Have you ever traced the path of a street artist turned fashion titan? Abiel Ruiz joins us in The Innovators' Den, bringing a story that paints a vivid picture of creativity and business prowess. From his early days tagging walls to commanding the fashion industry with his unique approach to color and design, Abiel's journey is a masterclass in artistic evolution and business strategy. Together with his partner Fausto, they pull back the curtain on the thrills and spills of birthing a fashion brand, navigating the choppy waters of entrepreneurship, and the insights gained from launching La Vie and Vie Riche.
Strap in for a rollercoaster ride through Abiel's career transitions, where a graffiti artist's passion for spray cans and camera lenses blossoms into a role as a creative director. He shares the immense learning curve shaped by his forays into the Chinese markets and partnerships with urban fashion powerhouses, like Chris Brown's Black Pyramid. Then, get ready to have your perspective shifted by Abiel's life-changing move to the Dominican Republic, where he discovered a wealth of opportunities in real estate and wellness, proving that sometimes, the key to unlocking entrepreneurial potential lies in a change of scenery.
Finally, we gear up for the intersection of personal passion and innovation as Abiel takes us down the road of his latest endeavors. Cycling isn't just a hobby for Abiel; it's the inspiration behind a new venture offering cycling gear without the premium price tag. We also peek into the future with a glimpse at his upcoming brand launch and the distribution of cutting-edge capsule homes. Whether you're a creative professional, budding entrepreneur, or simply intrigued by the power of a well-told story, Abiel's narrative offers a wealth of lessons and encouragement to forge your own path and ride boldly into the unknown.
Have you ever traced the path of a street artist turned fashion titan? Abiel Ruiz joins us in The Innovators' Den, bringing a story that paints a vivid picture of creativity and business prowess. From his early days tagging walls to commanding the fashion industry with his unique approach to color and design, Abiel's journey is a masterclass in artistic evolution and business strategy. Together with his partner Fausto, they pull back the curtain on the thrills and spills of birthing a fashion brand, navigating the choppy waters of entrepreneurship, and the insights gained from launching La Vie and Vie Riche.
Strap in for a rollercoaster ride through Abiel's career transitions, where a graffiti artist's passion for spray cans and camera lenses blossoms into a role as a creative director. He shares the immense learning curve shaped by his forays into the Chinese markets and partnerships with urban fashion powerhouses, like Chris Brown's Black Pyramid. Then, get ready to have your perspective shifted by Abiel's life-changing move to the Dominican Republic, where he discovered a wealth of opportunities in real estate and wellness, proving that sometimes, the key to unlocking entrepreneurial potential lies in a change of scenery.
Finally, we gear up for the intersection of personal passion and innovation as Abiel takes us down the road of his latest endeavors. Cycling isn't just a hobby for Abiel; it's the inspiration behind a new venture offering cycling gear without the premium price tag. We also peek into the future with a glimpse at his upcoming brand launch and the distribution of cutting-edge capsule homes. Whether you're a creative professional, budding entrepreneur, or simply intrigued by the power of a well-told story, Abiel's narrative offers a wealth of lessons and encouragement to forge your own path and ride boldly into the unknown.
What's going on, guys, and welcome back to the innovators, then I am formally known as hashtag. Please make sure you follow us at the innovators then on YouTube rumble Instagram.
Speaker 3:Spotify Apple podcast, and I'm here with Steve or business, and we got a very, very special guest. We have a bell ruas here, ruiz Ruiz. Well, yeah, yeah, no, but what's up, man? Thank you, guys inspire many. Thank you. And um, you know we appreciate you have coming on. We've been looking at your work and seeing your work as you've been transitioning all these years as a creative, as a designer and as a photographer and visual artist. You know, at the end of the day, so you know what's up how you doing.
Speaker 2:I'm doing great man. I'm sort of happy to be here when I say sort of, because I lived in New York for 30 years and now my life outside of New York is is different, and you know everybody about the cold weather, but right now it's nice. Thankfully, I'm happy to be here. See you guys. It's been a minute, yeah.
Speaker 3:I'm here. We all started. Well, we all started, like you know, your creativity. A lot of people don't know where it started. They just saw the highlight of of you being you.
Speaker 2:But yeah, where did it all started for you as far as being a creative um, and then you know, we take it from there sure, um, I mean, it goes back to when I was a kid, I guess, because in school I always excelled when it came to art and early on I had a pretty good idea of sort of like where I wanted to go as far as my direction, right, and I always knew it was.
Speaker 2:It was going to be something artistic, but also like technology, because I was into like computers and stuff like that. So when I went off to college I pursued graphic design, right so that's kind of, and I was doing like scribbling on on the tables and like always doing graffiti since I was a young kid, right, um, and that's kind of like what set me off. And when I turned 16 or so, like, I got my first airbrush kit, just because I wanted to put the stuff in my own clothes, right, and that that sort of jump started my, my whole journey. I think everything that that I I wound up doing later on in life came from that beginning that one kit yeah, um, I was always inspired, by, I think, colors.
Speaker 2:I have a thing for like colors and putting them to me.
Speaker 2:I still remember like being in like junior high school and elementary school and learning about like complementary colors and you know, colors that make sense together and like all this stuff and it always stuck with me and when I, when I started doing graffiti, like I always implemented a lot of, a lot of good colors and that eventually translated into, like me, designing collections and things of that nature and also my art and you can see that, like when you look at your your um things that you've designed your designs right.
Speaker 1:You can see like the colors, even like in your your instagram page.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, things like yeah, I think that's been a huge strong suit for for my brand. I'm sure we're going to touch on a lot of things, but for re-rich, one of the things that's always set as a part has been the our color stories. Like we've always, we've always had really unique color stories, really unique art, and I think that's been the strong suit of the brand since the beginning and, yeah, latest collection.
Speaker 3:Yeah, basically they use pastel colors for winter colors usually yeah in the market, but you guys have a strong that's part of the hold on the on the market, you guys, you know they accept your brand 100%.
Speaker 2:We've been doing that since very early on and it's so it was. We've always sort of had a a little bit of a disruptive vision for the brand and we always kind of try, try to go not go against the grain as far as like not following trends, but we try to be a little bit ahead of the curve when it comes to our market and like. One of the things that we always observed was that using lighter colors in the winter time made our brand stand out on the shelves next to these other brands, because everybody was on the like earth tones and like Christmas colors or Halloween colors or whatever. And then here we are using like mint, mints and teals and and set like kind of like what I'm wearing now right, and it's like as soon as you come into the store, everything else is dark, and then you see like yeah carving yet, and it's like you know, we're standing out.
Speaker 2:But I worked in our favor a lot of times, like we experimented that with our previous brand, like many years ago, and like we kind of followed it through into our, our newer project, which is not so new now we just made 10 years right but let's but you already talked about 10 years let's take it back to where the fashion started for you, um, and let's highlight that because it's important for the people who are watching.
Speaker 3:You know you started somewhere right and yeah, of course, what? What led you to go into the fashion?
Speaker 2:and you know yeah, it's something that sort of happened by happenstance. Um, and it came from me working with Fausto, who you guys had on the podcast not too long ago. Uh, we got introduced to some friends. Um, he was looking for airbrush. It was kind of hot at the time. A lot of people were like getting the custom t-shirts done and things of that nature, and I was just doing it from home and I had a regular job at the time. And then we got introduced through some mutual friends. You were kind of like part of that introduction mix, because my best friend used to go to school with him and, um, we got introduced and I quit my job and I got together with him and I you know we started like a little business venture at the time and entrepreneurship started.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I was 18 and I kind of just took the plunge and I was like I'm gonna, I'm gonna live off my art yeah, I remember it was like a process.
Speaker 3:You guys was trying to figure out every process to create a brand. You know, not just yeah, well, that came.
Speaker 2:That came about a year and some change down the line. Um, because we, fausto and I started, we had like a store front kind of situation and, um, it was great for a few months but we depended from the sales from a high school that was closed by the high school, right and when school was out closed.
Speaker 2:Yeah well, school was out, like our business dwindled right so then we, we decided to, like you know, go our separate ways for a bit and I kept there brushing. He went on to do other things and then, like a year later, a year and a half later, he approached me. He was like hey, I got this idea I want to talk to you about. The idea came from him, right um, I was, you know, obviously I was already airbrushing on clothes, but my, I didn't have a like, I wasn't keen on like starting a brand, right um, because it would have just been like a graffiti brand and that was not, like you know that wasn't my angle really, but, um, he came with the idea and we got together and created what la vie at the time, that was around 2004, right and um, that was a.
Speaker 2:I mean, we knew nothing about fashion at that time. We just, he had an idea to start a brand. I was our, obviously, you know. Uh, I went to school for graphic art, so, like, photoshop and Illustrator were my thing, and and we were us too, with two other people were Angie and working it out figure yeah we were just trying to figure it out and you know we learned a lot of stuff along the way.
Speaker 2:By the time we put out our, our first, our first like actual collection, like two years later yeah, it was like two, three years later, um, and then eventually in 2008 18, I'm sorry, uh, well, no, not 2018, I'm sorry. 2008, I'm going way back um, we wound up getting a partnership with, with, uh, some older Indian guys that were just looking for, like, an opportunity to start a brand, right, and that's kind of like where our real journey started of us learning learning the business like the railway, because we were pretty much winging it right the first three years and it was a lot of disasters, like we threw away a lot of money, like it was.
Speaker 3:It was crazy and while that that was happening, when, when it really started, then you had to, like, I remember, you took like, uh, the step forward to to like, have to wear multiple hats as an entrepreneur. Oh, yeah, and you, I remember, then you started specializing in photography, fashion photography, because that was what you was doing, right, yeah, and that that stemmed from from us having a brand.
Speaker 2:It was I've always been one of those people that I don't like to depend too much on other people to get things done right, and I actually picked up a camera because we needed photos for you, for your brand. Yeah, and I had taken a photography course in school, but at that time I, like I couldn't afford to get a camera.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but then eventually, once we got the partnership and, like, I went and picked up a camera, I was like invested into yourself exactly so and I picked up a camera and, kind of like, just went to the youtube school learned, learned a lot of stuff about doing photography and I just, you know, I'll focus how they say.
Speaker 2:I just started it and and um, I just quickly grew passionate about doing shooting models and like creating just art through through photography now, instead of just airbrushing or or even designing clothing. Um, it was sort of things that sort of went hand in hand and I quickly excelled with photography and it for a minute there kind of, and kind of it took presidents right, I was doing it professionally, I was taking on gigs, I was, I shot a few like brand campaigns and stuff like that. 2013, our first brand kind of hit a brick wall. We just didn't have the right partnership situation and we ran into a lot of financial hurdles that we just couldn't jump over, right.
Speaker 2:And um, at that time I was going to pursue fashion photography full-time, right, but what happened was we had we knew these two guys that like really believed in our talent with the, with the fashion business, and they originally wanted us to continue our brand with them. But our previous partners they didn't want to let go of the ip the name, so we had. No, they were like look, we believe in you guys so much, we're willing to just start in a brand with you guys. So that's when the rich came about.
Speaker 2:I was with Maximum right? No, no, it was before Maximum. We started that way with these other two guys named Josh and Anthony.
Speaker 3:Shout out to them they were at the empire, if I'm not mistaken, empire State building.
Speaker 2:They no, they weren't in the Empire.
Speaker 3:State building.
Speaker 2:No, at that time they were working with this guy named Gerard Adams. A lot of people might know him. He's actually a pretty influential. He has started an econ business and he also started a digital. It was like a blog of some sort that he A few years later he wanted to be selling for like a substantial amount of money and that became kind of like his success story. But we sort of met like through that situation it was like mutual friends that we had. That's when we decided to start a brand and our mission with this brand was to fill the void in the market and do everything that we did wrong with our previous brand.
Speaker 3:That was your school, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah so we kind of hit the ground running because by the time we started this new project we already had all these relationships with the stores that we had created with the previous brand and we knew all the ins and outs at this point because we had dealt with all the different sides of the business, from sourcing to selling, to marketing to logistics. We kind of knew all the ins and outs. So.
Speaker 3:You even went to China, right yeah, that was the first time Like culture shock, like oh yeah, seeing, okay, this is where our fashion comes from right.
Speaker 2:That was a whole other world. My first time growing was in 2011 with my Indian partner at the time, right and man. That was like. That opened my eyes to so many things, and China is actually a huge source of my inspiration for designing clothing. Believe it or not, that's great. A lot of people might not know that, but like my trips to China are like when the pandemic hit and I couldn't go to China for like three years.
Speaker 1:that was difficult.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because the market out there is so ahead of its time, or ahead of our time, I would say, like a lot of fashion here. A lot of people don't know this, but China gets a lot of fashion before the US gets it Right, because they're producing a lot of things for a lot of brands, a lot of like the known brands. They get the latest fabric technology, everything.
Speaker 2:So, for example, I'm actually going on Friday when I go there. Now, everything that's going to be out on the floor that you'll be able to get in the market is stuff that's going to be releasing next year here in the States. Got you. So that's why a lot of the stuff that we've put out has come from inspiration that I got from China. It's kept us ahead of the curve as a brand because I got so much inspiration. I got so much inspiration from going on these trips and you know we've been first to market with a lot of things Years back, like when we did the whole like cartoony swag.
Speaker 3:No, we brought that to market. New Green is one of the fabrics that were ahead before.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, we had a really good run with that.
Speaker 1:I'm aware that yellow collection you guys had too, was almost bringing it back. Now I'm seeing it. Yeah, what's the? What do you call this? Like a? Which one? The sweaters, the yellow sweaters, the cardigans?
Speaker 3:Cardigans, yeah, the cardigans.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we did that.
Speaker 1:Eons, yeah, and now they're coming back out and it's like yeah, they're about to have a moment, yeah, so.
Speaker 3:So, just to recap, it went from like being a creative graffiti, doing photography, doing airbrushes, and now you're building this business besides fashion became a creative director and a project manager for yourself. After that you know you've been you took a transition and you went to the R. How was that? You know, how was that experience going from living in New York and then absolutely. And what?
Speaker 1:made you make that transition.
Speaker 2:So after we started the brand in 2013, I think it was about nine, 10 months later, we won the partnering with this company called Maxima, who was kind of at the forefront of like urban fashion here and but this is where you did pyramid right.
Speaker 3:Yes, you do. Collaborating with a brand yeah, and I think it's.
Speaker 2:This was a sort of an important step in my my journey because Maxima was sort of like school for me, that situation which we were in a partnership with them for about three and a half years. I learned so many invaluable things working there and the experience that I gained there like really really helped me after we we moved on from there to do a lot of things the right way and I just learned so much. Actually, a lot of the things that changed my life after that came from me having taken a lot of China trips with the owner of that company and just learning the ropes with with a lot of things, with how manufacturers work, how things in the market work out there in China, like tech packs and fabric sources A whole bunch of things.
Speaker 2:But just like in general how things sort of work on that side of the world Right, because he lived there for many years and he also spoke the language, so me taking these trips with him were like different than like the trips that I took prior to being being. In somebody who was cultured there, yeah, right. So it was a different learning experience when I went with him Right and while I was there at Maxima, I wanted to become the design director for the for the company.
Speaker 3:So they had like wait. So you brought in a brand with those you the ones that you built, but they also had other brands under the same house, yeah, and you was able to design for those brands, Right, so it was a basically a fashion house, the house numerous brands.
Speaker 2:We were one of many in the beginning, when we first joined the company. There were about nine brands there, if I remember correctly, but within like the first year and a half, a bunch of those brands got phased out and then only three brands remained, which was V rich Black Pyramid, which they had. They got the license for that about a year.
Speaker 3:That was all a brand that Chris Brown's, Chris Brown's line yeah.
Speaker 2:It was Chris Brown's line and and we wound up getting the license for that about a year into us being partners with the company, and when that opportunity came about, I was since a lot of the brands got phased out. I had already started working with one of the other brands, which is called Hudson At the time.
Speaker 3:You used to make coats, jackets and stuff. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:But they turned into like a brand brand Like, yeah, it started doing a bunch of urban sportswear and stuff and and they needed design help. So you know, the owner sat me down I was getting ready to move to LA at the time because I was going to transition out there to pursue some other things but he was like hey, man, I got some opportunities here and you know I could use your, your expertise to help us with some of the other brands. So the Chris Brown thing was sort of brewing, brewing up at the time and I took the opportunity and I was like you know what, let me kind of see, I felt like some sort of calling and I wound up staying for another two, maybe two years. So then I wound up when the whole Chris Brown thing came about. They had the first meeting in LA.
Speaker 2:I was actually in LA when that happened. My partner at the time called me. He was like hey, don't leave Because we have a meeting in a couple of days and I want you to come. So we wanted the meeting Chris Brown at the studio out there in LA and we had the first sort of like brainstorm meeting to sort of lay out like what the brand was supposed to do. The brand is Patrick and a DNA stuff yeah.
Speaker 2:And and from there we literally took a trip to China from LA and we were out there for about three weeks developing the whole like first two collections. That was the beginning of that and you know we were. We took the license for the brand and we quickly grew that within like 18 months, the brand was doing like over like $10 million a year, you know. So that was that was super cool 2017 around there. I wound up deciding to finally leave to LA. I felt like I kind of like my situation there sort of ran its course.
Speaker 2:You know, I kind of uh, who wants to do you all right?
Speaker 3:Not yet, no, he's oh okay, I decided to move to LA.
Speaker 2:I was spending a lot of time out there. I was out there like every other month, right, whether I was working with Chris and I was also working on some other personal things that I was looking to looking to pursue. I was looking to get into the tech side of business yeah, I was developing an app, so I went there to pursue some new opportunities with my art as well. So then, as soon as I moved to LA, we wound up like Our partnership with Maxima, you know that dissolved and we moved on to partner up with some other people and I moved to LA and I met who's not my wife, like as soon as I moved to LA.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 2:And that's sort of what changed my entire course after that, because when I met her, about six, seven, eight months later, we wound up going to DR because she wanted to meet my family, and when we went back to DR, my parents had moved back like a year or something prior to that. So we went to DR. She went to visit for the first time. She fell in love with the country. Is she Dominican? No, she's Guatemalan. Oh, that's crazy. Yeah, she's Guatemalan, born and raised in LA, got it. And when we went to DR she was like just her eyes opened up. This is paradise.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And at the time I was like obviously doing most of my work remote and she had she had dove into like designing websites and stuff. So most of our stuff was, you know, we worked from our computers, so when we started looking at like the living expenses. We were from paying four grand at a house in LA to paying 400 bucks for a penthouse apartment in DR. You can imagine how life changing Right of course.
Speaker 3:And now you live in a certain lifestyle and a different budget, saving 3600 bucks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's.
Speaker 2:that's mad, aside from all the other living expenses that you incur living in LA like you know paying a car no traveling everything Right.
Speaker 2:So all of a sudden, we're saving thousands of dollars per month and living somewhere where, for us, it was like a positive change, like as far as quality of living. I mean, la was a step in the right direction for me because I got tired of living in New York and no offense to all my New Yorkers, a lot of my friends are still here. I started traveling a lot after I turned 30 and and the more I traveled, the more I realized that New York just wasn't it. Like I noticed how much like the the weather was affecting me and, just like the, the very monotonous lifestyle here in New York was just like, just not for me. I wanted to be more outdoors. I started cycling. At the time, you started cycling yeah, you started up brand Right and like cycling was, yeah, a lot of health benefits and and it wasn't something like you do all year around here because of the weather.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:So, going to LA for me was like a very positive change in that aspect, and you know I started hiking. I was like cycling all year round, so it was. It was a step in the right direction, but the finances weren't making sense at that time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, la's crazy expensive.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know I was making okay money but at the end of the day it was getting consumed by our living expenses. Yes, right. So when you know this thing with DR, we were like we didn't think about it too much. My family's there, she wanted sort of like a change for her personal life and and when we looked into the, the figures, you're just like this just makes a lot of sense right now. Let's not overthink it. We can always come back and actually initially we were, we were going to, we were going to do like the Bicostal thing, but after we we made the plunge that we moved few months in, we're just like what's the point of going back to LA? We're just going to be like spending all this extra money, having a place there, having a place here.
Speaker 2:So we just so, we, just, we just like, left everything behind pretty much and just most people wouldn't do that, the plunge yeah. And that first year after we moved was like bliss bro, Like we were that we're going hiking in the beautiful paradise of a private beach. Yeah, it was like. It was like living a vacation the whole time and and we had certain commodities that we could be.
Speaker 3:You started doing at that time.
Speaker 2:We jumped on that. Maybe about a year after we moved. We moved there. You know, we, since we started saving so much money, we started traveling a lot and we started looking into, so we moved out of our first apartment that we lived that in the R. We moved into our second apartment, we started looking at properties because we had to move and then we were like you know what it might make sense for us to just buy something because the prices are so affordable there and and that opened up like this, this whole.
Speaker 2:It opened up our minds as far as, like, investing into real estate in the R. So we quickly started doing that because we you know we were we had money left over and we got into a couple of apartments out there and that sort of started our like real estate journey in the R. And that was life changing for us, because here, like for you to think about real estate is like half a million dollars and up you know what I'm saying but like the R, you could buy an apartment for like 100,000 or less. We bought we want to buying two apartments couple years back for like 60 grand, bro, and like we flipped them for like double, like a year and a half into and, and we bought them in blueprint that's. That's something that, like a lot of people don't know, right.
Speaker 2:Like you don't need a ton of money to invest into real estate and make a profit. The, the flipping scheme. That is not a scheme. The flipping concept in DR. You can buy into a project in blueprint and You're paying minimal because it typically only requires about 20% of front.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you pay like and then you're paying, you're paying another 20 or 30% of whatever it's worth throughout the interim of the construction. So you're only out of pocket. You know, yeah, x amount of money and then, if you just do that for about a year and a half, you put it back on the market. Now, all of a sudden, you have surplus on on this property that even though let's say is worth let's say it cost a hundred thousand when you, when you got it a year and a half in, you might have paid $30,000 out of pocket, but then you put it back on the on the market and you set up for $30,000 more now you got your $30,000 back and you just got another surplus for 30k.
Speaker 2:So you all you did was put money aside and you just made a hundred percent profit on Right on on a property you don't even need to own.
Speaker 3:Need the mindset, though, to see like that right. Well, you need the education, and exactly.
Speaker 2:Having the information right. Yeah, a lot of people are not even aware of that. A lot of people are not aware of that.
Speaker 1:I started looking because I mentioned to you before we started the show that I got stuck out there. I was stuck out there for, like you know, I was stuck out there for a little bit in the art and I was like yo, what the fuck am I doing? Like this is crazy. Like these homes are incredible. Like yeah right by the beach, right across from a Malacca in Puerto Plata, and I was like this is insane. I'm gonna go back to New York and I'm up to to get an apartment right, yeah so the lifestyle change was very impactful for you, super.
Speaker 3:Not only you did a lifestyle change, but then you was able to partner with your partner and Invest. And you know a lot of people don't even think about Lifestyle like that, but you guys downsized to then live how most people can't, because you guys don't also having that mindset, she's able to kind of like see the same vision that you are 100% and have we now moved to the art?
Speaker 2:we probably wouldn't have known this and you know, god knows what we would have done, but for us it was like Click, like bull, that's innovators. Not only that.
Speaker 2:After we moved to the art because a lot, a lot of you know I had resources in China. We got into a dropshipping business and I won't get into the specifics of that because that's another story but Throughout the time that we were in the art, not only did we manage to save a ton of money, but we managed to make more money after we moved to the art. Our income like tripled within the first year of living there. So now you can imagine us saving so much money and then having this influx of money. You know that's what enabled us to be able to start these investments and then that sort of Progressed into, like us, eventually opening up our, our spa Ryan wellness. Yeah, there's a spa Orion.
Speaker 3:Right, yeah, I'm wellness. The aesthetic is so beautiful. It looks calming as you look at the place. Esthetic is beautiful and you guys could curate it that together as far as you're for the interior design.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that would give him the door.
Speaker 3:Like yeah, it's like a aesthetic is crazy.
Speaker 2:I'm working on a ton of things. I don't know how deep we want to dive into like, because each little thing has sort of like his own story.
Speaker 3:Well, the thing is for me I want people to get is that from an idea and you Are coming in and helping somebody else who had an idea, you build a career, bro, and a lot of people see their life as I have to go to school. Not that don't go to school, but just having an idea or helping your friend get to that next level because he has an idea might take you and create a whole Career for yourself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's also fear. Like you know, like you went against fear right. It's fearful not to go the career route right. So when you become entrepreneur, you're literally Forced to like figure it out. But he made a career for himself. I'm saying like he went against fear because of if you right like follow traditional footsteps, it's like go to school, find a nine-to-five, and this is he didn't know he was like an Entrepreneur until he like had to.
Speaker 3:He was forced to be one. Yeah right, and then getting in a manager role and a creative director, project manager. You was able to implement those skills that you learned building a business from an idea and then put it into your intimate life and your family life yeah and you was able to help. You know scale that and that's why it's important that you're on this show, Because you're an innovator.
Speaker 1:Can you speak about those products that you were? Saying that you're touching on a lot of different projects. Can you speak on some of them? Oh man, I have so many, well.
Speaker 3:I like to bike the cycling because a lot of people don't. They see the. It's a sport, but it's a lifestyle too and there's a health and wellness. Yeah, I've stopped. You highlight that because you were so inspired that you ended up building like a brand around it, right from the from the gear to the actual bike.
Speaker 1:You know how often do you cycle, because you seem to.
Speaker 2:I mean, I'm how far you've done. I'm not like 20 miles. I'm not a professional cyclist, by any means no it's a hobby, we understand something that.
Speaker 2:I took on as a hobby back in like 2015 and it was a very life-changing thing for me Cycling. Obviously, aside from the health benefits, there's a social aspect of it that, for me, a lot of the things that actually took place in my life came from me meeting people in the cycling community for my spa, for example. The reason why our spa exists today is because we rented one of our b&b apartments to who is now our chiropractor, and Initially the idea stemmed from him expressing to us that where he was practicing he wasn't happy and he wanted to leave and sort of do his own thing, but he didn't want to start a business from scratch. He proposed to us that if we, if we were willing to sort of like create a working situation for him, we can sort of go like 50 50 on a on the business and, and you know, he would basically do all the work, all the chiropractic work. So at the time we were sort of not ready for something like that. We had other ideas that we were thinking about doing and we wanted to be selling one of the apartments we invested into.
Speaker 2:And then, you know, we had a little bit of surplus money and we were like you know what this might be? Something that's lucrative, that's sort of like low energy for us and we don't have to put a lot of time and effort into that, could be a decent amount of passive income. So when we looked at the numbers and everything, it was like, okay, this makes sense. So we started looking for locations like for a small office, just so he can work.
Speaker 2:And we wanted to find this house that was like abandoned for years and the owners of that house wanted to do a little bit of remodeling to put it up for commercial use. So the location was like a prime location. It was like right in the heart of the city and the price was right because the house needed help, so it came in at a really good price. So when we saw that opportunity, we were like, okay, this is going to entail a bigger investment, but we saw a much bigger opportunity there. So then that's when the idea sort of evolved into us creating like a wellness place and a brand, like it's a whole brand.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So we obviously we've traveled a lot and one of the things that DR lacked for us was like a place you can go to relax. Like you know, we've been to a lot of amazing experiences like Bali, turkey, greece, south America, and in DR we just had nothing Like when you wanted a massage you got to go to like a resort or resort which is really far from us.
Speaker 2:But in Santiago all we had was like the beauty places and it was like half it was like a half ass experience, and we're all about experiences. So when this whole idea started evolving, we're like you know what we're going to create, something that's like our vibe and like what we're looking for, and we felt like people would resonate with it and we had a lot of conviction in that and a lot of the aesthetic ideas that we got were from these trips that we took to Bali, to South America, the Amazon, which we visited a couple like prior to us opening Orion. That's why our door has plants inside of it and it's very unique and a lot of people like take to. When they see the images online, they're like what is this place?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:so I was like oh shit, the whole creative aspect of just design and creativity, as you learn in the career, and he applied it to another business.
Speaker 2:And it's also getting perspective, because when you don't travel, you don't get that perspective. You don't know what you don't know.
Speaker 1:I feel like that's what happens when you mention, like New York, like you're done with it, because once you travel outside of New York and Europe and all these different countries, you go to Columbia a lot yeah yeah, yeah. Once you experience all that, like what would you want to come back?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Now you got so much perspective when you travel because you're exposed to so many different cultures and different things. As a creator, for me traveling is essential, like that's what keeps me. Like every time I take a trip, I come back inspired, you know. Yeah.
Speaker 3:So total about inspired. Right now, if we could give a photographer, a creative designer, a creative entrepreneur, what advice will you give that person who's looking, who just need that advice? What's a couple of advice that you will give them to start, if they want it to be an entrepreneur, or starting the creative space?
Speaker 2:There's so many things that could be said right Like, and being a creative is very broad. There's so many ways you can go. There's a million ways to skin that cat, but I think the most important thing is, like one of the key elements that my wife and I have that I think is what set us apart is that we're very resourceful. Actually, I think that's like the main key thing, because you can have a million ideas but if you're not resourceful, you got to make it happen yeah.
Speaker 2:And we live in an age where everything's there for you, like the internet.
Speaker 1:I look for it.
Speaker 2:A lot of the resources that I found and what we can go back to talk about the second thing, because I actually found my factory through Ali Express. Right and like a lot of people don't like, if you want to start a brand. You can go on Ali Express and find a supplier that's going to give you low minimums. A lot of people don't know that.
Speaker 1:And it's just the lack of, like you know, perspective and knowledge.
Speaker 2:But that's one of the things that I think has enabled us to do so many things, and I'll quickly touch on all the things that I'm working on at the moment, because I think I've sort of reached a place in my career where now I'm like really just honing in on creating cool shit. Now is not so much so like before. When we first started our brand, it was like all right, we want to do a brand because we want to want to create wealth Right, and we want to do this for the money. But I've kind of reached a point in life where, like, the wealth part is not my driving force anymore and the driving force for me is creating cool things selfishly, for myself, but then also for other people, for other people that I think also may be able to appreciate these things and also benefit from these things we have.
Speaker 3:I mean, I would say through your work you have impacted a lot of people, especially us. Yeah, I mean through your work. So you know, we always make sure that we we know where it came from and that's why we're here to give you your flowers and make sure that you're on the innovators Then can you touch back on the cycling like you would Sure Go into that?
Speaker 2:The cycling thing was some that I didn't it was. It also wasn't some that I kind of planned After I moved to the R, specifically during the pandemic I was. I've always been into aesthetics, obviously because I'm into fashion, so one of the one of the struggles that I had with cycling was that to look cool and have the right cycling kits you got to spend a lot of money. It's a very expensive sport.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And for me, I don't want to wear the same thing all the time because I'm very diverse, like I could look one way one day and then the next day I want to look different, and to do that with cycling becomes very expensive. If you're buying into the it brands that are like you know, the brands that give you the quality and the look that somebody like me would be looking for. So, since I've been in the manufacturing side for so long, when I would see these, the ticket on these brands, I'm like I appreciate the design and the and the quality, but I know how much this cost to make and you know for me to spend $200 on this, on a single jersey, and $300 on a pair of bibs it's like a $500 outfit. If I want to, if I want to have 10 different outfits, that's like five grand. You know what I mean. So, and on the other side of things, if I want the money that I actually was willing to spend, you can find anything that was like in line with the way that I wanted to look.
Speaker 2:So that's when I went on Ali Express and I started looking for like an opportunity to create my own custom stuff for myself. So I found this one factory that basically does printables for cycling jerseys, and the first factory that I tested wasn't like the quality wasn't up to par with what I was looking for. But then I found this other factory that was closer to there. There was like there were like 70% of the way there, so I started working with them, started started sampling stuff, some stuff for myself, and over time they got better and better. So the point where I was like okay, I can actually offer this out to the, you know, to the to the market.
Speaker 2:And I think people would appreciate it. So I, the first I have a really good friend of mine who lives here and he was the first guy that I ever went road, road cycling with, and him and I obviously we talk about cycling all the time and like we came up with the concept for the brand is called cognitive, because cognitive short is cog and that's like the COG. Yeah, so that's like the bike cog, that's like in the front and the back.
Speaker 3:So you do have, like a double meaning, a ratio of abbreviation right. Cognitive, but it's also cog is exactly.
Speaker 2:I saw cog of the bike Exactly, so I had had the double meaning. So we thought it'd be a cool name. So during the pandemic I came up with that and then we wanted to putting a website together. You know, we started offering the, the, the products to the public, but we didn't really treat it as a business. For me it's sort of been a a creative outlet for me and a way for me to dress myself in the cycling business, I mean in the cycling world.
Speaker 2:Now what happened was during the pandemic also, I've gone through a few different bikes and I want to find a factory that's been manufacturing bikes for big companies for many years. They had their own internal brand that is not well known, but they have 20 years of experience in the business. They know how to make yeah, so the stuff is like really good quality. So on my last trip to China, which was earlier this year, I wound up getting a frame from them. And then also there was another Chinese company that launched an electronic group set for for cycling and I wanted to test it out to see if it's something that I can offer in DR to, like you know, resell to people under my brand. So I've been doing that for the last like six, seven months. I've been testing, I put a bike together with all these components and my idea is to sort of fill this void in the market where, because bikes have gotten really expensive over the last five $10,000. That's like. That's like a mid range, entry level bike.
Speaker 1:They're like carbon fire If you want to get a high quality like road bike.
Speaker 2:You're looking at 12, 13, 14, 15 thousand dollars.
Speaker 3:That's crazy.
Speaker 2:And for me it's like I get it, but that's what they do in the Tour de France, right? Yeah, If you want to go pro level, you got to spend that kind of money on a bike, and you know.
Speaker 1:I wanted it, it was a hobby.
Speaker 2:So I wanted to bring something to market that I can offer to people, that can sort of sit in line with these high, high grade bikes, but there's going to cost you a fraction of the price, so that I've been working on that for the last couple of months and you know, I'm going back now to China to visit a couple of those factories. I'm also working on a. You guys know me, I'm like very much into watches. So Fausto and I are working on a concept that is not a watch brand, but we're creating a concept that's going to be a watch, and I think that something is going to be very interesting.
Speaker 2:I'm also doing some stuff on the real estate side. Out in China. I'm going to be distributing capsule homes. You guys might have seen them like on Instagram because they become kind of viral the last couple of months, but I basically went to the biggest factory and they're giving me exclusivity to the whole DR. So, yeah, so we're going to be distributing those out in the DR as well. So those are like the main things that I'm sort of like cooking up right now. I'm also going to be launching a new brand in the coming months.
Speaker 3:And it just keeps going, guys, it just keeps going.
Speaker 2:What else? No, I mean there's a few other things, but those are like the main things that started to have my focus right now.
Speaker 3:So well, there you go. That's why you're an innovator and you want the innovators then, so just the. Is there any website that people can go and see your work? Or the actual, the cognitive website?
Speaker 2:for the bike stuff. I think if you look up my personal Instagram, I have all my other businesses listed on my on my bio Abiel Ruiz, a-b-i-e-l or U-I-Z.
Speaker 3:Perfect.
Speaker 2:On Instagram and there you have, I have links to. I have all the other Instagram's linked of all my, all my business and what's the name of the bike company?
Speaker 3:again, the cognitivecom.
Speaker 2:It's cognitivecyclingcc.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And the Instagram is cognitivecc, if I remember correctly. I'm having a brain, brain fog right now it's been, but it's all linked on my on my Instagram bio.
Speaker 3:But it's been great to have you because you know there's a lot of kids, a lot of people who's been wanting to be in the creative space, wanting to be entrepreneurs, and they get scared. We all get scared, but you've. You've pushed past that. You've been through all those trials and tribulations and you have overcome and now you're on the other side and now you're more on a zen place that you can create out your mind and live out your mind. And I think it's very impactful that you've done that for yourself and for your community, because you have impacted us. Appreciate that.
Speaker 3:So there you go. We got another episode, we got one of the coolest creative directors from New York or now in DR, and thank you again for coming by.
Speaker 2:Thank you guys for having me. I'll be happy to do this again sometime. Yeah, yeah, we'll do it again.
Speaker 3:Oh well, we're going to go to that spa. We're going to go to the spa Everybody check out. That's another one, Orion.
Speaker 2:Orion wellnessrd, rd Orion wellnessrd.
Speaker 3:So make sure you follow, subscribe like share, it don't cost nothing. And we got formal Follow the non-sasag Steve O'Bizness, and we got the special Happy Oroes.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, brother. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 3:So one.