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Randy Williams Full Interview · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversations. I am your host, ras
0:04
Speaker 1: Sean McDonald. I recognized that we all have different definitions
0:07
Speaker 1: of success. For some exercisable paycheck, mine is helping people
0:11
Speaker 1: wake up and inspiring them to accomplish their goals and
0:14
Speaker 1: live their very best life. These are my passions, and
0:17
Speaker 1: that's what I'm going to do for you. I want
0:19
Speaker 1: you to stop tripping over small challenges and prepare to
0:21
Speaker 1: rise above the bigger obstacles that life will present to you.
0:25
Speaker 1: My next guest, Randy Williams, is the president of Tally
0:28
Speaker 1: and Twine, a company that designs and manufactures luxury watches
0:32
Speaker 1: and necessaries. Since starting the company of fourteen granted this
0:36
Speaker 1: game national media attention with Features and Men's Health, Black Enterprise,
0:40
Speaker 1: Huffing and Post Essence, Levity, New York, New York Magazine,
0:44
Speaker 1: and Cosmopolitan. The company names comes from an intersection that
0:48
Speaker 1: was formerly the center of a notorious, crime ready neighborhood
0:51
Speaker 1: in Virginia and reacent. In recent years, the neighborhood has
0:55
Speaker 1: been completely revitalized and those same families now have the
0:58
Speaker 1: opportunity to own place where the dark past now has
1:01
Speaker 1: a bright future. Tally and Twine represents the future. It's
1:04
Speaker 1: not about how you start, it's about how you finish.
1:07
Speaker 1: Please welcome to money Making Conversations. The Owner, Founder, CEO,
1:11
Speaker 1: all the titles to go with the leader of the pack,
1:14
Speaker 1: my man, Randy Williams, thank you so much for having
1:18
Speaker 1: me great intro. Submit that you got Stephen A. Smith
1:23
Speaker 1: doing your intro. That's legendary. Man. I love that. Hey man.
1:26
Speaker 1: The first of all, I love when people recognize his voice.
1:32
Speaker 1: That's my man, man, and he lays it as only
1:35
Speaker 1: Stephen A. Smith concern I'm not broke, that's true. Well,
1:40
Speaker 1: this is this is what this show is about, talking
1:41
Speaker 1: to people who are trying to gain their footh haul
1:44
Speaker 1: and in the financial community, especially people of color, they
1:48
Speaker 1: have kind of like been left out over the years.
1:49
Speaker 1: We haven't been giving a blueprint or had the necessary
1:53
Speaker 1: means to figure out figured it out. You know, they
1:55
Speaker 1: tell us to go to school, we get an education,
1:57
Speaker 1: but that that'sn't a blueprint for success. That's until had
2:00
Speaker 1: to become an entrepreneur. Tell us how I got started
2:02
Speaker 1: for you, Randy, A lot of trial and error, and
2:07
Speaker 1: you know, like you said, there isn't a blueprint. But
2:09
Speaker 1: if you want to become an entrepreneur, you gotta go
2:12
Speaker 1: out and try a few different things and kind of
2:15
Speaker 1: learned along the way. So you know, fail fail that
2:18
Speaker 1: business a lot, and all you need to be right
2:20
Speaker 1: is one time, right now, be right now. You're an HBCU. Okay,
2:26
Speaker 1: WHU for your education? Yeah, well it's not a deep
2:32
Speaker 1: answer for me. They're the ones who accepted me. You know,
2:35
Speaker 1: it was close to home. It was affordable. You know,
2:39
Speaker 1: as a as a young man being raised by my grandmother,
2:42
Speaker 1: can't have a whole lot of money saved up for
2:45
Speaker 1: me to attend college. So I was less enough to
2:48
Speaker 1: have a decent g p A. And you get into
2:50
Speaker 1: Albany State University, man, so I had to. Um. I
2:53
Speaker 1: was thankful for that opportunity. It gave me a great
2:55
Speaker 1: cultural experience. You know. Um, I actually didn't recognize the
2:59
Speaker 1: value of hbc US until I attended one man. But
3:02
Speaker 1: it was a great experience. When you said, the value
3:05
Speaker 1: what does that mean when used the value of an
3:07
Speaker 1: HBCU until you attended it. So basically, like I said,
3:11
Speaker 1: they let you in. You were thankful you can continue education,
3:14
Speaker 1: but usually understand the other things that it brought to
3:17
Speaker 1: the table that now you see as a benefit. Yeah,
3:21
Speaker 1: it was a huge cultural experience. You know, it's a
3:24
Speaker 1: celebration of blackness, and it's an environment where instructors and
3:29
Speaker 1: professors make you feel seen, and that's something that's missing
3:33
Speaker 1: in corporate America. It's they're kind of like UM an incubator,
3:36
Speaker 1: Like they have business incubators for businesses that kind of
3:39
Speaker 1: give you a great push to start. That's what it
3:42
Speaker 1: does for Black American man HBCU as an incubator to
3:45
Speaker 1: prepare you for the corporate environment that you're gonna face
3:48
Speaker 1: after graduation. And now that's called life after college, which
3:51
Speaker 1: we were talking about now now and one of your
3:53
Speaker 1: questions that said you had previous businesses that have failed.
3:56
Speaker 1: Can you talk about those before we got into the
3:59
Speaker 1: success story of Alley and Twine. Yeah. Sure. Um. The
4:04
Speaker 1: biggest filuer I had, I guess in terms of money
4:07
Speaker 1: was up you know, trying to get into real estate
4:09
Speaker 1: right at two thousand seven and two thousand eight, Um,
4:13
Speaker 1: right where you are in Atlanta and losing my shirt.
4:16
Speaker 1: You know. So that was one of the biggest lessons,
4:20
Speaker 1: is you know, hopping into stuff without taking the time
4:22
Speaker 1: to properly educate yourself. On how to do it. So
4:26
Speaker 1: basically you saw an opportunity, didn't do your research, like
4:29
Speaker 1: you said, and that that that famous year two thousand
4:34
Speaker 1: and eight, and when everything went from success to horror,
4:37
Speaker 1: I mean from a nightmare was find Nobody could explain
4:41
Speaker 1: it because they they had already the system had already
4:44
Speaker 1: had kind of like pushed this limit on loans, pushed
4:46
Speaker 1: this limit on corporations and needed bailout. And the stock
4:49
Speaker 1: market was the bubble burst, and you part of that.
4:54
Speaker 1: I was part of America, was part of that. Nobody
4:57
Speaker 1: was left, you know, you were by Oprah. However, valued
5:00
Speaker 1: just dropped and all these major players in the tech
5:03
Speaker 1: game started suffering, and all that those those levels of
5:07
Speaker 1: income that they thought we're gonna be there forever went
5:09
Speaker 1: away went away. Tally Entwine, Now, I'm gonna tell you this,
5:13
Speaker 1: We're I'm not trying to be negative or anything. And
5:15
Speaker 1: I just I wasn't wearing watches at all. I had
5:20
Speaker 1: in my mind. Um, I just didn't where I watched.
5:25
Speaker 1: I stopped waring to watch probably about in the eighties six,
5:29
Speaker 1: I stopped wearing to watch and uh and then um,
5:32
Speaker 1: because somebodw I can always find the time, you know
5:34
Speaker 1: you're having phones you have I'm very good at knowing
5:37
Speaker 1: my time where I'm at, and so that's where I
5:40
Speaker 1: would perceived watches to be time. Now. I look at
5:43
Speaker 1: watches now as accessories, as as part of the as
5:47
Speaker 1: part of your style, part of my culture now. And
5:50
Speaker 1: so a friend of mine, uh she executive producer a
5:53
Speaker 1: family few as a birthday president president she Christmas, and
6:00
Speaker 1: he brought me a watch, and I let it sat
6:03
Speaker 1: there that I was determined just to hold true to rushan,
6:06
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna wear watching I bought all these years
6:08
Speaker 1: watched I watching that, and I and I and I
6:10
Speaker 1: realized that sometimes you have you have to change goals
6:13
Speaker 1: to be successful, you have to change your the way
6:16
Speaker 1: you do business. And putting on that watch really changed
6:20
Speaker 1: the way I I did business and how I approached
6:23
Speaker 1: myself became more flexible. And so I I used that
6:26
Speaker 1: as a as a lead into the conversation that sometimes
6:29
Speaker 1: people who might say, what does the watch bringing to
6:32
Speaker 1: the where I did? The where I watched, Where a
6:33
Speaker 1: watch changed the way I approach life, Randy, And and
6:38
Speaker 1: if it allowed me to be flexible, it allowed me
6:41
Speaker 1: to be fashionable because I got like three different ones,
6:45
Speaker 1: you know, and I've just found about your brand. So
6:47
Speaker 1: I'm about to perch me a couple of your brains.
6:48
Speaker 1: That's how I've gotten that. You know what I'm saying.
6:51
Speaker 1: And uh, and so so let's talk about you heard
6:54
Speaker 1: my story and how the impact of who the watch
6:58
Speaker 1: can have. It made me. I felt it made me
7:01
Speaker 1: made my because I wear suits all the times. Tailor
7:03
Speaker 1: made suits, so it made my my my my clothing balanced.
7:07
Speaker 1: I felt because I didn't have anything, because if you
7:09
Speaker 1: don't have anything on your wrist, it's just naked there.
7:11
Speaker 1: It's just it's just just skin. Now I have this watch,
7:15
Speaker 1: and I can't tell you. Sometimes your people see me
7:17
Speaker 1: as I like your watch, and I don't even know
7:20
Speaker 1: because I because I'm a guy who pointed out them
7:22
Speaker 1: very active with my hands. And then on my other
7:26
Speaker 1: I'm a cancer survivor. So I have this little chain
7:28
Speaker 1: on my right hand, on my right hand where it
7:30
Speaker 1: reminds me and asked me about it. I always tell
7:33
Speaker 1: them about surviving. And so I have a watch that
7:36
Speaker 1: is on my left which talks about my culture, my balance,
7:40
Speaker 1: and my watch on my right I got a risk
7:43
Speaker 1: chain that talks about survival. And so when I when
7:46
Speaker 1: I when I when the opportunity came about to interview you,
7:49
Speaker 1: I just really wanted to know what was the driving
7:52
Speaker 1: legacy of watches for you and the impact it can
7:55
Speaker 1: have them a person like me. Yeah, most of our
8:00
Speaker 1: customers have that same story as you have. Somebody got
8:02
Speaker 1: it for him gift as a gift and they weren't
8:05
Speaker 1: really into him, but once they started wearing, it's kind
8:07
Speaker 1: of one of those things where you feel like, man,
8:09
Speaker 1: I don't want to go out without one now. And
8:11
Speaker 1: my personal story is during our senior trip in high school,
8:16
Speaker 1: went on the cruise, went to the Bahamas. I went
8:18
Speaker 1: in to one of these little local shops and they
8:21
Speaker 1: had uh A fifty dollar guests watching there and I
8:26
Speaker 1: had never won a watch before, but buying that, I
8:29
Speaker 1: spent my last little money that I had. I bought
8:32
Speaker 1: that watch and to bring it back home. That was
8:34
Speaker 1: the first time I felt like a grown man, you know.
8:36
Speaker 1: I felt like I have become a man, and now
8:40
Speaker 1: I can go on to college and face the world.
8:43
Speaker 1: And that kind of was coinciding with me going to college.
8:46
Speaker 1: At the same time I got my first watch, and
8:48
Speaker 1: so that it became important to me for that reason,
8:52
Speaker 1: you know. So again, just like you, I was a
8:54
Speaker 1: business major and we wore a lot of suits, and
8:57
Speaker 1: I felt like that watch really in hand and sad
9:00
Speaker 1: and gave me that professional police that I was looking for.
9:04
Speaker 1: And um, how did you get in the watch business?
9:08
Speaker 1: You know? Like I said, you know, people, could you
9:10
Speaker 1: know that doesn't the first African American? Okay, and you
9:14
Speaker 1: you're getting into the watch business and talk about that
9:17
Speaker 1: step because of course, you know, it's just natural conversation
9:20
Speaker 1: to you. We're don't money making conversations. So I'm trying
9:24
Speaker 1: to walk people through the steps of how you can
9:26
Speaker 1: get to your dream. And it's not normal because you
9:30
Speaker 1: just can't go to the next door and just talk
9:31
Speaker 1: to somebody. I want to start. I want to get
9:33
Speaker 1: in to watch it. They look at you like, okay,
9:35
Speaker 1: now you talk about the Bahama trip. Okay, that's a
9:37
Speaker 1: long way from what We're a long ways from Bahama
9:40
Speaker 1: because of the fact that you know Tally and Twine.
9:42
Speaker 1: We talked about how that is from from a street
9:46
Speaker 1: name in the neighborhood. Like my business is thirty fifteen media,
9:49
Speaker 1: thirty and fifteen media. The number three fifteen is from
9:52
Speaker 1: the home that I was born in that was in
9:55
Speaker 1: the hood and uh and it was six bed room,
9:58
Speaker 1: it was what it was there with six six sisters
10:01
Speaker 1: and two brothers, my both my parents who lived in
10:04
Speaker 1: a two bedroom shotgun house. So when I read that
10:06
Speaker 1: talent and trying, it's a lot of thing that you're
10:08
Speaker 1: doing in your life that's very relatable to what I
10:11
Speaker 1: do and what I what I stand for. And that's
10:13
Speaker 1: why I feel that I always want to keep you
10:15
Speaker 1: in my life because I feel that we have a
10:17
Speaker 1: certain kinship. But again, you young man, wanted to do
10:22
Speaker 1: go into the watch business? How just want to get
10:24
Speaker 1: into the watch business? Yeah? Through um so, through a
10:28
Speaker 1: lot of trial and error and other businesses, you realize
10:31
Speaker 1: that in order for a business to be successful, you
10:33
Speaker 1: have to fulfill a need, fulfill a gap. So there's
10:37
Speaker 1: something missing or there's a market that's not being served
10:40
Speaker 1: that could benefit from what you have to offer. And so,
10:43
Speaker 1: as a consumer of watches, and I think a lot
10:45
Speaker 1: of our people should really take note of that is
10:48
Speaker 1: a lot of things that you consume um represent an
10:51
Speaker 1: opportunity for you. And so I was collecting a lot
10:54
Speaker 1: of watches, but I figured out something most of the
10:57
Speaker 1: brands that were affordable meeting under a thousand dollars, they
11:01
Speaker 1: were just mimicking the more expensive brand. So it was
11:06
Speaker 1: a lot of repetition in the market, and I wanted
11:09
Speaker 1: to wear something different, you know. I said, if I
11:11
Speaker 1: had to watch, I would change this, I would change that,
11:14
Speaker 1: my band would look like this. And after while, I
11:16
Speaker 1: realized that that represented a huge opportunity for me to
11:19
Speaker 1: get into business and designed my own watch. Now how
11:23
Speaker 1: I was gonna do that, I had no idea, and
11:25
Speaker 1: so that's when I went to YouTube and Google University
11:28
Speaker 1: and kind of figured out the steps to step by step.
11:31
Speaker 1: I started with a sketch and then I eventually contacted
11:34
Speaker 1: the manufacturer. UH. They helped me bring that to life,
11:38
Speaker 1: order some samples, and once I got the samples the
11:41
Speaker 1: way that I wanted them, you know, over the course
11:43
Speaker 1: of about a year year and a half, that's when
11:46
Speaker 1: I decided to launch, and we launched via the crowdfunding
11:49
Speaker 1: site kickstarter to raise money for our first shipment. So
11:54
Speaker 1: you went out there. I've heard people say kick started,
11:57
Speaker 1: what what engaged people wanna tribute to your brain? What
12:01
Speaker 1: did you do? What was it? What was your platform?
12:03
Speaker 1: What was your what made them want to go, wow,
12:06
Speaker 1: I want to I want to contribute to this. And
12:07
Speaker 1: how does kicks Started work when someone contributes to it?
12:10
Speaker 1: Do they are they part owners? They have a little
12:12
Speaker 1: percentage of your brand? How does that work? M hm um? Well,
12:17
Speaker 1: my platform was just what I told you, So here's
12:20
Speaker 1: something new for the market. Here's something that is not
12:23
Speaker 1: going to be a replica of all the other watches
12:26
Speaker 1: that are out. So that was my main platform. And
12:29
Speaker 1: then also I started with the interchangeable band, So I
12:33
Speaker 1: have these canvas bands that we can change. You can
12:36
Speaker 1: give your watch a completely different looks. So those are
12:38
Speaker 1: my two platforms. And then the way kick Started works
12:42
Speaker 1: is it's basically a pre order system. So in order
12:47
Speaker 1: to get your products early, people will pay um ahead
12:53
Speaker 1: of time and they'll get a discount off of the
12:55
Speaker 1: retail price. Right. So let's say my goal was the
12:59
Speaker 1: raised five thousand and so I knew I needed I
13:03
Speaker 1: think maybe a hundred a hundred and fifty backers to
13:06
Speaker 1: pre order the watch, who believe in what we were doing,
13:08
Speaker 1: who believed that we would be able to get the
13:11
Speaker 1: main manufacturing process done to go ahead and pre order
13:14
Speaker 1: and an exchange they were able to get a steep
13:16
Speaker 1: discount off of the initial watch. But no, they are
13:18
Speaker 1: not part owners, so they just they basically we just
13:22
Speaker 1: ordering their product at a discount. Yes, sir, there are
13:26
Speaker 1: some crowdfunding platforms that work like that where you do
13:28
Speaker 1: get ownership. But I didn't do that. Absolutely, you didn't
13:31
Speaker 1: be thankful for it, aren't you? You know, because we
13:39
Speaker 1: all have dreams. And the thing about when the dream
13:42
Speaker 1: that comes successful and then people look around going tapping
13:45
Speaker 1: you on the show talking about what my chick it's
13:48
Speaker 1: about a hundred and fifty of them? Ready? That that
13:50
Speaker 1: gets pretty ugly real fast man, Well, hut where my
13:54
Speaker 1: check at? You know? Look, man, look let me give
13:57
Speaker 1: you back in two Okay, you can go about your
14:01
Speaker 1: business all right. Sorry, no, no, no, that's not what
14:04
Speaker 1: my contracts say. My contracts say I owned some of
14:07
Speaker 1: this and I want my share. Man. You're here for
14:10
Speaker 1: screaming up and down. Now when I'm looking at these bands, man,
14:13
Speaker 1: you know because on your site, right and the different
14:17
Speaker 1: look it's what you know, the large face is they're
14:21
Speaker 1: very clean. Your you're watches, uh don't have numbers on them?
14:27
Speaker 1: Was what that was? That the look that you were seeking. Yeah,
14:31
Speaker 1: that's the look that I was seeking, because again I
14:33
Speaker 1: wanted to do something that wasn't traditional. And you said
14:36
Speaker 1: it earlier. We don't really use our watches for telling
14:38
Speaker 1: time now, it's more of a fashion accessor, and so
14:41
Speaker 1: I wanted to give it a unique look. So we
14:43
Speaker 1: only have the number seven on all of our watching
14:47
Speaker 1: And why is that? Well, the number seven represents completion.
14:52
Speaker 1: So I told myself when I started Italian Twine, I
14:54
Speaker 1: was gonna finish what I started. You know, you know
14:57
Speaker 1: a lot of times with entrepreneurs, we started stuff and
15:00
Speaker 1: be sitting around the house and thinking of he be
15:01
Speaker 1: thinking of stuff, though I love you boy. Number seven
15:05
Speaker 1: you know, you know, seven days in the week. You
15:07
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, You got to complete your problems,
15:10
Speaker 1: that's right. And then there's also something very recognizable. Man.
15:13
Speaker 1: I imagine people being out in the store looking over
15:16
Speaker 1: at somebody's wrists and seeing that seven and saying, hey,
15:19
Speaker 1: is that Italians one? So you know it's entrepreneurs. They
15:23
Speaker 1: go why just or creature conversation, you know, or as
15:27
Speaker 1: a conversation piece, exactly what type of watches? Because that
15:31
Speaker 1: in the end, man, that's really all you're trying to create,
15:33
Speaker 1: like I said, you know, people trying to create ice breakers.
15:36
Speaker 1: And first of all, it's a beautiful watch. And then
15:38
Speaker 1: that number seven on it. You know if somebody wise
15:41
Speaker 1: it's just or seven, then you explain it. Then you
15:43
Speaker 1: get to a conversation with somebody and now all of
15:46
Speaker 1: a sudden there's a great ice breaker. But the but
15:48
Speaker 1: the look in the fashion is really so this is
15:51
Speaker 1: really I think a very timely watch. So we went
15:55
Speaker 1: the official launch date for this watching Randy we un
16:00
Speaker 1: in November two thousand four, November, right before Christmas. Smart
16:05
Speaker 1: move right, Okay, so everything's online, correct, Yes, sir, We
16:12
Speaker 1: sell direct the consumer. Um, we don't do any retail
16:16
Speaker 1: right now. Okay, So COVID hit, the pandemic hits, the
16:21
Speaker 1: country shuts down. What does that do for your brain?
16:26
Speaker 1: We saw increase in sales, you know, because people were
16:28
Speaker 1: at home. Um. And unfortunately, the social unrest also added
16:33
Speaker 1: a boost to our business, you know, as people begin
16:35
Speaker 1: to seek out black owned businesses, you know. So you know,
16:38
Speaker 1: it kind of validated my thinking from the beginning was
16:41
Speaker 1: that you know, eventually traditional retails gonna continue to continue
16:45
Speaker 1: to slow down and people gonna want to owner their
16:47
Speaker 1: products online. They're not gonna want to put up with
16:49
Speaker 1: the higher prices at retail. They're not gonna put up
16:52
Speaker 1: with the bad customer service they get at retail. UM
16:56
Speaker 1: And so I kind of pushed off my chip to
16:58
Speaker 1: the table to be saying that we're gonna do direct
17:01
Speaker 1: consumer and sell online only. We actually turn out some
17:03
Speaker 1: some major contracts from some traditional retailers to keep our
17:07
Speaker 1: brand intact. When you say that, what do you mean
17:09
Speaker 1: you to keep your brand intact? What does that mean? Yeah,
17:14
Speaker 1: meming UM, Let's say we we got a um A
17:18
Speaker 1: purchase order from from North from rely and we chose
17:22
Speaker 1: not to do it. Because when you shop at North
17:26
Speaker 1: from your North froom's customer, they control the social they
17:29
Speaker 1: control the customer service, They can talk to you how
17:32
Speaker 1: they want to, they can ship in whatever time frame
17:34
Speaker 1: they want to, and ultimately you become their customer. As
17:38
Speaker 1: a directed consumer business, you maintain the connection with all
17:42
Speaker 1: of your customers. So I can say, hey, Mr Williams,
17:44
Speaker 1: thank you for your purchase last month. You want to
17:47
Speaker 1: know if you'll be interested in one of our leather
17:49
Speaker 1: bands to accompany the watch that you purchase, or I
17:53
Speaker 1: can send you a card on your birthday, or I
17:55
Speaker 1: can send you a free gift in the mail prior
17:58
Speaker 1: to the holiday. And ultimately, the value in today's market
18:02
Speaker 1: is having that customer base. There's no need to give
18:05
Speaker 1: it away to somebody just because you know their name
18:08
Speaker 1: and they've been around for a while, because you're ultimately
18:11
Speaker 1: providing the value. Wow, I'm talking to Randy Williams. He's
18:14
Speaker 1: the president of Italian Twine, accompanying designs and manufacturer luxury
18:18
Speaker 1: watches and accessories. He's started November fourteen. And you're really
18:23
Speaker 1: good at getting um media to look at your brand.
18:27
Speaker 1: How you're accomplishing that task, because that's the number one
18:30
Speaker 1: talk that people talk, right Man, I can I can
18:32
Speaker 1: I get promotion I can get from I can get
18:34
Speaker 1: all the cole written on my product first of all
18:35
Speaker 1: around to have a good looking product. But you're you
18:39
Speaker 1: when I look when I when I'm doing this interview,
18:41
Speaker 1: you have a very interesting personality. What interesting meaning? It
18:44
Speaker 1: is good because you have a plan, you have a conversation,
18:48
Speaker 1: you know, you're you're you have all the right things
18:50
Speaker 1: to say about who you are and why you're doing this.
18:53
Speaker 1: You know, like that number seven is really slick, you know,
18:56
Speaker 1: interchangeable watches. You know. I know when I was Markeny
19:00
Speaker 1: Steve Harvey's first book, they always put out a little
19:03
Speaker 1: phrases out of the book so you can when you
19:06
Speaker 1: go to an interview. These are buzzwords and people jump
19:08
Speaker 1: on them. So what is your degree in, Randy Mark?
19:13
Speaker 1: My degree of that marketing? So all this, this is
19:15
Speaker 1: all part of the big plan. Really, you know what
19:18
Speaker 1: I'm saying, part of the big plan because everything you
19:22
Speaker 1: do and it's like not I won't say marketing one
19:25
Speaker 1: on one, but guess what, you have all the right
19:27
Speaker 1: little layers and buzzes and statements to be able to say,
19:31
Speaker 1: I'm an interesting guy. You can put me on TV,
19:33
Speaker 1: I can talk if you write about me. Guess where
19:36
Speaker 1: I got stuff to put in print? And it all
19:38
Speaker 1: comes back to a product that looks outstanding. Man, Thank
19:42
Speaker 1: you man. I'll tell you what it's like this, Um,
19:45
Speaker 1: I think I like it to I attributed to self awareness.
19:50
Speaker 1: So it's just like when you go from being a
19:52
Speaker 1: young man to an older man, you understand who you
19:54
Speaker 1: are more and you understand why you're doing what you're doing.
19:58
Speaker 1: You're not just doing something to make money or He's
20:00
Speaker 1: not just doing something for attention. And I wanted Italians
20:03
Speaker 1: wanting to be a brand like that that understood it,
20:05
Speaker 1: so that had these principles and these values that were
20:08
Speaker 1: built into the brand, and we weren't kind of following
20:11
Speaker 1: the trends and following what was popular. And so that's
20:14
Speaker 1: how I think about it. And to answer your question
20:16
Speaker 1: about how we got the media, I have no idea.
20:19
Speaker 1: We have never had a pr agency. We don't reach
20:22
Speaker 1: out to media outlets. Somehow we get UH coverage and
20:26
Speaker 1: I just consider it a blessing. I just say that
20:29
Speaker 1: that's God's grace. And I really don't have a strategy
20:33
Speaker 1: for that one. But I go to the website, I
20:35
Speaker 1: see everybody. You know what I'm saying. I see I
20:39
Speaker 1: see the strategy. You know, from the marketing standpoint, I
20:42
Speaker 1: see Men's Help, Black Enterprise. He posts Blavity Bashable, they
20:47
Speaker 1: not New York cost Bollom ebony. That right there, let
20:51
Speaker 1: everybody know we're brand is being recognized by all the
20:54
Speaker 1: top media outlets. That means that you are you're very
20:57
Speaker 1: much aware of who you are and the story you
21:00
Speaker 1: trying to tell. Now you have a men's line and
21:02
Speaker 1: you have a women's line. Okay, I'm assuming you started
21:04
Speaker 1: with the men's line first, correct, Yes, sir, when did
21:09
Speaker 1: you get smart? And I gotta bring it on the
21:11
Speaker 1: women because they're the one they're they're the ones who
21:12
Speaker 1: really they're the ones who buy two or three things.
21:15
Speaker 1: You know, they got a dress for this, they got
21:17
Speaker 1: a dressed for that. You know when when when did
21:20
Speaker 1: that pop up? Realize that the women? I'm assuming that
21:22
Speaker 1: the women are the biggest buyers. Correct, it's about okay, yeah,
21:29
Speaker 1: which I which I like because that means that you
21:31
Speaker 1: have a pretty much established, especially on the men's side,
21:34
Speaker 1: a certain dollar value customer. Yeah, yeah, I would say so.
21:41
Speaker 1: I think two years in I started, I couldn't resist
21:44
Speaker 1: it anymore because I wanted tally trying to be men's brand,
21:48
Speaker 1: because that's who I knew how to market too. I
21:50
Speaker 1: was so afraid of trying to market the women. I
21:53
Speaker 1: didn't want to mess up in the way that I
21:55
Speaker 1: was communicating with them. But after a while, man, after
21:58
Speaker 1: get email and email and all and call, it was
22:01
Speaker 1: women buying gifts for men as much as there were
22:05
Speaker 1: men shopping on our site, and so it just represented
22:08
Speaker 1: a no brainer. I mean, the people act for and
22:11
Speaker 1: they wanted a watch that match their husbands. They wanted
22:14
Speaker 1: to gift set. And so I just kind of took
22:16
Speaker 1: that feedback and you know, I had to slap myself
22:19
Speaker 1: against the head and like, what are you doing? You know,
22:21
Speaker 1: why aren't you selling women's watching or so we rolled
22:24
Speaker 1: that out and you know, it instantly wasn't hit. And
22:27
Speaker 1: what I love about having female customers is when they
22:29
Speaker 1: love a product, they are going to talk about it,
22:31
Speaker 1: They're going to discuss it, they're going to share it,
22:34
Speaker 1: and that's really one of the things that has allowed
22:36
Speaker 1: us to grow. Well. You know, the thing that I
22:38
Speaker 1: really like about what I'm seeing here in on your
22:42
Speaker 1: line is that, man, these watches look sexy man, you
22:46
Speaker 1: know because you know, I I here's a guy, like
22:49
Speaker 1: I said, what inten I put a watch back on
22:52
Speaker 1: my body, okay, And so I'm watching these watches. Man.
22:55
Speaker 1: You who's ever taking these photos? Man? They really know
22:58
Speaker 1: how to make these watches look. Man, I want that
23:00
Speaker 1: to watch with my risk. Man. I mean these are
23:03
Speaker 1: I mean, these are some attractive looking photos that look
23:07
Speaker 1: So are you involved in the selection, you know, like
23:10
Speaker 1: when I look for let's go back when you have
23:12
Speaker 1: had this Playball magazine. You know, he went through all
23:14
Speaker 1: the pictures. He's made all final selection on the photos
23:18
Speaker 1: that went on into the magazine. How involved in you?
23:21
Speaker 1: Because I'm just telling you, man, this is the these
23:24
Speaker 1: these photos with the watch, it almost like, man, I
23:27
Speaker 1: can put that watch on my all right there with
23:29
Speaker 1: that shirt. I put that watch with my blue suit.
23:32
Speaker 1: This is what you're selling. You're selling is not I
23:35
Speaker 1: don't need to see the full body. I just need
23:37
Speaker 1: to see high looks on my wrist. And that's what
23:39
Speaker 1: you're doing. Somewhere along the line, Randy, you've tapped into
23:43
Speaker 1: something man. And uh and I'm just trying to m
23:47
Speaker 1: and this. I know it's I know over time I
23:49
Speaker 1: figured out. But his interview. You're special, dude. You're special
23:53
Speaker 1: and understanding what excites people, what what you're making a
23:57
Speaker 1: watch value to me. You're making me want to buy
24:01
Speaker 1: your watch when I go to this website. You're making
24:03
Speaker 1: me want to like, not just one watch, I want
24:05
Speaker 1: to try a couple of them, you know, two or three,
24:08
Speaker 1: because you know black goes are black or gray, brown
24:12
Speaker 1: goes to blue. You know browns can go with great.
24:14
Speaker 1: So you can't just put a watch on with everything
24:16
Speaker 1: I've learned that you know, you like when you have
24:20
Speaker 1: a value customer. Like I said, you go in my house,
24:21
Speaker 1: I got like four or five watches because I got
24:24
Speaker 1: my silver, my platinum, because different suits I put on,
24:27
Speaker 1: I have to look a certain way. Now. My two
24:29
Speaker 1: favorite colors are my black and my brown wrist bands.
24:33
Speaker 1: But one of the big sellers for your watches that
24:35
Speaker 1: you can interchange bands, correct, yes, sir, yes, sir. So
24:40
Speaker 1: let's go back to the selection of these photos and start.
24:42
Speaker 1: I forgot about that. No, I didn't forget about that.
24:45
Speaker 1: How did these pictures get on your website? Because they
24:47
Speaker 1: are they're like making me want to like pull out
24:50
Speaker 1: my American Express to start dying. And right now, I mean,
24:53
Speaker 1: you're making me sick right now, Randy, I'm telling you, man, brother,
24:56
Speaker 1: I got I will be buying a couple of these watches. Brother. Well,
24:59
Speaker 1: it's it's an important part of the process. So, like
25:02
Speaker 1: you know, you like custom suits, and you go in
25:06
Speaker 1: and you get greeted by someone, They measure you, they
25:09
Speaker 1: ask me questions, they find out about just a really
25:11
Speaker 1: personal experience. And so as an online business, we don't
25:14
Speaker 1: have that person to person touch point. So we have
25:17
Speaker 1: to try to make the website as attractive as possible
25:21
Speaker 1: so that people can understand the real value of the
25:24
Speaker 1: watch that they're going to be getting. So we try
25:26
Speaker 1: to photograph it from all angles. We try to photograph
25:29
Speaker 1: have photographs of people wearing it in their element so
25:31
Speaker 1: that we can really tell that story without having that
25:34
Speaker 1: one on one contact. So that's one of the hurdles
25:36
Speaker 1: that we have to get over. So that means our
25:38
Speaker 1: website has got to be ten times better and more
25:41
Speaker 1: attractive than it would be if you had that in
25:43
Speaker 1: story experience. So yeah, I'm really involved there today with
25:46
Speaker 1: the marketing and the photography and video selection, and I
25:50
Speaker 1: really enjoyed that part of my business. The business is
25:52
Speaker 1: actually my favorite part, absolutely absolutely. So what is the
25:55
Speaker 1: warrantye I buy to watch? You? You know a couple
25:58
Speaker 1: of watchers that I really like that so sold out
26:01
Speaker 1: already on top of so what's just what? Just what
26:03
Speaker 1: do you select to watch? What's the window and what's
26:05
Speaker 1: the warranty on your watches? We have a two year
26:09
Speaker 1: warranty on our watches. The big thing happens, get it
26:13
Speaker 1: get replaced, which is unprecedented in our Pride that's incredible.
26:18
Speaker 1: Two years, two year warranty. And also you can return
26:26
Speaker 1: a product and definitely you know, if you got it
26:29
Speaker 1: and you haven't used it, as long as something you
26:31
Speaker 1: will always be able to refund you or exchange it
26:34
Speaker 1: for you. So we have a very generous return policy
26:37
Speaker 1: because we really believe in our product. Now this this
26:40
Speaker 1: this black metal band, the one that sold out, you know,
26:43
Speaker 1: of course it will be you know, you know I
26:44
Speaker 1: would pick the one that's sold out, you know, crazy
26:46
Speaker 1: like that that that charcoal band on it. That's cold
26:50
Speaker 1: right there, man. I just love the women, the women lines, man,
26:54
Speaker 1: I love that. That that that pink band, that blue band. Man,
26:58
Speaker 1: you know you you're just making to kill that pink
27:00
Speaker 1: watch right here. Man, the pink leather band. That's out standing.
27:04
Speaker 1: It's a pre order shipping by octobers. That mean pre
27:07
Speaker 1: order shipping by October. The roles go, what does that
27:10
Speaker 1: mean when I see that? Well, um, we were expecting
27:15
Speaker 1: to be a hundred percent improvement over what we did
27:19
Speaker 1: last year in terms of sale, but somewhere in the
27:23
Speaker 1: first three months of the year, we that catapulted over
27:28
Speaker 1: year and uh we sold out of everything man. So um,
27:33
Speaker 1: we had to start making them available for pre order. UM,
27:37
Speaker 1: so we'll be shipping those pre orders are actually within
27:39
Speaker 1: the next couple of weeks UM, and then after that
27:42
Speaker 1: hopefully we can have them stopped and we'll be shipping
27:44
Speaker 1: directly from the site. We know on this shipping two
27:46
Speaker 1: to three business days. But you know, the man has
27:48
Speaker 1: been so strong this year that we've had to switch
27:51
Speaker 1: over the pre orders. Well, Randy, all, I gotta say, Man,
27:55
Speaker 1: all right, if you don't mind, I'm I'm gonna put
27:57
Speaker 1: you in my news letter goes out the eight thousands fibers.
28:00
Speaker 1: So kay, I'm gonna put you on my shopping on UH,
28:03
Speaker 1: which is on my Money Making Conversation and also on
28:05
Speaker 1: my m Money Making Conversation as well as on my
28:09
Speaker 1: um my HBCU Awards UH website that I just launched
28:15
Speaker 1: this month. And my whole thing is that you have
28:18
Speaker 1: a great business. I am a customer, and you my
28:20
Speaker 1: name will pop up on your site as a as
28:23
Speaker 1: a buyer because of the fact that, UH, you're special man,
28:28
Speaker 1: not just a just special from a standpoint of the product,
28:30
Speaker 1: but if you have unique qualities and a unique understanding
28:34
Speaker 1: of how you want to be viewed. It's not about
28:38
Speaker 1: to check. It's about the brand. I always tell people,
28:40
Speaker 1: always tell people this. You know, I don't really chase money.
28:43
Speaker 1: I changed relationships and I changed and I control my brand.
28:47
Speaker 1: And if you do all those things, then you will
28:49
Speaker 1: make money and you'll be able to control your destiny
28:52
Speaker 1: and your future. But if you start giving away your
28:54
Speaker 1: brand for a check, then gets what you have to
28:57
Speaker 1: cater to them. And you're absolutely right. It's like it's
29:01
Speaker 1: like I always always go back to what I should
29:03
Speaker 1: do with uh with with krispy Kreme. Krispy Kreme, man,
29:08
Speaker 1: when that little sign came on, you stopped. You had
29:10
Speaker 1: the best hot downer in the world. Then they start
29:12
Speaker 1: going in the grocery stores, they start going to stops
29:16
Speaker 1: and you grab that don up Cole was hard. And
29:19
Speaker 1: that's what you're saying about Northstrom. I don't want anybody
29:22
Speaker 1: to market my brand along with a lot of other
29:25
Speaker 1: watches and make it competitive and telling you this is
29:27
Speaker 1: this and this does this come to me. I'm gonna
29:30
Speaker 1: give you two years, I'm give you loyalty, I'm gonna respect,
29:34
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna tell you the truth about my product.
29:36
Speaker 1: And that's what you're doing. On Italian twine. I respect
29:39
Speaker 1: that and I love you for a brother. Thank you,
29:40
Speaker 1: Thank you man, thank you for the kind words. I
29:42
Speaker 1: appreciate you. No, no, we were looking at that kind words.
29:45
Speaker 1: I gotta start marketing. I gotta jump up there. I
29:47
Speaker 1: want my little money making conversations go up there with
29:49
Speaker 1: a huff post and uh ebony and you know I
29:53
Speaker 1: gotta do that. I gotta, I gotta get up there, man, talent,
29:56
Speaker 1: come on. But thank you for taking the time to
29:58
Speaker 1: come on this show. And I appreciate at your man
30:00
Speaker 1: and uh mad respect and I will always and like
30:03
Speaker 1: I said, everything I do on money Making Conversations, there's
30:06
Speaker 1: no check attached to It is about promoting positive individuals
30:09
Speaker 1: who are trying to make a difference. Because you you
30:11
Speaker 1: create taxes, you create employment, you can an opportunity to
30:14
Speaker 1: make this country a lot better. That's what entrepreneurs do.
30:16
Speaker 1: And I just want to recognize you for your efforts. Man,
30:20
Speaker 1: Thank you, and I love what you're doing. Man, keep
30:22
Speaker 1: up the work. I know it's hard working into your schedule, man,
30:25
Speaker 1: but we really need to continue. So thanks. I appreciate
30:28
Speaker 1: all right there. You want to hear more money making
30:29
Speaker 1: Conversation interviews, please go to money Making Conversation dot com.
30:32
Speaker 1: I'm ras Sean McDonald. I'm your host.