#702: Turning Followers into Fans: The Business of Influence with Marc D’Amelio

Foreign. Business can be a lonely game. But it doesn't have to be. Welcome to Boutique Chat where we explore community over competition and how to scale your company with the balance and the happiness that we all seek. We'll hear from product based businesses of all types, retailers, e commerce and wholesale brands, along with industry experts shaping the future of our industry. I'm your host Ashley Alderson from the Boutique Hub and I can't wait to chat. Hey guys, welcome back to the podcast. This week I have been really looking forward to this conversation. Not about TikTok or famous or television stuff. I just want to talk business. Mark, let's just talk business today. Sound good?

I love it. Let's do it.

All right, well I'm pumped you're here. I as I've been just, you know, kind of diving a little bit deeper into your history before TikTok, before all of this happened. You've been in this industry for a long time. You've had a lot of success in apparel, footwear where all kinds of brands. I don't think a lot of people know that necessarily. So tell me about your history. How did you get started down this path?

Yeah, I had a graduated from University of Connecticut with a liberal arts degree. Had no idea what I wanted to do back in the day when they would run help wanted ads or job postings in the New York Times. I answered an ad in New York Times for a company called College Concepts. Had no idea anything about the apparel space and they were one of the first sports licensed boxer manufacturers. And I started in early 90s and my most of my career has been in sales selling directly to retail and done that for the majority of my career either through other brands that I represented or had my own brand for a while that I would sell to many small boutiques and retailers around the country.

So you can empathize with everyone who's a road warrior right now. Road reps, going to trade shows, getting in front of retailers in unique ways. Me, you've got to have some good stories from being on the road.

Yeah, I mean I've been going to Magic for you know, probably over. Yeah like just, just over 30 years now. Early 90s. Been, been going to Magic and it's I see the change from you know evolved a project and there was Slate was the time was a sub brand of Magic for a while. So actually the person, Katie who was, who was my rep back then is still, still working there and going strong. So we've done, I've done shows rep representing other other Brands that I've done for my. Have my own brand and now it's Amelio Footwear we've shown at Match between trade shows. And I've been that guy that when, when I started, I still represent a brand called Mitchell and Ness. And when I started with Mitchell Ness over 14 years ago. Yeah, I just, we were doing about three, $4 million in sales and I got in my car and took a bag like so many reps out there do and just pounded the pavement, man.

Such opportunity and so much history. As you look back, I mean you've got to. I know we've, we've seen you at Magic the last, you know, couple shows and you guys hosted an event and as you look back at all the shows you've been to, are there things you miss about the way the industry used to be? There's been so much change. Is there like one thing you could bring back from the early days of going to trade shows that you'd love to see now?

I think the, the older trade shows even there was, there was the super show in Atlanta which was more sports related and Magic, it was just more of a spectacle. There was just action and you know, back in the, in the early 2000s when you know, rappers had brands and the booths were huge and it was just a fun time. It seems like it's. It. Although business is still happening, it's just not. It doesn't seem like it's happening the same way. And there's other ways to reach out to retailers, obviously things like Boutique Hub and, and others that, that maybe don't make it a necessity, but just the action at the trade shows where you just be at your booth and Nelly would be walking by or you know, Jay Z at Rockaware and Fat Farm and all these, all these crazy brands, the booths were two, three stories high and it was, it was nuts. And South Pole and Magic was insane.

Yeah. So that part definitely has changed. Especially post Covid. I would say everything's gotten a little bit different. Are there about the industry today, like getting back into it on this side of things that you appreciate. Like is there any part of the digital strategy that you're like, ooh, I'm glad that this piece of wholesale exists now.

Yeah. I think one of the things that. I think the barrier to entry back 20, 30 years ago was a lot harder. You had to. There was no viral out there. You couldn't go viral back then. Right. You had to, you had to go the old school way. I remember when I had my My brain mad soul which small and going to talk with the buyer at Macy's and if you're a buyer back then it was tough to take on a small new brand. Why would you take space away from Ralph Lauren or some one of these other brands to try this brand? I think now you can reach out directly to the consumer who then could drive the, the retailer and make a buzz that maybe a buyer might miss back in the day.

Yeah, it's almost like a roundabout, like it's a backdoor way that virality of entry to the industry because the consumer's already demanding it and so the big buyers can't turn away from that opportunity. So I mean you obviously have first hand knowledge in this so we've got to dig into this path a little bit. When you watch what happened to your own family, speaking of, you know, going viral and TikTok happened, all these things and you started to watch this unfold, at what point did you look at that and go oh wow, like there's a serious opportunity here. We need to start putting some things into place, you know, to, to truly build a brand out of this opportunity. What did that first like inkling kind of look like for you?

Well, I remember I had. So it started off just Charlie, my youngest daughter who's now 20, this is, she was 15 at the time, was just doing videos on Tikt and we, you know, we saw a following increase and it was, first it was 10,000 and then it was 20,000. I think when we were in, we're actually at in Vegas from the magic show in August of 2019 and she had like 40,000 followers. And when we got home after that she had 100,000 and people started recognizing her not only in our town, but outside. And I was like wait, yeah, come on. But then we also, my wife and I were pretty savvy as it, as it relates to social media. And we just saw a Vine explode and then implode. And so we're like, is this something? So I have a, I have a friend Mark who actually worked at Magic and he was doing T shirt, he was getting influencer licenses for T shirts. And I said, hey, you know, she was approaching a few hundred thousand followers. I said is this anything yet? Like does this mean anything? And he said, which is true. To this day, it depends on the influencer. Some, some influencers who have millions of followers really can't sell a product because they don't, they have followers but they don't really have people that they engage with. They don't have that trust with their audience. And some people have 50,000 followers or 5,000 followers and make a real impact and create a business. Yeah, So I just kept thinking about that. And then when she hit a million, and then my other daughter Dixie got on, we were kind of like, we're just having fun. We're living in Connecticut. I didn't say, oh. So I had a little bit of flexibility to come out west. And by the. By January of the following. So that was in August. By January of 20, our whole family was signed with UTA and they were talking about doing TV shows and Dixie doing music. So it happened pretty quickly. But I think it's, you know, I think you can leverage your audience no matter how small it is if people trust you and you see that all the time. I have people I follow that have a very niche point of view or very niche area of expertise, but I trust them and I follow them for that reason.

I think that's the biggest piece. Right. Is the trust and the authenticity which can lead to product sales. And I think you're right. A lot of influencers, I think, tend to miss that. And from like the retail side of things, from the, from the, you know, small business side of things. When you're looking for someone to partner with, you know, I want to work with an influencer to blow up my business. You really have to be kind of careful with that. You know, who can I partner with that really does have a genuine authentic following that can show traffic and conversion and not just, you know, someone famous for my product? And so what? Nothing happened because of it. So what advice would you give to, you know, others who are looking to maybe partner with an influencer on the rise to help it be a win, win situation for both parties?

You know, I. Well, on the first. I'll talk about. On what we did, and we were very lucky. I. You. I had a nice career and we were doing fine, which gave us the ability to not partner with companies that weren't authentic to our family. Yeah, we actually worked the opposite. Charlie would drink Dunkin Donuts in our videos all the time. It would drive me nuts because you're making Dunkin Donuts and all these people rich and they're not. So we actually pitched Dunkin Donuts and they knew exactly who Charlie was. So we willed that deal. Yeah, you know, I think, I think for whether it's a brand or retailer, I think they, they can't expect an influencer to. To take them to the promised land. And we can't expect you know, because Dixie and Charlie are partners in familial footwear that people are going to buy. You'll get some sales off of that. But whether it's a retailer or a. Or a manufacturer or brand, the product is still key. I think the influence. If you expect that you get someone who is even as big as Charlie to promote your brand and that's going to take you to where you want to go, it's just not realistic. It should be. There should be added value. And I think what you're talking about is the influencer, that person that represents your brand well and could give added value. But you still got to do the basics, the X's and O's, and run your, you know, run your retail operation where your people are inspired to go in there and see all you're putting together. And that's the same thing for us. Like, we. We want to make sure that our footwear, for the prices we're selling at, are. Are the best they can be from. From a styling, comfort, price, every aspect. And we have the event. We have that extra advantage of being able to promote to our audience, to be able to do cool stuff like this too.

Yeah, absolutely. It has to start with product first, business first. All authentic and, like, nose to the grindstone, like you said. On that note, so we kind of talk about the influencer piece of it. What about, like, stores and brands on the flip? They're the ones that go viral and how do they capitalize on that when they do have something take off on TikTok to make sure that. That traffic and conversion?

I mean, I think. I think if I. If I had a retail store and we're, I think, telling the story about what it's like to be. I know you. You asked me what happens when. But I do think what we miss sometimes is we always show the final product, right? We always show. Even in, like, I. I think some of the, Some of the things I love is when you get a young influencer that is in. Also in the retail space and kind of let you behind the curtain and shows the shipment of how the, how the shipment comes in from the manufacturer, opening the boxes, trying them on, like, putting them on the rack, like, those things are really cool. And I don't think people understand that. And we're learning that too, because I think we want to show, like, hey, we're a legitimate footwear brand, but we make mistakes and we don't know what we're doing all the time. I think that is really interesting and showing that and I think sometimes people think the actual day to day stuff is mundane and boring and it probably is to them because they're in it. But to the outside world, really letting someone behind the curtain on this stuff and showing what you're doing, you know, that is, is really interesting. Like there's so much side of business that people just don't know because we don't share it. And I think that's some of the things that will help smaller retailers and entrepreneurs alike if we kind of just talk about it.

I totally agree with that. I always call them like the unsexies, the things nobody talks about on Instagram, the things that doesn't drive a lot of like and engagement in your mind. But like that's the thing people are really hungry for. I was just doing this talk the other day on generational marketing and really just kind of breaking down even in our industry, in this space, the difference in, you know, our gen zers and younger millennials versus our Gen Xers. And I feel like the older that people get in this industry, they feel like it has to be more perfect, it has to be more finished, it has to be a little bit more flawless. They don't want to, as a woman, you don't want to show up without makeup, whatever it might be, but it's really the opposite. And I feel like it's TikTok that's really like blown the doors open on that. Just like real engaging behind the scenes. So do you feel like from your perspective and just experience that businesses today like TikTok is a must or that short form video is a must? Like where do you think people really need to hone in on their marketing? Not just for today, but where in industry's headed.

Yeah, I think TikTok is a must. And I, I think back to our point before the authenticity of it is, is big people. You know, we sat around also where we thought when, when my younger daughter Charlie, who got us all into this with TikTok, we, we sat around, we're like, why? You know why. And I think one of the things early TikTok did that Instagram didn't do, Instagram always had want the perfect lighting, the perfect picture, just unrealistic things for whatever. Whether it's a brand, a person, it just had an unrealistic view of what life is. And then you have Charlie and millions of kids like her just doing videos in their bedroom with no makeup on and they're, and their, you know, bed's a mess and their clothes are on the floor. And that is what people like. And I think the same things could be said doing those videos of capturing. And it's hard, right? I mean, it's even hard for me because sometimes I don't just pick up the phone and be like, oh my God, this is a great opportunity. Let me talk about this. But I do think capturing those moments that are not, that are not well lit and shiny and perfect, I think is how you build a following and how you build people to root for you. You know, and people don't understand the retailers are dealing with cash flow issues. Rent, you know, some, some people, you know, manufacturers don't want to give credit to these retailers. So these small retailers are, are a lot of them are struggling and it's not easy and the rents are incredibly high. And, and telling that story, I think will not guilt people into coming into your store, but will root for you. And when they're thinking about going to a big box retailer or going to a small retailer on Main Street, I think it makes a difference.

It's a huge difference. And you know what, especially today when I think about Shein and Temu and like all of these knockoff, you know, direct from China competitors that have come into the US and there's a lot of small retailers that get really nervous about that. But the truth is just what you said, like that's the thing that will drive traffic more than anything is the authenticity and the why are you doing what you're doing and why is this curated and unique and different? Those are things nobody can ever replicate.

Yeah, no, I, I, I agree. And you start to get again, there's, you know, there's followers and then there's fans. And I think, I think just because you have a bunch of followers, I don't, don't think, doesn't mean you have fans. And fans are the ones that will buy your concert ticket, they'll buy your album, they will, they'll support you, they'll shop at your store. Yeah, followers are just kind of like, oh yeah, I follow them and sometimes they come on my feed. Fans really look for you.

So that is spot on. Spot on. So how do you, with d' Amelio Footwear, how do you turn followers into fans? Tell me, tell me the brand story so far. Tell me about the development of the footwear line and how are you converting them to be the raging fan?

Yeah, we definitely dealt with the, what I've done throughout the, throughout the time is always told the story of why we're doing something. And so I remember the first time Dixie started doing music, people people said, we gotta, we can't make these, let these influencers do music because there's people who have been doing music for 10, 20 years that they're, they're almost like we're cutting the line. And I would go out there and say, if it's not true, kind of show the receipts. And I would say, no, that's not true. Like, Dixie's been performing since she's been a kid. And I, I created the Familial Family Channel. And as much as my kids probably like, dad, don't. I thought it was helpful in telling the story.

Yeah.

And the same thing with, with the foot, with footwear, it's. We didn't just license it. We didn't go out and just work with, work with a big company and say, hey, just take this label. We do everything. The designer who worked for Jessica Simpson Footwear Lauren, who's our, who's our head creative director and designer. Like, we have a real designer, we have real factory relationships. And, and I think one of the things we've tried to do is tell that story, because I do think we're different than another influencer brand that's just slapping their name on stuff. And one of the things we tried to do is tell the story. Like when we went to Magic that the girls had been coming to trade shows for, since they've been babies and not working the booth, but been at the shows. And we did a video kind of talking about my history in this space and why we did this. And I think that's been key for us. We got into footwear. Look, first of all, footwear's hard. I mean, it's so hard and we're crazy to do it. And anyone who's in the footwear space is crazy. Ton of minimum order quantities are insane. Sizing, you know, just all the, all those things if we're a startup brand and then to go direct to consumer. Initially, we realized quickly how important retailers and boutiques are to tell a story, especially in footwear. But we knew we had some advantages with Lauren, with our relationships with our agent in factories, and we knew we had a point of view and the girls really wanted to have well priced footwear that is very comfortable and fashion forward. And we've kind of got a little bit all over the board, but we've honed in on something. We just released a slipper that is for our first time, like, we've sold out sizes day one and really, really running, really running well. And we want to expand the brand into bags, accessories and other things. But it's been great and it's awesome because it's a family affair and it's something that my wife Heidi is heavily involved in, from modeling to helping with, not necessarily design, but the influence of designs, I think that's important. So it's been.

That's awesome. What do you think retailers should know about carrying the line?

I think the barrier to entry for some of the bigger retailers. So two things. One is we are a legit footwear brand that makes high quality product in a lot of, you know, the same factories that their current brands that they're carrying are being made. So, you know, we're there. And also we will use our influence on our platform to promote the brand. So, you know, I've said this to, you know, to some of the bigger retailers are set in their ways because they've been buying the same brands all over. And I've been able to talk with a lot of them and say, hey, look, not only are you going to get some freshness, we don't sell to everyone. The product is there, but we're gonna, we're going to stand by it. And if you look at what we've done with Lulu's, they've been incredible partners with us. They have a store on Melrose. They put a huge billboard on the side of their store on Melrose in. And we've done a lot of things with them from events. Same with, you know, we work with Zoomies and we went to the local Zumies in our hometown and did a photo, an impromptu photo shoot there. We just were working with Urban Outfitters. But we'll also provide things to the smaller boutiques too. I mean, I, we have the advantage if, if a boutique in Omaha, Nebraska wants to buy familial footwear. And you know, Dixie and Charlie would do a video and say, hey, everybody, we're at so and so and in Omaha. Don't forget to check us out. And that's. I don't think you get that personal touch from some of the bigger brands.

I think that's the biggest point to highlight is like you said a minute ago, it's not like you guys just licensed your name with a footwear brand and slapped it on and said, go get it. But it truly is a family business and it truly is like you guys putting in the blood, sweat and tears to make it happen. So that's a huge differentiating factor for sure. Yeah.

And we were, you know, we've done everything. I mean, it was, we, we started this from scratch from, from a system to you know, building net. We built the NetSuite system, we built a website. We've done, you know, we, we have, we can use your platform to connect to, to retailers. So it's, it's, it's soup to nuts. We're, you know, we, we had to work with, figure out how to ship everything, invoice everything, build a who accounting. It's been an awesome but difficult and so, you know, running a business is difficult. They were easy. Everyone would be doing it. We got a lot of entrepreneurs and small business owners that hopefully listen to this podcast. We appreciate and know your show.

I think you summed it up. It's awesome and difficult all at the same time. Isn't that the truth? And yeah, that's why not everybody does it. So. Agreed. Have you ever wondered if someone else in business is going through the exact same thing you are right now? Whether it's an obstacle to overcome or a new opportunity you aren't sure if you should pursue or not. Or maybe just some of those same questions about man, am I really getting the most out of my inventory or my Facebook ads or my team? How can I do business just a little bit better and enjoy life just a little bit more? Well, those are a lot of the questions that we answer on a day to day basis inside of our community at the Boutique Hub. If you're listening, listening and you aren't yet a member of our community, I want to invite you to join us. We have 14 different niche Facebook groups to connect you with store owners at the same level. And just like you, no matter what you sell home and gift apparel, children's specialty, we've got groups for all of that. Plus we want to get you up to date with the latest training, the latest information and strategy on what's working right now in our industry. With our weekly education plus our maxed out training library, we also have have hundreds and hundreds of vetted amazing wholesale brands who have been proven to do business in boutiques. We don't like trademark infringement. We don't like brands with poor customer service. We hand pick the best of the best and the best of the best. Love working with Boutique Hub members as well. So they offer numerous discounts and free shipping whether it's at market inside of our groups or on our own wholesale platform hubventory.com with thousands of dollars in savings just for Boutique Hub members. So if you aren't yet a member, we'd love to invite you to join us. At theboutiquehub.com backslash join to be a part of our community on a daily basis. I can't wait to see you inside and I can't wait to see you connect with amazing business owners who are serious about their business, just like you. All right, well, let's shift gears a little bit. This has been so helpful. I really appreciate the story behind the brand and I think storytelling is just the foundation for great marketing. So it's really important that every retailer know that and know, you know, kind of what's behind the scenes and why it's different. I gotta shift gears. So talking about business being awesome but difficult, I think one of the biggest struggles I see in our industry with family owned businesses is just the work life. Balance. I think, I hate the word balance. I don't think it exists. I think it's, you're just always juggling balls and some are glass and some are rubber and you've got to know what can be dropped and when. But I mean, you've lived this in the public life. How do you, how do you do that? What's worked for your family to, to turn off the public Persona and turn on the personal family and manage a business and all these engagements at the same time. How do you do all of it?

I mean, one of the things where I've had to sell our family on is this, is this business of influencing could last for a long time. Might not, and it might not because either my daughters might get burnt out by it. So one of the reasons why we started d' Amelio Brands is to live on whether or not the girls want to be involved in it. So I've kind of, I've said to them, hey, this is probably going to be a little bit more work in, in the short term, but we don't want this to be a Dixie brand or a Charlie brand. We want this to be a d' Amelio brand, which, which you guys could get involved or is not involved as you want over time. And that's been, you know, that's been the key and doing this as a, as a family, we kind of, every once in a while some one of us will get burned out a little bit. And what's great about having the four of us is we can lean on each other and understand it. But we've made definite rules within our family. No talking about business at certain times and businesses for those times when we're in our office and we're all aligned on business. And if the conversation starts Leaning towards that.

Yeah.

We've been able to learn like, hey, let's switch, let's switch it up a little bit because we don't need to talk about that now.

Yeah, makes a huge difference. And you guys have been pretty open about just the mental health side of things. How else have you guarded. I mean, I know there's stores like that are just in the public eye that have, you know, massive amounts or small amounts of followers regardless. There's trolls, there's haters, there's negativity. How have you also learned to balance that piece of it?

Yeah, it's, it's, it's been the hardest part of it. And I think, you know, you could listen to it. Depends how you're wired. I am wired where things do affect me. I think most people are, even the ones that don't that say they're. They're not. I think we, we've gone from ignoring stuff to actually looking at things. And if it's a true criticism, do we, and it's accurate, do we look internally and say, hey, that's probably, that's probably accurate. Maybe that's something that could be helpful. And it's tough. And it depends on the day. Sometimes it's you feeling good and you're strong and the comments don't get to you and then, But I think you just gotta internalize it. And if you know the truth and you know that what the comment is saying isn't, isn't, isn't right. Just gotta tell yourself that and keep, keep it, keep it moving. And we do, we do all kinds of things. You know, there's, there's definite things where we just, where we try to just say, hey, let's not read that and put the phone down. Because I don't have the, it's not the right time for me to see a bunch of negative comments on, you know, what we're trying, you know, what we're trying to do.

Yeah. So the loudest boos come from the cheapest seats sometimes.

Yeah, it's tough because I think initially my reaction as a dad and my reaction as an east coaster, which, you know, a little bit gritty, is always the, you know, if you're going to punch me, I'm going to punch back. But then it starts getting like, whack a mole, where you're just like. And then you find yourself like, dude, I have a great life. What am I spending time? Warren, like, there's. I'm not going to change anybody's mind. You don't want to buy our shoes. Don't buy our shoes. Like, I don't know what to tell you. I'm not going to be rude, but it's like it is what it is and I think you just got to look and we're very blessed, we're very fortunate and we're, we're happy and we're not going to let other, other people take that away from us.

Yeah, absolutely. All right, Mark, I've got just a couple quick lightning round questions for you. You good with that?

Sure.

All right, let's go. All right, so I give you two hours back in your day to work on strictly income generating activity. What do you focus on?

I think sales is always the key. Like how, how do you, I mean sales solves all problems. So that's, you know, if I, when would I have these two hours? Because I might have bought Apple stock like 30 years ago. If I had two hours then I would have bought. But every time I have an opportunity to do stuff as, as in as I think when you got the product right, it's just to, I always try to carve out time to sell, whether it's reaching out to a retailer or I, I just think sales solves all problems and I think your, your retailers will, would figure that out too. So.

Yeah, spoken like a sales guy. I like this.

Yeah.

All right. What is the unsexiest business process that drives the biggest impact for you guys?

There's operations. I mean it's, it's, it's like all of the back end stuff that we have a guy, he who runs all of our, like it and information and all the things with. There's all the operations are the, as, as good as their product. People think they're king, Salespeople think they're king. It doesn't matter if you have the best product and the best salespeople if you can't get it out the door. And so everything operationally from UPC codes to EDI to logistics, all that stuff is so unsexy. But it's so important. I mean we've had, when we first started, we had a huge retailer, a huge order from a really nice retailer. We just couldn't ship, we couldn't ship them. And it was like. So we designed the product, the retailer wanted the product, we have it in a warehouse and we just couldn't connect the dots. So that was the craziest thing.

Yeah. That's brutal. That's brutal. What's the one report or metric that you live and die by.

Right now? It's sales. It's not margin driven right now because I think we'll erode margin to. To build a brand. Whether that's giving out shoes to, you know, our CFO calls me all the time, is like, we give out a lot of shoes, but free shoes to an influencer, to someone that's important is gonna talk about it, which is going to drive traffic to the retailer. So right now it's just getting, getting revenue up. And at some point it'll be. It will be margin.

But right now, in sales, definitely the scalability piece. What's the best business advice that someone's given you that always sticks with you?

I don't know. I think it's changed. I don't think I've listened to a lot of the business advice. Like I think about. I came from a generation where people like you don't save. And I'm more of a risk taker and more of. I'm entrepreneurial by nature. So, yeah, I think a friend of mine told me, run your own offense. And basically, it's like I say to my kids, two things I always like, run your own offense, pack your own parachute. Those are the things where you can't. Where you can't blame people. And pack your own parachute. If you think it's that important, like jumping out of a plane and you didn't pack your own parachute, you know, you got problems. So those are kind of things. Basically just take responsibility. And we find sometimes, especially when you're in a CEO position, you have these people around you. So the balance of not micromanaging, but also making sure that things are running the way you want them is a tough balance.

You played right into my hand. Because I always think about the difference between a CEO and an entrepreneur. Right. Like it's two different mindsets. So that's my last question for you, is how do you, on a daily basis make sure you're operating more as a CEO than as a hustling entrepreneur?

Yeah. So on the. We have two businesses. One is our popcorn business called Be Happy. And we hired a general manager there who's basically president of that business. So with that, I've empowered him and I trust Tim to run that business. So there. I act more as a CEO. On the footwear side, we don't really have anyone in that capacity.

Yeah.

And I'm still. I think I'm probably the footwear business because it's smaller and we're. I'm more entrepreneurial in that. I probably feel more comfortable in that as we grow And I bring someone on to be president of it, and I think our team gets bigger. Hopefully I'll be CEO and then maybe chairman, and then I'll be on a beach somewhere, retired.

I love it. All right, well, this has been awesome, Mark, seriously, thank you so much for coming on today. I have one last question, but before I get there, I mean, it's just been really refreshing to hear from you and to know all the behind the scenes. We appreciate our partnership with you so much here at the Hub and you guys being on Hubventory and being able to partner with you guys in person at Magic and all the events, we're really excited about where things are going to go.

Thanks, Ashley. Appreciate you.

Yeah. All right, well, last question. So to that beach that you're going to be sitting on not that far from now, let's just say fast forward 20 years, right? Maybe TikTok doesn't even exist anymore. We don't even know what's happening in the world around us. But when you look back on this incredible journey that your family's had, all of the success, all the lessons, all of the different brands, when you look back and you're with kids, grandkids, and friends, what's the thing that you want people to remember the most about you and the way that you lived?

I think one of the biggest lessons I've learned is, and it's so cliche, but sometimes stopping smelling the roses is an expression that I remember times in my life that seemed so negative during those times, whether it was college or my first job or all the things. But now I look back on them fondly. And what I've tried to instill in the girls is like, this is a wild ride. And I want people to know, like, we really tried to appreciate all this as it happened. And as much as being an entrepreneur is crazy and is difficult, sometimes I really like to look at and we get together as a family, all four of us, and not sit there, go, oh, my God. That was, you know, that was incredible. But really, really appreciate this. I mean, life not only for us, but for a lot of people out there is awesome. And really soaking in and appreciating it is what I try to do and what I hold hope my grandkids will and my. My kids will say to my grandkids, yeah, your grandfather really did a good job steering us through this whole crazy process, but also told us to stop and smell the roses and appreciate the. The journey.

So good. Being grateful, I feel like just builds more to be grateful for right? Yeah, yeah. Absolutely incredible. Mark, thanks so much. We will link up, of course, all the d' Amelio footwear information in the show notes today and and share this across social. But again, thanks for being with us on the podcast.

Thanks Ashley. Appreciate it.

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