Kenny Azama | Founder – SHOUTOUT LA

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kenny Azama and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kenny, what do you attribute your success to?
The most important factor behind my success and the success of The Wander Club is that I’m okay with not being perfect. There’s this mantra that I picked up from a Navy Seal Officer named Jocko Willink, and the mantra is simply, “Good.” I repeat that to myself whenever I’m faced with an obstacle and it helps me reframe my mindset to a more productive one. For example, my website’s not ready to launch yet…Good. I can publish it now and collect valuable feedback while my traffic is low. I haven’t figured out my fulfillment flow yet…Good. I have an opportunity to create operating procedures as I learn what works best and what doesn’t. My product launch totally flopped…Good. Now I know what doesn’t work and can focus on what does. Good is better than perfect. No doubt, making decisions quickly and boldly has its downfalls. But for every 1 fail, I’m winning 10 times. I’m playing the productive numbers game and that is what I attribute to my success and the success of The Wander Club.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
At The Wander Club, we sell engraved tokens that people can collect for every place they’ve been to. What makes our business special (and so fun for us) is that every single order is completely unique and carries with it incredible stories from across the world. But some stories stick out to us more than others. From commemorating an international wedding destination, to honoring the home country of an adopted child, to collecting tokens for all of the places a partner has served in the military…the list goes on for how folks gift our products. One of my favorite stories is that we actually crafted a proposal order! One of our customers was proposing to her girlfriend and she asked if we could make 5 tokens that say “Will”, “You”, “Marry”, “Me”, “?”. Needless to say our entire company was almost in tears when we called her on speaker to congratulate her! We don’t take for granted how special it is that people trust us with their most intimate gifting. That is what I am most proud of with this business.

Any great local spots you’d like to shoutout?
Let’s say my best friend was visiting Los Angeles for 1 day, where would I take them… Well, first thing in the morning, I’d drive them to Venice, my hometown, to grab some breakfast and walk along the Venice boardwalk. We’d dip our feet in the Pacific ocean, maybe rent some bikes or skateboards to cruise around, and then find a bench to people watch and appreciate the unbelievable diversity of folks in Venice. After that we’d make our way over to the 3rd Street Promenade for some prime window shopping and crazy street performances! There’s no shortage of great dancers and awesome singers to cheer for there. Maybe grab a mid-day cocktail over at Misfit? I dunno… From there, I’d head over to the The Original Farmer’s Market near The Grove for some lunch! There are so many amazing smells and tastes there that it’s kind of overwhelming, but in the best way. After that, it’s an easy walk over to The Grove for a nice stroll and more window shopping. During the holidays, it looks like Christmas barfed all over the place but it’s really fun to see! My friend would probably insist on going to Hollywood to see the famous sign and the Walk of Fame, but I’d quickly veto that idea because (A) it’s not that great and (B) the Griffith Observatory is way better! What better way to spend a day in Los Angeles than to further understand our place in the universe and how small, yet significant, we are? The exhibits there are stunning but the view of Los Angeles from the top is even better with the city lights looking like galaxies. After that, I’d take them to one of my favorite taco spots in DTLA. You can’t go wrong with Mariscos Jaliscos, Leo’s Tacos, or La Reyna’s! And since we’re already in DTLA, to end the night, I’d probably suggest (insist?) that we take 5-10 shots of Jameson and head into a hip-hop club like, The Reserve, until they kick us out.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I’d like to shout-out my entire team for sticking with me during these difficult times. Being in the travel industry, our company is heavily impacted by COVID-19 but their hard work, dedication, and positivity through the pandemic has been nothing short of inspiring and I’m lucky to work alongside them.