IAM2369 – Founder and CEO Educates Men About Skincare Simple Routines

Title: Transcript - Sun, 26 Jan 2025 18:13:00 GMT

Date: Sun, 26 Jan 2025 18:13:00 GMT, Duration: [00:16:52.60]

[00:00:00.16] - Kelly Thornton

You know, if you have bumps and blemishes, we want you to, you know, use a facial scrub to help really, you know, exfoliate your skin whether or not you're a shaver or not shaven dude. You know, we want you to use like, you know, if you're an older guy like me and I look like shit because I get sleep last night, but you want to use like an eye cream. So these are the things that we're talking to guys about all the time. We're creating routines for them to follow. Simple routines.

[00:00:26.55] - Intro

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships? Just generate sales and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview. If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I Am CEO podcast. Hello, hello, hello.

[00:00:54.86] - Gresham Harkless

This is Gresh from the I Am CEO podcast and I have an awesome guest on the show today. I have Kelly Thornton. Kelly, excited to have you on the show.

[00:01:01.00] - Kelly Thornton

Yeah, I'm psyched. Let's do this.

[00:01:02.71] - Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. I'm super about everything that Kelly's doing. I know we're gonna have a phenomenal interview. But of course, before we do that, I want to read a little bit more about Kelly so you can hear about some of the awesome things that he's doing. After a successful 19 year career in the throes of corporate America, he left the industry to begin his second company, Purchase Point llc, an in store design and strategy company with offices in U.S. london and Taiwan. Through his experience at Purchase Point, he was inspired by the rapidly growing men's care industry and he founded his third company, Tiege Hanley Inc. In 2016. Tiege is an e commerce company, the mission of helping men look and feel amazing. And with the help of Aaron Marino, a YouTuber with over 6 million followers, and Rob Hoxie, the business has evolved organically with over 500,000 customers globally and over 100 million monthly of revenue in lifetime sales. Under Kelly's leadership, Tiege Hanley has shipped over 1.5 million boxes and serves over 350,000 customers globally, which is amazing. I love. One of the things is that he started entrepreneurship at a very young age with a house painting business, which was actually super cool. The money he took, he actually financed his college tuition at the University of Connecticut. So, Kelly, excited to have you on the show. You ready to speak to the IMCO community?

[00:02:17.81] - Kelly Thornton

Yeah, but I Don't know who you were just speaking about, because that guy sounds awesome.

[00:02:22.15] - Gresham Harkless

Exactly. That's why we have him here right now. So there we go.

[00:02:25.65] - Kelly Thornton

Let's do this, man. I mean, it's, you know, you don't. You don't. You don't think about all the things that you've. You've accomplished. Right. You're just thinking about how can I be the best CEO entrepreneur I can be today and how can I kick some more ass tomorrow and the next day? But thank you for that warm welcome.

[00:02:45.47] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. It's so much easier to read it. I'm sure it's a lot harder to do all the hard work, but one of my favorite quotes, I think Tom Brady always said is his favorite super bowl is always the next Super Bowl. It kind of sounds like you have that same DNA, so to speak. So I guess to kick everything off, let's rewind the clock. Hear a little bit more on how you got started. What I call youl CEO story.

[00:03:05.52] - Kelly Thornton

Yeah. You know, I mean, where do you want to go to? I, you know, I was fortunate. I grew up in Maryland. We were talking about that. We have that in common. Where the demons near each other in the same. Same other country. You know, I, I think, like, early on, I was very motivated by work. I was.

[00:03:25.05] - Gresham Harkless

You were.

[00:03:25.53] - Kelly Thornton

We're in. We're in review season right now. Gresh. We've kind of almost finished the 40 people that we have. Everybody does reviews here at the company. We're about 40, 43. That. And, you know, it really gives you a chance to reflect on what you've. What you've accomplished over the last six months. We do H1 interviews and H2 interviews, full year interviews in December. And a woman came in and I was talking to her earlier, and she said, you know, I just, I'm a. I'm a hard worker. I really like working hard. So I think I relate to that. Like, I was, you know, I was always very early on, very, very interested in work. I know you're a sports guy. You know, I, I kind of like, look at work as. As a sport. You know, I get up every day to live my life, be in the arena and try to kick ass every day. So that started early on in my. In my life, you know, so. And that. That's been in part of my DNA for the last, you know, 40 years of my career.

[00:04:30.01] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah. And so I would love to hear more about, you know, that company. Could you take us through a little bit more on how you're serving Your clients and how you're, and what you're thinking is down the pike as well too.

[00:04:39.67] - Kelly Thornton

Yeah, well, I like the concept of having a direct relationship with consumers. So I came out of a purchase point where we were helping companies like Unilever and Procter and Gamble and Pfizer and Bear. And these companies think about how they communicate to consumers in their retail journey. And I was really thinking, boy, you know, dudes just don't like to shop and we don't definitely don't like to shop about, you know, our skin care. We don't say like, hey, the bears are playing the commanders and then the game's over. Let's run down to like Nordstrom and see what's, see what's new in this, you know, in the skincare aisle. That just does not happen amongst us guys. So I was like, well, we gotta, we gotta like educate guys on how important it is. Take care of skin care, prevent melanoma, you know, use something that's going to give you some SPS protection, moisturize your skin. The benefit to long term benefits, like women have known this forever. It was just like, you know, guys, we're like Neanderthals. It took us forever to figure out that if you actually take care of yourself, it makes a difference. So I started Tiege Hanley with Aaron Marino, who you mentioned. He's a, he's a YouTube influencer, he's been on Shark Tank a couple of times. He speaks everything, he talks all the time about what it's like to be a guy, you know, and like, how do you take care of yourself? How do you prepare for an interview, why you shouldn't, shouldn't, should or shouldn't wear certain type of fashion? You know, how, how important are push ups in your workout routine? You know, these type of things. And I reached out to Aaron because he was very, very much like around my mindset of like helping dudes be as amazing as they can be. And he agreed to partner with me. It was, it was a brilliant move. I mean and like you said, in hindsight it was much more brilliant than it, than it was even at the time. But he brought millions and millions of guys into the conversation right away. The conversation the Te family wanted to have, which is how do we, how do we help guys think about these things that we're talking about? So that was very fortuitous because it was really an opportunity for Aaron to use his microphone to get out and talk about these concepts. And then Rob Hoxie is a guy who, you know, I, it was again fortuitous situation because he had been in technology and was at Motorola and was with a tech company that was purchased a few years before from RIM, the original BlackBerry company, you know, before Apple really dominated it was RIM and BlackBerry that was, everybody in business used and he had some free time. So he got involved to support us from a technology standpoint and was really doing our back end technology. Aaron was selling and I was just kind of trying to operate the business and we went from, you know, zero sales to, you know, in few months, a million dollars in sales, you know, 3 million, 5 million, you know, 7 million, 10 million, 12, 15, 18, 20. I mean it just kept on going, you know. And so it's been, it's been, you know, a great, a great run. I mean we're just really, really, we're, you know, really fortunate to built a great company of really, really, really good products. And we have tons of dudes that are like benefiting from the quality of our product and health, having healthy routines. So it's been awesome. The white space that we went after is, is the routine space, right? So it's, it's not just enough to wash your face, although it's really, really important. We want, you know, a dude to wash his face, but we want him to do it again at night when he brushes his teeth in the morning and night and put a moisturizer on. And you know, if you have bumps and blemishes, we want you to, you know, to use a facial scrub to help really, you know, exfoliate your skin whether or not you're a shaver or not shaven dude. You know, we want you to use like, you know, if you're an older guy like me and I look like shit because I can't sleep last night, but you want to use like an eye cream. So these are the things that we're talking to guys about all the time. We're creating routines for them to follow, simple routines.

[00:08:49.90] - Gresham Harkless

I almost wonder if this is part of like your secret sauce. The ability to be able to kind of see those, what seems like, you know, pillar type of connections, relationships and opportunities and to see how there is an opportunity there and to bring all those things together, understand that, hey, the conversation is not happening, but it's necessary and also have these two like people that are going to be integral to the business and the growth of the business. Do you feel like your ability to see all that, is that part of what you feel is like your secret sauce?

[00:09:17.62] - Kelly Thornton

Yeah, you know, I don't Know if that, that in itself is. But that is certainly one part of it. You know, I think like many entrepreneurs have really great vision, like really, really, really great vision. It's usually one of their strengths. You know, their vision and their creativity and their passion is usually, is usually a key strength. And usually, you know, one of the things that got them started, got them to where they, they were in the first place. The question is, is, you know, can you perpetuate that vision as your company goes from being, you know, a startup into a growth company and beyond? And it's super hard. Completely different skill sets.

[00:10:01.36] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an Apple book or even a habit that you have. What's something you lean on that makes you more effective and efficient?

[00:10:13.29] - Kelly Thornton

It comes down to time management, which is super difficult. And I think the only way that you can be really good at time management is to have, of course, I'm going to say this, but to have really good routine, really good routine leads to good time management. Good time management, right, allows you to maximize your time in the arena every day. So that's the biggest hack. I will give you a specific related to that. I learned this several years ago and I, I've been following it, which is like instead of writing down specifically your to do list for today, when you have something to do, set up a meeting that's going to be the culmination of that, of that. Because it usually involves more than one person. Right. It's not just, not just something I'm doing for myself, it's something I'm doing for you. And I, I promised you Gresh, that I would have a financial report done on the analysis of our UK shipment by next week. And so what I'll do is I'll set that up, set that meeting up for next week, set that timeline, set that meeting up, and then I'll work towards making sure that I've. That I'm delivering upon that thing by next, by next Tuesday. So I run my calendar. I run my to do list off of my calendar, if that, if that makes sense. I mean, it's, it's kind of the opposite of how a lot of people run their to do list. They do their to do list and then they set up a calendar to go after it. I run my calendar first and then I might to do list against it, to support it.

[00:11:54.92] - Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. So what would you consider to be a little bit more what I Like to call a CEO nugget. So this could be a word of wisdom or piece of advice. I like to say it might be something you would tell to your favorite client, or if you hopped into a time machine, you might tell your younger.

[00:12:07.21] - Kelly Thornton

Business self a CEO nugget. You know, man, it is, it's so, you know, it's so overplayed, but so critical. You hire great people. You hire great people. Okay, that is so effing hard. It is so hard. I mean, it is so hard. You hire great people. When you hire great people, they will build great teams. Great people build great teams. What do great teams do? Great teams build great companies. I mean, it's, it's so, you know, it's overplayed. Hiring is the most important thing that a CEO does. But it is so true. And it, you know, and it's so hard. I, I have hired, you know, I've interviewed hundreds and hundreds of people. I've hired. I've hired hundreds of people in my career. I've gotten it wrong, probably more than I've gotten it right. I'm getting, you know, definitely better at it. But when you bring in the right talent to your organization, it makes. It makes your whole life easier.

[00:13:29.41] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah. So how would you define my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO? And our goal is to have different, quote, unquote, CEOs on the show. So, Kelly, what does being a CEO mean to you?

[00:13:38.89] - Kelly Thornton

It means somebody who is hanging up the Christmas decorations, cleaning the coffee machine, vacuuming, hiring the best talent, having people cry on your shoulder, you know, experience the journey with people. It's about making your people the best people that you could possibly can. I mean, your job as a CEO is to. Is to help every single person in the organization be the best version of themselves possible. And it's to create that vision that we just talked about, hire those people. And obviously there's a huge financial component. You have to, you have to keep the wheels on the bus and you have to keep the, you know, pay all the bills and have enough cash in the business. And. Yeah, I mean, that's a long answer, honestly, but that's what it's all about.

[00:14:29.42] - Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. Well, Kelly, truly appreciate that definition. Of course, I appreciate your time even more. So what I wanted to do now is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best people can get ahold of you. Find about all the awesome things your team is working on.

[00:14:44.13] - Kelly Thornton

I think it's almost impossible to be a well rounded CEO, you know, without somebody who's supporting you in every step of the way. So without, without that, without an incredible, in my opinion, my house, not, in my opinion, my house. It's called a cfo, Chief Family Officer. Without that chief family officer, I would not have done three companies. I would not have had three companies. I would not have sold millions and millions of dollars worth of skin care around world. I would not be anywhere close to where I'm at right now without my cfo. Don't marry crazy.

[00:15:25.73] - Gresham Harkless

There you go. I absolutely love that Kelly. And for people that want to get a hold and find out about all the awesome things you're doing, what's the best way for them to do that?

[00:15:31.95] - Kelly Thornton

Yeah, follow me on LinkedIn. You know Kelly's art and I'm pretty easy to find if you just type in and I'm Kelly K E L L E Y. I'm super easy to find.

[00:15:42.63] - Gresham Harkless

Awesome, awesome, awesome.

[00:15:43.66] - Kelly Thornton

And by the way, reach out. Gresh. I'm sorry to interrupt you.

[00:15:47.10] - Gresham Harkless

No, go for it.

[00:15:47.74] - Kelly Thornton

If anybody has any questions or need, has any, please reach out to me. I, I do. You know, I will get back to you. You know, I'm not talking about the sales guys out there. I love you guys. But anybody that has a legit question that I can help you with, I'm more than happy to try to answer the best of my ability.

[00:16:05.10] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah, no, I appreciate you so much for that. And of course we're going to make it easier by having the links and information in the show notes as well too so that everybody can follow up with with you and find out about all the awesome things that you all are doing. I mean, I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

[00:16:16.83] - Kelly Thornton

Nice to meet you.

[00:16:17.87] - Intro

Thank you for listening to The I Am CEO podcast powered by CB Nation and Blue16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at im CEO. CEO. I Am CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Check out the latest and greatest apps, books and habits to level up your business at CEOHacks co. This has been the I Am CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr. Thank you for listening.