The Real MF’ers Episode 5: Isaac Duostar

Every challenge is an opportunity. The greater the challenge, the greater the opportunity … if you can see it and capitalize on it.

When many makeup brands were suffering from retailers being closed or having less foot traffic during coronavirus lockdowns, Isaac Duostar, CEO of luxury cosmetic brand Doucce, saw the opportunity for e-commerce cosmetic sales. His company’s approach to sales, as well as their culture and purpose, had them perfectly positioned to grow during a time when many similar brands were struggling.

Full Transcript Below

Scott Peper 0:40
All right. All right. Hello, everybody. Thank you for joining us today. My name is Scott Peper. I’m the CEO Mobilization Funding. I’m really excited today to bring a guest to you Isaac Duostar. He’s the CEO of Doucce, say it’s a beauty brand. He’s also a friend of mine, a client, someone that we’ve worked with before has a super interesting story. I’m very excited to share some of the specifics with you guys. And without further ado, welcome, Isaac.

Isaac Duostar 0:56
How are you? Man? How’s everything?

Scott Peper 0:58
I’m good. How are you?

Isaac Duostar 1:00
Good, busy. We’re in the middle of holiday season. So you can imagine, especially the New World, we’re living in a lot of the DTC businesses, you know, picking up and we got to kind of just keep working with that. Yeah. And then, you know, a couple of stuff that you guys helped us out with those big orders, you know, they’re more, you know, campaigns more than anything else. So the, the feedback is coming in as well, obviously. So, things are, you know, kind of settling down as we wrap up 2020.

Scott Peper 1:35
Well, I’m looking forward to hearing the rest of your story about 2020. And where you come from in 2019. And I know some of that, that some of that original struggles and how you’ve been able to utilize some of those lessons learned. So without further complication or warmups, I would just jump straight into it.

Isaac Duostar 1:54
Let’s do it. My name is Isaac Duostar, CEO of Doucce, we’re a color cosmetic company, based out of New York City. Our mother corporation has been around for 20 plus years, but Doucce as a brand has only been around since 2008. Those early stages, I think we’ve developed and grown significantly over the past 12 years as a brand. We are luxury brand, so distribution is a little bit difficult. But at the same time, I think you know, being a luxury brand into the luxury sector makes things a lot more interesting and you know, allows exponential growth very quickly. We do business all over the world. Primarily, you know, our initial start was in the Middle East. But you know, over the past five, six years, we’ve turned our attention to the United States, Europe, Latin America, and you know, East Asia as well as a result. And you know, we’re looking to grow and expand then 2020 has been a rough but great year, I think for us more than anything, and we’re looking to capitalize on it.

Scott Peper 2:52
I love it. Yeah, well, I really appreciate you join on this. It’s we have we do a lot in construction and a lot of manufacturing, but a lot of our content tends to be construction based, right. I have our manufacturing clients and others just hear your perspective, your approach how you’re handling the course telling your story, but also how you utilize the finance and help drive your volume course, you will be found quickly with manufacturing clients end up in the same struggles from traditional banking or traditional volumes size purchase financing, as our construction clients almost it in some ways, it’s the same context. It’s really weird. So, right, you use that and did it perfectly. And you know, you You’re so cool to share your feedback with us. We don’t get that a lot. So I really like what what I like and appreciate you doing that. Thank you first, but it’s cool. I think other people can benefit from hearing how you do it.

Isaac Duostar 3:50
Oh, absolutely. I think you know, so, as a company we never had, we never had enough funds to begin with. And that’s the reality behind you know, that you had the initial investment in a company, which was a couple hundred thousand dollars on in my industry where you have many, many skews, all of a sudden, a couple hundred thousand dollars becomes nothing, it disappears very quickly. And it’s great. In a sense, where Okay, can you your money, there’s turnover on that money, where are you turning it into inventory. And if you can sell your inventory fast enough, you’re seeing a turnover, maybe four or five times a year, which is wonderful, at the very least in terms of you know, then you have the profit and everything else that comes along with it. But then you have these massive orders that you can process, you’re getting orders, you know, you’re growing as a company, but you don’t have the capital. And the reality is the bank credit line, or anything you can get from the bank immediately isn’t going to solve your problem, because it’s going to cap out, you all of a sudden need half a million dollars to make this work. And it’s just sometimes not enough, when you start working with suppliers. Sometimes they’re willing to work with you, there’s a reality behind it, okay, like, you know, we’ll give you terms on this, or give us a smaller deposit and we move forward. But then you have like, for example, we have a new project that we’re working on, I think you guys can come in very handy as kind of starts to get finalized, it’s a completely new supplier, they’re not going to trust me with any terms of credit for the reality is, they’ve never worked with me, they know of me, they’ve been wanting to work with me and the company, but at the end of the day, they’re not going to put a couple hundred thousand dollars at risk just off the top of that, especially in this environment that we live in. And that’s where you guys are coming immediately, you know, the financing is there, we give it to pay them before we ship. And you know, it doesn’t affect my standard cash flow throughout the year or, for that matter a month or two that we’re dealing with this, where it makes it really easy to kind of, you know, pay this make our money. And you know, and continues to keep doing this as we grow. Because it’s something that you know, it doesn’t affect my actual cash flow. And it allows me to get those bigger purchase orders that I want to get but can’t afford to get.

Scott Peper 5:45
It’s a good point, you bring up an excellent point because you know, when we when we’re talking to potential clients or current clients, it’s just it’s a similar story. You know, they’ve they’ve been grinding as hard as they can. They’ve been marketing everywhere they have they’ve been putting pieces together grabbing this to grab that to make this happen. The whole time marketing, marketing, marketing, and all of a sudden, what you’ve been wanting your whole time in business is that customer the new one that comes in or the existing customer that finally gives you the 15 more SKUs and all of a sudden they do it and you’re like, Oh crap, what do I do now? I just got this million dollar order. I just got this couple hundred thousand.

Isaac Duostar 6:25
Yeah, yes, it’s a a million units at a time for us. I think one of the things you guys help us with with that it was a million and change units. That’s a significant amount of you know, pieces for a company like us. That’s like Estee Lauder quantities and in the cosmetic industry that it’s fun when I need to reach out to suppliers, one million units, they look at me like Are you sure? And then you say yes. And then when you succeed, and the funny thing is some of the sales reps move to a different company, this has happened to us already. They WeChat trying to get your, the you know, they pitch themselves to the that supplier of their, hey, listen, we’re going to come in and we’re a good sales reps, we can bring you a new client that’s already doing these high volumes. And there isn’t that many clients in industry that can bring volume like we are right now. And all of a sudden that becomes very important for them. So you know, they’re willing to work with us, the clients, my clients are willing to work with us on these big numbers. But you know, the monetary funds need to be there for it to actually happen. And that’s the reality behind it.

Scott Peper 7:15
So can you tell a story because you know, you you know, just to give a little background, you had a very successful business, its existing for plenty of period of time. You have current clients. And when you came to us, you had a really unique scenario that was really quite frankly exactly how we just described but instead of me characterize it in general ality maybe you could just take a couple of minutes to tell them, hey, here’s the scenario I had. I went you went out and looked at the marketplace to try to find a way to finance it and you ultimately found us and we were able to move through the transaction. Maybe you can just talk about what you guys did.

Isaac Duostar 7:51
Yeah absolutely. So, as you know, as a company, you know, every company has ups and downs and the reality is 2019 was a rough year for us, it was a lot of adjust, it was an adjustment period. And as a company that relied a lot on specific clients, those oranges didn’t come in for that 2019 year. So put us in a very tough position in terms of the cash flow. So instead of building out that initial cash flow that we had built out, we’re very running low on cash. And we were spending a lot more on marketing to kind of position ourselves for 2020 and 2021. And, you know, obviously, it’s paid off right now, because we have a lot of new clients coming in through the door. And then you had this pandemic happen. So you’re already kind of low on cash, and you’re maneuvering, you got these orders. And all of a sudden, everything just stops for you know, more money, people aren’t paying, everyone is kind of standing in there waiting to see what’s going to happen next. On that moment, you clients are kind of worried about their products, because you know, these are some of these things are actually guaranteed, which makes it a lot easier than more contracted versus just let me purchase the inventory and put it in here. And let’s see what happens to it. This is a very clean transaction where client purchases significant amount gives you six months to deliver, you go ahead and produce it. And I don’t even see the merchandise, it goes directly from factory to clients, without anyone ever touching it. And as this was happening, all of a sudden, your supplier turns around and says, Well, listen, we living in a very difficult time period where we’re not gonna let you ship these products without giving us at least some sort of deposit. When this is not this was a supplier that will give us 60 days credit, which is perfectly fine for us. It took us that amount of time to turn around the money, we would get the money. But all of a sudden, you’re playing with new rules and you know, new game completely. And that’s where, you know, I reached out to somebody who ended up introducing us. And it was like, hey, like, this guy’s perfect for you guys. And that’s where Scott and I met. And yeah, you guys plugged right in. And we did this for I think two or three different ones already. And it just gave us a lot more, you know, anyway, and honestly gave me so much more calm and relaxation, that I was able to start focusing on the business and growing the business differently. Because I know, I got mobilization funding behind, I know I can go ahead and get these purchase orders, I know I can, you know, reach out and really get those big orders where my profit margins are significantly more. But I wasn’t able to do that before, because I had to pay out the money ahead in advance and wish we didn’t have. So it is a very direct transaction. And you guys just kind of came in a plug right in, where you plug that hole of where that monetary funds where it’s going to be at the time. And as soon as that hole gets plugged in that entire sales cycle starts flowing significantly better, significantly easier. And I think more calm across the board.

Scott Peper 10:29
You know, changing gears on it a little bit. I’m curious just to hear, I think what everyone will really benefit from is just hear a little bit about your your story, your thoughts on business? I mean, you pivoted tremendously through COVID. I mean, you guys have operations in New York City of operations in Long Island, you have people you’re ordering suppliers internationally, you’re selling online, all across the US and other places, even outside of the US. It’s a pretty diverse business, both supplier side coming in and who you’re selling to, I think it’d be really beneficial to talk about your your company philosophy and culture, how you pivoted through COVID what what adjustments you’ve made, and how you really thrived and survived making these modifications. I mean, look Coronavirus, has touched everybody. I mean, people might have been open, but their suppliers were closed, that’s a problem. But their customers are closed. I mean, there’s all different issues and you navigating through just about every one of them. Talk about that a little bit, let’s let’s see what wisdom you can pass on to everyone to kind of, you know, stay calm. What you do.

Isaac Duostar 11:15
I can’t take a lot of credit for it. I think you know, sometimes your product, your circumstances, I think that’s the first step. Being the 2019 was such a rough year for us, I think we had already scaled down and kind of from a monetary standpoint, tighter budgets, where you know, if we needed to let someone go, unfortunately, we already had done that. And we were already down to a core skeleton crew to make sure the company functions and operates until we could, you know, get a lot more cash back into play, and really build from there. And that was always the plan for 2020. So initially, I think we were able to absorb the shock a lot better than most brands or companies to begin with, because we were already in that position of Okay, well, you know what, we’re already there. We don’t have to do what other companies are going to have to end up forcing to do. But at the same time, I think working with very strong suppliers across industry, where you know, even during a shutdown, they were concerned as essential even though they don’t produce essential products, but they were the manufacturing arm of you know, for example, we produce 60% in Germany, Germany is back on lockdown, again to an extent and our factories are functioning perfectly fine. You know, there are a lot of automated factories so they need minimal staff to function as is in addition to that, they’re just major corporations that, you know, they weren’t, you know, the government’s weren’t letting them shut down regardless, they’re the backbone of the industry. And I think that that in a way we lucked out with, when choosing my luck, that isn’t these are suppliers. But I think choosing the right suppliers to work with from day one, instead of trying to cut corners, and dealing with the big boys, and you know, people who produce not just for us, but they produce for the bigger brands and industry. It gave us a sense of security and, you know, kind of stability during this time period, as much as Yes, we had issues, you know, in terms of credits, a little seminar, you know, our credits were cut in half. And we were not, we’re not being extended credit, but they were producing and they were moving very quickly through production. In addition to that, having really good relationships with their clients, and always being, you know, very candid myself personally, I like to be very transparent with my clients off top my head. And especially if they’re larger clients, I don’t necessarily hand them off to sales reps within the company. They know who I am, they deal with me directly in person at times. And they felt comfortable, I think we give them a sense of security, understanding if they reach out to us. And we say we can deliver a specific product, they’re in really good shape. And I think that’s what really paid off, where, you know, they came to us, we had actually one of the things we work together was it wasn’t even planned. It was the company, they had orders coming in, suppliers couldn’t deliver the product to those specific brands who were supposed to deliver it to one of our clients. So instead, they end up reaching out to us directly and asking us, Hey, can you deliver 200,000 years, and just luck on the draw? Like, Yes, we can. And you know, they, they come to you, and all of a sudden, it gives you a nice little boost. So I think one of the clients that actually happened to was, you know, revived our business when we hadn’t done business with them for a couple of years. And he revived the business and you know, we’re looking for big, big 2021 with them. And it’s shifted dramatically for us. And it was really great to see, you know, they had that trust and confidence, I think is part of it is always being very forthright and upfront with your people and letting them know what’s happening, even no matter how bad it is, is best to be direct, and you know, paint them the picture. So when reality is when things do hit the fan, they know you’re going to be very candid and direct with them. And they could at least trust you during times of uncertainty. And you know, people just not being very communicative in regards to what’s actually happening.

Scott Peper 14:51
You know, listening to you talk about this as a couple key takeaways that I think are important for that I want to really accept and point out. But what you said a few times that I heard is, performance is the key, like performing performing on your word, performing what you said you’re going to do, taking orders and fulfilling the ones you know you can and if you can’t telling them and setting proper expectations of what you can do when you can do it and why you can’t just in a very transparent manner. I’d bet that even in some of those scenarios that didn’t only help you keep the business you have, but it probably earned you additional business. Yeah. And probably made sure customers knew that, you know, I’m thinking somebody years somebody that can count on so you’ve turned what normally are negatives into, into positives. Yeah. The other thing you said that I thought was really key that you learn from 2019, which I think is great foresight. Because I have a saying in our office, I actually heard a mentor of mine say that, you know, things happen for you, not to you, you know, and in the moment in 2019, you probably felt like a lot of stuff was happening to you. And it was probably nothing compared to what we —

Isaac Duostar 15:55
Yeah, we lost a lot of sleep in 2019.

Scott Peper 16:00
And you know, that all 2019 did was ultimately prepare you for what was about to happen in 2020, which I don’t know all the intricacies of that. But 2020 is probably maybe even arguably could have been a lot worse than 2019. If you had the same infrastructure and you were doing all —

Isaac Dustar 16:20
Yeah, you and I would not be speaking today if that was the case. And that’s the reality behind it. Even you know, we have a credit line with JPMorgan Chase, and PR that they have to reach out to us quarterly and ask us for some paperwork. And hey, I can how’s business going? And you know, he called me more business banker gave me a call, like this is about a month and a half ago. And he just goes, Yeah, listen, I know, we asked for quarterlies and stuff like that, but I think we’re just not going to do it for 2020. This might be and probably half of 2021 because, you know, no one’s business has grown and you know, have problems. I’m like, Well, you could take a look at mine. Were triple what we were in 2019 right now. So if you if you want to give me extra credit, by all means, and he was like laughing, he’s like, I don’t think they’re gonna give you anything. But that’s unreal to hear. And he was like, no, it put us a little bit more at ease to hear Hey, great, Okay, you know what people are doing bad. Makes sense, obviously makes sense businesses down across the board for so many people. But not only did we take this pandemic and grow, but you know, we’re setting the groundwork for future years from a year that was not supposed to be great for a lot of people and you know, as well We were sitting down and talking to a couple of the partners. It was, it was like, you know, like, it could be so much worse for us. And just like we’re on cruise control, in addition to just like, you know, the standard core that is this was on cruise control. But we all of a sudden had this growth spurt that we weren’t even expecting, we were going, we knew we were going to double, we knew that was going to be the case, because reality is 20, we knew we would get back to what 2018 levels were in 2017 levels were inside of 2019. But we weren’t expecting to, you know, profoundly grow. within that time period, especially during this pandemic.

Scott Peper 18:00
You know, for the people that are listening, that’s what I want people to take away from that. And what I certainly am going to is, what you learned in 2019 allowed you to make the adjustments to pivot to put yourself in a place where you could have an opportunity to succeed the next time. And you know, life works in cycles and businesses the same way. For, what happened to you, Isaac in 2019, is what a lot of people are going through right now in 2020,

Isaac Duostar 18:27
if not worse,

Scott Peper 18:28
you know, if not worse, and so if you can survive and thrive and really make the adjustments during this really hard time. And by the way, mobilization funding has had its own struggles. During this time, we’ve done more than a boat, we’ve made adjustments, we’ve worked with our customers, we’re working with our bank, we’re in a great spot. But it took a lot of work and effort to make these adjustments to the last six, seven months. And what we decided to do is a lot of what you decided that we made the adjustments we got to where we needed to be we try to help as many of our customers we can initially really putting out all this type of different content and marketing we did while we were we’re slow and now we’re keeping it up. But the key piece there is what you learned in 2019, you made an adjusted from so that when the next cycle came, you were able to thrive from it instead of get hurt from it. And I want folks listening to this to take this opportunity what’s happening in 2020, if it is hurting you make those adjustments because we’re going to quickly be in another cycle. And that cycle will give you the opportunity to thrive from the problem that you’re having.

Isaac Duostar 22:08
You adjust and you know, I think if you give up that easily, you know, you just have to know it, you have to take risks is the reality behind it. I don’t think everything nothing is going through risk free. I think you know, 2019 was a wake up call for us. But you know, we took those necessary risks going to 2020, we dragged our feet a little bit, we you know, we made those adjustments, but at the same time, opened ourselves to additional risk going into 2020. But you know, we had to capitalize on it, that was a reality behind it. And I think you know, pandemic or not, we want to capitalize on it. And you know, we’re going to move forward regardless of the matter. But just as things have played out, it’s just expanded our business significantly. And I think you know, opportunities come at you when you least expect them. And that’s really what happened here. And, you know, this morning, I can’t say much about it. But I had a very interesting conference call. And it came out of nowhere. And I think it’s going to be it as I was ascribing it to someone else, it’s the biggest fish in the sea, you can fry. And you can really, you can really capture and that’s happening for us in the European Union. And you know, it little by little, I think that that positioning that will give us full grow into 100 million dollar brand without us realizing what’s happening when it’s happening. And you know, if you and I are having this conversation three years from now, I we might be a completely different company, because of it. But you know, I think it’s the opportunity. A lot of brands got kind of washed out in my industry during this time period. And a lot of brands who didn’t survive, for example, like these are public numbers, like our shishido group of companies, they were down 30% in a span of two quarters, that’s significant, you know, Estee Lauder, and L’Oreal not so much because they have mass brands. And you know, they adjusted better, I guess, if you want to call it but you see to where, you know, they focus specifically on luxury, and you know, dealing with specialties, perfume areas such as Sephora, and Ulta. And department stores, where, you know, their retail business had come to a complete halt. They suffered greatly, but you know, brands like myself who you know, adjusted and already knew the market was going towards we were already on the econ business, that was our main focus. And it allowed us to maneuver and because of it where, you know, we’re able to bring new products in towards the end of this year, versus someone like finish you see to a group where now they’re just trying to sell stock, where they don’t even have a proper holiday campaign because they have so much leftover from the past six months in terms of stock. And you know, people are fed up and they’re like, you know what, listen, like dirt. Dirt clients are like, well, we can’t sell your old stuff. Because we need some new stuff. They’re in a position where they can’t just create new stuff because I have all this old stock that needs to you know, they have monetary issues with so it opens the doors for us where you know, brands like us who are, you know, big enough to survive the situation but not big enough to fail. Guess if you want to call it, we’re able to kind of, you know, survive and thrive. And now start capitalizing on those, you know, the shortcomings of the bigger brands and the shortcomings of being too small to, you know, for you to get through this.

Scott Peper 22:33
Yeah. Speaking of brands and philosophies, you have an interesting one, I mean, you you, your brand philosophy says, you know, discover your own individuality. And I think you talk about that both internally inside organization and outside your organization. Talk a little bit about how you came up with that as your branding slogan, how you utilize it internally and externally, and kind of what it might have done was done.

Isaac Duostar 22:55
So this is just me being frank, I think it took a long time for us to get there. I don’t think that was something that was you know, the company was started with this slogan, and that was kind of it. That philosophy took years and years and years to really, you know, get there. I think when the partners first started the company, before I was really deeply involved, at the time, they had an idea, they had an idea for a brand, they had an idea for look other brands, but there was no real story to the brand. Unfortunately, there, they came from a beauty industry and a fashion industry, merged heads and created this thing, which again, looks great. But there was no story behind it when you know, when I first started, you know, dealing with it, and you’re like, what’s the story, I’m like, there isn’t a story. Reality is, this is a brand. It’s a high performance, and it looks great. But that was kind of really it. And it took us a long time to really start developing that philosophy and concept behind it, where I’m like, Okay, so what makes us different? Why are we different? And kind of playing on that different tone? Like, well, you know, what, the world is changing reality. And, you know, I think everyone you know, beauty specific, there’s no real term of beauty anymore. Yes, you can say this person looks great. But getting there is 400 different routes, people are taking, you know, the same concept, you Everything is sorted, evolve, there was no more, you know, one uniform concept of this is what you have to do. And I think as society was changing, we kind of played right into it. And as we started developing these products, like, Well, okay, this is a multi use product, for example, that was like, you know, once major step, this is great. And then we had this thing created called a free Matic system, where essentially, it gave you the tools to create a makeup palette, however you chose to make it. And it was like someone did the math in office is kind of just like a joke. It’s it’s 1.7, septillion different ways of creating a palette. So he really like, Okay, if you make this, it’s super, super unique to you. And as truth is, I swear, if you see some of these orders that come in, on our website, I look at these things, I’m not just for my own understanding of marketing, and I’m like, Whoa, I know, Not in a million years, I did this, I would have even thought about doing something like this, and I created a system. So I think that was the basis of it in terms of, you know, creating something that allows people to really express their individualism, and discovering who they are versus being told who they are. And I think that played a key role in terms of, you know, developing the brand, but in addition to just kind of our company culture and hiring, instead of, you know, being very uniform as a company in which I, I’ve been, I’ve been a very structured person my entire life. And I think this was harder for me to understand, than even other people as we were hiring, I’m like, I need so much diversity in my office all of a sudden, and, you know, things started to change drastically, we were very female oriented, for a very long time, because it’s a pretty brand. So obviously, but then, you know, that we had a mix of guys coming. And we had different ethnicities and backgrounds or races being thrown in there, we had, you know, we had all sorts of people on this office, and we still do so and then comes 2020, where all the sudden, you know, we had this uproar of, you know, inclusion and you know, talking about things, you know, the social mechanisms on how this country is working. And we started having people reach out to us, and beauty brands were hit really hard, where, you know, they were reaching out during the whole Black Lives movement, initially at first. And people were literally messaging us, not just us, every band was getting messages, and we’re being forced to reveal, okay, what is your board look like? How many people in management are people of color and whatever, and I was livid. I’m like, well take a look at whatever they want. Because we are like the United Nations in this office. And it was such an interesting thing for me to look at. And it was we literally have people of all sorts of backgrounds, shapes, colors, whatever you want to call it. reality is we have everything. And it was on like, Look, we are there were so diverse already that I don’t think people realize that. And it was nice, it was very refreshing it you know, didn’t get hit, like nobody had anything bad to say about us. And you know, it was it was very easy going and mainly because of the way it was all plant. So I think we played into that before. Things have already gotten where they are today. And I think It plays into our company culture, and our products. So it kind of everything has come full circle at this point.

Scott Peper 27:19
I appreciate you going through that, because it is interesting. And it’s important. And I think a lot of companies, particularly in some of our other segments of business are really focused on inclusion, diversity, just differences of thought, even let alone the presentation. And people have known. And it’s important not only to what’s going on today in society, but also the customer base is changing, and whether what I’m going to what business you’re in appealing to more people in your, in your focus is, is really key. So I think it’s cool that you guys came up with that brand and kind of grew into his cool story and how you did that.

Isaac Duostar 27:58
Yeah, people don’t believe it. But this, there’s a truth behind it. It just kind of happened on its own, we just let it play out. And more so than forcing the issue, but we’re working on some new things, new brands, specifically. And they have their own ethos and brand stories of their own. But you know, I think they were done right from day one, where, you know, we started to kind of pitch them to clients Little by little, without people really getting the heads up of what’s happening get. And they have their they have their own stories of product sold stories, and you know, whether it’s on the packaging, to the name of the products to the name of the actual brands, and you know, we’ll get into later on, but essentially, they have their own concepts. And their I don’t know if they’re strong enough as though says is because reality is they’ll say it developed because of what was happening versus you trying to make a story and telling that story. This is I think it just kind of as time has gone on, we’ve become the story, the brand has fallen into the reality of life and social mechanisms that are kind of controlling society in today’s world, which aren’t going to change, I think this is the new norm. And it’s a good one. It’s not a you know, I think this is something that everyone has to start, you know, really taking a look at, um, not just in the United States from on a global scale, and world globalism. Israel five years ago, I think traveling was no or what it is today. But now all of a sudden, before the pandemic, we had people visiting countries that they never thought they would ever go to. And as the world is mixing, and you know, people are like I know people who are working in different countries, just because they want to work in a different country, they want to test different, see what the world has to offer. Are they gonna ever come back to New York? Probably, I think they will at some point. But you know, that exchange of culture is significance. And as the world is opening up, as you know, I think more countries are more keen to you know, exchange culture and you know, go about life as is, this is just going to become more and more important, us being accepting and you know, discovering who you are as an individual passing it forward. In addition to being accepting about other people’s individualism, it looks like as well.

Scott Peper 30:04
What’s one thing you wish? Well, two questions I have for you before we close out. One is, what’s the one thing you wish you knew at the beginning of your career that you’ve kind of learned along the way that you would want to share with our audience?

Isaac Duostar 30:18
This is a quote, and I think I was young and stupid. And, you know, life is a journey, not a destination. And I was so quick to try to get somewhere instead of kind of working through it. And I think, I guess I made a lot of judgment calls I shouldn’t have early on, but I think you learn from it. And that’s the reality, I think, you know, don’t try to enjoy it more than anything else. But you know, live it out, write it out there, you know, from rags to riches as a great story. But at the end of the day, it takes time to get there. And you know, patience is a virtue. And it’s key in terms of when it comes to growing a business and you know, going forward in life.

Scott Peper 30:59
I have a saying that I believe in that says you just can’t remove time. From the equation. It’s the thing. The ride is part of the fun. You know, I don’t think any of us are where we want to be. There’s certainly there’s probably certainly thresholds that you can cross over where you feel like you’re there, you made it to a degree.

Isaac Duostar 31:17
It’s like Elon Musk still has problems every day he wakes up, he’s not where he wants, and he’s done so many things that people can’t even imagine. So reality is, yeah, you’re you’re never really there. Doesn’t matter what you do.

Scott Peper 31:28
Enjoy it. Exactly. I couldn’t agree more. Um, I really appreciate you going through the time with us today on the horse on this top. I think it’s very helpful. I love you sharing the just sheer appreciation and thought process I’ve always been really admired since the first time we met not only with your business and what you have, but I could just tell the way you handle yourself your style. You know, I was at first drawn to it, but I’ve really grown to appreciate that really who you are. And

Isaac Duostar 31:34
I appreciate having like being part of this. And honestly, and I’ve said this to you in private before, but I admire your company culture you guys are building, I reached out to you in private about that, I thought it was very cool and very unique. And honestly, from a financial firm, I wasn’t expecting that, more than anything else. I’ve dealt with many different financial firms. And reality is you guys operate like a brand, how we would operate, how I would essentially reach out to a client, I’m trying to, you know, acquire, where we were, kind of give them this ridiculous packaging, and, you know, everything else that comes along with it, and you guys really, you know, stand out in the crowd, and that they’re, you know, and working with you guys has been such a breeze and, you know, you guys totally understand who you are and what our needs are. And you know, you’ve made it very seamless, you know, if we need to do it, you understand this needs to be done. And you know, we can rely on, you know, expect that from you guys.

Scott Peper 32:48
You see me smiling, because it’s really what we try to do for you articulated that way, and be so close or dead on to what we try to do is it’s very rewarding. It’s actually humbling to hear you say that it’s I appreciate it. And, of course, we really do try. So it’s great to hear you say that we don’t get to hear that. We don’t get to know enough. Like we hope that’s when people

Isaac Duostar 33:06
Believe me I actually do wear my mobilization funding t-shirt. I actually do wear and there was another one. We had a couple in the office and one of the partners came into my office. He’s like, what is this? I’m like, Oh, it’s one of our you know, financers? Like, Can I have it? I’m like, yep, and he like he word it comes. But I got a couple of compliments on it. He took off his shirt and put it on and like went outside and came back as midsummer. He’s like, I got a couple of compliments on this shirt. I’m like, well, it’s yours now. So yeah, it was awesome.

Scott Peper 33:31
Well, I appreciate you saying that. I love it. I’m glad that you, you did. And I just appreciate you sharing your story as I do. I’m glad that you willing to do this. I just wanted people to hear it know that there’s there’s definitely cool pathways out there. They’re not all easy. What what looks great comes with a lot of hard work and perseverance and failure, which you’ve already articulated and talked about. And just your candor and genuineness and abilities, willingness to share is great. And I want to be able to know that I just thank you very much.
Everyone, if you thought this was great, please share it. I hope it served everybody. Well. Thank you guys for all joining us. And remember, if there’s anything we can do for you, or if you’d like to reach out to Isaac here, check out his beauty brands and everything else, we’ll leave the contact information right here on the on the screen for you to see. And again, thank you very much and have a great rest of your day.

Isaac Duostar 34:15
Of course. Thank you guys so much. Appreciate it.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai