ot always translate into sales. In this interview with Inside Retail, Asamoah discusses their partnership, lessons from content creation and the importance of making customers feel good. Inside Retail:‌ What inspired you to not only run your personal life together but to launch this professional endeavor, with yourself as the CEO? Denis Asamoah: Naturally, when you’re with your partner, you talk about what inspires you, what you love, and Jackie always used to emphasize how much she loved fragrances. She used to burn candles and set the mood in the house every single day. Prior to 2020, we would just talk about things like, “What if we did this [type of brand]?” and “What would it look like?” We would have conversations with other brand founders and were speaking to manufacturers that could create candles, just kind of checking out what that would look like. What really accelerated the process was the Covid-19 pandemic. A lot of uncertainty started to happen in the creator economy, where brands started to push back on deals, and it gave me a moment to be like, “Wait, we need to be in control of our own destiny. Let’s create our own brand.” While this wasn’t intentional, it kind of ended up being the best timing, as everyone was home and lighting candles. We decided to launch with candles [as part of the initial release]. Let’s set the mood and ensure that we uplift people through our candles. IR: With co-founders, regardless of whether or not they’re also romantic partners, there is usually one who is the creative and one who’s more analytical. How do you balance that dynamic? DA: That dynamic is definitely there, and I think that it’s become our strength. She’s an amazing creative who has been in this space for over a decade, and she also trusts me, given my financial background, to make wise decisions for the company. We rarely bump heads because we both know that we’re really good in our respective lanes. That doesn’t mean we can’t share ideas about marketing or financial concepts; it’s a collaborative effort. If we find that we both can’t agree on something, which sometimes can happen, we bring in our executives and our team members and involve them in a discussion because it’s all about teamwork. It’s not just what she and I think. IR: With Aina coming from an influencer background, can you elaborate on your approach to content creation to promote the product? DA: That’s a great question because we were debating what we wanted to do with our most recent campaign for the eau de parfum, “Not Your Type”, and we decided to do something different than what we’ve typically done. We produced a comedic mini-show series featuring a wide range of characters. That’s the beauty of our brand; we are very approachable, we don’t take ourselves too seriously and we’re willing to take risks. People’s attention spans are so low these days, so we try to find ways to make content entertaining while still educating people about the product. What was interesting was that even though the series got a lot of views, it drew in a different type of audience. It drew in comedy fans, versus real fragrance lovers. From the outside, looking at the views, you would be like, “Oh my God, this is getting so much engagement from thousands of comments. People are loving this content.” But really, when it comes to sales, it didn’t do as well as content for our previous launches. IR: What piece of advice would you give to the day-one version of yourself on your brand journey? DA: I would say to focus on the importance of having systems set in place, and making sure that you take time to understand key parts of your business. Even though you should hire the right people for a job, I think it’s important to understand certain parts so that you can question things and ask the right questions. It’s important, as you continue to grow, that you’re always educating yourself and that you never stop learning. IR: What has been a crowning achievement moment in your brand journey? DA: There have been a lot of moments, so I’m thinking I should start writing them down. It was nice receiving our 200,000 orders plaque from Shopify within the first year of business. Then there is a more external “aha” moment. Everyone can sell products, but what’s really meaningful is how it makes people feel.  So when I get a message from someone saying, “Hey, I was having surgery, and this is what I used to help me through the process and uplift me”, that feels really meaningful. It’s meaningful to know that our products are really making an impactful change in people’s lives and how they feel. That probably led to one of the things I’m proud of us launching, our self-care notes, which are now included in each of our fragrance products. When you buy a fragrance product, you receive a self-care note, and the goal there was to allow people to take a moment to pause during their crazy lives. We’re always constantly on the go, and it’s a moment for them to ask a self-reflection question and to answer that question. It’s still very early on in seeing people interact and engage with that, but I’m praying that this will continue to grow and make people feel even better. IR: What are your favorite Forvr Mood products? DA: The “Cuffing Season” candle, which I use to set a more romantic mood every night with Jackie. It was one of my early favorite SKUs. Also, the “You Remind Me” fragrance, which has become my go-to fragrance for day-to-day. Further reading: How is Forvr Mood moving beyond influencer appeal?