Fake Perfume and New Hires - Episode 057

We are back. Another episode. C Suite, Unfilter. And now, I don't know if you know this. We hit a thousand subscribers.

I did. I saw that. Congratulations.

We did it. Well, no, congratulations to you.

A year.

A little over a year and a half, I think, because we started. I know. Under a year and a half. Just under a year and a half.

Cool.

See, I think 56, 57 total videos. So I don't know if you. Any thoughts on that, if that, like, what the metrics are.

Like, if you have another year and a half, I predict like, 5 or 10,000.

Yeah.

And then like another year and a half. Probably like another 5 to 10x. It just kind of, like, compounds that way.

That is, if you want to keep doing this.

Yeah. Hey, dude, I'm down.

I just don't know what the ROI is for you. I know. For me, it's, you know, stretching my skills. More exposure to kind of what you're going through, but hopefully it's valuable for everyone.

Well, so far, like, the next year and a half, definitely we're doing it because we're still, like, you're at the Bellingham shop a little bit more, etc. So, like, it's a good way for us to connect and, like, you know.

Yeah.

Jam on stuff. And then once we're, like, in the same office all the time, it'll be nicer. Yeah.

Cool. Well, I didn't tell you what this is, but this was a gift from my friend Brayden.

Brayden? Yes, Brayden. Who know.

He is my friend who owns a marketing company locally.

Okay.

So he got me these for my birthday, which was like, a month ago. Guessing a mug, but feel free.

Okay, that's.

So we're. We're branded now.

Oh, that's.

We got the C Suite mug.

So these official once you get them.

Yeah, these are for the set.

Let's go.

So. I know, I know, but I got the computer. I don't know. We'll see.

We'll see. Okay, so we're official, man.

Yeah, There it is. So thank you, Brayden. There we go.

Local.

He got. Well, he got him through Canva.

Oh.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So ordered the picture and sent him to you.

Yeah, well, my logo's on Canva, so I don't know. But anyways, there we go. We're official. We're officially a podcast now. We have mugs and, you know, maybe merch one day. Yeah. But thank you to everyone that subscribes, and we'll hope to keep going. So I have something completely off the wall for you. But I want to maybe get your thoughts and see what this looks like for, for other brands. Maybe in, you know, the lawn care landscaping space. But have you seen any ads? I've been getting bombarded with these ads recently. Maybe it says something about myself by Alt Fragrances. Alt Fragrances, Okay. Yes. So I, I don't, I'm not a cologne aficionado, so you must have looked at some. My targeted ads must be saying I stink because I'm getting a lot of ads for this. And I've talked to some people that see ads for all of these knockoff fragrance brands. So I wanted to talk to you about this because it's an interesting kind of thing that these fragrance brands are doing. So their whole thing is, hey, we want to be the, the David to big fragrances. Goliath. Right. So that would be, you know, Versace and like all these big brands, Dior, I don't know them because I don't use those products. But these big brands that sell tons of tiny bottles of perfume for 2, 3, 400, $500, you know, there's just one really popular one that's, you know, been around for 200 years, which I'm like, how does that work? But it's like $450 a bottle. It's called Baccarat Rouge. Well, this company, Alt Fragrances, you can get it for them for $40 a bottle. And it's in, it's. And it smells the same is what everyone says. Now they're using different compounds, but it smells the same. There's tons of different fragrances that are high end, that this company is basically mocking and selling at a discounted price. So knowing that information, what is your initial reaction to that? What's your opinion as a consumer, as a business owner? Like there are these big brands, legacy brands that have an expensive product and now someone's making knockoffs. What's your reaction to that?

They're only building the brand of the primary thing. Same thing with like every other, you know, Louis Vuitton, etc. Yeah, there's always knockoffs. But the thing is the people don't realize it's not the quality of the bag, it is the brand image. And so if you're, if you're trying to mock or like trying to replicate someone. Yeah, you're following them. You don't have any creative thought of your own. So like alt fragrances will have no enterprise value. They will only be able to work on an arbitrage until they eventually get shut down. Etc. So they're just working off of the fact that there are people that don't want to buy authentic goods and they want to have the brand logo and symbol of, like, status. Right. That's what they're playing off of. But they have no intrinsic value. They're not worth billions of dollars. They'll never be able to be in this. They might get a thin a margin, but it's like, know you. Yes, we are going to compete on price and we have absolutely no brand value whatsoever. You're not worth anything.

Yeah, but then it doesn't matter to, let's say the. The average consumer that wants maybe status without having the money for status, so they can tell their friends, like, oh, I smell like baccarat rouge.

You've. You've lost already lost the game of life, if that is already where you're at.

Well, and I. You and I are not the ideal consumers, which is why I'm confused. I'm getting these ads because I would never buy that kind of stuff. Like, I've been wearing the same deodorant for 12 years. Really? I'm an Old Spice guy. Like, just keep it simple, dude.

That's hilarious.

And I do have. I do have a scent I use, but it's like, if I'm going on a date with my wife or going to like, a wedding, I'm not a cologne every day. Are you cologne every day guy?

Not every, like a spray. No. Because I don't have cologne that goes in my gym bag by deodorant. Yeah, that's all I need usually. Yeah. Other people might say something different.

Yeah.

But yeah, like, I try to, like, if I'm. If I. If I'm cognizant of it.

Yeah, Yeah. I put it on for, like, date night weddings, you know, like, things like that. But I just deodorant and shower regularly.

You also work at the shop, though, where, like, you're around a bunch of, like, guys work out in the field. It's okay to smell a little bit.

Yeah.

When you're in the office, the thing that I'm most like conscious of is, like, if I'm leaning over someone, we're working on, like, a computer screen. I am within, like, 24 inches of them. So.

Yeah. Are you saying I smell? Cause I feel like I'm pretty conscious of that.

No, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying when you start working with people, like, in a confined office space, that's when I usually become a little more.

You're more Self aware. Yeah. So it's interesting you mentioned the handbag. So I pulled up this article. This is from allure.com, which I believe does more like beauty products and things of that nature. So I would consider them somewhat of an expert in this. And I know this is a total tangent for us, but it's just interesting. So they're specifically talking about this company, not Alt Fragrances. I couldn't find anything on them specifically, but I found this other one. Dossier and Dossier is similar to Alt Fragrances.

Hey, there's a zillion of them.

Yeah, yeah, there's tons of them. Dossier and Alt Fragrances are the bigger ones. So they said Dossier's creations are not counterfeits. Counterfeit perfumes, like counterfeit handbags, explicitly mislead consumers by pretending to come from a brand with which they have no affiliation and are therefore illegal.

So they change the actual brand. They're just trying to say the product is the same.

Exactly.

But you just said they changed the compounds.

Exactly. So that's where it becomes interesting. These brands can exist because unlike logos or monograms, fragrance formulas are not protected by copyright.

But you're saying they change the compounds.

Well, in theory, but this article. That's what I thought. But this article is saying that the fragrance formula is not protected by copyright. It's interesting. I feel like that's similar to, let's say, like Gordon Ramsay, right? Five star chef or whatever. Like his recipes, are they copyrighted? Technically, no, but it's. Do you get access to them? Can you make a good copycat recipe?

It just comes back to, again, people are buying the $500 fragrance not for the smell. They're buying it for that logo on the bottle. And if it says Dior, it says something else. Like, they're buying it for a certain stat. That buyer is concerned about that. So if you're saying that this knockoff has like the same product but different wrapping, that matters.

Yeah, right.

It's the same thing as, like, well, is Apple's phone really that much better than a 4 or $500 Android? Like, that could be debated. You know, is it really worth spending $5,000 on, like a handbag? The knockoff is like 100 bucks. Well, well, it is for the person that wants that brand logo, who's actually the customer of the $5,000 handbag.

Yeah, yeah, I agree. So this paragraph goes on to say, so be on the copyright. It says, plus, they offer an attractive model to consumers by claiming a democratized fragrance through lower Prices. Dupe brands position themselves as the David to big perfumes, Goliath, delivering prized formulas to the massive without the brand or celebrity markup.

Right.

So it's interesting that they can get away with this. My question is why can't these brands, like a Baccarat rouge, like Aventus Creed, like these high, high, high end exclusive brands, why can't they copyright their formula? What would be your thoughts? I'm sure we could find that. But like why, why do you think they can't?

Well, I think that yes, they would do it, but I don't. I also think that they realize that they, they're not selling a perfume. They're not selling. A good point. Selling perfume. They are smelling perfume. They're selling a brand new.

Yeah.

And a brand identity. And the fact that I spent $500 on the perfume is an image that people want, they don't want to be like known for. Oh yeah, that's like the alt brand. Like who wants that? Right. For the person that's willing to pay $500, they're like, let's go. I do not want the alt. Like they actually would despise the lower price with the exact same product inside of it.

Yeah, yeah. This next paragraph goes on to say it is not altogether notable that brands jump at the opportunity to sell cheap scents. But the rising popularity of dupes is an indication of more just a demand for affordable products for some. It is also a symptom, symptomatic of decades of marketing strategies that have failed to educate consumers about the craftsmanship involved with creating high end perfumes. So do you feel that there is maybe a misconnect with these high end brands trying to sell that level of luxury to people and so they just feel like, I don't need that luxury brand anymore. I can get the dupe.

I don't think that the customer that they're actually going after will not go for the lower product.

Right, yeah, I agree. I'm just like, so how are these, are these brands, these dupe brands strictly growing? Because that's kind of what this article also summarizes, that they are growing and they are having good sales and they are having success. Are these dupe brands just marketing to a completely different consumer?

Yeah, the consumer that can't afford. Yes. But like wants a good status. Well, no, they don't get the status. Right. The brand, what they're they're looking for is like they actually like the scent. I would argue that the sense between a $500 and a $50 cologne and are indistinguishable from most people.

Yeah.

And so I don't think there's much of a marker of people that like, are trying to get a certain scent that is $500.

Yeah.

Getting it for 50. I don't think there's a huge market for that because I think the people that go for the 500 are simply the people that want the brand and the person that goes for the 50 is simply going about which one smells the best.

Yeah.

Yeah. I don't. I personally, when I smell colognes, don't see a huge correlation or like improvement of smell between $50 and 500.

Yeah.

It's all like completely subjective.

Yeah.

And this is what brand is.

Yeah. And this is a quote from. From an expert in the space. So I don't know what their, what their title is. You know, a fragrance sommelier, if you will. The price of the fragrance reflects at least to some extent, the enormous research and development of the creation and the sales from a successful fragrance are necessary to fund the creation of new products.

Same thing with drugs. The same thing with drugs. It's like, like to get it through FD da approval and everything costs millions and millions of dollars. So you're gonna have like one out of some number of option, like of. Of applicants or like things that you want, drugs that you want to create actually succeed. So there is a level of truth to it, you know, but still, like once you've created it, as long as you create the brand image, but like that creates like you look at these brands like for their marketing company. Right. They have in magazines, billboards, whatever it is like they are a marketing company. The same with things to do, like with water and air. It's like a cheap resource. Sell it if you just market it correctly. Yeah. So they're just marketing engines.

Yeah, yeah. It's interesting to look at. What about. Let's kind of translate this over because, you know, neither of us really care that much about fragrances or high end perfumes. But let's translate it to maybe something that, you know, we've touched on a little bit before. You and I both like watches. So do you feel the same about like Rolex or Patek Philippe? These, you know, you can't get a watch for less than 15,000, $20,000 from these brands. Would you say it's the same thing? Like they're the consumers of an actual Rolex or a Patek Philippe. Do not care about the knockoff, like they're going to pay whatever. But there are, you Go on Amazon and you look up Rolex, there are $40 options that look like exactly like a Rolex. Do you feel it's the same philosophy that like Rolex, Patek Philippe are just a marketing campaign for high end consumers?

Let's be honest, the person that's willing to spend 15 or $20,000 on a Rolex watch, instead of the knockoff, that looks exactly the same, it has the exact same utility and function, they are, they are afraid of one question. Is that real?

Yeah.

And if they, if they cannot answer that correctly and accurately and say yes, they, they again are, they need the status. And so the worst thing that could happen is someone ask you do you wear or is that, is that real? And you say no immediately. All sorts of conversations and perceptions are about you. Yeah. And you're avoiding that by paying a $15,000 price tag. That's exactly what the difference is.

So how do you, how do you feel about that? As your social status increases, let's say, and your prowess in our industry as like an expert, how do you take that as your image? Like, are there going to be certain accoutrements you will add in terms of like, you know, name brand watches, name brand shoes, things of that nature? You just not care.

I personally don't really care about brands, like for my clothes, just in general. Yeah. Like, you know, and then I just realized that some, some things are accoutrements. Well, my watch, if the battery dies, I'm not going to get it replaced.

Yeah.

Like I am very aware that this is an accoutrement.

Yeah.

Like it just needs to tell the time. It needs to like make fancy noises and we're happy. Right. And so, you know, I don't spend more than a hundred dollars on a watch.

And I don't see a meaningful difference between $100 and $10,000. Yeah. In fact, a lot of those really expensive watches, I don't like the looks of them. I don't like Rolexes, dude. Yeah, I do not. You would. I would rather wear this fossil for like 70 bucks than a Rolex watch for 15 or 20 grand.

Yeah, fair enough. We need to get you in a Patek Philippe. There you go. There's, there, that one's $900,000.

But I just feel like, I just feel like there's, there's a watch on Amazon for 100 or 150 that looks very similar.

Yeah.

And so like the only reason you do that again is if someone like literally recognizes the watch and then suddenly their status of you think is so much higher.

Yeah.

So the question is, is someone, the status that someone thinks of you spending the million dollars on a watch enough to spend that premium on what otherwise is the utility, function, shape, design, Everything looks the same for $100.

Okay. Yeah.

You're literally, you're trying to get the efficient audio and like, for some people, that's worth it.

Yeah.

And so, you know, hey, yeah, what.

About like, okay, let's have it.

Made it that far.

Yeah, fair enough. Let's switch from luxury accoutrements, if you will, to luxury consumables. How do you feel about like high end dining? Like, high dining? Because could you, you, you like to eat out at, at nice establishments and get high quality food? There's nothing wrong with that. But like, who, who's the PR guy behind oysters? Like, why are oysters fine dining? Because they're kind of slimy.

They're. I don't like, I like them, I don't like oysters.

But like, why are they so expensive? Why are they associated with fine dining?

Like, they're hard, they are hard to harvest, to source. Yeah, right. And so that's one part of it. And like, but then in terms of fine dining, I would say again, like, I'm not buying the food if I'm going to spend, if I'm going to spend a lot of money, like anything more than $30 for dinner. Like, you're paying for the experience. Yeah. And so. Or maybe like a good cut of meat or something. Yeah, but like, I don't spend anything. Like, same thing. Like, if I'm spending over 70 to $90 on dinner, like, that's a lot. Yeah, because like, that should be like, give me two entrees or like a steak and something.

Or you're a sucker for a Brazilian steakhouse, dude.

Yeah, but 70 bucks. Like 70.

And you got a ton of meat.

Yes, under $100. Um, but it's still a lot of money. And I stuff like, reconcile my brain a little bit. But like, good food I still think is good. I give myself a little more leeway on that.

Yeah, I agree with that. That's, you know, my, my wife and I, our philosophy is like, we, we, we loosely budget. Like, you know, you and I have similar philosophies on that. Like, hey, I'm going to watch my money, I'm going to watch my spending, but I'm not going to track every penny. I kind of trust myself and my habits, but that's one thing I'm a little looser with is like food like, if we can go to a nicer restaurant, get higher quality food, I'm gonna do that. Like, it just. There's an experience.

You're paying for the experience. Right. So that's why if people have like the Brazilian steakhouse, they walk around like, the sword and everything. Whether it be. If you go to certain steakhouses and, like, everyone's dressed nice and it's nice decor and there's music and there's a live person playing the piano, like, all of that is the experience. The food could be the exact same. You slap on another plate and you throw inside of a chick fil a and all of a sudden you expect it for, you know, a quarter of the price. Yeah. So again, all brand, all experience. Totally. That's where your markup is.

Yeah, I agree with that. Do you feel that there is a disconnect?

Oh, I just have to have a little celebration.

Okay.

We had a big problem at copilot for the past few minutes and just got resolved. That's why I never have my phone.

We're doing an interview.

I'm sorry, but I was waiting on it and it is. Yeah. So anyways, that was. That was a win for the pod.

Yes. Good. Now we can take a breath.

I can't remember exactly where I was going, which is totally fine. But what would you say to the person that maybe wants those luxury items, experiences?

I can focus. Sorry, I was really distracted.

You've been great. So what do you think about this watch?

Now you want to sell me on the watch?

Let's get this guy a watch.

Like, well, now that things are better.

Yeah.

What would you say to the person, though, that does maybe struggle with, like, they want that status. So they're going to get the dupe fragrances, they're going to get the fake watch and try to play off that they maybe have a higher status than they actually can. Can afford. What. What do you say to that person?

Go do it.

Yeah.

Like, I'm all for you getting the nice car, the nice watch, but, like, go do it.

Yeah.

And so, like, that's the immediate thing that the perception people don't want to have is, like, when you have the fake, it means I want this. And I do not know. I do not know how to execute towards it.

Yeah.

That's what you're telling everyone. Yeah. Like, I want this. I am here. I cannot get here. I am going to do what it looks on the outside as if I have made it.

Yeah.

And that is like a weak person. I'm just going to Be like straight, like, yeah, I can put up. No, dude, you are a weak human being if you have to do that for status and you haven't done it. And I think any huge player, if they saw that, it's like a huge red flag is that you are trying to be something that you are not. And you have not. You do not have the goods for it. You do not have the pat. You do not pack the punch behind it.

Yeah.

You know, all bark. No. Is it? No. No. All hat. No cattle like that. That will crush you for people that are like way above you.

Yep.

And so what was my message to them?

Yeah. Like, what would you say?

Save every dollar on the 10% discount thing that you're doing. Save every dollar and put it towards getting the skills to become a. And make enough money so you can go buy those things if you really want them.

Yeah.

And I have no, like, there are people that really like cars. There are people that want to spend a million dollars on a watch and like, to them that's a win in life. And I'm like, let's go. I don't get that same warm fluffy feeling. But like if that makes you. Gets you going, great. But like trying to have that without putting in the work. You are a cheater.

Yeah.

Like, if you want, like if you want to admit it or not, you cheat.

Yeah.

And I would, I would venture to believe that they do other shortcuts in life trying to get the result without putting in the work.

Yeah. Fair enough. I think that's true. What about maybe the person that just like is okay with the, with the dupe with the fake? Like are they. Should they just own it? Like, what are your thoughts on those people? Because obviously.

Oh yeah. If you're gonna do it, own it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't be like this nice rule. Looks like a. Be like laugh it off. Like, yeah, there's a fake Rolex. It's 100 bucks. Looks just like, like that's what I would do if I was trying to fake something or like I was trying to get something as a knockoff. I just like, you know, just play into it like, yes, this is fake. I like the look of the watch. So I bought it for $100.

Yeah.

It's a Rolex Whoopi do. Fun conversation starter by the way too. And you could use it as a way to like make people like take the, like a self demeaning joke.

Yeah.

And so.

You know, that would be potentially the move, I guess. But I don't know, like why would you do that? Just get a watch that you like that looks good isn't a Rolex.

Yeah.

And like, own it, fossil. It's just $70, dude.

I'm a G shock guy, dude.

You've had that for a while.

It's like 50 bucks. Yeah, it works great. Battery lasts forever.

I have two. So just in case anything ever happens, I do have a digital one. So.

Yeah, let's go. Yeah, definitely. What, what are some. I know I've asked you this before, but since we're on the roll, like, what? You know, is there a luxury item, a thing that you want maybe down the road that you'd like to, like, reward yourself with or something that you think would be cool to have?

Like, yeah, like, I would say I don't look at things like, status of physical things to, like, I want this. Like, down the road, I would love to have X. Like, the thought never crossed my mind. That's why I was actually, like, most people have a hard time buying gifts for me because I don't actually think about, like, I need to have this.

I mean, I stopped. I used to get you stuff for your birthday. Now I just don't. And I just say, happy birthday.

Yeah. And then the last one had me open up gifts at commands. There's like underwear, deodorant. I was like, oh, my word. Yeah, I'm glad I wasn't there for that anyways. Yeah. Like, I. I know, like, it's not so much a status thing as much as, like, I know when I get this, I will have. I will have been like, I'll be a hundred times. I will have. I will have made 100 times more impact. I do now, like, my revenue and everything would have 100x and as a private jet. Yeah. Like, I travel the past four days. I hate it. Yeah. Like, it does every. We only have to do every three weeks. But it kills me. Like, I hate. Like, I didn't sleep much last night. Just like the last three nights before that. Totally. You know, I'm trying to get all my meetings in all around, like, doing the turnaround, traveling, being a plane, you can't do video conferencing. So I would just love to have a private jet.

Private jet with starlink.

You sure? Yeah, dude.

And, you know, just throw it.

You know what starlink costs per month on a private jet? No, it's like 10 grand a month. It's extremely expensive. Oh, yeah. And it goes up from there. Like, that's base.

Whoa.

Yeah, it's really, really expensive. So Like, I think. I think also I might down the road, change my mind. I even want that. Like, I just know that right now I hate the experience of traveling. I hate dealing with all the people. I hate doing tsa. I hate doing grumpy people. I hate dealing with all of that.

Same.

And it's not like, it's just. It'd be so stupid to have that much money and actually spend it on that. And like, if I had enough money, I would be one of those things. Like, okay, I have a problem. I have no other problems I need to solve in life. I'll just attack this one. But you literally need, you know, 2.5 to $3 million a year for maintenance if you're using it.

Yeah, yeah.

And we use a lot. Like this past week, we literally flew the east Coast, Florida, South Carolina and back up. Like, it was all over. Right. So that would be like the weird crazy. But I'm not like, I need to have a jet. Definitely not. I would only use it if, like, what we're currently doing is like, where I'm flying all the time. And it. We could get like a big return on my time. Yeah. And supposedly you need to make about $12 million a year in profit, like take home pay, in order for it to make sense of time savings. So if and when I cross that. Not if, when I cross that, it'll be a matter of like, okay, now can I make sense of it from just like, okay, I save more time, I can get this done. Instead of four days, I can get done too. Then it starts to become a conversation. But at this point it's not getting on my radar. But that's definitely something I would like to have.

So earliest timeline. I ran some numbers in my head. Four and a half years.

Four and a half years. You'll have a jet. No, no, no, no. I'll fly private. In five years. I would probably just. I guess. But I won't be having my own. Like, you're.

I'm just. I'm giving you a stretch goal, dude. I ran some really rough numbers.

Okay, so what are those numbers? Like, how did you come up with that?

Well, I mean, I was like, well, I mean, I don't want to divulge, but I thinking, well, okay, I guess I was off on a couple. Okay, now I see where we would need to.

We would need to 6x revenue.

Right?

We would need to. Okay, profit margins. Like, everything just goes back in the business right now. So I can consider a business expense. But like, before I go take $3 million of after tax money. I have a lot of other things I want to get done.

Totally. So you don't want to dump that money?

I feel like if I can sacrifice a little bit of time flying on planes and like, currently what I'm doing is like optimizing every minute of that and it's going decently. So I can still be productive if I can just do that and then spend the $3 million on like software engineers and get like 10 really good engineers. Yeah, I would rather do that.

Totally.

And I think that's gonna be like the theme for more than five years.

Yeah, fair enough. I'm just trying to put like a, you know, a stretch goal.

Dude. Someone in the, in the comments on the other time said your questions are very good.

Oh, thank you.

I would agree. The last one did good.

Thank you. I'm trying to get better.

You're good.

You're good, dude. Okay, so I wanted to ask. Let's get back to kind of the beginning of the article I read about fragrances and dupe fragrances in the high end things of that nature. It got me thinking. And this is, this is an incomplete thought, but I wanted to know why this doesn't necessarily work for, let's say, Augusta or franchising. Right. We don't have our, our, our recipe, our secret sauce, our procedures, the ways in which we teach owners to operate in Augusta as a copyright, similar to these high end luxury fragrance brands. It says their formulas are not copyrighted. What prevents someone from being a dupe Augusta? Like, other than. Yes. We have, you know, obviously trademarks on like Max and our name and logos and our colors and our brand identity. But what prevents someone from just slightly tweaking it so they're outside of those trademarks? And then we, since we don't have our procedures copyrighted, somehow siphoning off what we do internally.

The same way Tesla doesn't do any patents on their engineering. Like they literally have open patents. You can go, you can go build a Tesla car. Yeah, just go try to build the manufacturing and like the team and the marketing and the brand and have Elon like, yeah, replicate that.

Yeah.

So they realize that it's all about brand. It is not about the mechanics. That's why everything inside of Augusta, you could probably get 80 to 90% of it. Just like watching my free content. And you probably fill in the gaps, talk to a few franchisees and figure out everything else. Yeah. You're missing one thing. A thousand locations. Yeah. And so when you talk about brand like when we have a thousand locations, even I think once we get about 500, people will know about Augusta when they show up to a new area, and they'll just think of Augusta. You. You happen to not have that when you have one location. And if you want to copy the dog, if you want to use the font, if you want to do a similar name to Augusta, fine. You're just not going to have one thing. This very key ingredient has a thousand locations.

Right.

You're also not going to have a lot of other things that come with a thousand locations, like brand discounts and software that we don't allow anyone else to use and access to command center. Like all these other things. And you don't have me. Just the same way, if Elon died tomorrow, Tesla stock would go way down. He's an irre replicable thing that no one else can knock off. And I happen to think that I'm one of one. You're one of one, and most individuals are one of one. And without me, Augusta's values lesser in terms of the brand. And so you just don't have that. So go for it. In doing so, you will simply elevate the brand. What we as a brand stand for, and that's the actual hope of Augusta, is that everyone does copy us, and they do implement our systems, and they do take our open patents and go build an electric car. This is the same way that Elon wants everyone to get electrified and make things more sustainable, and that's why he did the open patents. The same way that I share all the stuff we talk about Augusta, is because we will be very successful. We will grow the brand. Everyone that copies will simply elevate the entire industry. And that's the whole goal of Augusta. Right. So it'd be like a win, win, win.

Yeah. So what's the difference between, like, yeah, a copycat and like a dupe? I guess, and I don't think that's like a fully formed question, but, like, when, when, when did Wendy's change from a copycat to a dupe for McDonald's, or did it ever. Were they ever a separate brand? Right. Because McDonald's standardized, you know, fast food in America. Right. Well, then you had Wendy's and all these other brands show up. So is that just copycats and McDonald's has been ahead and now they're a competitor? I guess I'm not fully forming a thought. I'm just trying to think of this in all from all angles.

Yeah, but think about from the perspective of McDonald's if their goal was to democratize food and make it more accessible to the average person, whether or not someone thinks it's high quality or not, like there's demand for it, if that was their goal. Having copycats is a fantastic thing. Our goal at Augusta is to change the level of professionalism in the industry that happens by having more copycats. So I'm thrilled when there's copycats. Don't touch my trademark. So I'll come squat and I'll give you a little bit of my mind because I'm protecting the owners around you instead of Augusta Nation. However, outside of that, copy us, go for it. That's the whole mission of what we're trying to achieve. I happen to believe you won't listen to me until you are competing with us. Until we have enough locations and we have a brand image, no one copies some random handbag. They go after the $5,000 one with all the brand cred.

Right.

I want that. I want to become the $5,000 shopping bag handbag that everyone wants to copy. And by doing that, hopefully the industry improves. So it's, it's like for us, it's part of the recipe and we want it to happen. Just don't touch certain parts. Like the trademark stuff. Yeah, but like I want you to do P4P. I want you have a great website. I want you to be able to have automations. I want you have credit cards. Like all the stuff we talk about, I want you to do it because it'll help the whole industry. And I like the whole reason Augusta exists.

Yeah. And if Augusta is like high end luxury, maybe we could have like a fashion week or something.

I just thinking like, you know, no, just fashion week. That's it.

And like what are we getting fashion?

I don't know. That's what high end brands do. And you got all these celebrities line the Runway. We get a bunch of people in yellow and dog suits and you know.

I don't know if Augusta would be necessarily the catwalk type of.

But I think I could name a few franchise owners that are. Kevin Fairburn, he'd love to do it. He'd crush it. Yeah, there's a few that would crush it. So yeah. As Augusta grows. So here's a thought I had because you alluded to this on the last pod and maybe we can talk about it depending on, you know, what you want to share, but we are potentially bringing someone else on kind of towards the top, if you will, at Augusta to offload some of the work that I'm doing some of the work that you're doing, some of the work that Liz is doing. It feels that maybe there are bottlenecks to accelerated growth because of restrictions at the top. So we're bringing someone on. That's what you feel is best. And I agree with you. So what was the tipping point to make that decision to offload some of our tasks to this person? Is it strictly for long term growth? Is it. What's your. The reasoning behind that?

Yeah. So@accentition.com basically I realized, you know, everything becomes a who problem. So it's like, hey, I want to grow August to a thousand locations. What's preventing me from doing that? And I have like all this list of things I need to get done. Like, I need to improve the training, I need this. And all those things are true.

But when I talked to Alex and I and he asked certain numbers and I. And he said, you're allowing people to leave without any penalty and they can take their customers. Their customers and go and start keep doing their own thing. How many people have done that? Like how many people have left Augusta and taking their customers with no penalty and has gone and started, you know, Billy Bob's lawn care? I said none. Like there's been ones we. There's been one that we kicked out and they're still in operation. But we were all in agreeance that we need to kick this person out. Yeah. But when he heard that, he said like, you need to can. This isn't a direct quote, but it's like along the verge. You need to can your emotions and sell. And so what I determined is, okay, I need to sell, but I also do have these list of things I know that needs to get done to improve the experience. And like, you make the unit economics of Augusta locations abhorrently good. And so we're kind of like taking this two pronged approach, which is like right now, we have never sold Augusta. We've never run ads, we've never promoted it. Never like literally, you don't hear me talk about it. Like, this is.

What is the branding?

Literally every single location. Yeah. So when they, when they hear that, they're like, you need to can that emotion and look at the data and realize you were providing value to people. And that needs to be recognized first and foremost. And then, yes, you can hire people to knock out all these things you want to get done from a technology standpoint. And one of the things is I want much.