I mean,

you hung a shingle out but people had to know who you

were. Well, so we knew that our target market were licensed estheticians. So in other words, they had to already be licensed to work in the industry. So I called the State Board of Cosmetology in Sacramento, California. And I called them and I said, do you have a list of everyone licensed in the state of California to perform skincare treatments? And it was a very short list. It was like 2300 names. And they said, yes, we do. And I said, is that list available? Is it public record? And they said, yes. And I said, can you sell me the list? And they said, yes, we cancel you the list. It's $25. And would you like us to print out on every label? And I said, yes, please. And they did. Wow.

And so we got in the mail. Just like the label of every person who's licensed. Yeah.

So that was it. And we sat in the library. We got a phone book out. Thank goodness for the phone book in those days. And we plotted the zip codes within a 50-mile radius of Marina Del Rey. And we peeled off all the labels that fit those zip codes. And we sent out a postcard saying, this is who I am. This is my qualification. I'm teaching a free one-day class. We mailed it out. And we were hoping we get, I don't know, like a dozen responses. We had 70 responses within 24 hours.

So you were offering a free one-day class to bring people in to get them so people would know what you're doing. Yeah.

So we took 70 people. Renty chairs took 70 people. And after a couple of weeks of doing the free class, we charged $10 a person. So now we had $700 in that one day, which is

huge. And you were like teaching what?

Well, like cleansing, double cleansing, steaming, exfoliation, massage. And then toning and moisturizing. It was very simple. And so by December of 1983, I was offering eight different classes. And you were teaching all of those classes? Everything. Yeah. So every class did all the laundry. It took the laundry home at night to our one-bedroom apartment, sat in the garage laundry mat. Wow. And never slept. Never slept. Worked, I don't know, 16 hours a day, seven days a week. For years, for years, didn't take a salary. Because I mean, presumably you don't be enriched by teaching classes. No, no, no. We were actually earning enough to pay the rent for the school and cover $300 a month for me. I was taking $300 a month out of the business to just sort of buy underwear and panty-os. Ray kept his job as a sales rep. And he was making enough money to pay our rent on our apartment. And a big night out was a burger on a Friday night. That was huge. We saved everything. And for three years, it was just us, a guy who emigrated, he was a friend of ours, who joined us and slept on our floor on a futon. And he was out pushing the classes. He was out sort of as a sales rep. He'd go to Solan's and say, hey, there's these classes, okay. Yeah, these classes come and take free one first and then we'll sign you up. And that's what they

did. And were they full classes? Yeah.

I had full classes with wait lists. Yeah. Well, people were flying from San Francisco. They were flying from Phoenix. They were coming from Nevada. They were meeting each other. They were rooming together. They were forming friendships. The class would finish at five. And we'd order pizza and box wine by 7.30.