Tailored Talks #11: Finding Passion & Why We Love What We Do

Music. Welcome back to tailored talks i am brad and i'm will how's it going today it's going wonderfully well awesome my man let's do a little wrist check what do we have today man a 1989 rolex date just black tapestry black tapestry so good does have box and papers indeed indeed yes and you're doing well i presume doing well and on wrist on wrist today in line with the the title of this, why we love what we do, I've got a 1990 Datejust double stamped with Tiffany and Co.

Ah, there it is. There it is. And we'll go into that. The myriad of things that we love and enjoy here. And today, we thought it would just be cool to talk about our passion for this industry. And it runs deep. It does run deep. And Felipe's not here, so I'll share on his behalf too. But why we love what we do. And that's a lot of things. So we're going to deep dive into our passions. What we love goes beyond just clothing, I assure you.

But also into advice on helping others follow their passions and do what you love and why it's worth it in the end. So that's today. Why this topic now? And I know we talk about this a lot, but it's also important, I think, as we grow as a brand. That we, and we've talked about this, we get caught up and we're like, my goodness, our customers don't even know this. People don't even know this. We have fun every day. We, there are, we have a lot of fire drills here too.

So it's not all fun and games, but we love this so much. We're so good at it. And I'll be honest, we don't tell enough people that story. Now, I'm never going to be like, hey, this is why we're so good. But we just don't share enough the behind the scenes of why we love what we do.

I think that's important. And I think you've fostered such a wonderful environment here as far as allowing us to branch out and enjoy some of the other passions that we have, whether or not they coincide with tailored clothing or not, perhaps. And I think as well, it's super important, especially in a post-COVID world, that we allow ourselves to immerse ourselves into something that we really love

and that we're ultimately very passionate about. I think from talking to other people, a lot of people found their passions during COVID. It was a rare time where you were by yourself. A lot of the noise was cut away and people could actually think and explore. Hey, what are the things I like to do? Whether that be collecting things, whether that be watches or bourbon or clothing, whether that be cars, whether that be information, whatever that may be, they actually had the time.

And then as I've noticed the past few years, it's going back to the rat race of my life is so chaotic during the day. And at night I just crash and I really never have time to follow or explore things I want to do.

I just know I want to do it, but I don't allow myself the time to do it when it's striking to me that we had such an imbalance right this sort of unpredictability that was out there in the world and everyone's home and yet you don't know what's coming next there's so much uncertainty and yet to find the balance by tapping into say your passions and then finding maybe a way of weaving them into your professional life. Yes. I think the power of passion. I think that's a great starting point.

And my, my kind of thing with this is people put too much pressure on finding their passion.

It's what is instilled into us at an early age.

Yeah. Find something you're passionate about. And I think for a lot of people that just gives gives them anxiety honestly I think we arguably grew up in the best era in the 80s and 90s we're a little biased we're probably where we were born in 1985 so heavy 90s influence pre-internet it's coming along there was less stuff available we played outside we played outside so you get this you get this these things that you learn by connecting with other people in person but now

you have this whole new world coming so this kind of creative element that for the right person who's interested in learning and exploring they're able to really learn more than they ever have now i don't still have the encyclopedias that my parents bought now i have, wikipedia or the early precursor to that whatever i can research anything online so for me the biggest lesson is like people think passion is this big dramatic thing.

But it's sometimes it's just showing up and loving the little details of something and doing again tomorrow right you don't just one day say i'm into watches right it takes time and you just explore and go deeper in that and i think there's a an authenticity that comes with it as well That's just inherent to it. Exactly. That's probably the only way to be authentic, honestly, is if you start and you can't, you can't learn this stuff overnight. No.

You can't, you can't fake that either for this. The big thing I want to explore is like how we got into this. Right. So I'll start with you. Like, how did you end up here? Like right now, commercial real estate team principal of gray family properties. Oh dear. Mr. Will Jones. It's a bit of hyperbole. Look, I've talked all about how you've always dressed the part.

Why clothing? Why fashion now at this stage of your career? I think for me, it's always been innately woven into me as a person, as even my own personalities developed over time. I always found clothing as a way of expressing some of my innermost desires to display my most authentic self. And so for me, it's less about just the aesthetic nature of it, but it's more about the meaning, the true meaning behind it. I don't really take it that lightly, honestly.

I take it lightly in the sense that you can play with it, right? You can make mistakes along the way, but you're ultimately finding out what really speaks to you. And I think that that is so important just to character building. And it ultimately will rub off in your personal and your professional life. I don't know if I shared this with you, but this was sort of like three months after you had started coming to help us out.

So Will, over two years ago, Will said, hey, I just want to come help out. But about three months in, I had a quick conversation with your lovely wife, Jamie. I'm like, thank you so much for, I said, letting Will come, come work, come work here. She's like, no, thank you. He is a different person. And so I was like, oh, I hadn't really thought about that. But, and then you've shared...

The creative outlet it provides, the breakup of the everyday norm that it provides, this, hey, I can do what I love, now I love what I do in my day job, but to also follow this passion. The more passions you can follow is just a really great thing. Sure. No, definitely. And she's 100% correct on that. Just ultimately a happier person, being able to find, again, that balance, the breakthrough, the mundaneness that is oftentimes our daily jobs.

And not that those jobs can't be rewarding or challenging, but for me, my truest passion is really within this space. And so I really appreciate you allowing me to spread my wings, if you will.

What about you, sir? been an honor oh it's been an honor likewise so i've told bits and pieces of this story but i have not always been a fashion guy oh you i i recall a cadre of polar ralph lauren if you would have told me in the fourth grade or the 12th grade i would own a clothing company i would have not believed you but i always had an interest in business entrepreneurship anything creative.

I was fortunate enough, I met Felipe my freshman year of college, and he really took me under his wing. He was a fashion guy, even in college, had traveled the world, right? Like his family had just given him all this exposure to culture. And he was the guy that everybody went to for advice. What do I wear to this event? And so he really exposed me to it from a, hey, I need to get better at this. And then our goal with OMJ was I was going to be really the business side of it.

I'm a finance major and a risk management major, a double major, right? So I'm built for, building something, the financial aspect, all those things. But as a deep diver that I am, and the more I learned and the more Felipe and I learned about building garments from the ground up. Fabrics. We learned all about the fabrics, right? We went down the deep rabbit holes for all these bits and pieces.

I fell in love with the nuance, with the design aspect of it, with the fit aspect of it, the idea of building the perfect garment. And so that journey led me to the day where I think I was built to do this thing, right? Like, of course I could go and have done any sort of thing, any sort of number of things, right? But I think I was specifically built and made to make clothing. And a lot of that stems from, I've seen the other side.

So I'm not just, I've always been a clothing guy. I can relate to the guy who has no idea because I've been that guy before. I can relate to the finance guy who's going to wear what everybody else is wearing because I've been that guy before. And there's such a power to that, that we've carried into OMJ. And I think it really helps us and gives us a differentiation. Definitely. And to underscore that, we're coming at this from a very left brain, right brain perspective.

So to speak to you and your previous education and so forth and previous jobs, definitely more in the finance world. And then, of course, you've got this creative component with respect to the clothing. And then myself, I have an MBA, double major in political science and English, and then now working in this domain, having, of course, the commercial real estate side as well. So you're really getting very balanced, well-rounded individuals at play.

And so it's not, hey, we can only swim in one quadrant of the pool. We can work into any crowd in any sort of proclivity. 100%. And most fashion guys I know are one-sided.

Sorry guys i'm not going to name any names but most fashion clothing guys are all about the clothing and they're just nightmares on the operational side yeah there's no p&l there's no bottom line yeah there's there's just a nightmare communication with factory it's all it's all there right this was like from a back-end perspective the customers don't see this is what we were like, we have to fix this. We have to have a operation that runs well, but also know what we're talking

about. And you're exactly right. You, myself, even Felipe too, his business acumen is incredible as well. I think we all have that both, that trait, and that makes us special. Certainly. And even the rest of the team down to our interns. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. You're looking for sort of that molded individual within every respect. That's what we're always teaching. In this industry, if you can have the analytical or the detailed mindset to go along with the creative side,

you're unstoppable. In a decent bedside manner. A decent bedside manner. Yes. There we go. Yes. That is a requirement. So can you speak to how, say, style is more than just, say, fabric or, say, a trend? Can you speak to it being more about identity, confidence, et cetera? To me, style is the little details that go into making you and your personality. It's so incredible to make a garment. And we'd talk about this.

Every garment that comes in, we're just like, man, this buttonhole detailing is so good.

There's a slightly different color buttonhole that nobody would really even notice. The wearer would notice. It's the buttons, horn buttons of a horn button. They're never going to break, right? It's just the marbling of them. No two buttons are the same. The width of your lapel and all the detailing that goes into making a lapel, a lapel that doesn't lay foot, always goes into a nice roll. All the inner workings that go to make those things, that is style.

Sure. Not on the surface where you're walking down the street. But I feel like if you care about all those little things in your suit and you're walking down the street, people will notice you whether you're in a navy blue suit or something wild and crazy. Like you don't actually, it's all the little details just give you something extra. I love that. And for me, it's always been about individualism.

And again, just tapping into, say, a character that perhaps you were inspired by as a kid, reading Robert Louis Stevenson or whatever it might be. Will was reading, yes. or playing dress up. I always had this fascination with pirates growing up, as many kids I'm sure do. I'm not wearing ruffled feathered blouses or anything. But in saying that, you can find certain ways of exposing some of those nuances in tailored clothing and doing so in a way that is uniquely you.

Yeah, I love that. I just, I don't know. It'll never get old. No, no, it really won't. I look at it as even into the stories of. But all the different stories, we've told a ton of them here, of the clients and things like that. And as they're coming in and they're getting their pieces and then they're telling, they'll come in later and they'll tell us about, they wore their jacket they got and they got a ton of compliments and it just made them feel great. I love all of those things.

And I think for me, that's also a big reason I love doing this is obviously we love the garment side, but I also love how it makes our customers feel. Sure. Love that so much. And just seeing that play out in their confidence and their excitement even. Converting another individual to the world of fashion. Sure. Indoctrinating them. There you go. And it doesn't even have to be this sort of stuntness or stunt tactic. It can often be about just fit.

So less about the aesthetic side of it or even beyond just the details of it. But so often we'll have a client come in and they'll say to us, I have never been able to wear an article of clothing just sheerly off the rack. Yeah. I'm spending more in alterations than I am on the actual garment. And then we put them in a garment that fits them to a T, thanks to your expertise, and getting to the nth degree from a measurement perspective. And they have that truly aha moment.

And it just, it clicks. It changes everything. And those are those details that maybe not everyone on the street is going to recognize, but they're empowered. They know they're there. They're there. Yeah. So I wanted to talk a little bit about passion projects and. Obviously we love this, but when we talk about following your passion, I think you shouldn't, you shouldn't have just one or two passions. In my opinion, people don't have enough passions today. They have their job.

That's probably not their passion. If it is, that's awesome. And they might have one or two other things. So I always encourage people to be curious, want to learn, because then you grow. And you come more relatable with that.

And the things that you learn, for me, learning whiskey, it really taught me nuance, right? And it taught me watches. It really taught me details. And even I love watching great TV shows. So like Mad Men really taught me design. And there's an inspiring aspect of day by day getting a little bit better and powering through adversity. All these things that were passions outside of my work really helped me grow in my work. What are some passions that you have outside of OI? Oh, just a few.

Firstly, I'd like to say that for me, curiosity is the greatest medicine. I don't care if you're five or 95. As long as you stay curious, you're going to live a bountiful life. And I truly live by that statement. As far as some of my passions, probably most specifically music. So I write and record and perform and play and sing my own music as well as others. But that's probably my biggest sort of passion in life outside of clothing. And I found a way to weave it into this domain as well.

Even playing at the store a couple of times. Yes, we need, yes. But there's something about the escapism that it provides and tapping into the subconscious and bringing that to the surface. And then ultimately it informs maybe a decision you're making when you're creating a garment, whether it's for yourself or someone else.

I think I am not musically inclined like Mr. Jones here, but. He does tickle the ivories though. I do. I do love it. I do love music. It is a passion. And I always get creatively inspired with it. People don't realize what goes in. How many albums have you recorded? Oh. How many songs have you recorded? Honestly, probably 10 over the years and then hundreds of songs. And some of these maybe no one will hear. But...

You, you've done it and it's inspired you in a way that has led you to where it could, it could go into any number of things with what you do on a daily basis, just following that passion. Definitely. Yeah. Will is a great musician. We can share his, are you on Spotify, sir? SoundCloud? There are several clips on YouTube as well as SoundCloud. Yes, yes. we will have to host more will will jones concerts you saw him here folks before he got he got famous there you go there you

go it's interesting too somebody asked me brad no matter who walks in that door you're able to have a conversation with him and i used to just naturally find common ground, right? But I think it's because I have so many different things that I'm interested in and passions that I'm interested in. That's really what drives the ability for us, no matter who walks through the door. Doesn't matter, man, woman, young, old, there's always something we can find a mutual interest in.

And there's certainly a disarming sort of quality to it all. Right.

I think that's honestly like a secret success for OMJ is you come here and we're going to ask you about your family. We're going to ask you about your last garments you got. We're going to remember it. Might even remember the lining, even if it's four years ago. How do you like that red polka dot lining? We're going to have, continue our conversations that we had the last time you were in, whether it be six months ago, three months ago, a year ago.

And I think that's something you cannot get everywhere. And we probably, that's not something that you like tout. That's just part of the experience of a brand, of a shop or a small business. But that's the power of it, because you're shopping somewhere where they are invested in you, not just... You as a transaction, but you as a person. Certainly, it's more relationship-based. And I feel like we do such a good job of building relationships here and building a community. Yep.

Yep, absolutely. So, it's not always easy or obvious. Advice on following and finding your passion. Hmm. I think really trying to carve out some time to tap into kind of the contemplative nature of, say, a cigar or a glass of wine. Put on some music. Just think through maybe, I don't know, maybe a thought or a specific event that you had from years previously.

Hey, I really enjoyed that. And now you've literally got a library at your fingertips and just carving out again, some time to delve into those passions. Often here work is my passion. Great. That's awesome. And I think there's certainly a way of finding balance in that too. And I would stress balance over and over again. But also I would stress that

if you really want to be good at something, balance goes out the window. Know that. But I think finding something that gives you purpose, that sort of allows you to be in that flow state where time is a concept and less a reality. I just encourage people to do that. I think it's good for your well-being, your mental health, especially times like these and the times that we've endured. I think your point on the curiosity aspect of it is funny because I know I texted

you over the weekend. I just saw the F1 movie. So last week it was so good. There was a scene specifically on F1. They were at a track in Italy, Monza, and there's this great shot. They're running along this, it looked like this abandoned track that was incredibly banked. Right. And I'm like, huh, what is that? Where is, I'm, I, they're not racing F1 cars on that. What are they doing? So after the movie, I went and researched it and you did the same.

You're like, oh man, I, I, that was just such a great scene. And so it was just a rabbit hole of researching part of the Monza track that they, there's an oval piece of it. And then there's the road course piece of it. and they used to intertwine. Cars are so fast now. You add a banking in there and it's too dangerous. What is this, NASCAR?

But it's such an iconic piece of their history. They're not getting rid of it. It's like a park. Sure. But it's just such an iconic piece of history in that track. So I wanted to learn all about the Monza track, which then led me down further. I've, I've gone down the F1 rabbit hole many times, but it's interesting and I'll make fun of Kenneth because I said the same thing to Kenneth and he was like, what? Oh yeah. That weird track.

And it was just interesting. He did it. He didn't have that same thought process of, and Kenneth, Kenneth works here at OMJ. Great guy. Great. We love Kenneth. But it was just interesting. I'm sitting there like wanting to learn this track. And it wasn't a second thought for him. That's just how people are built different, right? This is just how I'm built. But I think that's a good reminder. Hey, when you see something that strikes your interest, like go research it.

Sure. And I think there's something to how we maybe take in media.

We're we're looking at it for its it's perhaps less the story it's telling initially yeah but it's the ambience right it's the historical gravity it's the alluring details that pull us in perhaps we're even imagining ourselves walking into these environments and we're running along the monza track yeah precisely and then you re-watch it and you realize oh there's there's actually some dialogue here i should have maybe focused on i would say we are cinephiles heavy deep

divers sure and researchers the rabbit hole yes if you will indeed and look i get it not everybody's gonna go down the rabbit hole chasing stats from a 1990s baseball season right i i love that stuff, right? I love, I love all of it.

But I think the important thing is finding again. Those things really go a long way into helping you as you learn more about the thing, the more knowledgeable you get on it, the more confident you are on a topic, the more fun it is to talk about. How many people do we have conversations with and it's just all surface level? They want to know about X, Y, and Z, but they've just heard the, it's almost like they're a meme. They're just saying the same thing their friends are saying.

There's a great Instagram. There's a guy, he's just archetyped, private equity guy. He's making fun of his satirical. It's awesome. It's so good. It's amped up, obviously, but there's a lot of truth in it. It's just, we're talking in the same acronyms. We're saying the same stuff that our friends said, but we don't really know about it.

Right? We're just name dropping the same things. And I just think, like, how much more well-rounded could you be if you actually were thinking for yourself and researching those things for yourself, not just repeating what your buddy at work is? Said about where they like to go vacation. You know, that's just kind of my thing on that. I'm going to hit on that as well, as I literally sit here before you dressed as Patrick Bateman from American Psycho, the 2000 film.

I have watched- Down to the tie. A zillion times. Oh, the Lassa of Zontai. Yes. Just a nod to Greece. But no, thinking about the satire, the satirical sort of nature of that film on Wall Street, and the 80s and the power suit, et cetera. But honestly, if you delve into it, there's so many nuances. There's so many parallels, even with what we do here. There's so much of it that is cyclical, I think in a lot of ways from a style standpoint. But again, you can get so deeply lost in it.

And then you're realizing the political elements that were of the time. And just where the country was, where the world was. It's bigger than just clothing. It's bigger than just accessories. It goes beyond that. And then there's that. And you best believe I have fully researched the Patrick Bateman morning skincare routine. We could wax poetic all day long about it. If you haven't seen that, it's incredible. And yes, I've been up since four o'clock this morning. Yes, yes, yes.

Yeah, no, I love it. Yeah, that to following your passion to a new level is the best of Patrick Bateman. And we talk about finding your passion, following your passion. And of course, this is not, this is something you have to work at every day. And we're not, I'm not, we're not here to say you should do this X, Y, Z. We're just sharing. This is why we love what we do. It's because we have followed the passion. And I'm just so thankful that we get to come in and do this.

As the job. I've done the finance job. And I liked it. I found passion in that too. But it's incredible that we get to come in and put on great, expert, the best fitting jackets in the country. Hands down. That's our plug. Hands down. But we get to come in and put that on and do that and then do that for other people every single day. And I absolutely love that. And it just makes me so happy when I stop and think about it.

And no two days are the same. You're exactly right. It'll start one way and then there'll be 20 different things that happen and it'll end. It'll end. And then we should come back and do it the next day. A big thing I'll touch on, this was, it's a book I was recently reading. Somebody has to be the most expensive. So why not that be you?

That's my Andrew Griffith. and on the surface this sounds a little extreme right but it's not actually about being like just charging whatever you want for a product what the book is about is following and charging what you're worth based on your experience and so what i like realized reading this book is the people that do this, the people that are the most expensive, because to be the most expensive, you also have to be the best.

Sure. Like you can't shortcut it. Right. You can't just start a business tomorrow and say, I'm going to be the most expensive. No, that doesn't work. The point of it is you have to be passionate about what you do. You have to continue to learn, unlearn, relearn, get better. You have to have a passion to get better. Those are the businesses that That can charge the most because they are the best at what they do.

Sure. And so I continually think about that. And I think that's always been ingrained in me. And even if you don't have your own business and you're not selling a product or a service, even if you're working a job, you're selling yourself. And what your value is to that company. The more passion you put into that and the more you continually learn and unlearn and then relearn, the more you're worth to that company.

Right. And the more you charge, and you should. You should hold yourself to a standard of charging what you're worth. But to charge what you're worth, you have to first become valuable and be valuable. And to do that, you have to really dig in and dive in and make the effort to be great at what you do. So Brad, as far as OMJ is concerned, what would you have said to your younger self, say, in year one of this journey?

If I could go back to a young Brad, I'd say it's going to be a lot harder than you ever think this is going to be. But it's also going to be better than you ever imagined. More rewarding. I love it. Yes. Yes.

Ending on a positive note. Yes. wrapping up from we've talked today all about we have passions and we're clearly very passionate about all sorts of things right and not everybody not everybody's there yet i do encourage you to find we encourage you to find your passion but what are like three signs you're not doing what you love so for me it would be settling for the status quo purposely distracting yourself so procrastination and dread so you're dreading going to work you're

dreading putting the tie on. Literally or figuratively yeah yeah yeah you just don't put the tie on because you're filled with the dread exactly exactly but there is something to be said for just resting on your laurels and not thinking ahead or not thinking,

how can I make this better for myself and how that might ultimately make things better for the people around me. And if you're at that sort of fork in the road, reevaluate. Yeah. Re-evaluate. I love that. And if you feel any of those things, you come over to OMJ, you chat with Will, myself, or one of our other great, great employees. You get yourself a new suit. And it'll change your world. Whiskey in hand, even. Whiskey in hand. That's our sales pitch, too. No, but seriously, I love that.

And life's too short, guys. Life's too short. We're always open to stop by the store and chat over a whiskey or a coffee. My proclivity, I do this with other small businesses quite a bit. So I love chatting about all of these things. And look, we are great at perhaps helping you find a passion through just discussion and conversation. So we'd love to have you by the store if you're in the Charlotte area. Certainly. And in terms of we'll put together, you put together some great resources too.

We'll put those in the notes as well. But the book, Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. So good. Podcast. Yeah, I'm going to throw in Acquired, just the total podcast as a whole, because those guys are, they take deep diving to a new level. And we'll be featured on it in five years. Yes. In five years, we'll be on there for OMJ. But they have Acquired, which is where they'll deep dive into. It certainly, they do fashion, but it's anything.

Yeah, they did a deep dive for google recently these are like four hour podcasts so like hermes ferrari rolex all every big every big brand and then some you didn't know about but they're so interesting and fascinating again you learn a lot and the movie very ralph which i've not seen well it is it's incredible it's such a good documentary on the life of ralph lauren and i will say this as well as far as man's search for meaning there's a let's let's call it a theme with all

of these as far as the book the podcast the the the movie recommendation as well that i think ultimately finding your why will allow for you to deal with any how.

Comes along the way. Take that to heart and understand why it is that you're the way you are, why it is that you're interested in certain things or not interested in others. And that's something that we really thrive on here. I love it. That's the show today, guys. Indeed. We love it. We love what we do. We love OMJ. We love making clothes and we love great conversations with like-minded the people. So come on by. Come on by. Y'all have a great one. Thanks.

Music. No, I am now a Cornell man with my AI certificate. So a little cheat code and everybody should do this. Go to chat GBT and enter the prompt, help me find my passion and ask me questions to help do that. And I know it works for everybody, but it will help you find that passion and what you're interested in and then give you ways to go follow it. Oh, I love that. I will be doing that. Coming to OMJ will be one of the things that it tells

you to do. And I'm just kidding. And we need more passions. But again, come to OMJ. Yes, yes. All right, thanks. Music.