[0:07]Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome once more to AskOkey. This will be the second installment of many to come in the following weeks, months, and I hope years. And the first segment we talked about the structure of the platform, of the portal itself. We looked at the bespoke store, where we make you some fantastic bespoke clothing, trousers, shirts, jackets, and so on and so forth with more products to come. We also talked about the wardrobe genie, which is a tool we developed in house to assist you in organizing your wardrobe and to help you to build in a very, very thoughtful manner your own bespoke or personal wardrobe. It doesn't have to be bespoke. The third thing we talked about in the first segment was the blog. We talked about the structure of the blog, the four pillars of the blog and how we intend to approach them. And so today I want to spend a bit more time talking about the theme behind the blog itself before we start to bring you content on the blog. And I think the idea here is to provide a framework for you to use as a crutch as we go along this journey together. And the reason I'm doing that is because we started out this idea as a clothing blog or sort of as an a clothing, the idea behind it was to talk about men's dress. But since then, uh, we've expanded our purview into other areas, some of which I mentioned in the first video, uh, clothing, of course. Uh, we talked about philosophy, we talked about economics and finance and of course fitness and wellness. So I will get to that, but I want to sort of provide a bit more background on the host himself and how this entire project was conceived. As I mentioned in my first video, I started out life as a young 20-something year old investment banker. Uh, I came up on Wall Street where uh, we were essentially imbibed into this culture of can do. Uh, we were told we were masters of the universe and we believed it. And uh, as it as it happens, uh, as it tends to happen, uh, when people start out with ambition, uh, they seek out role models or they seek out models period. And they emulate these models, at least they sort of model their lives, um, to these models. And which is exactly what I did. And and I found for myself a model in a gentleman named Reginald Francis Lewis, passed away now. Uh, he was a, he was a corporate attorney who started out life as a as a lawyer on Wall Street and went on went on to create TLC Beatrice, uh, one of the largest LBO firms. LBO means leveraged buyout. LBO firms of its time in the in the late 80s and early 90s. And uh, Reg just did a phenomenal work, uh, phenomenal job. Um, his story rings uh, true till this day and there are many young men, similar to and women, similar to myself, uh, who've uh, borrowed a leaf or more, uh, from Regis story. And so I set forth uh, to build my whole story or build my whole life, uh, modeling Reg and it worked for a while, but it didn't work. And I explain why. And that is the purpose of this presentation. And I titled it, uh, you got to do you on my iPad. I titled it, you got to do you. And this is a very, very important point. Um, it worked well, modeling Reggie's life. Uh, it worked well in the sense that it provided me the foundation and background to pursue this life that I sought. Um, however, there comes a point in one's life, in a person's life where you really have to find your own voice. Uh, it's great that the people our mentors, our our role models or the figures that we admire, uh, don't things what they've done, but that's because it was them, that is their story. And I think the trick is to figure out where to depart from that scripted path and pursue your own journey. And for me, looking back in hindsight, I think I stayed on that path far too long. Um, and so, I had to take out some time. I think it might have been around 2017, 18. I took out some time to really discover myself, to spend some time alone in study and reflection, deep introspection, to figure out who I was and and what my strengths were and what my gift to the world was. Uh, and then once I figured that out, it became a challenge of how do I present that gift to the world. How do I put it together in a package that expresses value, very tangible value to the world and then how do I give that gift to the world? Because it it occurred to me after my years of study that that is the only way to be truly exceptional is to be yourself, your true authentic self and to find a way to convey and to communicate that self to the world. And so that is the genesis of this blog and this story. And so going back to the beginning, I did mention that the idea behind this blog originally was to do a clothing blog. However, I thought that will be short changing not just myself but my audience because I have been fortunate to acquire a lot of experiences through the course of this journey. And I'm hoping through this journey on this blog that we are able to through anecdotes, uh, through the study of philosophy, through my passion for clothing, through my background in banking and finance and economics, and last but certainly not the least, through my dedication and commitment to fitness, that we're able to craft a story and that we're able to build a philosophy, uh, that helps not just myself, but yourself, uh, through your own path and journey of self discovery. Now, let's talk about AskOkey itself and its genesis. Ask Okey and its current form, which is the brand. Starting about three years ago, um, I've been designing my own clothes for a very long time. Uh, even when I was a young banker on Wall Street, I designed my own clothes and I went to have them made either in New York or in Italy or elsewhere. Uh, but three or four years ago, we decided that we wanted to do something unique. And so we created this brand, and we went about building, um, a pattern that expressed the philosophy that we wanted to share with the world. I am, um, I tend to be very classical in my tastes and that cuts across the board. Be it in music, be it in clothing, uh, be it in literature, uh, be it in, you know, in so many realms. And so we wanted to create something that was truly classical or classic and timeless. And so we had to go to the drawing board and create a brand new idea, not a brand new idea, but I would say a modern interpretation of a very classic idea. We borrowed ideas from the 1930s and 40s and 50s, which in my view remains the height of elegance in both men's and women's clothing. Uh, we took a lot of ideas. I spent thousands of hours, hours, uncountable hours just looking at apparel art articles, Etsy articles, pictures, photos on Pinterest. Just building this idea of what I thought the ideal image was or the ideal image that we wanted to communicate. And once that was internalized, I set about creating patterns. Uh, we started with our AskOkey classic trousers and we moved on to the jacket and other products to come.
[9:49]And the end result, as some of you who already have uh, purchase our products, can attest to, is a truly timeless cut. Um, truly representing the golden age, the golden era. And so we've been successful in in recreating and modernizing this dress philosophy, which in my view, remains timeless. Uh, we have done so by partnering with various vendors. Uh, those of you who are familiar with our YouTube channel, have seen some of the videos that we shot. Uh, those were the old videos before we went uh, high-tech, so to speak, before we built our studio. Um, but they were great videos nonetheless. They were short on a basic iPhone, but uh, if you look at our YouTube library, you can refer to uh, different segments we did with our various uh, tailoring partners. So, here we are today. Uh, we have a suite of products, our bespoke products, virtual bespoke products that are available to you through our portal. And uh, we will keep on working on expanding the range of our products, um, as the years go by, um, internally, myself, of course, as the visionary, uh, in conjunction with our design team, which is led, uh, by a very talented young uh, gentleman who you will get to meet in uh, in future segments. So, that is uh, the genesis of AskOkey itself, the product, not the brand. The brand encapsulates everything including the wardrobe tool and the blog, of course. Now, let's talk about the blog more specifically. I did mention that I intended this to be to a true life story, a representation of a true life story.
[12:25]And I spent a lot of time thinking through this. I spent almost two years thinking and I delayed this project for over two years because I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to communicate to the world. I knew that there were thousands of blogs out there focused or dedicated to men's clothing. And I thought to myself, well, there is nothing new really that I would bring to men's clothing. These are all staples and and every different video is an interpretation of one man's view of of tailoring. However, it doesn't change the basic structure of tailoring. Um, and so I thought that the message should be different and in fact personal. And so my hope for this blog is that it becomes a template for us to follow this AskOkey story. We're building out a brand, we've been building it for years, and this is a continuation of that process. And in many ways, this blog becomes a biopic, a biography of sorts, and my hope is that it becomes a template for us all to reflect on and to borrow themes from as we develop our own lives and as we pursue our own goals and our own ambitions. We'll be bringing you not necessarily life videos from everything we do, but each segment will be tailored to reflect whatever phase we're going through in the phase of, or in the process of building out, uh, this brand.
[14:49]So we will have to walk through this journey together, you along with us or you along with me and uh, and and and and tell a true story. Um, I always have this thing about biographies generally of which I've read many, thousands even. Um, these things are always uh, written in retrospect. They're always written looking back. Um, and it's easy to write a story looking back and make it sound very nice. You know, it ends happily ever after and all of that stuff. Uh, but what is missing in this stories and what I've found that was missing in my study of this biographies is that the details matter. The details matter. You don't get to see the details of what these people, men, great men and women went through in building their legacies. And I hope that through this journey that we're able to share the ups, the downs, the high points, the low points, the triumphs, um, and the losses, um, as we go along and to make this as valuable as an experience uh, for you as it will be uh, for me.
[16:21]So we're going to be employing a lot of personal anecdotes, even in our study of philosophy, of which I have a lot of books here. From time to time, I will make references to several philosophical texts. Uh, as some of you who've been on my personal blog for some time would know, I'm an avid student of stoicism, something I've studied for years. And I hope that I'm able to communicate some of these ideas, especially around the subject of philosophy, borrowing from our own anecdotes as we proceed along this journey. Because I think that makes it so much more meaningful, uh, than just teaching about Plato or Socrates or Aristotle, uh, or Marcus Aurelius or Seneca the Younger.
[17:50]Um, so that's the way I see it and that's where I think we're going to approach the different additions as we go forward uh, on this blog, especially as it has to do with the, uh, philosophy section of it. The other parts of it, uh, clothing, we will do segments on different issues, just like other clothing blogs. Um, but it will not be all that the blog is all about. Uh, it will be, say, a quarter or maybe a third of the content that we're going to cover over the life of this blog. So, to round up again, regarding the blog, our cornerstones are four main stays.
[19:30]One, classic dress, two, finance and economics, third, philosophy, and last, fitness and wellness. So, these will be our cornerstones and we will take segments or we will break down our content, uh, in one fashion or the other. Not in, not in that particular order and and not in any particular ratio. I think a lot of it is going to be driven by how inspired I am and what I feel like, uh, what I'm inspired to share or to talk about at that uh, specific moment or at that time at that point in time. Um, as it so often happens, stories are so much more powerful when you're leaving through or living through a particular moment. And so I find that in my own experience, even for from keeping a blog for seven years, which I've done, I've kept a private blog for seven years since 2014. Those of you who've been on my blog for that length of time can attest to, some of the most powerful messages, you know, have come uh, in the middle of uh, a particular episode, be it crisis, be it, you know, uh, a moment of triumph, what have you, uh, because you cannot forge inspiration. It's there or it's not there. It's like trying to force a writer to write. It's very, very difficult to write when you're not inspired, um, to write on a specific or a certain subject. So I think we're going to follow the same theme here. Um, we're going to ensure that we pay due mind to all the four cornerstones of the blog. However, uh, there's not going to be a specific waiting to it and we're just going to have to create content, um, based on how we're inspired at that particular point in time. And then if I'm not inspired, I could just do a cookie cutter uh, video on uh, what suit should you get first, right? Everyone has a video on on what are the first two suits you should get. Oh, you should get a navy suit and and you should get a gray suit and and all of that stuff. Um, I think that is very sophomore, and I think a lot of you, my audience, are quite advanced. judging from my private blog. You're quite advanced and I and I think that uh, you would appreciate uh, more substance in that. And so, uh, I'll try to avoid those uh, basic, very primary uh, rudimentary videos and and and uh, delve into some deeper subjects like talking about fabrics, cloth, construction of a suit, uh, jacket, trousers, and so on and so forth. So, that is about it, uh, ladies and gentlemen, uh, for my monologue. Um, this has been just a truly, truly, truly exceptional journey. Um, we could have done this many years ago. Uh, as I mentioned earlier, I started blogging in 2014 privately. And at various points along that journey up until this point, 2021, seven years later, I've considered doing this. However, I just didn't have the conviction. I never had the conviction of how to approach this. And I think that it took having gone through my own personal journey. Because like all of you, I have evolved, uh, materially over those years. I'm a very different man today than I was in 2014. My priorities are somewhat different, my tastes have evolved, and so on and so forth.
[25:12]And so as they say, um, better late than never. However, uh, it's also important uh, to do things at the right time. Uh, as they say, fine wine matures with time. And so what I think we've done here is we've nurtured this idea in private for seven years. And um, we've arrived at ourselves, uh, you know, in a manner of speaking. And so now that we have, I look forward to this journey. I look forward to your companionship. I look forward to the camaraderie and I look forward to making great products. Yeah, I look forward to continue to be part of the design team. Uh, it's going to continue to push the envelope on the clothing side. Uh, but most importantly, I hope, I do hope, very sincerely so that, uh, this blog becomes more than just entertainment. For those of you who will be, uh, co-travelers on this journey for many years to come. I hope that it becomes a cornerstone of everything you do. I hope that it becomes a reference point for how you choose to pursue life. Uh, most importantly, I hope that it becomes the foundation for a friendship. I hope, even if it's virtual, that we will share in the coming weeks, months, and years, I hope. Thank you for watching, ladies and gentlemen, and I'll see you on the next episode. Goodbye.
