Stefan Contorno:
Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of The Key Ingredient podcast. Today is an exciting episode because today’s guest is not only an entrepreneur, but also a fashion icon and a true Renaissance man. Today, I’m joined by Christopher Korey. Christopher, thank you so much for joining me today.
Christopher Korey:
No, the pleasure is mine. Thank you for having me.
Stefan Contorno:
As someone who really appreciates both men and women’s fashion, I’m looking forward to this discussion, because you literally are the guru. I follow you on Instagram and love what you do, and certainly looking forward to our viewers and listeners to learning more about you. If you don’t mind, Christopher, maybe just tell us a little bit about yourself, please.
Christopher Korey:
Literally born and raised here in New York, in Manhattan, and lived to tell about it, an exciting place to grow up for sure. I’ve had my own real estate company now for almost 25 years. In the past few years, my business partner and I started a clothing line, almost three years ago. One evolved from the other, surprisingly, and here we are.
Stefan Contorno:
Excellent. Well, I definitely want to segue into that a little bit, but I want to start at the beginning, if you don’t mind. I’d love to learn a little bit more about the journey. Take me back to years ago when you were in school and what your passion was and what you really wanted to aspire to from a career point of view.
Christopher Korey:
Well, I originally started, when I went to school, I went to art school because I thought perhaps I’d become either an interior designer or illustrator or something creative. Then when I started veering towards interior design, I had to think of a way when I got out of school that I was going to get clients, get jobs, do something. I thought I’d go about it by getting my real estate license, and when I did that, I would sell somebody an apartment and then I’d get the interior design job, or some facet thereof.
Christopher Korey:
What happened to me is very unusual in real estate. It doesn’t usually happen all the time, especially to young people coming into the business. I got very fortunate, and I sold a lot of apartments right away. When I did that, it snowballed and took on a life of its own. I went to go work for a little mom-and-pop shop in my neighborhood, and then as soon as I could, I went out on my own, thinking that it would tank in six months and I’d be looking for something else to do, but surprisingly it went okay, and then here it is 25 years later and still around.
Stefan Contorno:
When you mentioned having early success when you started in real estate, what do you attribute that to? Because like you said, it’s very unusual. I don’t know the statistics, but most people who get into the real estate profession do not end up doing that long term. What do you attribute that to?
Christopher Korey:
It’s a number of factors. I have to say there is a certain amount of luck involved, but I would say finding something, this is true of most businesses, finding something that separates you from the rest of the pack. When I first got into real estate, I had friends who were in the real estate business and I knew people who were in the real estate business, and I would hear their war stories and their tales of woe. I looked around and I just didn’t want to be any of that, so I tried to separate myself by just developing my own style on how to approach clients, how to interact with people. You don’t really know it then, but it’s really more just being yourself instead of trying to put on some persona that you think people want to hear or want to be around. Also, at that time, when I got into it, it was a very interesting time in New York. It was in the ’90s. Things were booming here.
Christopher Korey:
It was just when a lot of video, reality TV, these type of things started coming to the forefront. Everything started to become based on image, and what people saw as their first impression made a huge impression. Even though at the time I didn’t have a lot of money, I thought it was very important that I put the best version of myself out there, so I scrounged together what I could, got about five of the best suits I could afford and had them tailored to within a life of myself, because I really thought I had to look like I belonged in the circle that I was moving around in. Of course, being at that age, that was super important to me, as I thought I had to fit in and blend, and to be taken seriously, I needed to look a certain way, which to some degree was true, but at the time, when you’re that age, it becomes super important.
Christopher Korey:
I tried to polish it as much as I could, thinking that, at the time, money attracts money. I thought if I looked like money, money would… that sort of thesis. Later on, I found out it was really more about what you bring to the table in terms of your intellect and personality, and the other stuff was just window dressing. But that being said, because I was determined to put the best version of myself out there, I really do firmly believe that a lot of opportunities opened up to me because I was very focused on that. I really believe doors opened for me that normally would not have if I was in jeans and sweatpants. I do think it definitely played a role in pushing me forward and opening doors that I don’t think would have had I been not my best.
Stefan Contorno:
Okay, so here you are many years as a real estate agent, then you make this segue into the clothing line, right? Listen, a lot of us like clothing, but we don’t necessarily make it a passion enough that we want to start our own business. How did that happen?
Christopher Korey:
Somewhat organically, but in a very strange way. Going back to when I was in art school, I’ve always been a very visual person, a very creative person, and I never thought in a million years I would be in real estate this long. I thought I would do something creative, something much more along the artistic lines. But what happened was during the course of your time in real estate, you spend so much time with your clients, months and months sometimes, you become very intertwined in their life. They become intertwined in your life. You develop friendships. And the closer you get to people, they start to ask you questions. Where’d you get that suit? I love the way this is tailored. I love your jacket. If it was a couple I would sell, “Wow, I love your dress,” and she’s like, ‘Oh, it doesn’t fit me well.” I’m like, “We can take care of that. I know how to…” that type of thing.
Christopher Korey:
I don’t know, maybe about 10 years into real estate, I, not knowingly, started styling my clients. I would take them shopping and we would put them in things, and they would ask me my opinion. I would say, “This is not a great color for you, and your skin tone is all wrong for that.” It just took on a life of its own. After a while, it started to grow and grow and grow, and it started to become as big as the real estate business. It started taking up a lot of time. Clients were asking for appointments, and it just really started to grow.
Christopher Korey:
Then social media came along, and it was actually one of the young guys who worked for me said to me, “Hey, Grandpa, you’re not on any kind of social media whatsoever. You may want to get on that.” At the time I really didn’t want to be on social media, and I really felt like it was for younger people. It felt very narcissistic and weird to me. There was just a lot I didn’t like about it. I also felt it was developing, and I still do think that it was developing… Ironically, it’s called social media, but what it’s done in real life has set back social skills in real life that we don’t really use anymore. It’s becoming a lost art, how to-
Stefan Contorno:
That’s a great point.
Christopher Korey:
… interact with people. It’s just ironic to me that it’s called social media when it’s-
Stefan Contorno:
By the way, Christopher, how many years ago was this that you were introduced to social media?
Christopher Korey:
Good question. Maybe five years ago, something like that.
Christopher Korey:
I started looking at social media to see what was the least objectionable to me and what I thought I could stomach and handle, because what I realized was that he was, in fact, right, in that you could see the landscape changing, that if you wanted to be in business these days, you really had to have some presence on social media. I thought, “Okay, I better do this, just so I’m not a true dinosaur that doesn’t have any presence on there,” because I really felt like, from a business standpoint, it was probably a good move, because I had noticed that in functions I would go to and things that I would attend, you never handed out a business card anymore. They would ask you for your Instagram handle, and I was like, “Wow. Okay, I guess the landscape has changed.”
Christopher Korey:
I chose Instagram because, A, it seemed like the easiest thing to use, so a monkey like myself could do it. It was also the most visual in terms of each thing was a billboard-like photo with a narrative or text underneath. I thought, “Oh, okay, that looks appealing.” But as I went through it, unfortunately, a lot of what I saw was, obviously, a lot of self-promotion, and I totally get that, but it also seemed like there was a negative undertone to it, where it was almost a medium of lack. I felt like young people were going on there, especially young men, looking at how fabulous everybody else’s life was, and they were seeing everything that they themselves didn’t have, which then made them feel terrible about themselves, or depressed or whatever it was. I thought, “Well, that’s not great.”
Christopher Korey:
I really feel like, if you have that many users and that many eyeballs on you, why wouldn’t you use it for something positive? Why wouldn’t you use it for something to help somebody feel better about themselves rather than terrible about themselves? I thought, okay, if I’m going to do this and be the opposite of try to promote more of a positive message, in hopes that even if it helped one person out there, it was a worthwhile endeavor, and also showing people that if a knucklehead like myself can do it, you can do it too. You should really think about not selling yourself short and giving things a try and doing it that way. That was my grand idea.
Christopher Korey:
As it grew, I guess it resonated with some people. I’ve had countless, I mean countless, people reach out to me about how it helped them in some way, and that’s actually been the most gratifying part. I’m extremely thankful for the business aspect of it and what it’s meant for our business and everything else, but if that all went away tomorrow and I was left with that it helped somebody, I’d consider it a success.
Stefan Contorno:
I think that’s great. You have roughly, yeah, I think 380,000 followers on Instagram, so you grew that-
Christopher Korey:
I don’t know.
Stefan Contorno:
I checked for you. That’s okay.
Christopher Korey:
Well, thank you. Thank you.
Stefan Contorno:
It’s growing. Every post you have, not only is it stylish, but you always send a great message. I think-
Christopher Korey:
Thank you.
Stefan Contorno:
… that goes to exactly what you’re saying.
Christopher Korey:
Thank you.
Stefan Contorno:
So here you are. Okay. Again, a lot of what I do with this podcast is about entrepreneurship. I’m always fascinated by how people make decisions to go from one career to another. Here you are, you’ve built, really, a personal brand through Instagram, which was very smart, the way you did that, just a really great thing. But you took your profession of real estate, you moved it into this fashion business. Now, again, going back years ago, high school and college, were you into fashion? Is that something that developed later on?
Christopher Korey:
Not consciously. In high school, especially, you’re trying to find your way and find who you are from a stylistic point of view as well as a life point of view. I developed my own style then by not… Even then, I didn’t want to do what everyone else was doing, because just like in life, and as you see on social media today or if you follow trends today, everybody started to look the same. It was like that in high school too. Everybody’s wearing the same jeans, the same tops.
Christopher Korey:
When I was in high school, way back before electricity, the big thing were Air Jordans. Michael Jordan had just come into the league. He was a rookie then, and he was a rock star from the get-go. That was the beginning of the sneaker craze that happened. That was what kind of high-tops were you wearing. I was a big jock in high school, and it became a competitive thing. Everybody on the team, what were you wearing? I guess at some point it grew from that, and it was born out of that.
Christopher Korey:
Very early on, even as a young man, I was enamored with old Hollywood movies, old Hollywood movies from, let’s say, the ’30s and ’40s, even the ’50s, where both the men and women looked phenomenal to me and I felt like they represented this style that was timeless. They would look good in any era. They weren’t following any trends. Not everybody looked alike. There was a common theme, but everybody had their own take on it. There was just something very appealing about that to me. I think that seed was planted early on, as well as my parents both being very stylish people.
Stefan Contorno:
Okay, so then certainly-
Christopher Korey:
Very much so. Yeah, definitely. Interiors to clothing to what have you, there was always a high degree of style in my house, without sounding too bougie, I guess. It just was organic in our house. Everybody had their own highly developed sense of style, and it was very apparent, my sister to myself to my mother, my father. It was all around you. We were also surrounded by a lot of creative people, people in the movie business and people in the art world and people in fashion and people in photography. It was always around us, so that was nurtured throughout my childhood.
Christopher Korey:
Then as I became a younger lad, the things that appealed to me were movies of the ’30s and ’40s and that highly stylized style. They always seemed to be their best and always presented an image that brought the attention to them and their face and what they were saying. That very much appealed to me, so I think I adopted that early on, probably to varying degrees of success as time went on. But eventually it sunk in, and then I developed my own version of that. And here we are.
Christopher Korey:
It, I guess, organically grew. Through the social media thing, I’ve… A very close friend of mine, who is now my business partner at the store, he and his dad were making my clothes. It’s a tailor shop that’s been there almost 50 years. They’re extremely well-known here in New York, and the workmanship there has always been, by far, the best. He’s young and a cowboy, and every time I would see him, we would always have good rapport, going back and forth. It was actually he who suggested that we do something in this realm, but we never knew what.
Christopher Korey:
Then when social media came along, what happened was I had some time posted that they were the ones making my clothes, because I was getting the questions a lot. Then they would say, “Well, is it a certain style?” I would say, “No, I design it. They make it. They never say no to me. Even though sometimes they think I’m nuts, they carry it out, and they do it the best in the city.”
Christopher Korey:
I would say probably a couple of months after that, he called me one day and he told me, he’s like, “Hey, brother, it’s getting out of control here with guys coming into the tailor shop with you on the phone saying, ‘Hey, you made this. Could you make this for me?'” Then they’d buy five of them and they’d buy six of them at a time. He was like, “Hey, we got to do something.” I said, “No, man, I’m just happy you have the business, and I’m happy for you.”
Christopher Korey:
Then another month or two went by, and he called me again. He said, “No, now it’s really getting out of control.” He said, “My dad and I haven’t been this busy in a long time. This is nuts.” He said, “Why don’t we collaborate and do something?” He said, “You design them. I’ll build them. I can’t do what you do, and you can’t do what I do. Maybe together we can work something out.” So we did.
Christopher Korey:
We thought we’d just designed this small capsule collection that we’d maybe put online somewhere, and hopefully three people, one of them being a cousin, would buy it. Then we did that and we set up a system in place where they could come in and buy. Shockingly to me, it exploded. He and I were looking at each other like, “Okay, this is probably the best idea we’ve had in a while.”
Christopher Korey:
A series of opportunities presented themselves, and a retail space became available. That was the last thing I wanted to do was open up a retail shop, because I could see very readily that it was pretty much the retail apocalypse approaching. It was not something I wanted to do, but he totally talked me into it. The stars aligned with how we got it, and it turns out that it was in a space that my father used to frequent to have his clothes made. There was a lot of history there that just seemed preordained.
Christopher Korey:
We signed the lease. This is almost three years ago now. Honestly, from the day we opened, other than a couple of months that we were closed during the height of COVID, it has been a nonstop experience there, the likes of which neither of us could have imagined in our wildest dreams.
Stefan Contorno:
That’s amazing. I was going to ask you about COVID. COVID is obviously a big thing here, and we’re still in the middle of this pandemic to some degree. From a business point of view, did you see a shift? Like you said, you were closed for a period of time, like most businesses, but did you find that… Do you do more business now online, or is it still more in person? What does that look like these days?
Christopher Korey:
We again have been super fortunate, in that when it hit, it hit at a very interesting and tragic time for a lot of reasons. We had just come back; we had done our first runway show in Paris. Literally, I would say maybe six or seven days after we got back here to New York from Paris, everything shut down.
Stefan Contorno:
Wow.
Christopher Korey:
I thought, oh my God. It was weirdly ironic, in that the Paris show was amazing and we had a ton of interest and people wanting to place massive orders, and we thought, “Touchdown.” Then COVID hit and we thought, “Okay, we’ve gone from 100 to zero in no time.” Then I thought, oh my God, this is… Especially because we didn’t really know what it was going to be like. Pandemic was a new word and all these things. I thought, “We’re going to shut the doors, and this is going to be the end of us,” just as I think just about every other retailer thought at that time.
Christopher Korey:
But there was a stroke of good fortune. Just prior to that, we had gotten our website up and the majority of our stuff online. When I tell you, I mean… There was maybe a week or so there where, after we shut the store down, everything was totally quiet, and I thought, “Oh, this is it.” Then all of a sudden, you start getting these alerts on the website, of these chimes going off about sales, and then it just wouldn’t stop. It started relentlessly. In some ways, I think it actually helped us because we found this worldwide audience and customer base that I don’t know that we would have as quickly, certainly, without the COVID situation happening.
Christopher Korey:
Right after that, I would say maybe three, four, five months after that, we started shipping garments to places I never would’ve imagined we would ship, whether it was in Istanbul or Hong Kong or Australia, literally worldwide, a lot in Italy and London, much more internationally biased than I ever would’ve imagined, at least, certainly, that quickly. Now that we’ve come out of it, I think in that way it almost helped us, in that it propelled us a little faster than we would’ve grown naturally. This whole past week, we had massive shipments all over the world to places that I’m like, “How do they even know about us?”
Stefan Contorno:
Instagram.
Christopher Korey:
You really realize the global impact of Instagram. When we were in Paris, when we were preparing for the show, we’d be walking around, gathering things for the show, and there were people… I was with my business partner, Carl, at the time, walking the streets of Paris. Obviously, it’s Paris, and we’re taking it all in. It’s one of my favorite places in the world. Every so often, some guy would come running up to me and say, “Oh, I follow you on Instagram. Can I take a picture?”
Christopher Korey:
As this continued, whether it be in London or Paris, he turned to me and he said, “You don’t really realize we’re so in our bubble in New York. You think it’s all New York base, or there’s some people down in Miami who follow you.” He said, “But you don’t really realize how vast the network is.” It’s not until you travel internationally and have that experience with people coming up to you and recognizing you and being very complimentary and very sweet. Also, you meet a lot of great people. That, I have to say. There’s some fabulous people I’ve met through Instagram that I probably never would’ve met had it not been through Instagram. I have to say, even in that, it had its benefits.
Christopher Korey:
Then when we got back, literally, we went from the height to the toilet bowl, back to a height that I never could have imagined. I really do think that had a lot to with it. So there you are. It’s the power of Instagram, and then finding something good out of something truly tragic and horrific. It’s living proof that anything can happen.
Stefan Contorno:
Yeah. It makes you realize how big that reach is on Instagram or social media in general. The point is, as well as you’ve done with that, the sky’s the limit. There literally is no limit to how much exposure you can get.
Stefan Contorno:
When we talk about COVID, obviously a lot of things in the world have changed, and a lot of that may stay around for at least the foreseeable future. Fashion is something that, from my point of view, is a very interesting thing because COVID has changed that as well. Now, the question’s going to be, how long has it changed it for? Is it a temporary or permanent type of change?
Stefan Contorno:
For most of us, we ended up working from home. People started wearing more gym type of clothing. Style or fashion has changed quite a bit. What do you see now? I know your specialty is more with men’s clothing and fashion, but also with women, I’ll be interested to hear your take on that. From the men’s point of view, where do you see fashion going? Do you see things like people… You’re wearing a tie today, but do you think the tie is still here to stay? Do you think we take a break from it? What are your thoughts around that?
Christopher Korey:
Well, I think it’s more of an evolution than a revolution. While COVID has certainly changed that aspect of the world, it comes down to adapting to what the change is. You have to differentiate style and fashion. Fashion is something that changes seasonally. That’s something you have to keep up with. There’s a place for that, and there are things in fashion that are phenomenal.
Christopher Korey:
That being said, style is something that I’m more interested in, because style is timeless. It’s not about the flavor of the month or the hot shoe or the hot bag or any of that stuff. It’s really more, I would say, for lack of a better word, what is consistent, looking good no matter what time period you’re in. That’s the definition of timeless. It’s not marking time. It’s carrying through time.
Christopher Korey:
In that respect, I think certain aspects of style will continue. They may evolve. Wearing a tie, there may be that, but to a lesser degree. I do think there is a certain fundamental shift in that if you give people a chance to be more lazy or more comfortable, they take it in a minute. This has opened the door for that in a world that was going that way anyway. Just like, in its own weird way, COVID propelled and accelerated the timeline of our business, I think it propelled and accelerated that aspect of society that was already in place.
Christopher Korey:
If you look at the success of brands that perpetuate that in that very loose, casual, somewhat streetwear, although streetwear can be highly stylized and look amazing, but that yoga-pant mentality, and yoga-pant-as-evening-wear mentality, which is wrong on many levels, you see where this now just blew that up on steroids. It just propelled that.
Christopher Korey:
I do think, regardless of whether you are CKC or Ralph Lauren or Tom Ford, and I by no means put us in that category, but as an example, I think you do have to adapt somewhat, but without giving up your core principles of what you think looks good. You can adapt to it and you can evolve with it, but you don’t have to sell your soul to it. Then you will, as the pendulum swings back or swings in another direction totally, you’ll end up following and chasing the next trend. We’ve been able to adapt to it in that we have a somewhat streetwear line that, I have to say, is now overtaking our suiting line in some areas. You can see how the fundamental shift has come about. But that being said, our core audience is still that highly stylized, a little more formal than sweatpants type of thing.
Christopher Korey:
Probably the answer to your question is somewhere in between. There may be a hybrid of it. We’re actually right now working with a couple of mills where we’re experimenting with new fabrics that are a little more jersey-like and comfortable, yet highly stylized and suited. We’re working on some samples now that, if they come out the way we hope they will, lends itself to that and will be… You can still look good and be comfortable is the idea of it, without being totally in the Zoom, work-from-home camp. Maybe you have a shirt on and you’re not actually even wearing pants. That’s a whole other thing.
Stefan Contorno:
That is a whole other thing. Yes.
Christopher Korey:
Then as far as the women’s business, ironically, after the Paris show, we had more orders for our women’s stuff than our men’s. We thought, “Oh, this is going to be fantastic. Now the women’s business.” Then COVID hit, and we put it on the back burner when we focused more on the online stuff.
Christopher Korey:
Now we’re actually getting back, just recently actually, to the womenswear line. Hopefully, if things work out, we’re having a meeting of the minds of the creative forces in our shop that will nurture new designs that come out, because what we’re really looking for is the womenswear to match the level of, A, the quality and, B, the look of the menswear, so that if you saw two people wearing CKC walking into a party, they look like they’re together. There’s some cohesiveness to that, where one isn’t too trendy and it’s more classic, but with an edge, very big on fit. That’s something we’re working on now. I hope, if it all works out, later in the fall into the winter, we’ll have some pretty exciting stuff coming out.
Stefan Contorno:
I like that. Personally, I think style is just a way to showcase who you are. To some degree, it makes you stand out. Even when I mentioned the tie, obviously, even on television, we’re seeing a lot less people are wearing a tie, but I would say for a lot of people, as long as that’s their look, it’s also a way to separate yourself amongst other people as well.
Christopher Korey:
Very true.
Stefan Contorno:
Probably even more so now-
Christopher Korey:
Very true.
Stefan Contorno:
… than we’ve ever seen.
Christopher Korey:
I really feel like if the tie is authentically you, or whatever is authentically you, whether you have pink hair or you wear a tie, or whatever it is, and you own it, and it’s authentically you, you’re always going to look good, because it’s a natural… It’s like a second skin. If you’re able to incorporate that on the daily, I feel like it puts out an energy there that people respond to.
Stefan Contorno:
Yeah. It makes a lot of sense. I’d be curious to hear your thoughts on some of the trends that are out there now. For men’s suits, single breasted versus double breasted, where are things with that?
Christopher Korey:
Frankly, and I mean this in no flippant way whatsoever, I could give a damn, only because I feel like I don’t really concern myself with what’s in or what’s out. If we have a client come into the shop, I have to put what looks best on them and what is going to make them look their best. It can be on point in terms of trend or completely off the rails. If they look good, we’ve succeeded.
Christopher Korey:
Whatever the prevailing trend is, whether it be it’s double breasted or cleats in the pants, no cleats in the pants, if a guy comes in and he says to me, “I want to take all the pleats out of my pants because pleats are out,” I say, “But pleats look amazing on you. Do you want to put something on that’s not going to look amazing on you? Because that’s what’s going to happen if I take the pleats out of the pants.” He says, “Right.”
Christopher Korey:
I said, “Are you happy with the pleats? Are you comfortable in the pleats? Do the pleats look good on you? If all those answers are yes, if it’s not broken, don’t fix it. Why would we tamper with that and make you look worse? We want to make you look better.”
Stefan Contorno:
That’s really interesting, what you just said. I want to just repeat a little bit of what you mentioned. Again, style, so like you said, it’s all about what looks good on you and what you feel comfortable with. With my question was that I’m noticing, and I’m a novice here, but I’m noticing more and more men are wearing double-breasted suits. From my perception, which doesn’t mean a lot, it looks like there’s more of a trend that way. But your point really is, if you look better in a single-breasted suit and it fits to your build and it looks good on you, then why necessarily move over to double-breasted suit if it’s not you?
Christopher Korey:
Yeah. I feel like you should look your best at all times. Whether it’s double breasted, single breasted, shawl lapel, skinny lapel, wide lapel, whatever makes you look your best, that is what’s trending, because that’s what’s trending on you. You only really need to be concerned with what’s trending on you because that trend should continue for the rest of your days, and it’s whatever makes you look good. Whatever the magazines or social media are telling you is what’s cool now, if it looks good on you, you should hop right into it. If it doesn’t, get the hell away from it. Yeah.
Stefan Contorno:
I think that’s great advice. Let me ask you, Christopher, you’ve been an entrepreneur your entire life. What’s your favorite part of being an entrepreneur? What do you love about it?
Christopher Korey:
Well, I guess anybody who knows me would probably answer that by saying, “Well, he gets to control everything,” and there is a certain truth to that. Carl, my business partner, and I, I think we both have personalities that it would be very difficult for either of us to work for someone else. The fact that we get to call the shots, I think definitely feeds into some need in ourselves, so there’s that.
Christopher Korey:
I also feel like giving an opportunity to others around you, that you’re in a position to do that, whether it be some young designer coming up. We have a couple of interns in the office who are just getting into the business, and you’re able to hire them and show them the business. It’s passing the baton, I feel like, is a huge gratifying factor about being an entrepreneur.
Christopher Korey:
Also, I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t some drug-like aspect to it, in that you’re not really limited by anything other than your own imagination. There’s no structure that you have to follow in order to navigate growth. It’s really up to you. You can do whatever it is you want to do, how you want to do it.
Christopher Korey:
I think it’s very important to surround yourself with really smart people who will give you their opinion. And if you respect them, you hold great weight in their opinion. Then you’re going to end up doing what you want to do anyway, but it at least makes you pause and think, “Hmm, maybe that’s not the right way. Should I maybe not do that, or take into consideration what they say?”
Christopher Korey:
I’m very fortunate in that in my personal life, also in business, I’m surrounded by incredible people, and that helps me in that way. But at the end of the day, being an entrepreneur, you get to call the shots and you get to chart the course the way you would like it to go. Now, you’re going to fall on your face 15 different times, and that’s okay, because you learn from that and you grow from that, but you get to decide how and when you’re going to fall on your face rather than it being dictated to you, whether it be by a corporate structure or a series of management tiers above you. It can be somewhat stifling creatively and mentally in those situations.
Christopher Korey:
I have a lot of friends in those situations, and I feel for them. They’re very frustrated in that way, that they’re not able to… Even if they want to contribute to that company and make that company grow, and it’s not really about them, their ideas don’t get heard the way they want them to get heard, or at all, for that matter. That is one of, I would say, a handful of the things that is great about being an entrepreneur, is that it’s not only what you can do, but what you don’t have to deal with on the other side.
Stefan Contorno:
What would you say is the toughest part of being an entrepreneur?
Christopher Korey:
The exact same thing, that you dictate everything and that it’s all on you. It’s a blessing and a curse. The buck is going to stop with you. Whether the idea works or doesn’t work, it always comes back to you.
Christopher Korey:
I would say one of the toughest things, though, quite honestly, is time management. That, I have to say, because you have so much on your plate, there are some exhausting days, and not being able to get to everything that you want to get to in a certain amount of time and in a timely manner. Inevitably, things will fall through the cracks that you would rather not have happen, but it’s part of the deal. It’s one of the pitfalls, but I have to say, it’s one of the hardest things to deal with, is time management.
Christopher Korey:
It’s also keeping all the plates in the air at one time. You’re juggling everything all at once, and you’re so hypersensitive to not letting anything hit the floor that it can be all-consuming at some point. You have to, which I’m completely still learning to do, is take a step back and take time for yourself and do all that. Finding that balance can be very difficult, but-
Stefan Contorno:
Balance. Yeah, I’m sorry.
Christopher Korey:
Yeah, you really have to do it, just from a mental health standpoint, and physically and everything else. While it is a high-class problem to have, it still can be a problem at times, so you really have to be mindful of it.
Stefan Contorno:
I agree with you. I think most entrepreneurs don’t do that well, the balance. It’s a very tricky thing, and like you said, from a mental health point of view, obviously very important.
Stefan Contorno:
Christopher, as we wrap things up here a little bit, what kind of parting advice do you have for those aspiring entrepreneurs out there looking to build a business? What advice would you give them?
Christopher Korey:
Honestly, I would say the best piece of advice I could probably give them is to stop listening to so much advice. I’ve found that, and this has been true for myself and I’ve seen it in other entrepreneurs, is that you get so much input from other people that it can sometimes get you out of your own idea and make you second-guess everything, to a point where it comes to be a situation where it’s paralysis by analysis. You’ve worked it over in your head and gotten so much input from so many people that you didn’t do anything because you were scared to make a mistake.
Christopher Korey:
I would say stop listening to everybody as much. Certainly, take input from people you admire and respect, who are intelligent or talented in what they do. But at the end of the day, you have to do what feels right to you. You have to do what is both authentic to you, but also that in your gut, which has an amazing track record… Whether you listen to it or not is a different story, but-
Stefan Contorno:
That’s a whole different story.
Christopher Korey:
… it has an amazing track record in that it’s never been wrong. It may not always give you what you want to hear, but it’s never been wrong. If you’re able to tap into that on a regular basis and filter out the noise that’s around you, even though that noise may have good intentions and want what’s best for you and whatever, you really have to think about what’s authentically you and what you should do, and your own path and your own creativity and your own lane that is leading you to where you want to go. So I would say the best advice is probably less advice.
Stefan Contorno:
Yeah. Well, that’s a great way to end here, Christopher. Listen, thank you so much for joining us here today. It’s an absolute pleasure to have you. Very insightful.
Christopher Korey:
I am humbled and honored, my friend, that you asked me. I truly am. I really do thank you for the opportunity.
Stefan Contorno:
Yeah, likewise. Thank you so much. Continued success. I’ll see you and your store probably towards the end of the year, so thank you again.
Christopher Korey:
I look forward to seeing you there.
Stefan Contorno:
Likewise. Take care. Thank you.