Hosted By

Rabah Rahil
CMO at Triple Whale

Guests

Marcus Milione
Building Minted New York and Minted Health.

The Customer Experience Is The MOST Important Thing

In this episode we sit down with Marcus Milione and go over why the customer is right even if they are wrong. #ROAS

Notes & Links

šŸ¦ Follow us on Twitter for Industry insights https://twitter.com/triplewhale

Follow the people featured in this episode here:

- Rabah's Twitter: https://twitter.com/rabahrahil

Transcription

Marcus Milione (00:00:00):

A couple times I have been taking the city bike down the west side path and I will pass someone like holding up their chains, like yelling at me. Like these are meant, these are, it's a it's insane man. It's, it's actually insane. It's so it feels so good and like very lucky to have like such a supportive community behind me that, uh, yeah. I mean like experiences like that is just top 10.

Rabah Rahil (00:00:32):

All right. Folks. We're back episode 43. And boy, we got a screamer, the fashion icon, the, tik tok star, the pre-workout magician, Marcus Maloney. How are you?

Marcus Milione (00:00:43):

I am well, how are you?

Rabah Rahil (00:00:45):

I'm fantastic, man. I'm so happy. Uh, we have a mutual, uh, friend, Tommy on my head of social and, uh, he's a big fan boy of yours and I am now second fan boy of yours. Uh, everything you do is just turns to gold and I've just been such a, such a huge fan. So I'm really excited to have you on the pod.

Marcus Milione (00:01:03):

Well, uh, I certainly appreciate you having me on it's. It's actually funny. Like I feel how we got linked up. Right. Cause I had had Twitter, I guess, for just personal scrolling for so long and I had never really used it. And then I started like tweeting or reading tweets from people in kind of the direct to consumer space and then saw you guys and then started like to interact a little bit. And it's just kind of like grown into this, this whole thing now <laugh>

Rabah Rahil (00:01:30):

Oh, the bird app, the bromance is strong. Um, yeah, I am in Austin, Texas as always at market HQ. Where's this podcast find you today? Marcus?

Marcus Milione (00:01:39):

I am here in Manhattan, New York where I live, uh, and run the business outta my apartment.

Rabah Rahil (00:01:46):

Oh, cool. Oh, cool. How long have you been in New York?

Marcus Milione (00:01:49):

Uh, moved up here around October of 2017. Um, okay. And been here ever since. Yeah.

Rabah Rahil (00:01:56):

Where'd you move from?

Marcus Milione (00:01:58):

I was born in, uh, Pennsylvania and then very early on, we moved to Virginia. Um, yeah, cause of my dad's work and have been in Virginia ever since, went to school in Philadelphia though. So kinda like right outside Philly.

Rabah Rahil (00:02:13):

Cool. That's awesome. Yeah, I, uh, I'm a Midwest boy born and bred myself where I was, uh, Arizona born, but uh, pretty much grew up in the Indiana. Um, okay. So you're super well known for a few things. One, I kind of wanna touch on your fashion stuff, which is really cool, but two, you have a pretty amazing kind of, so I'm rocking it now, little minted gear, but you have kind of a two-prong approach here and one's kind of really interesting, but how did you tell us for the people that don't know a little bit about minted and then how you got into it?

Marcus Milione (00:02:43):

So, man, it's tough, right? Uh, I was, it was, this was around the beginning of the pandemic, right? Yep. Um, my brother and I, we had heard the, we had both, we were both working like corporate jobs at the time and we had been sent home, uh, both of us actually the, the day before because people were getting sick and people didn't really know what was going on. So we were like, all right, let's just take a long weekend at my parents house in Virginia. Yep. And ended up like, so I packed for three days, ended up staying for a year. And um, it wa at one point it was me, my brother and my sister, everybody home working around the dining room table. Like all of us had our multiple monitors, like set up everything. And, uh, I was kind of going stir crazy a little bit.
Yeah. Um, because I had no creative outlet really. Um, so I started to just create content on, on social media. Yeah. Um, main, mainly TikTok and like, didn't really know what I was doing. I mean, half my videos, I was, I would go to, uh, I would go do these 30 minute walks at lunch, like just to, you know, keep my body moving. And I would just talk to the camera essentially. Like I, I had really no idea, like what kind of content I wanted to make or what, like, if there was a theme or, and then like slowly kind of started talking about things. I was passionate about. It started in kind of like fitness and then moved into fashion. Right. And at the time I had always worn 18 inch chains around my neck. And these, I had made in the diamond district in, uh, New York city for me specifically, because I couldn't find this length, um, for men, right.
Generally 18 inches is sold as a women's chain, but the, the women's chains are super fine and I felt they would break. So I went, so I went a little bit thicker and people kept asking about the chains on, on, in my TikTok comments. And like, I've always kind of had this like entrepreneurial spirit, whatever I was like, I wonder if I could spin up a Shopify store and just kind of make a, I was like, I'll make, I'll make 15 sets and then we'll see what happens. And one thing leads to the next. Now I'm doing it full time. But, um, yeah, I mean, mainly just, just, uh, on social media specifically started around me talking about stuff. I'm passionate about love, uh, fitness. I love fashion for me specifically, uh, fashion kind of serves as both a creative outlet and just a, a way to, for, to explore different time periods honestly, and, and kind of see how I can bring those time periods. Maybe back a bit modern.

Rabah Rahil (00:05:25):

Yeah. Yeah. You're seventies guy. You, the seventies look does really well on you. It's uh, you're a big guy too. You're a unit. I was checking you're like what? 600 something like that. Right.

Marcus Milione (00:05:35):

I am pushing six, three, uh, around like 190 pounds. Most of, most of the time. Yeah. Yeah.

Rabah Rahil (00:05:42):

Well, cuz you were a bit of a lacrosse star too, right?

Marcus Milione (00:05:46):

Uh, I, I don't know if star is the right word, but I did play, um, I played in college. Uh, yeah. I played at a school called St. Joe's. They actually just had their first, uh, NCAA attorney bid, um, last, last weekend. And, uh, it was, I mean it was grueling. Like I'm not even gonna lie to anybody. Like you are not only working in school full time, but you are, you know, most of the time around three to four hours a day of either gym, like weight room and practice. Right. And it's very much, uh, a mental battle as much as it is a physical battle. And like, I think kind of where it benefits me is just, um, being able to stick to almost a long term vision and like not being caught up with like, oh, I don't see success kind of right away, you know? Yeah. Just kind like grind it out every single day.

Rabah Rahil (00:06:41):

Yeah. There's a certain weirdness of delayed gratification. I, I was also an athlete and uh, at uni for a couple years and man, I don't, I don't know if I'd really recommend it unless you won love the sport or two actually legitimately like have a chance to go pro cuz it was to your point, dude. It's so hard. We, I ran and so we would do morning runs middle of the day, we'd work out and then evening practices and like during hard training sessions, dude, you're just wrecked. And now you're supposed to expect you to go study or go to class and like, all you wanna do is sleep. And um, yeah, it's a big, it's a big commitment and challenge and I mean, lacrosse is kind of same. It's it's essentially like hockey, but Ru without skates where you're just super physical, super cardio, um, a lot of, kind of just knickknack kind of hurts where you just tape it up, rub some dirt on it kind of stuff where it's super intense sport.

Marcus Milione (00:07:33):

Yeah. I mean like, like you said, you kind of just become okay with this perpetual state of my body's a bit broken down, but we're gonna push it and see what happens. Right. <laugh> and you know, like at the time it's, it's not that enjoyable. Right. But, but it's now like, like I've trans kind of current transition to just distance running now and kind of trying to push that as hard as I can. And just like the days where the mileage, uh, starts to build up and I can lean it's it's, I'm doing it with my brother who also played in my same division in college. So we played against each other, but both of us being used to just being worn pretty much since, you know, high school, just training like this, it, uh, it benefits us now, but I'll tell you what I, there were days man, where all I wanted to do was sleep. I remember going home on, uh, on holidays to my parents' house and I, I would take four or five naps a day. I, I was just so spent and you don't realize it.

Rabah Rahil (00:08:32):

Yep. Especially too, like to your point, once you take the stimulus out and you can sleep, dude, you're, that's, all you're doing is sleeping now. I'm with you. We would, uh, and we, we kind of indulged in a little bit of, uh, you know, good times as well. So we would go, we had on our Sundays, uh, this feels like so old man on my lawn kind of stuff, but it's fun, uh, on Sundays was our long run. So for people that don't know know in like division one, you can PR you can't practice seven days a week, but your week or your day off, doesn't have to be a specific day. And so our coach made it off on our day off, were on Mondays. So people wouldn't go out and party on Saturday. Um, and so our long runs were on Sunday and I mean, me and the other guy, we were actually pretty good.
Um, we would just go get blasted dude, and then we'd go park in the morning cuz the runs would be at like six or six 30. We'd just go park in the morning and they would knock on our windows like our teammates and we'd get up and just crank off 13 miles. It's like youth and kind of to your point, like just the, the mental fortitude that we had there that we had back then was just, uh, insurmountable. And so there, there's definitely a lot of takeaways from that. Is that what you missed? And that's why you got into marathoning. Cause that's a, that's also another, it's pretty brutal distance running can be, I can speak or experience. It can really wear you down, especially for a big guy, man. It's a, it's a lot of pounding.

Marcus Milione (00:09:49):

So, you know, it's funny, my brother and I both, uh, swore off ever running more than about a mile or two after we graduated. And um, for me, I miss the competitive side of it. Mm-hmm <affirmative> and the thing I like about, uh, distance running, especially like, you know, there, there are people that distance run and they just do it for enjoyment and they race or they, you know, they do the races for the atmosphere and stuff like that. And that's, you know, great. Right. But I take it as a challenge to myself, like how far can we push it? And I was never, we had this, um, when I was in school, we had this two mile conditioning test mm-hmm <affirmative> where, uh, we had to run two miles in under 12 minutes and looking back at it now I'm like, it's embarrassing that I could never do it. But um, I remember just being so miserable running, so I have this weird, uh, like draw to things that are extremely difficult. And so I was like, you know what, I'm going to sign up for a half marathon. I wanna run in under an hour 30. Yeah. And so my, my, I put in like put in my first block of training ever, like probably two and a half, three years ago now. Okay.
Ran like a 1 37. Um, but I, then I was like kind of hooked. I was like, this is all right. I, but now I know what's gonna happen because like it's only gonna get more and more intense. Like training's only like I, I ran that on, I think 25 miles a week. Yeah. Yeah. So then like there was a period there where I was only really running like two miles to warm up before the gym. And then, uh, my brother and I are, are looking at each other. We're like, let's sign up for the New York city half. Or we, we signed up for a San Diego half. And so we did a weird training block. It wasn't, it wasn't like a, it wasn't following a schedule. Um, yeah, but we were trying to do one long run a week, some shorter runs, whatever we go out to San Diego, I'm like, I have to run a sub one 30 now I'd been like documenting the training on TikTok stuff.
Get there. The last two miles of this course were uphill. Yeah. And I'm training in Manhattan. So I don't have a whole lot of hill experience and I get humbled. Right? Yeah. Like bees, they blew my quads up, like so bad. I ran a 1 31 thought I was gonna black out. And um, <laugh> and so my brother didn't run one 30 either. And then we got back and we were, we were, we were hooked and we were like, all right, we're signing up to the New York city half. So, but I look at him, I'm like now it's we gotta go. Let's find the hardest training plan we can, we can do. So we found one that was 70 miles a week. And I was like, I think we'll probably get overuse injury doing that. Yeah. That's so lot. So we did one that was, uh, we peaked at 56 miles a week. So we start really hammering and the growth that I saw, um, when I started that plan to, when I ran the half, I finished it, I think like 1 22 let's

Rabah Rahil (00:12:52):

Go kids,

Marcus Milione (00:12:53):

But like the, the growth in speed and just like overall aerobic endurance was insane. Like toward the end I tested my B2 max and was like right around 71. And I was like, all right, well now we've got something here. So we ran that now what's next. So it's like, all right, I guess we're doing a marathon and I know this, like we're now we're base building, but I know this training, block's gonna be terrible. We're doing 70 a week. And it's just, yeah. It's like, it's almost, uh, it's an addiction to see like how uncomfortable I, I can make myself, I think.

Rabah Rahil (00:13:28):

Yeah. Yeah. I love that for people that don't know a marathon is 26.2 miles and a half is 13.1. So it's pretty brutal. It's uh, I, I I'll, I'll F around and jump into a 5k or 10 K every now and then, but that's pretty, you can pretty much do that with, especially too once you've been there mentally, it's all, it's all mental, but halfs and holes are not mental <laugh> you will fall like you, you need to have the training. That's incredible, man. That's how do you you're so yolked though. How do you keep the weight on,

Marcus Milione (00:14:00):

Uh, man, I eat eat time. Uh, so I mean, listen, uh, starting like 2017 is when I really started to dial in my diet. Um, me, my brother and my best friend, Tyler Cleggett. Like we, we did our first ever like cut into summer mm-hmm <affirmative> and so we really started to understand macro micronutrients, you know, uh, how it's like playing into our physiques and everything. Yep. And so since then it's been like weighing out food pretty much, you know, all the time since now, I, I can look at food and understand, you know, nowhere what the proportion is and how much it'll weigh about, but it's just super regimented dieting. Um, but I, I think people kind of conflate that and they hear dieting as like a negative for me that my body has become so used to it that if I, I do end up like just going completely off track and eating a bunch of junk food, like I run the risk of having crazy stomach problems, mid run. Yeah. And then like, I U ran, you do not want that. So it becomes more of a performance thing. So it's just keeping protein intake super high to try to avoid muscle wasting and making sure you're eating back your calories that you're burning.

Rabah Rahil (00:15:11):

I love that, man. That's incredible. <laugh> um, switching gears a little bit and I promise people we'll get to the e-commerce all the fun stuff, but, um, have you always been so fashionable or was that something that just took off? Um,

Marcus Milione (00:15:23):

Not really. Um, I'd say it probably came to be, uh, around the time I moved to New York city. Right. Okay. Um, the

Rabah Rahil (00:15:33):

Culture

Marcus Milione (00:15:34):

And this isn't like this isn't like a knock on my parents or anything, but, uh, it always felt, uh, kind of hard to experiment with different types of, um, outfits or fashion when I was at home also to like just having more disposable income to mess around fair play, like fair play. Yeah. On that makes it a little bit easier. Right. Um, and so once I got here was kind of immersed in, you know, Manhattan and just the culture around where I was living. And I think the beauty of it is how many different cultures are like just in a melting pot here. It's amazing. Right. Um, so, so you're pulling inspiration from, from everything around you, you know, just like going to walk to the grocery store, you see a bunch of different stuff and you're like, well, I could try something like that.
See how it fits. And at the, at the end of the day, like I think everybody probably goes through a phase where they are on the Instagram Explorer page and they start trying out, you know, a bunch of stuff, they see people wearing. Yeah. And that's fun. Like, that's fine. You know, there is no knocking that because people have to find their style, but I think people will make a huge stride in personal style when they start to understand how a garment actually lays on your specific body. Right. Because interesting. Some people like I, and I talk about this a lot and I talked about this in one of my, my biggest videos on the platform is like, there, there is the whole St. Laurent aesthetic. Right. Yeah. And for people that don't know the St Laurent aesthetic, it's very much like rocker guy, skinny, tight, everything fits like that.
Yeah. I can't ever wear that cause my thighs are way too big. Right. Yeah. But if I was just trying to fit a trend or an aesthetic, I would try to fit into those pieces and it would, the proportions would look terrible. Right. So generally, because of legs specifically, I have to wear, uh, you know, a wider cut or something with like pleats just to make the, to round off the overall look of, of garments. And, um, yeah, once I started to play with proportion is when I feel like I made huge strides in just learning how to dress myself better instead of just, you know, seeing things and trying it because you saw somebody do it,

Rabah Rahil (00:17:46):

Dude, that just blew my mind. Yeah. You had a, a pretty fancy spread in, uh, GQ. Right. You had a,

Marcus Milione (00:17:52):

Uh,

Rabah Rahil (00:17:53):

Whole thing in there. It's pretty cool.

Marcus Milione (00:17:55):

You know, it's yeah. I mean, it's interesting. I didn't know about it until, uh, one of the people commented on one of my videos that it was there no way. So I went, yeah. I went looking for it and then, um, didn't even know it existed, saw it. And then, uh, actually like looked up the writer and uh, I sent him a DM on Instagram. I was like, oh, I like, I appreciate, you know, you featuring me here. And, uh, you know, he wrote some, some nice words back, but yeah, I was, I mean, totally random. I had no idea what was coming

Rabah Rahil (00:18:26):

Amazing. Okay. Let's wrap up the main segment. Um, what's the nicest thing someone's ever done for you?

Marcus Milione (00:18:33):

Oh man. Um, I think that it would have to be the, I, I, I am always appreciative of how my parents raised me. Like they, the way that they encourage me to always just chase, you know, if it's something that like set your heart on fire, or you felt passionate about do it, you know, they tried to introduce me to a lot of things in the arts specifically when I was younger, you know, like piano, stuff like that. And like at the time it just, it, I don't think I was in the right frame of mind to learn it, but they were always willing to support me in that way, if I wanted to, to chase after it and, you know, gimme resources to try and be good at it. And, uh, I'll be forever grateful for that. I always talk to them about like, how can I, you know, hopefully I have kids one day, how can I try to replicate that in the best way possible? Cuz it was, I think a huge, you know, uh, confidence boost for me,

Rabah Rahil (00:19:30):

Shout out mom and dad. Fantastic.

Marcus Milione (00:19:32):

Shout out mom and dad.

Rabah Rahil (00:19:35):

Um, alright folks time for the value add segment. This is the reason you bought the ticket. Okay. Give people kind of a, a skinny on minted, cuz you have a two-prong approach with minted, right? Cause you have your health supplements, your pre-workout and then you have your apparel business. But the apparel business is also off a drop, which you're seeing here. It was kind enough to give me some of the goodness. Um, but give people that don't know kind of the skinny on that. And just so the elevator pitch behind both.

Marcus Milione (00:20:00):

So there is minted New York, um, and that is all things apparel as well as precious metal jewelry. So we do deal in, uh, Sterling. You're

Rabah Rahil (00:20:10):

Still doing to change.

Marcus Milione (00:20:12):

Oh yeah. Big, big part business. Um, yeah. You know, it's, it's tough just because I, I feel like I try to talk about all the new stuff we're doing, but yeah. We still, you know, deal in everything, you know, from jewelry to apparel and then there's uh, minted athletics, which is like a subset is what you're wearing right now is a subset of minted New York. Um, and then to tie into that it's uh, minted health, which is sports, nutritional supplements right now only have, you know, two flavors of pre-workout just because product formulation and getting that right. Takes a lot, a long time plus it's capital intensive. Yeah. And um, I think for me, you know, I'm extremely lucky to be working in these two fields. Cause it's both things I'm passionate about. Right. So when it comes to either putting in like really long hours or to, uh, you know, have to work on the weekends or just like all, all the time, it's, it's something I'd be doing anyway. I'm just lucky enough to be doing it full time, you know?

Rabah Rahil (00:21:13):

Yeah. I love that, man. What, uh, why the drop model for the apparel biz? Is it just easier to like, like the scarcity, like the stuff's amazing, like for people that don't know, the hoodies are just absolutely first, right? This running shirt is one of my favorites. Um, the cuts are amazing. The fabrics are amazing. The, the, the colors you have are so cool. Like I want one of those you gave me the Navy and you gave me the green is my favorite to be fair. The green is gorgeous, but, um, is it just again like a capital thing or is it more of like a Supreme model or like why the drop model?

Marcus Milione (00:21:47):

So, uh, as I, I had mentioned a little earlier, we started with just those, those packs of jewelry. Right? Yep. And, um, so it's been a product of both me having to bootstrap and not having ton of working capital. Yep. And uh, also like probably best problem to have. I can't keep things stocked. Right. Yeah. So, um, like it's not a drop model by design. This is just how it's worked out. Um, yeah. It we've just grown from like packs of chains, roll all cash into next, you know, set of products and just like continue to roll this ball. And like the pro the releases have gotten bigger and bigger, bigger just because our, our pool of working capital has increased over time. Yeah. But I mean, yeah, the, the, the, the best problem and, but it is still a problem is we can't keep stuff stocked. I have talked in the past how I would like to have, uh, some stuff, you know, stocked 24 7 like year round, just, yeah, yeah. You know, more, maybe more of like a, a line of, uh, basics, stuff like that, but also, you know, there's, there's that type of apparel and there's also, you know, the higher end stuff that we're making here in New York city by hand. So planning like a fashion show, all of that stuff, all of it just it's a time intensive. <laugh> it's time intensive.

Rabah Rahil (00:23:09):

Amazing. Did you, so one of the other things, and I, I promise this won't be all grab assing, but, um, the other thing that you did so well, like the box and the unboxing, and like, was that experience top of mind for you? Or were you just like, Hey, throw it to a designer and it just came out amazing. Cuz the box is incredible. The unboxing experience is incredible. Like everything feels very well thought out when I got that package is that obviously that's by design. Right. What, what were you thinking when you were, uh, like creating this experience for people? Cause it's amazing.

Marcus Milione (00:23:42):

So, um, you know, to this day, majority of that stuff runs through me. Um, we have, uh, on the design side I do, I have a graphics designer I work, uh, with, but nothing on the packaging end. And we also have, um, he is a student, but he works for us, you know, all, all the time, his name's clay, legendary designer of garments and accessories. I encourage people to check him out. He's crazy talented. But uh, yeah. So I, I have, uh, become obsessed with the way Steve jobs looked at packaging. Yeah. Right. Like I'm sure if you're an apple person, you most likely have one of their boxes laying around because you feel a visceral reaction to not throw it out. Right. And it's like, why is that? Right. Um, and so there is a whole entire experience around opening an item that you are anticipating.
Right. I remember reading about the way Steve jobs described those apple boxes and like that air pocket is by design yeah. Right. To slow you down and build anticipation. And so I try to, you know, look at people that have had success like that and see like, what was the mental behind this? And, um, and right now, um, we, we just got a sample back of a, a pair of sunglasses and uh, I'm starting to formulate the idea around the packaging there. And it's like how I always want there to be, you know, customer experience and customer satisfaction is the, the really, the only thing that matters to me, right? Like at the end of the day, if I can provide higher quality packaging, it's gonna make that experience better. I have to do it. Even if it cuts into margin, like that's almost your obligation as a business owner is to make sure your customer is satisfied because they took their time, traded it for money and then ultimately chose to spend that money on your product. And you now owe them a good experience. I think personally that's kind of like my, my mantra there. So, um, packaging, I just, I just try to, to make it, you know, good enough and constantly improving. Right. Like I said, we, and we're constantly under working capital constraint cuz I just am always rolling cash. But um, you know, that's just, uh, product of being, you know, taking, having taken no outside funding and just trying to kind of be as scrappy as possible.

Rabah Rahil (00:26:07):

I love that, man. I love that kind of mantra of, it's almost your obligation to provide that best in class experience, especially kind of when you're in that, you know, luxury tier, if you will, where this stuff isn't cheap, nor is it, um, you know, lower quality. It is in that kind of value for value higher level, um, type of quality. So I love that you have that mentality because it is, it was where I, speaking of thrown away, I still, I hate like trash and stuff or not trash, that's a pejorative, but like stuff around. And I still have the box here over in the corner cause I can't bring myself like I can't thread out yet. I'm like, well maybe I'll just keep it or I'll just, I'll figure something out for it very much. So in the apple, um, vein, so you absolutely succeeded there. That's amazing.

Marcus Milione (00:26:50):

That's great to hear

Rabah Rahil (00:26:52):

What are the best parts and hardest parts of running minted?

Marcus Milione (00:26:57):

Um, you know, I think probably the hardest thing is the, is the working capital constraint. Yeah. Um, almost because I, I, there are days I wrestle with it cause I think, you know, we could be growing faster and then at the same time, like we could be growing faster if we took outside capital and at the same time, you know, growing at your pace is not a bad thing. And also, you know, I'm in full control right now. Yes. Right. So, um, I, I am calling the shots and I've steered the ship to where we're at, you know, good enough so far. Yeah. That, um, I think just, I need to keep going this way and maybe, you know, growing slower than I, I could be, uh, just because we're still very much, um, you know, it's just me, my brother and clay. Right. <laugh> so we're, we're very much just hands on with all of our customers. I never, and I never want that to, um, kind of go away at all. Yeah. You know, I'm still emailing, emailing customers myself, just because things happen and I gotta make 'em. Right. You know?

Rabah Rahil (00:28:12):

Yeah, absolutely. And what's the best parts.

Marcus Milione (00:28:17):

Uh, man, I, I don't even know where to begin. Right. I am 27. I'm working with my brother full time, like here in New York city, extremely blessed to be in this situation. Um, I, I, I get emails from customers about, you know, how much they like the product and it's like to create a tangible product like that in a, in a different way than, you know, maybe like a software or something like something that people are wearing or I'll get DMS of people taking pictures of random people in my stuff like around the world. And it just, it's such a crazy feeling that I don't even really know how to describe it. It just it's, it's a huge blessing, you know?

Rabah Rahil (00:29:00):

Yeah. I was gonna say there is something. So I think, uh, I think a business is in two ways, right? Like bits and atoms and bits are just better because of margins and the economics are just fantastic. You don't have marginal costs, things like that, but there's something like the payoff in atoms is so interesting, especially when you're in something like apparel or something where it's like, not only did I make it and design that, that human gave me money and not only did they give me money, like they're proud to put this thing on and like peacock in it is that that has to be top 10 fillings of just like, this is sensational. Like it's fantastic. Like we, when I see people with triple well screenshots and stuff that makes me smile or like, oh, we're making more money cuz we're using triple that's fantastic.
But we do have some merch coming. So possibly I will get that, that feeling soon of, uh, seeing people repping the, the, uh, triple oil. But yeah, there has to be something really, really deep and visceral to that. Uh, just hits you really home where it's like, especially cuz it's intimate. Like you're literally wearing it on your body. Like it it's it's as intimate as it gets even more so than like a cell phone or something where it's hidden most of the time, it's like, um, same with the jewelry, right? Like the jewelry and the peril. But the jewelry's gonna be harder a little bit to suss out that that's minted sometimes where it's like, man, you know that that's the minted dye or like the way you guys have your colorways are so, so unique that um, yeah, I can definitely vibe with that. I love it.

Marcus Milione (00:30:23):

It, it's funny you say that about the jewelry cuz uh, a couple times I have been taking the city bike down the west side path and I will pass someone like holding up their chains, like yelling at me like these are it's it's insane, man. It's actually insane. It's so it feels so good and like very lucky to have like such a supportive community behind me that uh, yeah. I mean like experiences like that is just top 10.

Rabah Rahil (00:30:52):

I love it. Um, do you, so like how do you see the expansion going and then do you see any like collabs in the future? Like if you could do collab with somebody who would it be either brand or person?

Marcus Milione (00:31:03):

Uh, so I have, uh, on the collapse front, I am speaking with a few, I don't know how much I'm allowed to say

Rabah Rahil (00:31:11):

No breaking use yet.

Marcus Milione (00:31:13):

Yeah. Yeah. Can't uh, upset anybody, but yeah. Uh, it's, it's tough. Cause there, there is some stuff in the works. Uh, I just, um, I don't wanna, I don't wanna spoil anything yet love, but it, it would, it would be, I guess if you think about it, it would be very much, uh, up our alley on the running side of things. Yep. Uh, and the athletic wear side of things love it. And uh, ex as far as expanding goes, I will most likely host a pop up in New York city. Um, this summer, um, sick, like the only thing holding us back right now is our inability to keep inventory on hand. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so I'm trying to set some aside so we could host the proper popup and uh, and then just, you know, keep expanding product lines. We have, um, we have a couple different manufacturers that we work with.
One of them being on like a huge scale. Like if I could, I don't want to name brands they do work with, but they're, they're working with like the, the big players and you know, I think I kind of had to weasel my way in because when I first started that conversation, they looked at our website and it was locked and they said <laugh>, I don't think, I, I don't think you're the right size. And I pretty much had to like beg and plead and tell them like, I can hit your minimums. Like I promise, just give me a shot here. And we have some, they have crazy capabilities as far as like technical fabrics and stuff. So we're really, we're really pushing on a lot of, um, the athletic wear as well and a ton of other, a ton of other stuff. And then into the high, high fashion space, we will, we'll put on a fashion show here probably within the next 12 months. I'm thinking probably end of winter in New York city. So that'll be a full collection, um, of garments myself and, uh, clay are working on that right now.

Rabah Rahil (00:33:03):

Are you gonna, uh, be one of the models or no,

Marcus Milione (00:33:06):

No, no, no. You won't walk. Listen, I, I just, I just wanna, I just wanna be behind the scenes. I will, uh, I'll I'll hire models from agencies and let them do their thing. Um, okay. Fair enough. You know, I, I, I prefer to be in the background just working, you know, uh, you know, it's, it's not, it would be cool I guess, but uh, yeah, not, I don't, I'm not gonna walk. I'm not gonna walk

Rabah Rahil (00:33:30):

Too meta too meta. I get it. I get it too

Marcus Milione (00:33:32):

Meta, too. Meta <laugh> maybe on live, stream it on like TikTok live or something. No.

Rabah Rahil (00:33:37):

Oh, that would be great idea. Actually. Great idea. Boom. Yeah. Um, what was the Genesis for the pre-workout? Cause that's kind of a big jump from, I mean, obviously it's not a huge jump because you're such a fitness buff, but ultimately you have this huge play in fashion, all this, and then now you're moving into, uh, consumables, that being supplements. What was the, what was the thinking there?

Marcus Milione (00:34:01):

So, uh, the original thesis that I had was that there are a lot of pre-workouts with proprietary blends, right? Yep. You have no peak behind the curtain there on what is in that proprietary blend. Right. So it's, it becomes kind of difficult to know like, well, what am I dosed at for what's in this blend? And is it even like effective? Um, and so I just started hammering out research of like peer reviewed articles, seeing what are the most studied ingredients that are going to have some, you know, performance benefit, uh, as far as like, you know, specifically vasodilation per, per increasing and promoting blood flow as well as energy. And, um, you know, I, we landed on like seven ingredients. One of them being caffeine, obviously, you know, ultra researched. Um, and then I just wanted everything to be dosed toward the higher end of the effective range.
Love it. And that's it make it taste then just, you know, make it taste good and you have your product because I think that there was like a, I, I always will run like a litmus test of on myself cuz I, I think that I'm a very informed buyer of things. And so I was, I was essentially looking for a product that I couldn't find and figured I would make it myself kind of same happened with the jewelry as well as, you know, different pieces of apparel. And then, uh, yeah, just started that formulation process learn had to learn a ton about manufacturing, you know, not only consumable supplements, but you know, this is now you're running a business where people are ingesting your yeah. Your product. So yeah, you have to, you know, do everything, you know, button everything up, make sure your, your bases are covered and you're using high quality ingredient and stuff like that. So there's a lot of learning, but you know, I think that's probably my favorite part about this whole entire thing of, of running both of these businesses is that like every single day I have a million new things I have to learn. Yeah. And I, the, I don't really, I, I wouldn't say I was a good student at all and I, I don't learn in that way of a typical classroom. Like I have to just be out doing it. So this is kind of plays into my strong suit, I would say.

Rabah Rahil (00:36:15):

That's fantastic. Um, what's your favorite, favorite, favorite flavor profile? Cause you have two, right?

Marcus Milione (00:36:22):

I have two. And um, recently actually, uh, somebody in our discord community said, if you mix both of 'em, they're really good and I have never tried <laugh> but um,

Rabah Rahil (00:36:31):

The suicide

Marcus Milione (00:36:32):

Right now, I've just been kicking the, uh, I've been kicking the peach or the, the pink lemonade just cuz it's new and I've been taking thet for a long time beforehand. Um, so yeah, just the pink lemonade cuz it's new. Uh, everybody in my family takes it. So, um, my, I know my mom loves thet and uh, you know, my dad, he just is a caffeine fee. So whatever you put in front of him is taking it and uh, yeah. I don't know. I, I, I like, 'em both, I think the pink Lemonade's a little stronger, but I I'll send, uh, I'll send both bottles over and you can be the deciding factor.

Rabah Rahil (00:37:06):

Oh yeah. We'll do, we'll do a blind taste test. <laugh> um, the, and these are available now though, right? These are not drop models. Yeah. These are on your site. Yeah. Yeah. Beautiful.

Marcus Milione (00:37:14):

Yep. All the time.

Rabah Rahil (00:37:15):

I love it. Um, kind of a little bit of a, a veer off question, but how do you see eCommerce unfolding in the next two to three years? Not only for minted, but in the macro,

Marcus Milione (00:37:29):

So, Hmm. It's tough. Right. Cause I think the buyer is becoming more and more informed. Right. Mm-hmm <affirmative> and I had put out a piece about the, kind of the macroeconomic landscape of not just eCommerce, but just in general. Yeah. And the, the, you know, you have inflation that you're, you're keeping an eye on, you have the overall unsteady global markets, just, you know, you have the, the war in Ukraine totally. And you have, you know, stock market uncertainty. Uh, and so not only is the consumer becoming smarter and more diligent in what they're doing before they buy, but also they're, they're going to potentially feel a squeeze on their pockets and where they want to deploy their, um, excess capital. So you have to almost have some form of value add. And I think for brands specifically, you, you are doing yourself a disservice.
If you don't really have, um, much of a connection with your customer, you know, I like to sometimes go in and read, uh, brands maybe that are larger than us or kind of in a parallel space, uh, that are on trust pilot and just kind of like peruse through and see, you know, how they're taking care of their customers. Cause if you are not harboring a good relationship with your customer and uh, I think you'll probably feel pain in, in the long run, right? Yeah. Like your customer is always correct, no matter how wrong they actually may be. They're always right. And you need to respect that you also need to respect that they're spending their money at your store. So take care of them because they deserve it.

Rabah Rahil (00:39:19):

I love that. I think that's a huge and a, a little bit of a corollary for me is I think community's gonna be bigger than ever. Um, and that's, I think community or, uh, connection can be a really, uh, big function of community. And so I, I love where you're headed with that. I also think too, uh, you're going down the other path as well as, um, as like the CS is starting to kind of fade away or just kind of becoming no normal place. I think there's gonna be a, uh, uh, a really big thirst for, in person things again. So I love that, like the popup you're gonna do the fashion events. And again, that's also another really great way to facilitate connection where I'm a big believer in somebody has to like, you know, you trust you before they transact with you and there's no other way to do that.
Do all three of those things at once than in person. It doesn't scale like on the internet where you can get somebody like you, somebody can trust you and somebody can know you at different arenas with different pieces of content, so on and so forth. And that scales pretty much infinitely, but in person you can do all three of those at once. And, uh, it's, it's really cool. So I, I love where your head's at and I think you're spot on too with the, the macro analysis as well. There's gonna be some, some pretty big, um, headwinds that we're facing right now. And so, um, there, there probably will be a constraint, but I think to your point as well, um, people are just gonna be, I don't know how much it's gonna shrink as much as people are just gonna be more judicious in where they spend it.

Marcus Milione (00:40:42):

Yeah. You know, I, I, I also get a lot of DMS about people who are either starting businesses and I mean, it might be in the apparel space. It might just be software, but I, I always try to tell them, like, there seems to be, uh, kind of like a mindset where you almost feel bad that you're not as big as the big guys, right? Yeah. You look at brands like Nike who have these huge brand moats. And to me, like you have to almost take that as a blessing. Right. You're as a startup, much more nimble than Nike is. Yep. Right. Nike is also, or, and I don't mean to use Nike. I just talking big brands in general, but big, big brands like that have a lot of hoops to jump through, to get things either approved or a product to market, or even a piece of content made. And you need to use your scrappiness to your advantage and use your nimbleness and ability to adapt and pivot fast to your advantage. I also think like that ties right into just running lean. Like you should run your business almost as lean as physically possible because of chances of, you know, times like this, where there is potential headwind, keep, keep operations lean, don't have excess spending on stupid stuff and just make it all about products. You know, how much value can you actually add to your customer's life?

Rabah Rahil (00:42:02):

Brilliant. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Oh, one of my favorite segments. All right, man. Are you ready? Strap in, put your, uh, lacrosse helmet on we're going into rapid fires.

Marcus Milione (00:42:12):

All right.

Rabah Rahil (00:42:13):

Okay. Uh, marathons, overrated, underrated,

Marcus Milione (00:42:17):

Underrated.

Rabah Rahil (00:42:19):

Oh,

Marcus Milione (00:42:20):

Do I, do I have to give explanations?

Rabah Rahil (00:42:22):

You I'm a witness in your world. You can pontificate if you want, or you can just plow right through. It's totally up to you. The

Marcus Milione (00:42:27):

Thing, the thing I'll pontificate for a sec, even though I hate feeling preachy, but like the thing I like about distance running is like, we live in a day and age where you can get instant gratification. The second you open your phone, right? Yes. But let's say you set yourself up, uh, with a goal to run a certain time on a, on a distance event, like a half marathon or, or in your case, a marathon, there is no shortcut to that time, right? Yeah. So it's you and the clock and a whole host of days where you don't want to do what you wanna do. Right. You don't wanna get up. It's pouring rain. The wind is shit. It's a headwind. And now you gotta run 13 miles. Nobody wants to do that. Right. But there's like a lesson to be had in showing up like that day after day after day working towards something you may not get until a couple years down the road. And that's, I'm getting off my soapbox there.

Rabah Rahil (00:43:22):

No, I love that. And I'm, I'm all pumped up now. I think that that's something that is, uh, it's, it's been lost a bit and there it, there, there's also some, we won't go too down the rabbit pool, but there's some, some digital hijacking there that people get these, these weird almost like masturbatory kind of, I don't even know if that's a word, but like, it, it it's like a fake representation of what you would actually feel, but it's not the real thing. And so like, you're like, oh yeah, I played a video game and I accomplished this where it's like, there's a certain aspect of, uh, to your point, like paradoxically, like the harder you worked at it, the more gratifying it was. And so without that work, the accomplishment doesn't come. And so it, the accomplishment is a function of the work you put into it. And so, uh, I, I couldn't endorse that anymore. I think it's absolutely spot on, um, lacrosse, overrated, underrated,

Marcus Milione (00:44:15):

You know, I went into it and, and loved the sport. Right. But in college, it, it very much became a job. And yep. I, I don't, I can't say overrated or underrated. Right. It's very much, you know, everybody's own personal opinion, but there, you know, it, it can change for a person and it, it, when, once it became a job for me, I, I had a bit of a falling falling out of my love for, for the sport, which is unfortunate, but it is what it is, you know,

Rabah Rahil (00:44:42):

Literally the exact same, uh, pathway for running with me. Uh, pre-workout overrated, underrated,

Marcus Milione (00:44:49):

Underrated, baby.

Rabah Rahil (00:44:51):

Let's go, <laugh> snoops.

Marcus Milione (00:44:53):

These pumps hit different. I'm telling you why there's nothing like a really good pump in the gym. Yeah. Ric

Rabah Rahil (00:45:00):

Agree. Have you seen pumping iron? The classic Arnold?

Marcus Milione (00:45:03):

I have, of course, of course. Yes.

Rabah Rahil (00:45:04):

Yeah. Phenomenal. Um, fashion, overrated, underrated,

Marcus Milione (00:45:09):

Underrated, ah, man, it could be both honestly underrated in the sense that like there, there is something to be said for having garments that fits you correctly. I love that. And kind of maybe the confidence that it might bring you O overrated in the people that get super upset when somebody doesn't share their same viewpoint on fashion, that thats kind of gotta go, you know, I mean, it's Sebastian is, is an inherently subjective topic, right. So there's gonna be people that don't agree that, you know, maybe your, your favorite designer is, you know, X and mine is Y and when two completely different fashion classes, right. And, or, or fashion like, um, you know, trains of thoughts or what have you. And yeah, there's, there's no reason to get upset about that. You know, we're all in the same game.

Rabah Rahil (00:45:55):

Impeccably put New York overrated, underrated,

Marcus Milione (00:45:59):

Underrated. I've never felt energy. Like I felt in New York city, man. I, I tell you what say Manhattan, the thing. Yeah. I mean, the, the, the thing about New York is if, if you're, if you're like an inherently super competitive or, you know, driven person, there is always going to be either somebody doing more than you, or like, you need to keep pushing if you want to continue to grow in that way. And then that's that that's energy. I love, you know, it does, the city does not sleep. You either show up or, you know, it'll switch out.

Rabah Rahil (00:46:34):

Yep. That's so well, put Shopify overrated, underrated.

Marcus Milione (00:46:40):

Um, I think, yeah, I don't, I don't really know. It's only platform for e-comm that I've used as far as like selling goes. Yeah. So may probably underrated in the way that I don't wanna even use it to its full potential. I feel like, like our, like I've always heard about headless commerce, all this stuff. Like dude, our, our website is a free theme. Like yeah. I always see these things on Twitter. Like people like, you know, making crazy an analysis of like whatever my, my idea is let's just remove as much friction as possible to get a product purchased and all the other jazz is like, I don't know, man.

Rabah Rahil (00:47:18):

<laugh> yeah. I think that's a, be the, in terms of like hierarchies. I think you have it right where it's like ex remove friction, make sure the experience is there, make sure the product is amazing and make sure the customer's success experiences there where if there is, you know, something where you're supposed to Zig and they zag that you can make it. Right. Cause I think there again can be really smart people saying really smart things that don't really matter. <laugh>

Marcus Milione (00:47:41):

Yeah. I mean, it, it, it can also get lost. Like if you're not an operator and um, you're kind of, I don't know what you would be if you're not an operator, but you're, you're operating in the space and you think things should be done a certain way. Like, you know, operator and somebody looking in probably see it much differently.

Rabah Rahil (00:47:58):

Yeah. Very much so like man, in the arena, it's so much easier to give criticism than it is to actually do the thing NFTs, overrated, underrated,

Marcus Milione (00:48:09):

Man, I don't, I don't know him enough about the space to be honest with you. Oh, you

Rabah Rahil (00:48:12):

Never got into

Marcus Milione (00:48:13):

Them. I don't, I don't own it. Um, yeah. You know, I had people from my community consistently asking me to release a MI to New York NFT. And I had almost like this gut feeling of I'm sure there are projects with inherent value, but it felt very much cash grabby. And um, that's not what I'm about. Right. So for me, overrated, I dunno. I'm sure people will kind of be pissed about that. <laugh>

Rabah Rahil (00:48:40):

It could be cool though. You could release an NFT with something and then that could like materialize into like a ticket to the fashion show or something or the pop up or a need, like tying it back to a community or something. I like, but for me, we had the same feeling about if people are buying it to speculate and make money off of it, like a triple whale NFT, it just feels gross. Like we're not trying to do like a rug pool or a cash grab, but if we could use it as a vector to make it more intimate with the community, I think would be cool, but we haven't unlocked that yet. But same vibes.

Marcus Milione (00:49:09):

Yeah. I mean like, uh, people probably don't don't know this yet, but I, I released prints. Um, and I have a use case for if you bought a print down the road. Right. But the print is tangible and I wanted people to buy the print cuz they like the print, but I'm gonna add that value in later. And the customers don't even know it yet.

Rabah Rahil (00:49:30):

What print, what are you talking about? You have photos.

Marcus Milione (00:49:33):

So we, we released poster, you know, the, uh, we need the episode. So they're actually mu museum quality prints. Right? Like we, we had these made in Tribeca, uh, of that, that run club design, the three level characters. Yeah. And the background is, uh, the city, like all the Manhattan streets. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you want one? I think of course. Good in the office. <laugh> yes. I'll send one your way.

Rabah Rahil (00:49:56):

Oh my gosh. Killing me here. You're killing me here, Marcus. All right. You're pretty big on this. So this might be a tossup, but TikTok, overrated, underrated,

Marcus Milione (00:50:04):

Underrated. Yeah. Underrated, you know, I, and I, I was a victim or not a victim, but I was a, a yeah. Victim of that mindset of, you know, before I was on the app, I assumed it was just like younger people dancing. Right. Yeah. And I think that there are a lot of people of that mindset, but one, the algorithm works. I don't think anyone knows how it works, but um, like you can find so much informational content and like almost transformative content on there. You just have to look for it and interact with the right stuff. Um, it's reminds me very much of like YouTube, how people use YouTube to like learn things. You can learn a lot from, you know, now they have three minute videos, but you know, some of the sh the shorter videos that like small short content, very informative. And that's, that's mainly how I like to like to use it myself.

Rabah Rahil (00:50:55):

Oh, I couldn't agree with you more. Uh, I thought it was kind of like, uh, again, kind of just these thirst traps constantly. And then mm-hmm <affirmative> I ended up finding tax advice on there. I learned about it 1 79, actually watched your latest thing about how to layer or what t-shirts to wear in the summer and stuff that it it's really, I think it's actually a bigger competitor to YouTube than it is Facebook, because it is really, there's some weird niches that people go deep. And it's actually like, if that's your thing, it's really interesting. And you can learn a ton in that really weird corner of the world. Um, and the algorithm is second to none. It is it's, it's really

Marcus Milione (00:51:29):

Dangerous. Yeah. The algorithm's a bit of a black hole

Rabah Rahil (00:51:32):

I'll fall into that thing. And then like 30 minutes, you just wake up. You're like, I blacked out what happened, where did that 30 minutes go? Like, it can really, uh, get you. And then the, the way I think they synthesize like the music and the captions, and there's all these like layered things to it where there's like, what they're showing you, but then there's the meme or the actual production of what's going on duet. It's like, it's very sophisticated cognitively. It's, it's really interesting.

Marcus Milione (00:51:55):

Mm-hmm <affirmative>

Rabah Rahil (00:51:57):

Uh, favorite meal and why,

Marcus Milione (00:52:00):

Uh, man, you gotta do me with this question. Uh it's it's so tough. Cause I eat the same thing every single day, but, uh, I, this is gonna sound so terrible. I appreciate a really good salad, like when I'm starving. Right. But I'm not gonna say that's my, my favorite meal. Thank you thank you. I do. I do enjoy like, uh, like a Mac and cheese burger. I haven't had one in years, but like a really good, well made Mac and cheese burger, like medium rare. Uh, I'll take, I'll take that if that's what I'm

Rabah Rahil (00:52:35):

Getting much better answer than salad. We'll play. We'll play it. Your favorite fashion brand or designer.

Marcus Milione (00:52:45):

I'm a, I'm a fan of bohi. Um, Emily over there at bohi is, uh, I think makes a lot of, you know, really, really good garments. Um, it's tough, right? Um, yeah, I think, I think that that's who I, I like to see how she's running her business. I, it's almost more of like changed from, I really, really like, you know, fashion label to, I really, you know, respect how somebody, um, runs the business, how the message is made. Yeah. Yeah. Cause I mean, it's tough, right? I think almost maybe 90% of it is figuring out how are you gonna sell a product, right? Yeah. Cause you, you can be the, the best designer in the world, but if, if you're the only one that has your products, you know, it's, it's almost tough to make a claim at anything. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And, um, yeah, I think, I think it can be almost lost, like the art of running the, the business side of a, of a label or of a brand.

Rabah Rahil (00:53:47):

Yeah. I love that side note. I got to go to in Marrakesh, east St. Lauren's, uh, old house and it's impeccable. Really cool. Really? If you ever go to Morocco, it's insane. In Marrakesh, he has his incredible gardens and he lived well. He did not, he was not scraping.

Marcus Milione (00:54:06):

I have heard, I have heard

Rabah Rahil (00:54:08):

It's. Yeah. It's very nice. Um, your favorite podcast,

Marcus Milione (00:54:12):

How I built this guy

Rabah Rahil (00:54:14):

Was yeah, super strong, super

Marcus Milione (00:54:15):

Strong. I, I don't think that there is a better, um, educational tool with nuggets of information from actual operators on the internet. I, you know, cause like no one, there is really trying to sell you on a course or something. It's literally just people talking about their come up from pretty much zero to most of them exit. And for me, like even before I started the business, I would listen, listen to those episodes and I'd always be like, plotting, like, oh, let's remember that for, if we ever get to that point. And now it's like, let's listen. Kind of see where we would be on par with them as far as size. And like how did they get up one level? Right? How did they take it to the next level? How can we implement something similar?

Rabah Rahil (00:55:00):

I totally agree. Sensational and great production, quality, uh, favorite place travel to and why?

Marcus Milione (00:55:05):

Oh man, I have not traveled very much, honestly. No, it's it's not good. It's not good. Right? It's not good. Um,

Rabah Rahil (00:55:12):

It's so cultured. It's so crazy.

Marcus Milione (00:55:15):

I dunno. I have never left United States. <laugh>

Rabah Rahil (00:55:19):

No seriously.

Marcus Milione (00:55:21):

Yeah. Yeah. It's it's bad. It's bad. I actually had some,

Rabah Rahil (00:55:24):

Not even Mexico or Canada.

Marcus Milione (00:55:26):

I had, nah, I had somebody tell me that's the biggest red flag.

Rabah Rahil (00:55:31):

That is a red flag of it. If I didn't not,

Marcus Milione (00:55:33):

You know what, I'll take my red flag and wave it around. But I, I do plan on traveling. We, we are working with a factory on the handmade sunglasses in Japan. Yeah. And Japan is like probably number one, amazing on my places to travel because I have so much for respect for the way their culture puts attention to detail into everything they do. Like, I, I am fascinated with their manufacturing process, every, just everything. And so I think, uh, once, you know, travel opens up a bit, like I think it still think you have to like quarantine and stuff when you go there. Yeah. And so I wanna make the most of it and visit the factory and stuff. I don't wanna be dealing with, you know, all, all that stuff so way. Yeah. I'll probably probably go there, but yeah, I don't really have, I went to tell you I Colorado. That was pretty nice.

Rabah Rahil (00:56:19):

<laugh> I went to Philly. That was funny. Yeah. Saw the Liberty bell. That's amazing Marcus. Oh my gosh. That's incredible. Yeah. Uh, alright man, one last question. You've made it through, um, if you could have dinner with three people dead or alive, fictional or nonfictional, who would they be? You're sitting at a four person table. You're sitting at the head. You get to invite three people. Who's getting the invite from Marcus.

Marcus Milione (00:56:43):

Uh, Marcus a, um, mainly cause his book, his book meditation's uh, kind of a bit transformative for me.

Rabah Rahil (00:56:51):

You're

Marcus Milione (00:56:52):

Still a bit. Um, yeah. I love it. I

Rabah Rahil (00:56:55):

Knew, I knew we were just, you

Marcus Milione (00:56:57):

Couldn't tell.

Rabah Rahil (00:56:58):

Of course I love this.

Marcus Milione (00:57:01):

Um, shoot man. Some other ones I'm not, uh, I'm not really sure. Probably I, I would say Elon. Yeah. Just because I I'd like to pick his brain on, on how, how he operates the way he does. Like yeah. You know, he catches a lot of flack. Um, probably some of it deserved probably some of it undeserved, but you can't really knock him as an operator. I don't know a whole lot of people that have started multiple billion dollar businesses. Like that's not easy to do. Right. So he's definitely got nuggets of good information.

Rabah Rahil (00:57:35):

<laugh> he's operating on different level for sure.

Marcus Milione (00:57:39):

Yeah. Third man. Uh, I don't know. I don't know. Maybe I'll bring you along so that you can talk to both of them with me. <laugh>

Rabah Rahil (00:57:47):

First time anybody's invited me for that question. Amazing. I've learned so much about you Marcus. Fantastic. Rapid fire. You did it. My friend. Wonderful. Ah,

Marcus Milione (00:57:57):

Amazing. I appreciate you having me here, man.

Rabah Rahil (00:57:59):

Of course. So tell people how they can get more involved in minted. Where can they follow you on the tick talks on Twitter this time is yours.

Marcus Milione (00:58:06):

Yeah. So, uh, on all social medias it's uh, I think it's just at Marcus mili. Um, and then on Instagram we have minted New York minted health and then, um, that's pretty much it. I also have a, a, a subs newsletter that I release every week that breaks down what we're working on every single week. Kind of like a peer behind the curtains and that's called the minted minutes. But if you find me on social media, my, my link in bio thing has all of this, you know, attached to it.

Rabah Rahil (00:58:38):

And then where can you get the preworkout

Marcus Milione (00:58:40):

Preworkout is at min uh, minted.is the website.is the, uh, end of the

Rabah Rahil (00:58:47):

Yeah. Oh, beautiful. The TLD. Fantastic.

Marcus Milione (00:58:49):

Yes, it

Rabah Rahil (00:58:50):

Is Marcus. This is more fun than I could've imagined. I've learned so much about you and now I'm ready to go get Jack. Now I'm gonna get some, some minted pre-workout and start to get my delayed gratification on cuz there's, there's just something to that. When you can get more gratification from saying no to something it's like that, that's when you know, you're on the past success. That's when I found my most successful where it's like, I, I get more pleasure from adhering to the path that I had laid out than constantly just varying off and you know, squirrel, squirrel, squirrel kind of thing. So you've really brought a lot of focus back to my life. I appreciate it. And thank you for all the gear. This stuff is amazing. If you guys can't get your hands on it, it's it's incredible. Um, very, very awesome. Go check out. Minted, new york.com and then minted.health to go get all the awesomeness, uh, Marcus dude. Thanks again. If you're ever out in Austin, gimme a shout, dude. We'll do some dinners. We'll do it up. We'll get you a big salad or a, a cheeseburger or a Mac and cheeseburger, whatever, whatever proclivity you want. Maybe we'll grab a run together. You can't leave me in the dust though. You gotta, you guys I've seen your Strava screenshot. You're moving.

Marcus Milione (00:59:51):

Yeah. <laugh> getting a little faster

Rabah Rahil (00:59:55):

Quick, man. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Hey brother. Thanks again. Thanks so much. If you wanna try triple whale, we are try triple well.com. We are also on the bird app at triple whale, and then we have, uh, a bunch of other podcasts, a bunch of other Awesomes. Um, we have a great newsletter called whale mail that goes out every Tuesday, Thursday that you can subscribe to right on our Twitter profile. And that's it. Marcus. Thanks so much. Appreciate you making the time. And then thank you for being a light in this world and pushing forward through all these cool ideals, fashion workouts, just being an awesome human. Appreciate your brother.

Marcus Milione (01:00:27):

Yeah.

ā€

Podcast

The Customer Experience Is The MOST Important Thing

March 18, 2024

1:00:42

Hosted By

Rabah Rahil
CMO at Triple Whale

Guests

Marcus Milione
Building Minted New York and Minted Health.

Episode Description

In this episode we sit down with Marcus Milione and go over why the customer is right even if they are wrong. #ROAS

Notes & Links

šŸ¦ Follow us on Twitter for Industry insights https://twitter.com/triplewhale

Follow the people featured in this episode here:

- Rabah's Twitter: https://twitter.com/rabahrahil

Transcription

Marcus Milione (00:00:00):

A couple times I have been taking the city bike down the west side path and I will pass someone like holding up their chains, like yelling at me. Like these are meant, these are, it's a it's insane man. It's, it's actually insane. It's so it feels so good and like very lucky to have like such a supportive community behind me that, uh, yeah. I mean like experiences like that is just top 10.

Rabah Rahil (00:00:32):

All right. Folks. We're back episode 43. And boy, we got a screamer, the fashion icon, the, tik tok star, the pre-workout magician, Marcus Maloney. How are you?

Marcus Milione (00:00:43):

I am well, how are you?

Rabah Rahil (00:00:45):

I'm fantastic, man. I'm so happy. Uh, we have a mutual, uh, friend, Tommy on my head of social and, uh, he's a big fan boy of yours and I am now second fan boy of yours. Uh, everything you do is just turns to gold and I've just been such a, such a huge fan. So I'm really excited to have you on the pod.

Marcus Milione (00:01:03):

Well, uh, I certainly appreciate you having me on it's. It's actually funny. Like I feel how we got linked up. Right. Cause I had had Twitter, I guess, for just personal scrolling for so long and I had never really used it. And then I started like tweeting or reading tweets from people in kind of the direct to consumer space and then saw you guys and then started like to interact a little bit. And it's just kind of like grown into this, this whole thing now <laugh>

Rabah Rahil (00:01:30):

Oh, the bird app, the bromance is strong. Um, yeah, I am in Austin, Texas as always at market HQ. Where's this podcast find you today? Marcus?

Marcus Milione (00:01:39):

I am here in Manhattan, New York where I live, uh, and run the business outta my apartment.

Rabah Rahil (00:01:46):

Oh, cool. Oh, cool. How long have you been in New York?

Marcus Milione (00:01:49):

Uh, moved up here around October of 2017. Um, okay. And been here ever since. Yeah.

Rabah Rahil (00:01:56):

Where'd you move from?

Marcus Milione (00:01:58):

I was born in, uh, Pennsylvania and then very early on, we moved to Virginia. Um, yeah, cause of my dad's work and have been in Virginia ever since, went to school in Philadelphia though. So kinda like right outside Philly.

Rabah Rahil (00:02:13):

Cool. That's awesome. Yeah, I, uh, I'm a Midwest boy born and bred myself where I was, uh, Arizona born, but uh, pretty much grew up in the Indiana. Um, okay. So you're super well known for a few things. One, I kind of wanna touch on your fashion stuff, which is really cool, but two, you have a pretty amazing kind of, so I'm rocking it now, little minted gear, but you have kind of a two-prong approach here and one's kind of really interesting, but how did you tell us for the people that don't know a little bit about minted and then how you got into it?

Marcus Milione (00:02:43):

So, man, it's tough, right? Uh, I was, it was, this was around the beginning of the pandemic, right? Yep. Um, my brother and I, we had heard the, we had both, we were both working like corporate jobs at the time and we had been sent home, uh, both of us actually the, the day before because people were getting sick and people didn't really know what was going on. So we were like, all right, let's just take a long weekend at my parents house in Virginia. Yep. And ended up like, so I packed for three days, ended up staying for a year. And um, it wa at one point it was me, my brother and my sister, everybody home working around the dining room table. Like all of us had our multiple monitors, like set up everything. And, uh, I was kind of going stir crazy a little bit.
Yeah. Um, because I had no creative outlet really. Um, so I started to just create content on, on social media. Yeah. Um, main, mainly TikTok and like, didn't really know what I was doing. I mean, half my videos, I was, I would go to, uh, I would go do these 30 minute walks at lunch, like just to, you know, keep my body moving. And I would just talk to the camera essentially. Like I, I had really no idea, like what kind of content I wanted to make or what, like, if there was a theme or, and then like slowly kind of started talking about things. I was passionate about. It started in kind of like fitness and then moved into fashion. Right. And at the time I had always worn 18 inch chains around my neck. And these, I had made in the diamond district in, uh, New York city for me specifically, because I couldn't find this length, um, for men, right.
Generally 18 inches is sold as a women's chain, but the, the women's chains are super fine and I felt they would break. So I went, so I went a little bit thicker and people kept asking about the chains on, on, in my TikTok comments. And like, I've always kind of had this like entrepreneurial spirit, whatever I was like, I wonder if I could spin up a Shopify store and just kind of make a, I was like, I'll make, I'll make 15 sets and then we'll see what happens. And one thing leads to the next. Now I'm doing it full time. But, um, yeah, I mean, mainly just, just, uh, on social media specifically started around me talking about stuff. I'm passionate about love, uh, fitness. I love fashion for me specifically, uh, fashion kind of serves as both a creative outlet and just a, a way to, for, to explore different time periods honestly, and, and kind of see how I can bring those time periods. Maybe back a bit modern.

Rabah Rahil (00:05:25):

Yeah. Yeah. You're seventies guy. You, the seventies look does really well on you. It's uh, you're a big guy too. You're a unit. I was checking you're like what? 600 something like that. Right.

Marcus Milione (00:05:35):

I am pushing six, three, uh, around like 190 pounds. Most of, most of the time. Yeah. Yeah.

Rabah Rahil (00:05:42):

Well, cuz you were a bit of a lacrosse star too, right?

Marcus Milione (00:05:46):

Uh, I, I don't know if star is the right word, but I did play, um, I played in college. Uh, yeah. I played at a school called St. Joe's. They actually just had their first, uh, NCAA attorney bid, um, last, last weekend. And, uh, it was, I mean it was grueling. Like I'm not even gonna lie to anybody. Like you are not only working in school full time, but you are, you know, most of the time around three to four hours a day of either gym, like weight room and practice. Right. And it's very much, uh, a mental battle as much as it is a physical battle. And like, I think kind of where it benefits me is just, um, being able to stick to almost a long term vision and like not being caught up with like, oh, I don't see success kind of right away, you know? Yeah. Just kind like grind it out every single day.

Rabah Rahil (00:06:41):

Yeah. There's a certain weirdness of delayed gratification. I, I was also an athlete and uh, at uni for a couple years and man, I don't, I don't know if I'd really recommend it unless you won love the sport or two actually legitimately like have a chance to go pro cuz it was to your point, dude. It's so hard. We, I ran and so we would do morning runs middle of the day, we'd work out and then evening practices and like during hard training sessions, dude, you're just wrecked. And now you're supposed to expect you to go study or go to class and like, all you wanna do is sleep. And um, yeah, it's a big, it's a big commitment and challenge and I mean, lacrosse is kind of same. It's it's essentially like hockey, but Ru without skates where you're just super physical, super cardio, um, a lot of, kind of just knickknack kind of hurts where you just tape it up, rub some dirt on it kind of stuff where it's super intense sport.

Marcus Milione (00:07:33):

Yeah. I mean like, like you said, you kind of just become okay with this perpetual state of my body's a bit broken down, but we're gonna push it and see what happens. Right. <laugh> and you know, like at the time it's, it's not that enjoyable. Right. But, but it's now like, like I've trans kind of current transition to just distance running now and kind of trying to push that as hard as I can. And just like the days where the mileage, uh, starts to build up and I can lean it's it's, I'm doing it with my brother who also played in my same division in college. So we played against each other, but both of us being used to just being worn pretty much since, you know, high school, just training like this, it, uh, it benefits us now, but I'll tell you what I, there were days man, where all I wanted to do was sleep. I remember going home on, uh, on holidays to my parents' house and I, I would take four or five naps a day. I, I was just so spent and you don't realize it.

Rabah Rahil (00:08:32):

Yep. Especially too, like to your point, once you take the stimulus out and you can sleep, dude, you're, that's, all you're doing is sleeping now. I'm with you. We would, uh, and we, we kind of indulged in a little bit of, uh, you know, good times as well. So we would go, we had on our Sundays, uh, this feels like so old man on my lawn kind of stuff, but it's fun, uh, on Sundays was our long run. So for people that don't know know in like division one, you can PR you can't practice seven days a week, but your week or your day off, doesn't have to be a specific day. And so our coach made it off on our day off, were on Mondays. So people wouldn't go out and party on Saturday. Um, and so our long runs were on Sunday and I mean, me and the other guy, we were actually pretty good.
Um, we would just go get blasted dude, and then we'd go park in the morning cuz the runs would be at like six or six 30. We'd just go park in the morning and they would knock on our windows like our teammates and we'd get up and just crank off 13 miles. It's like youth and kind of to your point, like just the, the mental fortitude that we had there that we had back then was just, uh, insurmountable. And so there, there's definitely a lot of takeaways from that. Is that what you missed? And that's why you got into marathoning. Cause that's a, that's also another, it's pretty brutal distance running can be, I can speak or experience. It can really wear you down, especially for a big guy, man. It's a, it's a lot of pounding.

Marcus Milione (00:09:49):

So, you know, it's funny, my brother and I both, uh, swore off ever running more than about a mile or two after we graduated. And um, for me, I miss the competitive side of it. Mm-hmm <affirmative> and the thing I like about, uh, distance running, especially like, you know, there, there are people that distance run and they just do it for enjoyment and they race or they, you know, they do the races for the atmosphere and stuff like that. And that's, you know, great. Right. But I take it as a challenge to myself, like how far can we push it? And I was never, we had this, um, when I was in school, we had this two mile conditioning test mm-hmm <affirmative> where, uh, we had to run two miles in under 12 minutes and looking back at it now I'm like, it's embarrassing that I could never do it. But um, I remember just being so miserable running, so I have this weird, uh, like draw to things that are extremely difficult. And so I was like, you know what, I'm going to sign up for a half marathon. I wanna run in under an hour 30. Yeah. And so my, my, I put in like put in my first block of training ever, like probably two and a half, three years ago now. Okay.
Ran like a 1 37. Um, but I, then I was like kind of hooked. I was like, this is all right. I, but now I know what's gonna happen because like it's only gonna get more and more intense. Like training's only like I, I ran that on, I think 25 miles a week. Yeah. Yeah. So then like there was a period there where I was only really running like two miles to warm up before the gym. And then, uh, my brother and I are, are looking at each other. We're like, let's sign up for the New York city half. Or we, we signed up for a San Diego half. And so we did a weird training block. It wasn't, it wasn't like a, it wasn't following a schedule. Um, yeah, but we were trying to do one long run a week, some shorter runs, whatever we go out to San Diego, I'm like, I have to run a sub one 30 now I'd been like documenting the training on TikTok stuff.
Get there. The last two miles of this course were uphill. Yeah. And I'm training in Manhattan. So I don't have a whole lot of hill experience and I get humbled. Right? Yeah. Like bees, they blew my quads up, like so bad. I ran a 1 31 thought I was gonna black out. And um, <laugh> and so my brother didn't run one 30 either. And then we got back and we were, we were, we were hooked and we were like, all right, we're signing up to the New York city half. So, but I look at him, I'm like now it's we gotta go. Let's find the hardest training plan we can, we can do. So we found one that was 70 miles a week. And I was like, I think we'll probably get overuse injury doing that. Yeah. That's so lot. So we did one that was, uh, we peaked at 56 miles a week. So we start really hammering and the growth that I saw, um, when I started that plan to, when I ran the half, I finished it, I think like 1 22 let's

Rabah Rahil (00:12:52):

Go kids,

Marcus Milione (00:12:53):

But like the, the growth in speed and just like overall aerobic endurance was insane. Like toward the end I tested my B2 max and was like right around 71. And I was like, all right, well now we've got something here. So we ran that now what's next. So it's like, all right, I guess we're doing a marathon and I know this, like we're now we're base building, but I know this training, block's gonna be terrible. We're doing 70 a week. And it's just, yeah. It's like, it's almost, uh, it's an addiction to see like how uncomfortable I, I can make myself, I think.

Rabah Rahil (00:13:28):

Yeah. Yeah. I love that for people that don't know a marathon is 26.2 miles and a half is 13.1. So it's pretty brutal. It's uh, I, I I'll, I'll F around and jump into a 5k or 10 K every now and then, but that's pretty, you can pretty much do that with, especially too once you've been there mentally, it's all, it's all mental, but halfs and holes are not mental <laugh> you will fall like you, you need to have the training. That's incredible, man. That's how do you you're so yolked though. How do you keep the weight on,

Marcus Milione (00:14:00):

Uh, man, I eat eat time. Uh, so I mean, listen, uh, starting like 2017 is when I really started to dial in my diet. Um, me, my brother and my best friend, Tyler Cleggett. Like we, we did our first ever like cut into summer mm-hmm <affirmative> and so we really started to understand macro micronutrients, you know, uh, how it's like playing into our physiques and everything. Yep. And so since then it's been like weighing out food pretty much, you know, all the time since now, I, I can look at food and understand, you know, nowhere what the proportion is and how much it'll weigh about, but it's just super regimented dieting. Um, but I, I think people kind of conflate that and they hear dieting as like a negative for me that my body has become so used to it that if I, I do end up like just going completely off track and eating a bunch of junk food, like I run the risk of having crazy stomach problems, mid run. Yeah. And then like, I U ran, you do not want that. So it becomes more of a performance thing. So it's just keeping protein intake super high to try to avoid muscle wasting and making sure you're eating back your calories that you're burning.

Rabah Rahil (00:15:11):

I love that, man. That's incredible. <laugh> um, switching gears a little bit and I promise people we'll get to the e-commerce all the fun stuff, but, um, have you always been so fashionable or was that something that just took off? Um,

Marcus Milione (00:15:23):

Not really. Um, I'd say it probably came to be, uh, around the time I moved to New York city. Right. Okay. Um, the

Rabah Rahil (00:15:33):

Culture

Marcus Milione (00:15:34):

And this isn't like this isn't like a knock on my parents or anything, but, uh, it always felt, uh, kind of hard to experiment with different types of, um, outfits or fashion when I was at home also to like just having more disposable income to mess around fair play, like fair play. Yeah. On that makes it a little bit easier. Right. Um, and so once I got here was kind of immersed in, you know, Manhattan and just the culture around where I was living. And I think the beauty of it is how many different cultures are like just in a melting pot here. It's amazing. Right. Um, so, so you're pulling inspiration from, from everything around you, you know, just like going to walk to the grocery store, you see a bunch of different stuff and you're like, well, I could try something like that.
See how it fits. And at the, at the end of the day, like I think everybody probably goes through a phase where they are on the Instagram Explorer page and they start trying out, you know, a bunch of stuff, they see people wearing. Yeah. And that's fun. Like, that's fine. You know, there is no knocking that because people have to find their style, but I think people will make a huge stride in personal style when they start to understand how a garment actually lays on your specific body. Right. Because interesting. Some people like I, and I talk about this a lot and I talked about this in one of my, my biggest videos on the platform is like, there, there is the whole St. Laurent aesthetic. Right. Yeah. And for people that don't know the St Laurent aesthetic, it's very much like rocker guy, skinny, tight, everything fits like that.
Yeah. I can't ever wear that cause my thighs are way too big. Right. Yeah. But if I was just trying to fit a trend or an aesthetic, I would try to fit into those pieces and it would, the proportions would look terrible. Right. So generally, because of legs specifically, I have to wear, uh, you know, a wider cut or something with like pleats just to make the, to round off the overall look of, of garments. And, um, yeah, once I started to play with proportion is when I feel like I made huge strides in just learning how to dress myself better instead of just, you know, seeing things and trying it because you saw somebody do it,

Rabah Rahil (00:17:46):

Dude, that just blew my mind. Yeah. You had a, a pretty fancy spread in, uh, GQ. Right. You had a,

Marcus Milione (00:17:52):

Uh,

Rabah Rahil (00:17:53):

Whole thing in there. It's pretty cool.

Marcus Milione (00:17:55):

You know, it's yeah. I mean, it's interesting. I didn't know about it until, uh, one of the people commented on one of my videos that it was there no way. So I went, yeah. I went looking for it and then, um, didn't even know it existed, saw it. And then, uh, actually like looked up the writer and uh, I sent him a DM on Instagram. I was like, oh, I like, I appreciate, you know, you featuring me here. And, uh, you know, he wrote some, some nice words back, but yeah, I was, I mean, totally random. I had no idea what was coming

Rabah Rahil (00:18:26):

Amazing. Okay. Let's wrap up the main segment. Um, what's the nicest thing someone's ever done for you?

Marcus Milione (00:18:33):

Oh man. Um, I think that it would have to be the, I, I, I am always appreciative of how my parents raised me. Like they, the way that they encourage me to always just chase, you know, if it's something that like set your heart on fire, or you felt passionate about do it, you know, they tried to introduce me to a lot of things in the arts specifically when I was younger, you know, like piano, stuff like that. And like at the time it just, it, I don't think I was in the right frame of mind to learn it, but they were always willing to support me in that way, if I wanted to, to chase after it and, you know, gimme resources to try and be good at it. And, uh, I'll be forever grateful for that. I always talk to them about like, how can I, you know, hopefully I have kids one day, how can I try to replicate that in the best way possible? Cuz it was, I think a huge, you know, uh, confidence boost for me,

Rabah Rahil (00:19:30):

Shout out mom and dad. Fantastic.

Marcus Milione (00:19:32):

Shout out mom and dad.

Rabah Rahil (00:19:35):

Um, alright folks time for the value add segment. This is the reason you bought the ticket. Okay. Give people kind of a, a skinny on minted, cuz you have a two-prong approach with minted, right? Cause you have your health supplements, your pre-workout and then you have your apparel business. But the apparel business is also off a drop, which you're seeing here. It was kind enough to give me some of the goodness. Um, but give people that don't know kind of the skinny on that. And just so the elevator pitch behind both.

Marcus Milione (00:20:00):

So there is minted New York, um, and that is all things apparel as well as precious metal jewelry. So we do deal in, uh, Sterling. You're

Rabah Rahil (00:20:10):

Still doing to change.

Marcus Milione (00:20:12):

Oh yeah. Big, big part business. Um, yeah. You know, it's, it's tough just because I, I feel like I try to talk about all the new stuff we're doing, but yeah. We still, you know, deal in everything, you know, from jewelry to apparel and then there's uh, minted athletics, which is like a subset is what you're wearing right now is a subset of minted New York. Um, and then to tie into that it's uh, minted health, which is sports, nutritional supplements right now only have, you know, two flavors of pre-workout just because product formulation and getting that right. Takes a lot, a long time plus it's capital intensive. Yeah. And um, I think for me, you know, I'm extremely lucky to be working in these two fields. Cause it's both things I'm passionate about. Right. So when it comes to either putting in like really long hours or to, uh, you know, have to work on the weekends or just like all, all the time, it's, it's something I'd be doing anyway. I'm just lucky enough to be doing it full time, you know?

Rabah Rahil (00:21:13):

Yeah. I love that, man. What, uh, why the drop model for the apparel biz? Is it just easier to like, like the scarcity, like the stuff's amazing, like for people that don't know, the hoodies are just absolutely first, right? This running shirt is one of my favorites. Um, the cuts are amazing. The fabrics are amazing. The, the, the colors you have are so cool. Like I want one of those you gave me the Navy and you gave me the green is my favorite to be fair. The green is gorgeous, but, um, is it just again like a capital thing or is it more of like a Supreme model or like why the drop model?

Marcus Milione (00:21:47):

So, uh, as I, I had mentioned a little earlier, we started with just those, those packs of jewelry. Right? Yep. And, um, so it's been a product of both me having to bootstrap and not having ton of working capital. Yep. And uh, also like probably best problem to have. I can't keep things stocked. Right. Yeah. So, um, like it's not a drop model by design. This is just how it's worked out. Um, yeah. It we've just grown from like packs of chains, roll all cash into next, you know, set of products and just like continue to roll this ball. And like the pro the releases have gotten bigger and bigger, bigger just because our, our pool of working capital has increased over time. Yeah. But I mean, yeah, the, the, the, the best problem and, but it is still a problem is we can't keep stuff stocked. I have talked in the past how I would like to have, uh, some stuff, you know, stocked 24 7 like year round, just, yeah, yeah. You know, more, maybe more of like a, a line of, uh, basics, stuff like that, but also, you know, there's, there's that type of apparel and there's also, you know, the higher end stuff that we're making here in New York city by hand. So planning like a fashion show, all of that stuff, all of it just it's a time intensive. <laugh> it's time intensive.

Rabah Rahil (00:23:09):

Amazing. Did you, so one of the other things, and I, I promise this won't be all grab assing, but, um, the other thing that you did so well, like the box and the unboxing, and like, was that experience top of mind for you? Or were you just like, Hey, throw it to a designer and it just came out amazing. Cuz the box is incredible. The unboxing experience is incredible. Like everything feels very well thought out when I got that package is that obviously that's by design. Right. What, what were you thinking when you were, uh, like creating this experience for people? Cause it's amazing.

Marcus Milione (00:23:42):

So, um, you know, to this day, majority of that stuff runs through me. Um, we have, uh, on the design side I do, I have a graphics designer I work, uh, with, but nothing on the packaging end. And we also have, um, he is a student, but he works for us, you know, all, all the time, his name's clay, legendary designer of garments and accessories. I encourage people to check him out. He's crazy talented. But uh, yeah. So I, I have, uh, become obsessed with the way Steve jobs looked at packaging. Yeah. Right. Like I'm sure if you're an apple person, you most likely have one of their boxes laying around because you feel a visceral reaction to not throw it out. Right. And it's like, why is that? Right. Um, and so there is a whole entire experience around opening an item that you are anticipating.
Right. I remember reading about the way Steve jobs described those apple boxes and like that air pocket is by design yeah. Right. To slow you down and build anticipation. And so I try to, you know, look at people that have had success like that and see like, what was the mental behind this? And, um, and right now, um, we, we just got a sample back of a, a pair of sunglasses and uh, I'm starting to formulate the idea around the packaging there. And it's like how I always want there to be, you know, customer experience and customer satisfaction is the, the really, the only thing that matters to me, right? Like at the end of the day, if I can provide higher quality packaging, it's gonna make that experience better. I have to do it. Even if it cuts into margin, like that's almost your obligation as a business owner is to make sure your customer is satisfied because they took their time, traded it for money and then ultimately chose to spend that money on your product. And you now owe them a good experience. I think personally that's kind of like my, my mantra there. So, um, packaging, I just, I just try to, to make it, you know, good enough and constantly improving. Right. Like I said, we, and we're constantly under working capital constraint cuz I just am always rolling cash. But um, you know, that's just, uh, product of being, you know, taking, having taken no outside funding and just trying to kind of be as scrappy as possible.

Rabah Rahil (00:26:07):

I love that, man. I love that kind of mantra of, it's almost your obligation to provide that best in class experience, especially kind of when you're in that, you know, luxury tier, if you will, where this stuff isn't cheap, nor is it, um, you know, lower quality. It is in that kind of value for value higher level, um, type of quality. So I love that you have that mentality because it is, it was where I, speaking of thrown away, I still, I hate like trash and stuff or not trash, that's a pejorative, but like stuff around. And I still have the box here over in the corner cause I can't bring myself like I can't thread out yet. I'm like, well maybe I'll just keep it or I'll just, I'll figure something out for it very much. So in the apple, um, vein, so you absolutely succeeded there. That's amazing.

Marcus Milione (00:26:50):

That's great to hear

Rabah Rahil (00:26:52):

What are the best parts and hardest parts of running minted?

Marcus Milione (00:26:57):

Um, you know, I think probably the hardest thing is the, is the working capital constraint. Yeah. Um, almost because I, I, there are days I wrestle with it cause I think, you know, we could be growing faster and then at the same time, like we could be growing faster if we took outside capital and at the same time, you know, growing at your pace is not a bad thing. And also, you know, I'm in full control right now. Yes. Right. So, um, I, I am calling the shots and I've steered the ship to where we're at, you know, good enough so far. Yeah. That, um, I think just, I need to keep going this way and maybe, you know, growing slower than I, I could be, uh, just because we're still very much, um, you know, it's just me, my brother and clay. Right. <laugh> so we're, we're very much just hands on with all of our customers. I never, and I never want that to, um, kind of go away at all. Yeah. You know, I'm still emailing, emailing customers myself, just because things happen and I gotta make 'em. Right. You know?

Rabah Rahil (00:28:12):

Yeah, absolutely. And what's the best parts.

Marcus Milione (00:28:17):

Uh, man, I, I don't even know where to begin. Right. I am 27. I'm working with my brother full time, like here in New York city, extremely blessed to be in this situation. Um, I, I, I get emails from customers about, you know, how much they like the product and it's like to create a tangible product like that in a, in a different way than, you know, maybe like a software or something like something that people are wearing or I'll get DMS of people taking pictures of random people in my stuff like around the world. And it just, it's such a crazy feeling that I don't even really know how to describe it. It just it's, it's a huge blessing, you know?

Rabah Rahil (00:29:00):

Yeah. I was gonna say there is something. So I think, uh, I think a business is in two ways, right? Like bits and atoms and bits are just better because of margins and the economics are just fantastic. You don't have marginal costs, things like that, but there's something like the payoff in atoms is so interesting, especially when you're in something like apparel or something where it's like, not only did I make it and design that, that human gave me money and not only did they give me money, like they're proud to put this thing on and like peacock in it is that that has to be top 10 fillings of just like, this is sensational. Like it's fantastic. Like we, when I see people with triple well screenshots and stuff that makes me smile or like, oh, we're making more money cuz we're using triple that's fantastic.
But we do have some merch coming. So possibly I will get that, that feeling soon of, uh, seeing people repping the, the, uh, triple oil. But yeah, there has to be something really, really deep and visceral to that. Uh, just hits you really home where it's like, especially cuz it's intimate. Like you're literally wearing it on your body. Like it it's it's as intimate as it gets even more so than like a cell phone or something where it's hidden most of the time, it's like, um, same with the jewelry, right? Like the jewelry and the peril. But the jewelry's gonna be harder a little bit to suss out that that's minted sometimes where it's like, man, you know that that's the minted dye or like the way you guys have your colorways are so, so unique that um, yeah, I can definitely vibe with that. I love it.

Marcus Milione (00:30:23):

It, it's funny you say that about the jewelry cuz uh, a couple times I have been taking the city bike down the west side path and I will pass someone like holding up their chains, like yelling at me like these are it's it's insane, man. It's actually insane. It's so it feels so good and like very lucky to have like such a supportive community behind me that uh, yeah. I mean like experiences like that is just top 10.

Rabah Rahil (00:30:52):

I love it. Um, do you, so like how do you see the expansion going and then do you see any like collabs in the future? Like if you could do collab with somebody who would it be either brand or person?

Marcus Milione (00:31:03):

Uh, so I have, uh, on the collapse front, I am speaking with a few, I don't know how much I'm allowed to say

Rabah Rahil (00:31:11):

No breaking use yet.

Marcus Milione (00:31:13):

Yeah. Yeah. Can't uh, upset anybody, but yeah. Uh, it's, it's tough. Cause there, there is some stuff in the works. Uh, I just, um, I don't wanna, I don't wanna spoil anything yet love, but it, it would, it would be, I guess if you think about it, it would be very much, uh, up our alley on the running side of things. Yep. Uh, and the athletic wear side of things love it. And uh, ex as far as expanding goes, I will most likely host a pop up in New York city. Um, this summer, um, sick, like the only thing holding us back right now is our inability to keep inventory on hand. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so I'm trying to set some aside so we could host the proper popup and uh, and then just, you know, keep expanding product lines. We have, um, we have a couple different manufacturers that we work with.
One of them being on like a huge scale. Like if I could, I don't want to name brands they do work with, but they're, they're working with like the, the big players and you know, I think I kind of had to weasel my way in because when I first started that conversation, they looked at our website and it was locked and they said <laugh>, I don't think, I, I don't think you're the right size. And I pretty much had to like beg and plead and tell them like, I can hit your minimums. Like I promise, just give me a shot here. And we have some, they have crazy capabilities as far as like technical fabrics and stuff. So we're really, we're really pushing on a lot of, um, the athletic wear as well and a ton of other, a ton of other stuff. And then into the high, high fashion space, we will, we'll put on a fashion show here probably within the next 12 months. I'm thinking probably end of winter in New York city. So that'll be a full collection, um, of garments myself and, uh, clay are working on that right now.

Rabah Rahil (00:33:03):

Are you gonna, uh, be one of the models or no,

Marcus Milione (00:33:06):

No, no, no. You won't walk. Listen, I, I just, I just wanna, I just wanna be behind the scenes. I will, uh, I'll I'll hire models from agencies and let them do their thing. Um, okay. Fair enough. You know, I, I, I prefer to be in the background just working, you know, uh, you know, it's, it's not, it would be cool I guess, but uh, yeah, not, I don't, I'm not gonna walk. I'm not gonna walk

Rabah Rahil (00:33:30):

Too meta too meta. I get it. I get it too

Marcus Milione (00:33:32):

Meta, too. Meta <laugh> maybe on live, stream it on like TikTok live or something. No.

Rabah Rahil (00:33:37):

Oh, that would be great idea. Actually. Great idea. Boom. Yeah. Um, what was the Genesis for the pre-workout? Cause that's kind of a big jump from, I mean, obviously it's not a huge jump because you're such a fitness buff, but ultimately you have this huge play in fashion, all this, and then now you're moving into, uh, consumables, that being supplements. What was the, what was the thinking there?

Marcus Milione (00:34:01):

So, uh, the original thesis that I had was that there are a lot of pre-workouts with proprietary blends, right? Yep. You have no peak behind the curtain there on what is in that proprietary blend. Right. So it's, it becomes kind of difficult to know like, well, what am I dosed at for what's in this blend? And is it even like effective? Um, and so I just started hammering out research of like peer reviewed articles, seeing what are the most studied ingredients that are going to have some, you know, performance benefit, uh, as far as like, you know, specifically vasodilation per, per increasing and promoting blood flow as well as energy. And, um, you know, I, we landed on like seven ingredients. One of them being caffeine, obviously, you know, ultra researched. Um, and then I just wanted everything to be dosed toward the higher end of the effective range.
Love it. And that's it make it taste then just, you know, make it taste good and you have your product because I think that there was like a, I, I always will run like a litmus test of on myself cuz I, I think that I'm a very informed buyer of things. And so I was, I was essentially looking for a product that I couldn't find and figured I would make it myself kind of same happened with the jewelry as well as, you know, different pieces of apparel. And then, uh, yeah, just started that formulation process learn had to learn a ton about manufacturing, you know, not only consumable supplements, but you know, this is now you're running a business where people are ingesting your yeah. Your product. So yeah, you have to, you know, do everything, you know, button everything up, make sure your, your bases are covered and you're using high quality ingredient and stuff like that. So there's a lot of learning, but you know, I think that's probably my favorite part about this whole entire thing of, of running both of these businesses is that like every single day I have a million new things I have to learn. Yeah. And I, the, I don't really, I, I wouldn't say I was a good student at all and I, I don't learn in that way of a typical classroom. Like I have to just be out doing it. So this is kind of plays into my strong suit, I would say.

Rabah Rahil (00:36:15):

That's fantastic. Um, what's your favorite, favorite, favorite flavor profile? Cause you have two, right?

Marcus Milione (00:36:22):

I have two. And um, recently actually, uh, somebody in our discord community said, if you mix both of 'em, they're really good and I have never tried <laugh> but um,

Rabah Rahil (00:36:31):

The suicide

Marcus Milione (00:36:32):

Right now, I've just been kicking the, uh, I've been kicking the peach or the, the pink lemonade just cuz it's new and I've been taking thet for a long time beforehand. Um, so yeah, just the pink lemonade cuz it's new. Uh, everybody in my family takes it. So, um, my, I know my mom loves thet and uh, you know, my dad, he just is a caffeine fee. So whatever you put in front of him is taking it and uh, yeah. I don't know. I, I, I like, 'em both, I think the pink Lemonade's a little stronger, but I I'll send, uh, I'll send both bottles over and you can be the deciding factor.

Rabah Rahil (00:37:06):

Oh yeah. We'll do, we'll do a blind taste test. <laugh> um, the, and these are available now though, right? These are not drop models. Yeah. These are on your site. Yeah. Yeah. Beautiful.

Marcus Milione (00:37:14):

Yep. All the time.

Rabah Rahil (00:37:15):

I love it. Um, kind of a little bit of a, a veer off question, but how do you see eCommerce unfolding in the next two to three years? Not only for minted, but in the macro,

Marcus Milione (00:37:29):

So, Hmm. It's tough. Right. Cause I think the buyer is becoming more and more informed. Right. Mm-hmm <affirmative> and I had put out a piece about the, kind of the macroeconomic landscape of not just eCommerce, but just in general. Yeah. And the, the, you know, you have inflation that you're, you're keeping an eye on, you have the overall unsteady global markets, just, you know, you have the, the war in Ukraine totally. And you have, you know, stock market uncertainty. Uh, and so not only is the consumer becoming smarter and more diligent in what they're doing before they buy, but also they're, they're going to potentially feel a squeeze on their pockets and where they want to deploy their, um, excess capital. So you have to almost have some form of value add. And I think for brands specifically, you, you are doing yourself a disservice.
If you don't really have, um, much of a connection with your customer, you know, I like to sometimes go in and read, uh, brands maybe that are larger than us or kind of in a parallel space, uh, that are on trust pilot and just kind of like peruse through and see, you know, how they're taking care of their customers. Cause if you are not harboring a good relationship with your customer and uh, I think you'll probably feel pain in, in the long run, right? Yeah. Like your customer is always correct, no matter how wrong they actually may be. They're always right. And you need to respect that you also need to respect that they're spending their money at your store. So take care of them because they deserve it.

Rabah Rahil (00:39:19):

I love that. I think that's a huge and a, a little bit of a corollary for me is I think community's gonna be bigger than ever. Um, and that's, I think community or, uh, connection can be a really, uh, big function of community. And so I, I love where you're headed with that. I also think too, uh, you're going down the other path as well as, um, as like the CS is starting to kind of fade away or just kind of becoming no normal place. I think there's gonna be a, uh, uh, a really big thirst for, in person things again. So I love that, like the popup you're gonna do the fashion events. And again, that's also another really great way to facilitate connection where I'm a big believer in somebody has to like, you know, you trust you before they transact with you and there's no other way to do that.
Do all three of those things at once than in person. It doesn't scale like on the internet where you can get somebody like you, somebody can trust you and somebody can know you at different arenas with different pieces of content, so on and so forth. And that scales pretty much infinitely, but in person you can do all three of those at once. And, uh, it's, it's really cool. So I, I love where your head's at and I think you're spot on too with the, the macro analysis as well. There's gonna be some, some pretty big, um, headwinds that we're facing right now. And so, um, there, there probably will be a constraint, but I think to your point as well, um, people are just gonna be, I don't know how much it's gonna shrink as much as people are just gonna be more judicious in where they spend it.

Marcus Milione (00:40:42):

Yeah. You know, I, I, I also get a lot of DMS about people who are either starting businesses and I mean, it might be in the apparel space. It might just be software, but I, I always try to tell them, like, there seems to be, uh, kind of like a mindset where you almost feel bad that you're not as big as the big guys, right? Yeah. You look at brands like Nike who have these huge brand moats. And to me, like you have to almost take that as a blessing. Right. You're as a startup, much more nimble than Nike is. Yep. Right. Nike is also, or, and I don't mean to use Nike. I just talking big brands in general, but big, big brands like that have a lot of hoops to jump through, to get things either approved or a product to market, or even a piece of content made. And you need to use your scrappiness to your advantage and use your nimbleness and ability to adapt and pivot fast to your advantage. I also think like that ties right into just running lean. Like you should run your business almost as lean as physically possible because of chances of, you know, times like this, where there is potential headwind, keep, keep operations lean, don't have excess spending on stupid stuff and just make it all about products. You know, how much value can you actually add to your customer's life?

Rabah Rahil (00:42:02):

Brilliant. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Oh, one of my favorite segments. All right, man. Are you ready? Strap in, put your, uh, lacrosse helmet on we're going into rapid fires.

Marcus Milione (00:42:12):

All right.

Rabah Rahil (00:42:13):

Okay. Uh, marathons, overrated, underrated,

Marcus Milione (00:42:17):

Underrated.

Rabah Rahil (00:42:19):

Oh,

Marcus Milione (00:42:20):

Do I, do I have to give explanations?

Rabah Rahil (00:42:22):

You I'm a witness in your world. You can pontificate if you want, or you can just plow right through. It's totally up to you. The

Marcus Milione (00:42:27):

Thing, the thing I'll pontificate for a sec, even though I hate feeling preachy, but like the thing I like about distance running is like, we live in a day and age where you can get instant gratification. The second you open your phone, right? Yes. But let's say you set yourself up, uh, with a goal to run a certain time on a, on a distance event, like a half marathon or, or in your case, a marathon, there is no shortcut to that time, right? Yeah. So it's you and the clock and a whole host of days where you don't want to do what you wanna do. Right. You don't wanna get up. It's pouring rain. The wind is shit. It's a headwind. And now you gotta run 13 miles. Nobody wants to do that. Right. But there's like a lesson to be had in showing up like that day after day after day working towards something you may not get until a couple years down the road. And that's, I'm getting off my soapbox there.

Rabah Rahil (00:43:22):

No, I love that. And I'm, I'm all pumped up now. I think that that's something that is, uh, it's, it's been lost a bit and there it, there, there's also some, we won't go too down the rabbit pool, but there's some, some digital hijacking there that people get these, these weird almost like masturbatory kind of, I don't even know if that's a word, but like, it, it it's like a fake representation of what you would actually feel, but it's not the real thing. And so like, you're like, oh yeah, I played a video game and I accomplished this where it's like, there's a certain aspect of, uh, to your point, like paradoxically, like the harder you worked at it, the more gratifying it was. And so without that work, the accomplishment doesn't come. And so it, the accomplishment is a function of the work you put into it. And so, uh, I, I couldn't endorse that anymore. I think it's absolutely spot on, um, lacrosse, overrated, underrated,

Marcus Milione (00:44:15):

You know, I went into it and, and loved the sport. Right. But in college, it, it very much became a job. And yep. I, I don't, I can't say overrated or underrated. Right. It's very much, you know, everybody's own personal opinion, but there, you know, it, it can change for a person and it, it, when, once it became a job for me, I, I had a bit of a falling falling out of my love for, for the sport, which is unfortunate, but it is what it is, you know,

Rabah Rahil (00:44:42):

Literally the exact same, uh, pathway for running with me. Uh, pre-workout overrated, underrated,

Marcus Milione (00:44:49):

Underrated, baby.

Rabah Rahil (00:44:51):

Let's go, <laugh> snoops.

Marcus Milione (00:44:53):

These pumps hit different. I'm telling you why there's nothing like a really good pump in the gym. Yeah. Ric

Rabah Rahil (00:45:00):

Agree. Have you seen pumping iron? The classic Arnold?

Marcus Milione (00:45:03):

I have, of course, of course. Yes.

Rabah Rahil (00:45:04):

Yeah. Phenomenal. Um, fashion, overrated, underrated,

Marcus Milione (00:45:09):

Underrated, ah, man, it could be both honestly underrated in the sense that like there, there is something to be said for having garments that fits you correctly. I love that. And kind of maybe the confidence that it might bring you O overrated in the people that get super upset when somebody doesn't share their same viewpoint on fashion, that thats kind of gotta go, you know, I mean, it's Sebastian is, is an inherently subjective topic, right. So there's gonna be people that don't agree that, you know, maybe your, your favorite designer is, you know, X and mine is Y and when two completely different fashion classes, right. And, or, or fashion like, um, you know, trains of thoughts or what have you. And yeah, there's, there's no reason to get upset about that. You know, we're all in the same game.

Rabah Rahil (00:45:55):

Impeccably put New York overrated, underrated,

Marcus Milione (00:45:59):

Underrated. I've never felt energy. Like I felt in New York city, man. I, I tell you what say Manhattan, the thing. Yeah. I mean, the, the, the thing about New York is if, if you're, if you're like an inherently super competitive or, you know, driven person, there is always going to be either somebody doing more than you, or like, you need to keep pushing if you want to continue to grow in that way. And then that's that that's energy. I love, you know, it does, the city does not sleep. You either show up or, you know, it'll switch out.

Rabah Rahil (00:46:34):

Yep. That's so well, put Shopify overrated, underrated.

Marcus Milione (00:46:40):

Um, I think, yeah, I don't, I don't really know. It's only platform for e-comm that I've used as far as like selling goes. Yeah. So may probably underrated in the way that I don't wanna even use it to its full potential. I feel like, like our, like I've always heard about headless commerce, all this stuff. Like dude, our, our website is a free theme. Like yeah. I always see these things on Twitter. Like people like, you know, making crazy an analysis of like whatever my, my idea is let's just remove as much friction as possible to get a product purchased and all the other jazz is like, I don't know, man.

Rabah Rahil (00:47:18):

<laugh> yeah. I think that's a, be the, in terms of like hierarchies. I think you have it right where it's like ex remove friction, make sure the experience is there, make sure the product is amazing and make sure the customer's success experiences there where if there is, you know, something where you're supposed to Zig and they zag that you can make it. Right. Cause I think there again can be really smart people saying really smart things that don't really matter. <laugh>

Marcus Milione (00:47:41):

Yeah. I mean, it, it, it can also get lost. Like if you're not an operator and um, you're kind of, I don't know what you would be if you're not an operator, but you're, you're operating in the space and you think things should be done a certain way. Like, you know, operator and somebody looking in probably see it much differently.

Rabah Rahil (00:47:58):

Yeah. Very much so like man, in the arena, it's so much easier to give criticism than it is to actually do the thing NFTs, overrated, underrated,

Marcus Milione (00:48:09):

Man, I don't, I don't know him enough about the space to be honest with you. Oh, you

Rabah Rahil (00:48:12):

Never got into

Marcus Milione (00:48:13):

Them. I don't, I don't own it. Um, yeah. You know, I had people from my community consistently asking me to release a MI to New York NFT. And I had almost like this gut feeling of I'm sure there are projects with inherent value, but it felt very much cash grabby. And um, that's not what I'm about. Right. So for me, overrated, I dunno. I'm sure people will kind of be pissed about that. <laugh>

Rabah Rahil (00:48:40):

It could be cool though. You could release an NFT with something and then that could like materialize into like a ticket to the fashion show or something or the pop up or a need, like tying it back to a community or something. I like, but for me, we had the same feeling about if people are buying it to speculate and make money off of it, like a triple whale NFT, it just feels gross. Like we're not trying to do like a rug pool or a cash grab, but if we could use it as a vector to make it more intimate with the community, I think would be cool, but we haven't unlocked that yet. But same vibes.

Marcus Milione (00:49:09):

Yeah. I mean like, uh, people probably don't don't know this yet, but I, I released prints. Um, and I have a use case for if you bought a print down the road. Right. But the print is tangible and I wanted people to buy the print cuz they like the print, but I'm gonna add that value in later. And the customers don't even know it yet.

Rabah Rahil (00:49:30):

What print, what are you talking about? You have photos.

Marcus Milione (00:49:33):

So we, we released poster, you know, the, uh, we need the episode. So they're actually mu museum quality prints. Right? Like we, we had these made in Tribeca, uh, of that, that run club design, the three level characters. Yeah. And the background is, uh, the city, like all the Manhattan streets. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you want one? I think of course. Good in the office. <laugh> yes. I'll send one your way.

Rabah Rahil (00:49:56):

Oh my gosh. Killing me here. You're killing me here, Marcus. All right. You're pretty big on this. So this might be a tossup, but TikTok, overrated, underrated,

Marcus Milione (00:50:04):

Underrated. Yeah. Underrated, you know, I, and I, I was a victim or not a victim, but I was a, a yeah. Victim of that mindset of, you know, before I was on the app, I assumed it was just like younger people dancing. Right. Yeah. And I think that there are a lot of people of that mindset, but one, the algorithm works. I don't think anyone knows how it works, but um, like you can find so much informational content and like almost transformative content on there. You just have to look for it and interact with the right stuff. Um, it's reminds me very much of like YouTube, how people use YouTube to like learn things. You can learn a lot from, you know, now they have three minute videos, but you know, some of the sh the shorter videos that like small short content, very informative. And that's, that's mainly how I like to like to use it myself.

Rabah Rahil (00:50:55):

Oh, I couldn't agree with you more. Uh, I thought it was kind of like, uh, again, kind of just these thirst traps constantly. And then mm-hmm <affirmative> I ended up finding tax advice on there. I learned about it 1 79, actually watched your latest thing about how to layer or what t-shirts to wear in the summer and stuff that it it's really, I think it's actually a bigger competitor to YouTube than it is Facebook, because it is really, there's some weird niches that people go deep. And it's actually like, if that's your thing, it's really interesting. And you can learn a ton in that really weird corner of the world. Um, and the algorithm is second to none. It is it's, it's really

Marcus Milione (00:51:29):

Dangerous. Yeah. The algorithm's a bit of a black hole

Rabah Rahil (00:51:32):

I'll fall into that thing. And then like 30 minutes, you just wake up. You're like, I blacked out what happened, where did that 30 minutes go? Like, it can really, uh, get you. And then the, the way I think they synthesize like the music and the captions, and there's all these like layered things to it where there's like, what they're showing you, but then there's the meme or the actual production of what's going on duet. It's like, it's very sophisticated cognitively. It's, it's really interesting.

Marcus Milione (00:51:55):

Mm-hmm <affirmative>

Rabah Rahil (00:51:57):

Uh, favorite meal and why,

Marcus Milione (00:52:00):

Uh, man, you gotta do me with this question. Uh it's it's so tough. Cause I eat the same thing every single day, but, uh, I, this is gonna sound so terrible. I appreciate a really good salad, like when I'm starving. Right. But I'm not gonna say that's my, my favorite meal. Thank you thank you. I do. I do enjoy like, uh, like a Mac and cheese burger. I haven't had one in years, but like a really good, well made Mac and cheese burger, like medium rare. Uh, I'll take, I'll take that if that's what I'm

Rabah Rahil (00:52:35):

Getting much better answer than salad. We'll play. We'll play it. Your favorite fashion brand or designer.

Marcus Milione (00:52:45):

I'm a, I'm a fan of bohi. Um, Emily over there at bohi is, uh, I think makes a lot of, you know, really, really good garments. Um, it's tough, right? Um, yeah, I think, I think that that's who I, I like to see how she's running her business. I, it's almost more of like changed from, I really, really like, you know, fashion label to, I really, you know, respect how somebody, um, runs the business, how the message is made. Yeah. Yeah. Cause I mean, it's tough, right? I think almost maybe 90% of it is figuring out how are you gonna sell a product, right? Yeah. Cause you, you can be the, the best designer in the world, but if, if you're the only one that has your products, you know, it's, it's almost tough to make a claim at anything. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And, um, yeah, I think, I think it can be almost lost, like the art of running the, the business side of a, of a label or of a brand.

Rabah Rahil (00:53:47):

Yeah. I love that side note. I got to go to in Marrakesh, east St. Lauren's, uh, old house and it's impeccable. Really cool. Really? If you ever go to Morocco, it's insane. In Marrakesh, he has his incredible gardens and he lived well. He did not, he was not scraping.

Marcus Milione (00:54:06):

I have heard, I have heard

Rabah Rahil (00:54:08):

It's. Yeah. It's very nice. Um, your favorite podcast,

Marcus Milione (00:54:12):

How I built this guy

Rabah Rahil (00:54:14):

Was yeah, super strong, super

Marcus Milione (00:54:15):

Strong. I, I don't think that there is a better, um, educational tool with nuggets of information from actual operators on the internet. I, you know, cause like no one, there is really trying to sell you on a course or something. It's literally just people talking about their come up from pretty much zero to most of them exit. And for me, like even before I started the business, I would listen, listen to those episodes and I'd always be like, plotting, like, oh, let's remember that for, if we ever get to that point. And now it's like, let's listen. Kind of see where we would be on par with them as far as size. And like how did they get up one level? Right? How did they take it to the next level? How can we implement something similar?

Rabah Rahil (00:55:00):

I totally agree. Sensational and great production, quality, uh, favorite place travel to and why?

Marcus Milione (00:55:05):

Oh man, I have not traveled very much, honestly. No, it's it's not good. It's not good. Right? It's not good. Um,

Rabah Rahil (00:55:12):

It's so cultured. It's so crazy.

Marcus Milione (00:55:15):

I dunno. I have never left United States. <laugh>

Rabah Rahil (00:55:19):

No seriously.

Marcus Milione (00:55:21):

Yeah. Yeah. It's it's bad. It's bad. I actually had some,

Rabah Rahil (00:55:24):

Not even Mexico or Canada.

Marcus Milione (00:55:26):

I had, nah, I had somebody tell me that's the biggest red flag.

Rabah Rahil (00:55:31):

That is a red flag of it. If I didn't not,

Marcus Milione (00:55:33):

You know what, I'll take my red flag and wave it around. But I, I do plan on traveling. We, we are working with a factory on the handmade sunglasses in Japan. Yeah. And Japan is like probably number one, amazing on my places to travel because I have so much for respect for the way their culture puts attention to detail into everything they do. Like, I, I am fascinated with their manufacturing process, every, just everything. And so I think, uh, once, you know, travel opens up a bit, like I think it still think you have to like quarantine and stuff when you go there. Yeah. And so I wanna make the most of it and visit the factory and stuff. I don't wanna be dealing with, you know, all, all that stuff so way. Yeah. I'll probably probably go there, but yeah, I don't really have, I went to tell you I Colorado. That was pretty nice.

Rabah Rahil (00:56:19):

<laugh> I went to Philly. That was funny. Yeah. Saw the Liberty bell. That's amazing Marcus. Oh my gosh. That's incredible. Yeah. Uh, alright man, one last question. You've made it through, um, if you could have dinner with three people dead or alive, fictional or nonfictional, who would they be? You're sitting at a four person table. You're sitting at the head. You get to invite three people. Who's getting the invite from Marcus.

Marcus Milione (00:56:43):

Uh, Marcus a, um, mainly cause his book, his book meditation's uh, kind of a bit transformative for me.

Rabah Rahil (00:56:51):

You're

Marcus Milione (00:56:52):

Still a bit. Um, yeah. I love it. I

Rabah Rahil (00:56:55):

Knew, I knew we were just, you

Marcus Milione (00:56:57):

Couldn't tell.

Rabah Rahil (00:56:58):

Of course I love this.

Marcus Milione (00:57:01):

Um, shoot man. Some other ones I'm not, uh, I'm not really sure. Probably I, I would say Elon. Yeah. Just because I I'd like to pick his brain on, on how, how he operates the way he does. Like yeah. You know, he catches a lot of flack. Um, probably some of it deserved probably some of it undeserved, but you can't really knock him as an operator. I don't know a whole lot of people that have started multiple billion dollar businesses. Like that's not easy to do. Right. So he's definitely got nuggets of good information.

Rabah Rahil (00:57:35):

<laugh> he's operating on different level for sure.

Marcus Milione (00:57:39):

Yeah. Third man. Uh, I don't know. I don't know. Maybe I'll bring you along so that you can talk to both of them with me. <laugh>

Rabah Rahil (00:57:47):

First time anybody's invited me for that question. Amazing. I've learned so much about you Marcus. Fantastic. Rapid fire. You did it. My friend. Wonderful. Ah,

Marcus Milione (00:57:57):

Amazing. I appreciate you having me here, man.

Rabah Rahil (00:57:59):

Of course. So tell people how they can get more involved in minted. Where can they follow you on the tick talks on Twitter this time is yours.

Marcus Milione (00:58:06):

Yeah. So, uh, on all social medias it's uh, I think it's just at Marcus mili. Um, and then on Instagram we have minted New York minted health and then, um, that's pretty much it. I also have a, a, a subs newsletter that I release every week that breaks down what we're working on every single week. Kind of like a peer behind the curtains and that's called the minted minutes. But if you find me on social media, my, my link in bio thing has all of this, you know, attached to it.

Rabah Rahil (00:58:38):

And then where can you get the preworkout

Marcus Milione (00:58:40):

Preworkout is at min uh, minted.is the website.is the, uh, end of the

Rabah Rahil (00:58:47):

Yeah. Oh, beautiful. The TLD. Fantastic.

Marcus Milione (00:58:49):

Yes, it

Rabah Rahil (00:58:50):

Is Marcus. This is more fun than I could've imagined. I've learned so much about you and now I'm ready to go get Jack. Now I'm gonna get some, some minted pre-workout and start to get my delayed gratification on cuz there's, there's just something to that. When you can get more gratification from saying no to something it's like that, that's when you know, you're on the past success. That's when I found my most successful where it's like, I, I get more pleasure from adhering to the path that I had laid out than constantly just varying off and you know, squirrel, squirrel, squirrel kind of thing. So you've really brought a lot of focus back to my life. I appreciate it. And thank you for all the gear. This stuff is amazing. If you guys can't get your hands on it, it's it's incredible. Um, very, very awesome. Go check out. Minted, new york.com and then minted.health to go get all the awesomeness, uh, Marcus dude. Thanks again. If you're ever out in Austin, gimme a shout, dude. We'll do some dinners. We'll do it up. We'll get you a big salad or a, a cheeseburger or a Mac and cheeseburger, whatever, whatever proclivity you want. Maybe we'll grab a run together. You can't leave me in the dust though. You gotta, you guys I've seen your Strava screenshot. You're moving.

Marcus Milione (00:59:51):

Yeah. <laugh> getting a little faster

Rabah Rahil (00:59:55):

Quick, man. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Hey brother. Thanks again. Thanks so much. If you wanna try triple whale, we are try triple well.com. We are also on the bird app at triple whale, and then we have, uh, a bunch of other podcasts, a bunch of other Awesomes. Um, we have a great newsletter called whale mail that goes out every Tuesday, Thursday that you can subscribe to right on our Twitter profile. And that's it. Marcus. Thanks so much. Appreciate you making the time. And then thank you for being a light in this world and pushing forward through all these cool ideals, fashion workouts, just being an awesome human. Appreciate your brother.

Marcus Milione (01:00:27):

Yeah.

ā€

One Tab
To Replace Them All

Supercharge your growth with a purpose-built ecomOSĀ for brands and agencies.

Before ...
Shopify
Ads Manager
Klaviyo
TikTok
Pinterest
Bliss
Triple Whale