Quality Over Quantity: Being Convicted in Your Value with Custom Barres | EP. #175

How do you stand out without cutting corners or lowering your standards? On this 175th episode of the E-Comm Show, Andrew Maff interviews Michal Pellicone, CEO and Founder of Custom Barres. Custom Barres stands strong as a leader in its niche market, setting itself apart from competitors through its dedication to quality. 

The truth is Custom Barres aren't the cheapest. And they aren't the quickest made to order. But they're the best you'll get. Standing strong in that truth has separated them from the hundreds of competitors that have popped up over the years and fight over pricing and speed. If you want to stand out in a crowded market without cheapening your product, this episode is for you...Watch the full episode below, or visit TheEcommShow.com for more.

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Quality Over Quantity: Being Convicted in Your Value with Custom Barres

Andrew Maff and Michal Pellicone

CONNECT WITH OUR HOST: AndrewMaff.com  |  Twitter: @AndrewMaff | LinkedIn: @AndrewMaff 

Michal Pellicone

I am Michal Pellicone, Founder and CEO of Custom Barres. My journey began as a professional dance performer in Israel, where I trained extensively in Ballet, Modern, Jazz, Flamenco, and Tap. By the age of 14, I was already teaching Ballet and Jazz. After completing two years of service in the Israeli Army, I moved to the United States at 21 with one suitcase and my keyboard, driven by a dream of performing on Broadway and inspired by a new love. I continued to pursue my dance career while advancing my education at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, graduating with high honors.

• In 2010, I founded Custom Barres, transforming a simple concept into a thriving global business. I personally designed and named each product after iconic dance moves, creating a distinctive identity and driving demand for high-quality, luxurious ballet barres and fitness equipment. Today, Custom Barres is an industry leader, with all products proudly made in the USA and featured by esteemed brands like Nike and Under Armour, as well as on television programs such as Glee and Smash.
• In 2022, I co-founded MiMa Productions and MiMa Publishing, collaborating with renowned photographer Mark Weiss to co-publish and co-design the book Keep on Rollin’. Building on that success, we launched ROCKED Magazine and its digital platform, celebrating the visual legacy of rock’s golden era. My creative pursuits also include co-designing album covers, notably for The Dictators and Keith Roth’s upcoming releases.
• Beyond my professional achievements, I am deeply passionate about music, programming, photography, and innovative problem-solving. As Custom Barres celebrates over 14 years of success, I remain dedicated to exploring new opportunities that intersect art, design, technology, and entrepreneurship.

Andrew Maff  00:03

You need one person to believe in you, and he believed in me. He said he had so many people coming to him, and nothing comes out of it. Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of The E-Comm Show. I'm your host, as usual, Andrew Maff, and today I am joined by the amazing Michal Pellicone. Got it right? Yeah, custom bars, I didn't want to, we got to be safe. So CEO of custom bars, very excited to talk to you, because it's a very interesting product line. We definitely have not had anyone on this show even close to this. So it always makes it very interesting to be like, cool. We're gonna learn about something brand new today. So I always like starting these off relatively stereotypically and kind of allowing you to just give us kind of a lay of the land. How you got started, how you got started, obviously, with custom bars, and we're gonna take it from

Michal Pellicone  01:40

there. Okay, all right. Sounds terrific. First of you, first, first of all, thank you so much for having me on the show, Andrew and yeah, I'm excited to talk about custom bars. So I Yeah. So I founded custom bars in 2010 so this month is going to be 15 years on my

Andrew Maff  01:58

early anniversary. Thank you. So my background

Speaker 1  02:01

was not business at all. I grew up, actually, in Israel, and I've been dancing since I'm three years old. Oh, wow. And went to serve the arm for two years, and went to school there for me, for music and dance urban Academy, and then came to the United States, was 21 with a big dream of dancing in Broadway, and went to NYU to School of the Arts, barely spoke at the time, and graduated with honor. And so that was my dream. And then I got pregnant at the end of the school, and then I'm like, now, so that's kind of shifted my direction, and I did like web development and graphic design for 10 years and and my last customer, I asked him, How did he do and he paid me $10,000 in the first month that he launched the website that I built, he made $100,000 I said, I'm in the wrong side of the business. What can I do? And you know, over those 10 years, I have web development, I had four children, and so Wow, as ever, as many, many Americans do. Probably I live way beyond our means and have four kids and want to give them the best you can and I I tried to stay in shape, because I was a dancer, and I built a bar for myself, for for home use. And when I built it, I said, Wow, what an amazing idea, because it used to be all welded together. And how do you buy a bar? And at the time, there were no stores for bars, and bar fitness just was taking off, and I built this bar. Went to Home Depot, got something together, I bought it home, and my ex said, take it back. I'm not having this. I built it a little nicer. So I ran back to Home Depot and make it a little nicer. And I came to him and I said, I have this great idea for business, because they used to be all welded and they didn't look good, and you use them in ballet for the first 30 minutes of the class. I love ballet. I love looking at myself with a freestanding bar. I said, I came to him with this idea. He said, I think it's a terrible idea. I said, I don't care what you think, I'm gonna go for it. So I'm a web director, okay? And actually got into web development in 1997 where the web just begun. You know, it was the beginning of Web. And I never studied graphic design, or I took one class in NYU for web development, and he said, The teacher said, once you finish that class, you'll be a web developer. I said, Yeah, sure, you know. Then I saw all the website that other people built and said, If they call themselves web developer, web developer. And I worked 10 years in that and then I built a website with all the with only free standing bars. I started. I built a website. I had no, no product and nothing. I said, let me see if there is, if anybody wants it, you know. And then it's funny, someone bought. Not only they buy, they buy, like, the next day delivery. And I'm, like, running. And it was really funny. So I started with $600 worked from home for the first six years, did most of the stuff by myself. At the beginning, bought a business from zero to $600,000 in sales with no workers. I had like, I really quickly realized that the free standing is not enough, and I need a whole, you know, to grow my line of products. And I designed everything by my dad. I drew it, and I had like a fabricator, actually, that believe in me. You need one person to believe in you, and he believed in me. He said he had so many people coming to him, and nothing comes out of it. And I said, I don't know where it goes. I just, I want the smallest quantity that I can because you cannot buy one, you know, it's like, welded and, you know, and China was not an option because I saw their quality, and it was like, yeah, that's not what I want to do. And I also wanted to develop a product to make it the best possible, because I'm as a dancer, I wanted the best product, not the cheapest product, yeah, so, so that was what's important to me. I thought it will be so cool if you can make it different colors and different, you know, wood. It used to be only metal and

Andrew Maff  06:28

all, yeah.

Speaker 1  06:29

So this is basically how custom bar started for my passion, and I learned with it and grew with it. So I, in the beginning, spend no money like people say, Oh, we can't start a business because this and that and we need that to do like a parent. I'm like, if someone wants to work as hard as me, I have plenty of room for them, you know. So I went and I believe we did 100% I think that's that's the difference to make something work, you need to believe in it. 100 that's very true, you know, because when you're like, maybe, maybe not, nobody believed in it. When I started, I sat on on my floor, making the website, working on it, and ballet bar, who needs ballet bars and and today, we're, you know, we're up there, yeah, we are considered that one of the top luxurious ballet bars in quality is the top priority. I don't know if you have any questions.

Andrew Maff  07:28

Yeah, plenty. Buckle up. So it's, I mean, man, it's so interesting. I've never I don't think I'd have to go back and look that we've ever had someone on the show that created their website and launched it before they even had product, and was just like, Yeah, let's see if people are even interested. It's very interesting concept, right? Because you had a lot of people that are like, oh, I want to test the market. And so they get product, and then they sit on the product and start to, you know, then they launch their website and go through the process. In your scenario, since it's like, I have to custom make this. You had the ability to be like, let's just create the website, and then I'll worry about making the product next, which is a whole just an amazing way to do that.

Speaker 1  08:13

No choice. You know, I had no choice. I didn't have money, much money at all. I had four little kids, and I wanted to see that it works before I dive into it. Yeah.

Andrew Maff  08:27

So tell me a little bit about like, the business side, specifically, especially on like, the marketing side, right? Like, because I definitely see what you found, right? You found that there was probably pre existing search volume for a ballet bars that just there was no one to buy it online, and so you were kind of a first mover. But as time went on now, and obviously you've got competition and things like that, how are you scaling it? How are you marketing this product line? So

Speaker 1  08:54

basically, unbelievable. I think most companies, maybe 10% of their business is the type of manufacturing. It's like maybe 10% is online business. We are basically probably 100% web. I mean, it's 50% comes directly online. The other 50 people call but they heard of us, or we actually never had a sales team. So, so if we just increase, if we wanted to go to the next level, a sales team and and all that stuff, we'll take it definitely, to another whole other level. And it was a family business. It's it's business of passion, com in terms of competition. Yes, everybody tried to copy, copy me. My biggest competitor always me. And, you know, I take it as a compliment, but on the other end, when they copy me, I'm like, All right, it's not as exciting. And I dropped that product and I get stuck with it. There

Andrew Maff  09:48

you go. Start making bad stuff and let them copy it, and then take it down

Speaker 1  09:53

for me. Everybody goes left. I want to go right. It doesn't excite me. So, fortunately enough, our. Products are expensive to make. I mean, we make it from the best product. So people, they went and they copied the cheapest version. So my competitor has million competitors. I mean, and me, I do have competition in terms of, yeah, you can buy a bar for cheap, but in terms of having the same quality. And if you, you know, compare apples to apples, you definitely see the difference, you know. So we are built for luxury, for stuff that will last and and and will be almost a piece of art. You know, it was very important to me that the quality and the look will be clean and beautiful, and we pay attention to the littlest details. So is

Andrew Maff  10:43

your is your customer base, people that are installing these in the home? Or is it more actual, like, maybe like on the contractor side of people that are like, building out ballet classes and things like that? No, because

Speaker 1  10:56

we are the higher end. So most of our customers are business to business. You know, studios, TV, TV networks, schools, colleges, franchise, gyms and stuff. And we sell also to the consumer, but in ratio, probably 75

Andrew Maff  11:15

to 25 interesting. And so I assume most of your marketing is primarily targeted towards B to B.

Speaker 1  11:22

So, no, not at all. We, basically, most of our advertising is done through Google, and we advertise to anybody who wants to buy. It's

Andrew Maff  11:33

little free flowing, nice free flowing. Feeling

Speaker 1  11:36

what works, what doesn't, but definitely on top of it, and definitely I didn't I do most of it, yeah, nice, because I didn't have good luck with with kind of many times I try to give that part to somebody else, but unfortunately, a lot of times, nobody knows your business as well as you do, yeah? And fortunately enough today with Google and with the ability to do the research, if someone does the research, they find us because we can see the difference. And when people call and say, Oh, how come you are so much money, then, I mean, you wouldn't call me if you didn't see the difference. So people notice the difference. I mean, we, we have, we sold to Nike and Google and Ritz Carlton and TV show Smash.

Andrew Maff  12:26

How do you I'm imagining all of them and probably several others. They all have customization elements to them, I assume correct. So this is how do you navigate that

Speaker 1  12:36

a big differentiation between us and my competitor, is also the fact that we, we customize, we it's built to order. We don't, we don't produce mass produce them. You call me. I make your order. So it's really and it's ends on it's I, actually, last year, built a system that you can even see what you get, which is really cool. You can change the colors the wall of the bars, so you can get a little visualization of how it will look, which nobody does it. And so it's another system I created, which, which really elevated it to another level and increased the sales. So that was a good move. Definitely.

Andrew Maff  13:19

Does it hurt you having it at that kind of level of customization where your lead times are probably a little bit longer than your competition?

Speaker 1  13:27

Well, yes, yeah, our lead time is a little longer than the competition, for sure. However, you know, we are manufacturing, and for manufacturing to be able to produce something in two to three weeks, and sometimes in three days, you know. And we do have the capability to do it quicker rush orders, or whatever we may know. So after 2017 we bought all manufacturing in house. And so, so now we, now we rely on other people to do the work. So, and we because we had like trouble with timing, with quality, you know, so it allowed us a lot more control over, over the product quality and and the timing, but, but yes, we definitely take a little longer, because everything is custom made to order. We give them options in wood finishes, in metal, metal colors, but so it looks beautiful with any decor, and doesn't look like a sore, you know, eyesore,

Andrew Maff  14:26

yeah, is one of the things I was curious about. So the the overall, like, way that you're marketing this, how is it? Are you? Are you painting a picture of, I don't want to wear this, basically, like, Okay, you're putting together as dance studio, and you know this, you know it's obviously a great customization that kind of element. Or are you leaning on your backstory since you and making you kind of the face since you've been dancing, since you were a toddler, right?

Speaker 1  14:55

I wasn't. I'm not making myself, myself the face. But I think I maybe did like one, one video where I say, Hey, I created this great system, check it out, like, with the personalization normally, no, I'm not the face of the I kind of, I kind of rely on the quality and and our, you know, on our name that we built over the years, reputation, yeah,

Andrew Maff  15:20

is a lot of that being leveraged through the website, or, I know you obviously mentioned that a lot of what you're doing is like through like a Google side, so Google advertising. But are you doing anything from like an email perspective or a social perspective, telling that story? So

Speaker 1  15:33

1. So we're kind of, this is places where we can always improve. And so email marketing, not so much. Social media, not so much. You know, since we are a small company, I kind of focus where, where it paid most. And I feel like it's not like an impulsive kind of it's like, oh, I sell it there. Let me buy it. It's because we are a little more higher end, and so people do the research and so. But I think our magic is our website that is very clean, very easy to navigate. I create a web developer, pretty awesome. I think the fact that I have a little ADHD and I need to find things quickly and easily. Kind of help when I design stuff, because I want to, I want to see it. I want to see it quick. I want to see what I'm buying and so forth. And I think the consistency and and the clean design, I believe it's wonderful.

Andrew Maff  16:34

The limitation on email and social media is very interesting. But I also know that sometimes there's an argument for that to not be entirely necessary if you don't have a lot of, like, repeat purchases and kind of returning customers, do you is this typically, like a one time purchase thing, or do you find, since it's B to B,

Speaker 1  16:56

we have like, about 25% return rate, which is pretty nice, so not bad,

Andrew Maff  17:05

considering the product line

Speaker 1  17:06

right now. But at all you know, if it's if it's a consumer, they probably will buy once and they're done. Yeah, they bought the best. But if your studio, and hopefully you open another studio, or someone else, you know, open a studio and word of mouth kind of and schools and and

Andrew Maff  17:26

colleges, and they come back, franchises.

Speaker 1  17:29

Yeah, so, yeah. What's

Andrew Maff  17:32

the what's the goal with the business? Where are you taking it from here? Good questions. We don't know. Let's figure it out. Let's just do it together. Well, are you thinking you'd sell one day? Are you thinking you're just gonna keep kind of trucking along with it and then just dissolve it one day? What's are you thinking of expanding the product line? What's, what's the thought? There we

Speaker 1  17:49

are. We are actually into in a, probably in a transition period, and I rather not discuss it online, as

Andrew Maff  18:00

we'll find out. Beautiful look. I greatly appreciate having on the show. It was super interesting learning all about custom bars. I would love to give you the opportunity let everyone know where they can find out more about you, and, of course, more about custom

Speaker 1  18:14

bars. Absolutely. So if Custom Barres is custombarres.com,

Andrew Maff  18:20

beautiful website, we're gonna check it out website,

Speaker 1  18:23

and it's great for not only for dance, for dancers and ballerinas. It's great for bar fitness, which is pretty big right now, and for rehabilitation. So one of our customers is Peter Frampton, who says is bar. So

Andrew Maff  18:43

that's a nice testimonial, right there. Yeah, beautiful, yeah. So

Speaker 1  18:46

go check it out and, and the fun stuff is even just for fun, you go to our build a bar and check it out, and you can change the walls, the colors the markets. So just for the fun of it, play around. It's interactive, and hopefully you buy too.

Andrew Maff  19:05

Thank you so much for being on the show. Really appreciate it. Obviously, everyone that tuned in, thank you as well. Please make sure you do the usual thing, rate, review, subscribe all that fun stuff and whichever podcast platform you prefer, or head over to the ecommshow.com to check out all of our previous episodes. But as usual, thank you all for joining us, and we'll see you all next time.

Narrator  19:24

Thank you for tuning in to The E-Comm Show head over to theecommshow.com to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform or on the BlueTuskr YouTube channel. The E-Comm Show is brought to you by BlueTuskr, a full service digital marketing company specifically for e-commerce sellers looking to accelerate their growth. Go to bluetuskr.com Now for more information. Make sure to tune in next week for another amazing episode of The E-Comm Show.