E085 - Guaranteed Ways to Become a Better Looking Man (2025 Guide) | Alex Costa

38:51What if I change the top? What if I had a hat? And then what if I change everything? So we slowly make these small changes, have fun with it, and start exploring. And that's how you find your style. It's really not that difficult, but it's intimidating for guys to try something new. Typically guys will buy one t-shirt and they're like, oh, it kind of looks all right. And they'll buy every single color in that same t-shirt. You know what I mean? And then they just stick to that brand forever. They don't ever change. Yeah, it's funny because I'm pretty sure quite a few people have done this where they've seen me wear a particular t-shirt.

39:28In fact, my own brand has like a muscle fit tee. And obviously, it's just a plain t-shirt. But the way that it's put together basically will show off the physique which you have. Not like skin tight, but it's a muscle fit. it's a muscle fit so if somebody is buying that and they aren't muscular and maybe they're a bit pudgy you know around the waist that shirt looks extremely different and I'm sure maybe a few people have been like a little bit disappointed when it comes to them actually trying it on the same thing with my swim shorts so I basically started my swimwear company because I couldn't find swim shorts that would fit my leg or look the way that I wanted them to look so obviously I go to the gym I train legs I want to show them off a little bit.

40:15But those swim shorts were either too long or they were just outrageously short. And I just didn't like the design. So I came up and kind of created my own thing. Now the problem is that when some people, let's say for example, they don't go to the gym, they don't train their legs, they got skinny legs. When they wear those swim shorts, it just looks completely different and it's probably not the best style swim short for them. If somebody's buying your t-shirts and your swim trunks because they want to look like you and they expect to look like you just by wearing that, that's on them dude that's on them like you you have like the body that guys aspire to have you know what I mean like of course they're not gonna look exactly like you they should know it's like they should buy clothes that accentuate their their highlights of their body you know so if they have broad shoulders accentuating that but if they have a little bit of a gut they don't wanna be tight or on the torso but for you you have a very flat stomach low body fat like it looks good cause then it accentuates I have a flat stomach I have low body fat, probably have abs.

41:15It was weird as well. It was kind of indirectly motivating me to train legs more. Because it was like, right, especially because I'm living in warmer places, I'm going to be wearing the shorts more often. And in order to make the shorts look the best, my legs need to look the best. So I actually ended up training legs more frequently and enjoyed training legs more because I knew that they were going to look good in the outfit which I was wearing. that's a good good hack for people that don't like to yeah to train legs yeah no honestly every every summer like something sparks in me too i'm like i gotta like really focus on my legs now um i've had some knee issues and it's been like really bothering me so it's been hard but i'm like i really need to so i'm doing pt and all that but yeah i mean for me legs is a very it's like an attractive body part and when you're showing off your you know your swim trunks in Dubai, you want to show off the list.

42:09But it is a problem though, because when it gets to the point where they are a little bit too big, clothes start to look weird. For a guy, your build, it's a little bit harder for you to find clothes that fit you. Finding good trousers that are stylish and fit is the hardest thing. I can't really buy online trousers. I need to try it for myself. Otherwise, it's too much of a risk if I don't know that brand. Because of the new trend of like slightly baggier, loose clothing, I think that could work in your favor. But if you go for anything that's like slim, tapered, it's just going to be too tight, right?

42:49Because obviously you have built your legs. So that's the one good thing about being my height and my build. And I try to maintain it. I do fit well into like a medium in pretty much any brand, which is good. okay so is there any particular brands that guys should look out for which are currently the in thing at the moment yeah obviously depends on your personal style so it's hard to say hey you definitely buy this brand but for me what i'm looking for is there's a lot of trends happening right now at the same time it's quite it's exhausting trying to keep up with it all it's crazy there's so many new york times actually came out with an article last week called trend overload and it just went on about how there's so many trends at the same time happening old money aesthetic eclectic grandpa stacked jeans baggy jeans like all these different trends right and what happens is guys buy into the brand into the trend so guys will buy into this trend and then they'll be stuck in that trend so let's say five years ago everyone got into skinny jeans or 10 years ago whatever so a guy will go and refresh his old closet i got all skinny jeans now i'm good but that's just a trend yeah that's not a classic style that's gonna last that's a it's a fad i don't know how long it's gonna last maybe two maybe 10 years but it's gonna go away at some point because it's the extreme so now they're like okay skinny jeans aren't working anymore you know my girl's complaining i gotta upgrade my wardrobe what are the trends today baggy jeans cool i'm gonna buy baggy jeans it's a fad it's not the classic fit it's just it's a little too extreme to this side now.

44:32So that happens way too much. So my advice is to actually buy classic wear, classic styles, something that's never going to go out of style. So I have a little rule for my closet personally. 80 % of my clothes are classic essentials that will never go out of style. So it's nice t-shirts, polos, cardigans, jackets that I can wear forever if I want to. and then the 20 i can have fun with that then it's like baggy jeans or at the time skinny jeans you know um graphic tees whatever designer clothes and that is a really good way of keeping balance in your closet so you're not too deep into a trend because when when that switches and you're like oh shit i got nothing now you know what it is that even will set the trends or change well like who's in charge of that yeah i mean it used to be the brands 100 now i think they've lost a little bit of control and it's gone to tiktok it's gone to content creators so what happens is i make a video about a specific trend let's say oh i not even a trend i make a video about a specific style i really like these pants because they fit this way they're a little bit baggier i love them and then it gets a million views let's say another creator sees that and what does he do oh shit if Alex got a million views talking about these pants.

45:52I'm going to make a video about these pants. I'm going to get a million views. And then it just feeds off. So it's like dumping fuel into the fire nowadays, right? With social media. And that's why there's trend overloads because so many people are just like, jump into the hype and let's ride this trend wave so I can get millions of views, right? I mean, I've caught myself doing that multiple times too. Like if somebody's doing a video, I'm like, oh, that worked really well. Let's jump on it quick, right? And that just boosts, Like it just overloads these trends onto the consumer and it happens a lot.

46:24So yeah, 80-20, that's probably the best way to do it. And by the way, the trend overload thing happens not just with fashion. It happens with lifestyle brands too. For example, the Stanley Cup. I don't know if you saw that whole trend happening, but the Stanley Cup, I'm probably going to get hate from this, but arguably like not even a good design for a water bottle. the straw is like it sticks out of the bottle so it's like the girls would put their lip gloss on the straw put it down leave it in their car or gym and there's like dust collecting on the straw i mean like arguably not the best design very strong and like durable it went viral one time because a car caught on fire and the stanley cup was like they're not destructed it was just sitting there you know so it went viral so good cup but just like not the best design whatever but they make it in pastel colors so then girls are like oh my god this is the cup and then it just blew up everywhere I think I've seen a lot of people as soon as I got to America everyone's holding them it's like this massive cup like this it has a handle and this straw sticking up yeah because they there's now more of a trend to avoid drinking from a plastic bottle microplastic so they've got their water with them or whatever for the day so I guess it makes sense yeah so these trends just you know they just kind of blow up so quickly because of content creators just making videos about that trend and just really dumping fuel into that fire.

47:51Currently, what are your favorite brands? I would say I like to wear a lot of Reese, which I'm sure you're familiar with from the UK. Todd Snyder, American brand. So I'm more in the classic style of things. Like I said, that's my 80%. No logos, nothing visible. I just like to be clean. I don't really like to be like a walking billboard for other brands because I feel like sometimes they have like political opinions and they get there's like scandals and I just, you know, I try to stay away from that. And I like to just have a clean look. Club Monaco is good. I would say Suit Supply is actually killing it right now, man.

48:34Suit Supply is amazing. And, you know, they never do any sales. So it's kind of an interesting strategy because then you shop there and you're like, it's not going to go on sale. So I'm just going to get it now. Yeah. You know, and they're killing it. They went from very suit heavy to classic attire for men, no matter what you're doing, whether you're on a boat, going on a job interview or just casual Friday in the office. So honestly, they're killing it. We'll get back to the podcast in a second. But first of all, I want to say a massive shout out to Bionic. I have been using their supplements for the past four years.

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49:55So stop the guesswork, sign up to Bionic and ensure that you remove those deficiencies and build up your immune system is there any brands that you would consider not to be cool at the moment um that's when i think designer brands come into play for me that i try to stay away from quick example a few years ago i bought thousands of dollars of balenciaga stuff you know because i like their sneakers i got a wallet i got a bag hoodie whatever and then they got into like a weird scandal with their i don't even know what It was, honestly, are they wrong? Did they do something wrong? I don't know. And I don't think we will never know.

50:37But it was weird. It was definitely weird. And I'm like, I can't wear that. That's weird. So I try to stay away from anything that's like signaling, hey, I'm for this brand or for that. Like, I like to keep it clean. Yeah. And I think maybe some guys will understand this, but I think quite a few guys really underestimate how much women pay attention to what it is that you're wearing, particularly your shoes. Yeah. Yeah. So even if you don't have like the best physique at this point in time, there's a lot you can do to alter the choice of clothing, which you're putting on your body that can improve your chances quite a bit.

51:17Is there anything in particular that you, any advice you would give to guys who, let's say for example, they go on a first date, second date, They want to impress, but they don't want to overdo it or go over the top of Gwen, designer brands, stuff like that. Well, I personally think the biggest mistake that guys make consistently is underdressing. Too many guys underdress, especially when they're out with their girlfriend, wife, or they're just going on a date with a new person. Underdressing, it's just, you feel off when you're underdressed. Remember when I went to a birthday party one time, and I completely missed a message that said, come wear a suit.

51:57It was my friend's 40th and I show up and it's a boat party. I'm stuck in there, not wearing a suit. Everyone else is wearing a suit. I just wanted to jump into the water. You know what I mean? It was the worst. By the way, I was already making fashion content back then. I was like, this can't be real. So underdressing is the biggest mistake. I think when you dress well, you're showing respect to people around you, right? Hey, I put on a good outfit for this date, put on a good outfit for this job interview. Nowadays, you don't have to wear a suite for a job interview, but dress well, depending on the job.

52:32And also, you're showing respect to yourself. You're like, I'm putting my best foot forward to get out there and have a good time. And so it's respect to others, respect to yourself. And when you're out on a dinner with a date or you're going to an event and you dress well, then you can focus on just enjoying your time. You don't have to be like, oh my God, it's like, do I look good? Like, does she like the way I look? Is my hair okay? Like, do I smell okay? No, you already did it. Just focus on enjoying your time there, right? And I would say, don't do anything that's too crazy for a first date.

53:12You don't want to be like too loud, you know? But then keep it clean. See what the vibe is. and then you can, I'm not saying change yourself by any means, by the way. Like if you're a loud person and that's your style, go for it. You know, in New York, we see that all the time, right? I don't know if you had a chance to walk around yet, but especially now with this weather, you're going to see some amazing outfits. Some really crazy outfits and it's fun. It works for those people. Would I wear that? Probably not. But it works for them, right? So it's really about your personality too. Is that more of a New York thing where people can dress loud and get away with it?

53:48or is there other cities as well? It's less judgy here. Yeah. Right? So people don't really, people are so numb. Like they go on the subway, there's so much going on, you know what I mean? Like they're not even looking at you. So you can wear whatever you want and people might not even say anything to you or they'll come up and be like, sick outfit. Yeah. And that's it. You know, and there's all these different communities. There's a lot of artists in the Lower East Side and East Village. So they wear a specific type of clothing and then you go to the West Village and it's a little bit different.

54:17go to Tribeca and it's more families so it's cool to see, I mean you go to Soho and you just see that melting pot of styles like walking around in Soho is the best place to just people watch and look at their styles What do you do when you're traveling? Because for me that's one of my biggest frustrations because I've accumulated a lot of clothes now which is all obviously in my apartment in Dubai, but when I travel obviously the longer that I'm going to be traveling for the more I'm thinking right okay I'm going to need more outfits. And this is more of an issue for me because obviously I'll be filming every day or there's going to be photography pictures.

54:56And the annoying thing about social media is if you get, you know, maybe you've done one post wearing one outfit. It's, you know, you don't want to do the same thing again and again and again to people like, wow, do you not have any of the clothes to wear? So do you have like a strategy whenever you're traveling and you've got to kind of keep the luggage more on the lighter side or you just go all in and take like five bucks. Yeah, I bought the biggest remover you could ever buy. I load it up every single time I travel. I think it's different for us. Like you said, we're always on camera. There's going to be photos.

55:30They expect me to dress a certain way too. So for me, there's so many things to think about. Am I wearing something that they can buy right now? So if I wear this, they're going to ask, hey Alex, where'd you get that jacket? Can I send them a link? or is it like two years ago, you know, for that season? So I got to think about a lot of that stuff. But overall, what I do is I literally created a Google Docs template with like travel dates. So let's say day one, night one, day two, night two. And I'll literally just write down or put outfits together on my bed. And then I'll just write down, okay, this is day one.

56:06This is night one. So I know exactly what I'm wearing and when. This is, it's overload, right? This is for me because I am on camera because I do have to dress a certain way. But for most people, if you want to go that route, you can. But I would say just getting versatile pieces. And again, this is where a clean style comes along and it's really great. You can swap these pants for any different top because they're not distressed and all that. I can wear them casually today and I can go out in them tonight and they look good. So finding pieces that are versatile and you can mix and match and swap them for other things.

56:42So when I travel, I try not to bring more than, depending on the time I'm staying, more than three pants. Because then I can just swap the tops and it works. Black jeans, black pants, you can wear that with pretty much anything. So interchangeable pieces when you're traveling, that's the key. What about do's and don'ts with combining colors? Yeah. Do you know I'm colorblind? I did not know that. Yeah. Not a lot of people know that, but I'm colorblind. I don't see red and green very well. So if you're looking like that plant, which is green, how do you describe that? I can't. Is it just gray? Yeah, I can't because what you see is not what I see.

57:25So I don't think I'll ever be able to describe what I see. Like you will never see what I see. I think there's some filters online that scientists are like, this is what a colorblind person sees. It's not gray. I see colors, but it's almost like a LUT. like a there's like a filter so my green is different from your green you know but then how do i know if i've got the right green maybe everyone else maybe i'm the right one yeah exactly you guys listen up maybe i'm right start a trend when did you figure that out when you realized that yeah i went to a an eye doctor appointment okay and this guy pulled out this little card and i was getting my driver's license in brazil and i was there waiting for my documents and he's like, what number do you see here?

58:07And I'm like, Thank you.

58:37there's no number there. longest time my my closet was black gray white just monochrome like that's it and then i'm like all right let's add a little touch of tan and beige and just earth colors and honestly i kind of try to stick to that so earth colors to me that's that's my realm yeah you know i don't try to go with like bright red bright orange or something like that i try to keep it minimal yeah for me i'm always very comfortable just wearing black or white like makes me happy uncomfortable with it. Most men like that. But I do venture into wearing earthy colors as you mentioned and they tend to go quite well with one another.

59:17Like you have green or blue eyes? Yes, probably more on the blue side. So if you wear like a blue shirt, it makes your eyes pop. There's all these little things too, like for sure it depends on your complexity, your skin tone, your eye color, your hair color that you can enhance with colors. I'm just not the best person to talk about it but I've researched it a lot when you this is like more so in the summer I don't know what it is about the European Spanish sun but like my skin will like glow yeah there'll be like more of a orangey glow so I've noticed the the blues and the bright colors can actually go quite well with it exactly you get a nice tan you got the light eyes it just kind of like makes you pop even more yeah not in like like a show-offy, like bold, too bold way, but it's a nice glow, like you said.

1:00:09I like that, actually, the glow. It's the right word. Then what it is in Dubai, I get tan, but it's like an ashy tan. It's fake. It's because they have a fake sun. But it's just different. I think a lot of people go to Dubai, they'll realize it's usually quite hard to tan there. Interesting. Because, well, first of all, if you want like the peak uv it's usually earlier on in the day so if you want to get tanned in dubai you have to be out tanning between like 11 and 1 like after 1 this the sun gets weaker and second of all is to do with the air quality so it's actually quite rare where you'd look up and you have like a super blue sky usually in dubai it's very gray and hazy so that's because there's all sorts in the air which is like blocking a lot of the uv i see so um yeah you could be out there in the summer and it'd be really hot and the sun be really strong but it's what's your what's your tanning routine i feel like you have a good tanning routine i think god you know the amount of people that ask me that yeah well first of all it helps a lot if you live in a place where the sun is out almost every single day i'm you wouldn't tell that i'm brazilian you know what i mean like i am as pale as i could ever get like but do you go very do you go very brown i get yeah i get very tan i went to the bahamas last week and i was there for two days and like we were working out it's like an indoor outdoor gym yeah so i really didn't get in the sun too much but i was really hoping to come back tan it just yeah i wasn't out there yeah so what i would do it's not like i would be in the sun for extended periods of times it's just like a little bit here and every day consistently yeah so luckily i live on the beach so i would i'd either go down go for a walk or just literally just chill for like one hour and then go back and carry on with my day.

1:01:59So it's those like accumulated efforts whilst being in the sun when it's at its strongest, not like crazy strong, but when it's relatively strong. And obviously I'll wear protection, mostly on my face. And that, like I've kind of, I mean, I know what my natural color is, because when I get naked and look in the mirror, I'm like, oh yeah, there it is. There it is. Yeah. But my brother, he, I think is partly genetic as well, because there's certain people who they'll be like, okay, I want to be as brown as you. And I'm like, no matter how hard you try, you probably won't go that brown. So genetics is a factor.

1:02:38But without a doubt, it's just the exposure to the sun and where you live that can help massively and then just get out and about in it. Yeah, I used to be really bad with it. I used to go into those tanning beds and all that. When I lived in London, I did it once every week. yeah really bad for you i mean not we didn't know back then they literally had it in my gym it was like my gym was 20 a month with free unlimited tanning yeah in a bed i was like all right i'll just go every day you know i got a music festival coming up i want to look good or whatever and i would just go and tan every day and i can only imagine the damage that did to my to my body yeah nowadays we have a lot more research so you're right though the face especially i definitely cover up my face, hat, sunscreen.

1:03:24And then I cover up like my tattoos. And I'll do no sunscreen, but only if I'm doing it for like 30 minutes. Yeah, you know, and then I'll go back inside. So this is something which I don't understand, obviously, the whole tattoo thing, I don't have any tattoos. When it comes to the maintenance of a tattoo or protecting it against the sunlight, what are the steps you should take? Just sunscreen. Yeah, so I use a high SPF sunscreen like what 50 i do 30 or 50 okay um 30 on like the little ones and then for my leg i'll do 50 and and that's it it's it's super simple i obviously i you know i have a lot of work on my leg so i'm like i want to keep it looking good for as long as possible so that i just make sure that i always have sunscreen on me and i buy specific tattoo sunscreen which by the way it's the same thing it's just the branding but that's what i use so because if you didn't protect it would happen it would just fade um it just i think messes up the the quality of your skin in general um that's it i'm not really i don't think it's maybe it fades i'm not sure yeah yeah speaking of skin um especially your face uh what what should a guy do in order to maintain and look after their face it's kind of funny because you know you see like all these women that will go through this rigorous routine of maintaining the face and then a guy will just like wash it aggressively with water scrub it with the towel and then like they're good perfect yeah perfect skin no it's it's so true i think there's been like an overuse of skincare products you know over the past few years like just people just pushing products down your throat and look i i like a good like face mask once in a while like it feels good uh it's refreshing is it helping my skin permanently?

1:05:08I don't know. Probably not. So I think number one, sunscreen on your face. That's got to be the number one thing that actually helps you have better skin for your entire life for as long as possible. And then three things. Guys go overboard, especially women. Clean your face. I wash my face when I'm in the shower. That's it. Technically they say wash your face in the morning, wash your face at night. Apply a moisturizer after you wash it each time. simple. And then the third thing is just exfoliate once a week. Just get rid of any dead skin cells. Don't go too hard because guys, you know, tend to go really hard and that like actually flux up their face.

1:05:47So just go nice and easy, exfoliate, get rid of any dead skin cells and then that's it. Three things. Wash, moisturize, exfoliate. Simple. Which moisturizer would you recommend? It depends on the skin type. It really depends on the skin type. Like I have so many different types of skin products skincare products because they send it to me so i have you know the 500 moisturizers which is it's unreasonable for me to even tell my audience to get stuff like that you know what i mean but but is it superior maybe it's the placebo i don't know like i do feel like damn this is nice exactly it's like oh it's got diamonds in it all right this is sick you know and really it's probably even worse who knows but yeah um i'm a big sucker for packaging huge packaging nerd so i have my brand actually brought you some gifts oh nice i brought you some forte fragrances uh dop kit i knew you you don't really style your hair too much so i brought you like shampoo conditioner and then like a clay that i think you would you would use well i've noticed um when i do go for a haircut and then i wash it it's kind of there's random hairs that will like frizz out so I do have like a frizz so there's definitely some products which I can use that just keeps it down and then that's kind of fine I think with me I'm very simple obviously I'm very picky about the fade but I think because of like I don't know lifestyle gym shape of my face head keeping it short low maintenance because back in the day probably a lot of people don't even know this it used to be long and I would straighten it and I would spike it.

1:07:29Really? So you would end for like the, what was the show? Jersey? It was even before Jersey Shore. This is when I was 16, 17, 18, 19. So I don't know where this trend had come from. I don't even know if it was just an English thing. But there was a phase where guys would have like long hair and all the guys would straighten it and style it. Yeah. So I used to do that. Like the amount of time I would spend, like first of all straightening it and then styling it and then hoping it would stay like that through all different conditions of the day um i remember a product in there it must have been i remember my dad used to make fun of me because i used when i was playing rugby i used to be on the wing and uh it would be like really windy and it would be like blowing my hair one way so i was like trying to like constantly readjust it against the wind he's like what are you doing it's just one more thing to worry about yeah you know and and you're right guys nowadays they want to be more practical right do you have curly hair or it's curly curly yeah i have that because that was a problem as well as if if i do grow it out it starts to curl and then what yeah what do you do with that it's probably as the style which i could have if it was longer but i still want to when we were like guys our age typically have something against curly hair like i don't know what it is that but back in our day when like growing up straight hair was all the you know It was the hot hair to have.

1:08:52And I have curly to wavy hair too. So I can, you know, my hair is good because I can like blow it, use a blow dryer and it looks like it's straight or I can literally just let it air dry and scrunch it and it looks like it's curly. Like it's very easy to manage my hair, which is good. What about when it's windy outside? If I do it before, it doesn't matter. Like it'll blow, but then it comes right back. And also I use... Could you just do that? Yeah, yeah. So my hair is like, you know, it's pretty like flexible. right but then i could just kind of like style it back and kind of goes back so it's you know it's all about the product that you're using and just how you style it properly yeah i've done you know it's funny like i know so much about hairstyling like i've never been a hairstylist i've never styled anyone's hair but just from the research and also when i go to the hairstylist and he does my hair i i know i can do it better because i know i know my hair really well and i've i've done a lot of like tutorial videos back in the day that's how like i came up on youtube doing hair tutorials so i had to really learn how to manage and style my hair yeah you know but for most guys i think that's unreasonable like you're not going to be styling your hair as much for video and it needs to be perfect and you don't need to learn all that shit but it's good to understand your hair type right because a lot of guys will buy a hair product and they'll have the same hairstyle forever, for years.

1:10:14Like I have friends who always had the same hairstyle. And then they'll go to a barber one day and the guy's like, oh, let's try something a little different, you know? Okay, let me try. They're scared. They try it. Looks good after the barber chair. They get home, they can't style it again. And they're using their old product and it's not the same. So you have to know what your hair type is, what hair product works for that hairstyle. And then people, I think, just guys just get a little intimidated by that. and they end up just reverting back to their default hairstyle that they've had for years.

1:10:46So I think one tip I would give guys is just understand what hair products are going to work for each hairstyle. It takes two minutes. A clay is different than a pomade. A pomade is different than sea salt spray. Literally just like Chad Chippity, it's going to tell you, hey, I want a long middle part. Cool, use a sea salt spray. It's that easy. The product makes a big difference. And that's why I started making these products. Because I was promoting women's hair products to my audience of guys at the time. And I'm like, why am I promoting products that have a women's scent and packaging? Let's create my own.

1:11:27And I learned so much about hair through that process too. And about business and e-com and ads. So it's been a really fulfilling journey creating my own brand. And I'm sure you're well aware. Yeah, when did you launch? Relaunched in October of 2019. We launched with one product, just a clay. It looked horrible, but it was like the best we could do. What do you mean, the clay or the packaging? The packaging. Yeah, it was just, it looked cheap. It wasn't, it was actually more expensive than what we pay now. But obviously back then we didn't have the resources. We were buying low quantities. I bootstrapped everything.

1:12:01So it was like my own personal cash going into it. I have a business partner who has been super, super helpful. And he's more in the e-com space that I am. So I'm the face, creative director. I do the marketing. And then I do PD, product development. He's like, he runs the company. You know, he's got the employees. And of course, everyone's in Vancouver, the majority of our employees. So I'll go to Vancouver. Why is that? Because he was from Vancouver. So we just built a team around him. So that kind of sucks. It does kind of suck that I'm not closer to them. But I try to go there as much as I can.

1:12:34And then I have the creative team here in New York. So we shoot the ads. We shoot content all here in New York City. But yeah, we started with one product, sold out in like a few weeks, which was like at the time$50 ,000 in revenue for us. It was like, all right, hell yeah, amazing. Let's see what else we can do. We launched four more products with that cash. And I've just been literally reinvesting every single dime into the brand. I don't take any money out. Everyone gets paid, my employees, even my business partner, because that's his thing. I'm fortunate that I have my content creation business.

1:13:06And so I live off of that. And then I just reinvest everything into Forte. And I'm hoping that, you know, one day it'll all be worth it. And maybe we'll get acquired or it would just be a really high cash flow business in the future. Yeah. You know. Is it one of those things, I don't know how you would go about getting things like this into stores or salons. We're in that process right now. Is it difficult? Yeah. So we have obviously the Shopify website and it does well. are Amazon does very well. So we were reluctant to go into Amazon because Amazon takes a big piece of the pie and we don't get any data from the customer.

1:13:44So we can't retarget them. We can't send them emails, but they sell a lot. And you can't go against customer behavior, right? Like for me, where do I buy my products? Amazon, because I'm going to get it tomorrow. And I trust the reviews and I trust the website. And if something doesn't show up in my doorstep, I can contact them and be like, yo, I've spent so much money on Amazon. I want a refund. Like, it's not here. Okay, cool. Here's a refund. So Amazon's trusted. So we have Shopify, Amazon. It's the same price on the website as well. Same price. Same exact price. Yeah, yeah. And then we have Nordstrom, which I don't think you guys have in the UK.

1:14:22It's kind of like Bloomingdale's. Oh, okay. Yeah, it's a retailer. Okay, yeah. Yeah, so we're Nordstrom online now, and we're going to be in Nordstrom stores later this year, which is super exciting. That's our first big retailer that we're going to be launching in. And then we are in conversations with other retailers, but that's a whole different ballgame. Because they buy a huge amount of product. The margins are very low for us, so it's very cash intensive. And the contract is all in their favor, in the retailer's favor. So if it doesn't sell, they just send you back the products and you're stuck with 50 ,000.

1:15:02products or 100 ,000 products or whatever. So it's a different ballgame. We're prepared for it. We're putting feelers out there, talking to these retailers and seeing how it goes. But we're also in a lot of barbershops. And that's where we found success recently is working with barbers online. So they create content for us, which means they get more clients and then they promote our product. And then we give them very good deals, good margins on the products. And we even repost their content on our pages. So now they're getting promoted even more. And barbers are the real, like I'm a hair influencer.

1:15:37Barbers are the true hair influencers. You go and sit in the barber chair. You're like, I'm trusting you with my life, man. Like, don't mess me up. You know, and they're like, all right, I think this is going to work. Let's do this or that. And you're like, okay, let's go to battle together. Let's do this. And you trust them. So if they're saying, hey, this is a product I like. It works really well for your hair type, forte, whatever. Perfect. like they've influenced that person to buy Forte and like I said guys don't really change their hair products so they'll buy it for a long time yeah is there any other products that you want to potentially release in the future or just sticking with hair so we started with only hair and then now we're doing some beard products and then we just launched last fall fragrances ah yeah that's something we haven't really covered yet yeah yeah here I got them for you the one thing I've always found quite interesting about fragrances is to buy a fragrance online can be potentially risky if you never smell it before it is risky right um so you just have to assume that the person who is pushing it has good exactly exactly and i was for that reason i was so nervous i was so nervous try it out let me know what you think there's two of them antagonist and protagonist one is light and fresh that's protagonist yes that's light fresh perfect for like a dubai summer day kind of vibes and then you have antagonists which is more mature more leathery oud so that one is more yeah you know more experienced i would say yeah how do you go about creating a fragrance it was such a cool process man it was like it was such an amazing process it was really difficult but very rewarding so we were working with this fragrance house to make scent.

1:17:31What's this, by the way? So that's, let me show you. It's a travel pack. Yeah, so it's a travel atomizer, it's called. It's like leather. Got my signature there. We really went all out on this. You open it, and if you pull this, it's empty. So you can just refill it with any fragrance you want and bring it with you when you travel. So it's got five milliliters in there, which is enough for a couple weeks. Because you need that. Because you don't want to bring that big bottle. That's heavy. It's a heavy bottle, right? Yeah. Which one do you like better? I feel like one is day, one is night. Yeah.

1:18:04But I personally quite like the Oud-y. Antagonist? Yeah. Yeah, because it's different. You probably never smelled that before anywhere. It's Oud, passion fruit. Worst thing is, if you're out and about and you smell the exact same as another guy. That's the worst thing that can happen. Most men will typically go and buy their fragrance at the airport, or like a very commercial store where they sell like the same popular branded fragrances. So the chances are you're going to be smelling like some other dude who can't be asked to put any effort in. It's so funny because being popular as a fragrance is also your downfall.

1:18:45So look at Sauvage, for example. Incredible fragrance. Outsold everything. But now it's like people make fun of it. it's like oh you're wearing sauvage like everyone wears sauvage you know aqua de joe it was like the most popular fragrance of all time and then it's like oh you're wearing aqua de joe i already i know that because my dad wears it or my ex-boyfriend wore it and it's like uh well yeah if you have this brand obviously you want to sell as many as possible but then you don't want to get too commercialized to the point where people are like oh no my biggest thing that i had to balance out was it needs to sell.

1:19:23So people, the majority of people who try this need to like it, but it can't smell like anything else and it can't be generic, but typically generic fragrances sell like they're, they're people pleasers, you know? So I was really trying to balance out like, okay, how do I make this unique and different, but not like, not too unique, not too different because then people don't like it. Right. So the reason why we came out with two is kind of for that reason so protagonist is definitely more of a people pleaser and then antagonist is more for the advanced guy who maybe already has a few fragrances in his collection and wants something that he's never smelled before right so we were i bet that was hard trying to come down to the final the final smells i bet your nose was just like numb from all the sniffing i would literally in the morning spray my wrist my elbow and my shoulder with three different fragrances on my left arm and then over here and i would write down when i sprayed them so i could time it and see the longevity for each fragrance so i'd be like okay this one i prefer this one but it's fading so it's not long it's not lasting long enough it's been only three hours i was like it was down to a science yeah you know because to me like i promote a lot of fragrances online and to me this was a this was a big one for me it was it was personal you know i this is my fragrance doesn't have my name on it but it's my brand everyone knows it's my fragrance so it was i was really careful with these fragrances we found this fragrance house in new jersey and they make incredible fragrances for a lot of the brands that you already know and their facility is insane and they came in and they really took us to the next level because we were trying to figure it out for probably six to eight months before we found them with a different fragrance house and it just wasn't going anywhere.

1:21:11And then they recommended us to this fragrance house and we're like alright let's check it out. And they're like insane. So they were really helpful guiding us in the right direction. Right? So they sent us a lot of different fragrance samples. They would say hey this is trending right now. Do you want to try this specific ingredient that's trending like metallic scents are trending? Do you want to try something metallic? Another trend. And I'm like well I don't know if I want to be trendy you know like I kind of want it to be like an everlasting fragrance but is that even possible yeah so man it was a lot of back and forth i probably have a whole bucket like the size of this couch almost with small friggin samples leading up to these two what is the science behind a sense uh being more pungent and having more longevity yeah because i i can't figure out whether it's because i'm using it so often that i'm just getting used to it and i'm like do i need to spray again and then you know the person next to me like holy shit like no you need to chill a little bit there's a thing called nose blindness yeah because you spray it and you can't really smell it anymore it's like you just don't know it's like when you live in a smelly home yeah like you have cats or something like you don't smell it you have fun someone comes in like oh it kind of smells in here exactly so you know for that was something that i had to i had find out to study so i asked them like how can we make this last longer and i mean the the biggest thing was increasing the oil percentage inside the fragrance because it's a two-step process you make the oil the fragrance oil in new jersey and then we send it to a facility in california where they fill it with a solution that then creates the mix right so protagonist has 18 percent oil solution and antagonist i believe has 22 percent oil solution and they last about this antagonist lasts longer but when i tried to increase protagonist to 22 percent the scent just didn't smell as good it just like crumbled on me so it's not always just increase the oil fragrance it there's this whole science to it you know and and now i literally tried every single oil fragrance percentage to see what worked better.

1:23:24And those are the two. I guess that's why some of the most popular smells maybe are so hard to kind of replicate because it's like the formula of Coca-Cola. Like they just managed to get everything perfect with different combinations of ingredients that nobody can quite figure out how to get that exact same taste. I can't tell you how many times i've made a hair product and it's like oh this is perfect but the scent is just not there yet we need to increase the scent percentage and when you increase the scent percentage in a hair product what you're doing is essentially putting more fragrance oil into that product into that it doesn't work as well and then it doesn't work as well and it crumbles and you're like god damn it i had it like it was so close now we got to go back to the drawing board and like change something else because i can't really just like send him a product that doesn't smell great yeah i think for a hair product the first thing people do is they open it no it smells good yeah and maybe they'll go like this and do that right yeah so for me the scent is it's like half the battle okay and as you with your whole content creation process are you finding that a lot of sales still come from that or have you tried like influencer marketing running ads things like that yeah so definitely started fully from from my audience you know that's we're very blessed in a way and I'm very grateful for my audience because they kickstarted this whole project basically, right?

1:24:49So it was my cash to start, but then they bought the product and they continued to buy, which is great. So it got us going. We didn't have to spend money on any advertisement or marketing whatsoever in the beginning. At some point, I don't know if I'm going to be making content for the rest of my life. You know what I'm saying? So now our next stage is definitely to get sales from everywhere else but me and we're there now yeah i'm like really happy to say that we have a large influencer ambassador team we have a lot of barbers that are ambassadors we are nordstrom amazon is crushing on its own and we promote on amazon as well so overall now i'm a pretty small piece of the pie when it comes to getting the sales straight from my videos yeah so it's a relief no it's a really You're not the guy that's needing to do it in order to keep the sales.

1:25:43I don't need to do it. I don't need to do it. I do it because I know how important it is and I know that also the team appreciates it. Hey, Alex is promoting the brand. The team really appreciates it. I'm a hard worker. I'm disciplined. I want this to work. This is my company. My signature is on it. So I want it to be really good. So I put a lot of effort into everything that I do for the brand. Now when you're creating content, is there a strategy you have or are you just making content that you enjoy making no i very much make content with strategy still like i have a team of eight people for youtube only for my main channel i just hired jed who's over here shooting vlogs i just started a new vlog channel it's called behind the business so i'm just showing people how i'm building this brand and also how it's like what it's like to be a content creator in new york city so it's like a mix of business and lifestyle yeah and nothing about fashion nothing about looking good so i really enjoy the business building part of this this job you know um and then i have a small team for vertical content as well because it's not the same as you do yeah and that's been like a backbone of my my income you know because obviously brands pay really well on Instagram and TikTok.

1:27:01So it's been good. Yeah, it's crazy now. If you really want to be on your game with creating content, you need to have the right team in place. And everything... You could have your long-form content, but it might not be suitable for the short-form content. So it's either a matter of shooting, knowing that this might be used for the short-form or just doing it completely separate. I've been doing content since 2011. So this is my life. you know as much as yes it's about making men look better feel better and like being that big brother that will help men find their full potential it's all been built on content you know and online marketing so i still love it i still love finding how to make things grow content wise like how can i get more views what are the trends what are these creators doing you know like it's really cool that you have this podcast i've thought about doing a podcast for so long and I'm like it's just it's just not for me it's full on yeah I bet I bet you know you're traveling the world and interviewing guests like it's a lot of work people don't realize that the amazing thing about being a content creator which is so funny like you're supposed to make it look easy you're supposed oh I just happened to you know have this fashion this style outfit and then like all these detail shots that took forever it's a 16 second video that took two hours two and a half hours to shoot four hours to edit there's a team behind it you know so it all started with me shooting editing learning everything you become a swiss army knife of content creation you know and then slowly you delegate first was an editor now it's an assistant and then it's like ceo full full-time business it's a full-time business everyone wants to do it nowadays it's like one of the most if not the most desirable job in the world but i don't think people realize how much work it is yeah because you know clearly some people get lucky don't get me wrong like i don't know some girls will go on say talk and just within a week they're blowing up that wasn't my story i was like slowly growing grinded for years posted for free for years and then i'm like okay i'm making 200 a month yeah all right i'm making 500 a month you know and i had a full-time job the entire time until i quit google and i was like i can do this you So it's a lot of work, but it's really fun.

1:29:24And it's the kind of job that doesn't really get boring. You're interviewing a new person all the time. You're in a different city, creating new content. It's very fulfilling. It's cool. I wouldn't be surprised if the second channel starts doing really well. Because I feel like there's now more of a trend for personal brand building and people just seeing what it is that you get up to and the process that is needed in order to build a business and the struggles that you go through and everything else. People like to just follow along with the journey. I regret not starting sooner because people only saw the Alex fashion guy, the hair guy.

1:30:03But I'd like to think there's so much more to me than that. And it's like the business is really what gets me going. That's what I enjoy. Shooting the video, whatever. It's cool. like doing research for fashion or how to look more attractive it's cool but i've done it a thousand times yes it's like how many more videos can you make like if i have to shoot another like grooming secrets for men i'm just i'm done like i can't do that anymore you know so it's i try to come up with different angles now for things because i've done it all and honestly it probably hurts me because the tried and true usually performs better but it's from it's for my soul it's the same with me like I've already put together like my go-to best workouts and exercises that I would do and when it comes to building a physique you don't really need to change a whole lot there are the most effective exercises you should do for each muscle group and this is like how you should do it in terms of splits frequency reps and sets it's like how many you know chest routine exercises have you done and posted probably hundreds you know it's just like at some point it's probably going to get views if you post it tomorrow oh that's the thing yeah if you get views I could redo it with you know a little twist to it an amazing thumbnail and title exactly and it might just blow up outdoors somewhere whatever beginning of summer people want to get shredded it makes sense but for you you're like I'm just not feeling it it's not as fulfilling as you it's not so you have to kind of it's an annoying part of it it's almost transitional right but it's like you have to post videos that work well for the audience.

1:31:44And then once in a while, you just have to sprinkle in videos for yourself. So once in a while, I'll do a video that I know is going to bomb. And I'm like, this is for me, guys. I'm sorry. I just need to be creative. And I need to enjoy my job. Because otherwise, you guys are going to see it. You're going to see that I don't like doing this anymore. And working at YouTube, I saw two things. One, burnout. right so when i worked at youtube it was the pewdie pies of the world the lily singh superwoman like those ogs tyler oakley and a lot of them just like stopped making content they're like it's too much yeah i saw that happen in front of me and i was like okay i gotta be really careful with burnout and the second thing i was like these guys are being taken care of and flowing around the world and they're making so much money i'm like this is definitely what i have to do like This is for sure my path.

1:32:40So with those two things, I'm like, all right, let's push forward as fast as I can, as hard as I can. But also keep in mind, if I burn out, it's done. Once you stop posting, it's really hard to bring your channel back, especially on YouTube. Yeah. I think I realized one time when I took a month off, it's weird that people have kind of moved on and found someone else to watch. Consistency is the hardest part of our job. Yeah. By far. By far. when i started posting gaming videos there was one point when gta 5 came out i was posting four videos a day of me playing gta for a day for like months yeah and my channel was growing it's like it was less about the quality let's say more about the quantity just keep posting posting practicing right you're building the muscle like how do i sound like can i make it better whatever it wasn't about the game for me it was like how can i improve myself as a content creator and then I started posting fashion videos.

1:33:37I was doing four videos a week on YouTube. Four fashion videos a week on YouTube is a lot, bro. Like it was a lot, you know, I work day and night and then I started to increase quality of videos but also quality of life and started building a brand. So I'm like, all right, I'm going to tone it down. Two videos a week is what I'll do and then now we're doing the vlog which is still a ton of content plus Instagram, newsletter. A second channel up and running is not easy. It's a lot. It's a lot. But consistency is what gets you there. Yeah. People will post a few videos and they're like, ah, it didn't go viral.

1:34:11Like, I only got a few views. I'm done. You know, I'm like, well, yeah, it's going to take you a while. And nowadays, you have it better than we've ever had before. Like, you can actually make it there with, like, maybe 30 videos. You can go viral. My freaking dog, man. I posted my dog, like, on a new account. My girlfriend's running the account. He got, like, 33 million views on a reel. And I'm like, what the hell? I'm not I'm not getting tag me tag me in those videos I want those followers and it's all start doing grooming products for dogs it's all women so it's not even my audience my audience is over 90 % male it's all guys because I'm I'm not doing like you know I'm just teaching guys how to do their beards and stuff so it's all a new audience and it's all women watching my dog truffle like be cute and I'm like wow this is like we didn't have this back in the day you know so now you can go viral but you still have to put in numbers every single day consistency yeah well you've smashed it clearly and keep getting whiffs of this let's go I'm deciding which one is my favorite yeah that's the thing too about fragrance that's why I wore them for an extended period of time it changes you know the scents change yeah it reacts to your skin it does yeah skin temperature you know the packaging is very nice thank you man may I say thank you yeah awesome Awesome.

1:35:31So where can people find you? The channel's named differently. Yeah, so my main channel is just Alex Costa. You'll be able to find me. The new vlog channel is Alex Costa Behind the Business. And then you can find me at Alex Costa on all platforms and at ForteSeries for the brand or ForteSeries.com. Is that the same for the hair as well? Hair and fragrance, all one brand. Awesome, man. Pleasure. Thank you. Pleasure, man. Yeah.