 Hi and welcome to Schools Pustle. I'm Sarah and you can find me on Instagram at sarahfunky. And I'm Maxim, you can find me online at maximk. Today we're chatting with Brett Conti, founder of Fortune New York, a clothing and skate company that's grown as a brand to include more than 40 stores throughout eight different countries. In their first year, a percentage of their annual proceeds went to Toys for Tots. They've raised money for the homeless in New York City and they're always looking for ways to give back to their community. Brett, welcome to the show. Thank you guys so much for having me. I'm happy to do this and it keeps me busy while I'm here in my apartment. I hear you, right? We're all looking for something to do. So that's why I wanted to talk to you. You know, like we've been friends for a while. We're both YouTubers. We're both entrepreneurs. I'd love to hear more about Fortune New York. I actually don't really know much about it. I know a lot about your YouTube channel though. So could you tell us a little bit about Fortune New York? Yeah, you know, I kind of live two dual lives where I have my YouTube career and everything with social media and then also my skateboard and clothing company. And I do intertwine them a bit where I'll sometimes talk about it on my YouTube channel and actually do plan to do more of that in the near future. But the company does take up so much of my daily time like all morning today was based around the company. And yeah, I mean, we make skateboards, we make clothing as far as like socks, jackets, sweaters, t-shirts, hats, all that stuff we sell online. And then also like small mom and pop shops, even zoomies, which is a huge retailer here in America. Yeah, I can see a few of your skateboards behind you actually. So beautiful. Thank you. Thank you. They make for good decor. Yeah. And also, you have a little skateboard on the side, which that one, you don't sell that though, right? That's like a lamp or something? Yeah, so it's a shelf and also a lamp where I can plug this in and I turn these into light bulbs. That is so cool. It's just from the decor of your room. You can tell you live and breathe that skater lifestyle. I love that so much about you. Hey, you know, a skateboard makes a good, it makes a great canvas too. So it's good to hang up art pieces. So let's talk about, let's go back in time, right? You kind of came up with this concept in college, I believe, and now it's developed into something much, much more. So what was your idea? Yeah, I mean, I've always been very entrepreneurial. I always wanted to be my own boss, like when my people would ask me as a little kid, like elementary school, like what I wanted to be when I was older. I wasn't even being a wise ass, even though I was one. I would say I want to be a professional brexit. I'm like, I'm like, oh wow. And now I can go back to those teachers, tell them what I do. And that's exactly what I would describe my career. So yes, I have the YouTube channel where I, you know, make YouTube videos about my life, my travels, even my business. But the clothing did start when I was in college. I got hurt skateboarding and I couldn't even walk a tour of ligament in my ankle. What happened? I just, honestly, you get hurt on the easiest things because you're not thinking, you're not careful. If you're doing like a crazy gnarly trick, you know, you're so precise and thinking through. But I was just like dorking around having fun with a friend of skateboarding around New York and then just like messed up on something and my ankle just kind of went like that. And I was like telling myself like, mind over matter, I can still skateboard like that didn't hurt that much. And then I skated on it for a couple more days. And then it just like two days later, it blew up. It was like purple, pink, huge. And at that moment, you had been planning on pursuing skating as a career, right? So was this really devastating to you? How did you feel when you had that happen? So yeah, this was like, when it happened, I was in my prime, like had sponsors from like Red Bull, Nike, like huge brands. Yeah, I was doing contests all throughout the country, like missing school all the time to compete and also film video parts. And that's amazing, Brad. Do you have videos of you skating and doing these incredible tricks? Like you did the whole, the whole thing. I did Grand Pipe Street all. So yeah, if you type in Brett Conti skateboarding on YouTube, you can get a sneak peek of what I used to do. I've seen some of your skating and it's very impressive, but I didn't know you were at Red Bull level, like with that type of sponsorship. Yeah. Yeah. So it was like pretty serious. And then when I got hurt, I didn't know how severe that hurt, that injury was going to be like, I've never broken a bone, not done wood. So I've never like been out of commission for a long period of time. And this was the first time it happened. And unfortunately it was a long time, like it was like six months before I could even start really skateboarding again. And I think it's just in me to be productive and always like doing something. So I went to school for business and I was probably the only kid in my business school with a sewing machine. And I would, I was so bored. So I was like, all right, like I guess I'm going to like learn to sew because I had all this fabric and I was always intrigued by making different clothing and making it myself. So I started just making like pocket t-shirts. I was making hats from scratch. I was just making anything I could. And how did you learn to sew? Most people don't just know how to sew. I mean, I can't sew with a single item for you of that. I've always done that. Even when I was like in high school, I like to wear like slimmer pants and I would custom hem my pants to like fit exactly how I want. Like always so intrigued by like having my clothes fit exactly how I wanted. So I knew sewing machine and also my grandfather was president of a textile company. So he always like told me about fabrics and like, which ones are good, which ones were garbage and just like how patterns worked and pattern. Wow. Did he teach you to sew? It was my grandma. He told me he knew how to sew and his father was like, he was like the seamstress to like this, like he was a tailor to the stars. He made wedding dresses. He made so many amazing things when he came over from Italy. So it's always like been in my blood, I guess, to get into that. Yeah, sounds like it. And so you came up with this concept of fortune New York, started making t-shirts, beanies, all different types of items. At first it wasn't a brand. At first it was just I'm making this stuff and then I sold it. Like it was just. Where did you start selling first? Just the kids on my college campus and like friends through skateboarding. Was it all word of mouth or did you have a website at this point? I had a website and then also just word of mouth on campus. And then when I was like, all right, I should turn this into a brand. Like I'm starting to make some money with it, even though that wasn't even like my goal at first. And then I remember I was riding the subway from my college dorm room, like downtown. And it was during the winter and there were just so many homeless individuals on the subway. Yeah. It like sparked this idea. I was like, wait, what happens if I can like sell these clothes I'm making and give back to these people and that's where fortune came from. Yeah. Tell me a little bit about the name fortune because there's the really interesting story associated with that. Yeah. That's exactly how it happened. Just wanting to get back to the less fortunate. And also I just thought it was a cool name too. Like I feel like it. Yeah. How did it feel when you fulfilled that first order? The first order, I guess I made it myself. So it was like, okay, this is cool. I have to now go and spend an hour to sew this item. They're like selling it for 20 bucks. But it was definitely satisfying and I just really saw like the future. And I think even the first time we sent in order to Zoomies, I shipped it out of my mom's garage by myself. And I remember like, I think I tiered because they give you a deadline on when you can ship it. And it was the night before like the day I had and I was not going to get it the next day. And I had to email them saying like, hey, I'm sorry, I need like a couple more days to fulfill this order. Because I had to put the tags on like they're like they send you the price tags pretty much then you have to put them on yourself. You went and put them on all individually. I was even sewing on like neck labels. So like just like exactly how I wanted it. But then after that I figured out to have it just all manufactured manually done with like, you know, we ship thousands of skews. And now it's not you working in your mom's garage. Exactly. Now it can be in Olly and still fulfill thousands of orders. So. So you didn't just stay with fortune clothing though, you transitioned to a second company, which is Fortune Skate. And your business partner is Manny Santiago, who is a big time professional skater. So tell us about that whole thing. How did you transition from a clothing brand to a skating brand and then connect with Manny? Yeah. So like I said, I was huge into skateboarding, doing all these contests. This was like 10 years ago now, like high school, I started doing them. And a lot of the people I competed with ended up becoming huge pros. And one of them being Manny Santiago. So I've known him since he was technically an amateur. And we just always clicked. He's very entrepreneurial. He's very driven, very into like health and just like building stuff and has a few other companies. So we were hanging out in New York a couple of days in a row and he just like spit it out the idea just saying, Hey, we should start fortune skateboards. And I was like, yeah, that'd be cool. Next day we meet up again. And he's like, Hey, I got like these board graphic ideas. I'm like, wait, you're serious. Like he is, is where like if he throws out an idea, he's going to follow up on it. So the next day you already had ideas for graphics. Did he design them or did he connect with someone? Yeah, he also does design work as well. So he designed them himself. Even a lot of like his pro models, he wants to still design his own pro models. Let's talk about your whole second life, your whole YouTuber social media presence. Now as a YouTuber myself, I know the power of YouTube and I know how much it can elevate a brand. How have you found that YouTube has impacted your life and maybe how has impacted fortune as well? Yeah, I mean, impact my life so much. And I definitely say for the better. I love YouTube so much. It's one of those things that like I would do even if I had to pay for it. But of course, I get paid to do it, which is very nice. Exactly. But as far as even building my own brand and getting to work with other brands or tourism boards or licensing footage that I've created, but then to even promote fortune through it. So even more recently, like when I don't maybe have a sponsor for a video I'm making, I will just shout out fortune and that will be the unofficial sponsor of the video and still able to make a good profit just in case the adsense from YouTube might not be great from that video. And I love the way you integrate fortune into your videos as well. It's not very salesy. It's so seamless. And it talks so much about your lifestyle. And it's really, it's like Brett and then Fortune are one. Yeah, that's what I'm trying to do more of in the future. And even create more content around it because when I first started the channel, it used to all be around just like me moving to New York in this tiny seven bedroom apartment in China town with random people trying to get my company to like become successful so I can make a living off of it. And then I kind of do the sacrifices you have to take, you know? Yeah. And I wanted to document that. And that's how the channel exactly started. If you go back to like my first videos, it was me just trying to ship fortune orders and grow it into more stores. And then now I kind of like, or in the middle, I kind of stopped doing that. I felt like I was too much of a salesman. And now people are like, we want more videos about fortune and being an entrepreneur and like, you know, everything you're doing on a day to day basis. So it's cool that people actually want to even see those types of videos. Speaking of telling your story though, you did have to make a lot of sacrifices to get to the points that you're at today. So can you talk a little bit about that? Yeah, I guess it was more I went to college and got a finance and marketing degree. I was president of the senior class and had a great GPA. And I feel like all my friends who I would hang out with were very smart and they were going to get their jobs. And when they would ask me what I'm going to do, I'm like, oh, I'm going to like try and like turn that little sewing business I started into like a legit company. And they're all like, okay, man, like, I'm going to be making a lot of money in finance. Have a fun time with your sewing hobby. And I also interned for Morgan Stanley and was potentially going to go work for them full time, which a couple of my friends ended up doing. And I steered away from that and went this direction. So I guess just there's definitely the opportunity cost of making good money. And then also like the first two years out of school, like, I wouldn't say I was broke, but I definitely didn't have much income. So I feel your pain. I'm so appreciative of those years and just like spending the value of like harder money. And I read in an interview that you did within the know, you led with this really interesting quote where you said, I didn't just want to be a robot. And that sounds kind of exactly like what you were just talking about. So can you explain what that means and how it pertains to your journey as an entrepreneur or with fortune clothing and fortune skate? Yeah, totally. Because when I was doing the internship, this was before the Wolf of Wall Street came out. And like a higher up guy came in like, I'm one of my first days and he was just like giving me the low down. And he told me he's like, you're going to make 500 phone calls a day and like, don't pick up your head until you do. And that's exactly what I had to do was just cold call every single day trying to set up seminars. So that just made me feel like I wasn't doing anything challenging. I wasn't doing anything to like push myself. I just felt like automated computers dialing a phone. And I don't think I've ever said this publicly, but I'm not going to lie. When I was doing that internship and like it was around lunchtime and I already made some phone calls, I would be on the computer at work and I was learning how to code websites, making the first ever fortune website. I did the same thing when I worked for Disney. Also, I didn't say this publicly, but I would do the same thing. I would do my work and then like every moment of like lunch, I would just go and try to start my brand. Yeah. Yeah, I feel like that advice is a common truth for entrepreneurs like hustling on the side to get your dream launched while, you know, going through the day to day grind. Yeah, I think that's just like the make or break point of like true entrepreneurs and who has the passion and drive to overcome that and become successful in it. So is there anything that you learned along the way that you wish you knew when you first started? I'm sure there are some things. I wish I understood, even though I did study finance cash flow better. I thought I ever had problems with like debt or anything, but one of the hardest things with starting fortune was kind of fulfill orders because we started selling to pretty big retailers kind of early on. Maybe after like two years of the business. That's great. Yeah. So like once I graduated school and was taking it more seriously, I was like, how am I going to, you know, take this to the next level and scale. And that was to get into more retailers. And once we started doing that was when I would have to pay pretty much 90 days before I got paid from the retailer for the products. And then like their terms of payments. So that was like the toughest part to like try and figure out because there would be like a two month period where I had like zero dollars and like the next month that would have a decent amount of money. But then like it would just happening. So then like I figured out like the best way to make sure that there was enough money in the bank account to run ads and do stuff like that. Yeah, that definitely is a learning process, especially when there's inventory involved. I get to think, I think my YouTube channel for that because then the YouTube channel started making money and then I didn't, I haven't, I'm barely, like there was a couple of years where I didn't take even like a penny out of fortune's account because I was like making money on YouTube. So it like really kind of saved it having that second source of like kind of consistent good income. So let's get back to fortune a little bit. What's next for them? What's next for your business? Yeah, I think incorporating it more in my videos and creating content around that, they're going to definitely be going like side by side and going together as far as not doing sponsored videos with like other brands but focusing on just being able to do it through fortune just because people do want to support their favorite creator. How has COVID-19 impacted fortune? Is it similar to how other businesses have been impacted? Yeah, I guess so. Like we deal with some big retailers that we sent stuff right before they all shut down and then they're definitely haven't paid yet. So luckily I don't think any of them are going out of business so hopefully it's all good. Are you doing anything to pivot to try and keep your brand relevant? Yeah, I mean we're doing stuff online and then like I've been doing like in like my past few videos have promoting it more in the videos and like the online sales have skyrocketed. You have been so amazing throughout this whole interview so I appreciate you coming on. Is there anything else that you would like to share before we go? Yeah, I think if you do want to be an entrepreneur in your own boss that I think anyone has the potential to do it but it's just if you have the willpower to do it and overcome some of those hardships. It is definitely a challenge making your dreams come true but I think you're a living example of making that happen Brett. So it's been such a joy having you on the show. Thank you for joining us and thank you everyone who's tuned in today. Now if you want to learn more about Brett and Fortune New York visit fortuneny.com and check out his YouTube channel at Brett Conti and that is all for this episode of School Apostle. 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