Episode Transcript
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PB (00:13):
Hello, welcome to another
episode of the menswear style
podcast. I'm your host PeteBooker. And today on the show, I
am talking to the founder ofeminent Scott Scott Lancaster.
And evidence Scott is ajewellery brand inspired by
stoic philosophy. And theirunique necklaces, inspired by
stoicism have become the fastestfunded crowd funding project in
(00:36):
history. And here to talk aboutthe brand. And that campaign is
the founder, Scott Lancaster.
So, Scott, you're the founder ofEmmet, and Scott London, and
you've just become officiallythe fastest funded Kickstarter
in history. So congrats on that.
How are you feeling? And did youexpect everything to go so well,
(00:58):
so early on?
Unknown (01:00):
It's to be honest, it
was a it was a little bit of a
surprise. So we didn't, wedefinitely didn't expect to get
funded in our first I think itwas like three minutes or
something when we actually gotfunded. So it was a little bit
crazy. We actually, as kind ofan internal joke, we actually
said, listen, like, Should wegive them back get something a
little bit extra special? If weget back to the line the first
(01:21):
hour, and we were like, that'snever gonna happen right there.
That's like, just like a pipedream. And we did it three
minutes. So yeah, not too bad.
So please, but also nervous,because things are going to
start ramping up. Now we've gotanother bit of momentum. So
we'll see how things go.
PB (01:36):
And so what do you think you
did right? Now you can look on
it slightly objectively, what doyou think the key to the success
of getting something like this?
So, so well done? And so quick?
Unknown (01:47):
Yeah. So good question.
Honestly, so I've been kind ofpart of Kickstarters in launches
before where like, I'm abranding consultant. So I work
with companies all the time, whodo this sort of thing. And one
thing that always helps, isauthenticity. So just just
having something that the brandstands for, which is something
(02:12):
someone can connect to, becausethere's so many, there's so many
brands out that people are likejust to sell a product, right?
And they don't really stand foranything, they just want to sell
a product and sell as muchproduct as possible. We don't
really care about that. Wehonestly don't, we want to help
as many people as possible withthe donations to mental health
charities that we are doing. Andultimately, we just want to
(02:34):
reach as many people aspossible. So I think I think
that kind of really struck achord with people. A lot of the
people that that's the crazything is a lot of the people
that we have, you know, on ouremail list contacting us haven't
even backed our project yet. Sowe're fully funded. But a lot of
people still haven't backed yet.
So we've still got all those tocome. So yeah, that's, that's
(02:56):
exciting stuff.
PB (02:57):
And so what happens when you
do have a campaign that gets
funded? So quickly? Do do youkeep the window open? Does it
run another couple of weeks? Imean, how does it work when
you're already over the finishline?
Unknown (03:10):
Yeah, so the, the, the
way that Kickstarter works, at
least, at least, at least to myknowledge is that you you have
like a daily period. So we setour company up for 18 days,
which basically gives us therest of December to ultimately
give people the opportunity tosecure a necklace or like a
ridiculously low price, I prettymuch cost price, to be honest,
(03:31):
the cost of the necklace, so wewere originally selling the
necklaces, one by one. Sosomeone would purchase a
necklace, we would tell aworkshop, they would hand make
it within kind of four or fiveyears, then we would gift wrap
it, put it in our special, youknow, Ruby packaging, or premium
packaging, and then we wouldsend it to them. And they were
(03:52):
loving it, but they were payinglike upwards of like 200 pounds
for a necklace, which is, youknow, it's like for what your
game is still good, good value,you know, but the fact of the
matter is, by simply justsecuring more materials and
working more efficiently, sohaving kind of like more pieces
to make at one time, we can,like reduce the cost of the
(04:15):
manufacturing and the customermaterials significantly. So you
know, where you were able togive people you know, like a 200
pound necklace for for, youknow, like 40 quid, which which
is crazy. And I'd say this, youknow, pretty nearly, like more
than 100% less than what youwill be paying so it's, it's,
it's not, it's absolutely crazy.
You're paying like less than 50%of what you would be paying if
you went to retail.
PB (04:39):
So if I was a part of your
team, Scott, I would just be
saying Right, we've done thecampaign now we can all put our
feet up for Christmas.
Unknown (04:46):
Yeah, I definitely I've
definitely had a message
obviously from the guys but youknow what? We're just excited.
I'm we're excited. We're finallygood start. So yeah, it's all
good.
PB (04:56):
All right, so I mean, there
are tonnes of jewellery brands
out there though. I mean, What'swhat makes you guys what makes
Edmonton Scott different? Wouldyou say?
Unknown (05:06):
That's another good
question. I think that the I
mean, again, people, the theauthenticity comes into the fact
that, you know, we we actuallystamp something as opposed to
just, you know, just just try tosell as much product as
possible. You know, there's somany brands out there that are
just empty. You know, you lookat great brands out there, like,
(05:26):
you know, Patagonia, forexample, I think the the the the
owner of Patagonia is literallyjust dedicating all of his money
to charities to try and make theworld a better place. And, you
know, things like that speakvolumes. And another thing,
which I think really helps usstand out is, you know, just to
kind of take a step back andjust give a little bit of
insight in regards to why theproduct was even developed in
(05:46):
the first place. I was, therewas, I think, it was like two
Christmases ago, I was shoppingwith my mom for a present for my
grandma. And she got her thisthis bracelet. And I remember it
was a I'm not sure if I'm, I'mnot gonna say the actual
jewellery company's name, butit's a very well known jewellery
company, and in the city centre,and we went into the store, and
(06:11):
I think she paid around, like140 quid for this necklace. I'm
sorry for this, this bracelet, Iapologise. And I was stunned
when the person behind thecounter handed my mum, this 140
pound bracelet that look prettybasic, to be honest, pretty
meaningless, in a little cheapbox that you could literally get
(06:34):
from, you know, Amazon for like50 P, and in a cheap paper bag.
And I just thought I was like toactually give somebody a gift
that looks that bad, right? Likethe bracelet. It's, it's kind of
irrelevant how the braceletlooks. It's how it's presented,
right? Like when you getsomething and it really kind of
feels good to kind of opensomething and everything looks
(06:56):
really nice. And it looks itlooks terrible. Peter look
absolutely terrible. So actuallywent on the company's website,
right? True story. I went on thecompany's website that very
night, and I was reading theactual reviews. And I would say
maybe 20% I'm not even kidding,about 20% of the reviews on the
products were all about how badthe packaging was how people
(07:17):
were buying these as gifts. Andthey would feel embarrassed to
actually give these as giftswith the packaging that was
supplied. So I was like, Why isnobody doing this? Like I was
looking at all the jewellerybrands. That's affordable. And
none of them were focusing onthe packaging. So I was like,
okay, that's one way that we candifferentiate. That's one thing
(07:39):
that can make us differentbecause nobody else is doing
this. Nobody died. Our packagingis like up there with like the
likes of cardio and dill and allthe all these incredible
jewellery brands, these highhigh end jewellery brands. And
we're competing with those guys,affordable jewellery brands,
they don't care about packaging,the opening experience. And
ultimately, I think that's goingto be a massive, massive fact
(07:59):
that the people choose them anddescribe what other jewellery
brands around our price point inthe future.
PB (08:04):
Yeah, into I mean, that's
the same thing that I tell my
girlfriend that's why she doesall the Christmas wrapping. So
do you believe it to be it'sjust gonna get wrapped in the
Daily Mail? Buy that maybe themetro? But yeah, it's crazy.
Unknown (08:17):
Yeah, sorry, sorry,
sorry. I always get my mom to
to, to help with like wrappingthe actual like, when we get
Audison I always get my mom toactually do the rhythm because
she's so much better. And ittakes me like five days almost
to do the ribbon once she'slike, an absolute priority from
all the all the practice for meand my brother. So yeah, there
(08:38):
she is. She's definitely got aplace in the team to put it that
way.
PB (08:43):
I mean, yeah, how do mums
know that? I mean, the ribbons
that you get, it's just when youput it together, it just comes
out like a horrible mess if youme. That's it. What is that I
noticed on the website and it'skind of like the fruit line of
the brand, the stoicism thephilosophy that's behind it.
What what is that your minddrilling down on that for us?
Unknown (09:05):
I mean, stoic
philosophy is pretty wrong.
Honestly. It's not somethingthat's you know, that's super
new. It's ultimately into Greekan engine group school of
philosophy and from the likes ofyou know, Marcus Aurelius,
Seneca, Epictetus, you know,tonnes of other philosophers
from that time period. It wasessentially and it is
essentially a way for people atleast, it's kind of like a torch
(09:29):
for people to use, almost like areligion to some extent, but
it's not a religion, wherepeople can get kind of get
through hardship and challengesand, and so on testing times.
It's, you know, it's about youknow, focusing on what you can
control and not what you can'tcontrol and just having a really
healthy mindset when you know,when when she gets really hard
(09:49):
and I mean, in times like today,you know, things of that things
are things are pretty tough. So,you know, stoicism is. If you
look at Google Trends, forexample, stoicism has been been
trending for the past 1020years, you know, it's getting
more and more popular becausepeople, especially with social
media, with mental health, whichis why we're actually connected
to mental health and obviouslytrying to help in that arena.
(10:11):
We, you know, we're seeingsources and become more and more
useful to, you know, young men,men, women to get through these
hardships and challenges with ahealthy mindset and come out or
the end the end a better placeand a stronger person. So yeah,
I mean, socialism is like a,like a tool, a tool to get
through difficult times,ultimately, at least in my
(10:34):
opinion.
PB (10:35):
And do you like read
stoicism like a Christian would
read a Bible? Is it somethingthat you can have in your daily
life or quotes written around onthe walls framed and stuff like
that?
Unknown (10:45):
Yeah, so that's
actually that's actually
interesting. I had aconversation with a guy called
Jack who has like this Instagrampage about stoicism. And I asked
him, I said, Listen, would youlike to help us grow this, grow
this brand, and maybe I'll sendyou a necklace? And he said,
listen, like necklaces are notreally my thing. But I'd love
to. I'd love to just kind ofhave a chat with you. Right?
Like, let's, let's have a let'shave a conversation. And I'm
(11:07):
like, okay, so we had aconversation, and he actually
said that. For him personally.
stoicism is essentiallysomething that someone can lean
on, when times get really hard.
So when I said that it's kind ofa religion, but it kind of
isn't. It's there if you needit. But it's not something which
you can have at least I don'tread every single day. It's
(11:29):
something that I use every day,but I don't actually study it
every day. I actually startedreading about it from my jujitsu
coach, my jujitsu, my jujitsucoach at the time, I said, Do
you have any books, I hadn'teven heard of stoicism back
then. It was like four or fiveyears ago. And he said, I read
this book called obstacle is theway by Ryan Holiday. And I was
like, Okay, I'll read it. Ididn't even know what stoicism
was or who Ryan Holiday was. AndI read that book. And I was
(11:52):
like, like, That makes so muchsense. Like I was reading the
pages, I was listening to it.
And others went through anabsolute careers pillar of like,
like two or three months of justreading, everything that you can
get your hands on, when it comesto stoicism, all around
holidays, books, meditations,suddenly gets broken pieces,
but, but everything that I couldget my hands on, and I just kind
of began to see, you know, I'mnot gonna say it was cliche and
(12:17):
like my life origins and stuff,but I started to be able to
handle my life a lot better. Sofor example, something that
usually will get me superemotional, I would be really
composed, and I'd be able tohandle my emotions and stuff
where you can therefore makebetter decisions. Therefore, all
of these little tiny decisionswould compound and ultimately I
would end up in a far betterplace in a in a far more
(12:38):
fruitful, fruitful place, than Iwould have a reacted and let
things kind of really tie me upand get me all riled up. So that
I think that's where it comesinto play for me, and it's just
a really great tool to just staycalm when you need it, you don't
need it all the time. Becausesome days, you know, hardship
isn't really there. For so formost people, so, but when you
(13:00):
know, when she does hit the fan,you know, you really, really,
you know, have something thatwhich is really solid, solid set
of principles that you canreally rely on, you know,
PB (13:10):
yeah, I wish I had you
around last Saturday when we
lost the football, because Ithink having someone like you to
talk to him, I mean, I boughtall the pork pies. So I was
throwing a party and I had a lotof international friends over
with my girlfriend, who'sRussian and say, lots of
Americans, lots of Russians andI didn't really quite get what
the big deal was to be honest,but you know, I got all this,
(13:32):
the crisps you know, fromHereford share and the
piccalilli and pickled eggs, youknow, everything that you pretty
much have in your standard pubwhen you're when you're eating.
And then so when when your hopesand dreams get flushed and taken
away at the last minute of thegame. You kind of look around
and go well what else is thereapart from London pride or black
stuff like naturally remedy thishorrible gnawing feeling
(13:56):
hollowing feeling
Unknown (13:57):
I was I was, I was so I
was on the edge of my I was on
the edge of my seat. I don'twatch as much football as I used
to. But like I've obviously beenfollowing England and stuff
during the World Cup. Iliterally was on the edge of my
seat when rush would have thatfree kick right in the end. And
I was like, I was like sittingthat I was like, if this goes
in, this guy is going to be likea national treasure like a hero.
(14:21):
And I was just like, France wasso good. France was so good in
the first half. Like I wasliterally like this could be an
absolute walk moment. So when Iwas actually I was actually
watching it with my mum. I waslike listen, man, that was
actually closer than I thoughtit was going to be. I just wish
that he kind of got that andjust smashed that straight down
the middle and just got in. Butyeah, I think I think everyone
(14:42):
in the UK was was practisingstoicism was, you know, to be
honest, and
PB (14:47):
that's why the Google trend
went up it's not 20 years. So
last 20 Day
Unknown (14:54):
stoicism
PB (14:57):
let's talk about the
designs. Please got the He
designs inspired by quotes aswell by the some of the
philosophies that you'vementioned. And what's the
process from taking a quote, andthen turning it into a piece of
jewellery?
Unknown (15:11):
Yeah, so it's I mean,
we we definitely didn't make our
lives easy to be honest withyou, Peter, we, I mean, if you
go on online, this was somesomething else that I kind of
researched for anyone, foranyone who's ever looked up
stored jewellery or sources andrelated jewellery, you go online
and you see things with skullson them, Memento Mori, you know,
(15:31):
Fatty, like all of these things,which are just super direct. And
to be honest with you, Peter,like, you know, everyone's
entitled to their opinion, butthey don't look very elegant.
They're quite ugly, right? Like,who wants to walk down the
street with a, you know, a skullnecklace on right? So what I was
kind of looking at was rocket,we've got these, you know,
Memento Mori, we've got allthese like incredible lessons
and philosophies from stoicism.
How can we communicate them orsymbolise them in a design,
(15:57):
which is more abstract and morepalatable, right, like something
with something which is moreelegant. So the entire process
is ultimately we look at thecode. First we look at what the
actual quote is saying, what'sthe message behind it, then we
look at how we can communicatethat with chips. So for example,
we've got eight pieces in ourcollection right now. And so you
get you get them in 14 karatgold or silver. And that's a
(16:21):
clarion necklace, the one thatI'm actually wearing right now.
So for example, that might missthere. And the Clarion necklace,
is a symbol of clarity andfortitude. So if you look at the
actual design closer, you cansee that the the inner the inner
circle is completely clear. It'scompletely clear. And that
symbolises the clarity of mindthat, you know, that Marcus
(16:41):
Aurelius that's Seneca won'tever do this talk about, you
know, to stay composed, and tostay centred. And then the sort
of the, the jaggedy outer ringsymbolises fortitude, and the
the fact that when you know,when shit gets really tough
rain, you need to stay composed.
And you need to keep thatclarity of mind to make sure
(17:04):
that your judgement isn'tclouded to make sure what that
external events, things outsideof your control, don't start to
cloud your judgement and impactyour performance as a person,
right, because that's whenthings really start, you know,
going downhill. So that'sultimately I mean, we we did 460
designs, for the Eclipse for theAPS and our collection 460. Most
of them, obviously, we, youknow, we've rejected some of
(17:26):
them, we continued on, buthonestly, peyote was just a
painstaking case of just reallygritting our teeth to say,
right. Okay. Does thisrepresent, respectfully? The
does it represent the code thatwe're trying to communicate?
Does it does it does it do itjustice? And, and that was kind
of the main driver behind it,that the designer who we
(17:47):
partnered with his work withsome incredible brands, like
when he was telling me, youknow, who's worked with I was
like, why are you working withus, like, we're literally like a
start and why you work with us,but he just loves stoicism. He
just loves money person. So wewere, you know, we, you know, he
he's been a part of the team nowfor, you know, pretty much the
entire process. And thankfully,he stuck with me and didn't get
(18:10):
sick of me and tell me thebooger off after you know, after
it, you know, 25 revisions, youknow, she said design, which I'm
sure was a little bitfrustrating.
PB (18:20):
Yeah. And so you mentioned
you also had like a database, or
like an audience that was builtup before you did the
Crowdfunder? Do you give peoplethe options of which designs,
you want to choose? Do you kindof do some self marketing with
the people that you've alreadygot a new reached out to that
you engage with before? And didthey have any sway in your
(18:42):
decisions?
Unknown (18:44):
Yeah, so yeah, that's
that that was actually that was
actually, that's really goodquestion. So, and it was really
important that we actuallystarted to listen to our
customers like super, superearly on. The reason being is,
you know, for example, thestones that are so the diamonds
that are in some of the designs,we needed to know how many we
(19:05):
need, if we were going to do aKickstarter, you know, like, if
we, you know, if we didn't haveenough stones, then we couldn't
make the majority of the piecesthat are actually in the
collection. So we we reached outto all of our customers and
said, Listen, like, which piecesdo you do resonate most with?
And we created this entiredatabase on, you know, which
(19:25):
pieces were more popular, whichpieces were less popular. And
ultimately, we arranged thematerials and the entire quote
that we needed from the supplierto make sure that we had enough
for the most popular pieces andthen obviously go from there. So
yeah, it was it. I mean, we'restill learning, we're still
understanding, you know, who ourtarget audience really is, you
(19:45):
know, how we can serve thembetter. That's the most
important thing we need to besuper customer centric. But, um,
but ultimately, it's a learningprocess. We're still a super
young company. We're just tryingour best just to make an
incredible product. Andultimately, and you know, I've
worked with over three 1000brands over the last eight
years, I've been a planningconsultant working with startups
all over the world. And thereality is, no matter how good
(20:08):
your marketing is, no matterwhat you know what else you do,
product always wins. It's alwaysabout product if your product or
winner, then that's the mostimportant thing. So I'm glad
that we focus a lot of ourenergy on there.
PB (20:19):
Awesome. Well, great talking
to you, Scott, thanks for
walking us through the brand.
People can obviously still geton board with the Kickstarter
campaign. I think head over tothe website and mitten
scott.co.uk I want to sayno.com.com Emmerton, e m e t o
n. Scott iot.com. And we'll putall the links over in the show
(20:42):
notes at menswear style. Soanything lined up for 2023 After
you get back from Thailand,
Unknown (20:52):
I think it's just going
to be a case of well, we're
actually developing two otherproducts now. One that I can't
tell you too much about but thethe other one is essentially
like a productivity system whichbasically brings together the
quotations from stoic philosophyand technology together to
ultimately adapt to the person'sas they actually grow. So it's
not just a product ofproductivity system that stays
stagnant. It grows with you sosuper excited about that, but
(21:15):
yeah, that's gonna be that'snext year. I want to just focus
on getting this Kickstarter outthe way and get a little bit of
sleep in between nice
PB (21:28):
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