Scott Lancaster, Founder of Emerton Scott / Stoic Inspired Jewellery

Emerton Scott is a British company driven by a love for quality and simplicity in design. They’re a socially aware brand which handcrafts unique necklaces inspired by stoicism to help tackle mental health. For every necklace purchased, a portion is contributed to a chosen charity in the mental health space to help support the 8 million yearly deaths attributed to mental health illnesses. In 2018 Emerton Scott founder, Scott Lancaster, asked his martial arts coach for book recommendations to strengthen his mindset. He was told to read The Obstacle Is the Way, by Ryan Holiday. After reading this first book on Stoicism, Scott began making his way through the rest of Holiday's books and then every other book he could get his hands on related to Stoic Philosophy.

In this episode of the MenswearStyle Podcast we interview Scott Lancaster, Founder of stoic inspired jewellery brand Emerton Scott about the success of the brand's Kickstarter launch which became the fastest funded crowdfunding campaign ever. Our host Peter Brooker and Scott talk about how to launch a successful Kickstarter project, the unique idea behind the jewellery brand, the importance of packaging, stoic philosophy, design inspiration, and manufacturing. 

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Transcript

PB: 0:13

Hello, welcome to another episode of the menswear style podcast. I'm your host Pete Booker. And today on the show, I am talking to the founder of eminent Scott Scott Lancaster. And evidence Scott is a jewellery brand inspired by stoic philosophy. And their unique necklaces, inspired by stoicism have become the fastest funded crowd funding project in history. And here to talk about the brand. And that campaign is the founder, Scott Lancaster. So, Scott, you're the founder of Emmet, and Scott London, and you've just become officially the fastest funded Kickstarter in history. So congrats on that. How are you feeling? And did you expect everything to go so well, so early on?

Unknown: 1:00

It's to be honest, it was a it was a little bit of a surprise. So we didn't, we definitely didn't expect to get funded in our first I think it was like three minutes or something when we actually got funded. So it was a little bit crazy. We actually, as kind of an internal joke, we actually said, listen, like, Should we give them back get something a little bit extra special? If we get back to the line the first hour, and we were like, that's never gonna happen right there. That's like, just like a pipe dream. And we did it three minutes. So yeah, not too bad. So please, but also nervous, because things are going to start ramping up. Now we've got another bit of momentum. So we'll see how things go.

PB: 1:36

And so what do you think you did right? Now you can look on it slightly objectively, what do you think the key to the success of getting something like this? So, so well done? And so quick?

Unknown: 1:47

Yeah. So good question. Honestly, so I've been kind of part of Kickstarters in launches before where like, I'm a branding consultant. So I work with companies all the time, who do this sort of thing. And one thing that always helps, is authenticity. So just just having something that the brand stands for, which is something someone can connect to, because there's so many, there's so many brands out that people are like just to sell a product, right? And they don't really stand for anything, they just want to sell a product and sell as much product as possible. We don't really care about that. We honestly don't, we want to help as many people as possible with the donations to mental health charities that we are doing. And ultimately, we just want to reach as many people as possible. So I think I think that kind of really struck a chord with people. A lot of the people that that's the crazy thing is a lot of the people that we have, you know, on our email list contacting us haven't even backed our project yet. So we're fully funded. But a lot of people still haven't backed yet. So we've still got all those to come. So yeah, that's, that's exciting stuff.

PB: 2:57

And so what happens when you do have a campaign that gets funded? So quickly? Do do you keep the window open? Does it run another couple of weeks? I mean, how does it work when you're already over the finish line?

Unknown: 3:10

Yeah, so the, the, the way that Kickstarter works, at least, at least, at least to my knowledge is that you you have like a daily period. So we set our company up for 18 days, which basically gives us the rest of December to ultimately give people the opportunity to secure a necklace or like a ridiculously low price, I pretty much cost price, to be honest, the cost of the necklace, so we were originally selling the necklaces, one by one. So someone would purchase a necklace, we would tell a workshop, they would hand make it within kind of four or five years, then we would gift wrap it, put it in our special, you know, Ruby packaging, or premium packaging, and then we would send it to them. And they were loving it, but they were paying like upwards of like 200 pounds for a necklace, which is, you know, it's like for what your game is still good, good value, you know, but the fact of the matter is, by simply just securing more materials and working more efficiently, so having kind of like more pieces to make at one time, we can, like reduce the cost of the manufacturing and the customer materials significantly. So you know, where you were able to give people you know, like a 200 pound necklace for for, you know, like 40 quid, which which is crazy. And I'd say this, you know, pretty nearly, like more than 100% less than what you will be paying so it's, it's, it's not, it's absolutely crazy. You're paying like less than 50% of what you would be paying if you went to retail.

PB: 4:39

So if I was a part of your team, Scott, I would just be saying Right, we've done the campaign now we can all put our feet up for Christmas.

Unknown: 4:46

Yeah, I definitely I've definitely had a message obviously from the guys but you know what? We're just excited. I'm we're excited. We're finally good start. So yeah, it's all good.

PB: 4:56

All right, so I mean, there are tonnes of jewellery brands out there though. I mean, What's what makes you guys what makes Edmonton Scott different? Would you say?

Unknown: 5:06

That's another good question. I think that the I mean, again, people, the the authenticity comes into the fact that, you know, we we actually stamp something as opposed to just, you know, just just try to sell as much product as possible. You know, there's so many brands out there that are just empty. You know, you look at great brands out there, like, you know, Patagonia, for example, I think the the the the owner of Patagonia is literally just dedicating all of his money to charities to try and make the world a better place. And, you know, things like that speak volumes. And another thing, which I think really helps us stand out is, you know, just to kind of take a step back and just give a little bit of insight in regards to why the product was even developed in the first place. I was, there was, I think, it was like two Christmases ago, I was shopping with my mom for a present for my grandma. And she got her this this bracelet. And I remember it was a I'm not sure if I'm, I'm not gonna say the actual jewellery company's name, but it's a very well known jewellery company, and in the city centre, and we went into the store, and I think she paid around, like 140 quid for this necklace. I'm sorry for this, this bracelet, I apologise. And I was stunned when the person behind the counter handed my mum, this 140 pound bracelet that look pretty basic, to be honest, pretty meaningless, in a little cheap box that you could literally get from, you know, Amazon for like 50 P, and in a cheap paper bag. And I just thought I was like to actually give somebody a gift that looks that bad, right? Like the bracelet. It's, it's kind of irrelevant how the bracelet looks. It's how it's presented, right? Like when you get something and it really kind of feels good to kind of open something and everything looks really nice. And it looks it looks terrible. Peter look absolutely terrible. So actually went on the company's website, right? True story. I went on the company's website that very night, and I was reading the actual reviews. And I would say maybe 20% I'm not even kidding, about 20% of the reviews on the products were all about how bad the packaging was how people were buying these as gifts. And they would feel embarrassed to actually give these as gifts with the packaging that was supplied. So I was like, Why is nobody doing this? Like I was looking at all the jewellery brands. That's affordable. And none of them were focusing on the packaging. So I was like, okay, that's one way that we can differentiate. That's one thing that can make us different because nobody else is doing this. Nobody died. Our packaging is like up there with like the likes of cardio and dill and all the all these incredible jewellery brands, these high high end jewellery brands. And we're competing with those guys, affordable jewellery brands, they don't care about packaging, the opening experience. And ultimately, I think that's going to be a massive, massive fact that the people choose them and describe what other jewellery brands around our price point in the future.

PB: 8:04

Yeah, into I mean, that's the same thing that I tell my girlfriend that's why she does all the Christmas wrapping. So do you believe it to be it's just gonna get wrapped in the Daily Mail? Buy that maybe the metro? But yeah, it's crazy.

Unknown: 8:17

Yeah, sorry, sorry, sorry. I always get my mom to to, to help with like wrapping the actual like, when we get Audison I always get my mom to actually do the rhythm because she's so much better. And it takes me like five days almost to do the ribbon once she's like, an absolute priority from all the all the practice for me and my brother. So yeah, there she is. She's definitely got a place in the team to put it that way.

PB: 8:43

I mean, yeah, how do mums know that? I mean, the ribbons that you get, it's just when you put it together, it just comes out like a horrible mess if you me. That's it. What is that I noticed on the website and it's kind of like the fruit line of the brand, the stoicism the philosophy that's behind it. What what is that your mind drilling down on that for us?

Unknown: 9:05

I mean, stoic philosophy is pretty wrong. Honestly. It's not something that's you know, that's super new. It's ultimately into Greek an engine group school of philosophy and from the likes of you know, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Epictetus, you know, tonnes of other philosophers from that time period. It was essentially and it is essentially a way for people at least, it's kind of like a torch for people to use, almost like a religion to some extent, but it's not a religion, where people can get kind of get through hardship and challenges and, and so on testing times. It's, you know, it's about you know, focusing on what you can control and not what you can't control and just having a really healthy mindset when you know, when when she gets really hard and I mean, in times like today, you know, things of that things are things are pretty tough. So, you know, stoicism is. If you look at Google Trends, for example, stoicism has been been trending for the past 1020 years, you know, it's getting more and more popular because people, especially with social media, with mental health, which is why we're actually connected to mental health and obviously trying to help in that arena. We, you know, we're seeing sources and become more and more useful to, you know, young men, men, women to get through these hardships and challenges with a healthy mindset and come out or the end the end a better place and a stronger person. So yeah, I mean, socialism is like a, like a tool, a tool to get through difficult times, ultimately, at least in my opinion.

PB: 10:35

And do you like read stoicism like a Christian would read a Bible? Is it something that you can have in your daily life or quotes written around on the walls framed and stuff like that?

Unknown: 10:45

Yeah, so that's actually that's actually interesting. I had a conversation with a guy called Jack who has like this Instagram page about stoicism. And I asked him, I said, Listen, would you like to help us grow this, grow this brand, and maybe I'll send you a necklace? And he said, listen, like necklaces are not really my thing. But I'd love to. I'd love to just kind of have a chat with you. Right? Like, let's, let's have a let's have a conversation. And I'm like, okay, so we had a conversation, and he actually said that. For him personally. stoicism is essentially something that someone can lean on, when times get really hard. So when I said that it's kind of a religion, but it kind of isn't. It's there if you need it. But it's not something which you can have at least I don't read every single day. It's something that I use every day, but I don't actually study it every day. I actually started reading about it from my jujitsu coach, my jujitsu, my jujitsu coach at the time, I said, Do you have any books, I hadn't even heard of stoicism back then. It was like four or five years ago. And he said, I read this book called obstacle is the way by Ryan Holiday. And I was like, Okay, I'll read it. I didn't even know what stoicism was or who Ryan Holiday was. And I read that book. And I was like, like, That makes so much sense. Like I was reading the pages, I was listening to it. And others went through an absolute careers pillar of like, like two or three months of just reading, everything that you can get your hands on, when it comes to stoicism, all around holidays, books, meditations, suddenly gets broken pieces, but, but everything that I could get my hands on, and I just kind of began to see, you know, I'm not gonna say it was cliche and like my life origins and stuff, but I started to be able to handle my life a lot better. So for example, something that usually will get me super emotional, I would be really composed, and I'd be able to handle my emotions and stuff where you can therefore make better decisions. Therefore, all of these little tiny decisions would compound and ultimately I would end up in a far better place in a in a far more fruitful, fruitful place, than I would have a reacted and let things kind of really tie me up and get me all riled up. So that I think that's where it comes into play for me, and it's just a really great tool to just stay calm when you need it, you don't need it all the time. Because some days, you know, hardship isn't really there. For so for most people, so, but when you know, when she does hit the fan, you know, you really, really, you know, have something that which is really solid, solid set of principles that you can really rely on, you know,

PB: 13:10

yeah, I wish I had you around last Saturday when we lost the football, because I think having someone like you to talk to him, I mean, I bought all the pork pies. So I was throwing a party and I had a lot of international friends over with my girlfriend, who's Russian and say, lots of Americans, lots of Russians and I didn't really quite get what the big deal was to be honest, but you know, I got all this, the crisps you know, from Hereford share and the piccalilli and pickled eggs, you know, everything that you pretty much have in your standard pub when you're when you're eating. And then so when when your hopes and dreams get flushed and taken away at the last minute of the game. You kind of look around and go well what else is there apart from London pride or black stuff like naturally remedy this horrible gnawing feeling hollowing feeling

Unknown: 13:57

I was I was, I was so I was on the edge of my I was on the edge of my seat. I don't watch as much football as I used to. But like I've obviously been following England and stuff during the World Cup. I literally was on the edge of my seat when rush would have that free kick right in the end. And I was like, I was like sitting that I was like, if this goes in, this guy is going to be like a national treasure like a hero. And I was just like, France was so good. France was so good in the first half. Like I was literally like this could be an absolute walk moment. So when I was actually I was actually watching it with my mum. I was like listen, man, that was actually closer than I thought it was going to be. I just wish that he kind of got that and just smashed that straight down the middle and just got in. But yeah, I think I think everyone in the UK was was practising stoicism was, you know, to be honest, and

PB: 14:47

that's why the Google trend went up it's not 20 years. So last 20 Day

Unknown: 14:54

stoicism

PB: 14:57

let's talk about the designs. Please got the He designs inspired by quotes as well by the some of the philosophies that you've mentioned. And what's the process from taking a quote, and then turning it into a piece of jewellery?

Unknown: 15:11

Yeah, so it's I mean, we we definitely didn't make our lives easy to be honest with you, Peter, we, I mean, if you go on online, this was some something else that I kind of researched for anyone, for anyone who's ever looked up stored jewellery or sources and related jewellery, you go online and you see things with skulls on them, Memento Mori, you know, Fatty, like all of these things, which are just super direct. And to be honest with you, Peter, like, you know, everyone's entitled to their opinion, but they don't look very elegant. They're quite ugly, right? Like, who wants to walk down the street with a, you know, a skull necklace on right? So what I was kind of looking at was rocket, we've got these, you know, Memento Mori, we've got all these like incredible lessons and philosophies from stoicism. How can we communicate them or symbolise them in a design, which is more abstract and more palatable, right, like something with something which is more elegant. So the entire process is ultimately we look at the code. First we look at what the actual quote is saying, what's the message behind it, then we look at how we can communicate that with chips. So for example, we've got eight pieces in our collection right now. And so you get you get them in 14 karat gold or silver. And that's a clarion necklace, the one that I'm actually wearing right now. So for example, that might miss there. And the Clarion necklace, is a symbol of clarity and fortitude. So if you look at the actual design closer, you can see that the the inner the inner circle is completely clear. It's completely clear. And that symbolises the clarity of mind that, you know, that Marcus Aurelius that's Seneca won't ever do this talk about, you know, to stay composed, and to stay centred. And then the sort of the, the jaggedy outer ring symbolises fortitude, and the the fact that when you know, when shit gets really tough rain, you need to stay composed. And you need to keep that clarity of mind to make sure that your judgement isn't clouded to make sure what that external events, things outside of your control, don't start to cloud your judgement and impact your performance as a person, right, because that's when things really start, you know, going downhill. So that's ultimately I mean, we we did 460 designs, for the Eclipse for the APS and our collection 460. Most of them, obviously, we, you know, we've rejected some of them, we continued on, but honestly, peyote was just a painstaking case of just really gritting our teeth to say, right. Okay. Does this represent, respectfully? The does it represent the code that we're trying to communicate? Does it does it does it do it justice? And, and that was kind of the main driver behind it, that the designer who we partnered with his work with some incredible brands, like when he was telling me, you know, who's worked with I was like, why are you working with us, like, we're literally like a start and why you work with us, but he just loves stoicism. He just loves money person. So we were, you know, we, you know, he he's been a part of the team now for, you know, pretty much the entire process. And thankfully, he stuck with me and didn't get sick of me and tell me the booger off after you know, after it, you know, 25 revisions, you know, she said design, which I'm sure was a little bit frustrating.

PB: 18:20

Yeah. And so you mentioned you also had like a database, or like an audience that was built up before you did the Crowdfunder? Do you give people the options of which designs, you want to choose? Do you kind of do some self marketing with the people that you've already got a new reached out to that you engage with before? And did they have any sway in your decisions?

Unknown: 18:44

Yeah, so yeah, that's that that was actually that was actually, that's really good question. So, and it was really important that we actually started to listen to our customers like super, super early on. The reason being is, you know, for example, the stones that are so the diamonds that are in some of the designs, we needed to know how many we need, if we were going to do a Kickstarter, you know, like, if we, you know, if we didn't have enough stones, then we couldn't make the majority of the pieces that are actually in the collection. So we we reached out to all of our customers and said, Listen, like, which pieces do you do resonate most with? And we created this entire database on, you know, which pieces were more popular, which pieces were less popular. And ultimately, we arranged the materials and the entire quote that we needed from the supplier to make sure that we had enough for the most popular pieces and then obviously go from there. So yeah, it was it. I mean, we're still learning, we're still understanding, you know, who our target audience really is, you know, how we can serve them better. That's the most important thing we need to be super customer centric. But, um, but ultimately, it's a learning process. We're still a super young company. We're just trying our best just to make an incredible product. And ultimately, and you know, I've worked with over three 1000 brands over the last eight years, I've been a planning consultant working with startups all over the world. And the reality is, no matter how good your marketing is, no matter what you know what else you do, product always wins. It's always about product if your product or winner, then that's the most important thing. So I'm glad that we focus a lot of our energy on there.

PB: 20:19

Awesome. Well, great talking to you, Scott, thanks for walking us through the brand. People can obviously still get on board with the Kickstarter campaign. I think head over to the website and mitten scott.co.uk I want to say no.com.com Emmerton, e m e t o n. Scott iot.com. And we'll put all the links over in the show notes at menswear style. So anything lined up for 2023 After you get back from Thailand,

Unknown: 20:52

I think it's just going to be a case of well, we're actually developing two other products now. One that I can't tell you too much about but the the other one is essentially like a productivity system which basically brings together the quotations from stoic philosophy and technology together to ultimately adapt to the person's as they actually grow. So it's not just a product of productivity system that stays stagnant. It grows with you so super excited about that, but yeah, that's gonna be that's next year. I want to just focus on getting this Kickstarter out the way and get a little bit of sleep in between nice

PB: 21:28

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