Episode 11: Beyond the Suit: Whiskey, Wisdom, and a Perfect Fit Suit with Brian Lipstein, Founder of Henry A. Davidsen
In this episode, Terresa Zimmerman sits down with Brian Lipstein, founder and CEO of Henry A. Davidsen, a Philadelphia-based custom menswear company known for delivering more than just great suits. Over the creation of a perfectly formed, ice ball for a glass of Macallan, Brian shares the unique experience his clients enjoy—complete with a personalized whiskey bar—and the journey he took to build his business from a University of Pennsylvania venture program to nearly 20 years of success.
Brian’s story is filled with passion, from learning the art of tailoring to providing men with an unmatched customer experience, grounded in education and authenticity. He explains how his father, who once celebrated the rise of business casual, became his first test subject for a custom suit and the surprising transformation that followed. Brian talked about the philosophy behind his proven process, the power of a well-fitted garment, and how custom clothing can boost confidence, performance, and trust.
The conversation touches on everything from business growth challenges to the importance of building genuine client relationships, and the future of Henry A. Davidsen, including plans for expansion and creating a scalable yet personalized client experience across multiple locations.
Brian also shared Henry A. Davidsen’s core values and are represented by the acronym R.E.A.L.:
1. Be Reputable: Uphold integrity, credibility, respect, and trustworthiness in every action. It’s about being reliable and maintaining a strong reputation through every client interaction.
2. Be Extraordinary: Focus on creating exceptional, high-touch experiences that go beyond the ordinary. Every detail matters in delivering a personalized and memorable experience for clients.
3. Be Authentic: Encourage clients to be their true selves and reflect that authenticity through their clothing. Henry A. Davidsen aims to help people feel comfortable in their skin and align their outward appearance with who they truly are.
4. Be Learned: Continuously seek knowledge and education, both for the team and clients. This value is about growing, learning from experiences, and using that knowledge to improve services and educate others.
Key Takeaways:
-Brian’s journey from college incubator program to 19 years of tailoring excellence.
-How Henry A. Davidsen delivers a luxury experience with custom whiskey bars and personalized consultations.
-Why fit, fabric, and personal style matter beyond the brand label.
-Brian’s approach to scaling his business without losing its core values of authenticity and client experience.
Whether you're interested in custom menswear, entrepreneurship, or the importance of community-driven business, this episode is full of valuable insights.
Featured in this episode:
Henry A. Davidsen
Website: https://henrydavidsen.com/
Instagram: @henrydavidsen
Blog: https://henrydavidsen.com/blog/
Connect with Brian Lipstein:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianlipstein/
Other Mentions:
Entrepreneur’s Organization - https://hub.eonetwork.org/
(BOOK) Unreasonable Hospitality - Link
(BOOK) Know What Matters: Lessons from a Lifetime of Transformations by Ron Shaick - Link
Connect with Us:
Main Street Matters Podcast:
Website: www.mainstreetmatters.co
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mainstreetmatters1
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/main-street-matters
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/@MainStreetMatters_MSM
Host - Terresa Zimmerman:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/terresachristensonzimmerman
Listen to the episode here:
Watch the episode here:
Featured Store:
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
# Swell AI Transcript: MSM EP 11 Brian HQ.mp4
Brian Lipstein:
You have to continue to innovate, you have to continue to remember what got you to where you're going, but at the same time you do have to work on process and you do have to become more efficient and more consistent.
Terresa Zimmerman:
The core of it is that you know who you are and you know who and what Henry A. Davidsen is and it does come through in all the touch points.
Brian Lipstein:
I didn't come into it because I was passionate about clothing, I was passionate about the effect clothing could have. through the earning.
SPEAKER_00:
This episode of Main Street Matters is brought to you by Wood Underwear, Marchesi Jin Frati Neckwear, and Inspiro Tequila.
Terresa Zimmerman:
I'm your host, Teresa Zimmerman. Welcome to Main Street Matters. I'm excited to have Brian Lipstein, the founder leader of Henry A. Davidsen out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with me today. Welcome, Brian.
Brian Lipstein:
Thank you, Teresa. I'm excited to be here.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Yeah, and it's five o'clock. We almost never record at five o'clock on Main Street Matters because we're usually before store hours. And so we're going to do something a little bit different because Brian has a really fun thing to share. We're going to do a little cocktail. So I am going to do my Inspiro tequila in the neck of a fever tree yuzu lime bottle. But mine's a little more straightforward than Brian's is. Go ahead, Brian.
Brian Lipstein:
Oh, mine's pretty straightforward too. It's just going to be a Macallan on a perfect sphere of ice. So this is a little experience that our guys get to have when they come in for an appointment. We have a whiskey bar and if they want it on a rock, we make the rock for them. So we have the Macallan ice ball maker, which is pure brass. This thing is quite heavy and it's going to take a perfect square and make it into a perfect circle. So.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Oh my gosh, I can't wait to see that.
Brian Lipstein:
It all happens in about a minute. Yeah, and this is what guys get when they come in. They get to first sit down and relax. It's very different than traditional retail, which I wanted to flip on its head. And I wanted to give guys an experience that they could come in, relax, enjoy. And as we talk about our process and what we put them through, you'll understand a little bit more where this starts to fit into it.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Well, and I know we're here to talk about your store, but since this is a customer experience in your store, you have to tell me how that works. Cause I'm, how did that ice cube just kind of disappear underneath that weight?
Brian Lipstein:
No, it's melting it and forming it. So it's, it's taking the ambient heat from the air. The, the top being pure brass, that probably weighs somewhere in the 15 to 20 pound range, that top. And it's just going to compress it into this perfect ice ball. So it's. Yeah, it's got another 30 seconds or so to go. And then we'll be able to pop it out and pour a drink over it.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Does everybody take you up on that?
Brian Lipstein:
Not everybody, but I do have some clients that come in and every time they come in, that's part of their routine, even if it's a 10 o'clock in the morning appointment. But we encourage people to come sit down, relax, sometimes halfway through the appointment, they'll say, okay, I'm ready for that whiskey. And then we take a break and pause and get them satiated.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Oh, there's a button that lifts the ice cube out of the hole there? Yeah. This is seriously fancy.
Brian Lipstein:
So now we have the perfect one on the ice cube. And I can join you with my Macallan.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Excellent.
Brian Lipstein:
We'll do a little pour just for five o'clock on a Friday.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Cheers. Thank you. And I can't wait to help tell your story.
Brian Lipstein:
Thank you. And cheers to Main Street and all those others that are out there hustling like we are.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Thank you.
Brian Lipstein:
That is delicious.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. All right. Well, now the important stuff is out of the way. So tell us about the store. Tell us about your, you know, Henry A. Davidson.
Brian Lipstein:
Absolutely. Yeah. So Henry A. Davidsen, master tailors and image consultants. was born while I was a senior at the University of Pennsylvania. So I was actually finishing my undergraduate degree and had this opportunity through Penn's venture program. They have an incubator for any student that has a business concept to apply, applied and got accepted with the idea of working with a third generation master tailor at the time that was really good at making suits, but not so great at selling them. and had taught me a bit about the difference of suit construction. But in getting a suit made with him, really kind of left a lot on the table in terms of guidance that I was looking for. Believe it or not, I had no idea how to dress myself as a college student. And so just really hated shopping. So this idea of being able to work with a tailor directly was really appealing, and, you know, was looking for more out of the experience. And so I got the suit, loved the suit, and then thought about, you know, how can we make this experience for guys better? And I thought about the influence that I had growing up, which was a father who always told me spend as little on suits as possible and only wear them when you absolutely have to. He hated wearing his suits. And I remember very distinctly the day he came home when I was in fourth grade and said, hurrah, we're going business casual. I don't have to wear suits to work anymore. This is the greatest day ever. And so imagine growing up with that influence. but then starting to discover that there's a lot more that the eye doesn't see, that there's an education to be given around. So I was fortunate that I met some tailors along the way that took me under their wing and really educated me on how to mark a garment, how to measure a garment, how the garments are made, so how to evaluate quality within a garment. And then the more I learned, the deeper I had to go. I just had a curiosity that said, if I'm going to be helping other men dress and selling this product that I needed to know as much about it as possible and really built an experience here that's based first in education, both around the individual, the person and the, the, uh, different situations they find themselves in, and then also an education around the garments themselves so that somebody making a decision and an investment in their wardrobe could really have the foundational tools and the basis to know what the best investment for them is going to be. So one of the things I often say is more expensive isn't always better. You know, a lot of people say, oh, well, the more expensive you go, the better it gets, right? And better to me is a relative term. So it depends on what problems we're trying to solve for this individual. And sometimes middle of the road is better, sometimes less expensive is better. And they have to understand where we're going to come from with those recommendations we make. And so we lay out the education to the point where they can make their own choices, or when they rely on us to make recommendations, they understand where we're coming from and why with those. And that's kind of the experience that guys are going to go through here with us. So We have what we call our proven process. First consult, second educate, third design. It's very simple three steps.
Terresa Zimmerman:
There is a whole lot there you just said that we got to unpack. So I want to go back to University of Pennsylvania. You got accepted the program. Did Henry A. Davidsen come straight out of that?
Brian Lipstein:
Yes, yes. So I started the business as an undergrad. I spent six months developing it until I graduated and then had a decision to make. This is either got some legs and I'm going to continue to work on it or, Hey, that was fun. And I'm going to go get a regular job like the rest of my peers. Well, in those first six months, I developed roughly $40,000 in revenue while being a student at school. So it started to prove itself. I said, let me work on this for another year. The program, even though I graduated, had grandfathered us in for another year. We actually helped them revamp the way the program was run and raise awareness for entrepreneurship on campus. So when we applied, there were maybe 10 or 12 companies or students that had an idea that were applying to this program and almost all of them got accepted because there just wasn't that much volume. By the time we left the program, 18 months after getting accepted, there were over a hundred applications a year. And the program had been split into two phases based on where companies were. And one of the most famous companies probably that is recognizable to come out of that program since we left was Warby Parker.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Oh, wow. Okay.
Brian Lipstein:
Yep. So they were Wharton, Wharton grad students that had started in the venture program. Uh, and you know what they've become today. So understanding the caliber of what this program was, was trying to launch. Um, and obviously we are still in business as well, 19 years later. So it's exciting.
Terresa Zimmerman:
That's incredible. 19 years ago. That's incredible.
Brian Lipstein:
Yep. November will be officially 19 years since acceptance into that program. So I always tell people we're in our 19th year, almost complete and approaching our 20th.
Terresa Zimmerman:
So did your dad end up getting some clothing or suits from you?
Brian Lipstein:
He did. He was my test case. So I said, I can make him a believer. I might have something here. Uh, and he got his first suit. I didn't give him much of an option. I said, dad, you're going to, and actually I had him look at our business plan. He was a corporate CFO and his role obviously did a lot of much bigger deals than I was bringing to the table here. But I obviously valued his opinion as an advisor all along the way, still do. And so he said, Yeah, you can have a nice business out of this. I said, Great, when are you going to get fit for a suit? And when we made him his first suit, and he tried it on, and I gave him a couple times to wear it. And I said, How do you like it? He kind of shook around in a suit like guys do when they're trying something on and he said, it feels like pajamas. I love it.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Isn't it incredible when you get into something that actually fits you with fabric that you get to choose or at least, you know, feel before it becomes the suit. I think it's just, it's amazing the transformation that people go through.
Brian Lipstein:
Well, let's unpack a transformation. It is amazing. I watch guys go through it every single day. Their confidence increases. I watch their body language change. The shoulders go back. You can watch their body just react to it when they see themselves in it for the first time. But it becomes a second skin. And for nothing against retail, there's a purpose and a place for what retail does. But I've always had the belief that if you can have something made and it's not that much more expensive, why wouldn't you? You get to pick every single thing about it. And going into another element of what we work with on EOS, we give a guarantee to our clients that they're going to get complimented on the clothing we make them. And we can stand behind that guarantee because we're paying attention to every single little detail that goes into it. So when the shoulders fit just right and you get the posture on each shoulder, correct, you get a quarter inch of, of shirt sleeve showing out of, out of the jacket sleeve. You have the right color on the right person with the right cut. And it's them authentically represented through the clothing. Other people recognize that. And we hear stories all the time of, you know, Somebody was waiting for a bus and another car pulled over, rolled down the window and complimented them out the window because they just had to say, you look so good today. And it's so nice to see somebody dressed up. Um, you know, that, uh, complete strangers will go out of their way to compliment. Now, when that compliments received, we know how our people feel. And it's all about that feeling, you know, it's yeah, they walk taller and taller. Yeah, exactly. So I love this, this corporate guarantee. that we came up with and we've been sharing it. And the more we share it, the more positive feedback people are giving us that, Hey, that's awesome. That's, that's really smart. I love it. It's unique. And it's something we feel we can stand behind because we have 19 years of history of people coming back saying. Every time I put your clothes on, I get compliments. And these are people who have worn clothing their whole lives prior to working with us. had never received a compliment on anything they had worn before.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Well, yeah, because people don't understand the difference if they've only ever bought off the rack, which is which is great and fine and convenient and easy and all of that. But if they don't know what it means to be fit for something and what the options are out there that, you know, don't end up in off the rack clothing, typically they don't know what they're missing. And then you expose them to it and it's a whole different life.
Brian Lipstein:
Absolutely. Yeah. And I give two disclaimers when people work with us. I say one, I'm sorry, but I'm unintentionally going to ruin your existing wardrobe. They want to go back to that once they experience this. And then I give them a disclaimer about how addicting this becomes because they just want more and more and more. of that feeling of when they're dressed up, when they're receiving those compliments and how they feel, but not just how they feel, how that also then translates to their performance and everything else, why we dress and solidifying the same message verbally and non-verbally and all the psychology of the image consulting we bring to the table that most other places don't.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Talk a little bit about that, Brian, because we've talked about suits and making suits, but the breadth of what you offer your clients is pretty wide and varied.
Brian Lipstein:
Correct. Yeah. So from a product standpoint, we make everything custom, but we go from custom shorts and I've made custom silk cashmere v-neck t-shirts for guys this summer, um, to Henley's to sweaters, to sport coats through tuxedos or, or white tied and tails. If, if somebody needs, we do outerwear. Um, the only thing we really don't do right now is, is shoes. And I've been looking for a good. bespoke shoemaker or at least a made to order shoemaker. And it's just really hard to find somebody out there that's going to provide us the level of service that we're expecting to be able to provide to our clients. And they're out there. We've tested some, but nobody's really met our standard yet. So we continue to just help people find shoes at local partners that we have here in town. But the image consulting also comes to the table. So we're kind of unpacking them. I'm sitting on a couch. Our fitting room here has two couches, and I joke, the couches are here to make people feel comfortable. But there's also days I feel like I'm playing the role of a psychologist, you know, and listening to people's stories and hearing what's worked for them and what wasn't worked for them, what hasn't worked for them, and how they've gotten to where they are. And I learn about their career and their job and their family. and what they like to do for fun on the weekends. And all that I take and I shape that into the look that we're going to create for somebody because it really comes down to the authenticity of the clothing speaking first for them. And then they get to open their mouth and speak. And if the clothing and the body language don't match the verbal message, then we actually create distrust in our audience as opposed to trust. Right. And trust is the foundation of how we build our relationships, whether it's business or social we don't hang around people we don't trust. So, you know, if we're saying one thing when we show up, and usually that's an underlying psychological feeling that the audience is gonna pick up on, and then we say something different when we open our mouths, all of a sudden we're conflicting each other, we're not building that trust. And it either, it's not to say you can't get over that hump, and that you can't eventually build trust, but it's gonna take longer, right? And so for our guys, when they work with us, court on a corporate side, we accelerate that trust building. Uh, we help anybody that's in sales, close more deals. We work with a lot of attorneys when they're in court. It's really important that they have to show up. They only get that first chance in front of the judge or in front of the jury, you know, to represent their client and make sure that their case is believable. So, um, whatever the case is, we have to unpack that. Then we have to design the clothing to reflect that. Um, and then we build it from scratch so that we can get every one of those last details in place. Um, and when you buy off the rack, you, you sacrifice something along the way, whether it's. Fit fabrics, you know, the pattern, um, you know, the styling that's going to go with you, the personalizations that we put into the garments. You just, you're never going to find it. Um, and if, if you find something even close to it, you probably spend a lot of time searching for that. So, uh, the guys we work with, their time is very valuable. Uh, I can almost. Always equate their time to almost covering the cost of the suit they buy from us versus the time they used to spend shopping in a store searching for the right thing. So.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Well, and the longevity of it and, you know, the, your ability to, you know, they lose five or 10 pounds. I'm sure you do a little tuck, you know, no problem. Yeah. It ends up, it ends up definitely paying for itself, I think so. But yeah, if more people understood that it's even available, how, how do you get your clients?
Brian Lipstein:
So I've built relationships in Philadelphia. If you're familiar with Philadelphia, it's a small, big city. Um, there's a lot of relationships out there. There's a lot of networking groups like to not say networking as much, but more relationship building and development because, um, the way we look at relationships are like a bank account. If you don't put into the account first or put into the relationship first, you can't ask for something out of it. Uh, and so it's not just going around handing out cards and hoping to, to connect with somebody, but actually actively working on building relationships, giving to other people, helping to feed them and their business. Um, and intimately being able to step into their shoes and represent them, you know, to be able to make a good introduction, not just throwing names at each other. So for a long time, we built it that way. Now we are focused a bit more on inbound marketing. Um, a lot of SEO with our website and playing with Google ads, meta ads. Um, so we're really trying to dial in that formula where we know exactly what the cost is per lead. And if we put double the budget to it, we know we'll expect double the leads and so on. So, um, it's, it's that, and then client referrals are, our clients are walking billboards. So, uh, like I said, complete strangers all the time. We'll stop our clients and say, that's where'd you get it?
Terresa Zimmerman:
And all of a sudden, fabulous. How do I get that? Yeah. Well, if we go back to, as a, you know, you're a college student, how do you get somebody to buy a custom suit from you as a college student?
Brian Lipstein:
at 23 years old and trying to sell.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Yeah, 23 years old trying to sell the lawyer that's going in to talk to a major judge that you can build a suit for him.
Brian Lipstein:
Yep. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's relationship based, right? You have to earn somebody's trust. Uh, you have to show them what you can do for them. You have to uncover the pain that they've experienced and show them a solution. So. My background actually was in sales, which is how I first got into this. I, I, I sold Cutco knives my first summer of college. I did very well with it. I was trained in sales, but I was also, uh, came into sales with a belief that you can only represent a product of integrity. So when I went through that experience with the first tailor, I saw the product. I saw the integrity. I said, Hey, I could represent this. Uh, you know, really kind of took that and the background of knowing how to sell something, having a network in Philadelphia, but by virtue of growing up here, attending the university of Pennsylvania, um, and really trying to start with those people. I knew that I could afford what we did, but never bought it because nobody had ever educated them on it. And so that's how we got to putting the education together. And the more we did it, the more people said, hey, this is really cool. Nobody's ever talked to me about this. I've worn suits for 30 years of my career, and I never knew what a canvas was. I never knew what hand stitching really was all about. I never knew any of this stuff about fabrics. And so we find that our true customer has an appreciation for the finer things and generally maybe doesn't go into them when it comes to clothing, because when you walk into a retail store like they're used to, it's all about the brand name on the designer, or the salesman only knows so much, and so they're competing on the floor, and you've got salesmen breathing down your throat in a highly competitive environment. Here, you walk in, our door stays locked, you have to ring the bell to get in, you come in, we have a whiskey, and we sit down and we have a conversation. And a lot of the guys, I'll spend 30 minutes to an hour just talking with them before we ever touch a fabric. I ever pull a fabric book out and that's different than a lot of other tailors to a lot of other tailors. Hey, I can make you anything you want. Tell me what you want. Here's the fabric books, right? Most, most guys don't know what they want because they are looking for that guidance like I was. And so, um, this experience for them really makes it low pressure. I don't want to sell it. I don't want to sell to somebody that's not the right fit for us. Right. Um, you know, we actually don't even let somebody in our store these days without having a phone call with us first. So we want to make sure their time is worth it. We want to make sure. Our time is worth it when we block two and a half hours to spend with them on an appointment. Um, so we make them get on a 15 minute phone call with us and we answer the basic questions, make sure that our expectations are aligned. And then if it, we get past that point, then we welcome them in, into schedule an appointment with us.
Terresa Zimmerman:
And you talk about tools, you know, digital tools, your SEO and Google and meta ads. Where would you say your business balances out? Is it coming from those things nowadays or is it coming from that word of mouth, that referral? Because it feels to me like such a relationship based, you know, referral thing. How much is the technology stuff and digital advertising and marketing helping you?
Brian Lipstein:
I would say it's getting closer to 50-50. For a long time, I would have said it's a third people that find us through search engine. It's a third referrals and a third business driven through relationships. More so, it's kind of approaching more inbound and intentionally so. We see there's only so much capacity you have. when you have to go to events five nights a week, four nights a week, and then you have to get up and follow up with people and find the time to build the relationship while still servicing the customers that are walking through the door or scheduling the appointments with you. So, um, as we've grown, it's, we're finding that we're hitting capacity. Um, and so if we really want to scale, which is why we're going to talk about the future, that's in the plan. Right. We need to figure out something that's repeatable. And somebody that knows how to build relationships, consult, measure, design, and to work like a tailor is a pretty big unicorn.
Terresa Zimmerman:
You figured out cloning is what you're going to tell me next.
Brian Lipstein:
Uh, I've figured out that I need to, that what I do is actually five jobs in one. Um, and it's a unique personality and it's hard to find. So we need to break those five jobs into individual jobs, systematize it so that we can continue to deliver the same experience along the way. Um, but really having a person that just does business development and then is able to hand off a relationship to somebody that does the consulting, who's then able to take through design and then hand off the relationship to. the tailor or somebody that's a measurements expert and take it through the rest and then have an account manager that manages the relationship ongoing and make sure that they're there almost as a concierge for the needs once the client has the product. And if they want more, that's their dedicated point of contact so that the business development person can continue to develop business and they don't have to give up developing business to then maybe service an existing client. a one or two person shop, you do it and you work eight hour days that become 10 hour days that become 12 hour days.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Oh, and then you have to go to the event afterwards.
Brian Lipstein:
Right. Exactly. And, and, you know, at some point you have to sleep, you know, as I've gotten older and I like to think wiser a little bit, I am trying to lower my threshold for pain by pain. I mean, all the things I have to fit into a day, um, and find people that, that can help me that are able to deliver that experience, right? So the one thing that's consistent is we won't sacrifice the experience. And every client that walks through the door gets treated the same way. And they get treated to the same kind of set of processes that we're going to take somebody through.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Are you finding that talent by outsourcing it? Are you finding that talent by bringing it in-house? How are you doing that as a, you know, you said one or two person shop. I mean, you're talking about specialists.
Brian Lipstein:
We are specialists. Yeah. So we are now a team of eight, so we are growing. I've hired a full-time marketing person that leads that inbound marketing and branding. and helping us really kind of put together touch points for our clients before they come in and become clients. And then after we deliver the first garment so that the experience continues on. Um, and then we have two of us that do the consulting and sales right now. Uh, by the end of this year, we're hoping to hire a third, but to do that, we are trying to drive more of that inbound marketing so that we can feed that business to somebody who can really just focus on the experience when somebody's through the door.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Where are you finding these people? Because staff, especially talented staff that can work in an independent retail such as yours, and I hear this all the time, it's hard to come by.
Brian Lipstein:
It's hard to come by. We've used recruiting firms this year, which have been amazing. Hiring is not one of my favorite things to do. So being able to pass that off and use somebody that's passionate about it, that has the skill set developed and the tools to find these individuals has been just a godsend. I don't need to find somebody with the skill. I can train the skill. I need to find the right attitude and somebody that believes in the culture we've built here and the vision that we're working towards. And if they want to be part of what I see for the growth of this business, I can teach them the rest. We've brought people in from the hospitality industry because I tell my people that they're experience makers. They have to create the experience for the client and it's about the experience and how they're treated before it's about what we tell them, right? And the what I can train. Yeah, we're systematizing our hiring. We're trying to put Matrix together. We use our core values heavily when it comes to hiring both core values for our employees as well as our clients. And so the way we look at the lens of our core values is they have to be lived every day. We are also willing to give up revenue if they're not represented.
Terresa Zimmerman:
You have your core values on your website. Be real, R.E.A.L. You want to go through those a little bit? I think they're fabulous.
Brian Lipstein:
Thank you. Yes. Yeah. We, we put a lot of time into developing them and, uh, working through exercises with coaches that specialize in creating culture. Um, so it just happened to acronym very nicely, um, to be real, but the letters stand for be reputable. Be extraordinary, be authentic and be learned. And so that's everything that we drive to and that we care about. And it starts first with the owner of the business. This was values that I was raised with. Always being yourself, always carrying yourself in a certain way, being trustworthy. So reputation, obviously we know reputation matters, but we were talking earlier about the image consulting, the first impression. walking into a situation being known for the guy that pays attention to every detail of his image, and has, is remembered for that, right? That doesn't just come with the clothing that has to come with your attitude, your behavior, the follow through of what you say you're going to do. So all of the integrity, the credibility, the respect, the trustworthiness, that's all in captured under reputation or be reputable. And a lot of people use those words for their core values, right? Integrity, respect, Right. But to me, that was cliche, right? It's yes, of course, everybody has to have those values, or you're not going to get business done. Right. So how did we sum it up in a way that was actionable? And we put be in front of each one. So be reputable, really hits home on there's action behind all of the things that make you a reputable person.
Terresa Zimmerman:
So it's a directive. It's something that you can do something with. It's not something spoken at you and you put that be, you know, that action word front of it.
Brian Lipstein:
Exactly. Yeah. And then we go into be extraordinary. And to me, extraordinary can mean so many different things, but my, my, my. passion behind extraordinary is all about experience, right? And how do you create an amazing experience for somebody, you pay attention to every detail, it's high touch, it's personalized, right? And so we want to create the most extraordinary experience for our guys going from start to finish. And then every time they wear the clothing that we make for them. So, you know, I thought back through my life, and the things that are most memorable to me, were always around an experience that I had. So
Terresa Zimmerman:
Well, you just did that when we opened up. I mean, why just give somebody a round ice cube when you can make it in front of their own eyes? I mean, that's extraordinary. I loved it.
Brian Lipstein:
You got it. Yeah. So that's part of it. And then be authentic. You know, there's nothing better than somebody feeling completely comfortable in their own skin. You know, being able to live their true life as their true self. And whether somebody walks through our door, understanding that about themselves already or not, we want to help them find that. So that's part of the consulting that we bring to the table. But then we also want to design the clothing to help them represent that and live that as they walk out our door and through the rest of their day. So be authentic. If you're not being your true self, you're hiding something. You're living in a world that you don't feel comfortable. And too many people across the world, you know, aren't able to be their true self. With the freedoms we have here, we really want to celebrate that and we want to help people understand that about themselves and encourage them to live that way. And we do that with our team as well. And then be learned back to the whole way this thing got started. I was a why kid. My mom wanted to slap me upside the head so many times. I just said, why mom? Why, why, why, why?
Terresa Zimmerman:
She didn't give you the because I said so thing?
Brian Lipstein:
That's where I was going. I got that answer quite a lot as a kid and it was never satisfactory to me. I always wanted to know more. you know, we want our, our clients to learn about what we do and the finer things because it brings a better appreciation for them to the table. But I also learn from my, my clients every day, right? And I'm learning about their jobs, who they're in front of, how they do things. And, you know, that's why we could have this conversation and talk You know, I asked you how much time we have at the beginning of this, right? I could very easily talk to you for two or three hours.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Oh yeah. And I'd be here too. I don't know if our listeners would be, but I would love it if they were. Yeah.
Brian Lipstein:
Well, we'll spare them. Maybe we do a follow-up down the road.
Terresa Zimmerman:
You clearly get so much joy from what you're doing, and I don't know if you have more joy in the clothing or the feeling the clothing gives your clients or the educational part and seeing people learn things they didn't know, but it's very clear that you get so much joy from that. Thank you.
Brian Lipstein:
Yes, I do. I love the book, Start With Why. Simon Sinek's book was a big influence and really a big turning point of, yeah, I used to tell people what I do and, okay, great, you make clothes, you're a tailor, too expensive for me. But when you start telling them why, our corporate mission is to help individuals feel better about themselves and improve their lives. I go out and I tell people that and they're like, so what do you do? They're like, are you a psychologist? Are you this? Are you that? You know, I make custom menswear. But we go to the deeper level of why somebody is going to wear it and really support their goals. And then they start to understand that it's not just about the clothing. And we really create that experience for them.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Okay, so but we now, given all of that, and Already hearing that you grew up with a father who came home and said, well, suits, you know, and said, hooray and celebrate casual Fridays. Was this, was this like a little act of rebellion that you decided to go to suits? Or, I mean, how did, cause it feels like there's a little something there. You, somebody puts you in a suit that you loved and you're like, Oh, I could do this. I know you met the tailor later on, but where's the middle part of that?
Brian Lipstein:
There was no rebellion in it. It was just fascination. So it was really about the impact. I learned the impact of what dressing could do for somebody. And I got to experience it firsthand myself. When I put that suit on, I felt good. When I went out wearing it, people treated me differently. And I wanted to give that to other people. So I looked at my father, highly successful, hated wearing clothes. At his retirement party, the gentleman that hired him told a story about hey, we really like this guy, he's really, really a genius, but can we get him to dress better? So they still talked about it 23 years later when he was away from the role.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Well, he clearly didn't find something that worked for him at that point in his life, right?
Brian Lipstein:
He didn't, but he also, nobody educated him why he should spend on finer clothes. And to him, he was comparing apples to apples, right? a $300 suit from men's warehouse or at the time when he was buying it was today's man. That's where he shopped to him was the same thing as a $3,000 suit. You'd go get at Neiman Marcus at the time.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Yeah. Cause I just didn't know.
Brian Lipstein:
Right. If you hit the, all the only difference he could see was the brand label. Right. Because that's what you see on the outside. He's like, I'm not going to pay. that much more just for a brand. Nobody told him about fused canvas and full canvas. Nobody taught him about the quality of wool and what a two ply versus single ply wool is or what polyester versus, you know, when you get into synthetic fibers that cheaper suits were made from. So I looked at that and I said, well, he could clearly have afforded this. He liked nicer things. Why did he never buy that? And that's, that showed me the opportunity that existed. I educated him. He gave it a shot. He loved it. Yeah.
Terresa Zimmerman:
He just knew at that time that this thing that we call a suit wasn't for him because the only experience he had was uncomfort.
Brian Lipstein:
Right. Yeah. And he was buying suits that didn't breathe. He was buying suits that were a size not fit to him. So wearing it was uncomfortable because it didn't fit and didn't breathe and it probably wasn't the nicest fabric. It didn't feel nice on the skin. at the end of wearing that for eight hours plus an hour commute each way, you want to take the thing off. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. But when you get into a finer wool and a full canvas that breathes and has some heft and moves on your body and actually molds and shapes and forms to you like a second skin, it becomes a different story. So that's where the education was born out of. It was It wasn't, oh, dad, you dress this way, I'm going to go the opposite. Yeah. It was, if anything, a lack of an education that I started to discover. And once I went down the rabbit hole, I went in.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Right, right. Yeah.
Brian Lipstein:
And I'm passionate about the effect of what that brought, you know, on the psychological side of wearing clothes.
Terresa Zimmerman:
So challenges. I mean, it can't all be, you know, whiskey and roses. What, uh, can you talk with a little bit about challenges? I mean, what are the challenges in your business? We all face them. Sure.
Brian Lipstein:
Yeah. I mean, uh, you learn as you go. Right. Um, with, with custom, one of our biggest challenges is, is turnaround time. Um, you know, somebody that, uh, you know, men typically, uh, don't plan. Right.
Terresa Zimmerman:
So I can say, Oh, I need this tuxedo by Saturday. Yeah.
Brian Lipstein:
You know, we have to train, train our clients, uh, that, Hey, fall weather's coming. Think about ordering that suit in July or August when it's hot and you want to be in a bathing suit and that's all you can think about. you should be thinking about your fall wardrobe and cooler clothes. But most guys wait till the weather changes and it's, oh my gosh, it's cold outside today. That's right. You know, the suit that I wore last winter wore out and I need to replace it. So typically where we are in the Northeast, the change in weather is a big trigger. And we're trying to train guys to think about the coming weather as opposed to the weather they're in.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Do you calendar them? Do you put, do you have some kind of CRM system reminder that helps you with that?
Brian Lipstein:
Yep. Yeah. So we have CRM and, and when we get the new season collections, we're always reaching out to clients to say, Hey, new fabrics are here. Get your first look at them, you know, have it for the whole season. Some are great about it, but a lot of people travel in the summer. So, Hey, I'm away on vacation. That's great. I'll be back in September or whatever the case may be. So the challenge is constantly there of getting guys to plan, um, more and more. Our guys, as they build a relationship with us, just say, you know, let's hop on a FaceTime, and I'll look at some stuff. I always want them to feel the fabrics. You know, there's, there's obviously the joy of the textile and, you know, the feel of it. And they should experience that. But if they can't, you know, now that we know them, we can guide them, we we have what's in their existing wardrobe, it's that high touch relationship. So we've had plenty of guys that have have been able to now do virtual appointments with us in that way. But we won't do a virtual appointment as a first time, you know, they have to come see it in person. So that's always a challenge. Obviously, rising costs in the industry, a suit costs a lot more today than it did 18, 19 years ago when we first started that.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Even 18, 18, 20 more months ago, maybe.
Brian Lipstein:
Yep. Yeah. 2019 to today, pandemic there's, there's been. rising costs across the industry, whether it's our supplies to health care, to rent, to electric supply. So just adjusting for that, finding labor. We talked about that already. How do we find these people that can help us grow and deliver the experience? So there's challenges every day. You walk through the door, you don't know what's going to hit you. Uh, and so, so I'll, I'll say that we work with all third party vendors. We do all our finishing here in house. Um, our ultimate goal is to control our own supply and build our own shop somewhere in the U S when it makes sense. So, you know, uh, one of the challenges is that we are beholden to. another company, you know, making sure that they deliver on what we need them to. Right. But we've had relationships with, with our supplied makers, our shops, their second and third generation family shops, for the most part, it's not factory driven.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Right. Wow. Cool.
Brian Lipstein:
Yeah. And so building that relationship for anywhere from 15 to 17 years. with them and, and the amount of business we do with them across the U S, you know, annually, we're, we're generally one of the top 10, uh, shops that they work with in terms of volume. So, uh, when I need something done, I have that leverage to say, Hey, look, you're flacking. Let's get it done. Um, but when the pandemic hit, you know, he, there was only so much control anybody had. So we had to manage through, uh, you know, just setting the proper expectations. Um, I'd rather tell somebody, hey, look, we're in a period, it's gonna be eight weeks right now, and then be able to deliver in six. Whereas we used to say six, and then it started turning into eight, right? So under promise over deliver is a mantra that we always stick with. And it's, it's all manageable. I always say, I'm not doing heart surgery, you're not on my table bleeding out dying. So nothing is that dire. Right? And, and I wouldn't take the business if I didn't, if I didn't know I could deliver it. So, uh, when guys come and say, Hey, I'm getting married in three weeks. I say, congratulations. Um, good luck. Let me show you around the corner to suit supply.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Yeah. And it's, uh, and it's, Oh my goodness. You're going to need to have somebody with you when you talk to your bride, if you're just not thinking about your tux.
Brian Lipstein:
How long have you been engaged for? And you waited for three weeks with your wedding to call me something custom made, but. You know, it's that's happened a lot less now coming out of the pandemic. Yeah. Out of the pandemic. I think it happened a lot because people didn't know if their wedding was actually going to happen or not. And then it was, but, you know, they should have still been prepared. So that's another lesson we teach people have the suit in your closet for when the situation comes at you by surprise versus get caught by surprise and then have to settle for something that maybe doesn't meet all the needs of what you're looking for.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Yeah, it's incredible how much education you do. I'm going to I'm going to reference your website again, because people need to know and we can put a link in in the notes as well. But you've got an incredibly robust blog section that's all about education about canvas and fabrics or cloth and stitching and
Brian Lipstein:
Our blog, so when the pandemic hit, it was like, what can we do? Well, we can write, you know, and we can come out of this when people are looking for us being relevant. So our blog from the very beginning has always been to be an educational resource. So a lot of people say, oh, don't give away the secret sauce, right? Don't give the client too much information. How much information are they getting in one? If somebody wants to read all 385 blog posts on my site, good for them. Um, but most people don't have that attention span. Um, they're going to read enough to know that we're credible, right? And know what we're talking about and pick up the phone and call us. So, um, we use our blog for SEO because I don't want to, I don't want to bog down the main pages on our site where so many companies get out there and they just, the SEO company says, Oh, you need this word six times. You need this word five times. You need this phrase. And all of a sudden you're writing, you know, and you need 850 words on the page and it's like, right. that's too much. And our brand is all about elegant, that, you know, 1000 page 1000 word page that says the same thing eight times. And it's very clear, you're trying to force it in there, because it's not natural to maybe work in some of these words is not elegant, right. And it's in it just gives you as somebody who might be looking for services like ours, and debating against us versus another company, it leaves a different impression on you. So we use our blog for that, because I can make the blog 1200 words. And I can, you know, through conversation and education work in those words the way that the website needs. But I can also give value to the person visiting the blog, whether they're going to be a client of ours or not. I've had people from Australia email me, Hey, love this blog post, have a question, would you help me out with this? Right? You know, and and we'll answer their question and help them out to, you know, the extent that we can. But, you know, the One topic is not giving away all the secret sauce. 380 topics. You could take my blog and write a book, which I probably will do in the near future. Um, you know, it's, I think there it's been too long since there's been a good new mentor book on the market. Um, and that's on my radar to do, but give them enough good quality. That's there that they can learn something that they can form an appreciation that they can realize what they've been doing. There's maybe a better way.
Terresa Zimmerman:
I think you framed that really well because I hear when I talk to other people in your position, everybody's working on SEO, which I love because five, 10 years ago, nobody knew what SEO stood for. I'm not even sure if I know what SEO stands for now. Search engine optimization. There we go. But a lot of people weren't thinking about it, and now everybody's thinking about it. But it is a balance because you go to the experts and they tell you, oh, you have to do all this stuff. You have to have all these words. You have to have 1,500. I'm brief, like 200 words or a sentence. Beyond that, I mean, really, is it that important? But the crawlers like lots of words. And to know that you've defined it for yourself, like what's going to be elegant? What's the part they're going to read? What's important to me? I think that's really important for people to hear because it's hard for others.
Brian Lipstein:
When I go to a web page, the first thing I often look at is the about us page. I want to know who am I dealing with? I want to know what their values are. And too many companies don't put their core values on the website. I have no idea what their culture is about. I want to know the founder's story and the history and how they got to where they are. There's just a lot of things out there that you might be searching for that you can never find that information because people either don't want to share it or the company is so big that they think it's not relevant. But it's, it's always relevant, right? It's always comes back to that relationship. And if somebody's first impression of us and me and my, my business is a website. then it needs to have that same feeling as when they walk through our door. It needs to have that same feeling as when we get on the phone with them for the first time, right? That consistency, the same way we teach our customers that they need to be consistent in the way they dress and speak and act. We need to do that as well, or they're never going to believe that what we tell them is going to translate, right? So it starts from that very first touch point. And often today, you're looking for something, you go to Google, you go to Bing, you go to whatever web, web, you know, search engine is your favorite. And the website becomes the first impression. So it's always been very important to us. Our very first website was built on flash, if you remember that technology, you know, very slow, but a lot of elegant movement. We're now on a fourth iteration of a website. Each one last, you know, a couple years, but this one we've built where we have control of it. We can update, we can move things around, but the feedback we get from people is, Hey, look, you know, I was searching for something like you. I looked at websites, I found yours. It was really informational. I called, um, you know, and we get a lot of great feedback on that as well, which, you know, Thank you for your feedback as well.
Terresa Zimmerman:
The core of it is that you know who you are and you know who and what Henry A. Davidsen is, and it does come through in all the touch points. I wonder if all stores go through clearly the effort that you've gone through to do what you do and be meticulous about it. It's awesome.
Brian Lipstein:
I hope they do. I know a lot don't, and I think a lot of people get into the business because they're passionate about clothing. And I think that's something that was unique for me. I didn't come into it because I was passionate about clothing. I was passionate about the effect clothing could have through the learning. And ultimately, I'm passionate about business and entrepreneurship. So I'm a member of Entrepreneur's Organization. I've learned a lot from that. I've learned a lot from other business owners that have businesses that do nothing like mine but have the same exact problems that I have as a business owner. So again, be learned as a core value. Always trying to soak it in. I'm always trying to read. I couldn't tell you the last pleasure book I read because it's always business books. Um, you know, there's, there's so many on my list that I want to read and there's new ones coming out every day that are just, give me the information. You know, I want to, how can I take this, learn from somebody else, incorporate something into our practice. Um, you know, and I'll share an example. I read unreasonable hospitality over the summer. One of the things they talked about in that it's about a restaurant in New York. don't know if you've read it. But one of the things they talk about is, is the pre meal meeting that they have. And we do that every day, we have a 15 minute huddle that we do every morning. But in the pre meal meeting, they started having one of the servers, a different server every meeting, teach something to the rest of the group. So, so I love that idea. I said, Look, we need to teach process, we need to teach, you know, people, we need to cross train, right. And so At the beginning of the summer, once I read that, we started instituting what we call HAT Academy. So H-A-D for Henry A. Davidsen Academy. And every Friday, we extend our 15-minute morning huddle by another 15 minutes. And one of our staff picks a topic, and they teach the other staff about it. And the feedback we got going through the first iteration was, this was so much fun. This was awesome. We want more of this. And they loved doing it and presenting, and they loved hearing others present and learning from them.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Can you give us an example of what somebody decided to teach?
Brian Lipstein:
Sure. Yeah. So, um, we had my marketing guy, uh, taught on the history of Paisley.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Um, that's actually incredible. I love that.
Brian Lipstein:
Yeah, that was awesome. I had, um, the other salesman that, that does what I do with the clients directly taught on fragrances. Um, so the effect of how different fragrances are built and what's more masculine, what's more feminine. And how you can utilize fragrance strategically, you know throughout your day based on who you're gonna be eating with And then another one taught on the history of Porsche So we learned about Porsche as a company and cars and going all the way back into World War one in World War two when they formed And you know, obviously our clients are driving Porsches. So It was kind of neat to learn what our customers care about So that was the first iteration was pick any topic that you're interested in. Second iteration we're doing is, is train, um, train somebody else on a process that you do so that if you have to teach it, you have to learn it better. Uh, and then, uh, somebody else who maybe doesn't touch what you do is, is having a little more insight and appreciation for what you do, or, you know, could step into your shoes a little bit down the road. So.
Terresa Zimmerman:
That sounds like it dovetails right into one of my future questions, right? So, um, you weren't kidding when you said we could talk for hours. I mean, I could really continue this for hours. I do, we probably do have to wrap up though, but, um, let's jump to that future question, which is, you know, three, five, 10 years, however far in the future you want to go out. What do you see as your biggest thing that you need to think about and how are you preparing for it?
Brian Lipstein:
Sure. So, so I mentioned we want to be able to control our own supply. Yep. To do that, we have to make supply efficient and you need a critical mass to set up supply where you don't have downtime, where you're having inefficiency running through a shop. So for us, what we're working on is, is finding individuals in other locations that represent our culture and want to be part of this vision and having them help us open locations. in other cities across the US to start to build our volume to a point of critical mass where we can then approach and open our own supply where we then can control timeline quality process and what we offer. So that's our it was our 10 year goal. We call it a big hairy audacious goal. Yeah. You know, it was 10 years, we made that two years ago. So we're, we've got eight years to go. But we you know, the three year goal is to have two more cities open, and, you know, functioning at a certain level. And then, you know, probably anywhere between five, six cities till we hit the point of critical mass. And we can start then working on, you know, what does a production facility look like? So, you know, ultimately, when I came into this business, Tom James was the big player, right? They were the custom guys. And if you look at the way they're set up, Historically, I mean, they acquired factories over time rather than built them. But Tom James owns Oxford in Chicago. Right. And they have that product that they can offer that is one of the best products still in the world in terms of the production. And they have the ability to sell it. They also make a ready to wear collection with Oxford that's carried by retailers. So we want to go into that where we have that control. We don't want to go into ready to wear. I never wanted to be a designer. My name's not on the business for a reason, right? It's not about me. It's about our customers. And, and we chose Henry Davidsen because he was known to always be representing the details and well put together. So the whole be reputable value was, was represented with him. Um, but, uh, that's where we're headed. So, you know, it's all about how do we. Again, create replicable processes, simplify, uh, train and then teach them so that If somebody is going to come to Henry Davidsen, Knoxville, I don't know where we'll end up because it's more about the right person than a specific city. You know, the right partner in the locale. But if, if somebody goes to Henry Davidsen in Knoxville, they need to get the same experience that they would get at Henry Davidsen in Philadelphia. They need to get the same hospitality. They need to get the same treatment. So, and with the same knowledge and guidance. So that's, it's a big undertaking. I mean, you're talking about building a playbook that most retail stores don't ever think about having. Right. Because it's about, well, here's the product I have at my fingertips and I'm going to sell you the best thing here, as opposed to where we're building everything from scratch for every single person that comes through our door. And we need to make sure we maintain that consistency.
Terresa Zimmerman:
ambitious. I love it. And I'm sure you're going to get there too. I can't wait to have part two. One final question is, and I ask everybody this, why does Main Street matter?
Brian Lipstein:
Yeah. And I love hearing the answers to the other guests that I've gotten to listen to with you. I mean, Main Street, it's local builds local, right? And if you don't have somebody on the ground that understands what's going on in the community, Uh, which is, I mean, we could talk about it forever for the community. And I know a lot of your guests have, but I have a saying that, that businesses build community and community builds businesses. It's symbiotic. One can't exist without the other. Um, and, and it can't be a take only type of relationship. So, um, when you have somebody that's local, they're helping to support the community. You know, they're, they're growing with the community that they, they operate within. Um, and they can be more agile to the needs of the community. So, um, you know, I, I think the U S economy was built on the backs of entrepreneurs. Um, you know, they all, the biggest of companies started small at some point. Right. Um, and I think the ones that are the most successful. Don't lose touch with where they started from and they don't lose touch with the relationship of the customer that they originally, uh, you know, were supported by. So no matter how big we get, we want to make sure that that experience that we created this on stays the same. And it's, you know, built, highly built based on our communities that we're in.
Terresa Zimmerman:
I love that. I mean, that's, that's, that's the part I love about, you know, the business that I'm in. And the fact that I get to talk to people such as yourselves, you know, all day long, every day, because it is that relationship.
Brian Lipstein:
And, you know, the last book I just finished was Ron, Ron Shake's book, Ron, was the founder of Panera Bread. And there's a point in the book that he makes about innovating and then operating, right? And so many companies innovate to the point where they then have to make efficiency out of operation and they lose the innovation and they actually continue to, then they kind of go down as opposed to going up because that corporate feeling you lose that high touch. So always maintaining You know, that really resonated with me because it always it's you have to continue to innovate, you have to continue to remember what got you to where you're going. But at the same time, you do have to work on process and you do have to become more efficient and more consistent. And so you need the right balance on the team. And that's one of the things I love about EOS, the system we run on is there's a visionary and an integrator and it's based on personality. So being more of a visionary personality for me, if I surround myself with the right people, they'll do the part that needs to get done. And they can allow me to continue to do the part that's going to continue to move the business forward. So it's really exciting. We're having a lot of fun here. It wasn't always fun. There's been hard times. It's taken a lot of sweat to get to where we are. But the more and more we refine this message, the more and more people are resonating with it, and the easier it's becoming. So keep an eye out. We'll be around the corner from you, hopefully, soon.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Excellent. Love it. Love it. So I cheers. Can we take a last minute last final cheers? Cheers. Thank you, Brian. Thank you for being on. And thank you for sharing your story with us.
Brian Lipstein:
Thank you for having me. And I look forward to the other stories you're going to have coming up and maybe a part two in the future.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Perfect. Thank you for tuning in to Main Street Matters. Hope you found today's episode insightful and inspiring. I'd love it if you would share Main Street Matters with fellow retail owners or anyone else who loves Main Street. And please subscribe so you know when the next episode drops.
