Going the Distance in the Age of Covid
(The following is an article that was posted on Sunday 5 November 2021 on themelancholicseeker.wordpress.com. Please note that the information contained - including links - is dated and may not be accurate.)
And now for something a little different. I seldom get to brush up with fame, but last month I had the opportunity to talk with celebrity entrepreneur Telli Swift about her new fragrance – D’Telli – during fight week.
It’s no secret that Covid 19 restrictions have put a damper on the economic livelihoods of many people around the world. But despite the limitations, fashion model, entrepreneur and actress Telli Swift managed to launch a new product line. In a brief interview leading up to her fiancé’s fight with Tyson Fury earlier this month, she chats with me about navigating some of the challenges she had to overcome and what her hopes are for the future.
Nurse, fashion model, reality-TV actress, entrepreneur, Boxing Wags Association founder, fiancé, mother. And as I found out within the first two minutes of our interview, a licensed scuba diver to boot.
I sure didn’t expect it to be a conversational icebreaker, but the Zoom background was the first thing which caught the attention of Miss Telli Swift when our images came into view.
Unfortunately my proficiency with the corporate world’s new favorite app was simple at best, but I did manage to tweak my settings to project a digital beach scene which reminded me of better days. Particularly of nursing hangovers under coconut palms with a steady diet of tropical fruit smoothies until happy hour kicked in.
The initial choice had been the northern lights, but the awkward memory of an unrequited crush made it a tad melancholic. An active tropical shoreline seemed the next best thing.
A sweet sounding ‘Hi!’ came through my headphones and my instant counter was a very polite yet surprised ‘Oh hello Miss Swift, how are you? Let me get my video started’.
‘No worries,’ came her reply. ‘I’m good. And yourself?’
I only managed a quick ‘I’m doing well’ when she noticed the artificial beach behind me.
‘You have a nice background. I wish I was on the beach.’
‘I wish so too,’ I replied. ‘This is just a digital background that they put on Zoom, so I thought ‘Hey, why not?’ Plus I love the beach, and I ‘m guessing you do too, judging by what you said.’
‘Yes, I love the beach. Actually, me and Deontay are licensed scuba drivers,’ Telli exclaimed.
‘That’s pretty cool. Maybe something in the future when you guys decide to retire… maybe open up a scuba diving resort,’ I joked.
‘Yes, definitely. We go out diving after every fight just to decompress – it’s amazing.’
‘And where do you go?’ I enquired.
‘We travel to do it. So, we’ve been to Bermuda, Cancun, the Bahamas…’
‘Anywhere in Asia, yet?’
‘No, but I really want to go to Thailand, especially with me being born in the Philippines.’
While reminiscing on her first dive, Swift was scared she wasn’t going to leave her fiancé’s side but once she was in the water she discovered how much at home she felt.
‘I thought I’d be afraid to scuba dive. The first time I went down I thought I’d never let Deontay’s hand go, but then I literally left him and explored the ocean by myself, like the little mermaid,’ she said.
I guess it’s also no surprise that Australia is on her scuba diving bucket list, one shared – I would assume – by many fellow enthusiasts and currently grounded digital nomads.
However, the Covid19 pandemic continues to cast a shadow over many aspects of people’s lives which were once taken for granted, particularly their livelihoods.
For Swift, it meant having to navigate disruptions caused by Covid19 restrictions on her day-to-day business activities, which although inconvenient and frustrating at times, ended being a positive experience. And after weathering nearly two years of it, she finally launched her new product, D’Telli – a unisex perfume – during her fiancé’s fight week early last month.
The Deontay Wilder – Tyson Fury face off may have been the talk of town and on the lips of the sporting press, but according to little bird who gently whispered in my ear, Swift thought it was the perfect time to unveil it, even having the logo emblazoned on Wilder’s hoodie.
Despite being a layperson uninitiated to the world of high-end luxury goods, I couldn’t fault her reasoning, particularly because it was simply good business to take advantage of the media exposure.
And while you got to respect Wilder’s heart for staying up until the 11th round after some really heavy hits from the Gypsy King, you also got admire the Swift’s eye for timing and nose for entrepreneurial ventures.
‘Everything we have worked hard to do has come to light, so I’m super excited and blessed to finally have it here,’ she said. ‘We’ve sent out samples to a lot of people and no one has said they didn’t like the fragrance.”
‘The men love it, the women love it. It works well on people with sensitive skin, so I’m really pleased with the outcomes, including the packaging and the scent.’
And that scent – according to her D’Telli Fragrances website – is a ‘soft breeze of juicy Italian blood orange over an exotic floral heart of Tunisian orange blossoms, mixed with day blooming royal Moroccan Jasmine and night blooming Arabian Jasmine’ and dries down to an ‘addictive skin scent of sultry waves of amber and hints of vanilla’.
‘I heard it took about four years to develop. That’s a helluva long time,” I queried.
‘Four years to develop from an idea,’ Swift explained. ‘And it became an idea when Deontay and I were sharing a fragrance and I thought to myself, ‘Why are we spending all our money on this and smelling like everyone else?’ and that lead to ‘We might as well develop our own’.’
And so the process began. It was not Swift’s first foray, as she already has her own a fashion line, including luxury face masks and collaborative items available on her website. But developing a fragrance did pose its own challenges.
Unfortunately Covid19 did not make thing easy.
‘The main issue for me during the pandemic was things I would have gotten done in two or three days took me about three or four weeks,” she openly shared with me.
One could only imagine the waiting period between shipments when having to undertake quality control inspections and then making adjustments to the design, as well as all the subsequent steps needed to get the final product out for sale.
‘Initially when the pandemic began, my brother was working for UPS and he was one of the front-line workers that didn’t have protective equipment.’
‘So I created face masks for service workers, grocers, postal workers and police during a time when we had a shortage of masks.’
Importantly Swift also channeled her efforts into creating face masks for hospital workers, which she credits her past experience as a nurse and compassionate nature.
‘Of course I also realized medical staff needed masks as well,’ she explains. ‘So I created one with built-in fabric filter which you could wash and was anti-microbial, so it is good for use in hospitals.’
‘I guess that’s the nurse in you coming out. Why did you want to become a nurse when you were younger?’ I asked.
‘I feel in the Asian culture your family expects you to become a nurse,’ Swift fondly reminisces. ‘At first I wanted to be a psychiatrist, but I guess I was too busy working my own problems and was unsure if I could help other people with theirs.’
‘But I’m a very nurturing person and it is in my nature to help others. And being a nurse was something I genuinely enjoyed.’
And when the immediate need for personal protective equipment was satisfied, Swift – inspired by her passion for fashion – turned towards a more commercial route by creating a line of luxury face masks.
‘I then got in my head that these face masks don’t match everything I wear, so I ended up making fashion masks that match my outfits because I love fashion,’ she said.
‘So I made 10 different luxury fashion masks that got into places like the Beverly Center and Melrose Avenue in California.’
Despite shipping delays frustrating the pace of product development Swift also said the time spent at home helped her clarify her professional goals and the steps needed to achieve them.
‘As well as wanting to create something that can help people, it gave me the opportunity to be more business minded,’ she said.
‘With the face masks, I had issues ranging from my assistant needing to go and see the fabrics, organize shipping for the masks, and me needing to see how the elastic fits on the ears and the face.’
‘And because we were pretty much stuck in the house for a lengthy period of time, I used it grow myself and my brand. I learned that I like to stay busy and I’m a very productive person. I just can’t sit still.’
There’s a reason the saying ‘using your time wisely’ is a popular one, and the experience and insights Swift gained during the early days of the Covid19 pandemic and developing her line of face masks were put to good use when she decided to work on D’Telli.
‘Now that the pandemic has kind of died-down a little bit – with access to the vaccine and people being more safety-conscious – things are moving a little bit faster then when it first started,’ she said.
‘This meant we could access the chemist and be able to smell the fragrances, and made sure it wasn’t too watered down or it didn’t have too much alcohol. It was a long process of getting it right.’
“Deonaty and I went through a lot of different notes’ she explained, ‘and it finally got to a point where we both enjoyed the smells and we liked font and the colours of the packaging.’
‘And I’m not joking when I tell you I turned my house into a small laboratory and we initially started packaging the perfume ourselves.’
‘But now we have a distribution team, packaging team, and everything else in place to ensure getting the product ready in a timely manner.’
The release of the perfume is only the beginning something bigger, with Swift envisioning more fragrances being added to the range.
It further highlights her ambitions to expand into other products in the same vein as other celebrity entrepreneurs. A closer-to-home example for us Down Under is the Danni Minogue Petites clothing range.
‘This is the reason why we named it ‘fragrances’ – plural – because Deontay and I want to grow this to be bigger than one fragrance. We want multiple collections and also getting into diffusers, oils and rollers,’ she said.
‘Eventually I want to grow my brand into something like Martha Stewart or Jessica Simpson, where I have a beauty or home range of products, and even a furniture collection.’
‘And I want everything, whether it is minuscule or big,’ Swift confidently tells me. ‘I want to be able to go into my house one day and everything I see will be my brand – the chairs, clothes, shoes, jewellery, towels – and show people what products I have.’
‘It sounds to me you caught the entrepreneurial bug’, I said.
‘Absolutely!’ Swift replied with a smile.
‘To me I don’t feel like it’ll ever be enough. If one business is successful I’ll move on to the next thing because, like I said, I can’t stay still.’
‘And once the fragrance becomes successful, I’ll see what’s next on the horizon. I’m just that type of person.’
And now for something a little different. I seldom get to brush up with fame, but last month I had the opportunity to talk with celebrity entrepreneur Telli Swift about her new fragrance – D’Telli – during fight week.
It’s no secret that Covid 19 restrictions have put a damper on the economic livelihoods of many people around the world. But despite the limitations, fashion model, entrepreneur and actress Telli Swift managed to launch a new product line. In a brief interview leading up to her fiancé’s fight with Tyson Fury earlier this month, she chats with me about navigating some of the challenges she had to overcome and what her hopes are for the future.
Nurse, fashion model, reality-TV actress, entrepreneur, Boxing Wags Association founder, fiancé, mother. And as I found out within the first two minutes of our interview, a licensed scuba diver to boot.
I sure didn’t expect it to be a conversational icebreaker, but the Zoom background was the first thing which caught the attention of Miss Telli Swift when our images came into view.
Unfortunately my proficiency with the corporate world’s new favorite app was simple at best, but I did manage to tweak my settings to project a digital beach scene which reminded me of better days. Particularly of nursing hangovers under coconut palms with a steady diet of tropical fruit smoothies until happy hour kicked in.
The initial choice had been the northern lights, but the awkward memory of an unrequited crush made it a tad melancholic. An active tropical shoreline seemed the next best thing.
A sweet sounding ‘Hi!’ came through my headphones and my instant counter was a very polite yet surprised ‘Oh hello Miss Swift, how are you? Let me get my video started’.
‘No worries,’ came her reply. ‘I’m good. And yourself?’
I only managed a quick ‘I’m doing well’ when she noticed the artificial beach behind me.
‘You have a nice background. I wish I was on the beach.’
‘I wish so too,’ I replied. ‘This is just a digital background that they put on Zoom, so I thought ‘Hey, why not?’ Plus I love the beach, and I ‘m guessing you do too, judging by what you said.’
‘Yes, I love the beach. Actually, me and Deontay are licensed scuba drivers,’ Telli exclaimed.
‘That’s pretty cool. Maybe something in the future when you guys decide to retire… maybe open up a scuba diving resort,’ I joked.
‘Yes, definitely. We go out diving after every fight just to decompress – it’s amazing.’
‘And where do you go?’ I enquired.
‘We travel to do it. So, we’ve been to Bermuda, Cancun, the Bahamas…’
‘Anywhere in Asia, yet?’
‘No, but I really want to go to Thailand, especially with me being born in the Philippines.’
While reminiscing on her first dive, Swift was scared she wasn’t going to leave her fiancé’s side but once she was in the water she discovered how much at home she felt.
‘I thought I’d be afraid to scuba dive. The first time I went down I thought I’d never let Deontay’s hand go, but then I literally left him and explored the ocean by myself, like the little mermaid,’ she said.
I guess it’s also no surprise that Australia is on her scuba diving bucket list, one shared – I would assume – by many fellow enthusiasts and currently grounded digital nomads.
However, the Covid19 pandemic continues to cast a shadow over many aspects of people’s lives which were once taken for granted, particularly their livelihoods.
For Swift, it meant having to navigate disruptions caused by Covid19 restrictions on her day-to-day business activities, which although inconvenient and frustrating at times, ended being a positive experience. And after weathering nearly two years of it, she finally launched her new product, D’Telli – a unisex perfume – during her fiancé’s fight week early last month.
The Deontay Wilder – Tyson Fury face off may have been the talk of town and on the lips of the sporting press, but according to little bird who gently whispered in my ear, Swift thought it was the perfect time to unveil it, even having the logo emblazoned on Wilder’s hoodie.
Despite being a layperson uninitiated to the world of high-end luxury goods, I couldn’t fault her reasoning, particularly because it was simply good business to take advantage of the media exposure.
And while you got to respect Wilder’s heart for staying up until the 11th round after some really heavy hits from the Gypsy King, you also got admire the Swift’s eye for timing and nose for entrepreneurial ventures.
‘Everything we have worked hard to do has come to light, so I’m super excited and blessed to finally have it here,’ she said. ‘We’ve sent out samples to a lot of people and no one has said they didn’t like the fragrance.”
‘The men love it, the women love it. It works well on people with sensitive skin, so I’m really pleased with the outcomes, including the packaging and the scent.’
And that scent – according to her D’Telli Fragrances website – is a ‘soft breeze of juicy Italian blood orange over an exotic floral heart of Tunisian orange blossoms, mixed with day blooming royal Moroccan Jasmine and night blooming Arabian Jasmine’ and dries down to an ‘addictive skin scent of sultry waves of amber and hints of vanilla’.
‘I heard it took about four years to develop. That’s a helluva long time,” I queried.
‘Four years to develop from an idea,’ Swift explained. ‘And it became an idea when Deontay and I were sharing a fragrance and I thought to myself, ‘Why are we spending all our money on this and smelling like everyone else?’ and that lead to ‘We might as well develop our own’.’
And so the process began. It was not Swift’s first foray, as she already has her own a fashion line, including luxury face masks and collaborative items available on her website. But developing a fragrance did pose its own challenges.
Unfortunately Covid19 did not make thing easy.
‘The main issue for me during the pandemic was things I would have gotten done in two or three days took me about three or four weeks,” she openly shared with me.
One could only imagine the waiting period between shipments when having to undertake quality control inspections and then making adjustments to the design, as well as all the subsequent steps needed to get the final product out for sale.
‘Initially when the pandemic began, my brother was working for UPS and he was one of the front-line workers that didn’t have protective equipment.’
‘So I created face masks for service workers, grocers, postal workers and police during a time when we had a shortage of masks.’
Importantly Swift also channeled her efforts into creating face masks for hospital workers, which she credits her past experience as a nurse and compassionate nature.
‘Of course I also realized medical staff needed masks as well,’ she explains. ‘So I created one with built-in fabric filter which you could wash and was anti-microbial, so it is good for use in hospitals.’
‘I guess that’s the nurse in you coming out. Why did you want to become a nurse when you were younger?’ I asked.
‘I feel in the Asian culture your family expects you to become a nurse,’ Swift fondly reminisces. ‘At first I wanted to be a psychiatrist, but I guess I was too busy working my own problems and was unsure if I could help other people with theirs.’
‘But I’m a very nurturing person and it is in my nature to help others. And being a nurse was something I genuinely enjoyed.’
And when the immediate need for personal protective equipment was satisfied, Swift – inspired by her passion for fashion – turned towards a more commercial route by creating a line of luxury face masks.
‘I then got in my head that these face masks don’t match everything I wear, so I ended up making fashion masks that match my outfits because I love fashion,’ she said.
‘So I made 10 different luxury fashion masks that got into places like the Beverly Center and Melrose Avenue in California.’
Despite shipping delays frustrating the pace of product development Swift also said the time spent at home helped her clarify her professional goals and the steps needed to achieve them.
‘As well as wanting to create something that can help people, it gave me the opportunity to be more business minded,’ she said.
‘With the face masks, I had issues ranging from my assistant needing to go and see the fabrics, organize shipping for the masks, and me needing to see how the elastic fits on the ears and the face.’
‘And because we were pretty much stuck in the house for a lengthy period of time, I used it grow myself and my brand. I learned that I like to stay busy and I’m a very productive person. I just can’t sit still.’
There’s a reason the saying ‘using your time wisely’ is a popular one, and the experience and insights Swift gained during the early days of the Covid19 pandemic and developing her line of face masks were put to good use when she decided to work on D’Telli.
‘Now that the pandemic has kind of died-down a little bit – with access to the vaccine and people being more safety-conscious – things are moving a little bit faster then when it first started,’ she said.
‘This meant we could access the chemist and be able to smell the fragrances, and made sure it wasn’t too watered down or it didn’t have too much alcohol. It was a long process of getting it right.’
“Deonaty and I went through a lot of different notes’ she explained, ‘and it finally got to a point where we both enjoyed the smells and we liked font and the colours of the packaging.’
‘And I’m not joking when I tell you I turned my house into a small laboratory and we initially started packaging the perfume ourselves.’
‘But now we have a distribution team, packaging team, and everything else in place to ensure getting the product ready in a timely manner.’
The release of the perfume is only the beginning something bigger, with Swift envisioning more fragrances being added to the range.
It further highlights her ambitions to expand into other products in the same vein as other celebrity entrepreneurs. A closer-to-home example for us Down Under is the Danni Minogue Petites clothing range.
‘This is the reason why we named it ‘fragrances’ – plural – because Deontay and I want to grow this to be bigger than one fragrance. We want multiple collections and also getting into diffusers, oils and rollers,’ she said.
‘Eventually I want to grow my brand into something like Martha Stewart or Jessica Simpson, where I have a beauty or home range of products, and even a furniture collection.’
‘And I want everything, whether it is minuscule or big,’ Swift confidently tells me. ‘I want to be able to go into my house one day and everything I see will be my brand – the chairs, clothes, shoes, jewellery, towels – and show people what products I have.’
‘It sounds to me you caught the entrepreneurial bug’, I said.
‘Absolutely!’ Swift replied with a smile.
‘To me I don’t feel like it’ll ever be enough. If one business is successful I’ll move on to the next thing because, like I said, I can’t stay still.’
‘And once the fragrance becomes successful, I’ll see what’s next on the horizon. I’m just that type of person.’