Trust is is core.
authenticity. So I show up like there are days I have no makeup on. But I show people the real. That's the key.
Like I give them a better experience shopping with me than the brands. Amber Gentilee is a trusted knowledgeable and strategic luxury resell entrepreneur and the owner of fashion looks designer, specializing in highly sought after designer handbags from iconic brands like Chanel and Hermes. Through her work she helps clients buy and sell luxury handbags with confidence by providing expert guidance, transparent pricing and authentic investment pieces, making luxury more accessible
through trust and informed decision making. People relate to people that are real. They're authentic. It takes time to build a business. It takes time to seek growth. And I've started from ground zero and I've worked my way up slowly. What advice do you have for business owners out there that are
“struggling to set themselves apart? The best way to set yourself apart is the goal like a super”
high school internet Elvis. Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone. It's not over. I'm telling our weird. The living your legacy podcast for those who live to leave a legacy. Welcome back everybody to another episode of the living your legacy podcast. Again, I am your host Jason Tyler and I am joined today by Miss Amber Gentilee. Welcome to the show. How are you feeling? Good. Thank you for having me. Of course. Of course. So you just finished filming your
episode of Women in Power. First of all, how do you feel? I feel good. I feel confident about it. Beautiful. Beautiful. Now I want to ask one thing real quick for the fans out there that don't know Amber. First of all, what can they expect to learn about you in your episode? I have a brand on social media in a hard industry. The fashion industry is no joke. It is no joke. But it's how I gain my my following. First of all, how do you get into fashion? Because I myself, I'm a
little bit into it. Hearing there, I got a buddy of mine that we I do all of his photography for his fashion company. But I know that that industry is not an easy industry to break into.
How do you get into it? You know, I've always loved the finer things in life. And I've always,
you know, here and there would buy things and so forth and have my own like over time. Because luxury is expensive. You learn to build a collection. And there was a period of time my life that I needed to have funds. And I needed to sell some stuff. And that's exactly how I got started. Got it. So in your business as it currently stands, just kind of walk me through a little bit of the structure of it, right? Because a lot of our viewers here, they're all entrepreneurial,
they're business minded. They want to know the how of things, just as much as they want to know the what or the where or the when. You know, so my my business is luxury consignment. It's where I have merchandise that have sent to me from all over the country. I'm also international. I have international clients and I sell their merchandise. I go through a process. Make sure
“everything's authentic. Because it is premium brands. So you have to be really careful in that.”
And that's pretty much what I do. But I also do it through getting trust of people.
Trust is is core, right, in business. People have to trust you. Especially it's first and foremost.
Especially office social media. You don't know what's real. You don't know what's fake. Especially now with all the AI stuff going on. I sometimes see, I see profiles pop up on social media and now I'm like, are you even a real person? I don't even know anymore. And that's my whole brand is I built my business based on authenticity. So I show up, but I show up in all different ways. It's like, I'll show up. Again, I'm a mom of two kids and wife in a business owner. So I don't
come with full face makeup. Like, there are days I have no makeup on. But I show people the real.
“That's the key on social media. People relate to people that are real. They're authentic.”
I said that to somebody the other day in a podcast that I was doing where I was talking about just kind of the shift in the way that content is going nowadays. And I used to, I mean, I come from a world of filmmaking. I got my start working with cameras. And so a lot of my content was super polished. Like, everything was very like, I wanted everything to be perfect. I was such a perfectionist that I would put out next to nothing. But I would put out only the
Work that I was like, oh, this is my absolute.
content is kind of shifting in the direction of, no, no, no, don't show me that. Show me the behind the scenes. Show me the the real. Show me the day to do. Show me you struggling to get out
“of bed in the morning. You know what I mean? And that's what builds really the ability with people.”
I don't put out what I call clean content, right? I'm not scrubbing. I'm a one-woman operation. So, and I built a multi-million dollar business. My self was nobody else with all the content that I do. I have to do myself. The mindset that you got to put out something something is
better than nothing. You can always optimize, right? But the optimization should happen over a
long stretch of time. Sure. It's over a long stretch of time, right? But the thing here with with social media is it's all the editing and stuff like that. Like, you being in the fulfillment industry. Like, that's easy for you. For me, it's hard. And I'll be honest with you, editing is like my least favorite part of the job. Of course it is. It's my least favorite, too. You know, because I have to edit, I have to change certain things, the lighting here and there.
I do a lot of being in luxury. You have to take real photos. Like, there's no filters on my photos. You know, because then you're not portraying the right product. Mm-hmm. Portrait as it is, not as you wish it would be. Exactly. That's that's so key. And, you know, you mentioned this a little bit earlier and I wanted to kind of touch back on it. You know, my brother's a sneaker head, right? And so he's super into his Jordan's, his Nike's, everything. And there's
so many like replicas out there that he brought, he bought me a pair of Jordan ones for Christmas.
And he told me that they were reps. And I swear to you, I would never have been able to tell
the difference. How do you make sure that, you know, these products are authentic? So a great question, honestly. It's the question I get all the time. You know, how do I know that what I'm buying from you is authentic? First and foremost, my company has a policy that says that I'm going to guarantee everything I sell is authentic or your money back. So that's key. When you're shopping luxury, you want to make sure that somebody has that, right? The second thing
is I've been in the business for many years that I, I know, but if I have any inclination that something is not authentic, there's companies, reputable companies that you put it through authentication.
“You know, you have to find out, you know, there's always going to come back. And the third thing”
is, ultimately, it shouldn't be selling counterfeit goods. You shouldn't be, but I was out there. China people there. Oh, there's a ton of people. Trust me, in my industry, is all over the place. I go by the book. Like, I came from corporate and I left corporate to run my own business. So I'm not going to do anything that's not by the book, right? I handle my business, like a business, right? Not as a hobby. So in doing that, you know, I have responsibilities and
like I said, I'm away from my reputation as key. You're only as good as your word, right? And I believe that's true for anybody in business. And this, for any of you guys that are listening out there, like, this is one of the, if you're a business owner, you're aspiring to be one.
This is one of the most important things that you can possibly learn in business is that your
word is everything. Business transactions are just an assortment of contracts and promises that we're making of people. And if you don't keep your word, if you don't keep your promises, your reputation will sell you or tell people that you are not worth their trust. And that's pretty much it. And it goes back to what you're saying in the beginning. Trust is everything. Trust is everything. And like I said, building trust on social media is 10 times harder.
“You know, like, I don't, there's no brick and mortar. There's no, you know, so that's why”
show up on social media. You don't have a brick and mortar. I don't intend to. Why not? A lot of brick and mortar has problems. And first and foremost, in my business, I'm in advantage by not having brick and mortar. Really? I mean, in advantage, why overhead? Yeah. Second margin. I am able to have client shop with me that can't afford other places. I can afford it with me. Yeah, because a part of the, a part of the price that you pay in store,
especially for luxury goods, is the store experience, right? Sure. You go into a Gucci. You go into a Louis Vuitton. You go into any number of these designer brand stores. First of all, they won't even let you in if they don't know that you're spending money. Well, second of all, that's for another advantage comes to me is why I'm different from everybody else is that there are clients that will say I'd rather shop with you because you are the
experience. Like, I give them a better experience shopping with me than the brands at times, because, you know, we've all buried that Gucci. Yeah. I'm looking at you. We've heard that, right? We've gone into stores and they look you up and down and, you know, I always tell people,
You know, you never judge a book by its cover.
what what payles, what payshaily run for me. But I give a personal touch. I touch every single thing. That's it. That's all it's it. That's all it's it. That's all it's it. It's been real. That's what I say all the time on my social media. I'm all about keeping it real. I'm an unfiltered version.
“That's what has grown my following. And that's how it should be, honestly. Like, I really feel like”
if more business, if more businesses were just super honest about, hey, this is what's going on. Even if it's not pretty, like everyone's so obsessed with everything being this picture perfect version of how it should be, right? But even if it's not pretty, hey, this is what it is. If you, if you're buying into this, I'm giving you my word that I'm going to give you great service. Or I'm going to give you, you know, a great option versus your my competitors.
But this is what it is some days. It's not great. That's right. You know what I mean? You know, you have this sort of brand experience with a lot of luxury brands where they create an ecosystem, right? And they're super, super unique in the beginning, right? If you go back to vintage Chanel vintage Dior, and you look at what made them the brands that they are today. There's super unique pieces, super unique fashion, super unique designs, right? They're a designer came in and made these really
unique things that you couldn't find anywhere else in the world. And then it's soon as they get their recognition that, hey, this is designer. You're going to pay a lot of money for it. Now it's I'm going to slap the Gucci print on a track suit and I'm going to call it a day. What's your sort of take on that sort of strategy that I've noticed that in a lot of luxury brands nowadays? If you look around in luxury nowadays, it's everyone copies everybody else. That's what I'm saying.
Everybody copies everybody else. Like you can go into, you can go into this store and they have some sort of a loafer and then you go into the next brand, you know, and there's like, oh, you should work. You guys have the same loafer and it might be like a different buckle. You know, a different buckle. It's like, whoa, who has it less? It's not going to go get it whereas less. It's all what I tell people about luxury. It's all how you feel, right? It's all about
buy what you love. And that's what I always tell people, you know, I also do like custom jewelry. And I always tell people like, buy what you love, not not for somebody else, not to show off. And I always tell people, do your dear research, like, do your research on where you're buying, especially secondhand. Secondhand consignment is huge. It's a booming industry.
Oh, it's the multi multi multi million multi multi multi and here's the thing I'm part of it.
And I'm I'm blessed to be part of it. But I'm also blessed to help people obtain collections. Like I have people that have grown their collection from my company because I'm able to get them things that prices at my competitors can't. Now, I want to take a second here to kind of touch back on just the business aspect of it, right? You're a one man band, one person shop, but you've built a seven figure business off of your knowledge of the product, your desire to
create a unique experience that is tailored to your customers. What advice do you have for business owners out there that are struggling to set themselves apart from their competition?
“The best way to set yourself apart is I think a lot of people are stuck on a mindset, right?”
They're stuck on a, I got to make so much money so fast. And I think that sticks with people
and that never stuck with me. So what I always felt that has really will help any entrepreneur,
you know, is is build, learn how to network, learn how to build foundational relationships with people that you can trust and surround yourself with successful people, you know, and it doesn't have to be success from a money perspective. It can be success and like how they operate. How they do it, but I honestly believe in, you got to be yourself. Stop trying to be, that's what, that's where my success came from. That's how people know me, you know, is directly
on being goofy online, showing myself with the makeup, no makeup, hair done, no hair done, like being real, right? And that's what completely will set anybody else apart, you know,
but also you got to gain trust. I will always say authenticity in trust will win business.
For the people out there that are watching this episode for the fans and our viewers
“if there's what's the key to getting to that next level of at least reaching a level of”
stability that you can build off of, right? Because for me, business has always been,
I've opened a couple of businesses.
six figures a month in profit, about six months in the business did a great job with that one.
But for a lot of people, it's getting that leg up to let them have enough breathing room to be creative in their process moving forward and how they want to create that business. What's sort of the key behind that? It comes with a lot of dedication, a lot of dedication and a lot of patience. And honestly, it's being around the right people, you know, and having, you know, I have, for me, I had the appropriate experience, right? So I actually took what I learned in
corporate and moved it over here. But the thing here is that in business, things don't happen over night, right? It takes time to build a business. It takes time to seek growth. And I've started
from ground zero, and I've worked my way up slowly. You have to have patience. You have to have
“discipline. You have to discipline is key, you know, especially when you're, you're doing it yourself.”
Would you say that the, like, having that corporate experience was necessary to, yeah, because I, I have this feeling now, I've gone, I've ping pongged back and forth in the film industry between doing corporate work and doing and running my own business. And I feel like I would not be able to run my own business efficiently. Had I not gotten the experience of seeing almost the same business that I wanted to build, but add a much, much larger scale and seeing where,
okay, this is where that breaks down. This is where this piece comes in. Like, I feel like that
experience is super necessary. Oh, for sure. Don't get me wrong. There are successful people that
just start businesses that have been successful, but shout out to them. You know, shout out to them, right? But for me, it's a skill. Like, it's a skill to be disciplined. It's a skill to, to stick to, you know, have policies, have procedures. You know, have a plan B, you know, and all of those skills that I've learned in corporate, I literally just moved it over. It's a different commodity.
“You know, it's what I'm doing now. So, yeah, I think it's really helpful because those things that”
you learn in corporate from, you know, plans and how to, how to, how to market things and, and how to move the pieces of the puzzle, you take that with you. You know, and you just shift it and put it into different buckets when you, when you already don't see you. I'd say the key ones for me, at least for my corporate experience, were team structure, team structure super important, making sure that there's a hierarchy, even though I don't like to believe that anybody is, you know,
it was really above anybody else, but you do need to have leadership is the other one. Leadership is super, super key. And then systems over everything. I say this to people all the time, you will not rise to the level of your talents. You will fall to the level of your systems. If you have bad systems, you're not going, you're not going nowhere. Systems. Yeah, that's true. You're absolutely correct. Trust me. We're a kind of the corporate world. I've worked with a lot of bad systems.
And let me tell you, they fail. Yeah. They fail. Yeah, and it's funny because when you know a good system and then you go and see a really bad one, it's such the identifiers are so plain as day, but then you see it and you're like, how's nobody sees this? Are we? Are we okay? Is everything all right at home? You know what I mean? This has been an immense joy just getting to talk with you here. Any final words for the viewers out there? Where can they also? Where can they find you
on social media since we spoke about social media? So I am on Instagram as a fashion underscore for Lux_Fiance_2. It's a little bit long. It's a lot of underscores, but we'll make sure we have a little tidal bar. We'll make sure that we get the title bar, you know? They can find me there. And I also have a website. So my website is fashionluxdesigner.com, but mostly you can catch me live on Instagram. On Instagram, live, ladies and gentlemen, if you've stuck around to this point of the episode,
I want to make sure that you guys keep an eye out for Amber's episode of Women Empower, which will
“be coming out shortly after this podcast drops. So if you want to learn more about her story,”
where she comes from, how she got here, we're talking about a seven-figure woman right here, sitting next to me. All right? I'm sure that you keep an eye out for that episode of Women Empower. It should be coming out shortly. Again, this has been my pleasure, my dear. It's been a pleasure working with you. And that's another episode of the Living Your Legacy Podcast Guys. Again, I'm your host Jason Tyler. Catch you guys in the next one.
