The Build #43: Found

Entrepreneurial inspiration can be found anywhere. Brothers Cody and Colton Tapoler found their inspiration at one of the happiest places on earth — Disney World. Combining Cody’s creative skills and Colton’s operational expertise, the brothers have created park-related merchandise that is more in line with their sensibilities and turned their love of pop culture and theme parks into a thriving fashion and lifestyle brand.

The Lost Bros is a fast-growing company and they aren’t slowing down anytime soon. From music and trip planning to their goal of partnering with Disney itself, there isn’t an end in sight to the success that these entrepreneurs have found. It’s the story of The Lost Bros on The Build.

More about today’s guest:

• The Lost Bros
• LostBrosTweets on Twitter
• thelostbros on Instagram
• thelostbros on YouTube

Key Takeaways

[1:34] Introducing the passion that evolved into a full-blown lifestyle business.
[6:09] Keeping ahead of the consumer demand for all things Disney.
[9:50] Leveraging the urgency that comes with carrying limited-quantity merchandise.
[11:53] Growing the Lost Boys team while honoring their core values.
[14:43] The creative process that turns concepts into marketable designs.
[19:07] Interacting with fans and keeping on good terms with the parks.
[22:40] Scaling to The Lost Bros means growing without an upper ceiling and not burning out.
[26:18] Must-see Disney attractions in 2019.
[28:55] Brothers building a business versus building a brand.

Transcript

Announcer (00:01):
From 2820 Radio in Philadelphia, it's The Build. Conversations with entrepreneurs and innovators about their dreams, their triumphs, and their challenges.

Joe Taylor Jr. (00:14):
Found. Some entrepreneurs invest tons of research into the concepts for their businesses. Others find inspiration along the way, constructing the kinds of companies that support their vision even when that vision is a little more improvisational. That's the case for Cody and Colton Tapolar. Cody spent years on the road as a musician and a tour manager, while Colton was working his way through Grad school. In their downtime, the brothers spent days off and whole vacations visiting their favorite theme parks in central Florida. Over time, they wondering how to get their hands on park related merchandise that was more in line with their sensibilities than what they saw at the usual souvenir stands, so they decided to make their own. And with Cody's creative skills and Colton's operational expertise, they've turned their love for pop culture and theme parks into a thriving fashion and lifestyle brand with tens of thousands of raving fans. It's the story of the Lost Bros coming up next on The Build.

Announcer (01:16):
The Build is made possible with support from 2820 Press providing business consulting and content strategy services to customer obsessed companies nationwide. More information at 2820press.com.

Joe Taylor Jr. (01:33):
It's The Build, I'm Joe Taylor Jr. Joined today all the way from Florida by the Lost Bros, Cody and Colton Tapolar. Thanks guys for joining us today.

Colton Tapoler (01:42):
Absolutely. Happy to be here.

Cody Tapoler (01:43):
Thanks for having us.

Joe Taylor Jr. (01:44):
Where abouts are you in Florida today?

Cody Tapoler (01:48):
So we live in different parts of Florida, kind of. I'm in a town called Windermere, in Orlando. Basically right behind all the disney parks.

Colton Tapoler (01:58):
And I am much further south and actually our hometown in Wellington, Florida. It's in the Palm Beach area.

Joe Taylor Jr. (02:07):
And one of the things we talk about with entrepreneurs on the show is, there's usually a couple different vectors that people approach to building their business. Sometimes folks will identify something that they think is going to make a good business. Sometimes they stumble upon it. And sometimes there's just a passion or a hobby that evolves into a business. And I feel like your story is the latter. So tell me a little bit about how the Lost Bros went from being, two guys going to theme parks and having a really good time into a business that has its fingers in a lot of different types of operations right now.

Cody Tapoler (02:47):
So it's a little bit of two of those. It definitely started as a hobby, which was always great when it kind of begins that way. But it was also a hobby that kind of started out of necessity. I always say this, we actually always thought we were going to be doing YouTube. We would just do YouTube. I had just stopped touring. I was doing my music and I was pretty much making all my money off merch doing that. And as soon as we started figuring this out, we knew a big part of it would be like, what are we going to wear? And, you know, we always wanted to be like really fashion forward. And there was just really nothing that was serving what we, what we needed and what we wanted. So we decided to make our own stuff. Then kind of right away, right off the bat, we knew that would be a great thing to sell. A lot of other people would like it. So we kind of took it and ran with it almost right as soon as we started. We had a really great response. It was easy to touch on Instagram and Facebook and we're just rolling from there.

Joe Taylor Jr. (03:59):
So for folks who are listening who aren't familiar with your brand, tell us a little bit about what you make, what you sell, and a little bit about what you've been posting up on Instagram.

Cody Tapoler (04:09):
Yeah. So we're a full lifestyle brand. We're not bound to just a store. We never wanted to be that way. We sell theme park inspired apparel. The kind of mean pushing the fashion forward edge. So it's all sorts of apparel. Eventually we got into music, which was really funny. I said I wanted to be the first clothing brand to release music. And now we also host live events, some that are tied to the music. Our event today that we just posted a sold out in, like, in 30 minutes. We're actually doing a tattoo pop up shop, which are a bunch of custom flash sheets made by a tattoo shop that are all kind of related to the merch. And we sold all of those out. We pop up in restaurants and so custom limited edition, you know, apparel. We're also on YouTube and we do a lot of that. We have a lot more of that coming next year.

Colton Tapoler (05:11):
So on instagram we obviously talk about our products, but we also try to relay information about what's going on in the parks in Orlando to our audience. So you'll always catch Cody reviewing new food in the parks, we'll cover a hotels and resorts. Just trying to keep everybody up to date on the new things happening in the parks. And then also just Cody and my favorite things to do around Orlando and the Disney area.

Joe Taylor Jr. (05:36):
So approaching this as, it's a little bit of a hybrid of content marketing and journalism because you're putting a lot of information out to an audience that I am accustomed to, how it gets inside the theme parks because I lived in Orlando for a stretch. But members of my family have worked at Walt Disney World for going on 22, 23 years. So I've not been at the parks as often as you all have, but I do know my way around the kingdom more than the average person. The audience for this stuff is ravenous. So how do you keep ahead of the demand that folks have for new, fresh information, but also all of the other bloggers and journalists that are attempting to cover the same things like new restaurant openings and new ride attraction events.

Cody Tapoler (06:35):
It kind of ties in with how we knew we needed to market the brand and a lot of that has to do with people wanting to hear the information coming from us and our perspective on it. Which is like the really unique thing that we have, and what we knew what would drive us ahead of all the competition. Not necessarily ahead of it, but what would put us in our own circle was not being just a store and just a blog. We're two people that you can connect with and you can meet us anytime and you can DM us and we'll help you plan your vacation, whatever you need. And pushing that, and being the ones to always model the shirts and explaining where the ideas come from kind of give us like a really cool ethos that not a lot of businesses have or can even access, kind of, in any industry. We love to be the first people that go see things, but our success doesn't rely on that. It relies on people trusting our voices and people wanting to hear what, you know, how we see it. You know, people identifying with us and how we do things and them trusting that what we say about it or how we feel about, we're relaying it in a way you know that they can see a clear version of than just an article online or whatever.

Joe Taylor Jr. (08:05):
How far out do you have to plan your editorial calendar, given that you've got a lot to coordinate in terms of visuals and shoots and planning. Is is it fairly organic or do you know a certain amount of time in advance what beach you need to cover?

Cody Tapoler (08:25):
Colton, do you want to do that?

Colton Tapoler (08:26):
So we try to keep it as organic as possible. Cody and I talk almost everyday about content that's going to be coming up that we want to make sure that we're covering. As far as like tee shirt designs and the store itself, we definitely plan months and months in advance. As far as the editorial calendar is concerned, and the social media calendar are concerned ,we definitely keep that as organic as we are able to just to keep the content as relevant to that week as possible. Cody, does that sound about right to you?

Cody Tapoler (08:51):
Yeah, it's super living and breathing. I mean that was perfect. The store, we're three or four months out and even that we have to be able to maneuver as things happen. Like, superhero movie A were to be announced tomorrow, we may hustle something out really quickly to kind of ride the wave with them. But as far as the store goes, that's really usually months and months out. Photo shoots, you know, it's essential for us to be able to plan marketing and things like that out really far. But when it comes to the park and news and things like that, we have a calendar full of anniversaries and release dates and things like that. But so many things just happen. You know, new food isn't announced a month out. New food items happen, you only hear about it a week ahead so we have to be able to roll with it. Some restaurants, like big deals, we can plan ahead, but mostly me and Colton. Yeah, we chat every day. We send each other articles everyday on what's happening, what's coming out tomorrow, and then it's just okay, who can go get it.

Joe Taylor Jr. (09:50):
Now one thing folks have told me about you guys in your brand, there's a little urgency that you're able to drive because the batches of merchandise that you create have a tendency to sell out. So tell me a little bit about how you're able to leverage that sense of urgency and how that factors into the planning for how much inventory you're carrying and how much you have to create.

Cody Tapoler (10:13):
So a lot of that stuff started really just out of what we were able to invest. We ended up carrying that on for a while, having that excitement of like, everyone knows Monday at 10:00 we're adopting new stuff. So that's when we see insane traffic on the website. And a lot of that I look from all the great, like johnny cupcakes. Like all the people who have like iconize that kind of shopping, and sneakers and things like that. It was a really good way to build the brand and the excitement. And we still have pieces like that every week that drop. But I obviously find it frustrating. Like yesterday, I was in the parks trying to get the Miles Morales magic band and it sold out in like a couple of hours so I missed it. And I tried to get a pair of sneakers the other day and those sold out really quick. I was in a lottery and I couldn't get them. So like I understand that frustration too. So the goal the last six months has been trying to strike that balance of guests. We can have little boutique things that sell out right away like our event today. We knew that would happen because they can only tattoo so many people in a day. But we do have things that we try to not do that because there's a lot of people who don't shop that way and we don't want to alienate them either. So just like everything else we do, it's kind of just monitoring, you know, the pulse and trying to accommodate to that every week. Literally it's so many discussions on how are we going to make sure enough people get it. You know, some things we do want to be limited, which are those pieces going to be and some things we know we want to have for six months. Which are those going to be.

Joe Taylor Jr. (11:54):
Tell me a little bit about the support team or the support system that you're building for yourselves. Are you still lumping out a lot of the back office work yourselves or have you grown a team to help with that?

Colton Tapoler (12:06):
We've absolutely grown a team. Cody and I could never do what we do by ourselves. Nothing with The Lost Bros happens in a vacuum anymore. So we have an office manager type role that Lex fills for us. She does a lot of customer service stuff. She does shipping, but she's also a part of the core team that sits in all of our design meetings. And our big staff meetings where we brainstorm the calendars and the products. We have a ton of freelance graphic designers that we work with to keep all of our designs fresh so that nothing ever looks the same. And then we have a freelance marketing director that we work with on all things social media marketing and major events and then a part time social media, kinda like, coordinator position that helps us across different social media platforms with some of the content that we're doing. So we've definitely grown from a team of two to a little Lost Bros family.

Joe Taylor Jr. (12:58):
Thinking about the freelancers in particular, how do you make sure that when you're bringing folks into that family, it sounds to me like you're always looking to keep things pretty fresh but how do you maintain that consistency and that connection to your core values when you're working with freelancers?

Cody Tapoler (13:19):
We have our core freelancers. We have three or four people that we've been working with for a while. So they understand our identity. But a lot of the core of it is when we're coming up with the designs. So me and Colton and Lex and Joe-- who are like the four of us who are together all the time. Our marketing director is the only one who's truly remote. We do all the design concepts and we concept them really, really far out in a really detailed that way. The graphics and the imagery varies designer to designer, but you always know that it's a Lost Bros shirt because it just sticks to the values of. I mean really the main question is would we wear it? That's kind the thing that we were built on. It was always like, would we wear this in the park and feel cool? And I think that's kind of where that full spectrum sense of sameness comes from while working with so many different styles of visual art.

Colton Tapoler (14:24):
I think something else that Cody and I really value, and this speaks to the freelance thing, is that we don't think of our freelancers as freelancers. They're as much a part of the Lost Bros team as anybody else is. And so we're in pretty frequent communication with all of our designers and so we get to build a real relationship with them that doesn't necessarily resembled the traditional freelance relationship.

Joe Taylor Jr. (14:43):
Tell me a little bit more about some of these brainstorming and planning meetings. Do those look like a-- I have a vision of kind of a hollywood writer's room where you're just kind of putting a bunch of ideas up on the wall, see what sticks-- but what's. What's that process look like to go from an idea that you're having this week into a physical product you're going to launch three months from now.

Cody Tapoler (15:04):
It's a lot like that, honestly. Sometimes it's smooth. Sometimes it's the four of us bashing our heads against my coffee table and it's always, everything's so different. It's like sometimes we have designs that like come through like a brain blast and it's like a text in the group chat that's like, oh my God, this idea just slapped me in the head, here's the full concept. And then we have other designs that we sit with for like three months, just like why can't we make this work like, you know, and eventually it does. So, you know, eventually when we have the whole concept, we decide what designer it's going to and they each have their own style. So we're always like really picking and choosing who's the best to deliver it. We get the file, we put it on the calendar and we figure out when it needs to release and then time that with the warehouse production time. Schedule it for a photo shoot and then usually two weeks later you see it on the site.

Joe Taylor Jr. (16:03):
Tell me about a design that your audience really embraced, something that took off even beyond your expectations.

Colton Tapoler (16:11):
I personally was, and I'm still, always shocked by the love that the Lost Bros family has for the waffle and bacon cross bone design. And we have truly put that design out in so many different variations, and the enthusiasm for it never shrinks. There are, I imagine that there are people that collect every variant of the waffle and cross bone design that we've put out. And so while I thought it was a great design initially, I am always, always, always surprised to see the continued enthusiasm for it years later. That was one of our, like Cody, first six or seven designs, maybe..

Cody Tapoler (16:45):
It was the fifth,

Colton Tapoler (16:46):
The fifth design, right. So, you know, it's years later now and that design is still hugely a fan favorite. It's probably the most requested tattoo that we sold this morning for the tattoo pop-up shop. Again, I am always surprised to see that one continued to carry the same sort of excitement that it did two years ago.

Joe Taylor Jr. (17:06):
And what's it like when you see, because it sounds like this wasn't expected, that this design started popping up as body art. What was your reaction when you heard these fans coming up with your designs on them?

Cody Tapoler (17:21):
That was pretty tight. I have a lot of tattoos, a lot. I have that tattooed. It was supposed to be a tattoo for me before it was t-shirt and the t-shirt just happened first. So that the first couple people that got it, no one ever said, hey, I'm doing this. We just ended up seeing it on the internet. Every time actually, it's kind of a freak out moment because like, that's crazy. Like it's not our thing, obviously. We didn't invent the waffle, we didn't invent bacon. But well like there's always like a note from the person that's like, you know, this is like a tribute to you guys. Like this is the coolest thing ever. And that's pretty shocking every time, I would say.

Colton Tapoler (18:04):
Even this morning I got a text message from somebody who purchased an appointment to get the waffle and crossbow bone tattoo and they texted me to say that they're getting it because they love the Lost Bros so much. And that to me is wild.

Joe Taylor Jr. (18:17):
Well, yeah, because I think what's fascinating to me about this is that you have taken elements that started out as another brand's intellectual property, but you've adapted them and built on them so that now you've got your fans who really see that as an expression of being a part of your family. And for lisTeners who may not have a clear visual of this, this is a stylized rendition of the Mickey Mouse head shaped waffle that you would get for breakfast at Chef Mickey's and it's a little cross bone bacon underneath, which kind of speaks to a little bit of the soap culture of folks that have been on property enough to have had that breakfast, a lot. So walk me through the experience when you get together with a group of your fans. How's that grown and evolved from when you started to now and how much of that interaction do you think you're going to be able to maintain or grow over time?

Cody Tapoler (19:27):
I think we like to say that it's always kind of been same. Like, we've always kind of put it out there that we're just two guys and there's not a whole lot of specialness about it. We like what we do because the pictures and all that stuff, it's stuff that you could go to yourself. It's not that you could be, you know, a Lost Bro yourself, but we're very accessible. When we meet people in the parks, it happens a lot. It's kinda just like any normal social situation. We kind of just say, hey you're on vacation, like what's your deal? I don't know, I just, I think we just treat everyone like they're the same stranger and it's just like who are you and what are you doing? And I like to think it will kind of always just be that way. Even when we do like our big events and we're trying to meet four or 500 people at a time. It's always kind of just like, you know, you want to go get a drink or what do you want to do? I dunno, just as normal as possible I think without any sort of pedestal or anything like that. Just really friendly and we're just two dudes that are down to talk to or have a beer with anybody.

Joe Taylor Jr. (20:48):
Have you gotten any reaction from folks at some of the big brands? Have folks from Disney or Universal given you any kind of, hey, what's going on kind of notes?

Cody Tapoler (21:04):
No, we've never directly talked to anyone. Without saying too much, I would say we're in pretty good standing with everyone and I think everyone likes us. I don't think it's any secret to any of them that eventually the goal is real licensing and being able to do all of this stuff for real and be able to start working with bigger companies like that. But like we're still like in such an infantiles stage of what we do. I think we have a window to, to kind of operate the way we're operating now, but I would say a short term goal is legitimize quickly.

Joe Taylor Jr. (21:48):
And along those lines, our research team noted that for the first time recently, some of your product was actually available for sale at Disney Springs. Is that right?

Cody Tapoler (21:58):
I wasn't like products that we had previously released. We had a partnership with Basin, a bath products store that is in Disney Springs. And so we collaborated with them on a Lost Bros mini collection for the holidays. So it wasn't necessarily that our existing products were on sale at Disney Springs. It was more so that we collaborated with Basin on products that they would normally be selling anyway in their store with a Lost Bros spin on it.

Cody Tapoler (22:23):
Really clever workaround of getting our faces where we want it to be, even though we can't be there right now. But it worked.

Joe Taylor Jr. (22:33):
Just creeping closer into the the staff area.

Cody Tapoler (22:38):
Yeah. We're just trying to get them to realize that this is happening.

Joe Taylor Jr. (22:42):
So given that you've built this brand, you've got a pretty steady stream of sales and you've now actually integrated your music back into the family, into the fold as well. How big does this get? What's your dream for the Lost Bros?

Cody Tapoler (22:59):
Our dream was... I mean this whole thing started because we demanded from the life that we will one day be on like, you know when you check into the hotel and there's a television and there was like a person hosting, 'oh here's like the fun things to do at Disney Springs' and then they're at Animal Kingdom showing you all that stuff. We were pretty much in the beginning like okay, that's going to be us. Like no really ifs, ands, or buts about it. So I mean really, I would say, operating everything we're doing now, just on the biggest scale we can get it. Working officially with these companies is really the dream, not just on the merchandise side but on the personality side. That was just like always the dream. And I think, you know, that's kinda the end goal for the personality side of it. And the music is another way to work around because, we have all those licenses and we pay out all the royalties on that.

Cody Tapoler (24:04):
So that was one thing that was like, well if they won't let us on their tv's like at least we can pitch music or something. For the shop it's obviously to be a dominator, kind of, in that sector of licensed merchandise. To be the be in Macy's, be in Box Lunch, be in Hot Topic. I don't know. I don't think we ever really put a ceiling on it because as things happen we realized more and more, like the Basin thing happened at Disney Springs and it's like any weird thing we want to do, we always find a way to do it. So I would kinda just see where it goes and when we feel like we've hit that main goal, just think of something bigger than that and make it happen.

Colton Tapoler (24:50):
Kind of like what Cody said, I think that we've learned not to put a ceiling on it because the Lost Bros has grown in ways that I don't even think Cody and I would have ever imagined and if we'd put a ceiling on it, I don't know that it would have happened that way. And we love everything that we get to do and we love when new opportunities present themselves, things that we haven't even dreamt of before. So there, I don't know that there really is a limit on where this goes. I think Cody and I just figure it out day by day.

Joe Taylor Jr. (25:13):
So given that growth and given that trajectory, what are you guys doing to make sure that you don't burn out?

Cody Tapoler (25:20):
Nothing. Embracing the fact that that happens every so often. Take a day off, take two days off and just, I don't know. We love what we do. So, I mean, there's nothing really too taxing other than, you know, like time I guess. But you know, I get to go to the parks and talk about food and eat whatever I want all the time. So..

Joe Taylor Jr. (25:46):
And that's not necessarily something that one needs to decompress from.

Cody Tapoler (25:50):
Yeah, I mean sometimes my head gets really cluttered. I probably have the worst of it out of anyone. Colton knows, there are some days where I go crazy because I just sometimes don't balance out like the rest of my life the right way. But...

Colton Tapoler (26:04):
Self care is definitely one of Cody's, or should be one of, Cody's New Year's resolutions.

Cody Tapoler (26:09):
I just love it and I just want it to be so big. So I'm like, not unwilling to kind of die doing what we're doing. So...

Joe Taylor Jr. (26:21):
So shifting gears and putting it onto a positive note, as this goes out at the beginning of 2019, of course the theme parks are always trying to innovate and outdo each other. What are the attractions that you think folks really have to see when they get down to Orlando?

Colton Tapoler (26:39):
If you've never been to disney before, let's say 2019 is your first trip to Disney. I would say that you have to hit all four parks. If the weather is suitable, I would say at least go to one of the waterparks, my preferences is Blizzard Beach. I think Cody's is probably Typhoon Lagoon. But it's Florida, so if the weather permits, I absolutely love Blizzard Beach and I think that's a must do if you're in Florida and the weather allows it. As far as in the traditional four parks, I would say that my must must, must do's for our first trip to Disney. Peter Pan's FlIght, I absolutely love. All of the mountains, Big Thunder, Space and Splash Mountain. It's like a childhood memory for me with my dad, so I always tell people about Splash Mountain. And then everythIng Epcot. I love the World Showcase. So I think that if you're gonna do Disney, it's not a complete trip without at least one tour of the whole World Showcase.

Cody Tapoler (27:27):
I guess I'm opposite. I'm like magic, hotels, and food. So as far as the parks go, I'm very much into like the things that you can feel the presence of the ghost of all Disney. So like I love Tiki Room, I love Carousel of Progress. Kind of anything like that was like at the world fair I think is amazing. Then when we do our vacations, we vacation to Disney World still, which is important part of enjoying this forever is still going on vacation there. I like to take it really slow, like when we go do my birthday trip, we tried to do as little as possible. I think the resorts are like so, so, so immersive and at times equally as cool as the parks. I like the Wilderness Lodge and the cabins are just so amazing to just experience and kind of be out of Disney World, but still in that crazy, magical scenario. Same thing, we love the Beach Club and the Boardwalk both have such cool feels and they're just, it's just so immersive. And I know the food too is another thing while disney world, like in the last 12 months is like really up their kitchen game and there's so many cool things to eat and drink. So that's another thing that I'm always pushing on Instagram, go enjoy all that stuff too.

Joe Taylor Jr. (28:59):
What does it mean for the two of you to be able to build this brand together as brothers?

Colton Tapoler (29:05):
It's a gift and a curse.

Cody Tapoler (29:08):
Yeah. It's pretty tight. I think it's really cool because, I don't want to say it's low pressure but it's definitely something that if we think about what we're arguing about, it's like such a cool thing to be arguing about because it is such a unique situation to have this. So just to be brothers and business partners is one thing, but like the nature of what we do is just so cool. But I mean yeah, I feel like the reason that we are able work so well together is because we are consistently working around something that we do love and that we've loved doing together for so long.

Colton Tapoler (29:50):
I absolutely agree. I mean, working with Cody is a lot of fun. We challenge each other in very important ways, especially from a business perspective. Cody is definitely the creative and I am far more logical as far as the points of reference that we operate from. And so it's always cool to be challenged creatively by Cody and it's always fun to work through different ideas and different logistical things with Cody because we come at it from such different perspectives. And, at the end of the day, he's my brother which is also a very unique and cool thing to get to be able to do with somebody who I've known his entire life.

Joe Taylor Jr. (30:21):
And I want to dive in a little bit more about how you see the distinction between building a business and building a brand. How do you transcend from just being a business into being a brand that really takes up the space in the hearts and minds of your fans?

Colton Tapoler (30:42):
This is Cody's favorite conversation.

Cody Tapoler (30:44):
Yeah, I think a lot. I mean, I don't know. I never believed in, like, just doing something.. I guess I learned a lot from music. I never just went on stage and played six songs. Like there was always some sort of show that accompanied it, like The Monkeys. We would just tell this whole story basically. And I think that's an important thing for anyone to do, is to be able to deliver. I guess the way it translates into the Lost Bros is we're always trying to tell a story and we're always trying to give a world to immerse yourself in. I think from a business point of view, it's so important to anyone could make shirts. It's another thing to be able to build a story and a world around the shirts to kind of give that third dimension that they can latch onto. You know, you could buy a shirt or you could buy into a memory, which is kind of what we do I guess. And what we try to do. We had this one shirt, this Mushu's Chinese Takeout shirt. It was like one of the first things we did and we made a video ad for what the restaurant would have made, I guess. It was like a commercial for a restaurant that didn't exist. And then all the shirts shift in chinese takeout boxes and came with chopsticks and delivering that experience is just so much more memorable and has such a greater chance of connecting with someone than if we were just like releasing a shirt with no story. And I feel like, it doesn't make sense to do it the other way because I feel like you're only operating at like 25 percent if you're just making something and releasing it. That's kinda like I think what you see happening in music a lot now with artists who do like full on pop up shops in the cities, they're stopping in. The 1975 I love because visuals are such an important part of the album. And then when you go to their pop up stores, you feel like you're inside the album and each song has its own room and you kind of get to live that. You kind of carry that forever and it's kind of applying those same laws and principles to anything, I feel like we'll always make the art and the product so much greater. And there's so few people who understand that and who execute that, that the few that actually do just have such a greater chance of success at any touch point by doing that.

Joe Taylor Jr. (33:31):
I think that's a great way to frame that up. Cody, Colton of the Lost Bros, thank you so much for spending time with us this week on The Build.

Cody Tapoler (33:38):
Dude, thanks for having us.

Colton Tapoler (33:38):
Yeah. Thanks for having us.

Cody Tapoler (33:40):
I love to talk. I could talk forever.

Joe Taylor Jr. (33:44):
Thanks again for listening to this episode of The Build. Our talent coordinator is Nicole Hubbard. Our production team for this episode included Leah Gruber, Amelia Lohmann and April Smith. Podfly Productions manages our post production. Our theme music is performed by Arrows and Sound. Our director of operations is Katie Cohen Zahniser, and our executive producer is Lori Taylor. I'm Joe Taylor Jr.

Announcer (34:08):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the build.