The Stanza – Details, episodes & analysis

**This interview was made publicly available thanks to the support of Peoplevine, the CRM software trusted by the best hospitality brands. Book your free demo here.

Today's guest is Jamie Caring, founder of Sevengage Consultancy, through which he advises hospitality entrepreneurs and real estate owners on brand creation and community building. Prior to his consulting career, Jamie was the CMO of Soho House, the Commercial Director at Caprice Holdings, the holding company behind restaurant brands such as The Ivy, Le Caprice, and Sexy Fish, and the Commercial Director at The Birley Clubs, which owns club brands such as Annabel's and Mark's. Prior to hospitality, Jamie had a 15-year career in music and entertainment at MTV and VH1.

Jamie started at Soho House in 2008 when there wasn't a marketing team, and during his tenure, helped shape it into the global category-defining lifestyle brand that it is today. This was my longest interview to date, and I definitely could have continued the interview. We went in-depth on Jamie's knowledge and insights coming from both of his lives in entertainment and hospitality, and especially focused on strategy for launching and scaling hospitality businesses, as well as the psychology of members clubs. He truly understands how to build an enduring hospitality brand that is a reference for other emerging brands, and I know anyone listening to this episode will learn a lot from Jamie's experience. Connect with Jamie here.

Interview Highlights:

• Applying insights from entertainment to hospitality
• Meeting Nick Jones and starting at Soho House
• Marketing-led vs transaction-led hospitality
• Jamie's philosophy on member programming & events
• Can people buy into "community"?
• What is a true community in the context of a business?
• Lessons from Soho House's banker purge in 2010
• Top drivers for both membership renewals and cancellations
• Expanding from members clubs into a lifestyle brand
• The art & science of advertising exclusivity
• Thoughts on Soho House's recent negative press and its IPO
• Balancing creative vision and needs of investors
• Jamie's experience at Annabel's & how legacy clubs can stay relevant
• Thoughts on the proliferation of members clubs
• Trends in the club industry
• Advice for hospitality entrepreneurs
• Audience Q&A

If you enjoyed this episode, please share with a friend or colleague :)

Subscribe to The Stanza, a weekly journal for investors & entrepreneurs in the creative industries https://www.thestanzamedia.com

*Check out which of your favorite hospitality brands use Peoplevine, the best CRM tool for the best private members clubs, luxury hotels, and restaurants. You can also book a free demo for your hospitality business: https://www.peoplevine.com

Today's guest is Lexy Copithorne, who is a creative director and brand strategist with experience across luxury real estate, hospitality, and fashion. I've never met anyone like Lexy - she has a unique intellectual approach to her creative work and in this episode we talk all about her process when creating physical and digital environments for brands.

Some of her experience includes: branding for luxury real estate developer JDS in New York, the Beverly Estate, also known as the Godfather House, Casalena, the LA Mediterranean restaurant, and is also a co-founder of Pruzan, a technical athletic wear company based between LA and London.

Also for some history here - before the lockdown Lexy and I were planning to launch a tequila brand but unfortunately the pandemic happened and our plans didn’t work out. But I got to witness how her creative mind works, and when I started this podcast, I just knew I had to have her on as a guest.

If you're obsessed with brand as it pertains to the digital and physical world, you're going to love this episode.

Episode Highlights

• How to create a strong customer journey from physical to online
• How to create a physical/digital ecosystem with strong brand identity
• Marketing physical spaces (luxury real estate & hospitality)
• Visual storytelling principles & process
• Building a luxury athleisure brand
• How Pruzan's run club creates community and fosters brand loyalty
• Brand building for hospitality

Connect with Lexy: Copithorne & Company - Copithorne & Company (lexycopithorne.com) Check out Pruzan: Pruzan Official Website (pruzanrunning.com) The Copper Building (Developed by JDS): Home - The Copper The Beverly Estate: The Beverly Estate

*This episode is sponsored by Peoplevine

Subscribe to The Stanza, a newsletter for investors & entrepreneurs in the creative industries: https://www.thestanzamedia.com

Today's guests are Jade Beguelin and Sabrina Sade, the co-founders of 4AM skin, a NYC based skincare brand. Sabrina left med school and Jade quit her wall street career to pursue building 4AM skin and they've been absolutely crushing it as a young brand. Something I really admire about Jade and Sabrina is their willingness to roll up their sleeves, be resourceful, and get things done. We chatted about being public founders on social media, having products go viral and selling out on Tiktok, and thoughts about building a brand and community that cares about what you're selling. If you're building in the DTC space, you're going to learn a lot from this episode. Enjoy!

The Stanza listeners get 15% off 4AM Skin with code STANZA15 on https://4amskin.com

Episode Highlights:

• Approach to building an audience online
• Brand /founder alignment on social media
• Going viral on TikTok & selling out on TikTok shop
• Lessons learned from selling vs branding
• How to create a community that cares about you & your brand
• Thoughts on raising money from VC investors
• How to be resourceful as a bootstrapped founder
• Starting a business with a friend 

Connect with Jade: @jadebeguelin on TikTok/IG

Connect with Sabrina: @sabsade on TikTok/IG

@4AMskin on TikTok/IG

Follow The Stanza on TikTok/IG: @thestanzamedia

Subscribe to The Stanza, a newsletter for investors & entrepreneurs in the creative industries. Sent every Friday: https://thestanza.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Use Gamma AI to create your next presentation, document, or website. https://try.gamma.app/thestanzapodcast

Hayley Mack founded Cent LDN while being furloughed during the pandemic, and since then has done partnerships with Elton John and Selfridges, StockX, Nando's, Adidas, Lush Beauty, and so forth. She's been featured in Hypebae, High Snobiety, Forbes, etc - all within three short years. Hayley shares insights into positioning her candle brand for success as well as advice for those building unique brands.

Episode Highlights:

• Early success through brand positioning and high profile partnerships
• How to use your network to get the right visibility
• Advice for positioning your brand for great PR
• Creating an audience-driven brand vs founder-led brand
• Crossing over into other industries
• Advice for brand builders

Cent LDN: https://centldn.com or @cent.ldn

Connect with Hayley: @hayleymackkk

Cent LDN in Vogue: https://www.voguebusiness.com/companies/are-candles-the-new-luxury-collectibles

Cent LDN in Hypebae: https://hypebae.com/2023/3/cent-ldn-hayley-mack-candles-international-womens-day-interview

Follow The Stanza on IG / TikTok: @thestanzamedia

Subscribe to The Stanza, a weekly journal for investors & entrepreneurs in the creative industries https://www.thestanzamedia.com

*Check out which of your favorite hospitality brands use Peoplevine, the best CRM tool for the best private members clubs, luxury hotels, and restaurants. You can also book a free demo for your hospitality business: https://www.peoplevine.com

Today's guest is Anna DeGuzman, who is truly one of a kind. She's a magician who's performed on America's Got Talent recently, in front of celebrity judges Simon Cowell, Heidi Klum, and Sofia Vergara, but also in front of millions of people watching around the world. Even though she's an accomplished magician at such a young age, she's genuinely a warm person and I loved learning about how she's built a non traditional career on her own terms and how she manages to perform in front of such a large audience. If you're a performer of any kind, or aspiring to be, you're going to love this episode.

Episode Highlights:

• How Anna became a magician
• Being a public person
• Handling online criticism
• Pursuing the non-traditional route
• Dealing with career uncertainty and inconsistent traction
• Mindset when performing for celebrities & on big stages

Connect with Anna on IG (@annadeguzman) or TikTok (@annadeguz)

Follow The Stanza on IG or TikTok (@thestanzamedia)

*This episode is sponsored by Peoplevine

Subscribe to The Stanza, a newsletter for investors & entrepreneurs in the creative industries: https://www.thestanzamedia.com

Today's guest is Nika Diamond Krendel, who founded Paradise Row, a London-based leather goods brand. Paradise Row has been featured in in Vogue, the Financial Times, Harper's Bazaar, and more, and she's also done a collaboration with Soho Home's flagship store on King's Road. In addition to her consumer facing business, Nika also has a B2B business where she produces bespoke products for some of the UK's most prestigious projects, such as Knightsbridge Gardens and Estelle Manor. I chatted with Nika to learn how she built her brand from scratch - quite literally as she talks about how she didn't have any connections in the interior design world prior to starting her brand. She shares a lot of really great insights in the episode for any brand founder listening, and I hope you'll enjoy this episode.

Episode Highlights:

• Transitioning from the corporate world to leather goods
• Paradise Row's production process
• Building a B2B business alongside D2C
• How Nika landed a collaboration with Soho Home Interiors
• How to get great press & visibility for your brand
• Advice for entrepreneurs just starting out

Subscribe to The Stanza, a newsletter for investors & entrepreneurs in the creative industries https://www.thestanzamedia.com

Today's guest is yours truly. It's time to check in with a solo episode answering some of your questions submitted via instagram.

Episode highlights:

• Dealing with unforeseen challenges & pivots
• Creating a brand as a founder on social media
• Why I'm grateful for my finance experience
• Realizations after leaving the corporate world
• Thoughts on SKKY Partners
• Regrets in career

Follow The Stanza on TikTok & IG: @thestanzamedia

Subscribe to The Stanza, a newsletter for investors & entrepreneurs in the creative industries. Sent every Friday: https://thestanza.beehiiv.com

For those creating pitch decks or presentations, use Gamma for your next one and track who's viewing your deck and which slides they're spending the most time on ;) https://try.gamma.app/thestanzapodcast

Episode Highlights

• Transitioning from corporate to entrepreneurship
• Buying the first rental property
• Innovating in the mid-term rental sector
• The residential membership model
• Entrepreneurship & delayed gratification
• Dealing with negative people
• Starting an interiors design business

Check out Guesthouse here: https://www.guest-house.co

Connect with Gabriela on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabriela-chapa/

Follow The Stanza on TikTok & IG: @thestanzamedia

Today's guest is real estate developer & hospitality entrepreneur Max Rodman. Max cut his teeth at Round Hill Capital, an institutional real estate private equity fund based in London, where he also invested in prop tech venture deals. Max is currently a founder of Breezy Capital based out of Lisbon and is developing Fabrica, an aparthotel project in the up and coming Setubal region.

Thank you to Gamma AI for sponsoring this episode. Gamma is simply the best tool for creating decks with ease. Try it for free: https://try.gamma.app/thestanzapodcast

Episode Highlights:

• Developing a hospitality project in Portugal
• Insights from fundraising as a real estate developer
• Raising for individual deals vs. raising a fund
• Transitioning from institutional finance to entrepreneurship
• Advice for making that jump

Subscribe to The Stanza, a weekly newsletter for investors & entrepreneurs in the creative industries: https://www.thestanzamedia.com

More on Breezy Capital: https://breezy-capital.com Connect with Max: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxrodman/

Follow The Stanza on TikTok and IG (@thestanzamedia)

Today's guest is Zach Bell, the founder of Myplace, a home sharing platform that connects people within 2 degrees of each other. Zach founded Myplace based on the principles of sharing-based exchange and has built an impressive global community over the past 4 years.

Thank you to Gamma AI for sponsoring this episode. Gamma is simply the best tool for creating decks. Try it here: https://try.gamma.app/thestanzapodcast

Episode highlights:

• Enabling people to live a multi-location lifestyle
• The future of mobility and travel
• Sharing-based vs profit-based exchange
• Thoughts on monetization
• Building a product based on trust
• Advice for entrepreneurs building communities
  

Join Myplace and see which friends are sharing their homes: MyPlace -- Host & Stay With Friends

Subscribe to The Stanza, a weekly newsletter for investors & entrepreneurs in the creative industries: www.thestanzamedia.com

Connect with me on TikTok or IG (@thestanzamedia)