Polymathic Audio No. 5: Emily Schromm

I first learned of Emily Schromm during her time on Real World: DC, an MTV season that premiered in 2009. Under normal circumstances, reality television would be a highlight. For her, it’s a distant footnote. Shortly after her stint with MTV, she became friends with my wife – Lindsey Smith – two strong women with a shared passion for elite fitness.

From her site:

Emily Schromm is a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, personal trainer and serial entrepreneur who helps others empower themselves by way of food and movement. Her journey with nutrition began after realizing she could use food to heal from the inside out, and her passion for teaching others how to do the same, specializing in gut heath, adrenal repair and herbal remedies, has led to a career spanning five companies and three verticals of business including online programming, physical products and a brick and mortar gym, Platform Strength in RINO, Denver. She most recently self-published her first book, The Process, and launched an online monthly digital publication, EMPRESS.

Since her time as a fitness entrepreneur, Emily has evolved into a media and commerce professional. But before that, she accomplished something that few of us have: professional and social balance. The project that she runs today is representative of this balance. A philosophy that she describes in her book, “The Process.”

Emily has accomplished a great deal as a bootstrapped direct-to-consumer founder. She’s a consummate learner and a deep generalist. But by the end of this episode, you’ll learn that she’s just beginning. One thing you’ll hear is that it’s free-flowing and friendly. It’s as if we’ve known one another for a long time – even if we’ve forgotten how we met. Enjoy our conversation.

You can follow Emily on Instagram (300k) and Twitter (80k).

New: the RSS feed can be found here.

AUDIO BY EMILY SCHROMM AND WEB SMITH 
COPRODUCIDO POR VINCENZO LANDINO Y WEB SMITH
EDITADO POR VINCENZO LANDINO 
INGENIERÍA DE VINCENZO LANDINO 
POLYMATHIC AUDIO ES UN PRODUCTO DE 2PM INC. 

Polymathic Audio No. 4: Jack Carlson

The mission of Polymathic Audio is to tell the stories of leaders and executives who identify as deep generalists, individuals who maintain a vast-yet-deepening understanding of multiple disciplines. It’s less a podcast on personal brands, banter, or promotion. It’s more a masterclass on how to take an idea from zero to one. To that end, this next guest is a quiet example of this phenomenon.

By the age of 13, he published a book on British heraldry that is still sold in museums. A nomad of sorts, he landed in a small preparatory school in urban Boston where he quickly picked up rowing as a sport. A unnatural fit for the 5’10” athlete, he’d go on to become a member of Georgetown’s lightweight men’s team and eventually become the 110 lb coxswain of the U.S. National Team (a weight loss feat that even he cannot comprehend). While at Georgetown, he studied in a select program that prepared leaders for government service, foreign and domestic.

A bronze medalist, he came home to teach classics and philosophy at an elite preparatory school before leaving academia, altogether, to build a direct-to-consumer brand from scratch. In the midst of all of this, he’d go on to earn his PhD in archaeology from Oxford University while rowing for the institution’s fabled boat house. In a build up that sounds like a prequel to Indiana Jones, the guest’s latest venture is one that combines his experiences like a collection of oils on a canvas.

Jack Carlson is the enigmatic founder of Rowing Blazers, a brand that bends fashion genres – attracting new audiences to classical wares. To Carlson, he’s building the next great American brand. From streetwear aficionados to champions of the Head of The Charles regatta, they’re finding themselves on the canvas that Carlson and COO David Rosenzwieg have painted over the last four years with the help of Jack’s girlfriend (and national collegiate rowing champion) Keziah Bell.

In a article for Esquire, Ben Boskovitch writes:

Of late, no one has been doing collabs more excitingly than the coolest name in prep right now, Rowing Blazers. In the past year, the brand has put together some seriously envy-inspiring team-ups, including, but not limited to, a capsule collection with streetwear cult brand Noah, a sweater I still dream about in collaboration with Prep Mount Rushmore brand J.Press, perhaps the coolest damn bar merch I’ve ever seen, and a mind-changing execution of the sometimes polarizing Nantucket Red.

The products are designed to appeal to a psychographic of consumers rather than a demographic of them. You won’t find the racial or socioeconomic exclusivity seen in brands like Kiel James Patrick, for instance. Instead, Carlson collects his experiences (many of which are covered in this episode) and finds common bonds where other retailers tend to find differences. As a result, you have a preppy brand that appears to welcome streetwear fans, skaters, and even lame dads (like yours truly).

What’s most surprising about Rowing Blazers‘ growing appeal is that the founder had no fashion experience. Yet, Carlson and his small team source a number of fabrics to piece together new styles that are generally manufactured in the United States. The complexity of this operation is tremendous. The passion and devotion to each product reflects the time and effort spent on perfecting each “drop” or brand collaboration. In GQ magazine, Samuel Hine addresses the elephant in the room:

Carlson is an unlikely entrant in the N.Y.C. men’s fashion scene, precisely because he does have an uber-prep résumé. When we meet for breakfast at The Odeon, he is wearing a Tintin sweatshirt, Noah x Rowing Blazers sweatpants, and Sperry sneakers from a forthcoming collab. Thirty-one years old, he has the slight build of a former coxswain and a boyish laugh—a quick ha-ha—like he’s just told a dirty joke in the steam room at the Racquet Club. Carlson attended Georgetown and then Oxford, where he got a PhD in archaeology while racing for the university’s storied boat club. He did three stints on the U.S. national rowing team, coxing a boat to a bronze-medal finish at the 2015 world championships.

Jack’s education was that of a deep generalist and it shows. He is an extraordinary talent that seems to be building a brand that will last. His perspectives on how and why he  chose the retail industry to innovate is worth your time.

New: the RSS feed can be found here.

AUDIO BY WEB SMITH AND JACK CARLSON
COPRODUCIDO POR VINCENZO LANDINO Y WEB SMITH
EDITADO POR VINCENZO LANDINO 
INGENIERÍA DE VINCENZO LANDINO 
POLYMATHIC AUDIO ES UN PRODUCTO DE 2PM INC. 

Polymathic Audio No. 3: Gary Vaynerchuk

Ten years ago, Vaynerchuk was packing boxes in a New Jersey warehouse. Today, that blue collar mentality and grit remains while the scope of the job has grown. Move past the personal brand of Gary Vaynerchuk and what you’ll find, beyond the braggadocio and personal brand, is an operator of one of the most diversified and impressive holding companies in the United States.

I know how to win arbitrages.

When I started the Polymathic Audio Project, I set out to find modern examples of polymathic thinkers. By the time that you’re done with episode, you’ll view Vaynerchuk through a different lens. He’s accomplished more than most; the architecture of his business holdings suggests that the upstart has yet to be realized.

VaynerX holdings features the following operations:

VaynerMedia: a full service digital agency that services Fortune 500 clients. Reportedly profitable, Vaynerchuk mentioned that the agency earned over $200 million in 2019.

Tracer: a data platform for marketing efficiency. The early platform has managed over $750 million in marketing across 50 global brands.

Gallery Media Group: a portfolio of media brands to include PureWow, Blink, 137pm, Mom Brain, The CMO Podcast, and Fashionista.

Sasha Group: a marketing and consulting firm for small businesses generating $1M and $100M in revenue.

VaynerProductions: a production and animation lab that focuses on storytelling and impacting culture.

VaynerSpeakers: a speakers bureau built to facilitate modern event planning. The bureau consults organizations and provide speakers of range and impact. Speakers include Dominique Dawes, Sarah Kunst, Ryan Holiday, Andrew Brandt, and Amy Landino.

Screen Shot 2019-12-23 at 7.11.45 PM
A brand machine: PureWow provides validity to his DTC brand.

In addition to these VaynerX properties, Vaynerchuk runs the following operations:

Green Street: a full service creative agency agency dedicated to cannabis brands.

WineText: an eCommerce cart that optimizes for frictionless payments through SMS.

Sin título

eCommerce types don’t talk enough about how @garyvee hacked friction-less purchases with @winetexts. 1/ sign up, add payment information2/ opt in to receive inventory texts 3/ reply to the text with # of bottles4/ confirmation sent seconds later

Empathy Wines: a DTC brand that features affordable wines of top quality.

VaynerSports: a full service athlete representation agency that commits to guiding players though issues on the field and off.

Related Companies: is a partner to VaynerX. Miami Dolphins and real estate tycoon Stephen Ross maintains a personal interest in Vayner properties.

Minnesota RØKKR: co-owner of the eSports team alongside the Minnesota Vikings owners, the Wilf family.

Wine Library: where it all started. Vaynerchuk’s first big moment came when he was handed the keys to his father’s liquor store. He took it from offline to online in an effort that grew the company from $3 million to $65 million in annual sales.

And though that may be more than enough for one professional, that’s not all. Gary’s work and personal brand have placed him at an interesting spot. He’s one of the most influential business people in hip hop. He’s trusted by many up and coming rappers thanks to his longtime partnership with manager and promoter Mike Boyd.  The New York Times recently featured this side of Vaynerchuk.

This is only the beginning, according to Vaynerchuk, who hosted a Budweiser-sponsored Super Bowl party this year featuring entertainment from Grizzley, Keed and YG. (Lil Keed, Vaynerchuk said, almost made an appearance in a Mr. Peanut Super Bowl commercial that featured Alex Rodriguez, but it wasn’t to be.) [1]

What struck me most about this conversation with Vaynerchuk is just how badly his mind is needed in consumer goods and direct to consumer retail. He’s a legitimate veteran in eCommerce. He understands the principles of linear commerce [2]. His patience is long and his understanding of business leverage is unparalleled. I’m convinced that at some point, 2PM Inc. and VaynerX will partner to help facilitate the growth of direct brands. I’m not sure that even Vaynerchuk realizes that he’s built a corporate promotional machine that could survive without his personal branding efforts.

Vaynerchuk is a polymathic thinker by definition. Unconventional, curious, and skilled, he’s built an empire that’s valued well into the hundreds of millions. But rather than start with his beginning, we start with his end game: buying the NFL’s New York Jets. It’s a goal that he’s publicly championed for over a decade. For the longest time, onlookers scoffed at the idea. It’s clear that he has a path to achieving that end game. No. 3 of Polymathic Audio is 54 minutes that will impact the way that you think. And it may influence what you do next.

Notice: this podcast contains explicit language. Parental guidance is strongly suggested. 

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Ep. 003: Gary Vaynerchuk

Ep. 003: Gary Vaynerchuk

AUDIO BY WEB SMITH AND GARY VAYNERCHUK
COPRODUCIDO POR VINCENZO LANDINO Y WEB SMITH
EDITADO POR VINCENZO LANDINO 
ENGINEERING BY VINCENZO LANDINO AND ANDREW JOHNSON 
POLYMATHIC AUDIO ES UN PRODUCTO DE 2PM INC.