The Couple That Reinvented Men’s Wedding Bands

and I remember he was like standing in the middle of the pool
which was kind of shallow and he was just like having this moment and he was
like yeah like there just needs to be a store for men you know where where
you can have interesting materials and you can get excited about a wedding
ring you know like it could be called um I don’t know like manly bands you
know and it was this beautiful moment his hands were like up like this in the
pool and it was just it was so cool I was like whatever you’re so silly fine
start it you know start business welcome to the know your ship podcast
presented by ehub I’m your host Frank go all right here we go welcome back
Michelle lucazi manly bands co-founder and CEO I noticed on your LinkedIn
that you didn’t start as the CEO you you were still a co-founder but you were
like the op coo yes yes and you started it with your husband Jonathan rero MH
so how did you get the promotion like what what qualified you to go from coo
to CEO and who was the CEO prior to you being the CEO sure so John was our
CEO for the first couple years and then uh the CEO role became quite big and
operations was more than just operations I was over products I was over HR um
and it just started to make more sense to split the role so right now we’re
co- CEOs and so John is over marketing technology and finance and I’m over
operations which such as our um our shop our warehouse or customer service uh
HR products I think that’s it yeah so we really like split and divide you
know one so the home life is nice and two because it’s a big job I really I
feel for CEOs because it is a really large resp responsibility well it’s an
interesting concept actually because I always talk about how powerful
teamwork is to me in my own work life like I have a role but I’m always
trying to put other people beside me I think it just makes it a more powerful
message presentation to have someone next to you in the room but there is
also this thing of like well I’m the CEO you know there’s yep so I I wonder
if that that maybe you’re starting a new TR like Co CEO teamwork yeah could
could well you know teamw work Makes the Dream Work I know it’s so cliche
please edit that out I’m so embarrassed okay that I did that oh man I did
that only because of your I know of your background and uh and maybe let’s
let’s start there sure uh you you were in the entertainment industry I was
was that your dream growing up that was my dream yeah where did you developed
this do you have parents yes who were yes and you have a great sense of humor
but that’s one of the things if you visit the manly band’s website it’s it’s
not it’s not like in your face but there’s this sense of humor throughout the
website especially on like the frequently asked questions there good good
stuff there thanks okay so you’re were your parents in the ENT entertainment
industry my mom was an actor in high school and always wanted to do that for
her life but it was a different time you know her dad was like okay if you
want to go to college uh maybe we’ll think about that but you have to do like
something that’s going to you know end up helping you in life and so she got
a homech degree which I’m not really sure how that was going to help her like
in life but she did become an Interior Designer and you know do all that kind
of stuff um but yeah she was super supportive you know when I showed interest
but she wasn’t really pushing it which was really nice you know but I just as
a kid like you know two three years old started singing and my parents would
listen to the Carpenters and Barry Manalo and so that was my jam and so my
voice growing up is very it’s very clean very easy listening but then when I
you know was in my 20s I wanted to be like in a rock and roll band and I was
like I don’t have the voice for this you know I have like a musical theater
easy listening voice I need to be real with myself so yeah self- awareness
it’s big it’s big so yeah I ended up um getting into music in my 20s and uh
writing funny songs because the way I deal with life and life’s problem
problems is to make you know light of it and uh comedy was my big thing and
so I was like great I’m going to put these two loves together and I had a
crazy girl band called Spitfire and we wrote these silly songs yes and those
silly songs are available online oh no yes i’ I’ve witnessed those no they’re
very entertaining thank you yeah very entertaining and it’s interesting
because uh you know you think of a silly song and then you think well maybe
these performers don’t really have their talent is performing silly songs
right but you actually have real talent oh thank you like you do have like a
nice easy listening voice like you could translate that into more serious
songs and it would it would really play so good for you thank you tell tell
me about your pursuit of that dream like you want to be an actor you want to
be in Hollywood you want to be making music yeah tell tell us about that
Pursuit yeah so uh I was 10 years old when I met the girl in my class we had
just moved to Atlanta and so I was the new kid in the class and super shy and
this girl I just happen to sit next to the first day was an actress her name
was Joanna and she was doing professional theater and professional
commercials and I just thought that was the coolest thing at 10 years old
yeah isn’t that so cool yeah yeah so um anyway I befriended her and the
school play came up and I beat her out for the lead in the school play which
was not okay in our friendship but also you know a turning point in my life
and I was like oh wow I guess I’m I’m decent at this and so I just kept going
with it and uh you know kept doing school plays and musicals outside of
school and all kinds of stuff uh pursued you know a a theater degree uh I
went to a school in Ohio for a couple of years um you know studying theater
and I was like what am I doing in Ohio trying to be an actress but I had a
great you know great college experience there it was awesome ended up
transferring to myyu and that was like the creme to La Creme you know you
want to be an actor go to NYU go to Carnegie melan go to the big schools you
know I hadn’t done that at first and I think I wasn’t ready so it wasn’t a
bad decision and I met amazing people at Miami that have been like huge in my
adulthood too for me so anyway NYU was fantastic CU I was able to audition
for professional things while I was in school and so I started that whole
career um ended up getting a movie that went to Sundance so you know right up
the street from here in Utah and that was an incredible experience you know
being able to just be part of that scene and you know it was that was another
Turning Point wow this is real you know um ended up getting an agent that
took me out to LA and so uh then you’re pounding the pavement in La which is
very different from pounding the pavement in New York it’s really a lot
harder to get in in LA and I hadn’t realized that so you know you you land in
LA and you you know have these soluions of grandeur of like oh it’s going to
take me maybe a year maybe two and 10 years in I was still pounding the
pavement trying really hard yeah so yeah and so were you working in the
industry this whole time and yeah I was um I did all kinds of stuff I
produced I wrote I um uh gosh yeah I wrote music for other people I did all
kinds of stuff I also had day jobs you know I was a waiter that that typical
like waiter actress thing yes um and I served a lot of famous people and that
was really interesting and and then I ended up working in investment banking
for a hot minute and actually that ended up preparing me for what happened
ahead yeah I I didn’t know that yeah in your in your background but but now
that seems to make sense because we we had a guest on here uh pre previously
Scott Huntsman and his advice he’s he’s a guy who’s he finds businesses that
are struggling he you know purchases them or puts together a team and then
builds them and whatever but he spent several years on on Wall Street oh in
finance that’s how and he said yeah he said that was that was the best advice
he could give is to spend two years on Wall Street and that will prepare you
for lots of different things so so now you know th this experience in
Investment Banking really translates over to what you’re doing now yeah yeah
because people think well she was an actor and a singer and now she’s running
a company where’s how do you do that okay that that makes a that makes a lot
of sense okay do you have a do you have a good story about serving someone
famous in the when you were in the restaurant industry um so I know Amanda
Bayan has come under some scrutiny over the last several years yes she she
was so she was beautiful and innocent and amazing and she was one of the
first people that I served in that was you know super famous and she was kind
and amazing and she was paying for her parents and I remember being for me
because I was so broke you know and I was like yes you’re paying for dinner
for your parents that’s amazing I want to be able to do that and I was really
inspired by her in that moment you know so yeah I Amanda bin will always have
a soft place my heart you know that’s a great story thanks I it I yeah I mean
without going too far into that it feels it feels bad that she’s of fallen on
these funny times okay so you’re in this de deade long struggle in La trying
to figure it out not making a lot of Money Getting By and I understand that
you moved all over the place you hit several areas around where I grew up in
Culver City which was great and I have to ask you if you ever went to Tito’s
Tacos I never did go to Tito tacos it’s the best I’ve heard of it yeah yeah
everybody’s heard of it huh and you and the next time you’re in La better
yeah done titos titos tacos okay in this time period did are you single yeah
or a part of it part of it I was single um when I was super struggling and
John was working for a company called Getty Images they do a lot of celebrity
coverage oh my gosh if you look at any photo anywhere it always says Getty
Images okay what was he doing at at Getty Images yeah so John was uh his
title was like supervising producer there and so he was in charge of all the
film festival coverage and award show coverage and so they would go in um you
know to the Oscars and he would hand the entire Vanity Fair party and um
produce all of the shoots there you know they do little side interviews and
just kind of coverage of celebrities um and it was great because what would
happen is that footage would end up on the Getty website and then news media
would come and buy the footage and then use it so it was cool because every
now and again we’d be watching the news and he’d be like oh you know so and
so shot that or I shot that or yeah it was really neat very cool yeah okay so
Jonathan wanted to be in the entertainment industry as well did he want to be
behind the camera okay so he wanted to be on the other side of the camera
okay so he also started as an actor and a singer so you like all the
attention and he he likes to be in the background is that fair yes that is
fair yeah okay yeah okay and so and so but it sounded like in Jonathan’s life
experience he he had kind of this entrepreneurial spirit is that true yes
it’s so true he always just was figuring little things out he started I think
I think his first company he started in his 20s it was called actor space and
it was kind of like a myace for actors like to put up their information and
head shot and what uh and then after we got together he started a whole bunch
of other ones you know that were what was that called actor rated that was
kind of like a Yelp for everything actor and that was amazing it was really
helped a lot of people yeah and he worked so hard you know pushing and making
that happen he did free workshops and all kinds of cool stuff for actors yeah
there was another one that he started like was a a site for independent film
yes film screener we were together when that happened too and that was a
platform for a short films because short films it’s hard really for them to
get a day in the Sun and so it was a platform to let people you know buy a
viewing you know essentially rent your short film and so you get to make some
money back because you really don’t make money in short films so gotcha it’s
like a showcase platform yeah okay and and so he it feels like as you’re
talking about this and he’s trying to start all of these different companies
and it it sounds like that’s kind of good training for him and end up what he
eventually was doing with you yeah so what happened after all of those things
is he met um what who became our CTO this guy Scott uh they became really
good friends and they started uh marketing companies and they started to
learn about you know Facebook marketing and SEO and cro and all of the O’s
you know essentially like how do how do you optimize things how do you get a
brand in front of people all of the different ways that that was happening
back then that that would have been like 2012 so early early days yeah and so
John got pretty proficient at Facebook ads and a little bit at Google ads
started to really understand how to do that stuff and that would absolutely
help us you know launch manly bands many years later that’s yeah as we’re
talking about this now it’s all starting to come together yeah absolutely
okay so he’s in La you’re in la la is a big town yes uh how did the whole
thing get get how I mean how did you guys find each other yeah so match.com
which is really fun is that still around it’s still a thing yeah it is yeah
but it’s funny that you know we run an e-commerce company that’s you know
around marriage and we met on Match you know so there’s that fun yeah
coexistence yes okay so match.com yeah tell us all the details you found them
I don’t know I don’t know how it works so you just explain it to me like I’m
a okay sure so uh there’s a million of those platforms now and match is the
one that you have to pay for and so back then I’m sure there’s a few more now
that you have to pay for but back then I think there was a promo going on that
was like $60 for three months or something and and again I was broke you know
but I was like ah whatever I’m I’m ready I’m ready to meet somebody that is
going to be a large part of my life I’m done with like just the dating mhm so
and I had two friends who were in that same you know head space as well we
were all turning 30 and we’re like okay you know this is the time so we all
got on a match and a couple of them got on other sites as well and you know I
had dated some other guys but nobody was really sticking and uh you know my
profile like I was pretty detailed in my profile I’m a very detailed person
John’s like a big picture person another reason we’re like a really good
match in terms of yeah in terms of running the company but um anyway so it
was like a Friday night and I was feeling very sorry for myself and match has
this chat platform where you can like chat different people instead of just
writing them a message like an email and so uh I’m on there and suddenly he
pops up and he writes uh like a joke based on something for my profile I’d
said something about little dogs and how I hated little dogs and he was like
what did little dogs do to you and normally normally guys would be like hey
how’s it going you know what’s up you know like those would be the chat you
know the first line on a chat nailed it like that’s me to te yeah yes but he
he was funny and I and that was like my number one requirement you have to be
funny have to have a sense of humor because you know like I said before I I
treat the bad stuff in life with humor so if you can do that as well awesome
we’re going to be we’re going to be great you know so we started off well we
ended up on the phone for two hours and then same night or eventually okay
yeah it was the same night wow and then again got on the phone he was out of
town at the time so again got on the phone for like several hours and then we
finally met in person and we had this like epic date where we ended up
walking through Santa Monica and going and seeing a um CCTA solay show that
was up you know in the parking lot down there and it was just everything like
one thing led to another led to another and it was just like spontaneous and
beautiful and we’re on our way back from the date and he had driven on the
date and we’re on our way back and um and he’s like so like what’s wrong with
you you know like why don’t you have a boyfriend I’m like oh that’s that’s a
great question thank you for hurting my self-esteem and and I said you know I
have this pattern of um making guys friends like my best friends in life are
always guys and so then there’s that weird barrier of do we cross the barrier
and become more than friends which ruins things sometimes or do we just
remain friends and he’s like okay we won’t be friends like okay great nice
that was the start of something really awesome yeah it was cool and then how
long was the courtship we were together 7 years before we got married wow
which was a little longer than I wanted so was that three is that three years
into your La experience that was ah we met you’re in LA 10 years four years
into La yeah so you okay well we’ll get into that I don’t want to I don’t
want to make any assumptions sure we’ll we’ll talk about that okay so so now
you have this guy and you guys are starting to spend some time together and
he’s starting businesses you’re trying to get into your career and you decide
to get married yeah yeah we decided to get married um and we were trying to
figure out where to get married and very long story short we ended up getting
married in Florida near my parents it’s really beautiful like uh sort of
under Alabama this random little like they call the redneck Riviera it’s so
pretty love it yeah near Dustin Florida so we got married down there and the
process of getting married and planning the wedding of course is a thing and
if you’ve never planned an event before oh man you’re about to plan an event
and you’re now an event planner I mean it’s it’s sort of the worst and best
experience possible right so in that experience uh John was having a hard
time trying to find his ring and he has really big hands so his fingers size
off the normal charts yeah if you see there’s several videos and and at one
he puts his you’re like put your hand up and he puts his hand up and it’s
like he has like big hands yes big fingers big hands like you walk into a
jeweler and they’re like oh man there’s no chance with this guy yeah yes
exactly okay so there was one Jeweler who was really nice and he’s like I
can’t size you but I think you’re probably about a 15 or a 16 he didn’t even
have a czer for it he had a yeah he he was off the charts of the Sizer yeah
the Sizer stopped at 14 so John couldn’t even size himself it was awful and
other Jewelers would pull out cataloges and just say hey I don’t have
anything in the story that’s going to fit you but here see if there’s
anything in here that you want and everything was just a really plain white
gold band and he just didn’t want that yeah you know he just had zero
interest in something boring he wanted to get fancy with it he’s like how
come you’re allowed to get something Neato something that excites you and
that’s just not an option for men why is that not an option yeah and uh so
you know he was percolating on it and in his business mind just kept
percolating and we’re in our apartment complex uh we had a pool there and I
remember he was like standing in the middle of the pool which was kind of
shallow and he was just like having this moment and he was like yeah like
there just needs to be a store for men you know where where you can have
interesting materials and you can get excited about a wedding ring you know
like it could be called um I don’t know like manly bands you know and it was
this beautiful moment his hands were like up like this in the pool and it was
just it was so cool I was like whatever you’re so silly fine start it you
know start a business I okay I love that story and as you’re telling that
story I’m envisioning Jonathan in the pool in Florida I see this like Sunset
sky and he’s kind of rays or beating down upon him as he’s getting this
inspiration I I think you guys could recreate that on a video for your
website it’s like the origin story yeah that’s a great idea man bands okay so
there you go I’m just offer I’m giving that to you I appreciate that yeah
yeah that because that’s like I don’t know it seems to fit that sounded I
just love that I just love that story The the thing I wanted to get to with
Florida though is that you’re kind of uprooted like yes you didn’t just go to
Florida to get married you moved to Florida you left California at this point
are are are you at at the point where you’re just like it’s not working out
here in California work isn’t great so we’re going to move to Florida yeah
yeah I had uh I had gone through a layoff at my company so we went through a
merger and they laid off the entire La staff except for two people and so it
was one of those moments like a Do or Die For Me In terms of the industry I
was like okay I’m I’m gonna like I got some Severance so I’m going to put my
head down I’m really going to try this and really go at it I ended up uh
writing a screenplay with my best friend and we didn’t have the money to
produce it you know maybe we will someday but at least I I did that I started
going out on more auditions I had more time you know to be able to do do some
stuff and at the same time J was sort of hitting a wall in his job and he was
just realizing I’m never going to progress I’m never going to get you know
I’m never going to climb that corporate ladder there’s nowhere to go my boss
is amazing and he’s not retiring anytime soon and that’s that’s the next
place for me to go like that’s not going to work for me yeah so and also I
don’t think his heart was in it anymore I think he really wanted to make a
business he wanted to create something out of what he knew and he’s a tech
genius I mean he would just be building websites all the time and just you
know finding little things that would help Getty to just even on the dayto
day oh what if we did it this way you know and he was he was that proactive
employee that every company wants you know so it was really him driving this
idea of let’s just move let’s just cut and run and he said you know what if
we just do it for six months we go to Florida for six months just see how it
works out and we can always come back to LA but we’ll have a different
perspective so it’s just kind of a reset yeah and I said okay um I hate this
idea because you know I’ve been I’ve been pushing pushing I finally like have
that time and energy uh to really push but it’s fine whatever let’s give it a
shot you’re right uh you know what’s the definition of insanity like doing
the same thing over right exactly so good idea finally um let’s do it so we
did we uh moved across the country I think we left on October 8th we got
married on October 22nd and then we started the business on November 17th so
it was essentially like a month 30 45 days or something from moving to
starting the company okay now in this time period are you I think I
understood that you were starting a like a a digital ad something for real
estate for the real estate yeah oh wow I thought we buried that story yes no
no no that I found that did wow that wasn’t even that hard deep wow to find
that and I’m just trying to get the timing of this so was that as you were
leaving California or when you arrived in Florida or where does that fit in
the manly band’s origin story experience yeah so my parents were both in real
estate and part of the idea of okay we’re going to move to Florida obviously
we’re going to need to make some money my parents were both saying hey we
could actually use some support in what we’re doing so I was going to become
my mom’s assistant and John was going to build this like super awesome
website for my dad for real estate and my dad and him were going to take over
real estate um and then the other thing that John and I were going to do is
we were going to bring our Hollywood knowhow to the real estate industry so
we were going to do you know 360 videos there was a company making this
amazing camera called called a matador which exists now but nobody cared back
then we cared you know because we were innovators and uh John’s a great
photographer too so our you know pitch was we were going to come in and we
were going to do these 360 photos for you we were going to um do these
amazing other photos for you and Rouch it and it would all be beautiful and
here’s your package price yeah and none of the Realtors wanted to pay that
kind of money you know for the service and we had to charge something decent
because the camera was expensive so it just they wanted to take pictures of
four million dollar houses on their phones and that was just it was cringey
for us you know as people who appreciate film and photography so it wasn’t
working and we had to Pivot and so uh John was like Hey what if we just start
uh Plan B you know like that manly band’s idea and so at night we would build
manly bands you know we work for my parents during the day and try to push
our own business during the day and then plan B was you know the last several
hours at night in bed sitting there building manly bands you know creating
Rings that’s amazing now you were building the rings on your own yeah I was
building the Rings um I was sourcing the Rings and I was creating the
personality of each of the Rings so each of the Rings became their own little
personality so you know in the entertainment industry as an actor you know
you call something a character breakdown like you’re going in for this role
she’s 25 to 28 you know she’s a receptionist you know blah blah blah and it
goes into what she’s like so each of these Rings became a little character in
the big story of manly bands to me so the cowboy you know was this guy who is
a keyboard Warrior but he dreams of being outside all the time and that’s to
remind him you know that he belongs outside you know cutting wood doing his
thing you know I love it I love it and each of the Rings has its own name and
it’s unique flavor I I’m G to tell you something about that about the the
Rings and the names uh because like that for me that’s meaningful and so the
ring that I’m wearing right now this one this is called the surfer and that
resonated with me yeah I don’t know that I would ever have picked a a ring
like this style yeah but this I grew up in Southern California I grew up very
close to the beach I was at the beach constantly and I I came across this one
I was like yeah that that one really fits and so maybe maybe not like
stylistically I wouldn’t have picked this but the combination of the name and
the ring I was like oh yeah that’s really and I think that’s unique about
what you guys do and there are lots of rings like that there’s one we were
talking about I’ll show I have some samples I’ll show there’s one that’s
called the American that I’ve already made a list of all my next rings I have
to budget for all these rings so there’s the American it’s like black and it
has the flag the American flag etched in it there’s the Patton so uh Patton
great you you know historical US general and and the Tank tank metal yeah
yeah and and and the great movie with George C Scott it was very meaningful
for me growing up my it was my grandpa’s one of his favorite movies and so
the patent is now on my list I mean the way that you’ve created this uh
ability to tie the ring to a personality and a story I think is really
meaningful so just just a point on that back to the back to the story okay
Manley bands came out of this desire to create something and especially for
for for guys whose only options were like a white gold or or a yellow gold
band and it was pretty simple and and maybe something for people who had
fingers that fit outside of the you know whatever the normal range would be
and and that’s what you came up with okay what was your first so you guys
jump into this by the way you’re like all in did you get any okay did you
take out loans did you get any help did you have some fund set aside like how
did you start this this is the worst idea ever but so when we were starting
the company or how you how we funded the company don’t recommend but it
worked out for us so I had a really high limit on a credit card of mine
because of the wedding uh it was a Southwest card and I was getting all these
Southwest miles which was great and so it was a really high limit the high
for me at the time it was like 40 Grand and so John’s like yeah what if we
you know use that card you know to do Facebook ads and I was like um yeah
that’s great that’s great great idea it’s in my name I think I’d rather get
you know do a vampire thing right yeah so it really worked out you know
because we were of course able to pay the card off every month and it was
fine uh and then at one point just to get some stock my dad did give us a
small loan and that was really helpful we were able to pay him back you know
within the month which was great yeah so but yeah those were the only two
things we did and then we just kept investing every single dollar back into
the business okay and it worked yeah amazing thanks it we were very lucky
very lucky well I I think one of the things that you talked about is a key to
your success is that you didn’t have any you didn’t give yourself any you
couldn’t fail like you didn’t give yourself any alternatives there was no you
were in yes you two were in we’re doing we’re building wedding rings for me
for men manly men okay what was what was the first ring you came out with and
and why yeah so the blue steel which he’s now called the model um but he was
Zoolander yes yeah he was totally named after Zoolander I love it but he’s uh
he’s still on the website he’s tungsten he’s a Tungsten ring but then he has
blue inside in the sleeve and so it’s just that little bit that little hit of
like something that makes him special but on the outside it’s like pretty
normal looking and we have a lot of rings like that where there’s like a
hidden inside you know that’s like something special to that guy but blue
steel was just it was our biggest hit at first it was so fun um and then a
couple years down the road we found that there was a company called Blue
Steel Jewelry and we were just trying to be like good humans in the world and
we’re like okay we’ll change the name to the model um but yeah yeah so that
was the first biggest hit and then we had another one called the mountain man
that was a wood ring in tungsten and it had its day in the Sun and then it
just kind of started to die and so he went away eventually yeah okay so those
were were those your first two they were the first two big ones yeah were
they the first two big ones or they the first two that you created oh well we
c i created like 15 to start so yeah they were part of that first 15 for sure
okay but those two took off and is that through all of the digital marketing
that you were doing so face Facebook and everything else Google ads yeah um
we we had a social team too but yeah we were it was really about leaning into
the personality and leaning into permission to you know giving the guy
permission to be able to get something he got excited about those were the
things and then we also started talking to um back then Facebook was you know
less uh private and so it would tell us who your who your customer was and
that was amazing so we could see that we were serving like s % women in terms
of conversions we had like the woman was converting in that straight couple
you know that typical straight couple and so we were like okay we’re going to
start talking to her and so we had ads where we were talking to her and
checking this off you know her list of the wedding all the wedding duties and
so that started to do really really well for us as well gotcha yeah and
knowing your audience is key I mean it’s so important you may think we
thought we had the city guy we have like the middle of the country guy which
is a very different guy it’s great you know but that’s why our military
Heritage line goes really well because that guy is very patriotic he’s super
into those materials so great lean into who your customer is you know yeah
well okay I Le let’s jump into that I was going to ask about it at some point
but this is a this seems like a good