I am Charles Schwartz Show - Secrets from the Dropout Millionaire

Episode Date: June 26, 2024

In this episode, Charles delves into the world of exclusive fashion and entrepreneurship with Kola Tytler, the visionary founder of Dropout Milano. Kola shares his remarkable journey of building a thriving streetwear and sneaker store in Milan, Italy, while still pursuing his medical degree. Get ready to be inspired as Kola unveils his unique approach to creating an aspirational brand that resonates with its target audience. Uncover the power of exclusivity and experience-driven marketing as Kola reveals how he transformed Dropout Milano into a community-focused brand that goes beyond just selling products. Through engaging stories and practical insights, Kola and Charles explore the importance of understanding your market, identifying customer motivations, and leveraging data to optimize your marketing efforts. Kola's passion for continuous learning and self-improvement shines through as he discusses his pursuit of multiple degrees from prestigious UK universities, including an upcoming Masters at Cambridge. He emphasizes the significance of investing in your own education and network to build confidence and make better business decisions. Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or just starting your journey, this episode will provide you with valuable lessons and frameworks to help you create a brand that stands out in today's competitive landscape. Get ready to be motivated and equipped with the tools necessary to build a loyal community around your brand and achieve remarkable success. Key Takeaways: Discover Kola's unique approach to building an exclusive, community-focused brand that resonates with its target audience Learn how to leverage experiential marketing and collaborations to create an aspirational brand that goes beyond just selling products Gain insights into the power of understanding your market, identifying customer motivations, and leveraging data to optimize your marketing efforts Head over to https://podcast.iamcharlesschwartz.com/ to download your exclusive companion guide, designed to guide you step-by-step in implementing the strategies revealed in this episode. Key Points: 1:00 - Kola's journey to success 5:55 - Breaking limits and pursuing passions 7:26 - Building a sneaker empire 10:27 - Creating a sustainable business 13:53 - Building exclusive communities 15:36 - Creating physical store experiences 18:09 - Balancing exclusivity in e-commerce 20:22 - Product challenges in e-commerce 22:07 - Leveraging brand partnerships 24:02 - Creating unique brand experiences 25:55 - Shifting focus to brand identity 28:00 - Creating experiential content 30:00 - Engaging with online communities 32:24 - Crafting viral content 33:55 - Brand building strategies 36:24 - Focus on conversion ads 40:14 - Thirst for knowledge 42:30 - Pursuing entrepreneurship studies 44:58 - Celebrating academic achievements 46:42 - Leveraging online learning

Welcome to another episode of the I Am Charles Schwartz Show, where we delve into the minds of the world's top performers to unlock the secrets you can start using today. On this episode, we have Kola Teitler, the visionary founder of Dropout Milano, a brand that's redefining the landscape of exclusive streetwear. Kola's journey is nothing short of rule-breaking. From the halls of medical school to the vibrant, fast-paced world of high-end streetwear, Cola's story is a masterclass in pursuing your passion and building something extraordinary. In this episode, we'll unpack how Cola has created a brand that's all about exclusivity and immersive experiences. We'll dive deep into his strategies for cultivating a fiercely loyal community,

harnessing the power of data-driven marketing and the life-changing impact of investing in personal growth and continuous education. Whether you're a veteran entrepreneur or just starting to dip your toes into the business world, this episode is packed with actionable insights and inspiring lessons. So grab your notebook and join us as we explore the dynamic world of fashion and entrepreneurship with Cola Teitler. The show starts now. Welcome to the I Am Charles Schwartz Show, where we don't just discuss success,

we show you how to create it. On every episode, we uncover the strategies and tactics that turn everyday entrepreneurs into unstoppable powerhouses in their businesses and their lives. Whether your goal is to transform your life or hit that elusive seven, eight, or nine figure mark, we've got the blueprint to get you there. The show starts now.

Today with Koda Teitler, and this is an individual who dropped out of school and became a multimillionaire and is going back to school. Blows my mind. Welcome to the show. Welcome to the lab. Thank you. Thank you for having me, Charles. Absolutely. So walk me through this. You named your company Dropout and the entire process of how you do it, we're going to get into in detail. But how did you go from dropping out to now owning multiple stores and crushing it? Walk me through the beginning. What made you want to be an entrepreneur and do this?

I think, you know, just for clarity's sake, I didn't technically drop out of university in the sense that I did complete the course. You know, I was in medical school when the company started. I certainly didn't want to fully leave the course, hence why, you know, amongst other reasons as well, my company is called Dropout. Certainly, you know, I'd say at the time, mentally, I was in a place where, you know, I was probably thinking, what's going to give me more? You know, is it doing my own thing or is it, you know, pursuing this, you know, the degree and the, you know,

the career path that is probably, I'd say, structured after graduating from medical school. Nevertheless, for me personally, I'd say, you know, a lot of what came, you know, to create my company and the business had to do with leveraging what I saw as a market opportunity

in the sense that actually you know what we created was you know a business modeled on an opportunity that we saw within a market we were very familiar with and I say that as they you know considering the streetwear and the sneakers industry as a niche that we you know me and my business partners at the time were already uh consumers of number one uh we were also probably i'd say you know collectors fans enthusiasts um and i think that you know we realized actually you know in milan in italy one of the major fashion capitals of the world you know we were lacking um you know a physical outlet in particular and and um you know a place where you know streetwear enthusiasts could go and recognize themselves the same way that you know

was present in new york in london in paris so you know we went and then and did our own i think at the time you know especially given the father that was at university still um i think for me it was about um you know realize that i could have multiple interests and i could have you know i could develop uh different aspects of my persona so not just the you know the medical school aspect but also you know my other interests i think fashion and medicine uh i think they're more similar than probably one may think but actually they are certainly you know um apart and you know for me it was also about saying actually you know i'm not confined to'm studying. You know, I could do more and I can probably draw some parallels between the skills that I gather, uh, you know, and, and gain from my degree and the one needed for the

business. I think so few people, you, you mentioned it where, you know, I can be more than one thing. So many of us go to university, go to college, like, Hey, you know, I went to school for computers. I went to school for, you know, you even got as far as in your medical degree that we get locked into that. This is who I am. This is who my parents expect me to be. This is who my family, this is who everyone in my environment, they expect me to be a, but there's more to me than that.

I'm more dynamic than that. Was that a hard process for you to pivot through to say, you know what? No, I can do this. I can continue to university. I can continue with my studies, but I also, I can do this. What was the moment where you realized that you could do both and you kind of gave yourself permission to do both because a lot of people are struggling with that. I think, you know, probably, I mean, from, from an individual, from a personal perspective, I'd say I'm a rather, you know, self-driven and self-motivating individual anyway,

which means that, you know that whenever I'm faced with, you can't do this, that's not going to work, why this, why that, I almost block that out, even though that may or may not be positive. Certainly, there's some negatives to that. But in particular, I had seen individuals out there who were able to do different things. I remember, for example know one of the uh if not maybe the most influential individual within

the streetwear sneakers niche you know in kanye west and i remember um you know watching some interviews and how he was talking about wanting to be you know the greatest producer alive and then wanting to be you know the best rapper and then wanting to be you know the best designer and then wanting to do you know his own clothing line and then talking about how he wanted to do hotels and i think you know i was also looking concurrently at how uh you know the commentary on that often used to be you know this man is just out of it and i think you know i'm not gonna comment on that but sadly I did think, actually, why do we have such a fixation on telling people what they cannot do rather than what they actually can do? And to me, I think it was about telling myself,

you know what, I think the only limit to whatever you want to do is yourself, i.e. me, and I have different interests, and I think there's a market opportunity, so I'm going to go and take it. And likewise, I always used to see how I used to pick up up basketball a lot and I used to play also um you know football with friends and I was you know I think decent at both and again you know I always drew the parallel with that as in you know you don't have to be um you know good good at one thing I think you know you can be decent at multiple things and ultimately I think to me was about you know asking you know myself what do I enjoy and you know the moment where you know the answer was I enjoy different things, you

know, for different reasons, you know, I was just like, okay, you know, time to go and, and, and, you know, do whatever makes me happy. I think one of the best things I ever heard about this was instruments don't just play one note. You can play multiple notes as an individual. So you're in medical school and all of a sudden you have this opportunity with sneakers and i didn't even know there was there's a completely new market to me completely i have the fashion sense of a well i don't have any fashion sense it's

really embarrassing my little brother picks on me and he's like what what are you doing i wear i mean i shop at tarjay i don't i am not fashionable in any way, shape or form. It's embarrassing. My little brother picks on me. You clearly are not. You've turned it into a massive empire for you with multiple stores. Walk me through what you do. Walk me through what, what is it with sneakers? Why did you, you're like, I'm in middle school, cool school.

Here's your sneaker. I don't understand. Walk me through that. Walk through that process. How did you know you could monetize it? I think, let's say, you know, we've got to take a few step backs in the sense that, you know,

there was a... Now it's wider, but it's less, I'd say, on the ground. But, you know, imagine we're talking now about, you know, early 2010s and, you know, there's a lot of communities online. There's Reddit, you know, that is obviously blowing up.

And Reddit in particular is the type of place where you get people who, you know, maybe they, I mean, this might sound controversial, but maybe, you know, even the loners of the world that are finally finding a place, they can find people like them and things to talk about. And, you know, there's more and more places like, you know, there's Reddit, there's Facebook groups, there's a little bit on Twitter,

and there's a forum, it's called Kanye Today, in fact. It was named after Kanye West. And then there's another forum called Nike Talk. And those are places where people are congregating more and more to discuss the latest Nika release and the latest streetwear releases. And the reality is that there was already a significant, but probably very sparse and varied community of individuals who had this interest in streetwear.

And in order to get information about the latest releases and the latest drops and what the latest collaboration was going to be, you had to find those little communities mostly online unless you lived in a major city like New York or LA. And that's where I started. I saw it from there. And then I saw as the phenomenon of limited sneakers releases took more and more and the brand started leveraging it

in order to draw attention to the wider product releases. There was people that had already this interest that were already part of the communities who saw literally the phenomenon grow and grow and grow. And I think we almost foresaw how the trajectory was, you know, was going. And we, you know, I think there's certain pivotal moments where, you know, collaboration starts. And then, you know, Supreme started collaborating with Louis, the old fashioned houses, you know, that were catering to a public of, you know, wealthy, you know, maybe unapproachable clientele are now actually deciding to target to a, you know, to a different demographic who's often

younger, who's, yes, perhaps wealthy, but who, you know, may actually have the interest in more casual wear compared to formal wear. So basically, I think, you know, from this evolution online, I saw, you know, I saw this trajectory. And actually, my business partners at the start are people that I met online. So we actually met on those Facebook groups. And, you know, there's when we saw, you know, we had this chat.

I think, you know, it was very brief. It was almost like, look, you know, can you see what I'm seeing as in where this is going? I think that, you know, if we get, you know, our name out there, It was almost like, look, you know, can you see what I'm seeing as in where this is going? I think that, you know, if we get, you know, our name out there, we create a brand within this segment and, you know, we leverage the growth of the sneaker market, we can actually create a sustainable business, which, you know, will make a mark

and will, you know, will be potentially, you know, known within at least the Italian streetwear community. So, you know, Dropout actually starts as that starts as a as a business that aims to leverage you know the growth of the sneaker uh industry but you know placing itself as a as a you know also independent brand you know streetwear brand that um you know can be associated with again you know this wealthy young clientele so really for us i think you know uh one of the first steps was about understanding the market and for us that was somewhat easy i'm going to say because we were you know our average target consumer so the average target consumer for us

would have been me would have been someone young someone with a little bit of this cause of disposable income who are they you know are network, who knew how social media worked, and who was a little bit disilluded with the high-end fashion houses products and wanted to wear something more casual. So we modeled, I think, the business base to a market that we knew rather well. And for that, really, a lot of it was about asking,

okay, what do I want to see? What is my problem? How am I going to solve the problem that I have? Problem being, I don't find an outlet, a store that actually reflects what I'm looking to buy. And I think that's basically the first questions that we started at the beginning asking ourselves. So I love the model, which is, you know, identifying your audience, understanding who they are. Luckily in this case, it was you, you were your own test group.

And then from there, being in the environment of going, okay, where are they hanging out? Where's their quote unquote watering hole going where they are. And then speaking to them in an organic way saying, Hey, this is what's going on. This is what's happening. Leveraging a community and saying, Hey, there's a pain. I found a way to fill that pain.

We talk about this all the time. Don't be vitamins, be Advil, get rid of the pain first, and then scale from there. So in this place, you've, you've identified the audience, which is you. So you already have your own test group. You went to the community where everyone's hanging out for, so you went to the watering hole from there. You're like, okay, I've got this. We have the idea. We know what their pain is. What are the steps you start doing do you start posting do you start interacting how do you what are those first initial all right i get it i know the audience where do i go from here i think for us you know we had actually created especially having you know a keyword years community in the sense that um i think you know again you gotta you gotta

remember where where you're playing you know where you're playing field is and and and maybe you know the sport that you're playing in the sense that uh the reality is that you know if we dissect what actually fashion is especially uh or not just fashion but any um you know discretionary purchase really we buy in generally for for you know only few reasons which will be for sustainment you know such as food or such as shelter. We buy for convenience, for example, something that I would need to do, but whatever I'm purchasing is going to make the thing easier. Or we buy to cater to social needs. And obviously, fashion is the social need.

Now, there's an element of, yes, you buy clothes to cover yourself. Fair enough. But you also buy clothes to either identify within a certain group or you buy clothes to you know um be not identified within a certain group but to show to a certain group whatever person you are or again you know you buy to uh show you know particular traits of your persona now in our case you know when we're talking about small communities you know that that you're actually speaking to an audience that probably won't identify as part of that. One of those, like, you wear something and you know the next person

is not going to know what that is, but the one that knows will know. It's sort of a, if you know, you know type of thing. And then there's another element which was growing within the streetwear market, which was because a lot of this was limited edition products. It was about, you know, demonstrate that you had access and you're demonstrating that exclusivity because also, uh, you know, now you can generate, you know, you can differentiate your audience in multiple ways, your audience in multiple ways. Sometimes, you know, you do that by price by say, you know, okay. Um, you know, Porsche's Porsche's created a lot of Porsche's, but, uh, you know, as in the car brand, but, you know,orsches create a lot of porsches but uh you know as in the car brand but

you know if you have a lot of money chances are that you can probably buy one um however you know richard mill on the other hand certain watches you know there's only 20 of them so you may have the money but you may not have any access to them so brands start leveraging both of those you know by doing certain very limited edition releases and the person that you know, by doing sets of very limited edition releases. And the person that, you know, the people that were actually the audience of these were also individuals who, you know, may be able to get hold of, you know, a particular product. So for us, it was about really digging into why are people buying? What do they want to show? And what would they like to know?

So, you know, the reality was that rather than sort of starting posting online and going the whole, okay, you know, we're going to skyrocket our e-commerce. We actually went the other way because we said, okay, you know, how can we actually show that this is something rather limited and actually rather niche and only not, it's not just about how much you can spend, but it's about being part of something that only some people can, can be part of. So we opened physical stores, physical store first, which we actually opened initially in 2018, without posting any pictures of the store online. So we only posted like one picture of Instagram and, you know, of our social media, which said, we're opening a store, you know,

we're going to treat limited, you know, curate limited edition releases. We're not even going to show you what it looks like. will open on this day at this time we possibly like three days in advance and basically we say like you know you want to be there and i remember um you know that actually uh starbucks the first starbucks had opened in milan the week before us and you know there was a lot of press in the in the in the media in italy about how many people the starbucks are at but because of the way we were able to leverage our message especially in the facebook groups without even showing a picture of our store, we actually, you know, I have a picture and a video taken from a drone.

The whole road was blocked. You know, we had more people at Starbucks that came to look at our store without having even ever seen a picture of it. And that was because, again, you know, the message for this community really is about exclusivity, is about, you know know being the coolest and being able to do to do things other people will not do and uh you know the very first day we actually only sold our own branded products products so the very first day you couldn't even buy sneakers so everyone that rocked up in our store uh you know could only see the store and buy our own branded

products you know they couldn't even buy sneakers then obviously you know for commercially the reasons in a couple months after we obviously months after, we opened e-commerce. Because obviously, we said initially, this is also an experiential shopping, which means that it's not just about buying a product. Because ultimately, especially in 2024, but also in 2018, almost any product that you buy, you can find online somewhere for cheaper. That almost goes for any physical enterprise so it's about you know what are you going to you know how are you going to leverage if you have a physical store how are you going to leverage if you're creating a brand and so it was about you know for me it was about doing something that you know if you want to be associated with that you gotta come to our

store you gotta see what it looks like um and you know you will see that there's also some pieces that are you know um essentially just just to digress slightly but we had one piece which was very high you know was very highly covered also vice did a whole documentary on it we had a sneaker um which was you know basically a factory i wrote sneaker which had been valued at about 150 000 dollars and you know only one pair um and we had it and basically we just put it for display saying you know ultimately you know if you want to come and see the sneaker you know you gotta come to a store almost like if it was a museum piece and uh you know that worked really well so i think again you know for us it was really about you know leveraging how are we going to cater to the needs of the

people and for us the needs of the people were about you know being part of something exclusive and being part of something that you know part of something that, you know, only a few selected people essentially, you know, would be, would be almost invited to. And I think it's what I love about this is you knew your audience, you made it exclusive and you sold the experience as well. Because remember, people don't buy products or services. They buy stories, identities, and ways out of pain. And you were selling an identity, which was, hey, the only place in the world you can see

this store. It's $150,000 for the shoe, which you're going to have to send me a picture of what $150,000 shoe looks like. Cause I've never seen $150,000 shoe in my life. I mean, unless it came with a house or a car, but I'd love the example that you gave with Porsche as well. Anybody can own a Porsche, but there's only a certain number of watches that exist. There's only a certain number of shoes. So you knew that your branding was like,

listen, we're not going to compete with everybody else because anyone in the world can copy our products. We're going to go exclusive and we're going to do the experience. So when you have this and you have your physical stories, you mentioned you did a bit of an e-commerce with your own products. How do you find the balance between, all right, we have this exclusivity, we have this experience, but now we're online. How do you continue to bring that into a digital world? Because in a physical world, super easy, right? Not anybody can do it, but it's easier to do. But if anybody in their underwear can jump on their phone and go and visit your e-commerce,

how do you keep that exclusivity and that experience? I think really, you know, the reality is that for us, it's been pretty, you know, because of the way that we were born and the community aspect of it, you know, Drapal started to become known in Milan as a place where, okay, you know, this is where the celebrities shop, this is where, you know, the wealthy people shop. So, you know, there's an element of that where, you know,

people want to be associated where, you know, there are, you know, favorite football players who shop, for example. Or almost knowing that, like, okay where you know people want to be associated where you know they are you know favorite football players who shop for example or almost knowing that like okay you know i'm going to walk into a store where you know the the football player from you know just play the champions league final was or where you know someone who's popular in a holiday milan you know they'll pass by so you know i want to be associated with that and in terms of leveraging the online you know again it was sort of similar where the reality is that I think focusing specifically on the product alone, I think is quite difficult nowadays, especially with the advent of digital marketing. And ultimately, we're all beating against each other for the meta ads and the TikTok ads and whatnot or you know we are there are there you know we are there um we're essentially subject to whatever policy or you know strategy those social media uh you know employ in order to

actually you know determine the uh virality of a of content really so you know for us it was about establishing really the brand which mean that you know we want people to know that okay you know you're looking for limited initial sneakers you're looking for cool streetwear. I'm not even going to research, you know, on Google. I'm going to go straight on Dropout because I know that whatever I'm going to buy there is cool. Whatever I'm going to buy there is, you know, something that, you know, has been curated for me and it's been, you know, and it's in demand, in fact.

So, you know, that really was what it was about for us. And in order to do that, I think, you know, we really went to look, okay, you know that really was was what it was about for us um and in order to do that i think you know we really went to look okay you know how much does our average spend their spend and where would they be likely to shop and what would their usual uh you know shopping habits you know be like so for example um you know i want to obviously you know mimic sort of specific names but you know we said okay you know if our average product is 300 you know euros for a pair of sneakers then like you know what type of person is buying a 300 per 300 euros per sneakers and which other shops you know would they likely shop at and you know which shops would they probably not shop at so you know started looking at those type of things started seeing you know

what the commonalities were what the themes were you know what type of messaging you know would be employed and you know i think we started not necessarily mimicking those, but we started trying to align our messages with those in order to, you know, as I say, leverage the fact that ultimately, you know, we wanted our consumers to really strongly associate Dropout with a cool place where, you know, it would be just almost normal for them to shop. Have you ever done cross partnerships? Like, hey, you know, brand be just almost normal for them to show but have you ever done cross partnerships like hey you know brand a really is close with us we want to kind of have

that inherited trust from brand a have you ever done partnerships or involvements with them so we've done because we have because we we we have physical spaces spaces we've done collaborations which also include pop-ups from other brands and often the message and the idea is basically the same you know say we have uh you know there's been a for example very strong brand in in the uk at the moment which is called trap star um which i believe is also um you know there's some involvement with rock nation and jc and the us as well and uh you know they they basically saw they looked at the italian public and they said okay you know we're now targeting to young, cool demographic in the UK, in France, in the US.

We'd like to do the same in Italy. And Milan and Dropout is an outlet where this would be reasonable and logical to do. So we hosted pop-ups with brands such as that. And we found that they work really well because people are like, okay, they say, and again, it was one of those where uh certain brands like you know maybe they're popular elsewhere but in italy they're still like the small niche you know of people that are a little bit ahead of the curve and they already know the brand but maybe you know they're a little bit sparse maybe

there's a few people in milan a few people in turin a few people from somewhere else but when they know okay you know physical experience a pop-up is coming in milan they're like okay you know jump at the opportunity, come to Milan, and Dropout serves as the almost aggregator for all of those people to come together. And again, so you leverage the community aspect, you leverage the fact that you have a brand yourself and you have another brand coming from abroad,

and all those people, you reinforce how, okay, Dropout is the place where cool stuff happens. So we've done several of those. We've done at least like you know six or seven um you know we've done every now and then um you know activities sort of uh you know once we took people um to watch a serious game so a football game or rather soccer game you know as you say in the u.s um and we paid for actually people to come in hospitality and the reason why we did that wasn't, there was no financial advantage for us, direct anyway, but there was the element of being able to say,

look, your average just born online only brand is unlikely to be able to bring people to watch soccer game at the stadium in hospitality. So there was that element of brand signaling that we do every now and then. We've taken people on a yacht in Portofino. We paid for people to go in a private minibus from Milan to this place, this luxury destination. And again, it's just about being able to say, look, this is not just about the product that

we sell. It's about what we stand for. It's about the type of brand that we are and it's about being associated with us um you know and i think that that is something that you know ultimately is where the difference happens between you know brands and it's about you know what type of message do you give and you know how will you get people to you know want to associate with your brand because i think again you know we look at the great brands of today you know you have you know you almost develop those personas. You have a Nike persona, you have an Apple persona versus a Samsung persona. The idea, obviously, in a much, much, much, much,

millions times smaller scale for dropout is create something that, okay, I want to be associated with a brand like that because they're able to do cool stuff and I want to be someone who does cool stuff. So I will shop where they are and I will buy, you know, the products that they offer. So I love that it's more about the experience and the identity. The physical product is almost an after effect or an afterthought because it's really about the experience and the identity. So if, because this is, most people aren't doing this.

Most people are trying to do, as you said, lots of sales. They're trying to do Facebook ads. They're trying to just be everywhere all at once. If someone finally realizes, oh, wow, I should do this differently. And what Cole is talking about makes light years of sense, creating this exclusivity. What are the steps or the tools that you've used to say, listen, I'm going to sell X, Y, Z product.

How does that, how does someone begin in that? If they're like, okay, I get it. My product offering is just inefficient. I want to focus more on experience and exclusivity. What are the tools that you would start using? What are the first steps? I think the very first thing always is about, you know, I guess in the industry,

it's probably called an audit, but the reality, I think, you need to know where you stand. You need to know the resources that you have. I think you need to know, you know, as I said earlier, the public, very important and the type of message um you know putting aside the finances you know obviously even though those are clearly key but i'd say um you know you want to know

how much awareness does your brand have and you know how where are you you know where where are you in the in the in the uh potential customers mind at the moment you know are you a you a brand that they'll just buy because you are the cheapest product? Or are they something that they will buy because it's the most quality product? Or is it something that is because they want to be associated with your name? And if you really want to create the name, which I think is basically what we're talking about here, I think it's about trying to understand what type of message will resonate, you know, with your consumer and to us. As I said, you know, we were looking, for example, at, you know, what do young wealthy people look like? And I remember, you know, looking at, you know, thinking, okay, people want to know, want to go

where, you know, where often they cannot be or where their favorite people are. And we looked at this luxury destinations in Italy, which was Portofino, and we said, okay, what is the most efficient way that we can actually take people on a trip there and do something that otherwise they wouldn't be able to do? And then obviously capture content that we'd then be able to repost online. So for us, really, it was about trying to create an experience and then get content from that

experience that would not necessarily resonate but would uh at least uh you know maybe spark something in someone you know in the people that want to be you know like our target consumer if they are not because you know there was two two elements of that one element was okay how are we going to uh let the our target consumer know that we are the type of brand that we are? And secondly, how are we going to let the people that are not there yet, because maybe they can't afford it yet, know that we're this type of brand so that we become an aspirational brand for them so that maybe in the future when they can't afford to shop from us, they will come.

Because maybe some people will grow up thinking, okay, I would love to shop at Dropout, but today I can't. And so it's about targeting both who can be your customer now and also who you think may be able to be your customer tomorrow. For us, really, I think some of this, again, was about knowing the market almost inside out because we are consumers of it and because we are a strong part of communities from it. Otherwise, I would say probably trying to do market research, which may go via hiring third parties or trying to speak with influencers,

with a strong following within the niche, or trying to understand or even create small surveys, actually, at the end of the purchase purchase funnel in your website, I think would be quite useful. And there are certain tools, I would say, even nowadays, even Google and even meta ads actually give you enough data for you to be able to study and understand where, and Google Analytics as well, trying to understand where your public is coming from and, you know, their shopping habits and that, you know, can give you a start. I think, you know, personally, probably the best organic way, in my opinion, is to, you know, if whatever product you're selling can be related to a community, is try and really, really understand

where those communities develop and try really, really as much as possible, you know, to learn right inside those communities so as i said you know nowadays there's a lot of communities on reddit facebook twitter and you know trying to understand those i think really really is the key um certainly you know has been for us um and you know that really is is is where i think you know it is act at really in terms of probably immediate practical steps is really, as I said, trying to understand what the community is and, you know, how you can get involved and, you engage with that community how what have you found that is the most successful do you post daily do you try and answer questions what are you trying to do in that community so that they start looking at you as this elite offer i think an element an element of that would be um you know understanding it first of all uh being useful you know answering questions you know likewise on quora i think you know is a strong part of it um now if there is a specific pain point you know that can be addressed and you know you likewise on Quora, I think, you know, is a strong part of it. Now, if there is a specific pain point, you know, that can be addressed and, you know, you're able to address in that and you can create answers for that, you know, great, even better,

you probably might be able to go on with, you know, almost direct marketing and, you know, even Reddit ads, for example. However, I'd say is more of a, you know, is almost market research and, you know, try and understand, you know, what are market research and uh you know try and understand uh you know what are the commonalities you know that people are um you know displaying you know in in in there and i think uh you know try and asking for you know asking for um you know opinions for example and then trying to leverage those on a natural social media platform which may be you know tiktok maybe instagram for example you, because a very visual platform platforms, I think, you know, is where I will go next. So I would say, you know, you know, sort of ready to market research to understand where you're at,

you know, TikTok and Instagram for the visuals, you know, to provide the visuals. Once you've figured out, I think, you know, the pain points, you can go back to Reddit, you know, asking for direct feedback. I mean, you know, that is sounds reasonable to me. You know, I think you probably do want to do as much organic as possible. Nowadays, probably compared to six years ago, maybe it's a little bit easier to go viral in the sense that almost everyone has the same

chance, in the sense that you don't need to have 100,000 followers, but you need the best content. And I mean the best content, really, because the platforms ultimately, they want you to be able to hook the consumers as much as possible, you know, to stay on their platform. So if you can figure out, you know, what type of content actually is going to hook your target, you know, user on the platform, you know, to watch it, then really that's what you want to do. And I think, again, you know, understanding your public is the best thing that you can do for that.

So, you know, i would do that now the reality is that unless you're doing something that is so innovative that like you know uh there is the community but no one else has done whatever you want to do probably you know i will attach to this something like you know try to understand who's your closest not necessarily competitor but you know similar business and try and see what they are doing and not necessarily copy but you know try and see if there's any specific elements that are recurring in their most successful contents. And, you know, again, repropose those because ultimately, you know, the reality is that almost whatever you're doing, someone else is probably thinking at the same time and, you know,

maybe even proposing. So, you know, I think, you know, it's not unreasonable to try and figure out also how other people are approaching their marketing and see if there's anything that you can, you know, you can learn from them. So when you're doing this and you're doing how many different market strategies you're doing, cause you're trying to go viral, right? And it's significantly easier now than it used to. And you can always, you know, don't reinvent the wheel, take it from someone else. That all makes sense.

When you're doing your own marketing and you're trying to go viral, how many things are you testing at the same time? What are your metrics that you're like, Hey, this one worked. Is it just followers? Is it just views? What are you trying to do in that environment? For us at the same time, we are running now, depending on, you know, the quarter man numbers and depending on the revenue. And also I would say specifically, you know, for our case, because it's a lot about brand building rather than just product focused. I think, you know think if you're focused on product specifically, probably your best bet is actually

almost straight on, try and go for that virality, try and do those social media ads, working out what your ROAS should be and target that and probably scale it up till you have the optimal ROAS and that stuff. But if you're trying to build brand

and continue to build brand and community like we are we always we almost often have something going on for awareness which may be you know a digital campaign like you know it can be meta google ads i know people say and you know there's a lot of controversy as you know the best awareness is the one that's given by sales yes it is however equally if you're really in there for the long term in my opinion you do want to try and get your brand as much as possible in front of people's eyes so that maybe you know in six months time when maybe the person wasn't ready to make the purchase you know will be there's they actually think oh you know i've heard of this brand before and they will be already you know one or two steps closer to converting um so you know if you're really breathing brand and community i think you know, one or two steps closer to converting. So, you know, if you're really breathing brand and community,

I think, you know, focusing on awareness, which may be the digital ads. Personally, you know, we have run digital out of home. So we've actually done billboards. We've done, you know, digital billboards. We've wrapped a tram in Milan once, a huge tram, you know, that was going around for a month. We sponsored, you know, advertising at football games, you know, and a lot of sponsored um uh you know advertising at football games uh you know

and a lot of times you know obviously those are things that you are doing uh for a limited amount of people that physically you know will see those those piece of advertising amongst other hundreds piece of advertising that is every day but it will also allow you to create content for those which you can then use you know in your newsletter you can use use in your website, you can use in your social media. And just to show, again, that your brand is tangible, you're not just necessarily online. And even if you're just online, you can do practical things and that you are something that exists out there.

And that also increases the trust that the average individual has in yourself. Concurrently with this, we usually have something that is a drive-to-store. And again, that is something where you know we do digital advertising which actually has practical and physical you know sort of other pictures of and footage of our physical store we show okay look you know yes you can buy online but actually you know we have physical outlets where you can come and shop and that again you know increases the trust definitely if you have a you know physical store i would say 100 leverage the fact that you have that because not everyone has that. And then we run also

concurrently the usual element of conversion ads. In there, I think you need to work on the creatives and try and find whatever's best. And there you just need to go with the A-B testing. You need to go as many creatives as possible, again, trying to find out

similar businesses, what are they doing, what works, propose something similar, iterate, reiterate, reiterate, and change and see what works best and double down on that. Now, when you spend certain amounts, meta I think is quite helpful in giving you support and teams and whatnot actually can help you optimize further. And the reality, I think, in there is just one thing that is key.

Meta, like TikTok, like Google, ultimately, nowadays, you want to let them do the heavy work. You want to let them do the heavy lifting because they have more data than probably anyone ever had in human history. And they have all the touch points to figure out what's what. So really, I think, try and just focus on the creative see what feedback you get and try to understand you know from the feedback to see if there's anything that you can create and push back in your other marketing for example you know if we see online that all our blue products are doing

better then we know that okay you know blue is what we might want to push in our physical store because you know that's what the data is saying um you know so i think this really is where uh you know i would say conceptually one one need to stand um now probably i think you know the biggest challenge really is the creation of the content that ultimately i think is the difference nowadays you can probably do yourself you know you can get other people within the team to do it or you can do you can hire agencies we serve uh you. We make use of agencies with which essentially we give mood board and our storyline

and our whole aesthetic. And then they go and create and then we decide how best we use their digital assets. But I think really trying to create the best possible creatives is where really it is at. And if I only had, you know, sort of, you know, my last, if I was on my last pennies, you know, I didn't know where to spend them. You know, that's where I would go, you know, creative, sort of try and create the best possible, you know, creative to leverage, you know, our, you know, the assets that we have, which for us, as I i said predominantly is the presence of physical and tangible assets i love that your focus is not on the product but the experience and the community first and you've got to feed towards that and you adapt to that based on data-driven things it's very it's extremely polar opposite to what most people are doing most people are going after price okay i'm going to compete with on price i have the cheapest thing in the world let's try and do that

or i'm going to try and you know know, do their folks, their product focus, your community focus and experience focus. And that's a rare thing. The other thing, the thing that's about you that's rare is in your age group, most people are anti-school. They're anti-university. They're like, this doesn't work for me. You're an individual who's already created this very successful business, but you're

doing something that I don't know anyone else in your age group that's doing. for me. You're an individual who's already created this very successful business, but you're doing something that I don't know anyone else in your age group that's doing that actually for the first time actually agrees with me on this. You're going back to university. You're currently involved in that process and it's not a little university. Tell me more about where you're going, what you're doing and why you decided, even though you've had this level of success, you're going again against the grain and going, I'm going to go over here and then do this. I think, um, you know, certainly also growing up, you know, for me, a lot of this has been about, um, you know, what do I know? And, and, and also, uh, there's always about the unknown unknowns, you know, and the more you learn, I think, and the more you try and keep your eyes open, the more you realize that, okay, you know, I could know more,

or like, you know, there's something else that I could do better. And really, ultimately, it's always about, you know, are you going to go and get someone who can do whatever you can't do, which, you know, very often is the answer, most of the times, exactly the answer, or, you know, are you going to get that knowledge yourself? Now, again, sometimes, obviously can do both but equally uh to me you know i'm a very i'm a person i think it's thirsty you know to for knowledge and i really like studying as well so you know uh aside medical school actually which i studied at king's college london um in in the uk you know medicine is not necessarily a postgraduate degree so you don't need to do a pre-med course. You just do a longer undergrad course. That's what I did.

I also studied some law courses at the London School of Economics. I studied some business courses at Imperial College London. After starting the business, after graduating from medical school as a medical doctor, I completed an MBA as well. So part remote learning, part executive. But it was full MBA master of business administration which I did at University of Birmingham and

which I think again really helped me you know understanding especially the financial aspects things that you know sometimes I think it's not just about you know it's not because

you want to be Superman and know everything but sometimes it's about you know that for a business you know you are going to need to maybe you're not going to need to know any finance but you definitely are going to need to speak with people that you know will be talking about numbers and accounting and whatnot so really you know ideally you want to know what they're talking about and there i

think that um there i think that you know increasing your knowledge in those things is very important so for me doing mba was about um not because i'm going to necessarily going to run 100 of my accounting but knowing you know what i'm being talked about you know what people are talking with me and you know also being able to be more confident you know because i think ultimately uh you know if you are more stressed more worried you know your decision making process will suffer uh but you know if you can increase you know your knowledge and and what you you know and what you you know if you can increase you know your knowledge and and what you you know and what you you know what you're comfortable with then i think that really helps

um again you know i i decided um you know some last year to uh undertake you know further studies especially you know specifically for entrepreneurship and the university of cambridge in the united kingdom offer a full master in entrepreneurship. So I've been practicing, I've been accepted into that. So I'll be starting that from August this year. So I'll be going to King's College, Cambridge. And there, again, it's huge, man. I know you're passing over, you're like,

oh, I've got this degree, I've got this degree, I've got this degree. You're the only person I've ever met because I've lect, I've like, I've lectured at Yale. I'm certified by Harvard. I have these things and we just pass over it. Seeing someone else do the same way I do it. Take a second and celebrate, man. That's huge. Cambridge is huge. And the fact that you're doing it after you've been so radically successful, people would dream just to get to the base of where you are. And you're like, no, there's so much more. This is just the beginning. And to be able to stand in front of people and say, listen, I don't know what I don't know. And I want to be able to stand in front of you confidently and understand what you're

articulating to me. Cause when I sit down and I'm doing real estate deals, or I'm sitting down and doing a business deal and I'm analyzing a business that we're going to scale, that knowledge is mission critical. And being able to have that background, that have it in your back pocket is massive. And having the ability to also have some of these higher name drops, because when people ask me if they should go to university or they should go to college, I'm like, the name matters. I mean, if you go to university of, you know, but fuck no idea where it is, that doesn't matter. You pull Cambridge out of your pocket, you pull Harvard, you pull Yale, you pull those things out of your pocket. It matters. So it, as much as you're building an

identity around an exclusivity around your brand, you able to do that to yourself as well, change the ballgames, the doors that it'll open and the reaction that the audience and the people across the table from you will have with you changes the ballgame. And it also, as you said, for your confidence changes, how you interact with the people across the table. You'll find a community because one of the great things about being at these higher end universities, and you'll be able to experience this intensely is you're going to be dealing with people who are light years smarter than you. And just like you built your business with all these guys that you kind of met in this group and you built this little community. My hallucination is that you're going to connect with people in Cambridge. All of a sudden it's like, Hey, I know you've done this

and I've done this magic thing and you've done this. Okay, cool. We've, we've both done things that no one else has done. Now what's the next step because you're building your network and your network is your net worth. So I've always told people this, you're not going to school just for what you learned. It's nice. It's wonderful. It's helpful, but what it does for you as a human being and the people you connect with and the network you build will make you more money than you possibly understand. So I love that you're going back to school and getting your master's at Cambridge and just do me a favor and celebrate the fact that you're going back to Cambridge, man.

That that's amazing, dude. Seriously. You just got to brush it over. I did this. I did that. I'm like, no, celebrate that. That's it's amazing. It's huge.

Cause I mean, how old are you again? I'm 30 as of last week. Yeah. I'm not talking to you anymore. We're done. Goodbye. I've got 17, 16 years on you. Go away. I'm not talking to you anymore. We're done. Goodbye. I've got 17, 16 years on you. Go away. I'm not talking to you. At 30, I wasn't even thinking about doing half of the things, dude.

So you're, you're crushing it and you're, you're absolutely in the right direction. If someone's listening right now and they're like, I've never even thought about business this way. I've never interacted with business this way. I didn't even understand the exclusivity of inherited trust of having the experience about wow maybe i should look at school and do all that if you if someone has never done this what are the things that you would tell them say okay these are the two things you need to read these are the three things you need to do or if you're stuck in your business here are those things what are the things that you're like oh my god i've got access to cola what would i actually tell people i think you know

it might almost sounds very cliche, but to me, I think, you know, really the fundamentals and the basics are quite important. And actually, I think, um, you know, if there's only one thing, you know, that I would, um, you know, I think someone could practically do to me is about, you know, again, trying and, you know, increase your, your knowledge base. You know, uh, if you have access to the internet, like, you know, most, the majority of people do, um, even more so, you know access to the internet like you know most the majority of people do um even more so you know within the business setting and the business world is you know try and find out um i'd say you know what um sort of you know i would say what is you know where you are lacking in

confidence and you know what is um you know actually, you know, is stopping you from doing that next step. And, you know, just research that, you know, as a starting point. I would say, you know, really is about, you know, anything that you can do that will increase your confidence is a start, you know, in my opinion. Now, you know, moving on, I think there's certainly an element of, you know, how do you usually learn? And, you know, for me, a lot of learning is about having a structured approach, which clearly comes from having studied a lot at university, having studied a lot in general.

And I think there, for me, doing the structured courses really helped. But again, I'm very aware that a lot of the things that I learned in the MBA, you can pick up online, like on a free YouTube video, like on podcasts. You don't need the whole degree.

But are you going to leverage your network? You or may not you know if you do those things online if you have other ways of you know expanding your networks and you know you can learn everything online and you want to save on the fees money by all means absolutely but you know do something and you know again those are the things that i think you need um you know so you know try and increase your knowledge initially you know try and increase your network 100%. And I think it's one of the most important things, you know, and again, you know, try and connect with people that, you know, you think may help you. I think ultimately, you know, for me, you know, the businesses I did with, well, the

business I did with, you know, people that I met online, literally, like, you know, met online, like, you know, you might meet people, you know, from all walks of life, you know, you never know. But, you know, I think just being open, open-minded all walks of life, you know, you never know, but, you know, I think just being open, open-minded, I think really, really, really, really is important, really helps. And that, you know, I would say, you know, sort of the concepts at least that I would say, you know, you might want to reflect on if you are, you know, thinking about starting a business, but no, don't know where to go. Are there certain books that you're like, these are my Bibles. These, These are, I love these more than anything else.

Are there certain ones that resonate with you more than anything? I think conceptually, you know, again, I would say Shoe Dog by Phil Knight. So they created it on Nike. It's very, very, very good book. I think he expresses, actually, I think, I can't remember if it's a biography or an autobiography. Nevertheless, probably a biography. Nevertheless, I mean, you know, it explores well, I mean, the thought process, you know, again, Steve Jobs, you know, biography, I think, again, you know, experience well the

thought process. Rich Dad Poor Dad, I think, is an interesting way into, you know, understanding, you know, the pitfalls, perhaps, of how accounting and finance is usually viewed, you know, the pitfalls perhaps of how accounting and finance is usually viewed, you know, from people that don't really necessarily have backgrounds within those disciplines. And those, I would say, probably, you know, are some, you know, I've read 48 Laws of Power, which also, you know, I probably would recommend. But equally, I think the reality is that there's no, to me, one size fits all. I think it really depends on, you know, what really resonates with you. You know, what type of individuals are you?

You know, what type of, you know, to me, you know, like Shoe Dog and those books, they're very, you know, they're very almost, you know, immediate answers. Because, you know, you're working in, you know, in streetwear, in fashion. I mean, Nike is like the, you know, the staple of like, you know, of, you know, business, really. You know, you're talking a lot about, you know. You're talking a lot about, I'm talking a lot about branding and experience. I mean, Apple is the ones that did it better than anyone else in history. They're amazing.

So those really are the people. And the reality, I think, probably these are the ones for me, but I would say conceptually, you might want to find whoever's done the very best of what you want to do and go and, you know, see what you can learn, you know, from, from not necessarily the specific steps, because

they may not apply to your circumstances, but at least conceptually, I think that would be always a start. So you're going to university, you're doing your next round. What's next for you? What is the next go? What are your plans that, you know, I've got all this knowledge, I've got all this experience. What is the next journey for you? I think, you know, to me, the next journey, there's no specific, like, oh, you know, my five-year plan is, you know, opening whatever AI company.

No, none of that. I think, you know, I certainly am someone who I like to improve myself and, you know, better myself as a person and certainly studying, you know, goes towards that. You know, business opportunities, you know, will come around. You know, I have obviously experience within different fields, retail, you know, healthcare, you know, also artificial intelligence and data analysis. You know, I will certainly take a look. But, you know, there's nothing specific as such.

To me, really, it's about, you know, improving myself and, you know, expanding my knowledge, expanding my network, because those are the things that make me happy. And ultimately, you know, I live life to be happy. You know, I don't really have the blueprint for happiness, but I think I have the, you know, I know what happiness looks like for me. And, you know, that's what really I work towards continuously. So if the audience wants to get ahold of you and they want to reach you, or they want to

find out more about your brand and how you did it, where can they find you online? What's the best way to get in touch to see what you've done? I think for me, you know, the best ways would be probably LinkedIn. So, you know, call a title on LinkedIn, so name, so name. You know, also really, you know, my Instagram profile, I log pretty much every day, you know, which is again, I'd call a title, so name, so name, you know, with no spaces. And, you. And here also you find my email contacts, which will be cola at dropoutmilano.com. And I'm always open to a chat or discussing potential opportunities,

as well as, I mean, by no means I'm a wildly successful person, but I think I'm always open to sharing what I did and my thought process and exploring other people's thought processes and see if there's any synergies or if there's anything that, you know, could be done together or explore together. And I think really, you know, ultimately, that's what I'm here for. I think, you know, we can all help each other. I think, you know, we can all learn from each other. So, you know, I'm definitely, you know, someone who's out there and who's open to, you know, to conversation for sure. I really appreciate it.

You've scaled in a way that most people have never even thought of. And the fact that you're continuing to invest in your education and invest in you, I wish more people would do it. Honestly, if I could go back 20 years, I'd be doing the exact same thing you're doing. I'd continue to expand my network. I continue to expand my knowledge. I'd be honest about where my, my weaknesses are and I would just go into it without any sort of ego.

Like, okay, let's scale this and go from there. I really appreciate it, man. Thank you so much for being on the show. Thank you for having me. That's a wrap on another deep dive here on the show. Today, we had the pleasure

of sitting down with Cola Teitler, the visionary entrepreneur behind Dropout Milano. I hope you found his insights into crafting an exclusive, experience-driven brand as intriguing and valuable as I did. A massive thank you to Kola for generously sharing his time and wisdom. Your relentless pursuit of learning and innovation is nothing short of inspiring. For those looking to dig deeper into the concepts discussed today,

we created the companion guide exclusively for Cola. In this detailed guide, we distill the key takeaways from of how to build based off exclusivity and experience, offering actionable strategies and resources to elevate your brand today. Until next time, keep experimenting, keep implementing, and keep scaling.