Innovation is Stuck Inside a Cube

back to at Landia. The only thing separating me from the Jersey Shore right now, and it's the only thing I would have came to Brooklyn for UM. We have Cody Levine and Mike Tongue coming into the studio to ex agency young guns who have broken out to turn their passion and to purpose their side hustle into the main hustle. And I think we have a thing or two that they can really teach the agency about where we're missing the mark on creativity agency brands. I think leadership. Seriously,

these guys have a anything one liners. So with that, we'll be right back. Welcome back, everybody. We're here with Cody Levine, Hi, co founder of toothpaste brand twice and the total Brooklyn artiste Mike Tongue is in the building. Mike Tongue is a marketing manager over at the Brooklyn Museum and also the founder of the Culture LP. Hello. Hello, both of you ex agency people that Alex and I have had the fortunate opportunity to have worked with in

some capacity in our careers and as young guns. If I may say this under the age of thirty, how old are you? Just call it out? Yeah, And something happened for the both of you where you decided in the not too distant past that you were going to

take your path actions and turn them into your everyday work. Tom, talk about what that was like for you, kind of stepping away from the traditional agency world where you had been somebody who's hot in the art scene out in Brooklyn, and talk about your kind of diversion back into that via the Brooklyn Museum. Yeah. I mean it's been I guess it's been gradual the whole time. The two worlds

have been colliding. They collide in the work to right, you see it in the agency space, like let's do this art activation, let's do this sort of street art um kind of integration or whatever. It may have you, but for me, I had never stopped doing the cultural work. It was always a five to nine thing. But it just got to the point where five to nine am the next day just to clarify. But it just got to the point where it just made too much sense.

And on a personal tip, you know, my father was an artist, and it just was like, this is when I have to go full go and and really lean in on you know, the culture right. And it's something that I think institutions like the Brookn Museum and other cultural institutions need, right. They their new fundering stores and things of that nature. Are these tech companies and these media platforms and everybody wants to show up cross screen and things of that nature, but they can't do it

without actually understand how these companies work. So it was kind of a perfect fit for me. They brought their agency services in the house, so it was just you know, yeah, it was so funny because I was talking to a group of cmos and I said, do you are you actually looking at your teams instead of when we've talked about this on the show, like you're looking at your teams instead of resources. Actually his talent and I used

you as an example. I was like, because if I need someone to think with me, really think with me, and think about how people are going to show up, how they're going to interact and not showing up as a brand that's tone deaf. You need people like Tong and Cody. Yeah, and coincidentally, both of you have been

inspired by your dad, so do. Your father is a well known dentist in New York City, and he inspired you and your brother to walk away from UM your nine to five's and chase down the opportunity to build your own DTC brand. Can you talk about twice? Yeah? Absolutely? UM, for me, it was interesting. I always knew I wanted to start my own brand, but I didn't know what

exactly would be. And through some work we have been doing as a family, dad being a dentist, mom and dad building brands together in the space of oral care, they started a nonprofit which was really set up to provide full service dentistry to underserved communities. And Um, what happened was I go down with my brother and a group of dentists. We team up with a patient of my dad' who's Lenny Kravitz, and we end up we end up in the beautiful mouth. He's got a great,

beautiful mouth. Yeah, smiles important for him. And we go down there where he spends, you know, most of the year recording his music and he calls at home, and we set up a full service shop, and um we treated everyone from cleanings and whitenings to full extractions and reconstruction. And I think, right then and there, in that moment, my brother and I we saw what the power of

a smile was. And it opened my eyes and it gave me purpose to what I ultimately want to do, which is start a brand, but one that has purpose behind it and and meaning and true depth and could get back. So we, you know, after formulating over a year, two years, we go back down to Luther and we we decide to each other. We say, let's do something about this. We pink got to do more. We I don't think I can go back to my day job. I can't go back to the desk. I UM, let's

go build. So we looked at the oral care space and and we ultimately ended up with Twice, which I could tell you a lot more about, but um, it's a direct consumer brand in oral care. We're starting with toothpaste. We want to make the products that you use every single day, twice a day to be um as beautiful as a smile is. So you know, it's something that I took the jump on back in September, uh to leave my job and say, you know, this is what

I'm going to do. And I talked to a ton of friends that are entrepreneurs and they said, you know, well, before I did it, I had milestones I wanted to hit, UM things I wanted to accomplish. For me, it was UM. I was still you know, I was working and and proud of work I was doing, but ultimately knew if I really wanted to do this, I had to dedicate everything UM. And it was a it was an incredible

moment in time when I did that. UM is scary in a yeah, it was scary, but the adrenaline was just beyond I actually, yeah, I quit on a Wednesday. On Wednesday night, I actually was on a flight to go pitch the brand to a potential partner and and a co founder of ours. So um, the rush was everything nervous, Sure, every day you're you're nervous, energy you

turned into excitement. I think there's a whole thing going on in the marketplace, which I know both of you know well having worked with you, that your generation, our generation, the millennial generation, is one that is compelled to associate or align themselves with brands that identify with purpose. I would say, respectively, both of the places you work for

with our building, UM resonate with that. Can you talk about, both as consumers and as entrepreneurs in your own right, what purpose means to you and how you see the intersection of those things, translating from how you think about brands versus how you're creating them. Yeah, I think. I've always thought that people don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it, and behind every product, you need to help consumers understand, you know, how you relate

to them on a personal level. And UM, I think today, more than ever, consumers are I don't want to say they're skeptical, but you know me and my friends, they need to know more, they need to see more the

world of transparency. UM. A brand like r X bar are completely shaking it up by saying like there's two eggs in almond and a dayton Yeah, no bs, And I think UM, in the world of brands that have social at the core or or are driven by purpose, they that's part of their DNA and it's no longer just like attack on UM and you have to prove that day in and day out, and people have to really feel it. Yeah. I mean for me, it's interesting because the the idea of culture is like super lucid, right,

like it's everything that we do UM. So I ended up building a business model kind of around just in my lifestyle. I would like to go to art shows. I like supporting my friends they needed help with mail, chip and social media and ship like that, and it just ended up turning into a service offering, which is like, looking back at it, now I can't go to an art show and not think about work. So it's kind of something I was talking about last night, is like

this blurred line between the two. But the idea of UM purpose is just something that's been at the core of on both sides. Right. The museum is a place that you know, it likes to think about the community and put the community first, whether it's through for free events are just bringing in different speakers to talk about things, whether it's the election, whether it's you know, UM, immigration rights, things of that nature. UM. So to be able to

work at us space like that is super refreshing and rewarding. Um. And then for me purposefully, I like to stay in Brooklyn. I like Brooklyn. We didn't get into culture lp We didn't get into the side hustle main hustle. Yeah. So um So the culture lp um started as a blog about maybe six years ago. I was still in school.

I really had some friends, like kind of similar to what we're talking about this age of transparency, but I feel like Twitter was a place where people were just talking a lot of ship, having fun, getting attention for being funny, not really like anything of substance at that point. Um. I feel like I was one of them, and I was like, well, I have some friends doing some really

creative things. I want to highlight them. I grabbed SLR from you know, the Bucknell Library, and I videotaped a couple of my friends who had done some poetry on you know, microaggressions and things that we were going through at Bucknell University, just being really white space in the middle of Pennsylvania where all kids from different cities Boston, d C, New York, UM, and I kind of just left them freestyle and you know, did a spoken word video, put it on Vimeo. I was like, this is cool,

made some T shirts. I was like, this is cool. You know. I just kept going with that, you know, fast forward. UM. I now worked closely with a few visual artists who have done you know, street murals for a city bike in South Africa. Patrick ey Jean just did a live art installation up in Massachusetts at the Met Museum. Um. These are all folks. You know. Ronald Draper just got the awarded uh Urban Public League, you know,

a c P. He's the curator at Harlem Hospital. And these are guys that like we rented his first studio in Harlem for eight hundred bucks to do a show, and we had like seventy r s v p s. And now we put out a show. We had like fives in the first four days, had a closing link,

you know. And it's like, but by just believing in these creators and being a partner to them, someone who understands like marketing frameworks and how brands think we're able to you know, secure sponsorship with Essential Water or you know, any other partners that we've worked with. Pad did a commission for Nike like things of that nature. Um. But the two worlds are just so parallel from the museum

is dying to play in that space. So it's really interesting. Well, I want to talk about that, but I want to first say the other day we were having lunch and you said to me, and it was so simple. You were like, you know that friend that you had, or maybe you were this person that you would call and say, what's going on this weekend? I haven't talked about that, right. So the other thing, because you have like a million things, um,

is this new service that you put together. And I thought it was so smart because everyone has that friend or you're that friend, which sometimes becomes a burden. Are that friend? Um? Yeah, I feel like there was a there was a tipping point where somebody had text me. I asked me, I have some my families in town. What's going on? Is there an art show I should take them to? Is there a museum opening? This before I started working museum, probably before I started working, uh

in any agency role. And I was like, I can't keep doing this every weekend, every day, somebody's asking me this question. And Ryan Leslie has a service called super Phone that's really made for musicians to like directly connect with their consumers. You know, off of social media you can track shopify integrations and who's spending the most money,

what zip codes are supporting you. So we were using that right now, just texting people on like twice to three times a week telling them art, food, music related events that are happening locally in New York. Um, it's great for us because for the past five years we've been building these cultural experiences with people who you know, are poets, are our event producers, so they're sending us events.

We're finding events in the wild, but using that filter to disseminate through Slack and and you know, group think what we should send out. And um, it's been a it's been an interesting test around. I'm definitely excited to see where we where we take it over the next few months, especially this summer coming up. And it's called what are you calling it? The Cultural Hotline? How do you sign up Culture Hotline dot coorn text number. You know,

it's interesting both of you watching your socials. Other than it making me completely exhausted, I feel like you just said, watching your social watching socials. I saw this week and it was crazy Um, I thought I was busy. So both of you obviously have super magnetic personalities. You're building these insane communities and your respective circles. How do you go out and seek the people that you're adding to your circles? And then how can brands infiltrate that? What

is the value exchange that your circles are looking for? Yeah, it's interesting because you know when you're when you're on the agency side and you're you're building other brands, you can go out and talk about it and you're proud of it, and um, you see the work that you you put out. But when it's your brand, it's your d n A, it's your life, your blood, sweat and tears. Um. You know, I'm out there and I'm just naturally talking

about what I'm doing. And and you know when I when I can speak to a friend or someone I just met, and their eyes light up and they say, wow, this is really interesting, like how can I help? I think, UM, when it comes from a real place of authenticity and genuine like I think they can see the passion behind the entrepreneur and they say, wow, like this could be really cool. How can I help? Um? I was out in l A. And I was, UM. I was with a friend who has an ice cream popsicle company, and

he was doing a pop up an outdoor voices. They were doing a running club and UM, I come like the runners come in and we're handing out popsicles and I'm just there kind of hanging out. And I start talking to a guy and he's got a branding agency, and UM, he he loved everything we're doing. Is I got to connect you to this guy and this guy and this person and this woman. And next thing I know, I'm in l A for three days and I'm meeting a ton of people that that UM, I had never known,

I never even known existed. But by the fact of UM, you know, having conversation and not being nervous or or scared to talk about what you're doing, UM, it opened up all these doors at My community is slowly building and building and building, And I don't know what it's gonna look like in in six months or a year, but I know that if I keep surrounding myself with the right people who believe in the mission and and can see like, hey this, you know what what is

being built here is a little different or UM I know someone who can help. I think if we all just rally around that idea of helping each other and but being a part of something that a lot of shared value. Um, I think the community, it just becomes incredibly powerful. So you're talking about people who are helping you build your business. But do you think everything you just said actually goes over to consumers and how you're

going to interact with customers of twice? Yeah? I think so. Um, maybe I'm a naive entrepreneur, but I I think when you can build a brand that stands for something bigger than the product you make, um, they can see it. And I think, um, you know you and talk to ten people, and and if only five of them believe in you, that's great. Go with the five, yeah, and

and leave the other five. It's interesting. We had the founder of Away Suitcases on a couple episodes ago, and we were talking about founders living the brand out loud, and I think you just gave wearing a twice hat. But can I just say you have a twice What are these things? I didn't know what they were called, and now I can't believe you didn't bring us any merch.

Think about community for me was like the first event that we did that was formal was literally called Connected Dots, and I was like, I realized, like people that are musicians and people that are like trying to do events for nonprofit they need something like there's something missing, right. So I literally invited people that were not I myself and my co founders. We invited people that were working in the starting nonprofits are did like pr marketing, r

musicians because they always needed performers. They always need a promotion. It's very interesting. There's a small brunch MABE like forty um and at that brunch with some people that I still keep in touch with that our movies and shakers, but that was one of our first organized events, and that that essence of like minded individuals of like, this idea of community something you can't replicate. You can't go to a you can't go to an agency, can't go

to a brand. Partners say like, hey, we want to do this event and we need like people that work with each other to be there. That's so like being able to overtime, you know, put people in the same room that can have similar issues but have solutions and have different perspectives on those on those problems. It's something that you can't really quantify. And that's I think what's been difficult and why I've kept it as a let's say,

a five to nine for so long. It's just it takes a while to show and prove what that what that value is. But um, now with the idea of like micro influencers, people are seeing that that those are the those are the folks, these people in Brooklyn and New York and Uptown and Washington Heights, in the Bronx, these pockets of community that have been around forever. But now with social media you're able to have a voice in a platform. It's given a whole new value to

like these underground communities. What you just said tongue and something Alex and I have brainstormed about for a very long time in terms of building community is you can't go and buy it overnight. It's something that a long Yeah. I mean that's why red Bull has been so successful, Right, they get in at the grassroots and they but they built and they fund these communities and they stick with them.

What should brands be doing for your very cool hip like culture driven communities that you would find to be a tangible value exchange. I mean, really, they need to get out of the office, right, Like I felt like a lot of times, Uh, we're ideating and we're all white boards and we're doing things, and it's like, go talk to the people you want to talk to. There's

so many people that already doing these things. You need influencers to help you aggregate influence, right if it's like, hey, I want to you know, I want to talk to um, I want to talk to black women about hair. I can give you five communities that have blogs and instagrams with double digit thousand followers, and the women that run them probably work in corporate America. Like, it's not it's

not this thing that's so far removed. You can sit down and have a conversation with people who are moving and shaking these communities. I think we've treated like it's this far fetched thing, you know. And I think just going out and touching people something that it's hard to do when you have that kind of corporate structure role or that brand role. I met this woman named sam Hi Sam shout out. I told you I'd shout you out at the I A B say Hi Cody Hi sam Um at the I A b Women visionary Summach.

She came up to me and she was like, I love the show. It means a lot. She started talking about like just how do you break because she's like, I'm not leaving right this world. I love this world. I love the advertising marketing media world. I'm not going to leave it, But like, how do you start breaking through with some of these ideas and some of the thinking that I have coming from the outside on the inside,

How have you done that? Even in my early days of B Video where I met Laura UM, the brands that broke through became part of culture UM in a unique way. Not probably trying to force themselves in saying like hey I want to be in music, UM, but on a ground level, trying to help build something new. UM. And when you're not the elephant in the room saying like yeah, I'm here with the cool kids, it's it's more of like, hey, how do we how do we

help you? UM? Remember Boccardi, you know, four or five years ago, I was getting into the music space, and UM, they were always around, how do I provide and create culture for emerging artists and UM even you know artists themselves. UM. From a visual perspective, right, like they were they were allowing them opportunities to grow their personal brand. Um. And yeah, you know it became an experience that you would you

would be a part of. But I think ultimately if you were to ask one of them musicians or artists, say, was this helpful? Like it can? It can make a career, right, I think, Um, to create culture and to be a part of subcultures and communities means um, not trying to you know, barge through the front door, but but hanging out and like learning, right, like stop talking and just listen,

um and you'll figure out something really cool to do together. Yeah, you touched on something that's really important about like solving a need. Are providing access on a platform like you look at what Pocardi has done and then their partnership with Swizz and like the Dan Collection are sparing often what they've done for you know, women and trans women in music and specific leaning in on that, right, like not trying to be not trying to be everything for

everyone in music. Are chasing a E d M trend, but it's like who who Who's not getting shown any love? Who deserves you know, some a corporate Stamp are to do a show for us in a brand, So it makes a lot of sense. You guys are really young. I worked with you at G and you had some of the best, bravest and loudest without screaming voices. How do you come to the table with a client like a g E or a PICCARDI or right and be the young person in the room man or woman? Man

or woman? Like what do what do you do to get those ideas across? Yeah, and it's, um, that's a good question. I think from my experience I was. I was fortunate to be put in a room, um, you know with the bigger folks in the creative department and the account management teams, and and they looked at me and I was like the young millennial in the room and they and they were trying to solve big problems of how big brands maintain relevance and create community within

you know, a younger demo. And I just talked about my experience, um, and I never overthought, you know what I was saying. I really was just like, hey, guys, like, this is what's happening today. It was everything was from my phone, my world like projected out on the walls and on the screens, and at the end of the day, it helped evolve creative work. It it helped unique partnerships, and I was super grateful and fortunate to be in those positions. UM, But ultimately it was it was me.

I didn't try to be anyone who wasn't like your brand. Yeah, yeah, I think that the it came up a couple of times with the idea of authenticity, and then that's when people actually listen to you and care what you have to say. If you're trying to fake the funk or pull you know, pull inside out of the sky. And I think you know when people hear that in your voice, right, if you're talking about something you know about and not speaking about things you don't know about, asking good questions.

When you ask those questions, people realize you're you're coming to the table, you know, with with some sort of equity. You're you're not just trying to show out and be the loudest, our smartest person in the room, but just

actually adding value. What would your advice be to the C suite listening to this conversation UM, within agency world, within brand, with our industry at large, what would you say, UM, now that you're on the outside of it, that you think you could kind of give us a feedback loop to help advance or progress, UM, what's currently going on for people your age and the agent you right, and also getting those ideas out because like how many leaders sit and say I want these ideas. I want these ideas.

Either they're sitting at the middle layer right of your organization and you don't even know it, or you've selected some like weird advisory group and made them think only in a certain way on a brief. On a brief, yeah, I think outside of the brief and outside of the process, you have to enable you know, the young kids in the agency UM to go outside of their daily job. Like It's funny when I was when I was a BBDO,

I wanted to do everything but my job. I wanted to make weird partnerships happen and and pushing ideas that weren't you know, traditional UM. And when you also when you when you get when you attract yourself towards someone

in the agency, UM who's in a different position. I think, I know mentorship platforms and programs are are in a lot of agencies, but UM, a lot of the times, people naturally, you know, link up with someone and I was fortunate to have a mentor and in Simon Bond, who is the CMO at the time, and um, you know, he brought me along on on projects that were you know,

not the normal. Um. But I think if if big time leaders in those agencies have more of an open door or not that you know, the junior strategist is knocking on the door every twenty minutes, because that's not gonna get anything done. But um, you know they don't feel um, you know, put aside if they had a great idea, um, you know, you have to enable every idea. I remember I was at Live Nation and I had I had a thought for how Ticketmaster and Live Nation

could sell each individual seat that goes unsold every night. Um. And I was maniacal about this idea. I was like, well, there's like there's five thousand seats in every arena that goes unsold every night, Like we can Live Nation could sell those and they could actually give them away to charity. I came up with a whole platform and at the end of the day, like, um, you have to have be enabled to thrive in any environment. Um, long story

short and noo. They actually integrated a new new tech into their website that minimized the risk of individual seats being created. But every venue is so different in the seating arrangements and how people are buying that it's inevitable. UM. I actually pitched it to a brand and I re skinned it into what I thought was incredible idea. So cool. Um, we could talk about that offline over tequila or something. But yeah, no, we pitched it to that. We pitched

to a booze brand and they loved it. We actually had their UM, their head of pr say like, this is the ideas that we're looking for. She like slammed her hands on the table. She was like, this is fantastic. UM, and it worked really well with their new campaign. Um. But at the end of the day, UM, you know, I remember leaving the room and someone on the team said that's impossible to do, and I said, well, that's possible. Is it like giving your kid a Yester day? Have

you heard of this? Parents now are giving their kids yesterdays where they literally don't say no to anything. My daughter, my husband and I would be like sitting on the roof for something. If we just said if we had a yes day would be like terrifying. But like, is

this like giving your employees a yesterday? Like is this giving your middle management like you know what I mean, Like let them go fucking do the moon shot even if it's not gonna work, as long as it's logical, as long as it has purpose, as long as they're passionate, Like does that hurt? Yeah? I think, um, you know, I think it definitely opens the door to say, hey,

we believe in your thinking. Yeah, because it's it's very easy to get discouraged as a as a junior or a young person the agency, because hey, like that's the cycle, Like you're you're there for a specific role that you know you're not at the level and the experience and the expertise to walk in the door and smash the meeting. That's right. Um, But if the right people are continually

saying like yeah, I can't like the way you think. Yeah, my grandmother has this line You're welcome every time, just not any time. And I think there's something really interesting about sort of a strategic use case, like bring these ideas forward, but make sure that we're helping as seasoned veterans in the industry shape those ideas so that they can get them at the table, but but don't like

yesterday should be every day. As far as yes, this industry needs a lot more yesterday, Tom, What do you think? I think the magical thing that happened at the spoon is that that that discovery fund, that that was happening. Most people talk about stuff like that and don't actually let it happen. But what you said it is stepping

away from your day to day. I think every review I've ever had since I started working as like, he's great, but he always wants to do this other and it's like, now a lot of people interesting, is that positioned as a negative? Yes, exactly, And it's like but now you know, now you get paid to do the other stuff, right,

and it's so it's really interesting. But I think the aspect of being able to travel, our support, you know, putting kind of putting your money where your mouth is as a company and agency affirm whatever it is to let people go explore. Because what you said earlier about if you're passionate, if you're responsible, if if you're diligous, you don't hire people that aren't those things, right, so let him go take a trip, bring your whole self to the culture back some insight. I agree. What is

the culture Fund? Yeah, so giant spoon. The Culture Fund is this idea that um, every person in the organization gets a stipend to basically go out and explore the thing that they're passionate about, so long as they come back to the table and educate everybody in the agency about what that thing is. What do people do? Like I used it to go to l a for It was a great time to actually go because it was

the Dwell Design Festival as well as BT Awards weekend. Right, And at the time I had my friend Jason Mowatt who has Trapp Karaoke early stages of Trapp Karaoke, which is now ridiculous. Uh it's HBO you got see. And I presented it. I presented it and it was like a very much smaller thing at the time and now he has an Apple one deal he had. You know, it's ridiculous. But when it comes to like exploring new experience is or places or recess um, it brings new

creative energy without a doubt. I mean, I get so much inspiration for traveling and seeing new cultures and learning about trapped karaoke or like fight ball or this new underground boxing like fight club. And it's kind of like one couple friends of MAP projects they just had their first like fight night. It was I think it's called fight Night. It's you should check it out. It's like all these amazing new subcultures experiences that I'm telling you

will spark new ideas for big brands you got. I mean you guys, just I see it. Like when you guys come to the table and you get to bring your whole self. The level of creative energy and ideas that come out of that, it's tenfold. It's ten fold. When you're not structured in a brief, it is amazing the power of what creativity will unlock. I also think when you are structured in a brief, when you're thinking a certain way because you're allowed, right, you're allowed, and

you've allowed yourself to think in that way. The other great example, right the other day, we were talking to someone, Laura and I were at dinner and I was like, well, let's be clear, walls don't exist, right, We've we've created walls, and we've created them now in institutions, we've created them

in giant holding companies. All of this, I think goes to the fact that you guys have allowed yourself to think in different ways, and so even if you're giving given something that's structured, the way you see it is different. There's what's the quote is like a right drunk at it sober and I feel like that that's the name of the title Bio actually become Instagram and it's but

it makes sense, right. What you're talking about is, you know, having this recess time, having this you know, uh kind of parlor room style brainstorm situation and you go back and look at a brief and actually come up with structured ideas. So yeah, so just curious before we play our favorite Killed by d I y with you guys, what is the campaign or ad or brand or something in market right now about our industry that you're like, yeah, like that that's what needs there needs to be more

of that. I'm gonna just say my own thing. I would say it's the partnership that we did with Spotify around the David Bowie is Um Exhibition Museum. Beautiful. Yeah, they we did, you know, shout out to Spotify and their creative scene. It's ridiculous. But five different you know, MetroCard applications from different phases of Bowie's existence are as many existences, let's call it. And they were only available at the Broadway Lafayette stop. He lived a couple of

blocks away from there. They did out a home take over for a few weeks prior and then wrapped the whole station and original photography of Bowie from these different eras and um and obviously we we augmented that with our own paid media, but them as a partners just ridiculous, you know. And you know they got ad Week, We've got fast co write ups on it, and it just made sense, like people were waiting just on eBay. It was only bay within hours of being Yeah, the metro

cards up on eBay. My girlfriend's dad's like, where's my metro card? Every day I come over there, where's my metro card? So that lets me know it works. But you created that link, you created that partnership between the Brooklyn Museum and Spotify, Right, it just made sense that, well, that's the whole thing, right, Like the magic, the magic is also in the logic, right, the magic is in the logic partnership. It was like David Bowie music Icon, where do people listen to music? But then but then

how you guys brought it to life together with genius. Yeah. My answer, I think is a little different because I think for the last year and a half I've been I haven't been looking up at out of homes. Um. I think my world is completely changed. The people I follow on Instagram, it's so funny. I have conversation with with with girl friends of mine. They're like, why do you know so much about beauty brands? Like I follow every beauty brand under the sun because I want Oral

care to be a beauty category. Um. And I think when I look at what brands are doing an amazing job in building community and culture. Like I'm not looking at out a home like maybe once in a blue moon it'll strike me. But I look at what Marianna Hewett's doing with Summer Friday. Um. She created um a mask that's called the jet Lag Mask, and it's a face moisturizer. When it comes, it's one product and one tube.

It's got a cool blue color. And if you check out their Instagram, you see how overnight they created a cult community. I mean Marianna Hewett is a huge blogger, very influential, and you know when it comes to beauty products, she's a absolute like she just gets it um. But everything they do day in and day out, like I want to use this product every day, like I want to be part of this community. They're like sure, they they epitomize such a specific person and I think it's

every you know, hustling millennial today. It's like you're always on the road, like jet lag is every day. But I don't really care if I'm jet lag cause I'm still going to go crush this day. And like they created this whole world that like you just want to fall into. So kill by d I what you guys know we do this right? Okay? So what would you kill? It's like kill Mary, what would you kill? What would you buy? What would you do? Yourself? Up? Brands? You pick,

you pick and you cannot use twice. Let's kill pre roll ads on YouTube? Okay, all right, what are you killing? I would kill overspending on direct consumer marketing. I think I see Away Luggage and I see rate In right, Like both have competitive products. They both market the hell out of their brand, but one is created an incredible community that is taking them above the rest. And um, I just I heard that you know Away is killing it and rate in despite the facade. My you know,

they're not doing too well financially. So I think, um, there's a there's a facade created around brands that throw money in subway ads and and traditional at home is like, Hey, I'm the new direction consumer brand of X y Z, and you know, I'm building a brand in that space objection tower. But I want to do it organically, and I don't want to overspend on traditional world of marketing as a new brand, So I would kill that. Okay, are you buying? I would buy the organic foods category.

I think I see the whole thing. Yeah, I'm gung ho on it all. I see, Um, what's the company that sends you the cans of Daily Harvest? Like Daily Harvest has made it so easy to be healthy, and I think it's a beautiful thing as an entrepreneur, as a young person in the city, like hustling their way, Like eating healthy is important, right, Like I think mind, body, soul, everything works together when you feel good. And like those brands, I think I look too to say like, hey, they're

going to help you as a person. Um, and maybe that gets back to like a purpose driven brand. Yeah, I'm buying everyone tickets to the Rockaway Beach to go do silent retreats. Yeah, I'm in. It's actually pay with you, so you know I don't even have to buy it. Thanks Tom, that's a great gift. What are you doing yourself other than the amazing businesses you're building? Yeah, Um, this is one of my biggest pet peeves. It's not like a brand or thing, but um, traveling right t

s A pre check is a great thing. I don't have it. You're going to do clear? I have to, but every time I like, I totally forget and it's a whole pain. Is there like a watch like rental company thing that's going on? Because I like wearing watches, but I don't like buying watches, Like could I just pay a subscription fee and get a dope watch like every three weeks? I would put money that that exists. I haven't seen it. And that's myself to actually do

one between friends, you can change. I think we just created. Let's create something that one that's perfect. Guys, if people want to talk to you get inspiration from you. How can they get in touch with you? Um, Cody Hat Smile twice dot com is my email. UM, I'm also lavicy on Instagram l V I c I. You'll see the best overalls at burning Man by far. That's what

I wanted to use my culture fund. By the way, as you can find me at mikey seven eight Underscore are the Culture LP And what's the text number for The text number is three four seven six nine oh seven six seven seven. So you want to get down with cool things that are happening that you don't know about texts in New York. In New York, Brooklyn's were cool stuff happens. But yeah, because somebody who's from Jersey. So Cody Been, we love you, Mike Tongue, we love you,

Thank you for coming. Happy Memorial Day everyone. Those guys, I mean, the Inner Huth and Sing I just love what they're doing, the kind of risk that they've gone out to live their true selves and chase their passions and turn it into their purpose, and it's just it's unbelievable. One of the things that when we were talking about having these guys on, we were like, who represents everyone that can go out and burst right, you were special. These guys are special, but like also, there are millions

Mike Tongs and Cody Levine's out there. We're sitting at their desk going, I want to work on everything right. It was so good, so big inspiration and big inspirations for us because we're definitely not under third inption anymore. Big thanks to our friends and family, Apanaly, Andy Bowers, Matt Turk, and Jacob Weisberg. We'll be back in two weeks. Happy summer everyone. Full disclosure, our opinions, our our own