Luiza, first of all, thank you so much for receiving me. In 2018, we had that meeting at Minas Trend, and I'll tell you, it was very important. With few words, we made the turn at that moment. For me, it was very important to receive that. And there's a phrase I learned a lot from you and that I'll take for the rest of my life. I always remember that when you asked a bunch of businessmen if anyone was a salesperson, nobody raised their hand, and then you turned and said, 'I am a great salesperson.' And I had a great difficulty in admitting that I was a great salesperson, that I didn't know how to sell, I was like, as they say, artist, stylist, and from that moment on I said: 'Guys, I need to be the great salesperson of my business.' And I really went to social media, I took on that role, and I saw how important that role was in my business, right? Nobody was going to sell, nobody has the soul of my business. So that was for me, for the rest of my life, a great learning, and others, right, several others. And here I am very happy, right, with the affection of always receiving, of opening the doors for us. And I wanted to start by making you another invitation. Let's take some memories from our box.
Yes, I found it very interesting, folks. First, pleasure, Luiza, when Beta told me it was you, we even have an identity in the name, right? So that's very cool, and I admire women who are fighting, as well as men. Heads held high, but it's a country with a lot of potential. We can't forget that, right?
At 50 years old. Luiza, mom set it up at 50, my father got sick. She set it up in Belo Horizonte. My father got sick. He had me with him, he was a distributor of auto parts, and my mother said: 'And now?' The doctor said he had three months to live. 'How am I going to raise these girls?' My father was married for 44 years. Four.
And only you were called Luiza?
Only me.
Because in my family there is one named Luiza, another Luiza, another Luiza, I don't know what.
And only you stayed in the store?
No, the four of us. Today we are four. The four, each in an area. Mom left each one in an area, one in finance, expansion. Mom, as many people don't know, was my aunt, right? And look how interesting the stories are, I'm from Franca, right?
Franca is a city in the interior of...
...and more Mineira than anything. Very, very much. We say 'porta', 'portão'. And I made a point of not leaving that.
And my aunt passed away two years ago.
Uhum. And very connected. I am Luiza because of her.
Uhum. And Magazine Luiza is Luiza because of her.
So she had no children and she left a house very close to Magazine Luiza in Franca. And so, I spent two years now with great care, taking apart what she left, but I'm going to make a Luiza Trajano Donato business school in her house.
Look how cool, Luiza. I was going to put it for salespeople, but I learned that I am more of a negotiator than just a salesperson. And now I have a project and I want to inaugurate it on September 20th, so it will have her coffee, because she was a very interesting person, and I will give business courses, and we have a lot of her digitized stuff that artificial intelligence will work on, and I want to see if I inaugurate it on September 20th. So the front of the house, which is right in the city center, I want it for the old store, you know? And then everything alive. So there's a hat that they really liked. She stayed for years. She wasn't completely demented, I learned to deal with that, but she had little dolls she talked to, they'll be there, all her most important pieces will be there, it will be mixed, it will be live. So I'm just telling you this so you can see, no, for you to see the rescues, and she has a lot of things, she says, 'Paying in cash is an obligation,' you know? They are principles of the culture. Very strong, and I needed it, later I said I'll even make a social franchise of this for women in Brazil. And I wanted to understand, look, we're talking a lot about AI, right? And I'm sure that the first person who transformed digital in a human way is Magalu. It's Lu, from Magalu, that I found it strange that she has a house now.
It's there, the biggest digital influencer in the world.
In the world, and she was the first to exist. How many? I want you to tell me.
I was horrified by that because I always liked innovation, but AI was so new that I couldn't understand anything from your city.
Yeah, I couldn't understand anything about AI, and look today, after how many years?
And now, she was born, my son, he graduated from GB very young. I never expected my son to work in the company, because I tell mothers and fathers, it's no use having expectations that a child will do what they want. So I think that expectation, when it's high, even hinders you from seeing. But he was one of those who entered GV very young at 17, worked 8 years in the market, and he went to work at a fund that had technology, not that he did technology, he did administration. And he was engaged here in São Paulo, he already lived here for about three years. I still lived in Franca, we've been here for 15 years. And then one day he called me and said: 'I'm going to leave the company I'm at, and I'm going to set up the company's website. I'm going to help set up the website.' He wasn't the technician, he was the strategist, right? And I was even a little scared because he would leave his job, but okay. He went and started with the website. He started with the website and then he created the character Tia Luiza in honor of my aunt, and she was born. And what I tell entrepreneurs, start doing, you don't need perfection. Then I show a film, if later I can pass it to you, I don't know if you'll show it in the middle of Lu. And it shows her several phases of her, ugly. And then we worked with her. One of the things we were sure about her. You have to know what you want. We want her to humanize the way we are human. So why does she connect so much? She makes mistakes, apologizes, she goes to all the protests. She appeared everywhere. So she is each day more human. And now she has grown. Then she became Lu, and it's impressive. You'll see her house, she's there, put it in her house, Lu's living room, Lu's kitchen. And now he did something impressive. We are the first agent that is selling entirely on WhatsApp. So Lu is the first agent selling on WhatsApp. So if you enter WhatsApp, Lu says: 'Lu, I want to see a 20-inch TV,' she goes after everything, presents it, but she receives, sells, and accompanies the delivery all through WhatsApp.
She was born as a virtual assistant and became one of the most well-known faces in Brazil. With twice the followers of Barbie herself, Lu do Magalu is the largest virtual influencer in the world. She surpassed the limits of any brand avatar and graced magazine covers. She surpassed the limits of many influencers out there and was in clips with Alok and Anitta. She surpassed the limits of any sales assistant to become the most valuable brand asset. Many limits were surpassed, but what will be the next? Brazilians always wanted to talk to Lu, but for that she had to make a big change, or, as contemporary influencers would say, a little procedure. Lu got a brain, became the first complete AI experience in the world to operate with agency on WhatsApp. The app present in 99% of Brazilian smartphones, the place where everyone talks. And there's no way around it, we like this warmth. So Lu decided to push this new limit. What is real, what is virtual. From so much receiving people's desires, understanding accents and even jokes like a person comparing their pet to Naomi Campbell, Lu also began to desire and be more human. In other words, Lu became just like us. With a new graphics mesh, she is more real than ever. She even has pores. And with the intelligence of Magalu Cloud, she is smarter than ever, understanding everything Brazilians want. But she is not only more human, she is a successful woman. Lu starred in campaigns for Burger King, flirting with the human desire for hunger. Starred in campaigns for Meta talking about security, and as a good Brazilian that she is, changed her look for Carnival. All with a great fee, okay? Today we can say that Lu is pushing the limits between real, but her results are certainly very real. In the first 105 days of this new phase on WhatsApp, Lu generated millions of reais in sales, 57,000 orders, and chatted with 2.5 million unique users. Where other technologies saw consumers, Lu saw us, and by understanding us, she became the most human sales agent in the world. The future of commerce is artificial intelligence with humanity. And it was born in Brazil with Lu, a legitimate Brazilian of body, data, and soul.
So don't miss the opportunity, like I used to stay by my aunt's side and everyone wanted to talk to her, right? Because before she was the store owner, she was a saleswoman at a very fine store. Uhum.
So she did a contest for people to choose the name, and she was very much into that.
At that time, on the only radio that existed, she did a contest. They chose Magazine Luiza, it was a job because Magazine means magazine, but all the research said one said 'toca pro Magazine', another said 'toca para Luís'. Now we're simplifying it, but we didn't take away Magazine Luiza because there's no way. It's a brand. Look how something when the people choose, when it comes from the bottom up,
No, for me all are brands. Magazine Luiza is a brand, Magalu is a brand, Lu is a brand, right? All for me are very strong brands and everything leads to the magazine.
And they all have a very strong culture, right? I'm impressed.
Same culture. It's the same culture.
I love it, I'm a person who loves Brazil. I'm a person who says Brazil is the best country in the world. I would never live abroad. I say that, and another thing, I also have great pride in Minas Gerais, and I say that we have to make this country of ours work, right? Because it's such a beautiful country with such wonderful people, we are very differentiated in the world. I say,
And we see startups, we are in fashion, we are, Brazilians are startups, they solve problems.
I'm impressed. And I also wanted to know a little, Luiza, about us as a family business, how many businesses within my business in fashion are family businesses too, right? When Fred came, tell me, I remember you wrote a letter that you already told me about, I read the letter that I
Yes, he started his first job, and then when he took over, after a while he took over.
Do you know what happened? We are a very professional company, nobody owes the company,
Nobody. That's why here no one works as an agregado. Not that I'm against it, and I think agregado has a lot of good, because we were raised that the company was the goose that laid the golden eggs, that you couldn't kill it, you have to do everything for it. So we were three, three brother partners, right? And it's very serious. We didn't go into debt. Whoever worked here had to account for things. It was always very professional. We didn't mix things because the small business often mixes the two little drawers, his drawer with the company's drawer. No, he has to have a salary, a withdrawal so he can do his own things. I think that's something we have to guide families a lot, to say: 'Don't mix things together.' So, first, Luiza, this was always a family rule, you know? Since it was very small, the little drawers were never mixed.
Yeah, from the beginning, they never mixed.
We were salaried for many years, nothing else.
There's a salary. Whoever works, whoever doesn't, gets dividends.
It was always like that. We were very correct. So when my son came, that's another thing, you have to start from the bottom, but he started as a manager and has to respect the director or the person above. So today I don't come to work, tomorrow, so we mix very little, when it comes to discipline, we mix values, our values have to continue, but we don't mix discipline. So my son arrived, it was already very clear what role he wanted to play, and it was clear that he had to respect his area director. It's natural. I don't know if you're saying that. So it was very natural. And it's from the family, right? My aunt, she had a fourth-grade education, but she was very visionary. In 2011, when we went public, she has no children, right? She had no children. And she called the most famous lawyers and left everything settled. She didn't even say, when she had to leave, she took a test when she was healthy. She was 70, 60-something, 70 years old, and she left everything settled. So much so that she passed away, my uncle passed away first, the company had no problems because everything is written, everything is documented, you understand? What I'm saying is, succession is very well done.
And Luiza, I wanted to understand a little what you've been seeing now, thinking about the future, because I think a lot, I talk to my team, with people I think that the more innovation comes, the more AI comes, right? I think it comes to facilitate, but the human side will grow with it.
Now, Frederico, Frederico is my son, he made a memo with Google for Gemini, so everyone can create things to simplify the company. And what I'm seeing, you'll come have lunch with me one day, people say: 'Look, the measurement was so impressive, I used to take 30 days to do this, now I'm doing it in three.' So we freed the company's offices to use AI and gave courses to all leaders. That was a year and a half ago already. And we gave the course and made a partnership with GM because you have a way to control what's being done. Uhum.
And I'm impressed. Then now an Instagram, a website, they created just to put everything that's being done for everyone to see. And you don't know which area is creating the most, we in the controllership area, which we thought would be the most, and legal.
Look, we now put an AI agent in each sector, right? We have a big AI project now in our planning. There's a transformer of AI in each sector that will bring transformation to the whole team, right? Of all departments.
Did you do training with those you call agents? We called them managers and they had a deadline to train the whole team.
Yes, that's what we're doing. We're organizing this project there too, to show people not to be afraid. And I'll remember a case, I really like simplicity in things, I'm a very...
That's not simplism, we have to make it very clear, right? That's where intelligence really comes from, because if we, I'm very concerned, I have a thirst for learning always, I think that's my great value. So I'm always wanting to learn, I have this enthusiasm. And I'll remember my daughter's school, she was a sensational person. I think she's one of the most brilliant women I've ever met. She had a constructivist school, imagine a constructivist school.
More than 50 years ago she founded this school. And it's big. And parents would arrive, when cell phones started, parents would arrive horrified, saying: 'How am I going to deal with this? It will ruin my child, etc., etc., and prohibition.' She said: 'Folks, I'm living what I lived when television arrived. Then I lived this when color television arrived.' So that's exactly it, right? Those things come that people are afraid of, some will be afraid forever, others will use them,
And others will deny it, right? 'Ah, this won't amount to anything.' Right? And I'm the one who goes, I want to go deep to see where there's opportunity, and know how to use it, right? Everything has its good and its bad.
So, Luiza, we are here, right? We brought our box, right? To tell the story to our consumers, our friends, right? Entrepreneurs in the fashion business.
It would be the shoe box.
It's the box. So, it's the shoe box. So, our box coming out of the box with Luiza, right? So we are inaugurating. We brought some pieces, some pieces, and it's so important for...
Jesus. Does it remind you of something?
Huh? It reminds me. There are many stories like this today, how I saw something similar with my mother. I think I have a lot of my mother. I think all this learning came from my mother, because my mother was always very bold with fashion. Dona Dorinha was a very ahead-of-her-time person. My grandfather has some stories like that. This all reminds me of what fashion is. I remember mom telling me, my grandfather was a great entrepreneur. My grandfather exported coffee 80 years ago, right? So it was something without doing much ahead, my grandfather. And there are very funny stories of his, he would say: 'He bought a machine to roast his coffee, so his coffee would be the best coffee.' When it arrived, the machine couldn't connect to the city's power and light, it couldn't turn on his machine. He went and made the power and light. And he was paying,
He did what? The power and light, which is energy. He set up a power plant,
Of energy, to be able to turn on that machine. And another thing my grandfather did that was sensational, we die laughing. His city, the truck had the train, it left from Ponte Nova, which was 50 km, so we had to take it by car to the train, for the train to go there. He built it. He didn't wait for the government, didn't wait for anyone, not even the mayor. He built the rail too, right?
So the stories of my grandfather are very cool. We are lucky to have been born in an era, in a cradle of problem-solving people.
Yes. And the funniest thing, my mother had 12 siblings. So that's why I have this memory, how much I think, I say that my mother is a great source of inspiration, because my mother, at the time, my mother waited for the politicians, my grandfather, who was considered a colonel without being one, he received all the politicians in the city, he was the big businessman.
What's the name of the city again?
Yes, it's near which city? Nova,?
Rio Casca. So there are some, right? And what did my mother do? She would wait for the most important politician, go up the stairs with him, sit next to my grandfather. There were 12 children, two women and 10 men. My grandmother hated it because she was in the middle of the men and got a purple leg from him pinching her, but she wanted to listen. So she listened to all the conversations, and we thought it was a lie, that she told it to show she was very ahead, right? Mom set off a bomb at the boarding school because she didn't think that was right. They had to shower in a nightgown, take off the nightgown and hang it so the fair could see she wasn't wearing it. And she told all that. And I went to the school, the nun took out all the mischief she had done there. And my grandfather was so angry that he wouldn't buy fabric for her to make clothes, and she was much more elegant than the other. So what did he do? He brought the best silks from Rio de Janeiro for his sister to try to put her down, right? And he would say, 'Dorinha buys the ribbons here from Dom Silvério and is the most stylish in the city,' and she was, and she was the one who arrived, what she had was hers. So she was very resolute, right? She didn't see problems in life. And then I think, today I see how much my mother taught me...
In that path. I remember her stories a lot. So my mother was a person who always knew everything, informed, she went everywhere. If you invited her anywhere, she had already been, oh, at the gallery, she had been there 10 times. She had been to Franca 500 times with you. Every time she was invited, she went. She says there's a profile, I say there's a profile that is the snooping capacity, but not snooping into other people's lives, no. Snooping into things. Uhum. I think a person needs to want. First thing, for me the best profile is the person wanting, and then being snoopy.
Super. My aunt was also super snoopy.
Mom knew everyone here. Mom at Sloper, I don't know if you knew her.
You and mom at Sloper every day to see what was new. She wanted to know what products arrived. She wanted to know not just the product, but where it came from, what it was made of. But she died very young, right?
Very young. And when you said she left everything resolved too. She had cancer, fought for 4 and a half years. But she left, look, the details, right? When we lifted the rugs in the house, there were the prices from when she bought everything, she left everything written. She said: 'I don't want to leave any headaches for you.' That's it, I wanted to ask you, in what important moments did fashion mark you? I don't even know how to study fashion, because I
But a piece of clothing, a piece, I'm very like that, I like to see fashion, but I really like to be authentic with myself. But yesterday, Roberta, this Roberta told me, and I brought two things that I think were cool. I would have other things to say, but I think it's cool. This is that blue dress
Which is the following, we have many meetings, tomorrow we start with 3,000 leaders arriving, and I always wear a t-shirt, etc., I already wore a t-shirt, but I really like dresses. So a company from Belo Horizonte, that's why I could,
Developed two of these dresses that I use when I have these meetings with sellers. When I go to work and give a lecture for Magazine Luiza, because it's sponsoring, I wear this dress, it's the blue one. Let me see.
Yes, so you'll see several. Roberta will send the image to you later, and it's from there. So they made two and I only use them when I'm at these events with everyone from the company. And the other has a very interesting story, which is this more elegant one. I'll tell you,
And I'll tell you because I have this story. We were still in Franca, we went, we made a partnership just for credit with Unibanco.
