it I love not being structured I've got Abby to tell me what to do but if I'm just like in like my creative flow it's like it's good like I can like I'll like after this I I'll feel inspired so like I'll

00:49:34 - 00:50:33

go summer and like film a video or something or like film a Tik Tok and like it'll be good so like it's it's good for me not to have like a day-to-day plan but Abby is like keeping everything under control Adam is very structured I'm probably like the only one that's not structured in the business but I think you know like a certain part of the creative psyche needs that would you agree yeah like I'm I'm definitely thinking ahead for like things um okay so let me rephrase a

00:50:03 - 00:50:54

question what what do you look for as a sign of like things are going well I need to see these things to go the company's doing great we're on track because you know how you said you hired all the executives things weren't going great no so now that you're back at the helm what do you like I got to make sure these things are squared away if these things are doing well yeah BR does well I mean I it's always the bank account for me if the accounts good we're good the bank account's not good we're not

00:50:29 - 00:51:23

good so when the bank account wasn't good the first thing I said was okay what what we got brought on all of these people like why the [ __ ] isn't the bank account doubled tripled quadrupled and so that that's always like my thing that's and then I go into like CEO mode um but I I feel like you know CU I work with like agencies before like digital agencies and when you don't understand what they're doing they can like trick you into thinking that it's amazing right but then I decided to like say to

00:50:56 - 00:51:40

them like but my bank account's not amazing so don't sit here and tell me that my I'm amazing if the bank account's not amazing and so like that has just been been like my thing now where it's like if the bank account's good re like revenue is good if people are paying their invoices then we're all good and then we can focus on like the growth right but if there's no money there to grow then you need to fix that problem okay so then let's just say we check the bank out this morning

00:51:18 - 00:52:03

hypothetically it's not great it's great oh it's great today let's just I'm glad it's great I'm glad it's great but let's let's say like for the listeners if their bank account's not great y right and you're going back to a day when it wasn't great where do you where do you go like okay the first things I need to do is BU up and is is there is there like I got to go secure this I'm going to do phone calls I'm going to punch out emails we're going to produce content

00:51:40 - 00:52:30

what's like your go-to Maneuvers when things AR when things aren't great well what can we do to get good sales today um you know we've got like a list of like cool ideas that we can do like you know you send out a text message and be like um someone actually taught me this and it's actually worked really well for us a few times so you send out like a I don't know if I should say this anyway I'll say it like you send out like a text message just just a pause here and make a distinction if there's anything

00:52:05 - 00:52:59

you say during today's session and you regret it later we'll edit it no I think it's fine I feel like customers don't listen to this right okay no um so like um a friend told me like I think it was like last year um you sent out like a text message he like hey um I just want to give you a voucher for being a loyal customer and it's like a random number like $19.70 and like we did that the first time and I think we did like $50,000 in sales like straight away it was weird yeah and then we've done it a few times

00:52:33 - 00:53:16

and it's worked it's kind of like doesn't work as good anymore but that's a good tip for everyone that like if you're having a bad like sales day or sales week like there's so many like quick things that you can do to like get those sales in the door so I'll always like think like okay guys what can we do here do we have like a gwp we can offer and then like I'll so like Lulu's our finance manager and Adam they manag like that side of the business I'll be like

00:52:54 - 00:53:49

what's going on like retail is not paying us cuz we got into a lot of pain from retailers not paying us like this year and last year like we had like close to a million dollars of like really overdue invoices and like that hurts us so much so it's just like looking at like everything and then evaluating like okay is it just the sales that are not working or do we have too many like staff members um people aren't paying and that's kind of all the three things that we do yeah yeah yeah

00:53:22 - 00:54:26

that makes sense to me it's like okay the bank's not doing great we need to make action now like what are those tiny little things that we can do that make massive massive changes now for you as someone who's like very much a fed you know creative type um do you find that your personality traits are now showing up in the team members and that are showing up in the Brand's Personality yeah I think so I definitely think so and um I think I always like say to people like uh the girls at work like am

00:53:53 - 00:54:47

I being too crazy today but like I'm like I'm I'm I don't know sometimes I'm a little bit like what do I say very very like wildly loose with my mouth sometimes but not like yelling at them that sounds like I yell at them I don't yell at them but I'll just be like but it's like me just like voicing it's like my therapy right like I just need to like voice things and then everyone will just be like oh my God R like so you you need to go see a therapist um but I

00:54:20 - 00:55:10

think um like we have got the best team and like now they're also getting their confidence to do the EGC and um you know they're really they like live and breathe who is Elijah and it's so cool like they they've been working till like 8:00 at night for Black Friday and we don't ask them to do that they just do it and like I feel like we've become this like weird little like family and like we go out on the weekends together and like we just went to Dom dollars together on Friday night and just had

00:54:45 - 00:55:32

the best time so I think like having like the the the team that we have around us like just makes like work not feel like work sometimes and the same for them like we reward them so much for everything that they do and I think um it's like got like a good little system going that's so cool that's so cool and like what do you think it is about the creative piece of the brand that's allowing it to succeed like at what point do you create a disparagement between hey this is the creative stuff

00:55:09 - 00:55:58

this is the business stuff but like within the creative stuff what is it that you're doing creatively that most businesses don't have or they're not thinking about or they're not exploring I don't know I mean like we just like seeking inspiration every day from other brands and what other people are doing you know we have creative meetings twice a week or do you have actual creative meetings yes like so we we keep it all very separate like I don't really work on like the business

00:55:34 - 00:56:25

business side of things like I'm just in the creative side of things so we'll do meetings um and it's you know we talk about creative for our ads creative for Instagram like organic creative a creative for Raquel's like Instagram and then like and like anyone bring any ideas to the table so like we really like we only been doing that for not too long now but like really like trying to have those creative moments to come up with a creative ideas and then action them almost instantly we don't like to

00:55:59 - 00:56:57

like dwell on things we just like we come up with a good idea and we'll do it so what might that process be so you guys sit down are you guys kind of equally spitballing back and forth until something sticks and you're like let's go do it let's go film it let's go make it happen yeah exactly yeah and how big is your team like what's the dynamic of the creative team um really myself Jasmine creative and content manager marketing coordinator and then Adam does like the Ecom like the ads part of that

00:56:28 - 00:57:21

so he's in the meetings as well and then our Ecom manager like like five people so you guys are managing the content creation the ad creative and you're managing all the advertising inhouse we do have a ads agency um external um but Adam knows how to do ads which is awesome and I know he's coming on the podcast so I'll let him talk about that but it was such a pivotal moment when he learned how to do the ads when we're with another agency got you um because they're not all very honest our agency

00:56:55 - 00:57:43

now is amazing great but previously you know they just lie to you and think they tell you're doing well but you're [ __ ] nothing yeah there's a serious problem in the Ad Agency face and this is why uh we're about to create one cuz like I have pet peeve with it I don't like the lies the manipulation the false stats and it's just it's out of control man it happens so much so how how do you guys as a as a company make sure that advertisement is dialed in and you're

00:57:18 - 00:58:12

not having issues with it um Adam's like in it every day like you know we we partner with our agency as part of the team not to hand it over so we don't again we don't let go of the rains anymore so Adam's in there every day like checking what's happening and it's like they just feel like a part of the team now dop you know what I mean so I think like that's the best way to do it so do you think like as a e-commerce business you need to keep a close relationship with the Ad Agency not be

00:57:45 - 00:58:41

like hey here's the money go do your thing do a good job you need to pull them in really close I think so like you want to like you want to know like you know you allowing people to spend thousands and thousands of dollars a day of your own money like you need to know like if it's working right yeah yeah and you guys try to keep a creative um control over like how the creative is executed through the Ad Agency yes so we supply all of the content really yeah we you don't let them come up with any of

00:58:13 - 00:59:09

the creative um look they'll give like um if there's something working of like hey could you make more versions of this for sure um but yeah we we do all of the creative what do you think is the benefit of doing that inhouse well you don't have the worry of like it not being what you want it to be I think like and I I Al it's it's a tricky one because sometimes like the most cringiest pieces of content that you hate are the best converters so I think like we I I had to really like let go

00:58:41 - 00:59:42

and be like okay like I'll let it go so I think there's like a fine line of like sticking to your brand yeah but also being a little bit more adventurous and cringe I think you need to be a little bit Leverage The cringe Leverage The cringe cuz that's the best performing but you don't want to be like too like Rogue I get what you're saying and what what's your what's your like advice to those that are like uh I'm not creative I'm paying the Ad Agency to do that be careful I don't know but look

00:59:12 - 00:59:58

there's good there's also good agencies out there and I mean you're about to create one I feel like I would trust that in a heartbeat yeah so like I think there's good agencies out there you just need to I think go and like learn what good results actually are don't just take their word for it um and you know hold them accountable yeah like you don't have to be creative and you don't have to do it in the house a lots of people don't but I think just um speak to people reach out to people ask people

00:59:34 - 01:00:22

for advice like if someone DMS me and be like hey who are the [ __ ] agencies I'll halfy tell them I won't say it publicly yeah but I'll halfy tell you who not to work with just reach out to people that you see lots of good ads for and um yeah I think people are happy to tell that's great advice be very careful who you work with especially when they're managing your income in your bank account through advertising so okay let's dive back into into the equity thing so when you were going out to

00:59:58 - 01:00:54

retail initially you were like hey just anyone and everyone stock our stuff but then when you started to investigate and look closer maybe the kiosk didn't look that great and so take me into that like what was what was the initial I guess concern how did you address it and how did you make sure that okay we we really have to manage our image here and like the stores would do like Instagram videos or photos of us and tag us and I'd see it and I'd be like oh my God like you got a mix of old branding and

01:00:27 - 01:01:23

new branding cuz we've rebranded a few times like packaging and so I'm like you know you need to get rid of that and they they won't so it's just like you do lose control when you hand over to retailers so it was in July this year we just said n I'm shutting it all down like let's just do Ecom and Sephora and David Jones here in Australia and then when we move overseas like just just working with the majors because it's a lot easier to control because now we have like a VM coordinator like visual

01:00:54 - 01:02:00

merchandiser coordinator and like her job is to go to the stores and make sure visually we're looking nice but you know you can't do that with 700 independent stores you just want to do it with the the majes um so like that was a big thing and then I think just did that hurt the bottom line initially yes and I shouldn't have done it overnight like I did learned that very quickly but I'm I don't regret doing it why not because at the Sephora and David Jones sales almost overnight like

01:01:27 - 01:02:18

tripled oh because people were like oh it doesn't stock here anymore I really want it so I'm going to go to like the stores that do stock here and so like the reason that I um that this idea came into my mind was because I've been speaking to Sephora us and they can obviously see our sales in Sephora Australia and they're not they weren't that amazing but if they were looking at all of our wholesale sales across Australia they'd be like oh my God like you guys are need like $10 million like

01:01:53 - 01:02:44

get us get you into store now but it wasn't it they weren't seeing that so then I thought well I said to Adam like look I want to get rid of all of the I shouldn't say get rid but I want to like cease Partnerships with all of our boutiques and just get all customers going to Sephora and David Jones and let's see what happens and like we've Tri like honestly tripled overnight and what did that do for the brand the equity the perception I mean I think the the equity and perception you know it's

01:02:19 - 01:03:25

only it hasn't even been six months yet but I I feel I I already feel that we're getting back to that more premium um brand Equity CU I think we lost it for a minute CU we were just sort of Here There and Everywhere and I started to like get the ick a little bit that okay yeah and so like it was this year and so like I I feel like we've let go of that more premium um like feel on like perception of who is Elijah so I feel like we've got it back now so you're trying to get this like this sweet balance between

01:02:52 - 01:03:48

affordability yet it feels exclusive and premium you can't buy it everywhere but it is in retailers and I can see the advantages because you're trying to leverage your partnership with Sephora and these big retailers and if your sales are spread out between all these boutiques instead of coming through this one channel it doesn't give you as much Authority with that one channel yeah yeah so I feel like yeah I think now again like tripled overnight which is amazing and that makes Sephora happy so

01:03:20 - 01:04:10

that makes them next year we've got these like really cool marketing um Partnerships that we're going to do with them so it's just like it's help us so much and they're going to add to the to the fire right like if they can see this brand you know two three 4 Xing over a period of time they're going to want to do more with you right yeah and it's always better to have the retailer coming to you than the other way around because you get a much better margin much better deal much better marketing

01:03:45 - 01:04:35

support so um I think like I tell people this now I used to be like advocate for like wholesale put it anywhere you can but now I've grown and matured and I think um build your brand cuz I didn't really build the brand like for the first two years it was only like year three we really started to do that so I think like going into these new markets overseas now like I'm going in building the brand and then wanting the retailers to then come to me with boots was different like I got boots first but

01:04:10 - 01:05:00

they're like really getting behind us and we're leveraging the boots database to grow our brand a lot quicker but I'm moving there in four weeks to build the brand congratulations so I heard about this so you and your family you're moving to the UK yeah in four weeks in four weeks you've not even been to the neighborhood you're moving to yet flying in blinds yeah flying in blind going be so cold um but I want to be there cuz I want to be in the boot stores handing out samples getting people to buy my

01:04:35 - 01:05:28

perfume instead of Chanel like Chanel do like crazy amount of Revenue I don't I don't know if I should say it but they do crazy amount of Revenue through boots every year like it's [ __ ] up so like we have to like we're friends here how much how much are they making should I say it yes it um1 million a year just through that one retailer just through boots holy crap yeah yeah isn't that wild and you're like I'm going to beat him but then but the next the next one under that is 40 million so like there's

01:05:01 - 01:05:52

a big gap um so like and then we when we were telling boots what Revenue we're doing here in Australia they were like really like they're like when you if you can do that here you'll be like in like the top 20 fragrances so like to me I'm like I love a challenge but that's not like a it's not too farfetched that we could get to that spot yeah not the 100 million probably cuz if I went into boots in the UK and you were there I'd buy it thank you you know what I mean cuz I think people are going Chanel

01:05:27 - 01:06:19

person is like hey come try Chanel and you're like dude have you tried this yeah you're like do you know who Elijah is I'm like who's Elijah like try this I'm like okay so like I want to go there and um we got other retailers coming on board and others that we want to go after where um we just got a middle eastern distributor so we're going to launch in the Middle East in q1 um we got lots of like European retailers that want to like stock us so I think um we just like need to be there and like

01:05:53 - 01:06:51

available and um go and do like the store events and like just be there I just love how all in you are you're like I'll move countries with my kids to make this thing grow that's fascinating That's so exciting and what do you think the advantage is of being on the ground close to this is really going to give you cuz surely like if boots are going to retail you already why go all this effort of being like really close to it um because you don't just sell just because you're on the shelves like you

01:06:22 - 01:07:20

need there's so much more effort that needs to go into it I think I mean yes of course we'll sell but I want to sell really fast and I want to be one of their bestselling fragrances there's so much more money to be made there than here yeah um and I don't know like I've just got that big dick energy like love it's going to kill me for saying that um but I just like I just like that's going to be in the trailer yeah and it's honestly like it's like it's not like it's not this like

01:06:51 - 01:07:39

Financial thing like yes money's great I love Financial Freedom absolutely but like just I love working like I've always loved working like I'm a hustler like I don't want to I had two kids they were both in daycare at 8 weeks old like I was like I'm going to work and like Adam always supported that so like I just like I don't know like I want to like do things with my life like I don't know I don't want to just like sit and like do nothing oh I love that okay and

01:07:15 - 01:08:08

and so like when when you're talking about like having big dick having big dick energy and like moving to the UK and building this brand you know a lot of people right now that are starting brands are like if I could could just get on the Shelf I win and you're saying that's not the case it's not enough like there like it's unless you've got like an I don't know I think it's not just like a one one thing that you need to do right um what are the things that one would need to do to succeed okay you're

01:07:41 - 01:08:30

on the Shelf cool what else F content how do people know to go to that store to find your product right like I think yes the stores have good foot traffic but they don't always have good foot traffic like so it's not only your job to get on the Shelf but it's your job to send people into the shelf and the retailers want to know that you are going to do that cuz you're taking out shelf space that another brand could have so they it's they want to know like okay what are you doing on socials to

01:08:06 - 01:09:02

get people into our store and you know boots boots are launched we're like so we just did an event with Boot and um it was Dior like heres YSL like all these luxury Brands around me and then there was little old H Elijah and the people from Dior came up to me like how did you get in here like they didn't let people like brand in here but not in a mean way they were just like very surprised and I told them the story like with your bit Dick Energy who let you in here but I told them the story and they were like

01:08:34 - 01:09:21

wow like good on you they're like good like no they don't let Niche brands in here that's crazy so like but boots is you know they want a new customer coming into their stores cuz yes they've got an amazing database but they're still fighting there's other amazing retailers in London and the UK as well so everyone's fighting for the customers so like they want to know like okay yes we'll bring your product in we think it's cool but it's not our job to sell

01:08:58 - 01:09:47

it or like just us like you need to sell it as well so I think like it's I used to think like oh like I'll get into David Jones and like I'm I'm a millionaire like no we didn't make that much money in David Jones for a long time like we had to like build up like that brand awareness and like yeah brand awareness I think yeah yeah so I guess the advice is like you know don't just assume it's the game is just getting in the game is like how do I send people through there you have to be good at

01:09:23 - 01:10:14

content creation you have to know how to build a fan base so how does a brand build a fan base right you've got the content creation you've got the access they can get a hold of your brand what is it that makes a Brand Magic that creates a fan base I don't like I I know but I don't know I think there's like we haven't we've only like just really focused on that this year and how we have done it and it has worked really well it's um you know treat like what I was saying

01:09:48 - 01:10:41

before treating who was L like a person like when I'm speaking to the customers I feel like when they're talking back they think they're speaking to both Raquel and who is Elijah and like I still do the socials for who is Elijah and like I they know if they're dming who is Elijah it's me writing back which I think that they love um and then like I think Tik tok's like a really good source of inspiration like again doing like the cringy like giveaways and like I think just like giving back and like

01:10:14 - 01:11:09

having a personality like not being cold yeah yeah so having warmth having personality creting feelings and you know we're giving away a $10,000 holiday for through Black Friday last year we gave away $10,000 cash and um the lady that we gave the cash to she started crying in disbelief cuz her son her 15-year-old son had just done um had just gone come out of heart surgery and like that gives me chills but it's like you know like we do care about our community like we're not just like we

01:10:42 - 01:11:29

don't just want your money we want you to enjoy wearing our fragrances and we want you to be making memories along the way so I think um and we're very truthful about that and I think it just shows yeah that's powerful and you're creating a palpable brand it's it's it's extremely emotional it's very gripping you're very charismatic and and I think all of these ingredients like make up a really great story and it's it's going to be thrilling to watch what you guys

01:11:05 - 01:12:03

can do over the coming the coming years in the UK so stay tuned yeah so what's what's your objective what's your legacy what what's the thing that you're in pursuit of uh beyond the UK what do you what do you really want to turn the legacy of this brand into I don't know like I think Adam and I talk about it a lot like we getting we get chased every day from like big like Venture capitalists in America and we're just like they take our money take our money but we're just like we're just say no um

01:11:34 - 01:12:31

I think we definitely will go down the investor route in the next couple of years cuz I think we need it like to we want to be like a household name brand like we want every household every household to have who Elijah in their house right um but you know to do like America's been really tough for us I've been trying to grow there for like 5 years and it just like hasn't worked um and just you need so much money to build there I think it's such a big Market such a big Market such a huge footprint

01:12:03 - 01:12:50

so much competition and I think like what I've done here and what I've done in the UK it just like doesn't work there so I think um I think when we're ready unless we get the Sephora from what we're doing here and there like Sephora us I think we could do it without investors but then I keep getting told um you know getting into Sephora there like if you fail you can fail very quickly if you don't sell and then you'll never get a second chance so I'm also like really glad I haven't

01:12:26 - 01:13:13

gotten in there yet because I think we need a big marketing budget for that so just going to wait for that um but I think I don't know like we don't have plans to sell like but maybe one day that will happen and I think we're just like open to whatever comes but for the moment we're just having so much fun doing what we're doing as long as you're having fun that's the point of creativity right it's like I think creativity is intelligence having fun clearly you're intelligent clearly

01:12:50 - 01:13:51

you're having fun and I think when you can really explore that that's where the magic happens so when you're looking at Big brands like Tom Ford Dior and you see these giant Legacy brands that kind of like feel like these monoliths in the market how how does one start to think about how how they can start to build their own monolith if that makes sense right because sure these bands have been around for a long time but it feels like the Market's starting to become a bit more open to like new people coming in

01:13:19 - 01:14:23

and so on yeah I mean I would love to be like for Hill Elijah to be viewed as one of those like Legacy brands in 10 20 30 years to come and you know we'll do everything to get there and um I think we I think we have some growing to do and some like CLE like we had to clean the brand up a lot this year I think we like we let it just get too many places and you know I think I think next year is going to be a really amazing year for us and I think it's going to put us on this like new trajectory cool yeah yeah

01:13:51 - 01:14:48

so and that's would be like the North Star would to be one of those Legacy Brands what what do you think might be the dos and don'ts of like creating a brand like one thing you you said which is we got to clean it up to make sure it's not too accessible do you think that the graphic design the packaging all of that plays a big role or a slight role in the brands like yeah I heard it saying recently was it I'm like something not Perfection like do it now but don't wait for perfect or

01:14:20 - 01:15:14

something something along those lines like the when I first started who was Elijah it was a brown box that bought online and I stamped it and shoved tissue paper in it had no ingredients on it just a label so like we did not start how it looking today so you know we had to evolve through that and when I started H Elijah back then there was I wasn't even thinking about those Legacy Brands I was just having fun and trying something out so I think um and then like other things that we've done like

01:14:47 - 01:15:48

certain retailers that we should like really damaged our brand I don't know if I should say that yeah let's say it Price Line that like really hurt us it was such what way everyone like so many people like ew like I can't believe you did that people like actually like upet yeah like I'll never wear hul's Elijah again wow um but they gave me $1.7 million and this was like last year when we were going through agency pain they spent all of our money we had no money so I said yes I me to deal with the devil um and

01:15:18 - 01:16:11

look nothing against Price Line I shop at Price Line I love Price Line shout out Price Line shout out Price Line um okay so like I want to unpack this so so you're you're going through a pain period in the business where the Ad Agency is not doing great um you're now realizing you're like hang on a second guys you spent all that money what the hell's going on here price Line's like you guys are crushing it we want to stock your product and they're offering you $ 1.7 million yeah to buy what $1.7

01:15:44 - 01:16:41

Million worth of stock yeah yeah yeah wholesale and that's to put them in all the stores yeah like what I think like 500 stores right so you're like deal with the devil I took a deal with the Devil um and it was fine we got it and um we got the money like and it was like oh like it was such a breath of fresh like when I say we had no like I was crying like hysterically on the lounge and Adam like came running home and that was the first one and only time I've ever said like I [ __ ] up like what the

01:16:13 - 01:17:00

[ __ ] have I done I've ruined the business this is before and then price called me like this day Adam left and he's like okay I'm going to go fix it like we'll start again we'll let go of everyone let's just start again let's go back to the garage cuz I just wanted to start over again so we made so many bad mistakes to get to this point like the wholesalers weren't paying us like we on paper we were making good money but we had like zero those are all of the problems your business had at that point

01:16:37 - 01:17:35

where you felt like you were breaking down it it was just Financial um you know we were sending stock to you know 400 stores right every month and allowing them 30 days to pay it but they wouldn't pay for like 2 3 4 months so like we had so many like so many dollars owed to us and just no one was paying this is last year I feel like I feel like we've been like an economic like downfall for a while now right um but anyway so then Adam came over and he's like it's okay we'll fix it let's go and

01:17:06 - 01:17:55

I was like I just want to go back to the garage it was so much easier and then um and then he left and then I got a call and it was from Priceline and like hey like we really want to stock you like this like what can you do like this is this and I'm like I can't [ __ ] believe this I'm like yep yep yep yep yep and then I called Adam he came home and he goes let's do it I'm like y let's do it I didn't even think about the brand was purely a financial decision right big mistake I feel like I should

01:17:30 - 01:18:33

have but then I think it I don't know should I have done it I think yes it saved us and it has taught me a very valuable lesson but and it didn't destroy the company or anything like that but I think it did sort of put that mindset in people that like oh it's a Chemist Warehouse Priceline brand now but we're not that brand like we're luxury isn't that fascinating same products m same price M same Brands yeah just a different shelf different shelf and people are like I can't believe you

01:18:02 - 01:18:48

I know like it was bad I started think like being like kind of got I got offended I was like why do you care like I don't know I think cuz I'm just like so like easy I'm such an easygoing person like I I don't care if I can buy something that I really want in Price Line and David Jones like to me I'm like price Line's way closer I can just go to Price Line but people just like I don't know they hated it yeah that's that's that's branding it's branding yeah cuz

01:18:25 - 01:19:15

brand is is like the halo effect that's like that's like um the Satan effect you know like it's the other way it was really bad so um yeah still trying to fix that to today and it's been a it's been a while but yeah just selling through um was still there and it's like it's still there and look they've only got four fragrances and since then we've like made like really good fragrances since then and like not putting into Price Line and um and now I feel like people have kind of

01:18:50 - 01:19:45

Forgotten so it's been okay but for like for like six months it was pretty brutal yeah yeah yeah and then now it's like look you guys going global so what's what's been the impact of of going global cuz like the more you start reaching into the UK market then into the US like how do you feel Brands operate differently overseas than just here locally I feel like we haven't learned that yet and that's like why we definitely want to move to London and the UK just to like just to learn how

01:19:18 - 01:20:04

people operate cuz I feel like you can only see so much through Instagram right but I think like we have a really good PR agency over there we're going to do like founder networking like dinners and stuff like we want to meet people like how we've met here and like really learn about their businesses so I'll report back but I feel like there's so much we're so excited to learn from everyone over there yeah and it's fascinating what you're doing and I think you're

01:19:40 - 01:20:34

clearly in love with what you do here why are you so obsessed with the creative part of this like why are you so obsessed with fragrance like how's this become so um contagiously fun for you I don't know I mean a beat's working for Rich all men right um I don't know I just love it it's become my life like it has become my life um I enjoy it like it doesn't feel like work yes there's some stressful times and there's some hard times but I wouldn't change it for the

01:20:07 - 01:21:03

world and um I just can't imagine my life any other way now okay yeah so a couple questions for you around your relationship cuz um I I don't know many couples that are married that are stoked and happy and building a brand together it's pretty rare yeah so I think what you guys have together is pretty special like why do you why do you think it is that you guys are able to co-operate a business like this together he's just my [ __ ] best friend like I he's just my best friend I'm his best friend we're

01:20:35 - 01:21:24

just like I don't know we're just like chill like like I don't want to fight with him and like he I think we stay in each other's our own sorry we stay in our own Lanes like he's in his Lane I'm in my Lane I don't know how to do what he does he's not going to be able to do what I do and um we we have the same goal at the end of the day and like I feel like it would be much harder if he wasn't in the business because every day when we come home it's like we're

01:21:00 - 01:21:44

talking about like exciting like excited stuff and like I can't I was like Adam I want to move to London like you're down and he's like yeah let's pack up and go like if you had another business it would be like well I can't go like I'm running my own business cuz he had his own business before okay so for like what was he doing before he um he had a really good business actually he's um he's a really good like designer um so he had like a um like a Cabinetry design

01:21:22 - 01:22:13

and installation business so you did like really beautiful kitchens like like million dollar kitchens like all over the Eastern suburbs for like six years yeah um but if he was doing that still this wouldn't happen no like I I think I would just be going back and forth to London and like we miss then I feel like you miss out on each other's lives and like the kids' lives so I feel like it wouldn't have worked if he wasn't in the business and um I don't know like we he's just he's and he's just like a

01:21:47 - 01:22:38

weirdly like good male like he like doesn't want to fight with me like I'll he's never sworn at me like I I swear at him almost every day but I'm just a swearer but he's just like I don't know he's just cool he's just chill he's just so chill sounds like a sto dude he's not a yes man but like he's chill yeah we're excited to have him on the Pod because it's going to be interesting he like setting his perspective on all of this so so again so you guys stick to each

01:22:12 - 01:23:14

other's Lanes um when there is a disagreement like how do you guys come to a conclusion he does let me um um come around to it on my own he doesn't try to change my mind cuz I always in the end I'm like oh actually you're probably right so he just lets me go on my Rampage rant and then I'll come back and he'll be like yeah okay he he makes me think it's my idea like what a great idea' you get it literally he'll he'll say exact same thing um I know he's always right but if I'm ever like

01:22:43 - 01:23:32

know like I want it to be I really feel deeply about this he'll be like okay um and if he's ever the same I'll be like okay yeah I think if one of us like puts their foot down and it's like cool like let's just give it a go yeah what's going what's the worst that can happen well I think that's the thing in business where like so many people are like we have to make the decision and it's like just make a decision yeah right like um I've just noticed that people that tend to wait to make a

01:23:08 - 01:24:06

better decision tend to do a lot worse in business yeah cuz we're really good at like [ __ ] up hard but fixing up really quickly yeah you have to you have to like we won't like we'll like have six months worth worth of like stress in like one month and like just deal with it in one month rather than like letting it go on for six months I think like we're both we're both like operate the same I think is probably a good thing like both of us are happy to take risk happy to like feel the pain and just get

01:23:37 - 01:24:43

over it and move on do you think anyone could be an entrepreneur no why I feel like there needs to be like some level of like I've got like friends or like just people that I know like they love like being safe and they love what's the word um like certainty yeah certainty security I love that but like I'm also happy to be like [ __ ] it like let's figure it out and see if it happens like take the leap so happy to take the leap um not I've got like not a risk bone in my body

01:24:10 - 01:25:09

which is not always good Adam like kind of does but like he's also able to just be like let let's go for it and it's like it has always worked out in the end like yes it's been hard but I think like not everyone can do that yeah I would agree with that cuz I seemingly like am pretty Carefree right like as a kid like I grew up in and out of foster care I like got fired from most jobs I've always been a bit of a punk yeah and then when it comes to business it's it's just been like what's the worst going to

01:24:40 - 01:25:46

happen you know let's just go back to the garage side again right but like literally like I know that if like all failed next week I know I could have make at least $2 million a year yeah you know what I mean like yeah if it's fine yeah way easier do you do you feel like the pressure builds and you become um less like risk-taking the bigger the business gets no no I haven't yet and that's what scares me about getting investors it's like how much will I have to change yeah so I think like and Adam's the same like

01:25:13 - 01:26:11

I we would need to find like the perfect investor because I don't want to let go of that and it's not about being like stupidly risky and like crazy but it's just like not losing that sparkle yeah it's so important right because you want to keep this like passion zesty excitement invigoration in the brands and not be hinded by any parties yeah or get boring we don't want to get corporate like I don't want everyone to be corporate no if I can not so when when you're looking at the corporate

01:25:42 - 01:26:39

side of things what part of that scares you oh it takes six months to make a decision right you don't want to slow down no I think like there's so many like loopholes of like I don't know the what's it called like chain of commands like yeah we can make a decision tomorrow and it's like that would take some massive company like six months to make yeah and it's like and there's boards and investors and I think it's like the being so Nimble and quick action okay what's your

01:26:11 - 01:27:08

advice to someone who's like I I want to be an entrepreneur but I'm scared and I don't want to make mistakes oh you're going to make so many mistakes mistakes are fun that's how you learn um I don't know like do it just do it and you know play it safe I had a full-time job for the first two years it's not like I didn't like jump fully in yeah um so I think I think that is important like being able to like you need money to buy product or Market it or X Y and Z so I think like being like

01:26:39 - 01:27:36

smart about it at the start is you know but like what's the worst that can happen if you still have your job you might lose a few thousand dollars but it's like it's okay at least would what would you rather not know and not try or would you rather try and like know how it will find how yeah you know what I'm trying to say no that totally makes sense to me I um I I saw a video with Jeff Bezos recently and someone was talking to him about like you know what it what it takes to grow a company and

01:27:07 - 01:28:19

what it takes to I guess develop something where where there's you know a substantial amount of success at the end and he was explaining in a way where he was saying like for for a business to succeed it it needs to weirdly be calculated mhm but it needs to at the same time like take pretty outlandish RIS otherwise Like There's No Going to be a substantial Roi it's almost like the more substantial the risk the more substantial the ROI the more safe the the risk Yeah the more safe the ROI

01:27:43 - 01:28:46

what's your take on like how the ratio of risk brings reward I mean we've like we operate on risk like everything has just been like a risk right we're packing up our lives to move to London what could happen I don't know like I just think I've always just been like a Why Not Me mentality like why can't I do it and at the beginning I wasn't like I'm going to make a million dollars a year I just wanted to make a little bit more than my current salary that I was making cuz then I could just

01:28:15 - 01:29:14

have a nice happy life I didn't have to drive into the city every day so I think like my goal our goal post have changed throughout the business and you know now our goal post is like huge but I only been like the last year or so when we've taken risk and the the business has grown the ROI has grown and like then our our goal post grows or goes further so I think it's like yeah you just like change throughout the journey yeah yeah like I think my first goal was to do like a th000 oh like maybe like my first

01:28:44 - 01:29:51

big goal was like $1,000 a day okay like now it's like minutes you're like I'm looking for a th000 bucks a minute very cool when when you think that this whole thing is kind of said and done how do you want to be remembered oh like a Pioneer almost like inspirational to like you know young girls um you know I didn't have the most amazing childhood either so like you know I wasn't the person that anyone thought would be here today so I think like being like being that girl that

01:29:18 - 01:30:08

like you know she did it like why can't I and like I can do it and like I taught people something beautiful stuff like really sharing that story like you can do it giving the sense of capability what's a quote or a mantra that you've carried with you on your journey that you wished everyone listening to this would immediately Implement I've got a couple but they're like silly ones go for it big dick energy and why the [ __ ] not me I think like that has been literally from day

01:29:43 - 01:30:34

one and I still say it to myself almost daily today like when I'm reaching out to the retailers I'm like why can't why can't it be me so I think um they're like silly ones but that's just honestly what's gotten me here today well if they're silly like they work they work right um okay so big dick energy like what does that really mean to you just like being like a force to be reckoned with and like I'm not scared to challenge you or I'm not scared to um go

01:30:08 - 01:31:05

up against these Legacy brands or you know go into the boardrooms with the with the men that look to me like oh who's this like little girl you know like I'm I'm here and I want to be heard and I I believe in what I've done and your customers are going to as well yeah and then and the latter quote which is um uh you know why not me what like are you trying to Psy yourself up are you trying like is there a psychological shift that you're that you're giving to yourself when you when you think about

01:30:37 - 01:31:29

these things I think it came from my stupid dad when he said um shout out to Dad shout out to Dad I'll show him this one um he was like he's like who the [ __ ] going to buy a perfume recel and I'm like he actually said that to you yeah he actually said this to me but how did you feel when he said that my energy got bigger yeah you're like I'll show you dude I'll show you dude you didn't get upset or hurt you were like wrong I was like I literally said like why the [ __ ] not me

01:31:03 - 01:31:54

like why like it's perfume like yes I've got some work to do but like why not me and that honestly since then I've just said that all the time like when I'm like faced with a challenge I'm like you know some I used to get like when I would send samples to like the Sephora Us's for example I'd get a little bit nervous and be like oh like what if they don't like it I'm like no no no no like I know what I'm making is as good if not better than the perfumes that they're

01:31:28 - 01:32:27

already selling um like they I just need to show them you know I just need to confidently show them that you know what I've made is amazing and why not me yeah I'm I'm going to show this um podcast to um somebody I know and he had a throwaway comment so I'm going to start some beef here if you co with that so he was like oh yeah there's this um girl locally who has a brand called who is Elijah but she doesn't really know much about perfume I don't I'm learning I'm

01:31:59 - 01:32:42

learning a long way I've like never said like I'm a perfumer like you know I've got a perfumer that we work but that's his like family's history so like he's like oh but that's important and I'm like I don't know if it is man I I came to your defense I was like dude what are you talking about like this person is crushing it when you hear stuff like this from other people do you have thick skin are you like whatever or do you take it personally like I'll show you

01:32:20 - 01:33:14

like what's your reaction when you look it's probably coming out of a place of defense like has he made a perfume and he's not doing as well as me yeah right okay so that's amazing that you know how to make a perfume but you need to know how to Market it yeah let go yeah um so like do you think Steve Jobs there you know was he making the laptops himself no no like Steve wasak was you know yes I was like I you know like fine but like you know you need you need you need someone that knows how to make it but

01:32:48 - 01:33:36

then you need someone who knows how to like build a brand and depends what you want to do as well I wanted to build a brand yeah I and and I've done that and I've got an amazing perfumer that I work with and doesn't lessen the quality of the perfume just cuz I'm not making it it actually makes it a lot better than I'm not making it um I just know how to Market it I think you raised a really good point here right because it's like you can be a great technician you can be the greatest artistical technician on

01:33:11 - 01:34:15

the planet or you can build a brand and Market it and it's like typically one tends to win it's like if I were to say I've got a great restaurant I make the best food cool but can you Market it and I think a lot of people in business are good technicians and they think that the technical part of it justifies why they should win but the market doesn't care see I'm not in competition with anyone I think like I'm not like trying to like I don't care how the next perfume Brand's doing right I just want

01:33:43 - 01:34:29

to have fun and make my brand amazing like I'm not in like a running race or a competition with anyone yes I have goals but that's they're personal goals yeah I'm not trying to prove myself to anyone I think do you think that gives you an advantage yeah like I just like don't care like just as long I'm I'm in it for me I'm not in it for other people that's such a winning perspective I think that's so important because like the second you started to like attach to

01:34:06 - 01:35:04

like what other people are doing and like you're trying to justify your position against theirs it slows everything down and it gets in the way of creative it gets in the way of business it gets in the way of like just doing what you're happy to do yeah yeah nice I love your answers there okay when you wake up first thing in the morning what gets you fired up I've always got emails from the night like from the morning and the night from overseas so there's like something cool in there or just like I don't know I'm

01:34:35 - 01:35:31

like straight into work mode yeah yeah the first thing I do is open my emails love that so you're know like an ice bath person no that's Adam that is not me um yeah I don't know like I just love going to work every day yeah yeah are there things that you do to supplement to give you energy to keep you focus like some people like to ask that no I'm like no I really like moving to London I want to like get into like my Wellness era and start doing all of that cuz Adam does it and he's just

01:35:03 - 01:36:03

like he's so bloody vibrant every day and I like wake up looking like a troll um but no I don't but I want to okay super cool if if you had like a small list of your Wellness era what's that going to look like um like I want to go to the gym and like do saers and like the ice bath thing just like I think I really um I've always put who was Elijah first like for the last 6 years and I think like I'm at a point now where like I don't have to go into the office like I can go to the gym but because it's

01:35:33 - 01:36:27

been like so long I just like that has not been a part of my routine and I can't remember how long so like I want to like build a routine I think cuz it's always just been open my emails go straight to work yeah but I want to like have some me time totally awesome yeah yeah it's important apparently and more a better place to do it than than somewhere of exotic and cool and overseas um okay so as a personal challenge right now whether it's in business or individually what's a door a

01:35:59 - 01:37:02

specific door that you need to kick in that's going to take your business to the next level ooh that's a hard one I mean I'm very focused on the retail at the moment because I can see how that is going to be how we grow overseas it's not going to be Ecom overseas for us it's going to be retail yeah so I'm we've just brought on a new consultant who's ex Sephora USA but he lives here now and he's just started working with us so I'm learning I think I'm educating myself actually

01:36:31 - 01:37:26

for the first time like I'm actually trying to learn how to work with the retailers and each one is so different so I think um yeah retail like knowledge is power right so I think I'm actually trying to like educate myself in the retail sphere globally so that we can be the most successful as possible cuz that's how we're going to grow yeah yeah fantastic and it sounds like you're crushing it you're kicking multiple doors in sounds like you've got a great partner in Adam and you've got you've

01:36:59 - 01:37:57

got a lot of exciting stuff happening over the next year for for you like the last question here is is like if if you could say to yourself like what's what's the next expansion of who is Elijah that you can see that you think is really going to make yourself a global brand what would that be it's the retail for sure yeah we're speaking to this massive retailer in Germany but they have got like how many stores do they have like two I think nearly 2,000 stores across multiple um European countries and they

01:37:28 - 01:38:27

want to work with us so like I think if we if we get that it's a new country every three months do you see yourselves like tipping into lifestyle branding like like if you take the likes of like you know Louis Vuitton Gucci s like they always kind of do fashion and lifestyle and they have Runway and they they do all these other luxurious things are you looking to explore any of that yeah we get asked a lot like from customers want candles and like um like home fragrance which working on now I think we will but

01:37:57 - 01:38:50

I'm also it still feels like day one who was Elijah with just the fragrances like there's so still so many customers out there to be you know one over so like I'm not rushing into doing that I think I'm just focusing on the fragrances for now for a couple of years but um it's definitely something that we'll do yeah do you think by by just focusing and not going too broad too quickly is going to help you and a lot of people have said to me like um like it's great that you

01:38:24 - 01:39:11

haven't gone in other directions because that probably would have like hurt you and you're getting just you know distracted by what you you know what's going to make you the money and what your brand is so I'm glad we haven't we've kind of like we did candles once and they weren't amazing so now I'm like unless it's perfect I don't really want to do it um and I just want to focus on the brand and growing the brand first I guess like strategically that would be a

01:38:48 - 01:39:39

benefit cuz like if you're if a new retailer is looking at your brand and going why haven't these guys done other stuff it's not a bad thing no right cuz then they could be like hey maybe we're the guys let's do it together yeah maybe the the ones that can launch that and own that XYZ yeah well it's been an absolute pleasure um I love what you're doing I love your energy I love how much you enjoy the creative process um and it's been an absolute blast hanging out

01:39:14 - 01:39:24

we'd love to get you back thank you thanks everyone e

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