Los Angeles-based Richard Christiansen is the founder of global creative agency, Chandelier Creative, the Los Angeles bookstore, Owl Bureau and lifestyle brand, Flamingo Estate.
Los Angeles-based Richard Christiansen is the founder of global creative agency, Chandelier Creative, the Los Angeles bookstore, Owl Bureau and lifestyle brand, Flamingo Estate.
Christiansen, who grew up in rural Australia, had a thirst for art and entertainment which led him on endeavors and the creation of his design-led creative agency, Chandelier Creative. It was from his creative work on a roster of brands from Old Navy, Cartier, Quincy Jones, Adidas, Lane Crawford and Clavin Klein that he gained a love for creating.
After residing in New York for many years, Richard discovered a flamingo-pink house at the top of the hill in Los Angeles. The property became a hedonistic enclave, hidden by a lush orchard and dense garden. Spanning several acres and home to over 150 new botanical species, the Flamingo Estate brand originated to offer holistic lifestyle brand products, with a mindful and qualitative approach to a healthy and elevated way of life for the public, reminiscent of the unique enclave. Flamingo Estate offers a curated range of products for the body and mind, as well as fresh produce, flowers, candles and pantry goods all geared towards pleasure for one’s kitchen, bathroom and bedroom.
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[00:00:00] Richard: When you have a seven acre garden it is such a privilege, such a privilege to have. And so - working on that, getting my hands dirty, planting that stuff, planting all those trees. That really is just such therapy. For the first time in my life. With limited amount of spin, something honest actually started to work. This idea of life is too short to be frugal, and it's not necessarily about. Being wasteful or what, [00:00:30] having money. It's just like letting everything in as much as you can, whether that's sunshine or laughter.
[00:00:49] Jordan: Welcome to the Pre Fixe Podcast, a podcast where the new voices in the food and beverage world, share their stories and journeys in their own words. Show's produced edited by me, Jordan Haro in [00:01:00] Los Angeles, California.
Whoever said Thoreau's tonic of wildness only exists in far-flung forests had never experienced the Flamingo estate, several acre farm and former pornographic film studio nestled the top of hill in Northeast Los Angeles. It's current resident and proprietor. Richard Christiansen is also the founder of the internationally renowned advertising agency, chandelier creative, and has a Jay [00:01:30] Gatsby like mystique as an innovator in the advertising world.
Despite 20 years of global reaching success, burnout ensued. And thus began a quest for healing and self care. And the Flamingo Estate was born. Starting with the vegetables growing in his own backyard. Richard began making soaps, honey, shampoo, candles, olive oils, wine, sex tonics, chocolates, anything that brings pleasure and nourishment.
I first became a [00:02:00] subscriber to the Flamingo Estate's weekly CSA delivery boxes during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought some of Southern California's best organic produce delivered from the farm to my doorstep. There's a handmade fingerprint on everything Richard does like a weekly letter he takes immense pride in writing, along with suggested recipes to inspire you in the kitchen. If brand building is a skill, Richard is the Michael Jordan of it. Flamingo Estate has caught the attention of Brad Pitt, Billie Eilish, and Margot [00:02:30] Robbie yet each product they sell still feels as earnest and homespun as if it were from your favorite vendor at your local farmer's market. This sincerity prompts us to take a moment and ask ourselves what we as individuals require to heal ourselves and what we can do within our surroundings to achieve this healing. If you've never heard of Richard or his bookstore, Owl Collective, the following is a tremendous introduction to who he is, the wellspring of [00:03:00] creative energy, he possesses and overall a testament to the power of taking care of yourself. I think that's something we all need a little more of these days.
I want to apologize in advance due to an uptick in COVID 19 cases at the time of recording thisepisode was recorded remotely and audio quality is not the standard that we strive to present here at the show. With that out of the way. Let's listen in.[00:03:30]
[00:03:33] Richard: I grew up in outback Australia with my mom and dad and my brother and a. You know, what an amazing place to grow up. You know, we're a long way away from anyone. We didn't really have many friends except for my brother and I,really spent our childhoods, you know, building things, making things and living on this huge property. And I think that w was such a great education into creativity as well. My mom and I mentioned it cause my mum and dad, like most farmers [00:04:00] struggled. And one of the reasons they, um, you know, persevered was because they. Invited busloads of Japanese tourists to come and have an Australian experience at the farm or Chinese tourists. So we spent our childhoods just thinking of ways to entertain these, these tourists. So it was like, you know, sheep races or we'd tape cabbage patch dolls to the back of sheeps or, you know, honey, beekeeping and like a wandering Aboriginal tribe in a weird steam train. And so we sort of this little bit of a vaudeville sort of, [00:04:30] you know, fake it to make it view of saving the farm. And that was really just like my mom and dad just like thinking on their feet and thinking of how can we build stories around the property. I never went to ad school. I never went to creative school; I went to law school in London, miles away from the farm in Australia. When I was there, worked in bars, serving beers, like most Australians and. Someone who always used to come in, came in and said, "Hey, you know, Richard, you've got a good story for everyone. You're you always have a funny story. You're funny, [00:05:00] you remember everyone's names, you know how to deal with assholes. You should work in advertising." And so, um, that really was like my first entry into that. And I was 20 years old. It came so naturally to sort of just like riff off things. And, uh, so anyway, that, that literally like a turning point, it's such a lucky, such a lucky turning point.. Being swooped up from a, you know, a bar serving beer to work in advertising. And so that, um, kind of changed my direction. The other thing that happened, I went [00:05:30] to work at Benetton in Italy and, uh, they had at the time, a very controversial magazine called "Colors", which was started by Tibor Kalman and Oliviero Toscani who were, um, Oliviero was the photographer behind all of, you know, those controversial Benetton ad campaigns from the height of their success, you know, the AIDS one and the refugees and the, um, a lot of the racial stuff they did. So he, he really championed this idea of, um, kind of like biting off more than you can chew, but also just [00:06:00] that idea of just like real, you know, social media before social media, he was just trying to get a reaction from people and really, really rattled the cage. And so that sort of sent me down this, this, this new path of magazines. And, uh, I started a magazine in Sweden, actually, not long after that. And then that brought me to New York and then I was in America and then that sort of one thing led to another opened up my agency. Um, 16 years ago, Chandelier. We had been, I'd been working at TimeInc, uh, launching a magazine there and they had shut the magazine [00:06:30] down. You know, I really love the team that I built and that some of that team that I'd known from those very early days and, uh, I'll sell my apartment and use the money to match your salary. So if we can all come give me six months and we'll, we'll build an agency and we're just like truly no idea what we were doing. Just much like the other two things that happened earlier. Like the ones I just mentioned, you know, just found our way in, uh, hustled, you know, just like anyone that starts a business just like worked and worked and worked every weekend and worked every night until 11 [00:07:00] o'clock and just literally worked, worked myself into the bone, you know? And so really coming to Los Angeles was a solution to just being so overworked and so tired. And th you know, the, the trail end on two decades of just like non-stop hustling to and working like a dog.
I was here in Los Angeles on a shoot for the agency. And I think I had given a honey to everyone on the set which I normally had done. I had a property in long island where I would make honey and my mom [00:07:30] and dad are beekeepers sort of honey was a thing. And anyway, someone said, "oh, I hear you're a beekeeper. There's someone on my street who has a seven acre garden. And he's old. His partner of 65 years just died. Um, would you go and put some bees in for them?" And so I went and that's indeed what I did and came back next time to Los Angeles and did that. And. I met John who was living there had lived there since Highland park was essentially a huge goat farm [00:08:00] and walked around this crazy garden, this Narnia. It was so overgrown and so wild. And, um, I went onto Google Earth to discover that it had a swimming pool, which you couldn't even see cause it was so overgrown and this tiny house, which was sort of a tear down. And then just really spending years, getting to know John and walking in the garden and wasn't until many years later that I serendipitously bought the house and the property. Um, and I had no intention of moving to Los Angeles, but of course I did. And [00:08:30] it changed everything.
When my house was first built some of the studios were still in Highland Park. You know, it was, it was very much part of the Hollywood without being in Hollywood. And, um, as you know, the property used to be a porn studio for 50 years and, um, you know, uh, hundreds of thousands of porn films made there. And the porn's easy to joke about, and we often do, but the truth is the fact that people went there to make art and listen to music. [00:09:00] And so it became this hedonistic playground for a lot of people, that property and from what we've, we've heard and researched over the years, like true to form, like that Flamingo Estate in its first hayday um, really was a little bit of a hedonistic playground, um, up in the hills. Um, for all those people coming up from this area. The interesting thing about when I got there; I'm an Australian guy, uh, the architects were French, the landscape architect was French Moroccan. Um, we'd spent, um, years [00:09:30] traveling around the world that the architects and I on different projects and had gathered references from Morocco and from Japan and from India. And kind of assemble it all together. And anyway, someone once described the property as "Epcot Center.". I had said I came to Los Angeles, just absolutely exhausted. I also came to Los Angeles, like super lonely. I was looking to fall in love with someone. I really wanted that. I did fall in love with someone that kind of crumbled. And it really sent me down a path of [00:10:00] like real, like kind of like borderline depression. And I'd gone to see a therapist and she had said, "oh, you know, you should take an antidepressant." And I was like, "I'm not. God, I'm not doing that. That's so American," and not nothing against antidepressants and all of our friends who are on them. But, um, by coincidence, um, Jeff who at the time was working in the orchard at the property, but in the garden, um, and has since become our horticulturalist. And now our head of field [00:10:30] operations and to be honest, just a really close friend, he had said on. "You know, Richard, if you ingest sage the correct way, it can help with your serotonin levels. And if you, um, you know, take this tincture with, you know, nettle seed or, or, um, you know, different things and then it'll help your elevate your mood." And to be honest at the start. I didn't know, I came from a farming family. They're very practical. It felt very [00:11:00] witchy. It felt a little bit, um, a little bit too woo-woo. But we did I slowly started making things. Um, the other thing, I guess, the other big turning point was that the water from the house runs into the garden.. And so I hadn't been a lifelong sort of Aesop customer and those sorts of brands and, um, but had noticed that the, the, the roses were starting to look really terrible. And so Jeff started making soap and then, um, shampoo and then body wash.. Honestly, because that [00:11:30] stuff just that water went straight back, straight into the garden. There's a pipe that just spills it into the garden from the edge of the bathroom. They didn't want to put chemicals down the drain. And then also for myself, like I was like, "oh, well then why do I want those chemicals on my skin?" and then sort of back to the anti-depressant thing, what can they, what, what things could I put on my skin that might just say help me feel better? So that's sort of why, like sage is a core ingredient in everything. Um, you know, aromatherapy, as woo-woo and kind of Etsy is that is in a way I started to like, think [00:12:00] more about that and research more it's it's interesting. You probably know that people who are clinically depressed often lose their sense of smell because the part of your brain that regulates in dopamine also regulates your, your, your, your olofactory pathways. So, you know, there is an argument that says you inspire that someone smell you, you also inspire their mood. So sort of the basis of aromatherapy. So I just sort of allowed myself to get a little bit witchy and, um, and just like. Went to the garden [00:12:30] cause I wanted to heal. I had a broken heart, I was exhausted. I had just worked myself. And then just things did start to shift. It's really amazing. Like really just like turned into the garden and things started to move and then yeah. And then, and then COVID hit, you know, and then, so the interesting thing about that was I think we were all feeling that all of a sudden, you know, people were like, oh my God, I'm so stressed out. You know, I think I'm super interested in antidepressant. So not back to antidepressants but antidepressant use doubled in one year in America, during COVID it doubled from a [00:13:00] $16 billion industry to a $32 billion industry. So people are more anxious and people are, uh, looking inward and people are looking for, um, solutions. And, and so for me, that was the garden. So that. At what used to be sort of a hobby, something I would, products I'd make for myself and my friends, you know, jars of honey from the garden or candles or, or soaps and stuff started to become a business. For the first time in my life with limited amount of [00:13:30] spin, something honest actually started to work, you know, and we joke at that in the office now because I spent 20 years trying to sell people stuff and create stories and kind of what we've done with Flamingo actually went flew in the face of all best practices. You know, it's long form on social it's, um, it's not product heavy. It's like, it's all sorts of things you shouldn't do, but everybody would just simply became sort of an extension of my relationship with the garden. And how that happened. When you have a seven acre garden. It's such a privilege, such a privilege [00:14:00] to have. And so I'm working on that, getting my hands dirty. Planting that stuff, planting all those trees that really, it's just it's such therapy. And so I had such a, a really beautiful time with that. There's something quite primal just about sunlight and having access to open sky and fresh air and the sun and berries. And that's, that sounds I hope that doesn't sound like fairy tales, but like in New York, that stuff that not everyone has all the time. And so, um, I think that certainly in terms of. [00:14:30] Just quality of life here. Um, there's so much better, but I think that really has to do with sunlight and fresh air and blue sky more than potentially anything else. You know, the number one grumble I used to hearIs "oh there's nothing cultural in Los Angeles," but we know that that's also changed very, very quickly and almost a more interesting version of culture. You have people that come here to create something or build something or make something new of themselves. Um, I'm interested to see it now because you see people in New York being like, [00:15:00] "I, am never going to leave New York" and as bad as it gets there and they go, "oh, wow. Like, um, there's a whole new frontier in Los Angeles." there's a new gold rush going on here. And that's super exciting.
I bought the property. I was at dinner across the street from the current Owl. And. Uh, Cafe Birdie and sitting at the bar and I'd been trying to find a, uh, an office for the agency and everyone wanted to work in Hollywood. Everyone wanted to work over in that side of [00:15:30] town. And I thought in my head, I was like, no, everyone's over that side of town. And all the creative people that are over here, all the art directors, all the designers, all the copywriters, and they don't want to have to sit in their car for an hour. And so, um, you know, many of the great creative agencies are over in Santa Monica or Venice. And so you're like, "oh my God, could you imagine that commute every day?" and so part of me really wanted to do it this side of Los Angeles. And, but everyone, I . Know I've had such resistance from my team. And then, um, [00:16:00] I was at dinner at cafe birdie. I look out the window. And there was this for lease sign on this building with the big Owl sign on it. And I had collected, I still do I collect owls, every time I go somewhere, I buy like a, uh, like, uh, you know,an owl figurine or statue. I don't know. It's a silly thing I've alway done,so this thing about owls was like, I was like, "oh, this is a sign. Maybe this is a thing?" so I, I called the number that get this used to be at the Owl pharmacy. And it's a huge empty [00:16:30] shell. Um, And so I, um, I, I met the owner. This wonderful woman named Mae who came here from Hong Kong with her husband. And they were, um, pharmacists and, um, moved here and with very little money, started a business. And that really became stewards of this, this, this area of town, they used to give out free flu shots to kids. And after school programs, when Highland park was actually still in many times, quite dangerous they were really taking care of a lot of the kids in [00:17:00] the area; anyway, so I became, you know, really got inspired by them. Um, we had an office in Hong Kong, so I, I love Hong Kong. So kind of bonded over that. And, uh, and I say, this just all feels right.
And then Mae had said, Mae who owns the building said, "you know, I've got some plants in the back and I really love them. They've been here since forever. Do you know how to take care of plants?" Which of course I do. And so it's like, "oh, this is a sign. This is meant to be." So I took, um, took the lease. Moved in. And then, um, it was such a big space. I was like, I've always wanted a bookshop. I had it. I [00:17:30] had a huge library in New York in the office, but no one used it. Everyone was on Pinterest and it just made me so . Angry. And so . I was like, "fuck you guys I'm going to sell the books." and so we shipped all the books from New York and we sold them. That's how we started. It was all my original group. All my books I'd spent, you know, 20 years collecting; every photographer I knew, every architect I had thought of, like all that stuff. And, um, and that's how we started. Yeah. So, and so then we're back. We [00:18:00] actually just closed the store this week for a couple of months. We're going to do some renovations, but um, come back. I think it, it, it also had such a good run, but now I feel like we need to do something a little bit more surprising again. So, um, um, all for reinventions, so I said to the team, it's time for the bookstore to get its summer body back. So let's give it a little bit of a workout. You know, selfishly, I needed to drive an hour to get French Vogue to read in the bath. And I was like, "fuck that. We're just going to go sell French Vogue. We're going to open a bookshop." [00:18:30] And everyone said it was crazy. Everyone said it was the silliest thing to do. But there is, as you know, Los Angeles, the center of the world's imagination has almost no good bookstores. So, you know, a handful of good ones. So really I'm trying to think about how we, how we wrap our arms around like the creative, all those creative people who are living in this era and living around. Um, and so that's pretty much what we tried to do when we opened it. And I remember interestingly enough, um, one of the last parties we had before COVID [00:19:00] was, uh, a book signing at the Owl with, um, Juergen Teller, the photographer and someone came up to me, tapped me on the shoulder and said, "oh, you know, Richard, you interviewed me for a job a year ago, two years ago. Um, And you said you intended to bring your heroes to Highland park and I thought you were full of shit. And here we are standing outside the store in a big, long line waiting to see Juergen Teller." Um, Brad Pitt was in front of them. And so very, in many ways I hope this business, as well as [00:19:30] the others around us have done something to sort of, uh, you know, slightly shift the, um, the cultural lens in this area. I think I was very lucky to get there just before the the ascent of, um, the area. Um, people who'd been living there for many, many, many years sort of that first-generation of people who moved in and built homes and were still there, um, in the sort of five or six years that I've been there now, you know, you've seen that move [00:20:00] radically flip; people's house prices have exploded, um, a lot of new construction and obviously, like access, those people that are priced out of silver lake, kind of moving over um, to, or, um, you know, into Highland park or into Eagle Rock. And obviously now like full of creative people and interesting people. And kind of every time I turn around, I ride my bike everywhere. I don't have a car. And so I - intentionally. And so I often talk to a lot of my neighbors. Um [00:20:30] Andie Macdowell lives next door and Elton John has a recording studio around the corner and like Highland park is kind of, kind of exploded. So it's super interesting.
We were in the very first week of the pandemic the first week Los Angeles went into shut down, jeff, who I mentioned earlier, said he knew Megan from County Line Harvest, said, "Megan's going to lose her farm. She has all of her vegetables and all of her produce tied up to restaurants and all the [00:21:00] restaurants are closing." And my parents had lost their farm when I was a kid. And so I knew I know how hard that is and I knew how small the margins are. And so. Really just, I remember the morning so clearly; I just turned to him and I was like, "no, fuck that. Tell her to bring the vegetables to the bookstore and we'll sell them from the back of the bookstore." And Ithought, she thought maybe, I don't know, maybe everyone thought we could sell a couple of dozen boxes. I think we sold 300 that first day and 600 the next [00:21:30] Friday. And you know, within a month we had a line of people coming to get fresh produce. And then a couple of things happened in quick succession, which all happened at exactly the right time would probably would never happen again. Was that, a lot of other farmers. to which that was happening very similarly Golden State Papaya, and then, um, a flower farm and then a baker and then a citrus farm. And then, um, a flower farm down in San Diego and like a bunch of different people, just all started coming out of the woodwork saying, "oh, can we join?" [00:22:00] "Can we jump in?" And I was like, sure, bring your stuff to the, bring your stuff to the bookstore. And, um, and at that time, all the money was basically going back to the farms. And, um, and actually to be honest, it still does for the fresh produce stuff. But anyway, the other thing that happened at the same time was that my agency fell off a cliff. We lost every single client, everyone. And so what was interesting was I had 60 people with nothing to do and I said, okay, um, I [00:22:30] know you used to want to work in fashion advertising only, but now you're in charge of stone fruit and you're in charge of citrus. And so did a couple of things that kept the band together, but it also, it actually, I think it allowed really creative people whose eyes were trained on fashion or design, to cast their eyes towards the garden or the food. And so when you look at something like our Instagram, which is the number one entry for people into the brand, it's pretty, the photos are great. Um, you know, it's because I [00:23:00] think the people that I've worked with have been doing that work for two decades on, on beauty brands or fashion brands. So I think we're very, very lucky that that will happen at the same time. And we were able to have fun and actually like create build a business before we actually even knew we were doing it.. while, so many other people were treading water during COVID and, and we were so lucky that we were so excited. We was so animated. We're learning so much, we're meeting so many interesting [00:23:30] people, genuinely like almost ashamed to say this. I had, I loved it. I had so much fun. I didn't need to deal with assholes that I didn't like all my kind of boring corporate clients fell away and were like, you know edging closer to bankruptcy every minute with the agency at that time, but like just like having such a great time. And then a couple of other things happened which really like were pivotal. Someone called the health department on us and said, "these guys are selling vegetables from the bookshop." [00:24:00] And I was so angry. They came and shut us down; I was so angry because at this point, like so many other people are doing CSA stuff and we actually were doing nothing wrong. Everything was picked and packed on the farms and everything was like super food-safe but anyway, um, we couldn't even get a hearing to appeal it because everyone's closed for COVID down at city hall. So I kind of went home and I was like, oh, actually, maybe we should just home deliver directly from the farm then. And so that was such a lucky moment, because [00:24:30] again, um, again, when, despite all of a sudden we're delivering to thousands of homes, um, every Friday and I realized meeting those people - uh - two things, how brilliant they are at growing things, you know, Golden State Papaya grows the really, I think the best, as I said, the best mushrooms in California. There's a biodynamic herb farmer who is in north or South Carolina who grows biodynamic herbs it's unheard of; there's like three farms in the world [00:25:00] that do that. There are these amazing people that came to us. You know, they're kind of surviving on small margins, they're surviving at the farmer's market, which is its own kind of weird mafia or they're surviving, um, through wholesale and the margins are getting lower. And so, and the, I guess the other thing is you realize that they're probably not great at marketing themselves in a different way. Um, you know, there there's some people we work with who have, I remember there was this one. There's one amazing farmer. She, she grew, um, rare bulbs and [00:25:30] seeds and it took her two weeks to answer an email, she answered the phone, like once a week and, um, only accepted cash because she doesn't trust the banking system. And it was just like lots of these people who were, were brilliant, brilliant, creative people, that are not, not great marketers. So I'm starting to think, okay. Maybe there's an opportunity for us here as a business to, um, To do a third revenue stream, that these people, where we can take their, for example, take their herbs and make a tea, or, or make a [00:26:00] tincture, take their mushrooms and make a supplement, take their- early on in, I said to the team let's, um, you know, let's plant a tree with the national forest foundation, for every, you know, per bottle that we sell. Um, and by December we sort of cleared 50,000 trees. Um, we sort of started really anything we bottled, we were just selling and, uh, and whether it was olive oil . And the olive oil was amazing, actually all the honey or the body products or anything like that, we [00:26:30] just we've started to think, what can we make with these people's stuff? And so the interesting shift, it became less about my garden and orchard. And in fact, almost never about my garden and orchard moving forward and more about this amazing network of people who are, um, you know, grow responsibly, who are, who are making or growing or harvesting really interesting stuff. Um, and now, and now that we said we have some funding and the business is healthy now, um, how are we going to [00:27:00] encourage and promote biodynamic growers or regenerative farmers or, um, a really responsible sourcing network? And, uh, and that's sort of what we're doing right now, as we get ready for the next chapter.
I get this in the beginning. I actually never had a CSA subscription before this. And I w I've got the first, that first week I told you about, I got the box and it's like, what the fuck do I cook with all this stuff? And so I got my cookbooks books out and I started to look and I know how to cook, but you know, I wasn't until that [00:27:30] point, wasn't cooking religiously. And again, one of the wonderful things about the last year was that we had a chance to really question those things that we, in the food, we eat, the recipes we cook, the music we listened to, the people we had sex with, the wine we drank, like all those basic human pleasures, if you will. And so, um, so I was like, okay, I'm gonna start cooking better. And I needed those recipes. Um, I thought, well, I guess if I'm having, I'm confused about what to do with this huge box of vegetables, other people [00:28:00] must be as well. So we just started photocopying the recipes. And then, um, again, this is sort of a story of, um, you know, wonderful synchronicity. Some chefs were like, "Hey, um, my restaurants closed I'm out of work. Do you need some recipes?" And so, I'm like, "yeah, come on into the kitchen," they became videos or, um, you know, content. Um, and we would just ask different people for what they do with this box of vegetables every week. And people really loved it. People loved it, loved it, loved it. We [00:28:30] used to get hundreds and hundreds of responses every Friday. Still do have people that cook that stuff. And, um, I also just wanted to make sure that it was something that I could use and enjoy. Um, and then the story really just started - my letters. I don't know. It's so funny. I just thought I should tell people what we're doing. You know me, I, I, sometimes I can get really embarrassed as I wonder whether I just sounded unhinged at some of those darker periods of COVID, but just, um, was interested in writing about what was going on in the garden, and this is sort of [00:29:00] how, how we are. And I think at that point, I certainly felt like I, um, really appreciated like human contact and, and, and honesty from people and like thought, and I love writing notes. I wrote - do I always have like, like handwritten cards and notes and letters. And I do that a lot from my friends. So I'd say, and I obviously couldn't do that for 2000 boxes. So I just started writing one day and I was like, we're just going to put this in the box this week. And then, um, and then, and then it just exploded from there. And then. [00:29:30] Um, but, you know, as I said, I don't have a car. So what I do, I ride my bike to the gym in the morning. And normally during the week, my mind wanders, I sort of like dictated to my telephone some thoughts that becomes the weekly letter. And so, you know, this week's one is about the full moon we just had. And, um, all my friends and my friends in Australia, I just came back from Australia where I saw my parents and my friends, they're all my friends who are female, are trying to get pregnant and they're spending so much money on fertility stuff. And at the [00:30:00] same time I read that sperm count and man is down 50% right now. And it was a generation ago and did a little bit of reading on that. And, um, you know, some of my friends in Australia that the girls are making the guys eat wagon loads of walnuts and things like that to get the sperm health stronger. So I just started to think about, okay, maybe there's something there. Maybe we should do a sex tonic for summer, that's about sperm, strength and libido and reproduction and that sort of stuff. So we've been working on that, um, with some of the [00:30:30] botanicals and herbs and things with a herbalist and some other people. And, um, you know, so this week's letters about that, it's about the full moon, how all my friends are excited to run out and party and have fun. Um, and. You know, maybe this is our summer of pleasure and maybe we all need a sex tonic and you think about all that stuff. So, you know, it really just, it comes naturally and super fun. And I love doing it every Thursday. And then, and today's Friday, today, so it's delivery day. So it's, [00:31:00] you know, it's always Thursday night's a late night into Friday morning chaos. And then. Everyone right about now should be getting that letter in that box.
I used to sit at the agency at least that then the word we always had was "contagious enthusiasm" in our work. So like, if you look at our clients that historical clients that they, were as varied as Hermes [00:31:30] down to Old Navy, but there are always brands that were colorful and excited and were excited by life, really. And so, you know, we never did well in like brands that were quiet or somber or love white space and beige, we were always a little bit more bold faced than that, you know, living, living really large. So this idea of contagious enthusiasm was sort of this idea with the agency, but. Uh, I think that what that translated into, and then perhaps in a more sophisticated lens, it's just this [00:32:00] idea of abundance. Living in abundance, that idea of joy in abundance. And, um, I think making a TV, I used to think that making a TV commercial - of which we did hundreds of - were, you know, an opportunity to just like, if you did it right. If it wasn't too cheesy, to, um, Well, if you had the right client was a way to just take 30 seconds with someone's day and make them laugh or make them have fun and live in that abundance. And the same way I feel as though Flamingo does that too. It is about abundance. It's about [00:32:30] a world of smell and taste and touch. I have especially having come out of COVID like, how do you excite and motivate all your senses and be like, feel truly, fully alive. And so that, that idea of living in abundance is, Um, something, I talk about a lot with the team. Um, I told them I'm going to paint it on the ceiling of the office because I want everyone to remember it because it shows up in ways that when it doesn't show up, it annoys me and said, "if you don't give [00:33:00] someone more than they asked for, or if you, um, you know, if you have the option of doing like mediocre packaging versus something beautiful or. And, and anything in our photography. If you look at now that you know that the code, you know, we, wouldn't never photograph an orange, we'd photograph a fountain filled with 600 oranges and we would never photograph a rose to your earlier point. Never photograph a flower, photograph a car filled with 40,000 flowers. This idea of life is too short to be frugal. [00:33:30] And it's not necessarily about being wasteful or having money. It's just about like, like. letting everything in as much as you can, whether that's sunshine or laughter or colorful roses. We are in a moment of like, change on a personal level for all of us, I think there is a place for a brand like Flamingo to exist in a much larger way, in a much bigger scale than we're doing now. [00:34:00] I went to, when I was in Australia, I went to see a, we were asked to see this retailer called Mecca, who was sort of like the Sephora of Australia there, but much better than Sephora. There um, couple of hundred stores probably. And I remember this, the, the, the head of the brand taking me aside and saying, "well, you know, I really want to carry Flamingo in all the stores. We think it's a great brand and we're going to put you up next to Byredo and, you know, next to some other really fancy brands and they are a beauty store, right? And I [00:34:30] was like, "Hey, you know, we don't sell moisturizer, right? We're not a beauty brand." She's like, "I know, but everyone knows that having a good night's sleep and laughing and eating well and drinking water and having good dreams is going to make your skin better." And I was like, oh, it's so interesting that like, she's really thinking about it through the mind body connection. And so for me, I do think there is a, there's a space for this brand that's about pleasure from the garden, about medicine from plants, above living really, really, really [00:35:00] well eating well and drinking well, listening to good music, having good sex, um, having a house that's filled with, you know, nice candles and good smells. I think there are some basic human pleasures, which, um, we can embrace for everyone. And so I'm really excited about that. I'm excited about just expanding that uh, getting sharper about the lens from which we develop products and how we do it. And you know, it's already in one year jumped so far from a couple of soaps I made from my bathroom [00:35:30] to, you know, a brand we've now sold millions of dollars worth of products. And so I think the chance now for us is to, to, to really, really make sure that if we do something, we, we do it with, um, you know, incredible, um, you know, acumen and. And giving it the time it needs, because I do think now it's time for all of us to feel good about ourselves again, and we can do that through nature and I'm really excited for it.
[00:35:57] Jordan: Thank you for listening everyone. [00:36:00] For links and resources about everything discussed today, please visit the show notes in the episode, if you want to support the podcast, the most effective way to do so would be to hit the "subscribe" button on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or any other platform that you're listening in from. Sharing the show with your friends on social media is always appreciated.
Shout out to Sean Myers for creating the original music. And to Jason Cryer for creating the graphics. Korey [00:36:30] Pereira with help on the mix. The show is produced by me, Jordan Haro with help from Homecourt Pictures. You can always reach out to me at Jordan H-A-R-zero on Instagram and Twitter. Follow the show @PreFixPod on Instagram, or email us at prefixpodcast@gmail.com
I appreciate every second of your attention and support and don't take it for granted. See you on the next one.[00:37:00]