195. How to Build a Brand So Magnetic It Sells Itself ft. Alex Costa

20:16And when I did it, it just felt so foreign to me. I didn't have anyone that I looked up to that did it. So build those reps, see if you like it. Like, do you even like posting content? Do you like talking in front of a camera? Do you have something to say? A lot of people are like, well, I posted five videos and they didn't do well. And then I just stopped. I think most creators, they don't really fail. They just quit too early, too soon, or they never start because they're too scared of starting. They feel like it needs to be perfect. You just have to start, keep going, keep your main job, treat this as a side job.

20:53And at some point that's going to change. at some point, you know, when I made a hundred grand from Brandy, I was, I'm like, well, that's kind of like almost what I make at Google. I could probably quit now. Right. And if I put all of my effort, Google was a difficult job. It was amazing job, but I was talking to very smart people all day. And I'm like, I don't even know if I belong in this room right now. Right. So it was a demanding job, even though it was really fun and I got to learn a lot, but you have to be able to take that time now from Google and apply it into your job, into your career as a creator.

21:27And now all of a sudden that was like lighting the fire, right? It just like really grew so much faster that way. Um, but yeah, just go simultaneously at the same time. And then, um, at some point you're going to be like, okay, I'm, I'm ready. I got to burn, you got to burn those boats eventually. I think I just want to say one thing, like you got to make a lot of sacrifices. That's the truth. Like for me, if you have a nine to five and you want to be a creator, you're going to say I wasn't going out on the weekends. I would shoot all of my Instagram content on the weekends because I was working nine to five.

22:00And then at 5 p.m. in the winter, it's dark. So how am I going to shoot any content? So I would shoot like four to six photos on the weekends and plan them out for the week. I would shoot all my YouTube videos as soon as I got home from work when I was already dressed and edit at night. Like I wouldn't get a lot of sleep. I wasn't really being social.

22:17Alex Costa:I sacrificed a lot you know and it's so funny thinking about Instagram specifically back in that day it was like I need one photo to post it wasn't a carousel there were no reels no stories like the content strategy back then was was different like how did you did you even have a content strategy back then besides I need to go out and throw on a sick fit and post yeah was it just tripod like or would you find someone to come help you at first I did it myself and then and I was like, self timer. Yeah. Self timer. I bought a little like Bluetooth thing, you know, and then I would ask my girlfriend to help me.

22:53And then my obviously exit at the time to help me. And then I remember the first time I hired a photographer, this was 2016. I actually just posted about it on the 2016 trend and paid him a little, I was like a few hundred bucks. And I was like, damn, that's so expensive, you know, for photos. But it was a, it was a JC Penney brand deals. One of my very first brand deals. I was like, okay, they're paying me like 800. I'll pay him a few hundred. I still have a little bit of money left, but the pictures are going to be good. And then maybe I'll get more brand deals. And yeah, I mean, we went and I remember doing that first photo shoot and I was like, damn, this is so much better.

23:27This just looks so much better. How can I work hard enough to get to a point where I can afford a photographer to come in once a week for us to shoot a ton of photos and then I can just drip them slowly into Instagram. Yeah. And so would you bring a ton of different outfits to, oh yeah. We'd bring like 10 different outfits or something. Two big bags of outfits. Okay. And I would just shoot everything in one day, go to different locations. We would drive to one spot, different spot and just shoot everything. Wow. And I just remember being so embarrassed, you know, because this was at a time, I mean, think about 2016, like people didn't see this a lot.

24:00Right. And, um, for me, I had to really explore that emotion of being embarrassed and being okay with it because i'd be shooting something at the time i was also like trying to vlog for my youtube channel like casey neistat like a big setup you know the joe b gorilla pod and people would be like go honey or whatever from the car get it girl or whatever and i'm like oh man this is so embarrassing like what am i doing and one time when i got this jc penny brand deal somebody yelled something out and i was like i'm getting paid man yeah and that was the moment that i was like you know what it's okay to be cringed like people who are embarrassed right now will get paid later i love that i love that i want to stay on

24:46Alex Costa:this for a sec for two reasons one the 2016 trend is going on right now i went back through my old hard drives and i was studying abroad in 2016 and i was vlogging fucking embarrassing i'm like dude no wonder i wasn't gaining any subscribers and i should have been bullied more what the fuck but second i saw um austin butler on subway takes and he said that people need to explore the emotion of being cringe more because if you can get over that fear and explore being cringe and being uncomfortable success is on the other side of that and that reminded me of that it's so true you know for me i was so embarrassed until that moment i was getting paid and i'm like why am i this is like a job for me now.

25:30This is okay. But at first I felt like I was doing something wrong. Like I didn't belong. I was trying too hard. But look at TikTok, right? When people started dancing on TikTok and you're like,

25:42Alex Costa:that's a little cringy. Look at the D 'Amelios crushing it. And then even let's take away dancing from TikTok, even posting as a millennial on TikTok. I was like, we're hiding on our phone, man. Yeah. You know, it's embarrassing, but I'm so glad that I started posting early-ish I wish I started even earlier but early-ish on TikTok because I built the majority of my following back then because it was just like it was so much faster it was way less saturated so you gotta embarrass yourself once in a while. TikTok was so fun when you would know if you had a rocket ship within that first hour you'd be sitting there like oh this thing is going remember that?

26:20Alex Costa:You're just like oh plus 99? Yeah plus 99 oh it's going crazy Yeah, it's going crazy. And then when you would refresh it, it would just be an extra thousand, extra thousand every single time you would go. And they would carry over to Instagram. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Really good. Yeah. Because people would would follow you on TikTok, but they it was mostly just for you. Right. And then they would. Oh, let me check this guy out on Instagram. Right. He's got some cool fits. Let me check him out. And I was getting a lot of followers on Instagram from TikTok. And then I was siphoning a lot of the YouTube content and followers into Instagram and TikTok into Instagram because that's for me where the brand deals were coming from.

26:55Okay.

26:55Alex Costa:I think this will be an interesting exercise because when we help people build out their personal brands, we help them figure out what their like niches or what their content is about. So I want to ask you a few questions and have you answer them as far as like your personal brand yourself. So what do you feel like is your mission that you hope to spread through your content? Or like, what is your goal with your content? I'm a big brother. I have two younger brothers. So I've always treated my content like I'm talking to my younger brothers. So anytime I shoot a video, I try to keep it at a language that's easier to understand and to just digest.

27:34I want guys to build that confidence through self-image. first just to get that initial like okay i can i can do this self-image is self-respect you know it's not it's not vanity it's not like i want to look good so i can flex on people or whatever no it's like i just you just want to look good so you can leave your place feeling really good and then you that builds momentum and then you can take that anywhere else you want and that's when like that's why i started the behind the business channel to kind of like keep that momentum going because i feel like cool i've already taught everything about self-image like there's no grooming hacks I have left for you guys.

28:11Like, let's bring this into the business side of things, which I'm still a student in this side of things. So that's what I want guys to know. Build your self-image, turn that confidence into momentum, and then you can take it anywhere with you.

28:23Alex Costa:Okay. I love that. Next question is, what are the biggest psychological struggles you find most of your followers are going through? That's a good one. That's a good question. I think this will be a really good exercise to hear you go through it. And then if someone's struggling to kind of figure out their content or their strategy or their niche, asking themselves these types of questions kind of helps them unlock or think about it differently. Yeah. There's a lot of lonely guys out there, man. And I feel that with my content in the comments or the DMs that I get. And it's like, how do I make friends?

28:59How do I approach this girl? and a lot of it comes back to confidence, but it also just comes back to just this world that we live in nowadays with social media being so accessible to everyone. And you feel like you're connecting with people, but you're really not, right? I mean, I meet so many people out in the streets and they come up to me and they say, hi, I remember you did this. And you broke your ankle that one time. And I'm like, holy shit, you know everything about me and I know nothing about you. like I wish there was a better way and that's why I think like school communities are doing so well right now the community aspect of things is super important so yeah I think psychologically a lot of especially men are just feeling very lonely right now and I really want to build a community that will help these guys get out there more feel more confident in their skin make more friends

29:51Alex Costa:and take on more opportunities that's amazing okay and then my last question is is there something you went through growing up some pain or a struggle that made you feel super passionate about helping other men there was something i went through when i was 11 that maybe it wasn't like oh now i'm gonna help men and become a youtuber one day or whatever but it was more like i really don't want to be an average person um which then turned into like if i can build myself I can help others, right? At age 11, my mom wanted me to go to a military school, which it's a good thing. It's not like you've been bad, you go to military school.

30:35So in Brazil, public schools are actually not that great. In the US, they're actually really good. So most people go to private school, very expensive. I have two brothers. So there's three of us. It's like, it's pretty expensive. And if you go to military school, it's a lot cheaper. It's like public school but you have to pass a test to get in 2 000 kids taking a test only 60 places wow this was to get into fifth grade i was in fourth grade so my mom started paying for tutoring lessons for me um school in brazil was from noon to five so i would go to tutoring before school and then go to school get home and do homework just to pass this test at 11 years old right I take the test I remember I was like rushing I didn't feel very good about it and I got the results a week later I was number like 85 so I didn't pass and I remember my mom and I just looking at the computer and like she just starts crying and I was like fuck I disappointed my mom dude like to a level that I had never done before you know like I've done bad things as a child or whatever as a kid but like this was like damn she put all her money she drove me to school fuck like i really disappointed her and this military school you could try again the second year but you'd have to go back to fifth grade so you repeat a year so i went to public school for the for my fifth grade i did tutoring again and i'm like i'm passing this thing it's happening so i got 14th place i tried again got 14th place got in and i went to military school and that like that whole process of failure success getting in and being like you know what i'm gonna eat this and just repeat fifth grade.

32:13It doesn't matter. And then also the military school itself, like that experience, shining my shoes, marching, shooting rifles, like getting yelled at. It built so much thick skin and discipline that I take with me to this day, of course. Was the confidence built into you, you feel like at that age as well, or were there other things that kind of trickled in? Like, what do you feel like has built your confidence up over time? Because like, I know you mentioned this earlier, like, you know, looking good and feeling good, that's like a sign of self-respect that builds confidence. Like when we all look our best, you feel confident, but what are those other things that someone could implement into their life to give them a little bit of confidence if they're lacking that?

32:51It's to me, it's all compounding small wins, right? Like you, you, you want to make sure that you're getting those small wins and get out of social media for a bit and just work on yourself, learn new skills. For example, I love the All In podcast. I don't know if you guys watch that. It's like, you know, these millionaire billionaire guys talking about politics, AI tech. Yes, yes, yes. And I love it. I watch it and I'm like, this is amazing. I'm getting such good perspective from this. I can't really use this stuff though. Like it's not really something that I can go home and use it. Like I'm not a billionaire.

33:22We're not at the same level. Not yet. I like that. Not yet. And so I'm like, all right, cool. This is entertaining. Sometimes it might come up in a social aspect, like in a dinner. I'd be like, oh, did you know the NVIDIA? You know, whatever. Cool. but I'm like, all right, I got to stop watching this right now and just focus because we have a big moment with Forte right now. Just focus on that. So when I'm at the gym, I'm not listening to music. I'm literally listening to audio books that I can apply or listening to a podcast like the 505 podcast that I can immediately apply. And to me, that's what confidence is.

33:56It's like building those skills, going back to my gaming days. It's like, you got to level up, you know? so I'll listen to a hour and a half long video at the gym about how to create the best TikTok shop system for your brand and it's boring as hell you know what I mean and I'd rather be listening to some really good EDM to like pump up my workouts but I'm in grind mode and I'm just like all right let me listen to this I get home and I apply it immediately and to me there's a lot of like woo woo stuff with confidence I'm more like how can I become the guy that knows all of these things, has all these skills.

34:30Because if I do, then I'm confident that that's what confidence is, right? It's just, it's like, know your shit, right? So just learn, just be a student at all times.

34:40Alex Costa:And I also feel like keeping promises to yourself. It's like, if you can create proof within yourself that you are who you say you are, because you show up for yourself. If you say you're going to go to the gym, you actually go to the gym, or if you say you're going to eat healthy and you want to get a six pack, you're going to actually put in the work to get there. And I think that a lot of people lean on external things for confidence. Like if I make a certain amount of money or if I buy this thing, I'll be confident then. But yeah, I think like you're right. It's like you got to show up for yourself.

35:11Yeah. It's not going to happen. And I've, I've been there myself where I'm like, all right, if I make, if I make, you know, a quarter million dollars a year, like now that's it. My life is good. I'm done. Like I'm the man, you know? And it's like, you get there and you don't even celebrate making that, you know, you're like, what's next? You're already thinking about what's next. And that's just the truth. Money, of course, makes things easier and solves a lot of problems, but it also brings a lot of new problems. My mom and my dad moved to the US when we were very young, well, I was very young and my brothers.

35:46And my mom worked at the school cafeteria. My dad was a dishwasher. So when I started making money, I'm like, what do I do with it? How do I manage this? It wasn't even like, this is great. It was more like, shit, I don't even know how to manage this money. Okay. Well, rich dad, poor dad, let me, let me read this thing, you know, and then let me read this 80, 20 book and like, okay, atomic habits. And let me figure this out. How can I become this guy now that I am making this, this sort of money? Um, I was the first in the family and I had to, I had to just figure it out. What, yeah. What were some of those lessons like coming, being the first one in your family to come into some money and work really hard for that?

36:25You know what did you learn from books and what did you learn from other places that people can apply that maybe if they don't come for money and they're starting to make really good money with what they're doing first and foremost you can't just let your lifestyle creep up too fast i mean i have i struggle with that a little bit as i'm assuming most people do i just tell myself i'm like well it's gonna be like in my social media and stuff it's right it's a right it's a good And to a degree, that's for sure. Right. But then it gets to a point where you can just you can just cap yourself. And that's that's too much.

37:03Right. So you have to be careful. Living in New York, that's hard, bro. Like rent is insane in New York City. If you're trying to get a nice place, you know, like you're trying to Uber everywhere, whatever, like you're going to spend a lot of money. but I tried to be smart from the very beginning in terms of putting money away, investing into the market, hiring a team that would help me that still works with me to this day. Now I have a family office that's like, all right, you should put this percentage away. You should put this percentage into startup investments, this percentage into real estate syndications, whatever.

37:36So I have a very diverse portfolio, but at first I was like, okay, let me just put it into a high yield savings account and then I'll figure out what to do with it. I would say, if you're starting to make money as a creator, definitely put that money away into other things like the stock market, for sure. Because a lot of people just tend to keep it in your checking account or savings account. You're losing money, right? And then also take that money and invest it into your team, invest it into your business. Because the leverage that you build as a creator is you have this massive, or let's say an audience doesn't even have to be huge.

38:13Use that audience to build a business on top of that. Right. I've always been, the way that I started YouTube was because I had a business that I wanted to push people into. So it wasn't like, I want to be famous or whatever. I've always looked at it as a business. So when you start to make money into your, bring money into your business, how do you expand that and scale? Right. So yeah, just be careful with your spending, invest it into your team and your business and make sure that you're diversifying i love it okay

38:41Alex Costa:you recent you brought up you have a big thing coming up and i believe we're a month away we are from launch dead ass today from launching in target oh here we go oh here we go let's go dude oh wow there we go some goodies i couldn't show up empty-handed you know oh here we go i didn't I didn't know it was December 25th. I didn't know it was unboxing day, dude. Oh, we got everything. Oh, yeah. You got fragrances, hair products. I know Costas the Buzz looks really good. Last time I saw you, you had this amazing hair flow. You had Daniel Alfonso. I remember that. Yeah. Ooh. I like that. Let's do a little live scent test.

39:23I just unboxed the antagonist fragrance. This is great. Here we go. Here we go. Very nice packaging. dude I can tell you put a lot of hard work in this packaging yeah I this is all by the way like I have a graphic designer in our team but like this is really my vision and now I'm at a point where like okay I need how do I make it even better so we're actually hiring an agency to come in and do a rebrand oh no way that's so exciting it won't be like crazy you know it's close to where I want it to be so I use a clay for my hair so I'm excited to have this So we are launching at Target, February 22nd.

40:03Alex Costa:Oh, this is nice. And we're launching with six cues. We're not going to have the fragrances, but I figured you guys would like the fragrances. Yeah, let's go. So we have Protagonist and Antagonist. They're two different fragrances. Oh, okay, okay. You gave me the better one. That's so nice of you, dude. This one is the strongest fragrance you will ever try in your life. It's powerful. Okay, sweet. Oh, and we have shampoo, dude. Now we're good. We're pouring conditioner. We're setting her hotel. Come on. Dude, Brayden told me he hasn't washed his hair in a couple weeks, so that's good. It's just been under the hat for a while.

40:34I was like, what does his hair even look like? I wasn't sure what to bring you, so. Let's go. Yeah, so. Dude, I had a hair transplant. I just wear a hat like all the fucking time. I literally wear it all the time. I wanted flow back, got flow back, but I still be rocking it. You had a transplant? You didn't wear a hat? I know. I rock the hat all the time. It's just. And the flow looks good, dude. I know. It's just so easy for me. and I feel like I have a really large staple of hats now from when I was in this phase of wanting to get a transplant. And now I wear a fucking hat all the time. But I need to - You know what?

41:04Good on you for getting a transplant though. For our event though, for our Artlist event on Thursday, I'm going to be rocking the flow. So I'm going to use this on Thursday. So I can text you and tell you - And I'm going to be smelling nice. We're going to be smelling good. People are going to be like, where are you guys wearing?

41:18Alex Costa:Dude, I can't disclose. Yeah, I can't disclose. It'll be out in Target though in a few. I'm wearing Forte, baby. Yeah. Yeah. So tell us about the process of going into Target. And because I think that's every person's dream that is a, you know, that is a retailer that has a product. You want to get into the targets of the world. What was that process like? And when you finally got the email that you're going to be in over 800 stores. Yeah, it was it was wild. I didn't know what to do with myself, to be honest. I was just sitting there reading the email over and over again. I'm like, are we in?

41:47Is this good? But, you know, before that, there was so much work that had to be done. It was probably like eight to nine months of work, talking to Target, pitching them, making sure that we're good. So it started by we were talking to a broker and I was like, hey, I really want to get into retailers. I think we're at the right time now with Forte. And I gave him a list of the retailers that we would want to get into versus wouldn't want to get into right now.

42:16Alex Costa:For people who don't know, a broker helps companies like you go from D to C to D to B? Correct. So a broker essentially has buyers under their Rolodex that they know. So they're like, okay, this person from Target is the personal care and beauty buyer. Let me cold email this person and see if they're interested in this brand. And we were able to get some initial replies from a lot of different retailers. Some of them though, I want names, but like some of them just weren't really on brand for us. And I was like, well, you know what? Let's not continue this. It's all good. Let's start with the ones that I'm actually really passionate about.

42:58For example, and Sephora wasn't one of them, but Sephora, I would be scared to launch Forte at Sephora. I don't know how to market to women. My audience is 94 % male. I just don't know how to talk to women in that way of like, go buy a product for your partner. We don't have that skill yet I'll tell you what, I get dragged in there a lot You might be doing something By having the one guy brand in there I've been in Sephora so many times It's a shit show in there dude There's so much shit everywhere You walk in I'm like

43:28Alex Costa:Would you like a bag? I'm like I don't even know where I'm at man I'm getting hit with 17 million different fragrances You're just like what? You walk out$400 a day They need a section to sit I agree completely I agree completely there's a lot of us in there following around like little puppy dogs we're just like all walking around and we look up I'm like oh yo it's good we're in the same we're in the same boat I was like I could do fragrances at Sephora because they have men's fragrances but like the rest I would be more skeptical of just as our first endeavor into retailers but when the Target opportunity came along and she was like okay I like the brand let's book a pitch the broker you know got back to us like hey Target wants to talk to you they like the brand I was like oh my god okay now I gotta like really step it up because look my team is is great right and they got us to that point with the packaging and the scent and the operations and everything else the marketing when it comes to doing a pitch to target that's like that was all me man like it's me pitching this brand that i've built from the ground up to this retailer and i was like i can't i can't fail you know i got i got to really deliver so i practiced literally like we built a deck and then i practiced in front of a mere three weeks or so delivering this pitch because it was my first and i was like i i don't know how to do this how many slides around did that end up being you remember i had 17 minutes to present wow that's not a lot of time and then you're left with yeah and then you're left with eight minutes for questions wow okay for whatever reason yeah 20 25 minutes and do they are they asking is it mainly you know a lot about the sales and how it's doing online what do they want to see Like what does a big retailer want to see from a brand?

45:07From us, obviously, reach. Social media reach, right? Because a target like a retailer like Target, what they want is new guests. They call them guests, customers coming in. So it's not like, okay, how are you going to sell to our existing customers who are already walking target? That's cool. But what they want is new people walking in. They want newness. So when we show them that we had a large reach, that's what caught their attention. And then I was able to bring in the other points, like, of course, the packaging and the scent and how we develop our products and the ingredients and it's Target clean and all that.

45:43But first, I had to hook them in with like, all right, this video here got 90 million views. We're getting a quarter billion views on this. This face filter we did on TikTok got a billion views. And she was like, oh, OK, like you're not just like, you know, just starting now. Right. So that's how we we wowed Target to just get in the door. and you'll go into over 800 stores i remember we had max tuning on our pod maybe like a few months ago and we were talking to him about how difficult it was once he got into the targets of the world how they were like oh you're going to place this minimum order for all these stores and he had no idea about the cash flow issues that would ensue from that is there any advice that you would give to other founders who are thinking about trying to get their product into a store like target like what do they need to have in place before that happens?

46:30Yeah. You, you started the question by saying something like, you know, getting into target is a dream, you know? And I'm like, yes, but God damn, it's so hard to after you get in, it's like, you get in and it's like, cool. Now I got to work, man. Like it's just the beginning, right? Um, the analogy is like, you just got into the big leagues and now you just actually have to go and play against like much bigger, stronger, skillful people than you are. Right. So I'm like, all right, we got into target how what do we do i actually talked to max i was like max has done this no way let me call him up wow and he gave me some great tips but essentially is like before you get into a retailer you want to make sure that you're you're saving cash or that you have funds to pull from i actually personally drew um a loan out of my personal bank wow yeah to fund the first this initial purchase order.

47:23To me, like I said, I have my investments, I have my portfolio, but investing back into my business is up there as well. So we took a loan under my name, millions of dollars of inventory to be able to purchase this. And you have to have your operations in order. Target doesn't like going out of stock online. Sometimes it's cool. It's like, oh, there's a hype. It's cool. It's out of stock. Target doesn't want that. They want products on shelf to sell at all times. So you have to be able to deliver. And then a measure they look at is unit per store per week. So how many units are you selling per store per week?

48:01We have six SKUs. Not all of them are going to sell the same. So we had to kind of figure out which ones are going to sell more, less. And now we have to throw that into our projections for our inventory planning. And we've never been into a retailer before. So we're like, how do we even No. Yeah. Right. So it's a lot of, to be truthful, it's like there's a lot of guessing games, but you also have to be sure that you're not selling out for months at a time because that would be really bad for Target. And is it a daily report or a weekly report that you guys will get back and you'll know like, okay, in Columbus, Ohio, we are crushing it.

48:33But over in this town, we got to figure something out to get more people to go buy our product. I guess we'll find out. Oh, we don't know. We don't know. I have no idea. Wow. This might be a ChatGPT question. Yeah. They haven't told us. Wow. That's so interesting. Yeah. I mean, look. I'd assume it'd be like every week or two. I think it'll be every week. I would assume. Right. We want it every day if possible. Like why not? The more data, the better. And do they give you a premier spot for new brands to start? Like, is that a standard? Because I remember Max was telling us that. Like they had this row and now I feel so conscious when I go into Target.

49:06I'm like, Chloe, those are new brands. Or they got an end cap, dude. There's three of them battling for this end spot. So, you know, it's obviously really competitive to get into Target. We got in and they were like, maybe we'll do an end cap, whatever. A lot of times you have to pay for the end cap. And it's very expensive. So what they gave us was they only put us into stores that sell premium men's products. So, which is great because, you know, for me, we're going to be the most expensive hair product, men's hair product at Target. What is it retail for? It's going to be$24.99 for like a styling product.

49:42the sea salt spray will be like$18.99. So American Crew, for example, it's like$15, right? Old Spice, it's like$10. So we're going to be more expensive, but we definitely are more premium, look more premium, and we're talking to a different guy, a different customer who cares about those things, who cares about the specific scent, a specific look, a specific feel for the brand, and who wants to associate themselves with Forte, not Old Spice. Yeah. Right? It definitely has a different feel than Old Spice, I'll tell you that. Yeah, definitely. So to answer that question, we're going to be in the premium aisles, but we're not going to get an end cap, which it would have been nice, but we just weren't offered that right now.

50:23We do have the offer to buy those end caps at some point, and I think we'll probably take that on as soon as we understand

50:30Alex Costa:a little bit more about just how it works. Exactly, yeah. Okay, so in your pitch, Target wants to hear that you have reach and that you're getting all these views, does the content strategy shift to be able to push your audience to go buy shit at Target? Is it like, yo guys, you've been following me for years, please support me, go into Target and buy. Or do you have, like have you given that a lot of thought of like having a full-on content strategy to push people specifically to go to Target? It'll be a mix. So it'll be exactly what we're doing now. let's say a hairstyle tutorial. And then at the end it says now available at Target, right?

51:13So we're going to have that. We're going to take all of the marketing strategies that we've already used, the content that we know performs and just with a different CTA, run them as ads, whitelists, et cetera, et cetera. The whole, all of our marketing strategy. And then there's the in-person content that I couldn't really do before that now we can do, right? So we're talking to a lot of UGC creators who will go into Target, pick it up and do come pick up a, you know, a product with me or hair product with me at Target. I'm doing a meet and greet to meet people at Target and get some content.

51:44Again, community building, I think is, it's going to be so much easier now because we have our products that can go and look at it and feel it before they buy it. We're not going to have the boxes. The products will be outside of the box. So they'll really be able to just feel the product, smell it before they even buy it. So the strategy really is creating a ton of UGC content going into Target, doing a haircut outside of Target, anything that shows the logo and just trying to remind people that it's now available for you to go and just try it, you know, just take a look. And the meet and greet and my content is just something extra, something nice as a reminder.

52:20But the first month of our, we're going to announce it on the 12th, 10 days before, and then we're going to remind people the day before and then on the actual launch date from that day on my feed is going to be like target it'll be like very much so like go into target and pick it up and that is because i want it to be successful from the very beginning you know i don't want any doubts not just for target but also for myself i'm like if this is if this doesn't work for some reason because by the way there's a clause that i have to buy back the stock if it doesn't sell right max that's a max of tons too dude like it's they're they're great and they're i love working with target but like they're the big boys like they can decide you know who they want who they don't and that's completely fine it's just business and so if you don't sell we have to buy back the stock and that would be a man that would tank us you know um i don't know if we would go bankrupt but like it would it wouldn't be good.

53:19So I wanted to do well for that reason, but also because if it doesn't do well and I didn't use every single thing that I had, every single strategy I had, every single moment that I had, you know, all of my hard work, if I didn't put all of it into launching this thing, I would feel like I failed. And I'd be like, damn, like I should have put more time into this. I should have woken up earlier. I should have. And I don't want that feeling. So will you ramp up videos? Like what is, what does the strategy look like for YouTube versus Instagram versus TikTok for this next month of content? Yeah.

53:52So I post one YouTube video on my main channel a week on the behind the business we do every two weeks. And on Instagram, I do four to five pieces of content a week. Same on TikTok. Right. And I will post for the next three videos after it launches at Target, the next three YouTube videos will be a hairstyle related video where I will then, I don't like pitching too hard, but I will say, hey, it's available at Target. Super exciting. I do think my audience is also excited because I'm bringing them along on the Behind the Business channel. And they followed you for so long. And they followed me for so long.

54:27I've built my credibility for 10 years. It's like, guys, come on, man, help me out. Help a brother out. You know, this is important to me. This is something I've been working on for so long. Like, help me out. Instagram, I'm going to do some collab posts with Forte in the beginning the announcement photo we're actually gonna go take the photo right after this it'll be a carousel and then we have a bunch of reels we can be in it if you want I'm gonna be at the Artlist event dude I'll just be like please just bring products to every event you go to also keep them here for the next podcast episodes yeah

54:59Alex Costa:we'll just leave these with you guys that's hilarious dude I really wish I had some hair right now your flow's gonna come back it'll grow back at some point it'll come back so you started with one SKU. You started with the clay, correct? You clearly have a whole array of SKUs. What was that process to launch new SKUs? And do you have any recommendations or advice for founders who have a product that maybe they start with one, but they have dreams of having multiple SKUs? How has that strategy been for you to start with one and now get to where we're at with multiple? I think a lot of founders tend to have this like shiny object syndrome and they're like, oh, I got to build the next product.

55:42When there's a lot of brands out there right now, AG1, for example, that they're just built on one skew and they're massive. I know they've expanded now, but they started with one big skew. So I would say really focus on making that hero products stand out and do well first. And of course, you're going to want to expand, but you should know exactly which products you're going with next. We've launched some products that we put a lot of effort into, for example, beard care, like shaving cream and beard oil, great products. And I would say even like our best looking products, like the packaging smells amazing.

56:21They just didn't move. They just didn't really sell. My guys, I guess, don't really care about a beard oil or shaving cream for whatever reason. So I'm like, I wish I put a little bit more effort into doing the research to know exactly what they were looking for. And I have that, right? That is like one of my superpowers as a founder is I have access to all of these guys. I can just ask, would you buy this? Is this too expensive? Do you like the packaging? And get that instant feedback. Another way to do this, if you're not a social media person and if you don't have a big following is to, and my business partner does this once in a while, is to run ads to a fake product, right?

56:59We'll run ads to a mock-up and say, whatever, this is the price, get it now. And then we look at conversion. We look at whether or not it's doing well and what the appetite is for that product. So what I don't want you to do, your founders, is to go and be like, I have this vision for this product. And you go and spend all this time and money creating it. And then it tanks because you didn't do your research. You got to know who you're selling to and whether or not they want that product.

57:24Alex Costa:Yeah, that's a key. What have been some of the other biggest learnings from things that you've launched before Forte, like other things? Because you went, you told us that you went into clothing in the early days. You had even brought out, it was skincare, right? Yeah. Originally. It was actually after Forte. Oh, it was after. So I launched a clothing brand in 2021 and a skincare brand in 2022 with the same Forte team, same structure, same designers, same marketing people, same business partner. And it was doing well, especially the skincare brand, because it was just a subscription product. And it was just like people were just paying for it.

58:01And it was a great product. but it took our focus away, shifted our focus away from Forte, which was the clear golden winner, you know, out of the three. And I think if we didn't launch those products, again, shiny object, if we didn't launch those brands, Forte would be probably two to three times bigger today. Wow. Yeah. It completely, like we were doing, I mean, especially for clothing, you have to be on top of trends. You have to do a lot of shoots. And we were traveling to Miami to get summer clothes shot. We were traveling to all these different places to get the look books. You're doing different sizes, different items and different colorways.

58:43Took way too much time. And we were pulling cash from Forte also to invest into these new brands. I wish I just took that cash and reinvested into Forte. If you have a winning brand, just invest into that and don't try to do too much. I think as a creator, you're like, man I can do anything you know I have this big audience as long as it's something that I truly stand by yeah and that my guys will like I can build any type of brand I want and just build

59:11Alex Costa:just do one thing at a time yeah how have you made sure to have Forte be bigger than just you because I think a lot of time it's hard to make a brand stand alone obviously you're going to get initial sales because of your following. What have you had to have in place for it to, obviously you rep it and you're on the website, but now it's a brand that is in Target or it's going to be in Target and it stands alone. People aren't buying it just because you have your name on it. Yeah. When I first started the brand, I was like, should I call it something with my name on it or buy Alex Costa or something like that.

59:52And we were against that because we wanted it to be an acquisition at some point. And we also thought, you know, we want it to be a standalone product that is bigger than my brand. At some point, that would be the dream, that people buy Forte and they don't even know who I am. And we finally got there, I'd probably say maybe like one or two years ago, so not that long ago, where people will say, hey, I'm wearing this hair product i'm like that's that's my brand you know or like my barber uses this product forte and i'm

1:00:23Alex Costa:like that's my brand wow so you've had people come up to you that like don't really know you and don't know that this is your product and they're just trying to tell you about this product that they use exactly that's awesome wow that's crazy and that i mean that was like way more satisfying than someone recognizing me on the street so cool man that's insane did did did you strategically send this out to barber shops to give oh really yeah so we work with barber shops we we used to have this tiktok program where we would post a ton of barbers on our our tiktok and they were they were crushing like haircut transformations but they wouldn't they didn't sell products at all um but it was it got more barbers involved with forte but i we realized after literally billions of views that it doesn't sell because people are there for the haircut transformation, not the hair styling transformation.

1:01:12So the product is just like a little something nice to have, but the cut is what's doing the transformation. And so they would get so many views, no sales. So then we pulled back a little bit. It also kind of looked like Forte was a barbershop right on social media. So we really pulled back, but we still work with a ton of barbers. At the end of the day, they are the hair influencers, right? They cut hair every day. I go to my barber once a month or whatever. And I'm always like, so who did you use Forte on? Like, what are people saying? What are your favorite products? I bring him samples from products that aren't out yet and he tests them on people.

1:01:46I love it. I think it's so cool to be able to work with barbers that closely.

1:01:50Alex Costa:Man, so you're only getting a cut once a month these days, huh? Because my hair is a little longer. Yeah. So I can do like three to four weeks. But, and to go back to your question, you know, I have very minimal Alex Costa branding on the packaging. This is my signature. If you guys ever want to plagiarize something. And then you're right. I'm on the website here and there, but there's a word from the founder there if you want to read it, but it's like, it's minimal. It's like, if you really look closer, then you will see that this guy owns this brand. Right. But at the end of the day, as a creator, the biggest leverage you have is your audience.

1:02:29So I try to pull that as much as possible.

1:02:32Alex Costa:What is your content strategy and day-to-day look like or week-to-week? Because you are able to crank out so much content and it's a machine at this point. There's no accident. You can't just crank out consistent content like you do without having a full-on strategy and a team helping you out. So I'm curious, how do you go about creating so much content and what does the strategy behind the scenes look like? Forte is a big focus of mine, obviously, in becoming bigger and bigger. But the content creation aspect of things, this is what keeps the machine running. It keeps people coming into my page, which then they go over to Forte.

1:03:12And my social media is so much bigger than Forte's for now. I hope that Forte's is bigger one day. So on Mondays, I take all of my calls, every single call I take on Monday. If it spills over, I'll do like one or two calls beginning of the day or end of the day. So it doesn't interrupt any of my shooting or creative work. And then the other days I try to plan out shoots, um, whether it's like Jed and I will, we'll shoot Tik TOKs all day or we'll shoot YouTube videos. Um, a lot of times we'll, we'll just like shoot the B roll for the YouTube video. And then he leaves at five and then I'll shoot like the talking part and then we send it to the editor and they can, you know, overlay that B-roll.

1:03:54You know, it's hard to take so much focus away from content creation to build Forte, even though I really sometimes I'm like, I just want to put everything into it. You know, I've closed brand deals for a quarter million dollars. Like that kind of money, it's really hard to stop that machine. Right. So for me, when you're talking to brands about these big budgets, not only am I continuing to build this audience to funnel into Forte, but this is also my bread and butter. Right. I'm at a point now where I've built this huge following. Let's let's use it. Right. This is this is where I get my revenue from.

1:04:33This is what the YouTube team looks like. We have about seven people. We have two overseas editors. We have a community manager who manages everybody on the YouTube team. Plus, like, reads all the comments, make sure everything is good, gives me feedback every week. I have a consultant who does all of the packaging ideation, pre-production for us videographer who is full time I have a script writer who I tap into once in a while so just to help out with some like if I need some really deep research for example I just posted a video on the history of hairstyles over the last hundred years there was a lot of research needed for that so I tapped into him for this and then I have an EA so that's all just for YouTube the EA obviously does other things as well but that's all just for YouTube for Instagram I have a full-time editor and I have a videographer and that's the same

1:05:26Alex Costa:for TikTok and you have a so you have a separate videographer for YouTube and Instagram I did up until recently um but now I just have one videographer okay yeah yeah that's incredible yeah it's amazing to just see like all parts of what makes this media machine roll you know it sounds complicated and i don't know if it's just because i've been doing it for so long um but it's like time block dude yeah just wake up early i'm a 5 30 a.m guy wow go to the gym and then i time block the shit out of my calendar yeah and it doesn't mean that i stick to it every single minute. Like, obviously you're just not going to stick to it at all times, but I have a very good idea of what I want to accomplish that day.

1:06:08And I even like kind of stopped writing to-do lists and just putting it on my calendar. Like if I have something to do, why am I going to write it down? Just plug it into my calendar. Then it's there. And I know exactly when I'm going to do it, how long it takes. So that's, I've been very, very like specific with my calendar management. Is that a newer thing or is that something that you developed like earlier on in your career? Actually, that's something that I developed at Google. Okay. Google Calendar. Yeah, GCal, dude. We're Google Cal guys. We love GCal. Calendar will change your life, dude.

1:06:38Yeah, Calendar is good stuff. It's just like so easy. Anyone that comes to work for me, I'm like, Google Calendar, bro. You got to look at it. Like you can't just like wing your life, you know? And it's just so helpful. Even if you do like, all right, a four-hour block for creative thinking or research, that's okay. Like at least know what you're doing and you end at a specific time. I even have a calendar block for researching content ideas. So like scrolling. Yeah. Right. I have a fake Instagram account and TikTok account for men's hair.

1:07:07Alex Costa:Oh, interesting. So I just look at men's hair content for 25 minutes, 30 minutes, get ideas, plug them into ClickUp, which is the platform that we use for project management. And then my team can go and take a look and see if we can replicate that with UGC creators or if I can replicate that at home. What I try to do though, is any great idea that I see, I think for starting creators, like you can just copy straight up. I'm never offended when people copy my videos, but I always try to like add my sauce, you know, sprinkle in something a little bit different, make, how do I change this up and make it more viral?

1:07:40Dude, we were like,

1:07:43Alex Costa:the video you put, you have so many fragrances. Yeah. And the video, they're so satisfying. Oh my God. And like, who's got 200 fragrances? I bought those things too, off of your video. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. The little thingies, the little thingies. Give you a couple bucks. Got 23 cents from that. A couple bucks from Amazon, yeah. Okay. Yeah, that had to print, dude, on an affiliate. That's so funny. And that's such good proof of like whatever works, just double down on it. As long as it's going viral for the right reason, right? Because virality doesn't really care who it brings to your page.

1:08:16I'm always very careful about who it brings to my page. My audience is all guys. And then my mom and like my aunt and whatever. like my fiance literally all dudes um i remember showing my instagram analytics to a friend of mine one time who was an instagram dude and he's like a good looking guy you know he's like 94 guys mine's like 90 women it's rare to have an all-male audience especially back then now i think especially if you're talking about business it's probably higher but for a lifestyle guy to have a high male audience it was really rare but i've always done that by design but you think brands like that.

1:08:52Yeah. They want to go. They're like, I want to talk to guys. We know you're the guy. Exactly. You're the guy for this. How do I talk to a guy who wants to do his hair or fashion? Like, it's got to be like Alex and a handful of guys, especially back then. Right. So I never really posted thirst traps. I never really posted anything that was like me just looking like whatever. It was very much like this is how you do your beard. Yeah.

1:09:12Alex Costa:And it's like no girl wants to watch that. Okay. As someone who's been on YouTube for what? Over a decade now? Yeah. 1 ,400 videos. Crazy. And I privated a lot. Wow. Yeah. Probably over 2 ,000. 2011, I started. 2011. 15 years. That's amazing. But you've been in the, because you started gaming, you're more so in the lifestyle, fitness, or wellness kind of niche. But how do you keep things fresh? Because I'm sure you've probably felt at some point, how many more hairstyling videos can I do? Or, you know, if a format works, of course, repeat it. But how have you been able to keep things fresh from a content perspective and also for enjoying your work?

1:10:02Alex Costa:Because I could imagine after doing it for a very long period of time, there's parts of you where you maybe have the shiny object syndrome where you're like, I want to make maybe new types of content, but I know that this one's gonna crush um how has that been it's really like it's really hard bro that's that's just the honest truth like i was burnt out for probably two years straight not that long ago really um and you know i was just like what i can't do another grooming video or another hair video i'm like gonna jump out of this window right now so it was it was really difficult so you i came up with this little system just internally where like i will post videos for views and you know whatever i know works but then i'm gonna post some videos for myself i'm gonna post because i am a creative person and i enjoy coming up with content ideas and um you know coming up with different angles and making a video that maybe i've already shot something similar before but like okay how can i make it better and exciting for me that's like fun for me and it's hard yeah because i i treat this like a job like and i i do also believe that it's not always just going to be fun and great and people have this weird um outlook on social media and they think that it's like you're just living your life and recording as you go and it's like i don't know about you guys i can't i can't do that like i'm i plan things out I'm a planner.

1:11:34And so it is really difficult. You just have to push through and create some content that is for you. That's exciting for you. What do you like? As long as it's not too out of the left field, your audience could embrace it. Or they might not. And you have to be okay with that. During that time period, what are you telling yourself when you're feeling like you're burning out? Because it's a job, right? You're saying that. You have an obligation for these companies that you're doing stuff for, brand deals and whatnot. You can't just pause and like, I'm just going to stop. So what were you telling yourself or talking to other people through that period of time that helped you get through it?

1:12:14Well, I would take a step back and I would look at how poor I used to be and how being poor sucks. And I'm like, you know what? I'm going to continue to push forward and build something that's lasting, forte, that I can retire off of. And that was, it's just that strong mentality of like, this sucks, but it could be so much worse. And I know it sounds like, okay, yeah, whatever. But that's the absolute truth. And I've been there. Right. Now I'm even doing fun things like I'm growing my dog's account on Instagram. Like it's just fun. People love your dog. Bro, my dog is my retirement plan. If Forte doesn't work, I just opened a bank account for my dog.

1:12:56Your dog's getting brand deals? Yes. No. way shout out truffle costa no way that's funny it's a bernadoodle he's a bernadoodle and that to me um my fiance is the one who's really she's the momager and she's not in the social media world whatsoever she doesn't like being on camera none of that you know but i'm like well with the dog you can just not be on camera that much right and she she grew the page to a we have like 180 000 followers total now between tiktok and instagram that's crazy and he's getting brand deals and I'm, you know, just showing her the ropes and she's creating the content.

1:13:32And once in a while, me, Jed, and Emily, we'll just like do a video together. And it's, that's fun to me. You know, so I try to find ways to be creative that aren't just like the usual, typical cut and dry YouTube videos that I'm so used to doing. Was that where the business channel was born from? Like just this passion of, I want to make this style of content and I don't have to make specific things on this channel it's like they're they're slower they're more like you get to hang out with you i'm i'm burned out from my youtube my main youtube channel you know i've i've been burned out from that youtube channel for such a long time because it's really hard to come up with new ideas yeah about self-image without tapping into this stuff that i don't like which is like looks maxing and whatever you know that's just not really what i set out to do yeah it's not about like bone smashing and you know thumb pulling so you can like enhance your jaw mewing whatever like those things it's like bro hit the gym you know lose body fat work on your fashion and your hair like it's not that complicated and nuanced and so i didn't want to go that route i experimented with it but i was like this is just not me and i wanted to talk more about this complete other side of my life, which is business,

1:14:50Alex Costa:which is growing a brand. And I couldn't on the main channel. I just felt like, I was like, this is how you do your hair. By the way, this is how I'm growing this brand. And it was just kind of off. So that's why I started the Behind the Business channel. Because to me, that's my favorite piece of content that I'm posting right now. I'm so excited to post there. Every single time we're shooting, we're editing, coming up with ideas. I love that channel because it's just so me and it's not scripted. It's easy. And I can talk about this thing that I've been kind of not keeping a secret, but haven't been able to share on the main channel for so long, even on Instagram.

1:15:27Like I'll share here and there. But at the end of the day, people follow me for like fashion advice and hair advice. So I don't want to go too far from that on the gram. But it's such an integrated part of your life

1:15:40Alex Costa:that I don't even think that, I don't even think your business channel could even stray too far away because it's part of your lifestyle. Yeah. So we have, we, you know, we wrote down these like commandments for each vlog, right? So we're like, okay, what should be in each of the vlog? Like the main parts of the vlog. Okay. Can we go through this? Because me and Brayden, we just started our vlog channel. We're two videos in and we're vlogging this trip as well. And we're trying to strategize our idea as well because we're building the podcast. And so we feel like the second channel could be, you know, behind the scenes of us building the podcast, but also building our personal brands as well and giving an inside look into our personal brands and our personal lives.

1:16:22Alex Costa:So I'm curious to hear these 10 commandments and if you have any advice for us who are two videos in. Two videos in, all right. Two videos in, baby. Just past 100 subs. Let's go. You're vlogging this trip, I'm assuming. Yeah, oh yeah, a whole trip, whole trip. So for us, I just looked at what we had on the main channel and on Instagram. What does my audience like? What do they already love? Obviously, it's going to be something self-image related, fitness related. Cool. And then what can we bring that's new that will make them be like, oh, I also like this other side of Alex. Cool. Let me check this out.

1:16:53Right. So we're very much, it's still a very much lifestyle heavy vlog where I travel, I'll do whatever, go to the gym, whatever. But then I'll hit him with like a two minute segment about how we're getting into Target or how we're repackaging Forte. So we started the commandments with obviously the right outfits. So we'll do an outfit check in every single vlog. Like people are always like, what are you wearing? Can you send me the links to these things? And I'm like, okay, let me just do in every vlog. It's a 15 second segment of outfit. Cool little montage, cool music. People love it. Fitness.

1:17:29It's a huge part of my life that I barely talk about on Instagram or the main YouTube channel. How can we talk about fitness on the BTB channel? And I truly believe that fitness has taught me consistency in the gym, has taught me so much about running a business and being consistent on social media and results compound. And I really think that going to a gym solves so many of your problems. So I wanted to bring that over to the Behind the Business channel. I'm trying to help him with that. that's one of the big things for the trip. Yeah.

1:18:00Alex Costa:It's been hard. I was just looking a little small. Yeah. That's what we've been saying. Dude, I was, I was grinding and then the holidays hit. See, it's just classic. Yeah. I was in there Christmas Eve. I was there Christmas day. I was there. I actually have done this on purpose. Christmas day is crazy. Yeah. I, I, I skipped Christmas this year. I went on a 12 mile run. Yeah. Christmas day. No, I actually have a, I, I, I, I think this content idea might, crush okay i want to make a piece of content about how i have way too many before photos oh just no afters no afters like like a few like mini like you're you're closing in but i will say the destination before i fell off this last time was like the strongest i've got and i'm so because i'm like okay this is the time and then i fell off you're gonna you're getting you're back on it though yeah so i'm taking him to training camp tomorrow we're gonna go to the gym and stuff I'm going to show them.

1:18:58Like all the weights and you know, it's scary in this show. Yeah, this is the bench press, leg press. How to do it and stuff. How to pick your, you know, what level of weight you need. All that stuff. Yeah. It's just like, I, you know, a lot of people would do like, oh, I'll go to the gym two weeks in a row. Yeah. And then I'll stop. Right. And they go every day and they burn out. And it's just kind of same with content too. You just have to like go at 70 % speed, but always instead of like a hundred percent. And then you hit a wall and then you crash and you get sick or whatever. and then you can't go to the gym anymore.

1:19:28You can't post content anymore. So yeah, so going back to commandments for us, it was the lifestyle based was like outfits. And then we have the gym, but then we had to always address the community, always talk to the community because that's how you build that connection with the community. So just saying things like, I appreciate you guys watching this video because it's not the usual type of content that I post. So, you know, leave me any feedback. So addressing them directly at least once in a while. So they're not just like overhearing what I'm saying, which is also cool. We want that. And I always answer a question in every single vlog.

1:20:09I pick a question from the previous vlog and I give them, whoever asked the best question, I give them a$50 gift card to Forte. I answer their questions on the vlog. So just some guidelines for us to understand how do we start this vlog, right? How do we move this forward? Look, there's a lot more that goes into it. I think packaging is, you guys have probably heard this a billion times, but it's like one of the biggest things for us. It's what we spend the most time on out of everything else is the pre-production. It's packaging. What do we want this vlog to be about? Because a vlog can be very rambly and like about so many different things.

1:20:47And then you have to choose the packaging later. I prefer to choose the packaging first. For a vlog, which is difficult, it's easier for a sit-down YouTube video. so then I would do the packaging which means the first two minutes of the vlog will be about the packaging to confirm that and then it gets and then it goes in whatever direction we decided to

1:21:05Alex Costa:go into but the first two minutes are pretty well thought out we were talking about this literally this morning and we're like just how the podcast you have packaging and you confirm the click within the first 10 to 15 and then you can kind of go and talk about whatever I was like Brayden I think if we have packaging, we can talk about it in the first couple minutes, five minutes, and then we can kind of just show the lifestyle. So to hear you do that strategy as well. And I like the, I like the question idea. Yeah. The question idea is really fun. Gets people to come back, leave you a comment.

1:21:37And I, I learned from it. And I know, yeah, people want to know more about this. This is great. Right. And I get a lot of questions that I'm like, that's not a good question. Right. You have to sift through, but then I get a lot of, especially now after doing this for you know a few months we've been doing the question um thing and it's like now i'm getting some really banger questions like business related questions or content related questions or something very specific to target and i'm like i love this it also builds my confidence in answering those questions and now i understand my audience better it's a it's a win-win-win-win right something i

1:22:11Alex Costa:love that you talked about in your vlog from the maldives which looked like a dream like the maldives looks insane especially now in new york you guys came with the coldest time man yeah it's great outside horrible if you guys are wondering it's it's amazing um my question though is what have you implemented into your lifestyle or mindset to make sure that 2026 is inevitable for you as opposed to forcing a breakthrough i love that wow you you did watch um so just for context last year every year I pick a word. This is something that my fiance had me do. And I was at first, I'm like, yeah, whatever.

1:22:51This is dumb. Sorry, Emily. But then I'm like, no, I kind of like this. It just gives you slight guidance. You know, it's not like I always have to remember this, but it gives you slight guidance. And then for 2025, I chose the word breakthrough. And I was just really wanted something major to happen in my life, business or personal life that would create this breakthrough and I would become this, I would get to the next level, whatever that looks like. And by the end of the year, I realized that I was like, damn, I was like trying really hard to become this person that I'm not, but like too hard.

1:23:28And so how do I come up with a word that makes more sense for 2026? And I chose the word inevitable. and that is because what I want in 2026 are systems, not necessarily just what my goals are. Cool, I'll write down the goals, but what are the systems that will get me there? Who do I need to become to get there? Because if I level up, if I learn new skills, if I develop new systems, it's inevitable. It's going to happen, right? I will get to the point, the next level of my life, whatever that may be. And so right now we're just developing systems. So as soon as the year started and I got back from an incredible trip to the Maldives that I miss every day, but I hit the ground running.

1:24:19I felt very rested. First meeting with the team, I'm like, okay, what's broken? How do we fix it? Like, what do you hate about, you know, your job? I was like, what do we need to do to make your job easier? Like, what do you think is redundant that we do that we need to like close the loop a little bit more. And everybody wrote down their feedback and we're developing systems to make those things better. Right. And it's like, it sounds so simple, but it's something that we don't do enough. Just asking your team, what sucks? What do you love about this? And what do you hate about this? What works?

1:24:54What makes your job harder, right? For an editor, for example, it's like, how do you want us to send you all this footage? We've been sending you this footage this way for a year and a half. is that the best way to do it for you? Is there an easier way? Those little things can save you so much time and help you develop or help you open up your calendar for more things in the future. So systems for me, that's really what I'm focused on in 2026. I'm not focused on any big breakthrough, anything that's major. I'm like, how do I refine what I already have? What are other systems that you've implemented that have been really big time savers?

1:25:31For example, it's called the waterfall system method, right? Which is like just essentially just as syndicating your content through different platforms. So now that I use this script writer and he's great, I'm like, okay, how can I tap into the script writer to make sure that we also have a newsletter that's consistent? Because I've tried a few times and I've failed. And I'm like, okay, let's do this newsletter that's consistent. So we're implementing that. And then we're taking everything that we write on this newsletter and turning it into tweets and threads and turning it into posts for community posts.

1:26:05So just being more efficient with all the content that you're shooting instead of shooting one piece for TikTok, one piece for Instagram, something for YouTube. How can I turn this big piece of content? I mean, for you guys, it's so great that you have the podcast, which is such a long piece of content. The next best would be live streaming. You look at Speed or those guys, they have so much content. And just making sure that you're squeezing everything out of that piece of content. That's what we're working on right now. We do a good job, but I want to get better.

1:26:35Alex Costa:Yeah. Do you ever film something for YouTube and then refilm it for short form? Yeah. Like the piece that you did about asking the chat GPT, the three questions, or the things that you should tell yourself every day, did you film that again specifically for Instagram or was that something you just repurposed? That was repurposed. Okay. So that was a cut down clip of the actual vlog. So every time I post a vlog, I do a little snippet of it on Instagram, just pushing people with many chat over to the vlog. Okay. That'd be smart for us to do. Yeah, we should do that. Yeah, we should definitely do that with many chat.

1:27:13Like a little snippet. A thousand percent. Okay. You guys don't? No, we don't do that. We should do that for sure. We should do that for the fucking episodes too. I know. That's so stupid. Yeah. We have so much gold. Yeah. Because the podcast is long. Maybe someone doesn't watch the entire thing. but you're so right if you give them those nuggets yeah yeah they'll watch it and there's a there's a little website i forget the name the url exactly but it's like open in app link twin yeah i use open an app whatever but it's like it just brings you to the youtube app as opposed to opening with instagram have you found have you found though like we were talking to someone a big youtuber and they were explaining to us that they like to let the youtube algorithm do its thing for like a couple days because they found that the audience on instagram and tiktok kind of have like squirrel brains and that they won't watch it.

1:27:57They just destroy the watch time. So I wonder if you, if you found that I've, I haven't, it's probably true, but I haven't seen that mostly because the behind the business channel is still a smaller channel and that's the one that I'm pushing to. So for me, so, but you're not, you're not reposting from the main channel. Like, no, not really. No, I just, it's just done its thing. It's so big. You know, just from, just from what I understand, um, for me, how fast your video is getting those views in the beginning really matters for YouTube. So I really wanted to just like get as many views as possible in the beginning so that YouTube pushes it to the next tier of viewers.

1:28:34That is so interesting.

1:28:37Alex Costa:Okay. As someone who is in the lifestyle space and you clearly have done very well for yourself, you're doing brand deals with some incredible brands. You have a very aspirational lifestyle. how do you still stay relatable in your content and allow yourself to maybe not lose touch with the average guy that your content is really for yeah um i had i never really had that issue up until maybe when i moved to new york okay and i got like a you know really cool apartment and it looks really nice whatever on screen and um people are like oh you're just like not just this rich guy now you're not really related but i miss the old alex you know oh those comments are fun and it's like dude but like didn't you want to see me win and now that i'm winning you don't want to see me i'm confused so it it is an internal battle um at the end of the day look i i like nice things so i'll buy like a nice watch or whatever and i i want to share that um and i'll post it and you're gonna get people like that's amazing i hope i can get that watch someday or whatever that jacket and And then you're going to get the people saying, oh, you used to be relatable.

1:29:47Now you're just showing off. Now that's all you do is show off. It's hard for me to show nice things without people saying that. And you have to create a little bit of a balance between what you show and how you present it too. For example, I posted a video on my main channel the other day. And for actually maybe one of the first videos that I enjoyed shooting for my main channel in a while. expensive items that I don't regret buying. I saw that one. It was a good one. Yeah. And it's just like, it was very casual. I'm just walking around my apartment and going through things. And then I showed a Rolex that I bought when I got to a million subscribers.

1:30:24It's a Rolex Submariner. I bought it used 7 ,500 bucks, probably worth like twice that now. I don't even care. I'm never going to sell it, but I explained why I bought that watch and what the feeling was and how it's a trophy for me and how i just never thought that i'd be able to afford a rolex when i bought it i was like wow this is i remember holding it just like this is crazy like i put it on i'd be so scared of like doing anything scratch it yeah i think when you can talk to your audience in that way they understand yeah way more so than like yo i'm a millionaire like what's up like check out my yeah yeah it's totally AP and you know whatever and it's like it can be too much I've dabbled in like content that's more pushy my first vlog um on the BTB channel was like a day in the life of a millionaire in New York City yeah remember we talked about this and he got it got really good views but he also got some bad comments right being like uh why real millionaires don't talk about their money whatever and i'm like yeah but he got the views so i've dabbled in that like imangadzi like style you know uh ultimately it's just not for me

1:31:36Alex Costa:and so funny okay we thought this would be a fun a fun little uh segment as we a little ender little end cap um did you ever watch rob dyrdek growing up yeah man okay okay do you remember the episode when he was with his cousin drama and it was called project man dime no you don't remember this episode well he took drama and he was like we're gonna help you're gonna get your new teeth we're gonna get you a new haircut new outfits like project man dime he like made him look all good and stuff and then they like did this grand reveal and drama looked kind of funny but anyways we were wondering for for us and for our listeners out there what are what are a few things that we can take back home with us to really come in 2026 it's january i want to look great i want to feel great i want to be confident what are some of these things that we can man yeah we can lock in on yeah well you gotta go back to the gym bro first i got my hair care i got my hair care ready i'm gonna i'm gonna be doing my hair yeah easy layups you gotta go back to the gym give me the layups give me the layups i would say you need 14 but bro your hair actually looks fire like i actually really like the buzz cut it suits you and that means a lot coming it It looks good.

1:32:42Alex Costa:It looks good. It's different from Alex Kosta. You know, the fiance is like, I like it. But dude, Alex Kosta. I was going to ask you that because that's like the biggest thing. It's like, did your fiance like tell you to do it or like she liked it? She, um, she, she's, she likes it. She thought when I first got it, because I went a four instead of a two, that she was like, it kind of looks undone. She likes it now, but I think she prefers my longer hair. She's like, as long as it's grown out before the wedding, like I'm down. You have really nice hair. Thanks. Yeah. I met you. I mean, I met you at a salon in LA like years ago.

1:33:18Alex Costa:Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm starting to gray more than I would like to. Same. Is there anything to do to like slow it or do I just kind of got to dye it? There's like researchers coming out that are, people are saying that there's going to be a pill for it, that there will be a solution pretty soon. I don't know if that's five to ten years but it looks like even for balding they're coming out with some crazy shit right now my dad just got a hair transplant for example and I was like alright it's cool but just so you know there might be this new pill thing coming out that's like it's gonna fix it so I dye some of my grays right now because what I have is like a patch of grays in one place instead of like a lot of different places so I just dye that one little area and that's it that makes me honestly that makes me feel a lot better because i was like god i'm 37 bro really good hair and you're 37 37 you look great dude yeah you're a young bull young stallion young stall i've been around the block i'm old bro okay wait so he turned he turned 30 this year so he's yeah i'm on status too now i'm on now um okay so so hit the gym obviously eat healthy yeah are there any um like are you fucking around with like peptides are there i am not yet okay but i i I do want to learn more about it.

1:34:39I'm definitely not. I'm not the kind of guy who's just going to jump into something without doing research. So next step is research, but it looks sick. Yeah, it looks like we're going to stay young. What? I'm like, sign me up. You know, so I'm definitely going to do some proper research into it. I'm in the middle of like wedding planning mode. I'm launching Target right now. I'm like, I just need to like focus a little bit, but that's next. For sure, gym, making sure you're eating healthy, whatever. Your hair, and that's not just because of 40, but men's hair is like, women's makeup. Like it totally changes.

1:35:08I mean, you look so different with the buzz cut versus longer hair. It totally changes your appearance, right? So finding, instead of going to a barber, I always recommend go to a salon with a hairstylist, a guy who is using scissors instead of clippers, especially now because the trend isn't fades right now, it's longer flow. So find a guy who's cutting your hair with scissors. So that's a, let your hair grow. I always say, just try it, man. You don't know. I always thought I had shitty hair, like growing up. Really? And then I went to military school and I had that exact haircut because I had to do it every 14 days and sergeant would sign my book.

1:35:45He would check my hair and be like, okay, you got your haircut every 14 days. And I just kept it for the longest time until I went to a salon for the first time. I paid$40, I think, in LA for a haircut. And they were like, you kind of have nice hair. You should let it grow. I'm like, yeah, this guy's just gassing me up, you know? whatever. He just wants me to come and spend more money. I let it grow. And I was like, oh, okay. And he taught me how to style it. And this is, that's how I learned that I was like, okay, I have decent hair. I could probably let it grow a little bit longer. So put a little bit more effort into your hair, hit the gym and then find your style.

1:36:18When I say that, I think people are like, oh, I don't want to wear a suit. I don't want to go too crazy, high fashion. That's not what it's about. I think it's just about finding what works for you and not looking lazy, not

1:36:31Alex Costa:looking like you're in athleisure all the time that's half the work okay um it's so funny because we were looking back at some of like your lookbook videos do you look back on those and be like what was i wearing i look back at some of some of the things i was wearing what the fuck is wrong with me with the 2016 challenge i went back i was like dude i was showing my girlfriend and she's like i wouldn't have talked to you back in oh yeah this age this age of college i was like god Yeah, for sure. Some questionable photos, man. I had highlights, man. It was terrible. My jeans were suffocating. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

1:37:03And ripped. And then the long line tees.

1:37:06Alex Costa:Yes! Looked like a popsicle. Oh my God. But that was a trend, so we can't hate too much. But now I always try to stay away from going too far into a trend. So what I'm wearing now, I think I can look, besides maybe a little bit of the mullet, I can look back in like 10 years and I wouldn't be like, ooh, that's bad. So I would like straight fit jeans, you know, like a shirt. Like you can't go wrong with something like this. Are there any brands, you don't got to tell us all, you can gatekeep some of them. Are there any brands that you're like, oh, this for either like clothing, for basics or obviously not hair because we got Forte, but any brands that like you discovered that you're like, this is like really great for these things.

1:37:52yeah so i look at brands like i when i dress up in the morning i'm like who do i want to be today i don't know about you guys it's kind of fun yeah it's almost like the sims or whatever like gta you know a lot of video gaming references um but i'm like okay today i kind of want to be like a little bit more western right because it's like super in right now and i've never really tapped into that so um i like cherry right now for that they have a really cool western vibe to it there's a new brand in LA called Winslow LA. They're doing something similar. If I want to dress a little bit more like elevated and elegant, I go with Reese.

1:38:29I go with Todd Snyder because they have the polos that are, that fit really well, the trousers. Right. And then if I want to go like street style, who do I wear that's more street style? I'd say cherry still, like it kind of goes back and forth between those two. What do I have for pants? Pants, man, what kind of pants do you like though do you like straight i would say straight fit is usually the way to go yeah i got i've had i've really large legs okay little little waist so i've had to go get a larger pair of like car hearts and then tailor them in you know i like these these stone island pants fit really well and i didn't have to tailor them at all yeah i like those a lot i was gonna say represent is actually like crushing it right now and they're coming out he's got a cool pair of pants that represent they're coming out with like a western they're teasing it a western vibe western is like super in right now.

1:39:16Pants, I would say Reese. But just be careful because they're a European brand, so sometimes they can be a little bit on the slim side. So don't go for the slim. Go for the wider fit. Todd Snyder, though. Todd Snyder is fire. It's our guy here. There's a store around here? Yeah.

1:39:34Alex Costa:I walk into Todd Snyder and it is my, that's like my aspirational brand because it's quite pricey. But you'll go in there and be like, oh I could I could blow some money yeah their shit is so nice yeah they do have sales like I you know like I do well but I'm always like alright I'm gonna I'll wait for the sale whatever you know why not or like let me DM them yeah yeah yeah brand deal you guys doing anything spring summer can I get a PR package I really like this suit right that is so I mean bro suit supply I know it sounds like it's suits but it's really not they've really amplified from that and they're crushing with their casuals.

1:40:14Even their straight fit jeans, they're so good, so good.

1:40:18Alex Costa:They have more of a 90s dad fit. I got a suit for my engagement party at Suit Supply and it rips. Yeah, you look good. You look good in that suit, dude. Thanks, dude. It was a good suit. It was cream. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was a good looking suit. Congrats on getting engaged, by the way. Yeah. Thank you, man. How has that been? If there was anything that was a breakthrough last year. That was a breakthrough. I kind of knew. It didn't feel like it at the time, but I was so nervous, bro. Oh my God. Oh my God. I've been at panels speaking to 500 people. I've done so many videos, meet and greets, whatever.

1:41:02I've never been that nervous in my life, bro. I was shaking. And And there was so much building up to it that at the time I was like, oh, will you? Shaking, shaking, you know, and started to cry. And I was like, oh, God, like this is terrible. But actually, like after I rewatched it because we recorded it, it was actually I was like, OK, it was good. That's so funny.

1:41:28Alex Costa:Did your girl before you did it, was she like when you propose eventually like I want a full speech? No. Oh, my girl was, I was like, every guy that I've talked to that does it says that they have this like whole thing that they want to say and they're just so fucking nervous that they can't say anything. And so I felt the same way I go. I was like kind of like prepping things to say. And then I was like, oh, no, because I set up my tripod to film it. And then I had hired a photographer. But I walk over to her and she's like, why are you like smiling or something? And then I started like twirling her out of nowhere.

1:42:04Alex Costa:and she's like what are you doing and i was like i don't know i just love you like will you marry me you're so pretty yeah um i love your smile no that's how i felt i felt i'm like damn like i'm giving these guys all so much advice on youtube and i'm over here like shaking yeah you're like how to be confident so yeah two funny things it's like well god i i you know i i took her it was like the 101st floor of the edge which is like a really cool moment perfect day could not have asked for a better day it was amazing i was like i'm so lucky this is incredible and we go up to the view point and the photographer is hiding and jet is shooting as if we're about i told her we were doing a brand deal with mastercard and we were she needed to be in it and then so jet is shooting my videographer and we walk up to the view and i'm like um this is really nice huh this is beautiful like we live right here right and she's like no we live like right like all the way over there i'm like right um anyway i didn't even know where we were i was so out of it it was so scary it was the craziest moment of my life yeah and i fortunately like words flowed after that but at first i was like oh i'm gonna fuck this up yeah that's that's so funny um i guess my last question would be how have you managed to balance a relationship with being a full-time content creator where you can always be working yeah compromise for sure you know um when we so emily and i i mean my favorite part about one of maybe one of the favorite parts about my relationship with her is that before we decided to be in a relationship we were just hanging out and she lived in san diego i lived in new york it's like it's probably not going to go anywhere, but I really like this girl.

1:43:58And she would come spend a weekend with me and we would just talk, man. And we would just talk so much. And I didn't feel bad sharing like all of everything with her. Cause I was like, it's whatever, who cares, you know? And we talked so much about my job as a, as a creator. And I was like, I really don't want to be with anyone who does content creation as well. Um, there's probably a way to do it. My experience is it doesn't really work because that's kind of all you end up talking about. You go on a trip. That's all you end up doing is looking for content opportunities, shooting content of each other.

1:44:34And it's just like, I didn't want that. So it was really important to me to find somebody who wasn't in the business. And she wasn't, she's in sales, but she works from home. So I also work from home. I don't have an office space. So for me, I was like, cool like we can actually be in the same space together and it'll be okay as long as we we don't get sick of each other it's been really great um and she can travel and work from anywhere with me so we it was actually really easy once she moved to new york like it's been it's been really good i don't show her a lot i was actually thinking should i not because i don't want to just because she actually doesn't like being on camera she's like i don't want to be on camera she's private it on Instagram for the engagement.

1:45:19I was like, I kind of want to show you a little bit more, you know? And if she said no, I wouldn't have posted anything. And that's, that's okay. But for me, I'm like, this is also a big moment for my guys watching this. Like I've, I've taught them, taught them so much, you know, like how to talk to a girl, how to look for a date, how to get engaged, bro. Like that's, that's like one of the biggest moments in a guy's life. and I wanted to show that and I wasn't sure how to present that in like a way that wasn't cringy or like three ways you should ask your, you know. So like it was - Follow my script.

1:45:55Exactly. So I feel like I did it in a natural way and people responded to it really, really well. And that was like her first real like time being in front of a camera and us showing real emotions that who cares if there was anybody shooting or recording. And now she's showing herself a little bit more with truffle yeah um but at the end of the day like she's like i i don't want to be an influencer that's not what i want to do i want to keep my doing my thing um and i respect that so much yeah you know i really do yeah it's funny because um when i saw the photo i was like i didn't even know

1:46:28Alex Costa:you had a girl yeah because you don't really post her yeah um which is uh i was like that's awesome on purpose yeah totally i was just like let's keep that separate i think um totally fine to keep that separate. It didn't affect my content. I don't need to be showing girls or whatever. That's not my content, you know? And I think it was, it had that even bigger of a wow moment. Totally. Because it was like, wait, who was this girl? Let's go. Alex, this has been so fun. Ladies and gentlemen, this has been episode 192 with Alex Costa. If you're still here, please hit the subscribe button, drop us a comment, leave us a like, and we'll see you guys all next week.

1:47:04Peace.