CategoryBusiness

Today marks exactly 5 years from the day that I launched Peculiar PPL. Happy Birthday, Peculiar PPL…you’re finally old enough to go to kindergarten!!

While the brand is called “Peculiar PPL,” the company is called “Peculiar Enterprises, LLC” because the overall mission was always bigger than just creating and selling great products. My vision is to equip and inspire Peculiar people–which are the people who have an unwavering drive to positively affect the world with their unique skills. When these people are empowered, they make a positive change in the world, which benefits everyone.

Here’s a deeper look at the Peculiar Enterprises Strategy as I envisioned it six years ago:

Phase 1: Create a clothing brand to better understand Peculiar people

Peculiar PPL doesn’t seek to be the biggest brand in the world, but I’d like it to be the most important brand in the world. Instead of trying to individually reach all 7+ billion people, I’d like to just appeal to the few million change agents out there. These are the people who move first and then the rest of the world follows. They’re leaders, pioneers, deviants, and independent thinkers. They’re the ones who can massively impact the world in a great way when they’re inspired, motivated, and given the tools and support that they need.

Selling products through Peculiar PPL is my way of reaching trailblazers and understanding their needs via the things that they purchase and their interaction with the brand. A key part of “phase 1” is providing the products that enhance a Peculiar person’s daily life. This is why I started with the # 1 thing that they use every single day of their lives: clothing.

Instead of trying to create the cheapest shirts, I focused on limited edition, high-quality shirts with inspiring messages on them, packaged in a very unique way…like meat at a supermarket. Then I moved onto other products that Peculiar PPL use frequently, like dress shirts, pens, notebooks, bottles, and cell phone cases. The focus of all of these products is to maximize quality, not minimize costs.

The brand is currently still in Phase 1 where I will continue to create more and more products that will appeal to Peculiar people, enhance their work and inspire them to do more great things. As I continue to learn about Peculiar people, we will eventually enter into Phase 2.

Phase 2: Use the learning from Phase 1 to expand Peculiar Enterprises into other areas

The expansion areas include (not in any particular order):
– Transportation: Air travel, Auto travel
– Food: Restaurants, Cafes, Packaged food products
– Business Management: Business consulting, Business finance management, Personal finance management
– Knowledge: Seminars, Lectures, Schools, Content creation
– Media: Book publishing, Music production, Video production
– Real Estate: Interior design, Home construction, Commercial construction
– New Ventures: Venture capital, Business incubator
– Other Services: Concierge, medical center, Car wash, Delivery service

I’ve got a very unique way of approaching each of these areas, and everything is in the service of Peculiar people. For instance, there will be a “Peculiar Air” private jet service for Peculiar people. Also, there will be buildings across the world where Peculiar people will go to do their work and be effective. Those buildings will include offices for people who are working on important projects or for people who are starting their new ventures, restaurants where they can get healthy food options, studios for people to create content, and libraries filled with resources to teach and inspire. Everything will be created with the unique needs of Peculiar people in mind, and will be unlike anything that exists today.

Phase 3: Help others create products and services to reach Peculiar people

Phases 1 and 2 are there to show that Peculiar people can make a massive impact in the world when they are appropriately served. Phase 3 will be to help large brands focus a percentage of their efforts on helping Peculiar people.

Imagine Apple creating a Certified Peculiar iPad, or Tesla releasing a Certified Peculiar Model III, or Google releasing a Certified Peculiar software suite. The intention of the third phase is to take everything that was learned in Phases 1 and 2 of the plan and sharing it with companies who want to meet the needs of the people who positively impact the world. If other companies don’t want to do this, then it’s fine…Peculiar Enterprises will do it ourselves.

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So that’s a high-level view of the planned future of the company. It won’t be easy because it has never been successfully completed on a large scale, but my life’s mission is to add value to those who multiply value to others, and those people are Peculiar people.

To celebrate the 5 years of Peculiar PPL (and to reward those who have read this far into this post), I’m announcing two things today:

1) A $5 credit on PeculiarPPL.com, with free shipping.
Every customer can get $5 off each purchase with free shipping on PeculiarPPL.com for the next 5 days (through March 24th) by using the code 5ive. You can use the credit to buy something for $5, or you can buy the t-shirt or bottle that you’ve always wanted. Either way, each person can use the coupon once, so have fun with it and tell all of your friends…you can even buy something and ship it directly to them and seem like the best, most thoughtful friend ever!

2) Launch of the Peculiar PPL Ambassador program
The ambassador program was created to get feedback on future products and to reward those who spread the word about the brand. You can visit TeamPeculiar.com to read all about the program and apply.

Thank you to everyone who has participated in the brand along the way! It has been an exciting five years and I’m looking forward to an exciting, Peculiar future. If you want to stay tuned-in to the developments, Like us on Facebook, Add us on Instagram, and Follow us on Twitter!

I love when people surprise me with unexpected gifts and I’m sure that a number of other people do too. So, I’m using my brand, Peculiar PPL, spread the holiday cheer and provide gifts to the masses via an official surprise gifts initiative. Here’s a video of me explaining “A Very Peculiar Surprise,” which is only open for one more week!

Sign up for a Peculiar surprise on PeculiarPPL.com because Santa Claus is not real.

In third grade, my dad peddled my overpriced school candy catalog to everyone we knew because I wanted the grand sales prize—a telescope that could see outer space. For those two months in 1993, everyone was a target of our high-pressure sales tactic for us to get that telescope. For some reason, I felt that I had to see Saturn with that telescope and if I didn’t, I’d die of a broken heart and crushed dreams.

After family, friends, neighbors, and family-friends’ neighbors purchased at least $20 worth of the overpriced, low-quality chocolates, we finally had enough points to get the highly-coveted telescope. I was bursting with excitement! All of my childhood dreams could finally come true! With this beloved telescope, I would finally be able to see Saturn, Mars, and ET! However, when the telescope finally arrived, it was packaged in a flimsy box that measured 10 inches on its longest side. Although I was only 8 years old, I knew that we had been bamboozled without even opening the box!

The telescope was about 1/8th the size of its appearance in the catalog. It looked like it cost about 25 Zambian Kwachas to make, and what it lacked in quality, it lacked even more in functionality. When I set it up to look into our next door neighbor’s window, I could barely see her middle finger as she waved it to me while yelling. I was 8, so I assumed she was saying hi. I didn’t wave back because I was too busy holding the $4 telescope together.

The telescope incident happened in 1993, but sadly in 2014 I see even more cases of misleading product advertising, poor packaging, and unmerited overcharging. Just last year, I spent over $100 on a watch that looked like it was crafted out of high quality materials, but when I got it, it didn’t even last a week before it started to scratch and fray right in front of my eyes.

My solution to this growing issue is “Certified Peculiar.” This new service tests products against strict benchmarks and puts a seal of approval on the products that meet the standards of excellence for Peculiar people. This will make it easier to find high-quality, dependable products, and it will ensure that more money is put towards companies that purpose to make quality products.

The Certified Peculiar program is launching today with an insulated water bottle. It is a vacuum-insulated drink canister that keeps hot drinks hot for 12 hours and cold drinks cold for a full day. Not only is it Certified Peculiar, but it is sold by Peculiar PPL with a 61 day money back guarantee if you decide that you hate it after 60 days. Personally speaking, this bottle is hands-down the best and most attractive drink canister that I’ve ever used in my life.

If you want this amazing bottle in your life, it is available for pre-order on www.PeculiarPPL.com for $30, and beginning mid-September, it will be for sale for $35.

The Certified Peculiar program is quickly ramping-up between now and the end of the year, and soon it will be the most coveted product certification ever! This is all part of my goal of making a positive impact on the world by serving and enabling Peculiar people! Too bad something like this wasn’t available in 1993, because then I could’ve saved myself from the massive disappointment of not seeing Saturn and having my childhood dreams crushed before my innocent little eyes!

Buy Certified Peculiar products at www.certifiedpeculiar.com, otherwise your childhood dreams will be crushed!

I am now the owner of the “Peculiar PPL” trademark in the United States! This is one step in the right direction and one tiny piece of the Peculiar Enterprises strategy. Very exciting journey ahead!

I could write about Peculiar PPL all day, everyday, but I’ll spare you from having to read it all…except this one time. In this journal entry, I will answer a few Peculiar PPL related questions:

What is “Peculiar PPL”?
Peculiar PPL is a brand that provides the products and services to enable Peculiar people to be effective.

Who are these “Peculiar People” that you speak of?
Peculiar People are the leaders and influencers of society. My life’s goal is to positively impact the world and society as a whole, so I plan to do this by adding value to Peculiar people who multiply value to others.

What makes Peculiar PPL special?
Among other things, I’m obsessed with making great products.. The average Peculiar product takes 3 to 4 months of development with multiple design iterations before its release.

With a typical product design, I spend approximately 200 hours obsessing over the placement of every single glyph, letter, line and the size of every graphical element. After the design is near-final, I load the design onto my iPhone, iPad, iMac and Apple TV and stare at it for a long time week to see how it resonates with me from different viewpoints at different points in the day. After criticizing and adjusting the design elements, the product either goes into production or it is put on the shelf indefinitely.

Here are a couple of before/after images that show the evolution of Peculiar PPL designs:

“We are Peculiar”

“Cut from a Different Type of Cloth”

“Peculiar PPL Build Doors”

Also, Peculiar PPL is one of the few companies that is centered around the needs of a specific group of people. I’ve segmented the population into “Peculiar” vs “Non-Peculiar” and then looked into all of the things that Peculiar would need.

Will Peculiar PPL products ever be sold out of big-box retailers?
My goal is to put the Peculiar products in locations that would reach the highest concentration of Peculiar people. Therefore, boutique stores are a better fit for the products.

How is Peculiar PPL currently doing?
Here are some statistics:
– Most customers submit three separate orders
– The average order size is two items
– 68% of customers have submitted a second order within 3 months of their first
– Orders have been shipped to the following international locations: Trinidad, Poland, Singapore and China.

What’s next?
More new products, new packaging, new retailers, partnerships.

Also, in the distant future: houses, cars, technology, creative services, food services, office supplies, rentals, management services, marketplaces, transportation, schools, charity causes, research and development laboratories and vacations.

Now that’s Peculiar!

It is Saturday, September 15th at 3:45pm as I type this journal entry and I am airborne aboard JetSuite’s Embraer Phenom 100 jet. This is significant because JetSuite is not only the company that is making my quick weekend trip to Michigan a reality, but they are also the inspiration for my final Peculiar PPL dress shirt from my “Reflection Collection” series.

It all started in September of 2009 when I became fascinated with the efficiency and convenience of private jets and I established a goal of owning one. After spending weeks extensively researching everything there is to know about private aviation, I decided on a starter jet for myself—the Embraer Phenom 100. I loved this plane because it was fuel efficient, large enough for me and 3 friends (+ 1 who can sit on the lavatory for the entire flight), and it could easily fly along the East coast without refueling. My heart was set on this jet so in order to make my goal feel more attainable, I created a mockup of how I envisioned my mine to look in the future.

Even though I looked at the mockup on a daily basis, it still seemed like a distant goal. I needed to see the jet in-person to make my goal feel more achievable. That’s when I sent an email to my assistant, requesting that he do some research to find as many Phenom 100 owners as possible. I ended up with a long list of Phenom 100 owners and I contacted them one-by-one, asking if I could buy them lunch and have an opportunity to view their jet. When I reached the letter “J” on the list I noticed that there was one name that that repeated itself several times—Jetsuite Air.

I must have spent about three hours on the JetSuite website, reading everything about the company, the employees and their Phenoms. I loved their innovativeness, unique business model and their willingness to take risks. I knew that I needed to experience everything in-person so I contacted the CEO to see if I could somehow get a chance to meet for a few minutes if I ever ended up in California. To my surprise, he said “yes” and 15 minutes later, I booked my flight. Not only was I going to get a chance to see a Phenom 100 in-person, I was also going to meet the CEO of the largest Phenom 100 fleet in the US! I also used this opportunity to purchase a flight from California to Las Vegas on the private jet, so I worked with an incredibly helpful charter sales manager to confirmed all of the details to make it happen. The entire trip was so great that I made a video outlining my experience, and then I made a second video highlighting the experience as my favorite moment of 2011.

From that day forth, I learned many things from watching JetSuite. After they had an minor (and rather public) mishap with one of their jets, I saw how the CEO handled the issue quickly used the publicity to grow the company larger and stronger. I learned about their innovativeness by becoming the first company to allow customers to initiate private jet bookings via Facebook at a deeply discounted price. Also, I learned about the art of masterful customer service from my experiences to date. All of these lessons have contributed to the way that I run my brand, Peculiar PPL, which they have publicly supported on their Facebook page.

As mentioned in an earlier entry, the reflection collection shirts were created as a tribute to the products and companies that have played a significant role in shaping my preferences today, and for the reasons listed above JetSuite has made quite an impact on me. As a result, I’ve created a dress shirt that resembles the white, grey and red color scheme of the JetSuite Phenom 100 jet. In my eyes, if their jet was reincarnated into a dress shirt, it would look exactly like this one! This shirt is my favorite of the trio because of its contrasted colors on the inner sleeve, button holes, inner collar, and placket. Wearing the shirt reminds me of JetSuite and my goal of obtaining my own jet by 2015.

So right now as I breeze through the sky on a Phenom 100 jet, I can’t help but sit in amazement at the fact that a random fascination with private jets in 2009 has blossomed into the discovery of a great private jet company and the feeling being within arm’s length of accomplishing my goal of owning a private jet!