Kia ora. Our guest today is from over the ditch. My favorite, well, second favorite Kiwi, in all of the land. But now he's an adopted Aussie after fleeing his homeland in a social media shit storm. He's a joy of a human and has learned a good lesson: reality bites. Reality TV, that is. Samuel Levi, welcome to the show, dialling in from Melbourne. *Since this was recorded, Victoria has gone back into Covid-19 lockdown. THANK YOU for listening! Find me, follow me, rate me, subscribe to me (I love it) Follow @TheCluelessConfessionsPodcast Visit: @Jayde.Balderston @_SamuelLevi @OneFigureBeauty OneFigureBeauty.com
Kia ora. Our guest today is from over the ditch. My favorite, well, second favorite Kiwi, in all of the land. But now he's an adopted Aussie after fleeing his homeland in a social media shit storm.
He's a joy of a human and has learned a good lesson: reality bites. Reality TV, that is. Samuel Levi, welcome to the show, dialling in from Melbourne.
*Since this was recorded, Victoria has gone back into Covid-19 lockdown.
THANK YOU for listening!
Find me, follow me, rate me, subscribe to me (I love it)
Follow @TheCluelessConfessionsPodcast
Visit:
Jayde Balderston (00:02):
Hi, welcome to Clueless Confessions. I'm Jayde Balderston, founder and owner of The Grey Consulting. In my more than 15 years in public relations, comms and brand in the global market, I've met some extraordinary people, driven, creative and brilliant. I've heard many amazing stories of success and, of course, failure, in life and in business, and I've learned so much from those around me. So I'm going to share their wisdom, warmth, wit, hysterical and heartbreaking stories. We're all a little clueless, but we can get smarter every day. So hop in, enjoy the ride, and if I come to a stop sign, I'll totally pause.
Samuel Levi (00:41):
If anything, Married at First Sight ruined my career. Yep. What were you going to say?
Jayde Balderston (00:44):
Single and ready to mingle.
Samuel Levi (00:49):
There's just so many narrow-minded people, but I was literally known as, "That gay guy off TV."
Jayde Balderston (00:50):
Is it just a bit of a free-for-all, get as drunk and lick it up as possible?
Samuel Levi (00:55):
I don't know how, but I just picked myself up from, I guess, a dark place after the show.
Jayde Balderston (00:57):
There's massive jackarses out there.
Samuel Levi (00:59):
The couple next to us were just talking about their whole life. Talking about their sex life, talking about everything they were doing from drugs, in front of the whole café.
Jayde Balderston (01:09):
Kia ora. Welcome to Clueless Confessions. I'm Jayde Balderston. Our guest today is from over the ditch. My favorite, well, second favorite Kiwi, in all of the land. But now he's an adopted Aussie after fleeing his homeland in a social media shitstorm. He's a joy of a human and has learned a good lesson: reality bites. Reality TV, that is. Samuel Levi, welcome to the show, dialing in from free Melbourne.
Samuel Levi (01:35):
Hi. Thank you.
Jayde Balderston (01:37):
I guess what everybody would want to know from the first bit is you need to tell me about MAFS, and my biggest question, how did you even get on? So you're on Married at First Sight in New Zealand and it was their second season, was it?
Samuel Levi (01:56):
Yes, it was season two, the best season. The best season in New Zealand. How did I get onto it? God, basically the easiest way was I was possibly, probably tapped on the shoulder. That's probably the easiest way to explain that. I have worked in media industry and I guess the fashion side of things for many years before appearing on the show. So I knew a lot of people. I knew people who had appeared on the first season. I knew some of the producers and they kind of were just scouting around. We had a back and forth conversation way on earlier in the process of casting where they were asking if I was single and if I'd possibly go on the show. I was like, "Yeah, I'll give it a shot. I'm single." Oh, I guess I didn't hear from them for a few months. Then randomly, they just got in touch again saying, "Are you still single? Because we'd love to have you on the show, and we're pretty much doing it all now." And I was like, "Yeah, I'm still single," and it kind of just unraveled from there.
Jayde Balderston (02:56):
Were you the first same-sex couple on MAFS or had it been done before?
Samuel Levi (03:03):
No. So there has been a few same-sex couples on MAFS before. There was one in New Zealand in season one and there was one in Australia I think back in maybe season one or two. There's been a few other ones around the world within the franchise. But we were the first successful, I guess, LGBTI marriage in the whole franchise around the world because the other series really got it wrong when they did their matching and their pairing because they hated each other from the moment they met down the aisle. It was a very intense dynamic between the pair. So, yeah, we were the first successful ones because every other series or show that had shown LGBTI hated each other from the moment they met, and that showed on TV.
Jayde Balderston (03:46):
Did you walk down the aisle or were you at the end, waiting?
Samuel Levi (03:49):
No, it was, funny enough, because obviously, we both didn't know each other before we met, but we both had said to production and producers that we both didn't want to walk down the aisle. We both wanted to either meet in the middle or kind of walk out the side entrance, however the kind of setup, venue was. So, that was kind of cool to know that we both agreed on that before we even met. He walked out of a wing, kind of thing, like a side wing, and I walked up these stairs out of the bush, kind of thing, where it happened to look like it on the show. It was really weird.
Jayde Balderston (04:22):
What was going through your head when you were taking those first few steps towards your future husband?
Samuel Levi (04:29):
Oh my God. I was shitting my pants. I'm not going to lie. I think it even shows in the first five seconds of me standing up there watching him come towards me as well. Yeah, I was scared, nervous/didn't know what the hell I was doing. I was looking at my family and my friends that were like kind of... I was going to say audience, but it's not a audience. In the crowd, I guess. At the same time and on top of that, you've literally got so much camera crew around you. You've literally got cameras on booms, swinging around and over the top. Yeah, it was pretty intense.
Jayde Balderston (05:05):
Your family, so they were there. Was there any hesitation for you doing the show itself?
Samuel Levi (05:11):
Yeah, most of my family was there. My dad and my sister didn't come to the wedding. They were in Australia at the time and they were just like, "Ugh, it's not a real wedding." They were supportive of it, but they were more like, "We're not going to waste money and take as much time off," because it was so last minute with our dates. They had to keep it so confidential. It was literally like four days beforehand we found out exactly the date and the venue and that kind of stuff. But they didn't fly over because they were like, "Well, technically, we haven't really met the guy. We don't know who he is. And it's just for a TV show." But if it was a real wedding with a real partner, male, they would 100% be there.
Jayde Balderston (05:46):
Obviously, you knew you were doing a show. You've been in the industry, so to speak. Did you go in thinking that there was a chance you would possibly fall in love with the person they were matching you with? Did you go in thinking, "Oh, there may actually be a chance," or was it very much, this is almost approached from a job perspective?
Samuel Levi (06:07):
I tried to go in with a much open mind. I watched the first season of the show back in New Zealand and it was the biggest flop I've ever seen. I'm not even worried to say that. I watched the people on there and I knew some of them. I watched the gay couple on it and it was actually so embarrassing and so cringey to watch that I wanted to go in with the approach of, "This is not how the LGBTI community should be represented or are, and this is what we're really like." That was my mindset of going in. Whether I was going to find love or whether I was just going to find the friendship in someone, I was always going to be respectful of the other person, and as well as being myself and showing my true character on top of that. But I was never going to be nasty and never going to be horrible like the other seasons have looked, I've watched in Australia and New Zealand.
Jayde Balderston (07:00):
What I'd love to know is behind the scenes sort of stuff. What's it like when you're not physically on camera at that moment? Is there any funny sort of weird things that happen behind the scenes?
Samuel Levi (07:13):
Yeah. There was probably a lot of things. Probably the easiest way was sometimes I would watch things on TV, like watching it back when the nation was watching it back, and some things didn't make sense to, I guess, the audience watching, because a lot of things happened off camera for me to act the way I did on camera, if that makes sense.
Jayde Balderston (07:33):
Absolutely.
Samuel Levi (07:34):
So sometimes I might come across maybe even a bit passive aggressive or a little bit rude or straightforward with some of the things I said, but that's because off camera, my husband or maybe some of the other, I guess, cast or contestants pissed me off or said something, but it just happened to be that the camera was around when they got my reaction.
Jayde Balderston (07:55):
Do you actually hang out with all the other married people, apart from the dinners or whatever? Do you actually hang out together from a production perspective?
Samuel Levi (08:04):
Yeah, so we did a little bit. Production tried to keep us away as much as possible because they didn't like the friendships to evolve off screen. They like to see that all happen on screen. But it's so hard when we're all living in literally the same apartment block. Some of us are living in the same corridor. So we're going to run into each other. When we're sometimes filming out in the corridor where the other couples are walking past and we're always like, "Hi, how are you?" and we always want to catch up. But I did form a friendship with, I guess, one or two of the other contestants much more than I did with anyone else. That's just, I guess this is what happens in life in general. You do form a connection with some people stronger than others. That really showed on my season and it was highlighted a lot, actually, about... I guess when you go on a TV like MAFS or a reality TV show, you're there for a character and you're there for a purpose as well as trying to find love.
Jayde Balderston (09:01):
So did you get along with them more than your husband itself in terms of the friends that you made?
Samuel Levi (09:07):
100%. One in particular I got on much more better than my husband. But I guess over time, the relationship with my husband evolved and we got to kind of understand each other more and get to know each other's humor a little bit more, but it did take some time.
Jayde Balderston (09:22):
What I love about a lot of these reality shows we see is, well, kind of love/hate, the amount of alcohol that I feel like is shown on these shows. Is it just a bit of a free-for-all, get as drunk and lick it up as possible?
Samuel Levi (09:38):
At the dinner parties, 100%. Dinner parties, I went up to the bar and got whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. I could be in the middle of a conversation at the dinner party and be like, "Oh, I need alcohol," and they would be like, "Yeah, go for it." Literally, it's not a bad thing because I understand both sides of the production and us being casted. But I mean, there is a borderline, I guess, now looking back where they should have probably said, "Stop," or maybe, "You don't need any more alcohol." But they loved us getting a bit pissed because we kind of talk more or, I guess, create a little bit more drama or express more what we're feeling.
Jayde Balderston (10:14):
Was there anyone there who just completely couldn't handle their booze and just had to... Because, there's one in every group.
Samuel Levi (10:21):
Yeah. There was a few of them and, look, honestly, I was one of them at the time. I went through a stressful stage in my experience just with the dynamic of the group and I was getting frustrated with a lot of people. I wasn't meeting eye to eye with my husband half the time. So when I would go into these dinner parties, in my head, I knew that sometimes the conversations would lead towards my relationship and us. So to kind of cover that, I guess, or just kind of to get through that, I would be always having the wine in hand and just drinking and just going ham.
Jayde Balderston (10:56):
I love that. So your partner or your husband, what happened?
Samuel Levi (11:03):
Yeah, so we were successful throughout, actually. And it was our last week of filming, I actually decided to leave the show. So I decided to leave the show and leave him because things were getting a bit too much and there was a lot of things that just weren't adding up to me. I guess it's hard because when you're watching the show it's a week because it's a week between, I guess, the Sunday night episode to the next Sunday night episode, but in real life it was a two and a half week break between when I left to coming back to the reunion episode and our final dinner party.
Samuel Levi (11:35):
So between those two weeks, we actually figured out that we really missed each other and we wanted to work things out. And we actually got back together before we came back to our final dinner party and our reunion dinner. So we kind of walked back in, hand in hand, all together, and stayed together for three months after that. Yeah, it was roughly three to four months after that. Then things kind of went downhill after that, once I took a trip to LA with some friends and he stayed back in New Zealand.
Jayde Balderston (12:04):
Sorry, I'm just laughing. I love this so much. Whoa. So MAFS wrapped up, and then how long was it from finishing the show to you moving over to Australia?
Samuel Levi (12:17):
It was within literally five months. I think it was, yeah, five months. So me and my on-screen husband, we broke up, and then it kind of gave me a reason to leave New Zealand. I kind of wanted to get away from that whole... I was literally known, and I hated it because there's just so many narrow-minded people, but I was literally known as, "That gay guy off TV. Oh, there's that gay guy off TV." It's not like, "That guy that got married on TV," or, "That reality TV person." It was, "That gay guy on TV." And I just-
Jayde Balderston (12:46):
Yeah, so you were really pigeonholed into that, almost presented as a character for them, in a way.
Samuel Levi (12:53):
Yeah, and I hated that and I hate labels. I don't know. It really just put me off that whole side of things. Look, even for a while it even put me off the whole LGBT community because it was so backwards with how I was portrayed and how people saw me. So I kind of started my decision to move to Australia. It had always been on my mind and I guess I just worked on it really hard and I packed my bags and off I went to Melbourne with really no plan in place.
Jayde Balderston (13:22):
Because technically, when we met and when we got to know each other was through you working in styling and in the fashion industry and lifestyle and things like that. So aside from being on the show, you were still ultimately running your business and being you and doing everything outside of, I guess, this character that they were portraying of you as well.
Samuel Levi (13:42):
Yeah. Yeah, that's a good point actually I'd love to get across, and I think a lot of people don't realize this. Before I went on that show, I already had established, I guess, a successful platform for myself. I guess you can kind of look at myself as a public figure sometimes for some people. I had already-
Jayde Balderston (14:00):
Yeah, you were a brand.
Samuel Levi (14:01):
Yeah, a brand, and I'd already successfully created that and monetized that and been successful. I'd traveled to so many different places, whether it was LA, Kuala Lumpur, all these different places with my brand and my fashion, and meeting new people, and the things I did with magazines and radio. This didn't really actually boost my career, this show, which I think a lot of people forget.
Jayde Balderston (14:21):
Do you feel it almost hindered or threw a little bit of a-
Samuel Levi (14:24):
It did.
Jayde Balderston (14:24):
... negative kind of connotation across you?
Samuel Levi (14:29):
Oh, absolutely. If anything, Married at First Sight ruined my career. I'm not even embarrassed to say that. Although I don't regret going on the show and it was a great platform to reach new people, I guess, it didn't help me with anything in the long run. It actually made me had to work fricking three times as hard to kind of change the perception of people and what they had in mind of who I was as a person.
Jayde Balderston (14:51):
I do get that because from a public relations perspective, there's a very fine line between those who are, as I said, personal brand and creating content and working within an industry and those who are ultimately just attempting the influencer, I use that word so loosely, I fucking hate it, but kind of ultimately looking at these things from the, "An influencer growing my celebrity status," kind of perspective. But you are established and working already, and I could imagine that that would have been really tough.
Samuel Levi (15:27):
Oh, it was. It was so tough. Even just on the show, there was times where I wasn't allowed to move forward with certain parts of filming and this. I talked about having a social media presence before being on the show and it was so frustrating. But I had to, I guess, put on my business mind and my working cap and be like, "Okay, this is a production. Just say what they want you to say to get onto the next stage of filming."
Jayde Balderston (15:52):
It's funny you say that. I do the hat thing. We often talk about, yeah, putting on the different hats, and sometimes you do need to take your business hat off and put your character hat on or what it may be. That can be hard, especially when it's a public forum. Social media and media platform and publishing can be such a scary place to be. It's pretty damn brave.
Samuel Levi (16:20):
Oh, it was. I literally thought I knew what I was getting myself into, kind of, but I had no idea of what was going to come my way.
Jayde Balderston (16:28):
Yeah, and I think that's the beast of it, isn't it? I think that's what we don't get. Even with you saying, and I know I do this too, where you will watch a reality show, I love my Housewives, and it's really difficult to not form an opinion on the character portrayal that is coming across. We know that there is a difference between the characters that are being created and being truly authentically you, which is difficult to come across when you have cameras in your face, lighting, production, the whole sort of fanfare going on.
Samuel Levi (17:02):
Oh, absolutely. I think with me, because I've obviously watched it back with the nation, and when it was on TV was the first time I saw it, how it was put together, what was going to happen and all that kind of stuff. I was watching myself being like, "Holy fucking shit. Is this really me? Is this who I am as a person?" And it wasn't. It was just an elaborate side that, obviously, there was a lot of editing involved to make you look a certain way, and that's totally fine. I get it. I knew what I was signing myself up for. But that's how the nation kind of perceived me as after that. The funny thing is, I'm not even worried to say this, out of my whole, entire series, I am probably one of the most nicest, most hardworking people that there is, but that was not shown. A whole different side was shown and that was something I had to really take on the chin and bite the bullet and work hard after it went to air on turning that around.
Jayde Balderston (17:55):
You were copping social media backlash and bullshit off the back of being on a television program, which we know is not ultimately real. Do you know what I mean?
Samuel Levi (18:02):
I know.
Jayde Balderston (18:03):
So it just does my head in. But I remember next when you and I caught up for the first time properly, face to face in the city and in Sydney. So did you move to Sydney first and then hit Melbourne? Or were you just here visiting and that's why we caught up?
Samuel Levi (18:19):
No. So I was the ambassador for Almond Breeze New Zealand. So I had been working with Almond Breeze Australia and New Zealand since I moved to Australia. So when I got flown down to Sydney, at the time I met you, to attend one of their massive coffee and biggest launches-
Jayde Balderston (18:37):
That's right.
Samuel Levi (18:39):
... and that was kind of when I was teeing up a lot of meetings during my time in Sydney because I didn't know when I was going to come back. And you were one of those people I met.
Jayde Balderston (18:47):
I have to be so honest and say, skipping to today, but we work together now, which is fucking amazing. And I get to-
Samuel Levi (18:55):
No, that's so cool, and I love being able to just like message you like a mate and not be like, "Hi, Jayde." Do you know what I mean?
Jayde Balderston (19:00):
Oh, hey, that is why my business exists the way it does, because this is how we know this is the best way to work together, I think. These relationships, to me, mean so much, and that's why I think it's so exciting to have my business created to do that, but then have this fun platform to be able to sort of share a bit of you with everybody else because there's so much greatness.
Samuel Levi (19:21):
Yeah, yeah. No, exactly.
Jayde Balderston (19:23):
So you moved to Melbourne.
Samuel Levi (19:25):
I moved to Melbourne, single, marriage broken. No, I'm joking. What were you going to say?
Jayde Balderston (19:27):
Single and ready to mingle, [inaudible 00:19:34].
Samuel Levi (19:32):
I probably just cut you off then.
Jayde Balderston (19:37):
Were you looking just for a boyfriend or were you on the hunt for a husband after the experience of having a husband? When you're in Melbourne, are you like, "That's it. The next man's going to be the one"?
Samuel Levi (19:48):
Oh my God, no. I think after that show literally the wrong people were knocking at my door, like the people I did not want to date. Plus, going on a show like that, whether it be any love show, it might be The Bachelor, it might be MAFS, it might be whatever, I think coming off those shows, you really actually know what the hell you want in someone. Some people are going, "No, it's just an experience for you." It's like, "No, actually, now I know exactly what I want in someone and what I don't want," and that's probably why I'm still single today because I'm so fucking picky.
Jayde Balderston (20:19):
Well, I guess that that's probably a great strength that you take away from that, to be honest. So you're in Melbourne, and I know that you picked up a radio gig.
Samuel Levi (20:26):
Yeah. I picked up a radio gig here and I was doing... It was a pretty much, I think, a casual on-air morning breakfast show here in Melbourne. Then that was going well, actually. I actually loved it, and it really made me find a passion for that side of things because I did radio in the past well before MAFS. I did a lot of stuff with iHeartRadio. When I got back into, I guess, dabbling into radio in Melbourne, it really made me enjoy that. I loved just yarning, and I loved talking shit on air, and I loved doing call segments and music, and then fricking COVID hit.
Jayde Balderston (20:58):
I was going to say, I'm pretty sure it was not the longest run you got before then the whole entire world decided to shut down. But not only-
Samuel Levi (21:05):
No. I was literally like four to five months actually, I was doing on-air stuff and then COVID hit. And I was just like, "Oh my God, what the fuck?"
Jayde Balderston (21:15):
We also need to point out that you were in Victoria, still up. But that means you went through one of the most hardcore, strictest lockdowns that we possibly had, and you were literally locked in for 12 weeks, right?
Samuel Levi (21:28):
It's actually crazy, and I actually love that can admit and you understand that. It was the strictest in the world. Because I've got so many people back home in New Zealand, I guess my following online, who, half of them, at least, are in New Zealand, don't understand that it's the strictest. They just go, "Oh, but you can still get takeaway coffees." And it's like, "Yeah, that doesn't mean anything. It doesn't mean shit. We can't do anything. We're allowed out for a-"
Jayde Balderston (21:48):
Because they can't understand. They've got Jacinda over there. They just learnt what the bubble was and dealt with it. We, on the other hand-
Samuel Levi (21:59):
Exactly. And they all go, "Well, we had four weeks inside where we couldn't go outside and do anything." I'm like, "Yes, you could go outside." I think everyone would revert back to, "Our McDonald's was closed." That's what everyone says, "Our McDonald's was closed." Because our McDonald's here are still open, they think that we've still got all this freedom. It doesn't work like that.
Jayde Balderston (22:17):
I remember, I know Phil's parents, we've got a lot of family over in New Zealand, and they were saying to me how when lockdown was lifted, that the line for McDonald's literally went around the block. Everyone had missed their Big Macs and French fries, I guess.
Samuel Levi (22:35):
Yeah. I remember all my friends were doing that, and I was seeing thing on social of them lining up. And I was just like, "You guys are crazy."
Jayde Balderston (22:42):
Well, obviously, today is the first day of freedom for you after your hardcore lockdown.
Samuel Levi (22:50):
I know. Actually, I woke up, it literally felt like bloody Christmas this morning, I'm not even going to lie.
Jayde Balderston (22:54):
Could you sleep last night?
Samuel Levi (22:56):
Yeah. I did actually sleep. I took two sleeping tablets so I did get a bit of sleep because I was so excited.
Jayde Balderston (23:00):
The best.
Samuel Levi (23:03):
But, yeah, I went to sleep and woke up this morning early, all bright and chirpy. It felt like Christmas. It was weird. It felt like Christmas. It was a hot day, which made it even more exciting. Yeah. Then just before, I just got back from having breakfast at a café for the first time in, what, nearly six months?
Jayde Balderston (23:20):
So amazing.
Samuel Levi (23:21):
It was crazy. [crosstalk 00:23:22]-
Jayde Balderston (23:21):
What are you doing for the rest of the day after our chat? What are you up to?
Samuel Levi (23:25):
I've got to do some work with OneFigure. I've got a few more Zoom calls this afternoon to come in. Now a lot of beauty places are opening up as of today, I've actually got a lot of discussions with different boutique-y places of where I want to actually place my brand in and talk about that.
Jayde Balderston (23:39):
Well, that's something that I'm really excited to talk about with you. So COVID hit, and then I got a call from you where you launched OneFigure Beauty, which is the most wonderful magnetic eyelashes.
Samuel Levi (23:55):
Aw, thank you.
Jayde Balderston (23:55):
And you did that during COVID.
Samuel Levi (23:57):
So I'd been working on this actually six months prior to it, not 100% working on it, just, I'd been, I guess, nudging away at it and slowly working on it, and back and forth with testing and trials, all that, blah, blah, blah, that boring stuff. Then I was always going to launch it around March, April. Then COVID hit. So I had everything actually sorted, and then COVID hit, and I had actually a week to decide whether I was going to launch it or not.
Samuel Levi (24:25):
So many people, I'm not even kidding, I think... Actually, yeah, there was one person who told me to launch it and who believed in me and said, "Fuck what everyone else says and do it," and that was my dad. That was my dad, actually. Everyone else was like, "No, don't do it. This is the worst time to do it. No one's going to buy. No one's spending, blah, blah, blah, blah." I was so close to not, I guess, pulling the pin.
Samuel Levi (24:46):
I was doing it and all this hard work I did, and then I literally had a chat to my dad. It was like a few days before I decided to go live and launch and slave away at it. He was like, "Do it." He's like, "You've worked hard doing this, and you know what you're doing." He's like, "You get yourself into bloody ridiculous situations and always find a way to get out of it or always find a way to manage and succeed. So if anyone can do it, you can." And he came-
Jayde Balderston (25:10):
You married a guy on television. You can do anything. I agree with him. You can legit do anything you set your mind to.
Samuel Levi (25:20):
Literally, and that was my dad saying that, who is literally your typical Kiwi bloke who wouldn't even know what a fucking magnetic eyelash is. He had no clue. He's like, "I believe in you. You know what you're doing. Do it. When have you ever listened to anyone else anyway?"
Jayde Balderston (25:36):
That's beautiful.
Samuel Levi (25:36):
So it was literally his phone call and then I kind of took all his feedback away and sat on it and it was like, "You know what? I'm going launch. I'm going to do it." I had PR people in New Zealand telling me not to do it, not to launch, which now I look back and I'm so angry because I'm like, "Why would you do that as a PR person?" Yeah, that's a whole 'nother story. But, yeah. Then I launched it and I'm not even kidding, within the, yeah, first 48 to 72 hours, I officially sold out of my whole range, and I was just-
Jayde Balderston (26:08):
Which is our favorite key message to say about OneFigure. It is-
Samuel Levi (26:12):
I know, yeah.
Jayde Balderston (26:13):
What a feat. Do you know what I think is really interesting and what we've watched and learned through COVID? Is beauty, luxury, like lifestyle candles and all of that, they have boomed. You'd be fucking mad to have not launched and you would be kicking yourself, I can imagine, if you didn't do it and listened to the naysayers.
Samuel Levi (26:33):
Oh, yeah, I would have been so angry with myself. Look, if I didn't launch my brand, I'd be back home in New Zealand, because what else was in Australia for me during the past six to seven months? Like, oh, no, it's literally like, I literally wake up every morning feeling blessed because, A, I don't have to work a 9:00 to 5:00 job because I'd fucking hate that. Then B is, I don't really have to work an eight hour day. It's literally, I've worked so hard to launch and to succeed, and working with people like yourself who are helping me with the PR side of things, and working with the right contacts where it's just rolling by itself, if that makes sense. It's-
Jayde Balderston (27:10):
I've got a couple of questions.
Samuel Levi (27:12):
Yeah.
Jayde Balderston (27:13):
I want to know, so you're male, super into style, fashion, you know it like you've been living and breathing this world forever.
Samuel Levi (27:21):
Yeah.
Jayde Balderston (27:21):
So beauty and magnetic eyelashes. So I think the first thing is, can you tell everybody what a magnetic eyelash is, how it works?
Samuel Levi (27:31):
Yeah. So my brand, the general OneFigure, with the magnetic eyelash range, it's basically a magnetic eyeliner which you place over your eyes. The magnetic eyeliner actually has small magnetic particles in it. It's not much, but it's enough for then the lash that has a magnetic strip on it to attach to your eyeliner and stay on and make you look beautiful. Yeah, there's no glue. There's no mess. Literally, it's designed, I guess, with a revolutionary technology, I guess. It's designed for people who struggle with glue or struggle with makeup and struggle with, I guess, the eye area when it comes to eyelashes or makeup in general.
Jayde Balderston (28:16):
I think we're also moving forward in terms of sticking glue on our face is probably not really the way that we want to be going these days with understanding so much more about products and the chemicals and what's going onto our skin. So do you wear lashes yourself? Do you wear OneFigure?
Samuel Levi (28:37):
No, I've never worn lashes at all. The reason why I started OneFigure was because there's two things I look for, for me, and this is just me personally. There's two things that I look at at someone straight away when I first meet them and first impression, that I find or that's what I look for to find attractive, I guess, and that is a smile and their eyes. I just thought a smile, I was like, "I don't really want to dabble in that kind of area, whether it be lipstick or anything." Yeah. That's just not me. I felt like the market was saturated with that. I was seeing it everywhere. And so I was like, "You know what? Why don't I focus on the eyes? That's what I find attractive in people." Then I kind of did a lot of research, what was doing well in the market, what wasn't, what people wanted to see more. That's when I kind of got into working on OneFigure Beauty with magnetic eyelashes and focusing on that area. It was a risk, but it was a risk that has paid off.
Jayde Balderston (29:31):
So exciting. Am I allowed to say that obviously it's called OneFigure Beauty and not OneFigure Eyelashes because it means, is there a potential growth of products in the range?
Samuel Levi (29:41):
That's the plan. Yes, that is the plan, actually. But I'm not going to do anything just yet. I just feel I'm the type of person, if I'm doing something right now, like as in right, as in correct, and it's going well, I might as well focus on that and just keep building it until I feel I don't need to do anymore. Then that's when I'll kind of look at expanding into something else as well.
Jayde Balderston (30:03):
We have so many eyes and so many people's eyes to still get those OneFigure lashes on, and we have so many editorial placements to come that, no, I don't need you to move on to anything else just yet, thanks.
Samuel Levi (30:19):
No. I'm so happy and content with what I've got now and what's happening and how it's rolling that I don't want to put pressure on myself and the brand to kind of overdo it. I think there's a lot more we can still do with what there is now. So I'm just going to focus on that and I think that's what's going to make it more successful because I think a lot of people... For example, I'll just talk OneFigure, it's doing so well now, and I don't want to be like, "Oh, all my attention's gone from that. Now let's focus on something else." I want to make it a multi-billion dollar business. There we go.
Jayde Balderston (30:48):
Love that. Also, experience tells us and shows us, and especially what we've watched in the industry, that expansion that's too fast can actually be detrimental to a business and a brand. So I think that it's good and well to have all these great ideas and release all these wonderful products and everything, but we need to be very aware that sometimes growth that's too fast and too quick and big is actually what can hinder brands, and is why a lot of them fall over.
Samuel Levi (31:09):
And I've learned from the past, because I'm the type of person, as an individual anyway in my own personal life, I jump into things fast and then all shit hits the fan. So I've really utilized my past experiences to make sure that doesn't happen in the business side of things.
Jayde Balderston (31:23):
Something I'm always really interested in is finding out about people's thoughts in regards to mentors and mentee and the support, those people that you lean on. Have you got any, like a mentor or someone that you've leant on or looked to when it comes to business decisions, professional, personal?
Samuel Levi (31:44):
You know what? From a professional side, not really. I think I'm actually pretty business savvy myself and I've learned a lot and I've met a lot of people along the way, but I will go back to when I mentioned my dad. He's the type of person that I do go to for advice if I'm stressing out or if I need a kick up the arse with a few decisions, only because he's owned and ran his own successful businesses in the past. I wanted to get advice from someone that doesn't understand anything about the beauty, anything about the media, but only understands me as a person. I don't know if that kind of makes sense, but he understands me as a person outside of all that. So he can kind of give me the real hard-arse advice I need.
Jayde Balderston (32:28):
I think sometimes what is great is having people, what we would call fresh eyes, looking on an idea, or a structure, or a strategy, and then not going in biased about the industry or anything in general.
Samuel Levi (32:39):
Yeah. Even some things he sees pop up, let's just say things he sees, whether it be an article or things pop up online about the brand or about me. And he gets that. He'll forward that to me, and he's like, "Oh, this was really good." And I'm like, "Oh, well, if someone who doesn't understand anything about female products, anything about beauty stuff, who's a typical Kiwi bloke, footy, like tradesman, and he gets it and he understands it," then I'm like, "Oh, okay. I must be doing something right because it's attracting his attention." So, that's kind of where I go. I kind of step away from people in the industry and kind of look outside of there. It just happened to be that it happened to be a family member, which I'm forever grateful for as well.
Jayde Balderston (33:19):
That sort of leads me into thinking, you mentioned earlier about how with, especially off the back of MAFS, the social media and the commentary from people around you and people that you expected to be supporting you from a community set didn't necessarily do so. That must hurt and be hard and put a lot of pressure on you personally. How did you cope with all that?
Samuel Levi (33:41):
Yeah. With that, actually, I leant a lot for the first little while on friends and family. A lot of the stuff I was struggling with and going through behind closed doors no one would ever know about today because I never really publicized it and talked about it a lot. But I then just found a way. I don't know how.
Samuel Levi (34:01):
I don't know how, but I just picked myself up from, I guess, a dark place after the show and kind of had the mentality or I guess the "fuck you" attitude to everyone, and was like, "Actually, you guys don't know me. You don't know who I am as a person. You only see what you want on TV. And if you believe that, you guys are bloody dumb arses," and I don't even care if that offends anyone. It's normally always the small and narrow towns of people, like small people from, I don't know, this is going to be me throwing at random town out there, but like small little towns and like Te Papa. I don't know, something random that you've never even heard of, but they're the ones that always come and attack you.
Jayde Balderston (34:38):
Oh, just like the butthole people in towns. I totally get that. There's massive jackarses out there, and it is usually those, it's uneducated, uncultured, completely disconnected from everything. The world is moving on and we're growing and we should be, not stepping backwards. So we talk about the keyboard warrior and stuff like that. I feel that people watch programs with that in mind. Don't get me wrong, I love to hate watch Real Housewives because it's so much fun. But you forget that they are actual people at the end of it.
Samuel Levi (35:07):
Exactly.
Jayde Balderston (35:08):
Out of all the things that could ever hit you hard, is it your sexuality, is it your body, is it what you look like? Was there anything in particular that you were just like, "Oh, fuck. Okay. That hurts"?
Samuel Levi (35:23):
It's funny because a lot of people, it would probably be the sexuality or how you look. For me, it was how people thought my personality was and people thinking they know who I was as a person. I like to think I'm actually a really nice, caring person. I always put people first and I'm always thinking of others. But for some reason, that was not shown because that was not the character that they had in mind on the show. Even to this day, it's shown here in Australia on, I guess, the free-to-air demand 9Now, kind of thing. But I'll still get the odd message now of people thinking they know you because of a TV show. And it's like, "Actually, no, piss off."
Jayde Balderston (36:00):
Fuck that.
Samuel Levi (36:02):
Yeah, especially in the past 18 months. I've had to, and I shouldn't have had to, but it's a good thing, I've had to work my fricking arse off to prove that this is who I am now, even though this was me all along, they just never saw that on the mainstream television TV show.
Jayde Balderston (36:15):
I do love your approach with that mindset of being like, you know who you are and you're really fucking proud of that.
Samuel Levi (36:23):
Yeah. Even some of the media back home in New Zealand, it's like, out of all people, they should understand what TV is like, but even they believe the TV show.
Jayde Balderston (36:27):
Also, babe, we know that, not to bag out the New Zealand market, it's really fucking small. We're small in Australia from a media perspective.
Samuel Levi (36:34):
Oh, it's really small. They just, yeah, literally, reuse the same face and the same story. And it's like, "Oh my God."
Jayde Balderston (36:40):
Which we also-
Samuel Levi (36:42):
Don't get me started about that because I could sit here and yarn about that and it's probably not a good thing. I think I've actually got more media coverage just in general, like randomly, without even asking for it, in Australia than I ever did in New Zealand. It's crazy.
Jayde Balderston (36:55):
A lot of time in lockdown. What was the biggest challenge for you?
Samuel Levi (36:59):
The hardest challenge, actually, was not being able to visit family. Out of all my family members, I'm close with all my family members and I love them, but it was my nephew. I literally would do anything for that kid, and not being able to fly back and see him. Then my newborn nephew is actually due in a couple of weeks from today and I can't go back and be a part of his life in the first, I guess, months because of COVID. So that's really played on my mind, I guess, over the past three to six months because I just want to go back and be with family and just be around them.
Samuel Levi (37:30):
But at the same time, my business is here and this is where it's been successful. This is where I guess I'm earning my living, like earning my money and all that kind of stuff. So, yeah, it was a hard one to kind of juggle. Do I go back and lose everything I've worked hard for over the past year? Or do I stay here and focus on my business? As much as it's been a shit time this year, we've just learned to adapt. We've just learned to really adapt and just not really focus on the negative side of things and just kind of make do with what we've got happening.
Jayde Balderston (38:07):
Are you going to work to carry that through moving forward, that mindset?
Samuel Levi (38:09):
100%. I've learnt a lot about myself personally. It's almost weird because I was at breakfast this morning and I was listening to the people next to me and it's like, I thought I was going to go out or come out of lockdown with no social etiquette, not really social awareness, understanding because we'd been locked up for so long. And the couple next to us were just talking about their whole life. Talking about their sex life, talking about everything they were doing from drugs, in front of the whole café. And I'm just like, "Are you kidding?" And it was upsetting me that-
Jayde Balderston (38:37):
Do you think that, have they not seen each other for the last 12 weeks? Or have they just thought that they'd take the conversation out of home and into the café?
Samuel Levi (38:46):
It just sounded like they were just taking the conversation from their lounge room to the café, and I'm like, "Okay, well, there's still people around you." I thought that was going to be me talking about all my personal life out in public. But, no, these guys, I was just looking at them like, "Are you guys serious? Shut up."
Jayde Balderston (38:58):
That's fucking rude. You can only share that stuff on a podcast. Just jokes.
Samuel Levi (39:02):
Yeah, [inaudible 00:39:02].
Jayde Balderston (39:06):
I've got one last question for you, and it is, what is your clueless confession?
Samuel Levi (39:12):
My one would actually be, and I'll go back to the work theme because this always sits on my mind, but it was sometimes the people who think they're professionals and the people who think they know what they're talking about are completely wrong and complete fuckwits. They think they can-
Jayde Balderston (39:28):
Smoke and mirrors, baby.
Samuel Levi (39:31):
Honestly, trust your instinct. I think I've learnt a lot over the past six months of going with your gut instinct and if it doesn't feel right, don't do it. If it does feel right, even if people say, "Don't do it," still go with it. At the end of the day, you never know what's going to happen. I think I'm always going to refer back to that kind of line with me because, oh, if I'd just listened to these people back home in New Zealand telling me not to launch my brand, I would be absolutely fucked right now, but it's the total opposite.
Jayde Balderston (40:01):
We grow and we learn anew moving forward.
Samuel Levi (40:04):
Now the next stop is hopefully the borders open so I can go back to New Zealand and visit friends and family.
Jayde Balderston (40:08):
First you can come up here.
Samuel Levi (40:08):
And you, of course. Come to Sydney.
Jayde Balderston (40:10):
I was like, "Excuse me!" You need to come up here and have a wine first. Then you can go.
Samuel Levi (40:13):
I'll come down to Sydney first and then I'll fly out of Sydney to New Zealand.
Jayde Balderston (40:16):
Yeah, totally, that's not a problem. So how can everybody find you?
Samuel Levi (40:20):
My personal social media on Instagram is _samuellevi and on Facebook it is just Samuel Levi. Then if you wanted to buy some lashes and support my business, that is OneFigure Beauty across all social media platforms as well and on my website.
Jayde Balderston (40:37):
Amazing. I'll also pop all of these in the show notes so everybody can know where to find them, and so you can go and check out the wonderful personal brand and beauty brand that you've created. Thank you so incredibly much, Samuel, for joining me today. It's just such a pleasure to get to speak to you. I love doing it every week, and it's so fun for you to share this with everybody. So thank you for joining me on Clueless Confessions.
Samuel Levi (40:58):
Aw, thank you and all the best.
Jayde Balderston (41:02):
Thanks, buddy. Cool, that's a wrap. Thank you so much for listening to Clueless Confessions. I hope you thoroughly enjoyed, and I would love to ask for you to rate, review and subscribe so you can keep up to date with everything Clueless Confessions. Don't forget to follow us over at The Grey Consulting, and that's Grey with an E, over at Instagram and Facebook. I'm Jayde Balderston and I will chat to you next time.