WEBVTT - A Vision for the Future: DEZI Eyewear 0:00:00.400 --> 0:00:03.960 Makeup artist and influencer Desie Perkins has a little bit 0:00:04.040 --> 0:00:07.040 of a golden touch. In twenty sixteen, she had a 0:00:07.040 --> 0:00:08.960 collab with a major sunglass company. 0:00:09.160 --> 0:00:11.240 So they offered me this deal and they said, it'll 0:00:11.320 --> 0:00:14.600 just be a quick, little three month collaboration. You'll have 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:16.200 about four sunglasses. 0:00:16.400 --> 0:00:17.000 It'll be great. 0:00:17.960 --> 0:00:20.840 While this was originally intended to be a collaboration between 0:00:20.880 --> 0:00:23.840 Desi and the sunglass company, Desi was way more hands on. 0:00:24.480 --> 0:00:26.560 I showed up to the first meeting with them and 0:00:26.640 --> 0:00:28.560 they laid out a bunch of sunglasses on the table. 0:00:28.600 --> 0:00:30.280 They said, is there anything that you like here that 0:00:30.320 --> 0:00:31.920 you can pick? We can put your name on it, 0:00:32.080 --> 0:00:35.040 market it whatever. I said, I would really love to 0:00:35.080 --> 0:00:38.200 design my own sunglasses if that's a possibility. 0:00:38.400 --> 0:00:41.360 So when it came time to renegotiate their contract, Desi 0:00:41.440 --> 0:00:44.360 wanted to be recognized as more than a collaborator. She 0:00:44.560 --> 0:00:49.400 was designing, marketing, and successfully selling. She asked for a 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:51.360 contract that reflected her work. 0:00:51.640 --> 0:00:54.480 We had met with the company to try and renegotiate 0:00:54.520 --> 0:00:58.520 a more fair contract, and the CEO at the time, 0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:02.280 he was there running the meeting, and he really downplayed 0:01:02.360 --> 0:01:06.680 my contribution to the brand and as we were sitting 0:01:06.680 --> 0:01:10.040 there trying to negotiate, he looked over at me and said, 0:01:10.880 --> 0:01:12.960 that's a lot of money for a little girl. 0:01:13.800 --> 0:01:15.600 I was actually in disbelief. 0:01:15.880 --> 0:01:17.679 For me, that was something that there was really no 0:01:17.760 --> 0:01:21.120 coming back from. And after that, we all looked at 0:01:21.160 --> 0:01:23.080 each other and we all walked out. 0:01:28.600 --> 0:01:32.319 Welcome to The Unshakables from Chase for Business and Ruby 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:37.679 Studio from iHeartMedia. I'm Ben Walter, CEO of Chase for Business. 0:01:37.560 --> 0:01:40.919 And I'm Tanya Neibo, a lawyer and consultant for business owners. 0:01:41.480 --> 0:01:43.720 Well it's hard to believe we're here, but this is 0:01:43.760 --> 0:01:47.400 the final episode of season one of The Unshakables. For 0:01:47.440 --> 0:01:50.200 the past few months, we've been sharing the daring moments 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:53.639 of small business owners facing their crisis points and telling 0:01:53.680 --> 0:01:56.520 the stories of how they got through it. We're going 0:01:56.600 --> 0:01:58.440 to close out this season with the story of an 0:01:58.480 --> 0:02:01.960 influencer turned entrepreneur who was willing to take the biggest 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:04.160 risk of them all on herself. 0:02:04.960 --> 0:02:08.959 Hey Tanya, Hey Ben, I'm so sad the season is over, 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:11.280 but I am pretty excited to hear this next story. 0:02:11.800 --> 0:02:15.560 I loved Desie's design. They're so stylish and they're unique, 0:02:15.600 --> 0:02:17.080 and I just I love them. 0:02:17.320 --> 0:02:18.360 Well, this one's a doozy. 0:02:18.480 --> 0:02:21.320 Well, I'm here for the doozy. Let's get to it. 0:02:22.560 --> 0:02:30.720 On today's episode, Desi Iwear from Los Angeles, California. You 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:34.040 just heard from Desie Perkins, who today is a designer, 0:02:34.400 --> 0:02:38.480 makeup artist, and beauty influencer, but years before that, she 0:02:38.639 --> 0:02:41.600 was a cocktail server and her husband, Stephen Perkins, was 0:02:41.639 --> 0:02:42.880 a freelance photographer. 0:02:43.480 --> 0:02:44.520 I was a cocktail server. 0:02:44.880 --> 0:02:48.239 I had a toxic work environment, really hated my job, 0:02:48.880 --> 0:02:51.519 and Stephen came in to visit me one day and 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:54.960 I just started crying because I was so stressed and 0:02:55.080 --> 0:02:57.480 my manager, you know, was horrible. 0:02:57.639 --> 0:02:59.079 So I just looked at it and I was like, look, 0:02:59.120 --> 0:03:01.040 you don't have to work here. We're going to figure 0:03:01.080 --> 0:03:03.800 this out, Like literally, you should quit tonight and we 0:03:03.840 --> 0:03:04.760 are going to go from there. 0:03:06.960 --> 0:03:09.680 Well, Desi was figuring out her next step. Stephen was 0:03:09.680 --> 0:03:13.000 working as a club photographer, and in October of twenty twelve, 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:15.560 Stephen asked Desi to help him with a costume for 0:03:15.600 --> 0:03:19.160 a Halloween party he had to shoot. Desi had always 0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:22.040 loved makeup, so she helped Stephen with his before he 0:03:22.080 --> 0:03:23.000 went to work for the night. 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:25.840 Because I was a painter and artist. 0:03:25.919 --> 0:03:28.720 I watched this YouTube video and it was telling me 0:03:29.120 --> 0:03:31.760 how to do special effects makeup, and I said, listen, 0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:34.520 I've never done it before, but let's try it. And 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:37.760 I did this really cool special effects goal. It was 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:38.520 really awesome. 0:03:39.320 --> 0:03:41.760 At the party, everyone asked who had done his makeup, 0:03:42.400 --> 0:03:43.520 and he said that Desi had. 0:03:44.720 --> 0:03:46.600 He went out that night and all of these people 0:03:46.680 --> 0:03:49.040 asked if he had got his makeup professionally done. I 0:03:49.120 --> 0:03:50.920 was with him and he said no, my girlfriend did it. 0:03:50.960 --> 0:03:52.280 And they said, do you do this for a living? 0:03:52.360 --> 0:03:55.360 And I said yes. I had no kid, no experience. 0:03:55.640 --> 0:03:58.360 I just said, yes, I do. And then I started 0:03:58.400 --> 0:04:01.360 taking appointments for like fifty dollars a face out of 0:04:01.440 --> 0:04:02.680 our apartment. 0:04:03.240 --> 0:04:05.120 I faked it till I made it, let me tell you. 0:04:06.280 --> 0:04:09.080 Soon Desi was getting off her gigs doing makeup for TV. 0:04:09.680 --> 0:04:12.400 Even though she had no experience, she still said yes. 0:04:13.280 --> 0:04:16.240 To help drum up even more business, Stephen recommended she 0:04:16.320 --> 0:04:18.400 joined a new social media site you may have heard 0:04:18.400 --> 0:04:18.640 of it. 0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:21.640 Instagram was brand new at the time, and convinced her 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:24.599 to download Instagram. She used it as kind of like 0:04:24.640 --> 0:04:28.520 a portfolio, as a creative escape and it took off. 0:04:28.920 --> 0:04:31.599 You know, someone reposted one of her photos and it 0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:34.520 got ten thousand followers overnight. 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:39.120 I remember sitting in our apartment and my phone was 0:04:39.160 --> 0:04:39.960 on the couch and it. 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:41.640 Just started going through. 0:04:41.600 --> 0:04:50.040 Like notifications were going off like crazy. 0:04:50.240 --> 0:04:52.800 Someone commented on one of her Instagram photos that she 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:54.200 should launch a YouTube channel. 0:04:55.000 --> 0:04:56.840 We had no idea what we were doing with YouTube either, 0:04:56.920 --> 0:04:59.440 but Stephen had his camera that he did club photography with, 0:04:59.520 --> 0:05:01.480 so we took and we got a couple of lights 0:05:01.680 --> 0:05:04.279 and we set it up and I just went and 0:05:04.320 --> 0:05:05.240 started filming. 0:05:06.240 --> 0:05:09.000 Stephen was her de facto manager. He helped film all 0:05:09.040 --> 0:05:11.479 of her content and after a year he left his 0:05:11.600 --> 0:05:14.279 job to focus on Desi and her brand full time. 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:17.080 And it was just makeup tutorials and it kind of 0:05:17.120 --> 0:05:19.640 just took off. She had a really good personality. People 0:05:19.680 --> 0:05:22.839 loved her story and just like hanging out getting ready 0:05:22.839 --> 0:05:24.159 with her next thing. 0:05:24.200 --> 0:05:27.360 You know, I'm doing this for a few months and 0:05:27.960 --> 0:05:30.200 I get an email from a company and they say, 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:31.360 we would love to. 0:05:31.360 --> 0:05:35.120 Send you some free product. And I was shocked. 0:05:35.360 --> 0:05:38.440 It wasn't a thing yet to get paid to post 0:05:38.560 --> 0:05:41.840 videos or pictures or promote product. All of that we 0:05:41.839 --> 0:05:44.279 were learning and the brands were learning at the same time, 0:05:44.400 --> 0:05:45.560 so it was really tricky. 0:05:45.839 --> 0:05:48.760 It was a wild West of influencing because no one 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:50.800 knew what was going on or how it could be. 0:05:50.880 --> 0:05:53.120 Like when Desi got that first offer, it clicked in 0:05:53.160 --> 0:05:55.960 my business mind, like, wait a minute, there's an opportunity here. 0:05:56.000 --> 0:05:57.839 If they want to send you something, they might have 0:05:57.920 --> 0:06:00.480 money behind it. And that's where like we kind of 0:06:00.520 --> 0:06:02.720 went back in and we started negotiating these deals. 0:06:03.520 --> 0:06:07.440 After a few years, Desi's YouTube channel had a million followers. 0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:12.400 A big following brought bigger opportunities. In twenty sixteen, a 0:06:12.440 --> 0:06:15.640 sunglasses company reached out in hopes of collaborating with Desi. 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:17.440 She and Stephen took the meeting. 0:06:17.800 --> 0:06:20.120 This sunglass company approached me and they said, hey, we've 0:06:20.120 --> 0:06:23.880 done collabse with a few other celebrities and we would 0:06:23.920 --> 0:06:25.000 love to do something with you. 0:06:25.520 --> 0:06:26.760 So they offered me this deal. 0:06:26.800 --> 0:06:30.599 It was a one page, typed out paper napkin contract deal, 0:06:30.640 --> 0:06:32.640 and they said, it'll just be a quick, little three 0:06:32.680 --> 0:06:37.960 month collaboration. You'll have about four sunglasses, it'll be great. 0:06:38.320 --> 0:06:40.400 I showed up to the first meeting with them and 0:06:40.480 --> 0:06:42.400 they laid out a bunch of sunglasses on the table. 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:44.120 They said, is there anything that you like here that 0:06:44.160 --> 0:06:45.760 you can pick? We can put your name on it, 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:49.200 market it whatever. I said, I would really love to 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:51.760 design my own sunglasses if that's a possibility. 0:06:52.320 --> 0:06:55.120 The company agreed, and Steven and Desi dove in. 0:06:55.880 --> 0:06:59.360 Desi scoured her archives of sunglasses that she's had. We've 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:03.479 gone online and we started pulling just different inspirations into 0:07:03.480 --> 0:07:06.800 photoshop and Desie and I were literally sitting together at 0:07:06.920 --> 0:07:11.400 night dissecting sunglasses, putting them together in Photoshop and making 0:07:11.440 --> 0:07:14.240 them into the exact frame that she wanted to develop. 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:19.360 Finally, the collab launched with four different styles. Desi promoted 0:07:19.360 --> 0:07:20.920 the glasses on her social media. 0:07:21.320 --> 0:07:22.800 I remember the day before launch. 0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:25.080 I was super anxious and I said, are we sure 0:07:25.120 --> 0:07:28.680 everything's okay? And they said, we've done this before, Everything's 0:07:28.720 --> 0:07:31.960 going to be perfectly fine. The day of launch happens 0:07:32.520 --> 0:07:36.560 and the traffic for launch was so massive that their 0:07:36.600 --> 0:07:41.160 whole website shut down. Wow, everybody was panicking. We were 0:07:41.240 --> 0:07:45.080 freaking out. All the sunglasses sold out, and I was shocked. 0:07:45.120 --> 0:07:48.400 I had no idea that I even had that selling power. 0:07:48.560 --> 0:07:49.840 It was an incredible feeling. 0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:53.200 The line was originally supposed to be a limited release, 0:07:53.800 --> 0:07:55.400 but it was a home run. 0:07:55.960 --> 0:07:59.080 Everyone loved the glasses and then it instantly became a 0:07:59.080 --> 0:08:01.000 call from them like, hey, we need to keep going. 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:05.280 Desi and Stephens signed on for another year. While they 0:08:05.280 --> 0:08:07.680 were hard at work designing their next round of styles, 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:10.720 the sunglass company grew and had even been acquired by 0:08:10.760 --> 0:08:12.160 a private equity firm. 0:08:12.600 --> 0:08:14.480 We'd go in their meetings with them and they'd show 0:08:14.560 --> 0:08:17.720 us drafts of Desi trending and totally attribute a lot 0:08:17.760 --> 0:08:21.520 of the success of the company back to Desi. The 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:24.120 sunglasses she created became the number two selling skew in 0:08:24.160 --> 0:08:28.480 nordstromp So after a while we decided, hey, we want 0:08:28.520 --> 0:08:30.880 to get a little bit more stake in this game. 0:08:31.320 --> 0:08:35.160 At this point, the brand got so big, and once 0:08:35.200 --> 0:08:38.679 they got acquired, we went into a meeting to really 0:08:38.720 --> 0:08:42.040 renegotiate and see what we could do to make it 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:42.559 more fair. 0:08:44.280 --> 0:08:46.480 They came to the next meeting prepared for the discussion 0:08:46.480 --> 0:08:48.560 of a new contract and they made their ask. 0:08:49.320 --> 0:08:52.440 The CEO at the time, he was there running the meeting, 0:08:52.720 --> 0:08:57.280 and he really downplayed my contribution to the brand, and 0:08:58.080 --> 0:09:01.680 really through the whole meeting kind of of devaluing me 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:03.640 as a business partner. 0:09:04.040 --> 0:09:06.240 And as we were sitting there trying. 0:09:06.040 --> 0:09:09.960 To negotiate, he looked over at me and said, that's 0:09:10.000 --> 0:09:11.800 a lot of money for a little girl. 0:09:12.360 --> 0:09:12.840 Wow. 0:09:13.280 --> 0:09:15.200 The room fell silent on both sides. 0:09:16.480 --> 0:09:18.240 I was actually in disbelief. 0:09:18.280 --> 0:09:20.760 The only thing I remember doing is turning around like, 0:09:21.040 --> 0:09:22.560 I know you're not talking to me. 0:09:22.640 --> 0:09:23.440 I couldn't believe it. 0:09:27.559 --> 0:09:30.680 Hold on, Ben, what that's a lot of money for 0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:34.719 a little girl. The audacity of that guy to say that? 0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:35.560 What an ass? 0:09:35.840 --> 0:09:36.120 Yeah? 0:09:36.320 --> 0:09:38.880 Really, Well, as awful as that was, I think you're 0:09:38.880 --> 0:09:42.040 gonna love what happened next in the meeting Tanya, in. 0:09:41.920 --> 0:09:45.040 The moment where I was actually shocked, couldn't get a 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:49.720 word out, one of my agents stood up and looked 0:09:49.760 --> 0:09:53.360 at him and said, well, this little girl has made 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:55.480 your company a lot of money. 0:09:55.760 --> 0:09:57.439 Oh so he came back with the little girl line. 0:09:57.480 --> 0:09:59.040 I mean, that's pretty fantastic he did. 0:09:59.080 --> 0:10:01.680 He said, this little girl has made you X amount 0:10:01.720 --> 0:10:04.160 of dollars. It is the reason why we were. 0:10:05.720 --> 0:10:07.640 He dropped every fact that we had done for that 0:10:07.679 --> 0:10:10.200 company and every number that we had sold for them. 0:10:10.240 --> 0:10:11.120 That's really powerful. 0:10:11.440 --> 0:10:14.200 After that, we all looked at each other and knew 0:10:14.240 --> 0:10:16.200 it was time to go, and we all walked out. 0:10:16.600 --> 0:10:18.560 That meeting was a turning point for me, and I 0:10:18.600 --> 0:10:21.520 think for a lot of women in business, moments like 0:10:21.559 --> 0:10:24.600 this happen all the time. I knew that it was 0:10:24.600 --> 0:10:26.679 time for us to start our new chapter, and it 0:10:26.760 --> 0:10:29.920 was a scary decision because this is at this time 0:10:30.080 --> 0:10:33.240 my only collaboration that I've ever done, my only form 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:36.920 of steady income. It was a huge passion project that 0:10:36.960 --> 0:10:39.600 I was in love with doing. I was so sad 0:10:39.640 --> 0:10:41.120 to walk away from, but I just knew that it 0:10:41.160 --> 0:10:41.960 was the right thing for me. 0:10:42.920 --> 0:10:46.560 After that disastrous meeting, Desi and Stephen decided they'd start 0:10:46.559 --> 0:10:49.959 their own eyewear company. This was a huge moment, taking 0:10:49.960 --> 0:10:53.080 a social media brand to a physical product, but they'd 0:10:53.080 --> 0:10:55.240 get to own one hundred percent of the company and 0:10:55.360 --> 0:10:57.520 all the profit. It also meant they were now on 0:10:57.559 --> 0:11:01.680 the hook for everything, funding, source, product, you name it. 0:11:01.679 --> 0:11:03.439 It all fell on Desi and Stephen. 0:11:04.040 --> 0:11:07.680 Did we know the first step to do that? Absolutely not. 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:10.880 We had learned all the creative side of the sunglass business, 0:11:11.000 --> 0:11:13.520 but not so much the other side. So it was 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:16.880 definitely going to be a journey into the unknown for us. 0:11:17.360 --> 0:11:19.640 While they knew how to design and market eywear, they 0:11:19.640 --> 0:11:22.200 still had no idea how to manufacture it. So they 0:11:22.200 --> 0:11:24.640 brought on two consultants. 0:11:24.160 --> 0:11:24.960 Through that year. 0:11:25.240 --> 0:11:28.239 I had them teach me the ropes, teach me manufacturing, 0:11:28.360 --> 0:11:31.520 teach me logistics, teach me freight forward, and teach me 0:11:31.800 --> 0:11:33.040 all the behind the scenes stuff. 0:11:33.520 --> 0:11:36.480 By twenty nineteen, they were ready to design their first 0:11:36.520 --> 0:11:39.880 line of original eyewear. That brand would be called desi Ewear, 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:43.040 not dies either way Desi spells it, but Desi with 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:43.320 a Z. 0:11:44.120 --> 0:11:47.280 I named the brand after myself. I felt like there 0:11:47.320 --> 0:11:50.840 was a lot of power in that, and I wanted 0:11:50.840 --> 0:11:54.280 it to be all of me. I think people told me, yeah, 0:11:54.320 --> 0:11:57.000 maybe you shouldn't name it your name, and so I said, 0:11:57.040 --> 0:11:59.280 all right, fine, I'll change it to a DEZ instead 0:11:59.280 --> 0:11:59.880 of dees. 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:00.360 Okay. 0:12:01.679 --> 0:12:03.640 They were like, you're not being slick. It sounds the same, 0:12:03.679 --> 0:12:05.439 and I'm like, it felt right, So that's what I 0:12:05.520 --> 0:12:05.920 named it. 0:12:06.640 --> 0:12:09.880 Desi's digital brand had also grown significantly in that time. 0:12:10.400 --> 0:12:14.000 She now had four million followers watching her every move, 0:12:14.400 --> 0:12:16.480 and if they wanted to launch, they had to go 0:12:16.559 --> 0:12:17.760 all in and launch big. 0:12:18.320 --> 0:12:21.560 We didn't have room for air like most businesses do. 0:12:21.760 --> 0:12:23.320 If we were to launch something in it was a 0:12:23.360 --> 0:12:26.079 complete flop, like that's all going to fall back on us. 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:28.720 And knowing the numbers that we did with the sunglass company, 0:12:28.960 --> 0:12:32.120 we knew what the volume would be. So it made 0:12:32.160 --> 0:12:35.080 our margin for air extremely small because we had to 0:12:35.160 --> 0:12:38.080 launch at scale. Was obviously a huge risk for us 0:12:38.200 --> 0:12:41.160 because you could start a business right for close to 0:12:41.240 --> 0:12:42.959 nothing and grow it over time. 0:12:43.000 --> 0:12:44.280 But we didn't have that luxury. 0:12:44.679 --> 0:12:47.839 But they did have the luxury of doing everything exactly 0:12:48.120 --> 0:12:50.760 the way they wanted to. They had to be certain 0:12:50.840 --> 0:12:54.240 their line of sunglasses was perfect from the beginning. 0:12:54.480 --> 0:12:57.240 The whole point of DESII Weear is like luxury product 0:12:57.280 --> 0:13:00.360 and an affordable price. Desi will never put anything out 0:13:00.440 --> 0:13:04.440 that she truly would not use or wear herself. So 0:13:04.520 --> 0:13:07.319 now a huge challenge is how are we producing the 0:13:07.400 --> 0:13:10.760 quality that we want for the price point that we're 0:13:10.760 --> 0:13:13.800 going to sell it at as a public figure and 0:13:14.240 --> 0:13:15.560 having a significant following. 0:13:15.600 --> 0:13:17.520 Like that, everything is under the microscope, and that's. 0:13:17.440 --> 0:13:20.280 Why you know, when it came to product quality, everything 0:13:20.320 --> 0:13:21.720 was meticulously designed. 0:13:22.640 --> 0:13:25.520 After months of development, they were ready to roll out 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:29.440 the sunglasses. They targeted their launch date for drum roll 0:13:29.480 --> 0:13:31.800 please March of twenty twenty. 0:13:32.600 --> 0:13:35.800 This was a really stressful time for us because we 0:13:35.800 --> 0:13:38.320 were trying to sell sunglasses when nobody was allowed to 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:42.240 go outside, which I feel like was really stressful for me. 0:13:43.520 --> 0:13:47.760 I was sitting there. We had put everything into this brand, 0:13:47.800 --> 0:13:51.520 and we felt like, not only was it a bad time, 0:13:51.600 --> 0:13:54.480 I thought to myself, it's not an appropriate time. 0:13:55.360 --> 0:13:58.240 They delayed the launch three months, but every day they 0:13:58.280 --> 0:14:01.800 waited was just another day the product was sitting unused, 0:14:02.200 --> 0:14:03.920 wasting money in a warehouse. 0:14:04.960 --> 0:14:07.079 So now this is a situation we're in and we're 0:14:07.120 --> 0:14:09.360 just sitting on our hands and just like what are 0:14:09.400 --> 0:14:11.520 we going to do? Like, shit, what did we just 0:14:11.559 --> 0:14:13.600 get into? How are we going to pivot from this? 0:14:13.920 --> 0:14:16.600 And then just decided like, okay, we need to at 0:14:16.679 --> 0:14:18.559 least put something out there. We can't sit on this. 0:14:18.600 --> 0:14:19.400 We need to launch it. 0:14:19.520 --> 0:14:21.040 Let's just go. Let's see what happens. 0:14:21.440 --> 0:14:24.520 They finally chose a launch date. Now all that was 0:14:24.600 --> 0:14:27.840 left to do was announce. They chose one day in 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:31.160 July twenty twenty for the announcement, and Desi started this 0:14:31.200 --> 0:14:33.960 business the same way she launched her brand. With a 0:14:34.000 --> 0:14:35.040 social media. 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:38.280 Post, Dasi had mentioned like Okay, I'm coming out with 0:14:38.320 --> 0:14:41.120 a product. This is the Instagram go follow it, completely 0:14:41.160 --> 0:14:45.560 blank Instagram, nothing on it. Within the first i think 0:14:45.600 --> 0:14:48.400 it was twelve hours at gained three hundred thousand followers. 0:14:48.960 --> 0:14:50.480 We were just like, oh my god. 0:14:50.720 --> 0:14:54.520 The huge response to Desi's video wasn't just from her fans. 0:14:55.160 --> 0:14:59.360 We were getting calls and emails from every brand that 0:14:59.520 --> 0:15:02.400 had worked as a wholesaler with the other sunglass company 0:15:02.440 --> 0:15:04.720 because they knew the power and the movement that Desi 0:15:04.760 --> 0:15:07.680 could do with her eyewear. But we turned down every 0:15:07.680 --> 0:15:09.560 single one of those because we wanted to launch as 0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:11.920 a DTOC brand, so we wanted to get it to 0:15:12.040 --> 0:15:15.600 our customers and knew that we wanted to hold on 0:15:15.720 --> 0:15:16.480 to that control. 0:15:17.040 --> 0:15:20.720 And with that, it was finally time. They launched Desi 0:15:20.760 --> 0:15:22.560 Eyewear in July of twenty twenty. 0:15:23.200 --> 0:15:27.000 It was amazing. It was a huge success. I think 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:30.920 we were crying. We were like in disbelief, and then 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:33.960 we went straight into panic mode after like the first 0:15:34.000 --> 0:15:36.960 moment of celebration, it was like, oh my gosh, we're 0:15:37.000 --> 0:15:40.320 customer service now too. We are handling all of the 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:43.080 after now. Also it's us. 0:15:43.520 --> 0:15:47.440 We ended up selling through you know, ninety percent of 0:15:47.440 --> 0:15:52.040 our inventory within the first I think four hours. 0:15:53.440 --> 0:15:56.120 Turns out there was no need to worry if anyone 0:15:56.160 --> 0:15:59.480 would buy the sunglasses. Now, the problem was getting their 0:15:59.480 --> 0:16:03.200 sunglasses to the customers. The shipping company had picked up 0:16:03.240 --> 0:16:06.760 all the sunglasses, but they never got mailed out, and 0:16:06.840 --> 0:16:08.880 customers took to social media to complain. 0:16:09.840 --> 0:16:14.080 Packages were getting lost for weeks and there was nothing 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:16.160 that we could do as a company, and now we're 0:16:16.200 --> 0:16:19.240 sold out of product and customers are writing in my 0:16:19.280 --> 0:16:21.560 package never got here, and we're just riding them like 0:16:21.640 --> 0:16:24.560 normal customer service and just saying, hey, you know, packages 0:16:24.600 --> 0:16:26.920 delivered personally out of the warehouse, it's on its way 0:16:26.960 --> 0:16:30.840 to you. Come to find out that FedEx parked our 0:16:30.920 --> 0:16:34.160 truck behind another truck and they never got offloaded at 0:16:34.160 --> 0:16:37.720 the FedEx's warehouse, and it took I would say, probably 0:16:37.760 --> 0:16:39.640 seven days for them to find that truck. 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:42.440 And we were. 0:16:41.720 --> 0:16:45.880 Responding to now thousands of customers that have this trust 0:16:45.960 --> 0:16:48.640 and DESI and the brand that we're going to deliver, 0:16:48.880 --> 0:16:50.680 and our packages are nowhere to be found. 0:16:52.520 --> 0:16:55.720 Steven estimates that twenty percent of that first release got 0:16:55.720 --> 0:16:59.200 lost in shipping. For reference, usually only one or two 0:16:59.240 --> 0:17:01.560 percent of shipment, let's get lost. So this was a 0:17:01.640 --> 0:17:02.680 major issue for Desi. 0:17:02.720 --> 0:17:06.639 Iware the problem with a brand as an influencer is 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:10.160 that you look at a bigger brand, there's no one 0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:13.000 really to talk to to yell at except for customer service. 0:17:13.160 --> 0:17:16.720 With us at being a personality, there's multiple avenues. There's 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:20.320 the YouTube comment section, there's Instagram, there's Desi's personal pages, 0:17:20.359 --> 0:17:24.040 there's the brand pages. So what happens with customer service 0:17:24.119 --> 0:17:26.479 is it floods to every single channel and it becomes 0:17:26.640 --> 0:17:29.080 very transparent to what's going on, and you have to 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:30.920 handle that in a very careful way. 0:17:31.240 --> 0:17:33.840 I think for me, it's just that I have had 0:17:33.880 --> 0:17:37.520 such a direct closeness to everyone that subscribes to me, 0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:40.040 and so they feel the closeness to be able to 0:17:40.080 --> 0:17:42.320 then tell me when there's a problem, and one of 0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:45.760 the things that hurts is that they're disappointed in their experience, 0:17:45.960 --> 0:17:47.840 and it weighed very heavy on me. 0:17:48.000 --> 0:17:51.080 So all I could do in that moment is be super. 0:17:50.880 --> 0:17:55.520 Upfront and say exactly what had happened and apologize and 0:17:55.560 --> 0:17:57.159 rectify the situation. 0:17:57.600 --> 0:18:01.880 We spent literally two weeks of just responding to people like, hey, 0:18:02.040 --> 0:18:03.760 you know your package is on the way it's going 0:18:03.800 --> 0:18:06.520 to get to you. Check tracking. That didn't work. They 0:18:06.560 --> 0:18:08.440 respond back in and it's like, where's my shit. 0:18:09.280 --> 0:18:12.160 After days of that, Stephen decided to take a more 0:18:12.160 --> 0:18:13.040 personal approach. 0:18:13.520 --> 0:18:15.200 I would go in and I'd be like, Hey, this 0:18:15.280 --> 0:18:19.280 is Stephen. I swear to you. I personally back your package. 0:18:19.480 --> 0:18:21.840 It's on the way, And it's funny enough like when 0:18:21.880 --> 0:18:24.520 we would give that personal touch, it would diffuse the 0:18:24.560 --> 0:18:27.879 situation to where now we were able to maintain that 0:18:28.000 --> 0:18:31.600 trust and keep those customers and they continually come back 0:18:31.680 --> 0:18:34.640 and they are purchasing every single time something new comes out. 0:18:34.880 --> 0:18:37.000 Well, I mean, you must have been writing emails until 0:18:37.040 --> 0:18:38.240 four o'clock in the morning. 0:18:38.000 --> 0:18:39.720 But yeah, I was just going to say that, Yeah, 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:41.200 it was exhausting. 0:18:41.440 --> 0:18:44.560 Definitely learn some lessons from that. Built a team around 0:18:44.760 --> 0:18:47.840 customer service, was able to train them and let them 0:18:47.880 --> 0:18:50.600 know the tone of the company, the voice of the brand. 0:18:51.000 --> 0:18:54.560 So they'd figured out the shipping catastrophe, and finally the 0:18:54.560 --> 0:18:58.840 brand started to really cruise. They released more styles. The 0:18:58.920 --> 0:19:02.040 company was by all accounts of success. They had made 0:19:02.040 --> 0:19:05.240 their initial investment back and then some desi iware is 0:19:05.240 --> 0:19:07.439 obviously a huge success. It sounds like every time you 0:19:07.440 --> 0:19:09.480 come out with a new set of sunglasses, people snap 0:19:09.560 --> 0:19:12.000 them up. And then you decided to launch another company, 0:19:12.080 --> 0:19:16.160 right yeah, is for punishment because I'm crazy. 0:19:16.440 --> 0:19:19.439 This was This was also after having one baby, so 0:19:19.480 --> 0:19:21.680