Episode 88: iKONICK - The #1 Canvas Art Company In The World

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Plus, level up your listening with Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds and headphones with immersive sound and world class noise cancellation. For a not so silent night, visit Bose.com Spotify to shop sound. That's more than a present. What's going on, everyone? Casey Adams here from Build you'd Empire. Welcome to the build you'd Empire podcast. And today we have Mark Brazil and Jeff Cole with us today. They're the leading canvas art company in the world and we're about to have an Iconic interview. Appreciate you guys coming on.

Yeah, thank you, man.

Of course. So first thing to kind of start things off, I know that we connected for the last couple months and you hooked up the Village Empire house with the iconic art, but for everyone that may not know what Iconic is and how long you guys have been doing it for, I just want to speed them up to kind of get them to where we are today. Cool.

So I guess, long story short, it is. It's a direct to consumer business. Affordable art from $50 to $700. Jeff, his name is Cole. On Instagram is the predominant artist. Muhammad Ali license, NBA license, some other licenses, some new designers are coming on board. And yeah, we basically created a new market with social media as a distribution channel to really offer affordable art to the world.

Yep, that's what's up. So from the partnership angle, you guys, for everyone watching, did you guys partner on this from the start? Have you guys always been together on this or how did that sort of formulate?

Yeah, we've been working with each other for like, I think nine years now and always kind of were the number two or threes at companies me and Mark really never had to say on, you know, the final decision. So, you know, One day in 2016, San Diego, we were just like, fuck it, let's start our own company. And we just made a name, made a concept which we can go into in a little bit. But yeah, that's when iconic was born.

So you said 2016.

2016.

Yeah. This was actually an office for another company. And in 2016, we were working early mornings, late nights, bartering posts on big Instagram accounts and making a couple grand here and there. And then early 2017, February 27th. The exact date. I'll always remember it. We went from Squarespace to Shopify. We started doing ads, and then March six figures, and then it was basically off to the races. And we actually did our first $2 million in top line revenue as a side hustle. So this was an office for another company. We would wake up early and work on it, and then the other guy would leave, and then we'd work all night on it.

That's wild. So 2016, you guys started and now, like, catching people up to date, you guys just partnered with Scooter Braun and Gary Vee. I just want to kind of get them up to date because I know, like, I saw that article come out with everything that was super, like, big news for you guys. So what. What goes on with that and the partnership? And what are you guys excited about with that?

Well, we're starting a signature collection with Gary, which is gonna be awesome. And with Scooter.

Scooter's just really. I mean, I would say both of them. You know, above all, they're really good humans, good businessmen, good humans, good family men. And, you know, above all, they're mentoring us, which is great because from an experience standpoint, these guys are a bit older than us. And then just, you know, we're doing a signature line with Gary, strategic partnerships, licenses. I mean, there was actually, you know, we were in talks with. With both of them for a bit. And ironically enough, people, you know, some of my. Even my friends, you know, would be like, hey, you know, why don't you make this move? And we actually waited to make the move until they came in, because we weren't gonna go to the war with the knife. We were waiting for the fucking bazooka guns.

We literally handpicked them to. To be partners with us. Like, we. In 2016 is when I first started watching Gary, and that's when I started actually, actually giving a shit about business.

Yeah.

And so we just watched Gary religiously for, like, two years. And, like, we always kind of knew, like, okay, we're definitely gonna end up asking him to somehow be a part of it. And it just all worked out, you know, perfectly. We were very patient. Yeah, now we're here.

That's what's up. So, so with that, you said you started watching Gary when you first sort of got turned on to him in the sense of, like, you knew who he is when that first came about in your guys's mind, like, how early was that in his career? Or was it literally like two years ago, you figured out who he was as an individual.

We watched him probably. I'd say two years.

Yeah. Like every day.

Okay. For like two years.

Yeah.

Okay.

We literally started watching and I think we were just hooked immediately. And now we just. We consume everything.

Yeah.

And ironically enough, our video guy, Austin, you know, we were in here, he came in and Gary was actually on the tv. And immediately when he came in, he was drawn to. And he's like, oh, I love Gary.

Yeah.

Now it's like, it's so funny because just like the common DNA of the whole company, everyone's a fan of Gary.

So it just made sense.

It all makes sense.

So with the entire social media, just when it comes to the main advertising route you guys are doing, when you guys first launched, it was social media always like primary focus day one? Or what was like the strategy to like create revenue and sales or was it always.

Oh, there was. So there was no strategy in the beginning. So this was literally. Jeff was an artist and we started drop shipping art and we owned these big accounts and it literally.

On Instagram.

On Instagram, Instagram. Only we didn't even have a Facebook page till probably we didn't have a website. Yeah.

We were using someone else's site to watch our first. It was funny because, like the first night, like, I think we made the logo, name, concept all in one night and first piece in one night. And when we launched it, I think we sold 12 in the first hour. And we were like freaking out. Like, freaking out.

We actually needed. I remember for Squarespace you needed to give a tax ID and ein number and we didn't have a company, so we used my personal LLC and the company, like went off and like, me and Jeff weren't even technically partners till, like deep in the game because shit just, it just started going. It was, it was something that, you know, what I love about E commerce businesses is, you know, I come from a retail background where, you know, you wholesale goods and there's, you know, you can consign goods where basically you give goods for free, and until they sell it, you get paid. And then there's stuff like net terms, like net 30, net 60, net 90. You get paid in 30 days. 60 days, 90 days. E commerce. You get the sale, shit comes right in. So for us, when we were making these sales, it was like the most mind blowing shit because it was like, oh my God, the money is coming in. So I mean, we had zero funding.

And it was fast. Like, me and him came from a background where I had to produce a tech pack and then send it to China. And then I had to wait three weeks to get a sample. And if something was wrong, even like a couple millimeters on some piece, I had to redo it, go back at it. So this was a way for me to create something, put it out within like 30 minutes. And now money was going in the bank account and we're getting feedback from distributing. You know, it was instant distribution, instant sales, instant. Just feedback from the market, which was a huge advantage for us.

Yeah, that's what's up. So yeah, Dan, that's fucking crazy. So you guys start this thing. It's not even like organized potentially. You're creating all the designs for every piece at the beginning and still do. Correct.

Mainly like nine.

Okay.

It was, it was in the beginning, it was so crazy because how far we were probably. It got to a point that we had so many orders and we were paying his 16 year old brother a quarter to process each order. And then he was giving him sneakers. We got his stepsister. And then it got to a point where me and Jeff were behind like three weeks on orders. And I remember like late at night, It'd be like 11 o' clock at night. Like Jeff would take an hour and he'd put in the orders and then he'd be tired and be like, yo, Mark, you do it for an hour. And then he would do it for an hour and.

And it would be literally, we race each other. He'd be like, I did it one minute, 30, whatever, who cares?

And then we would have race. I'm like, who could process orders faster? It was, I think, you know, the fact that, you know, now, you know, the company has become a legitimate company.

Yeah.

Like, we literally were the janitor. We did, we processed the orders.

Yeah.

I dealt with all the customers in the beginning. So anytime there was an issue with anything, I knew what all the questions were. The sizing, you know, what rap. We don't ship the P.O. box, just everything. I think that if anybody's gonna start a business, you need to have a, you know, at minimum, a basic understanding of every element of the company. And we were the whole company, just me and him. So we had no choice but to do it.

Yeah. He was the customer service for the first setting. 2 million. It was just him. Everyone was. I was mad because half the day was just. His phone would be ringing, just cussing.

They're calling my cell phone. Call my cell phone.

Just take out your phone.

Yeah. And then Jeff. So inefficient.

But he kind of gets off by that. Like, he gets up on the customer service, like, take trying to get someone who hates us to then, like, listen.

And then buy more.

So that was actually fun to see. Like, yeah, so, yeah, we.

Yeah, I feel you guys still do that too, because I know, like, when you put out a piece of content, you called that, like, so customer service wise, like, to this day, when you operate, like culture inside the company, like, what is your, I would say, like, route to good customer service when it comes to, like, managing clientele and people.

That love your products, customer's always right. I really think it's that simple. And kind of like what we spoke about briefly before, you know, people underestimate that the most cost effective marketing is word of mouth. So if I talk to a customer and I champion that customer, and it's like, hey, I'm the owner of the company. You're talking to me like, what's up, man? You know, and when you get that, then it spreads and it goes 1 to 2, to 4, to 8 to 16 to 30, and then boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. It just keeps going. And that was what it was. And that. That's all it is, is the customer is always right. And, you know, Jeff kind of said it, you know, it would be rarely, people would come at us like crazy, but when they would, I was just, just. They're right. So definitely learn some patience.

Yeah, for sure. So when was the. I would say that the pivot point from, like, you guys are doing all the orders, you guys are racing back and forth, processing everything. So now it's like you said, legitimate company. You have big people, Gary V. Scooter Braun involved. When was the pivot point of, like, organization and like, systematizing everything?

Well, I had a previous relationship with our, our vendor. So, like, Mark just one day was like, it like, I need to call them. So he called them and he hopped on a flight, and the next day they thought he was absolutely insane. And he came back with the, with the W, which was. I think that was the day where I was like, all right, we can breathe a little bit. Yeah, like, telling my family, like, oh, now we have people doing the orders for us. Like, okay, we can kind of focus on what we're, you know, what we're meant to be focusing on.

That's when we shift shifted from, you know, a lot of these companies, you know, e commerce companies, you know, kind of like the Alibaba companies. It's almost like white label. There's. There's no branding Associated. That's when I went and we started developing relationship where it's like, like, hey, we want to be a forward facing company. It's branded iconic. You know, there's notes of iconic that comes iconic emails. I mean, we were Shopiconic at Gmail for so long.

Okay.

You know, that was me. So yeah, I think just forward facing, kind of cleaning up and then, you know, one by one, just bringing on people. You know, for us, we've never been a part of big organizations. We've probably been, you know, part of teams like 4 to 10. And I think me and Jeff, you know, I'm very blessed that me and Jeff share the same ideologies. And just for us, it's just so blatantly obvious about who we wanted to bring on the team, what type of people. And I don't really think the company really started until we started building the team because then it became like a real thing. Once we started building a team, that's when I started getting more fun because then we could share it with you.

Yeah, for sure. So when did you guys meet each other? Like, how did that so of come together?

I met Jeff through a mutual friend, her name's Amy. And she connected us, I don't know, probably eight, nine years ago. And literally Jeff did contracted work for me for years. We talk every day on Gmail chat. And yeah, I brought him into a couple companies. He ended up moving out to California for this hat company and just ultra talented, ultra thumb fast. Good. I mean, I can just go on and on about him. And I just, I always, I was. We were in three situations in a row where it was just blatantly obvious that Jeff was just nasty with it. And I don't know if they just never used that, if they just didn't see it or I don't know what the hell they were doing. Yeah, but I saw it. So, you know, for us when we started doing this on the side, when you look at a typical, you know, a businessman versus an artist relationship, usually like the businessman owns it and then the artist gets a little bit. Or like an artist relationship with a manager, the artist owns it and management gets 20. I knew right away with Jeff that I was like, hey man, you know, it was kind of like an us.

Against the world thing.

I was like, fuck it, bro. Let's just, you know, be partners on it. And I knew that, you know, when I said that to him, deep down inside, he was like, wow, like Mark fucks with me. Like, you know, he knows I got it.

You know, it's weird because, like, my friends, when I would tell them, like, the deal me and Mark had, they like, oh, you're crazy. Why would you give him, you know, half the company? Yeah, same with him, probably. He has friends. Like, well, why would you give Jeff have the company, like, just an artist?

Yeah.

Like, people just don't get it. And like, yeah, it just worked out.

Finding a good partner, a good dynamic, you know, everything is people. The whole every business is just a bunch of people doing a bunch of things. So it's really all about the people.

Yeah, so it is interesting. So, like, for everyone, let's say people listening, my audience tends to be like 18 to 25 year olds, and some of them starting e commerce brands, some of them trying to do some social media marketing with their products. Like, what would you say, like, separated you guys from other brands when it comes to not only getting sales, but just like the respect that you guys have. I know that you're talking about with, like, the things you did with Muhammad Ali and like, actually getting licensed is like the legit way to do things. What do you think, like, separated you guys as like, a dominant brand in the industry?

Well, I think one speed. I think I understand attention better than a lot of of artists. I think a lot of artists, they just put out what they want to put out, they think is cool. But what I put out is what I think the masses are gonna like, and I'm, you know, really intact with pop culture. And then it's mixed with his. Like, he's a savage. He's aggressive. Like, I'm passive. It's like, it just works perfectly out. And like, in terms of biz divina, speed is big.

I think the other big thing is it's something that you have actually. It's two things. First off, the first thing is consistency. Like, this is like people come to me with ideas and then they'd be doing for three months. You're like, oh, it's not working. It's like, that's not how this goes. You got to hit this shit every day. But I am most definitely relentless. And that's like why I fucked with you, because you came at me and then you came at me again, and then you came at me again. And you know, Casey, that all it took you is to get in a room with me, and then I would know that you're a real one, that you know what's going on. The same with me. Get me in the room. Just get me in the game and I'm Gonna hit out the fucking ballpark. So that's really what it is. And I think, you know, I guess it goes back to kind of being self aware. Me and Jeff know our strengths, know our weaknesses, and I think for any 18 to 25 year old, it's to identify what you're good at, what you're not good at, and what you're good at. Double, triple, quadruple down. I suck at so much shit, man. Just double, triple, quadruple down. Be good, be a master of one thing and then you're always gonna hold value.

Getting in your own way is people's biggest weakness.

Definitely just like getting in front of yourself, trying to do everything when you're not focused. Yeah, you gotta skills in a sense.

Yeah, you gotta just like, I am not organized. That's why I have a project manager.

Yeah.

You know, so you got to just know what you're good at and what you're not good at. And it's really that simple. And then you almost can like, I like down. Like I make fun of myself at the stuff that I suck at, but people know what I'm good at.

Yeah.

And then it becomes a very narrow focus. You go narrow and deep instead of wide and shallow. Focus on one thing and kill it.

That's what's up. So I've always had this question just regarding the whole company itself. Iconic. Like I love the branding. I know obviously like the way that you guys have done things, that's why it's so successful. But where did the name Iconic come from? From the beginning?

Well, okay, so in 2016, we're obviously trying to like brainstorm a company and like something we can just like put out there. And one thing I was noticed on Instagram is like three types of content people were consuming. It was like inspirational quotes. It was like photography.

Yep.

And the third one.

Memes.

Yeah, memes. Memes. So everyone would tag their friends in memes and like that was it. You get a laugh and move on and everything. Everything on Instagram is really like crudely made, if you notice. Like they put like text on the top and they're like a low res image. So I was like, there's got to be a tangible way for people to consume this content that they're consuming the Internet. So I think that's where we started. Like our first piece that kind of hit, it was like based off of meme that I kind of made into a painting. So I was like basically taking the crudeness of social media and making it into a romantic art Piece and like three different buckets.

Yep.

So that's kind of where it kind of stemmed from.

About the name is just going on Godaddy and going on Trademarket.com and just typing in a shit ton of names really. We were just sitting, sitting in Carlsbad, like iconic, let's spell that a different way. And I don't remember what the other name.

Yeah. And it's funny because like I think, I think me and him have been thinking of names just for random companies for like almost the whole time and him have been business partners. So like I went through the emails like 2012, just like, oh, remember those names we created? And that's for this company we created. Like we had like, I don't know, 100, 200 names and we just randomly picked the one.

Yeah.

That night that wasn't even on any list.

So. Yeah.

Yeah.

We didn't, we didn't know that this was going to be this for sure.

That's so bad.

Maybe we would have planned, planned it a little better. It turned out all right.

So, so what is like an average day look like for both you guys when it comes, like operating at this scale now? Like what does the operation look like on a day to day basis for both of you?

So we live and work here, so it's wild. And like I said, this was the old office of another company and we kind of just got hit with the, with the lease. But we like it though, so it worked out. Wake up, go to the gym. Jeff literally walks out. I walk right here. We go to our computers, we set up our day. Austin and Jake come in. They're our main content guys. They're the guys that are in every day. Everything else is outsourced. We set their table, they have people underneath them, they manage them. And then for me, predominantly biz, dev and then managing any and all the bullshit accounting, legal, I mean every single thing. And then Jeff, I mean long story short is just doing this design stuff.

I'd say yeah, I do a lot more than that. Basically overseeing anything you see.

Okay.

That comes out on Iconic as well, which is a lot. You know, video, branding, everything.

And we're one of our main marketing tools. You know, in essence the whole entire thing is storytelling. But one of our main marketing tools is creating content on our web series. And it's, it's these meetings like for this, it's this, we repurpose it and we put it out like this is marketing for us. It's telling our story. So I guess, you know, which is New.

Which is new.

Say, like, when was that transition to, like, document day to day stuff?

Because when he came on Austin. Okay, I think, yeah, we brought him to the Gary Vee when we met with him, and at this point, we went into the most insane meetings without any cameras, any marketing. No one knew of anything we were doing.

Yeah.

He came out and he's like, dude, you guys are insane. What you guys are doing. Like, this is in real life. Like, shit. We should probably, like, start documenting our journey on this.

Crazy.

I remember the first meeting I went to with Austin. We were at a hookah bar with people from the XO camp, like Belly and those people. NA of the weekend. And he recorded it. And after he was like, what the fuck? Like, he didn't. He had never been in these type of meetings. And then, like, when I saw that reaction from him that he was like, oh, my God, I didn't know this, and he was, like, learning from it, I was like, that's one. Like, I could literally say that my. I always have been very passionate about teaching and inspiring people, but when I saw that, then it just. Everything started compounding and just more meetings, more meetings. And then we. We put stuff out, and then people would DM us and be like, you're inspiring me. I'm learning. And then it becomes like, for me, my addiction is. The inspiration part is like, the dms. I get the comments. I get the people that are like, you changed my life. Like, we had a kid fly from Cincinnati into here to meet with us for an hour.

Okay. Like, this exact.

Right here?

Yeah.

What the hell is going on? So this, like, for us, I think that I'm excited because I know that you guys, you know, just moved into that house and I saw you guys are creating a lot of content. I think it's gonna do wonders for you guys. You're gonna change people's lives, and it's gonna change you guys and make you guys better people. So I advise everyone that's, like, passionate about, like, business and helping people, like, you would be so surprised. Like, people want to hear this.

Yeah. That's the truth, bro.

Yeah.

Appreciate that, by the way. For sure. That's interesting, because I know, like, when it comes to content, I know, like, for me, like, when. When it comes to building my brand, that's obviously how I've been able to get the things that I have today. And, like, meet all you guys is, like, building my brand, when obviously for you, like, you have this huge brand. You're putting out all these designs from A personal branding standpoint. And this is something. I think I get a question. The question I asked is coming from Gary. When it comes, like, his personal brand is so dominant, therefore, like, he's associated with his company.

Yeah.

What's your sort of intake on, like, how important is your personal brand correlated to the company itself? And how do you guys maneuver that and put time into that? We're obviously documenting the meetings, but, like, when it comes to the positioning of it, when did you guys notice? Like, all right, we need to build our personal brands as much as we're building our actual brand.

I mean, I think this is like the main ideology that we have in our company, me and Jeff, since day one. There's only one thing that matters in here above all, and that's the iconic logo. So that comes first always.

Totally.

So it's like, if we're doing something with someone, it's like, don't tag us. Everything is about iconic because ultimately we're not who we are unless that logo means something. So that's what's I think is going to be, you know, live forever. Is that. So first and foremost, it's all about the logo and the brand, the personal brand. It's just kind of. I mean, through doing the web series, it's just kind of. Jeff's a little different because he's.

Mine's like a separate. It's almost as like, separate entity. Like, we joke that my account is just good for biz dev, but no, mine. My personal account is super different. Like, I'm. I've been blessed with. I don't know how long I've been, like, had a following for maybe a year or two now.

Yeah, you got no 450,000.

But the DMS from kids is. That's the best part of the personal brand. What keeps that going is like. Like, I've gotten suicide dms, like, like.

You name it, but I just think it's authentic. Like, we're putting out all these, like, motivational pieces and inspiration and like, I mean, you've. We've hung out a couple times now. Like, we're just like, this is all we consume all that shit. We are that. So it's kind of. You know, when we started doing the web series, like, I really. My personal brand has only, like. I mean, it's not. Not big, but it's. It's only started going since we started doing the web series. And then it's just. It's like what I said before, it's one person, then two person, then four, and Then it just starts going for sure.

We're actually just starting out. We just talked about this the other day. Is trying to embed more of like our work ethic into Iconics branding because, like, okay, he made a point. Like, no one knows how much I work. Yeah, no one really knows how much he works.

Yeah.

So now it's like our work ethic has now become what Iconic means.

Got it.

Which is really important. And like it went unsaid for, I mean, forever. Yeah.

No one knew.

No one knew who we were.

Yeah. Makes sense.

But yeah, we really live the stuff we're putting out, like working hard. Like all this stuff. We're not just like, oh, yeah, let's just pretend like we're working as much as we do. So I think now that we figured out, like, wow, we're actually living what we're doing and like, our actions are inspiring the artwork now we're embedding that into Iconic's DNA.

That's what's up.

For anyone younger, I would definitely advise that if you're gonna start a brand and you want to be forward facing, you need to just make sure that you eat, sleep, and breathe the brand DNA. Like you and your squad are all build your eyes are all about the business. So it makes sense. This is like a business podcast. It makes sense. But like, I've been a part of companies, like two companies ago, I was the same CMO of a company and CMO Chief Marketing officer for people that don't know. And we were. I'm a New York guy. I like basketball, I like football, I like rap music. And we signed Ryan Sheckler and we're in Zoomies, and I'm with a bunch of people that wear sandals. I don't wear sandals. So then you have the guy that's talking that's speaking the brand language, that's telling the story. It doesn't correlate and it does not correlate. So I think making sure that all those line up, it becomes a point where, you know, we're not. We're just living.

Yeah.

Austin is just, you know, Austin and Jake, they're just recording documentation. That's all it is. So I think that, you know, I advise everyone to just, you know, do stuff that's. That's true to you. And then if you can align that with your brand, I think that's when those two things collide. That's. Yeah, that's when you find the best life. That's my opinion.

Yeah, that's what's up. So I Have a couple more questions in regards to the strategic collaboration with Gary Vee and the partnership. In your guys perspective, how do you think that benefits the brand long term? For the people listening, how do I.

Think, I mean from an intelligence standpoint, I think that myself and my team will all inherit all their knowledge, which I think intelligence and knowledge is huge. I mean we could just be straight. It's you know, alignment with two monsters, monsters in the industry. And you know, I mentioned before getting introductions from them to people is, you know, a cold email versus an email from Gary to someone or Scooter to someone is two different situations. And yeah, I mean for us it was, it was a life play. We wanted to make that move because, you know, we're still in, you know, the first second inning of this company of our life. You know, we're still young guys. So how it impacts, you know, iconic directly, I mean, we'll see.

That's. When you told me when we first met it was like you want to connect with big hitters and give them, let's say if someone has an opportunity to work with someone like that, it's like give them something part of your company because it's only a win. That's what you told me the last time we connected.

Yeah, it's, it's who you are, who you surround yourself with. And it's, you know, I want to, every single time I leave the room with those guys, I learn something like hugely impactful.

Yeah.

All I want to do is be in rooms where I leave and I'm smart. I just want to get smarter and smarter and smarter. That's all I want to do. So with these guys it's, and what I love about it and they openly, I mean we're, we're bringing value to them as well. So it's a reciprocal. Which is amazing.

Totally.

We also assign them knowing that we'd be okay to expect nothing from them.

Big one right there. That's big facts.

And we actually told that to them in the meeting. I think that's what also kind of was intriguing to them is like, we don't need you guys, we just love you guys. Yeah. And we want to, you know, build with you guys. So I think that was just a really cool moment because you can tell once we said that both of like their ears perked up and kind of swayed the conversation.

Yeah.

A lot of people when they do big partnerships have unrealistic expectations. Like for us, where we're at in our life. I know for us how crazy our lives Are like, I know when I go back to my phone, it's gonna be crazy.

Yeah, yeah.

Like I can't even explain to you Scooter and Gary's situation.

Yeah.

I'm talking about, you know, I have 30 minute meetings. They have 15. 15, 15, 15, 15. Gary has two to three minutes his whole entire day of break.

Yeah.

He does all of his Instagram posting. Did you know that?

Every single one.

It's all him.

No, crazy.

I don't even know how that's even. I swear to God crazy.

I don't know that.

Cranic just told us that. And we were on the. We were like, gary, you have to talk.

Captions the next day, they did it.

They actually. When they went garage sailing, drocking.

I saw that you have to have realistic expectations. And I think that, you know, it wasn't like the partnership happened. They signed a deal. We were like, hey, now we're just gonna, you know, get whatever we want.

It was.

No, it was the same, you know, strategy that we have with everyone in life.

Yep.

Give value. Like, my communication with them is super efficient. I'm not asking them for stupid shit.

Yeah.

I'm providing value. And when it's reasonable and makes sense, then we do it.

Yeah.

Just be reasonable.

Yeah, totally.

Yeah.

So I'm interested in knowing. So when everything, everything's falling in place. Now when it comes to the strategic collaborations you're doing with Muhammad Ali and the individual pieces, like Brian Maza and all these different guys, what goes into, like the thought process of like doing specific collaborations with individuals and how do you guys go and like, I would.

Say execute that friendships first and foremost. We don't jump into anything until we have like a deep understanding of who they are, are as humans and they're just being good humans. So that's first and foremost, DNA as far as business, motivation, inspiration is huge to us. And then there's. I mean, we're just gonna. He's gonna give away the whole. I mean, we just gotta give away it all. But yeah, I mean, in the world that we live in, you know, distribution is huge as well. So that is very big for us. And there's. Everybody has different, you know, type of stuff that they can bring to the table. We don't look at everything as, you know, there's millions of different things that different people could bring. So we're just looking for a situation where they can bring something different to the table. But we definitely, like, you know, going into, you know, different and unique pockets and talking and speaking to unique audiences.

Yeah.

So like, if we were ever like, hey, we want to hit the 18 to 25 year old entrepreneur, like, that's tough, you know, saying so it's like that's, that's what we do. And then from an execution standpoint, it's. We set up all of our deals with kind of like the same framework and we start there and then, you know, we're probably, I don't know, probably like six or seven or eight collabs deep. It's after every single one, you know, we're starting to see, hey, this works, this doesn't. They like this, they don't like this. And then it's. I'd say we'll be like super streamlined by next year.

Totally.

So we'll have an infusion of their DNA and ours.

Yeah.

So it's like the crazy work ethic with whatever they're, you know.

Yeah.

At that moment. So for sure.

I have like two more questions, like in regards to, I would say just everything before this and when it comes to like your stories growing up, like you're talking, you want to walk in the room every time and get smarter. Where were those philosophies, like, born from you, like when you were in high school or let's say middle school, when did that sort of philosophy in your life sort of play a part and like, where did you sort of like embed that into your life?

I mean, I'll start quick. I mean, for me it was just Gary, he could, he could tell I didn't give a shit about business.

Zero contribution in business.

Until Gary, he said, until Gary.

Yeah.

Damn. Really?

I don't know what it was like, what?

No shit, zero.

I didn't care about being smarter or smartest person in the room, any of that stuff until. Until I started hearing that guy. So for me it was pretty late.

That's interesting.

It's crazy. And now we have a room where like all of us every day are listening to all of that. So it's just everyone is on the same page.

It's addicting. Like literally, if I don't learn something new now, every day I'm like freaking out and I have anxiety and stuff.

So it's like completely different human. The last two years.

That's wild. What about you? When it comes to those philosophies, obviously you have books everywhere around the place. When was that knowledge of like wanting to learn from more people? How long has that been, like a philosophy for you?

I think for me, everyone is driven by different things. And I Haven't fully realized, like, who I am yet as a human. But I think the. At every point and phase of my life, there was a time that I was underestimated. And at all those times, there was like, kind of like a turning point where, like, soccer. I was a big soccer player growing up, but I remember going into my senior year, there was like, players to watch and I wasn't on the list, okay? That pissed me the fuck off. I went cycle for 90 days, trained, and then my team went the furthest I'd ever gone. I won all county, I got D1 scholarship office for soccer, et cetera, et cetera. And then, you know, in my early 20s, going into my late 20s, I had always been, you know, the number two or the number three and under, incentivized, underutilized, kind of downplayed everything. But throughout that time in my 20s, I was always doing one thing and I was always reading. The first book that I read that really got me hooked, I would say, was probably Kawasaki, the art of the start.

Okay?

And that was probably my early 20s. And then I was just always under, incentivized and underutilized, but I always was reading. And I knew that eventually there was going to be that turning point where something was. Was gonna hit. And it hit with this.

That's so dope. So, yeah, that's fucking badass. The last question to wrap it up, just everything you guys done, I mean, I respected so much to seeing, from the strategic, from the marketing collaborations, like, it's just so dope to see what you guys have created. So, like, for everyone watching, this is obviously the build your empire podcast. Just when it comes to building an empire, building a company, what do you think are the three things that really separate people, that build, scale, grow, and then actually have opportunities? And the people that, let's say, is like the pump and dumper, it's like they have something and it failed. What do you think keeps the consistent brand message and the loyal culture within a company?

I'll give you three. I got plenty, but I'll give you three. First is, let's say, passion. You have to be utterly obsessed, utterly passionate about what you're doing, or else you wouldn't be doing a podcast and have three more meetings. At what time is there right now? 8 o', clock, 9 o'? Clock? We have, we have meetings after this.

Yeah.

Deeply passionate about it. Second is team. Team is absolutely everything. Business is just a bunch of people doing a bunch of things. I think with team, you need to know how to this is the big thing. Some people can acquire talent but they don't know how to keep talent. I'm not going to say that these guys are happy, but I'm pretty sure that they're enjoying their life right now. They're smiling over here. They love their life keeping talent. So those two and then last work ethic. Yeah, Just be a fucking savage and just work like crazy. Those are my three. Hit them three.

I mean those are good three. I mean, I think why a lot of companies fail is from the lack of self awareness. I think that's. If I look at a lot of people who, you know, plateaued or, or just didn't make it, it's always from lack of self awareness for sure. So I think that's just, that's like the most common thing I know why companies don't succeed. I mean all the things why they do is what he said.

But that actually all of my reasons fall under what he said.

Everything actually comes back to that self awareness.

Like if you know, you're not good at, you know, finding talent, but you're good at keeping talent, then you need to go find someone that can go find. You know what I'm saying? So I think it all self aware about that. Yeah, I think that that's just me.

Coming from like any, any like entrepreneur who, you know, I've met and I'm, I look back and see how they're doing. It's just always that one thing they, yeah, they get in their own way for sure. And we're really good at, you know, knowing what we're good at, what we're not good at.

Super flexible.

That's what's up. Well, appreciate you guys coming on the podcast. One last thing before we wrap it up. Where is the best place to check out everything? I'm gonna link everything in the description. Where's like the best place people can stay in touch with you? And then obviously Iconic on Instagram, but where's the best place for you guys?

Iconic. It's I K O N I C K. And then I'm Mark Brazil. Mark with a K, Brazil with a z. And mark iconic.com. mark with a K. And then at Iconic. Shoot me an email for sure.

Everything will be linked down below, so make sure you go check them out and yeah. Thank you guys so much for coming.

On Cole, he doesn't even, he doesn't even say it.

It's all about iconic.

Iconic for sure. Appreciate you guys coming out for sure, for sure.

Thank you.

Building your empire.

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