Tailored Talks #7 - 12 Years and All Things That Inspire Us

Music. Welcome back to Tailored Talks. I'm Brad. And I'm Will. So it's been a minute. It has. Too long.

We took a bit of a hiatus, but we are back. We're excited to be here. It is now March. Indeed. And it's a big month, but you're about to celebrate our 12th anniversary. 12 years at OMJ. So we're really excited about that. And for today's episode, as we were kind of talking, we thought it would be great to share, especially on the heels of turning 12, are things that inspire us. So think, we do clothing here, but things that inspire us outside of that as well.

So we'll talk a little bit about OMJ, probably some stories over the years, and then And things like music and bourbon and vintage and watches and all things like that. We're going to talk about that today as well. Just things that we love. And I look forward to sharing that with you guys. Totally. I'd love for you to speak to sort of the vision for OMJ when it all started. Right. I've been thinking a lot about that. As you know, I've been writing a lot more.

Writing is something I do love doing. And for the longest time, I just really didn't have time to do it.

So my big New Year's resolution was to write quite a bit more. And it's really been sort of cathartic to really think about. It's forced me to think about the past, but also looking forward. And I was sort of taken back. I was reading some like past blog posts. I read the very first blog post that we wrote when we were launching OMJ. That was funny, only slightly cringeworthy, but it took me back.

I mean, it was really a very simplistic vision. It was oldmasonjar.com, and it was t-shirts, ties, and polos, and button downs. It really spoke to the sort of the Southern menswear sort of ethos. Southern, we wanted the elevated casual brand. That was really what we were going for. And this was also the time of, I think, 2013, Southern Tide and Southern Marsh and a lot of Southern brands that do not exist anymore. And I can even remember those were all hats, polos, and koozies and T-shirts.

So I was like, we're going to do button downs. So we'll be different. Well, and I even remember with our koozies, they were leather. They were leather, yes. They were leather. So a little more elevated. So we kind of had that elevated ethos, but you know, online is online then was very, very much in vogue. I would say like that's where brands were created and thrived.

And then you would get into wholesale, you would sell into other retail stores and, you know, we thought we were going to go that route, but. The rise of Amazon was coming. I mean, just Instagram, even Instagram. Yeah. Instagram literally, I think started the year before we launched, launched, which is wild to think about, but it was, it was something that, you know, thankfully we kind of left room to grow. You know, we never had a vision of this is exactly what we're going to do.

The vision always was based on we want an elevated casual brand that inspires, that's accessible. And so that was really more of our ethos, giving back. And it wasn't we're going to do online and then we're going to go into 150 stores. You know, that was sort of the model, I think, for other brands.

But we kind of left it open and I'm glad we did because, you know, a couple of years in, we really kind of quickly pivoted into even more of an elevated experience and offering custom suiting and wild stories there, you know, from our earlier episodes, of course. But that was a pivot that if we hadn't made the pivot, we wouldn't be a brand today or, or, you know, maybe it would be out there, but it would be a totally different brand.

But I'm so glad we did because we really got into building suiting and creating experiences and experiential retail. And, you know, with experiential retail, I remember early on thinking that's the future. That's where things are going. Things are, you know, you can go online to Amazon and get pretty much anything you want.

But elevated things people want to go touch and they want to go feel and so i sort of felt you know there's two camps there's amazon over here and then for all of the retail you've got to have an experience-based theme or that has to be important to create that experience for the customer for them to come in and pick out what they want and that's what's going to drive success so that's the model we went to certainly and you know and especially with the tactile nature of you know,

different types of fabrics and, you know, learning about weight of fabrics and learning about where a lot of these fabrics are woven and how we source the fabrics. And it, and it is an experience that unless you're in it and you're immersing yourself physically, you're not going to fully appreciate it. Right. And I think that's something that we do so well. Right. And then I would also add a lot of guys don't like to shop. Sure. So creating a place where guys who don't like to shop.

Put a bourbon in their hands. Can come in. Exactly. Can come in and have a good time. So, yeah, that was that's, yeah, that led us here to today. And, you know, 1600 square foot retail store. Everything we do driven is inspired to drive a customer in to have an experience. Sure. Totally. And a bit of a gateway drug, which I've mentioned in the past, but once you start with custom, you know, a custom garment, it just leads to more and more.

We don't, we don't, we don't tell people. No, we do. Yeah. Yeah. That's our secret.

So as far as some of the lessons learned throughout the process, throughout the last 12 years, where do you sort of see some of the, you know, the pillars as far as those lessons along the way? What are some of the, you know, the biggest lessons learned? I think, you know, my first lesson learned was it is not the field of dreams. It isn't. They will come. It is not. If you build it, they will come. Unlike in the movies, it takes a lot more than that. And I You are surrounded by cornfields. Yes.

I, I, uh, I don't think I was prepared for that early on. It was, we're going to build this and everybody's going to come and support it. And I was taken aback. It was crickets a lot, you know, and it took me a long time to realize, and now I totally get it. It's people have their own life. Like they don't care what, what we're doing with little, little OMG over here. They don't care. I mean, not that they don't care, but they have more important things we'll

say. And so you have to give people a reason, to come and support you and shop with you. And it can't just be creating something. You have to continually give them a reason to come and show up. And so with us, we've got to continually stay top of mind. We've got to continually innovate and get better.

And constant engagement. Constant engagement. And one thing that I've really gleaned from this experience and, you know, seeing you fulfill a lot of your own dreams, if you will, you know is is sort of taking that plunge from your professional life that that was banking prior to making you know this your life's work you know making ultimately your your passion your life's work can you speak to that a bit i think and i i tell people a lot that they ask me that how'd you do it because you're never

gonna you're never gonna replace sorry what will happen is people have the side thing, as we had the side thing, you will want to replace your income before you stop doing the real job. And I tell people, you're never going to make what you make unless you stop doing the real job, the real job to your side job. So you're never going to replace it and then go. You have to make the leap, got to make the jump somewhat blindly and have of confidence. Yes.

But until you make the jump and you just have to jump and then it can happen and it may not be overnight and it may take a while, but until you fully invest in it, like you can get it, you can get it a certain way. Amount of, of, You can, you can get it to a certain point and then you're not going to scale it beyond that unless you're devoting a lot of time and attention to it. And I know you've spoken to this before, but you're a fan of Malcolm Gladwell's and this 10,000 hour approach.

Can you speak to that again as far as when you hit that 10,000th hour? Yes. Yeah. My, my, some people are probably tired of me talking about my Brad's crazy 10,000 hour rule, but it is so true. I mean, if you want to be great at something, you do it for 10,000 hours. And if you work a 40 hour work week for a year, no, no vacation, you're at over 2000 hours. So if you think about it, if you want to be an expert at it, do it for five years consistently, or you can work like a crazy person and get

there sooner, but you've got to put in the time. There's no shortcut. There's no shortcut. And to that point, one thing I recall, especially during COVID, just looking at your, you know, your resolve ultimately, can you sort of speak to the COVID months? The COVID months, that will be a trauma podcast for another day. I'm sure it's in the future.

We've definitely got to get into it. Lingering PTSD. No, I think that's a great, it's a great call out because so many brands did falter during COVID. I think, you know, we were sort of stubbornly sticking with it. You know, sales were way down. Nobody needed to dress up. And, and I will call out, there were a lot of folks who did support us during that time that didn't need to, like yourself. I remember you came in, you got your green, the dark green, double-breasted suit.

You did not need that in any way, shape, or form, but you were just supporting us because you loved us and you knew that we needed the support. And there were so many customers that did that, and I'm so incredibly grateful. The face mask. The face mask. We started making face masks. We started doing a lot of virtual.

We did start putting a lot of stuff online, and it didn't. You know, it wasn't going to replace what we were losing, but it kept us afloat long enough to where things started coming back. And once they did, they came back in a big way. And then it was almost like it was natural selection in a way from a COVID perspective. Because if you made it a year and a half from March 20th, again, March 20th. I believe is when everything shut down. We were set to open that week, a grand opening.

So it was almost like either a cruel joke or a test. But anybody that made it, I would say till the summer of 2021 and you were in some sort of consumer goods or retail, it was gangbusters after that. And so now we're trying to keep up with limited staff, limited resources. We can't get stuff here. but the floodgates opened. So, you know, anybody that survived it reaped the rewards. And, and, and that was nice.

Sure. And, and you never, or we never sort of leaned into this athleisure space as well.

We sort of, I stayed away. There were so many. Double down on suiting and sport coats and. Dressing your best because, you know, one thing that I heard and have heard post-COVID is a more casual work environment. And so, so many guys would come in and, well, I don't have to dress up anymore. I just don't wear a suit anymore. I don't need to dress up and that's fine. But if you want to stand out, what better way to do that now?

Now, the playing field, the bar is now so low that wearing a nice sport coat at work will vastly differentiate you from everybody else just happy to be wearing their Lululemon and their polos and not have to dress up. But if you, you know, I looked at it as now you have an opportunity. It doesn't take nearly as much to elevate what you're wearing. And now it makes so much more of a difference. And so I tell guys that we've experienced a lot.

The guys coming to see us, they take their career seriously. Not the people dressing casually don't, but they're serious and they see that now is easier than ever to stand out by what you're wearing. And then when you're dressing better, you're, you have a different confidence to you. Your work improves, everything improves. It's just such a slight change that can make a huge and dramatic impact. Certainly.

Well, do you have any sort of mentors or say clients, employees, you know, that you would maybe like to highlight as far as, you know, throughout the journey? Yeah, I think, you know, there's too many people to thank. So I would say, you know, family and the friends who supported us were everything. And, you know, we like to say here, like, we don't hold grudges here, but we do remember and take care of everybody that supported us and has supported us over the years.

So we're just so thankful to still be here 12 years from now. Totally. And as we go, you know, as we go in future episodes, you know, our plan, we've, we've done a lot of planning for, we'll call it season two of the, the OMJ podcast, but we've got a lot of topics and things planned that we're going to hit on. So, you know, we've gotten a chance to talk with a lot of our few listeners and then even folks that watch our clips and things that we pull out.

And, you know, we'll dive in probably deeper into many of these topics.

But, you know, for us, as we're looking at it, 12 years reflecting, what are other things that inspire us? And our playlist kind of popped up. The infamous playlist. The infamous OMJ showroom playlist.

But music is such an inspiration i think well i know for both of us for those that don't know will is actually a paid musician well what can i say he has a gig coming up tomorrow tomorrow and has played played for many lmj things but has played for many events so i will ask you you know i think music has always, for me, has fueled creativity. Give me some ways like music has influenced you. Totally. So, you know, from an early age, I would listen to a lot of music, say, from the late 60s.

And it would sort of inform my style as well, especially learning about, you know, Woodstock 69 and bell-bottom jeans. Not that I ever wore them, but, But, you know, I always more or less, you know, just revered, I suppose, a lot of those icons from that area. And, you know, say if it was Janis Joplin or, you know, Jimi Hendrix, perhaps even.

And then you move on into the 70s, and it's the disco era, and then the 80s with a lot of the fluorescent colors and so forth, and then into the 90s and the grunge era, and then into the 2000s. And so it's certainly informed my own personal style.

My own personal style being more of a classic style and something that probably harkens back more to the 30s, 40s, 50s era into the Mad Men era of the 60s.

But in in saying all of that music has been a constant in the sense that you know it's always sort of fueled me whether it's working here or you know drawing inspiration even and and and something that i've i've enjoyed so much here is that we constantly have it playing yes and and you can sort of speak i'm sure to the fact that the playlist really hasn't changed. I love, sometimes I'll come in and instantly know somebody's changed. To, to a new playlist. Well, every now and then it does happen.

When, you know, the, the, the cat's away, if you will, I get, I get it. I laugh and I, of course don't mind, but it's interesting. You know, I'm very, you know, this OMJ playlist, right? It's 10 plus years old. It's something that we never subtract from it. We only add, there's 194 songs on this playlist and it's not, I wouldn't say it's not representative of everything that we listen to. We're both a big fan of John Mayer, and John Mayer's not on the playlist.

And if it is, it's something that wouldn't even be one of his big hits. Because the playlist is a vibe, and it's a vibe for the store. It's funny, I put our playlist into ChatGBT because I was like, how would you describe it? I just can't really figure this out. So from ChatGBT, mind you, on the playlist, it's a lot of M83, Phanagram, The Japanese House, Andrew Bell, Bon Iver. I mean, it's a host of artists that some well-known, many that are not well-known, even ones I don't know.

I just love the song, and it's really more of a feeling. But from ChatGBT, our playlist is a dreamy, modern, and stylish soundscape that blends nostalgia with innovation, giving customers the perfect backdrop to explore, express, and enjoy the art of personal style. So kudos to you, ChatGBT. I could not have said it better, literally, myself. So, you know, it's things, it's songs you can play. it's not going to distract you, but it's additive.

It puts you in a creative and inspired mood, even if it's subliminally. And for instance, on your point of it not changing, I mean, so 194 tracks, the Japanese house is track number eight with face like thunder, which is a great song. Excellent song. And then track 189 is the Japanese house. Cool blue. And so... All between that is many different artists and, and, and forms of music that all speak in different ways, but it's a vibe.

And, you know, I, I think that is something that I, of course, probably love personally more than, you know, than it really matters. But for me, it's another part of the little details that make up the experience. Sure. And it's nice how we as employees and as an owner identify with certain songs as well. It's almost like we have our own at that song. That's a great way to put it. Often I'll hear, I'll be like, man, is this whole playlist not even playing?

Because that one song will pop out, you know, and I'll notice it. And the whole playlist is playing, but it's just these certain songs that will speak to you.

Do you have a song? probably face like thunder like that honestly the japanese comes on you know inherently it's always on when you're in a headspace to hear it sure you know you're not working on other things so and i have mentioned this in a previous podcast episode but i get the question from clients constantly can i pull this off so perhaps there's something subliminally that's going on you know from a soundscape perspective, there's a client here, you know.

Picking out a fabric and so forth. And, you know, it gives them that added confidence to maybe make a leap decision-wise. I think it really does. I mean, it gets you in a positive mood, you know, it inspires you to take a little bit of a chance. So, yeah, speaking of musicians and, you know, music and fashion, And I'll pitch this to you. Any musicians like, you know, obviously Frank Sinatra, that's a well-known musician who integrated style.

Any other musicians that you just really admire from a fashion style perspective or would love to get your hands on from a stylist perspective? Well, I've got to give a nod to John Mayer again, who you've previously mentioned. He's just more or less, you know, a consummate fashion icon in his own right. He's an honorary OMJ employee, even if he doesn't note himself.

He's always got cachet here. Yes. But I've often thought about Charlie Siem, who's a really well-regarded violinist, who, you know, really sort of speaks to our sort of sartorial bent as well. And I'd love to, I'd love to dress Shawn Mendes, actually. Oh, that's a great one. I think he'd be fun. Yeah, that's a great one. There's some modern artists, at least. Yes, yes. We will dress any artist, by the way, that needs our help.

Although a lot of artists, I would say, you know, they're not going for the OMG style per se, but we would dress them all. Totally. So Harry Styles, if you're listening. Yes, Harry Styles, we're ready. All right.

Thinking of other things like that inspire us. I mean, I think one thing that we've really gotten into, well, you've, you've been into this for a long time, but one thing I finally decided to go down the rabbit hole on is vintage watches or watches as a whole and the art and the science and all the things that go with it. We love that here. Totally. And it is, you know, as far as menswear is concerned, it's one of the few accessories that we have.

And I mean, that's not to say that, you know, you could wear other accessories as well, but it is one of the few accessories I think that really sort of speaks to an outfit and how it can complement, say, you know, a beautiful shirt or jacket. And something that I've enjoyed personally about learning about vintage watches, especially, is the scholarship involved. The scholarship, the camaraderie, the community. It's a differentiator. Totally. Yeah. You know, it's a talking point.

Right. You know, it's sort of a window as well into one's own personal style that perhaps you don't always see sheerly from a garment. You can tell a lot about a guy by the watch he's wearing. Totally. Yeah. Yeah. What are some of the favorite vintage watches? Now, it could be something you have, something that you would love to have. Speak a little bit to that. Well, it's hard not to mention Rolex and their vast history.

You know, they've been making timepieces since 1905 and just a really intriguing brand, a heritage brand. And, you know, so I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Rolex, especially whether it's the Datejust model or the Day-Date or, you know, on into Submariner and Daytona, you know, just some really classic timepieces. I personally today am wearing a 1967 Omega Seamaster Cosmic original bracelet as well. And so I have an affinity for Omega.

That's a phenomenal watch, by the way. Thank you, sir. Also for. Many will release this as we get further down the road, but I think from OMJ, we started carrying vintage watches about four or five months ago. I will neither confirm or deny that we did that so that we could wear them as a business expense. But actually, it's been kind of crazy how many we've sold.

And not even just a we bring a watch in and people love it and buy it what i think i realized is so many people a from from anything vintage i think long held vintage was sort of reserved for either like vintage cars but those are incredibly expensive and then you think like vintage clothes which is kind of, those are, those are considered cheap, a vibe, but you know, low cost. So vintage can kind of have this connotation of is either really expensive or it's on the other end of the spectrum.

But I think what I've learned and what people are learning with vintage watches is these things are built to last for a very long time. So a vintage watch is not, some are very expensive, But there's a value proposition there. You can get a great vintage watch from the 1960s or 70s that has a connotation and a history to it. And it can really elevate you perhaps even further than a 2024 Rolex Datejust.

That's incredibly shiny and, you know, it looks great, but has no story versus a vintage watch from 1975 that. It has a plethora of story and there's a history to it. And not as much of a barrier of entry. And a lower barrier of entry to buy. You know, you can get a phenomenal vintage watch for $1,000, which $1,000 is, of course, it's all relative, but that's a lot of money. But, you know, people are spending tens and fifteens and twenty thousands of dollars on watches, new watches.

Sure. so demand is so high in many instances it's you know hard to get your hands on a new watch from a heritage brand talk about i mean i think what we've also learned the curation piece it's people need help definitely i in fact over the last few weeks i've had several people reach out saying gosh you know where did you get that watch i would have never thought to have worn something like that like how do you even begin right right and the wheels start turning they don't realize they're

talking to two uh extreme rabbit hole guys sure so if you need a concierge service regarding the orological wants yes yes we've we very much so will and i in fact are in the process of even taking this a step further and starting a an actual vintage watch brand company where we're essentially curating. Pieces that we love and then helping others find pieces for their, you know, their loved ones. And very excited about that. And, you know, we'll, we'll certainly share more

on that when we, when we get there. Super psyched.

Bourbon. Oh, that might inspire some people in more ways than one. Well, and in fact, we just had a big event last night here at the store. For those that do not know, we have a whiskey club at OMJ. And it's something that we wanted to do since we opened the store five plus years ago. It took us a while to start it. We've had it for coming up on two years now. And it's just a great way, A, to gather with like-minded people.

That's inspirational and in its own way and then as a way to provide more experience for our customers so we had a whiskey club event here last night but with our dear friend trey wade he was on our whiskey and bourbon just a fun podcast savant and then his and then he also had a buddy anthony who, who has probably the biggest bourbon whiskey spirits collection in charlotte in his house It's called the Bourbon Whiskey Library.

And two Squires as well. And two Squires. And so we'll make sure we add the link to them in the podcast notes. But they're Tennessee Squires, which is their brand ambassadors for Jack Daniels. It's not paid, but it is an incredibly honored position to get that Squire designation. Talked all things Jack Daniels. It was lovely. And then shared bottles from their personal collection that were, I would gather if you were to, if you could even find them, they would be thousands of dollars.

They shared literally with 30 other people in the whiskey club. And they were just so good i've never tasted bourbon like that i've tasted a lot of great bourbon, honestly insane and it was awesome so the whiskey club but i think in a bigger sense like bourbon is so huge i think for me as a collector it kind of has some of those same notes of tying back to.

Craftsmanship and and something that you can collect and something that you can build a personal collection of and it's also a great you know like vintage watches like there you know there's certain things in life that go beyond i can just buy it and bourbon is one of those you can you could be the president of the united states and if there's no outlet there if there's no bottle left and somebody has an attachment to it that you can't just buy it from them you know it's

the great you know i call it a lot.

Of things separate individuals and society but it's it's something that brings everybody together definitely it levels the playing field because if you work hard enough for these limited release bottles if you stand in line if you work your connections you can find a bottle that person b over here who has all the money in the world can't get and there's something i love about that that it kind of transcends status or class class or monetary value i just love that about it and i love surely just

how you know it more or less you you're sort of in this place of like contemplative-ness if you want to call it that to where you're almost forced to take a beat or pause. Enjoy a sip. And reflect. And I get sort of the same reaction when I'm, say, winding my watch. So I love those properties. I love that. Yeah. Which is really nice. Stop. Take time. Smell the proverbial roses. There you go. Or the proverbial four roses. There you go.

Touche. That's terrible. And then you're, you know, you're building a collection perhaps in the process, whether it's a collection of taste.

You know or a literal collection that you can pass on there's something you can build and as trey puts it and i love this this is his whole ethos he has so many great bottles but his, what he loves doing is sharing it and for him bourbon and whiskey is meant to be shared and with trey you could see it on his face last night he loved opening that bottle i would have been i don't know i don't know if i i would do it i would do it i a different

version of brad years past would not have opened the bottle of pappy van winkle for everybody but i would do that today in fact we we've done it well so every year when you know the whiskey club is a is a is an annual membership but every year we raffle off some really great bottles just by being in the the whiskey club. So we gave a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle 15 year away last year. We gave a couple of bottles of Weller away. We gave some really nice bottles.

And I think from hanging out with Trey, it's inspired me to be a sharer in that regard too, right? The stuff is not meant to be hoarded, it is meant to be shared. And I love that. And it just, I think it's perfect. It goes hand-in-hand with our business. Many a guy will come in and grab a glass of bourbon. You know, I will say it's a differentiator for us at OMJ. So when somebody comes in for an appointment, they're able to grab a glass of bourbon.

We also carry wine. We also carry coffee. Not everybody drinks bourbon. But the bourbons they have to choose from, you're not going to find anywhere else. We've been spoiled. In no custom clothier is sharing Weller 12 or Blanton's or Pappy Van Winkle. Sure. With people that come in. These are drinks that if you can even find it at a bar, you're paying $100 a pour. And we're happy. If you're coming in and you're spending time with us as part of your experience, you're getting that.

As part of the experience, while you're picking out your suit, what better way to pick out a suit than over a bottle of Weller 12? Definitely. Or a great coffee if, if, if, if, if, if it's a 10 o'clock appointment, sure. No, no, it's a judge-free zone here. But I think that the bourbon sort of, the inspiration of bourbon ties directly into a lot of the things we do here. And, It sort of goes hand in hand and it's really ingrained into a lot of the stuff that we do.

So looking ahead, you know, it's interesting that. For the longest time, I would look really far ahead. So I would, if you were to ask me. In 2016, when we were in our little shop in Uptown, I would have, and you would have said five years or 10 years, I would have said, oh yes, let's, we're going to be in multiple cities and you know, that sort of thing.

And that has not happened, but we did renew our lease here starting this year we're here for a little over five more years in this spot we're here south end has been incredible to us incredible i can't even i can't even quantify what it's meant to the brand to have a storefront next to patagonia next to jenny's ice cream we've got some incredible local companies as well little bell you know she started she's literally two doors

down she started like eight months after we started, she's doing great. And this whole area is just phenomenal for growth of Charlotte. We both grew up right outside Charlotte and to see the growth has been incredible. Charlotte is a untapped market when it comes to clothing. I mean, the amount of business we do at OMJ in South End. We'll do over 600 weddings this year. We'll do over 1,000 suits this year, maybe even closer to 2,000 suits this year.

And it's, a lot of that's driven. A lot of it's repeat. A lot of it's our marketing efforts, but a lot of it's driven by people just walking by. And it's just a sub area of Charlotte, not to mention a lot of our folks who buy are in South Park area or other areas. Valentine, you know. And some even out of state. And out of state. And, you know, so I'm bullish on Charlotte. You know, I think, sure, one day I'd love to have a shop in other cities,

but as you grow, you lose the ability to be unique and authentic. And I've seen it. Every custom clothing company I've seen that's grown beyond a store or two, they lose the ability to be unique. Now they have staff who they're not overseeing. And so they have to dwindle their options down because a person that's been there two months can't make just anything. They have to keep it simple. You know, you look at a big box brand like an Indochino or even like a suit supply.

It has to be very simple what they can offer. And I love the ability to somebody that walks in and says, I want a suit that has one long sleeve and no sleeve on the other side and three different colors. And I love being able to be like, we can do that. And nobody else can. Nobody else can make that for you. We can do that. And that's because we are small. So I think there's room to grow in Charlotte. There's plenty of room to grow in Charlotte.

Well, in that hands-on approach, you know, you see so many other brands, whether big or small, as they try to scale, it's somewhat diluted. It's so hard to keep a high-end experience when you're scaling. Especially when we're actually building patterns. And I know you can elaborate on that as well as being a differentiator. Yes. I mean, you lose all of the ability to have that.

Experience with that customer, the faster you grow. And not to say you can't succeed. I mean, these brands have absolutely succeeded. It's just a different business model. And, you know, I think as I've learned, like, I don't need to be, I don't need OMJ to be this huge brand. I need a thousand great customers. And I love coming to work and loving what I do every day and working with people and friends that Will and I grew up together, right?

And we have a great staff here. And I love that. And it affords the ability to do what you love. And so, you know, for me, for the next five years, we'll be here. Absolutely, rest assured. Maybe we'll be a couple other places. But if you want the OMJ experience, unless we have, we have worked on a lot of virtual things, If you want the true OMJ experience, we will be in Charlotte. You're here. Yes. Yes. So wrapping up, I think we love all this stuff, right?

And anybody that comes in, inevitably, if you want to chat, we'll get in a conversation with it. And, you know, that's the appeal, right? You can come in and you can chat with Will or I or the team. And we all love this stuff and we live for this stuff.

So I would like to personally thank everybody, everybody again who supported us over the years. I have been told we need to tell people to subscribe to this OMJ podcast and touching on that and the marketing aspect of it. Somebody was asking like, you know, how many people do you think will listen

to this? And I was laughing. I was like, no, no, no. Nobody's listening to this full thing right i mean some people are thank you mom yeah thank you mom and dad thank you mom and dad this isn't this isn't for some people will listen but we we don't think thousands of people are listening to the podcast in full or watching it i don't know our wives maybe multiple yeah maybe i don't know hannah probably i can probably safely say she's not watching this but it's the content and the clips

that we're able to pull from this so everything we talk about in our podcast we're able to create and pull some of the tidbits from it and use those on our social and our marketing and that's really you know that's the big value of it and reaching a large audience we'll have thousands of people our socials we have thousands of followers and. They're able to watch our clips that we'll pull even from like this podcast.

And so I think everybody that has watched an extra thank you if you watch the full thing and subscribe, but under no illusion that you have to do that. We will get this in front of you. Anything you'd like to wrap up with? Well, just to you, how grateful I am for being given this opportunity to be a part of OMJ has been just an incredible experience for me.

And you know i'm honestly delighted to get up every morning and and come here well the the two days out of the week that i am here well have you know it's it's honestly in a lot of ways it's been life-changing and i love it and life affirming and reaffirming and any other you know positive adjective you could attach to it so it's it's it's nice you know being fueled by your passion and really, you know, forming those relationships, whether it's, you know,

within our sort of employee structure or with clients or engaging with people on social media. And of course, you know, with this medium and this platform as well. Yeah. It's been a pleasure, man. And thank you. And as we texted Ms. Barnwell. Indeed. Our fourth grade teacher. We texted her a picture from the shop and said, thank you, Ms. Barnwell. A cool 30 years later. We're still at it. We're still at it. So thank you guys. Subscribe and we'll catch you here soon. Thanks.

Music. So any inspiration from Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl halftime performance? My wife, Hannah, actually, I think she was, she loved his jeans is what she told me. I'm pretty sure my wife, Jamie, has them in the back of her closet. Yeah, I, I think from the memes I've seen, any, any millennials in their high school days own those jeans. So I think he, he, he inspired a generation. We'll dust them off later. Yes. Music.