Nick Hancock from Direct Outlet Mattresses

Business Brain, episode 666 for Wednesday, July 16, National Hot Dog Day 2025. Greetings, folks, and welcome to Business Brain, the show where we take a few ideas, we crunch them, we dissect them, we use them to tune our business brains, and every single time we get together. Our sponsors for this episode include shopify.com businessbrain, where you can go and sign up for your $1 per month trial and upgrade your selling Today, and Constant Contact.com, where you can go and try Constant contact free for 30 days. It'll make your marketing easier and more effective. We'll talk more about each of those in a little bit. For now, here in Durham, New Hampshire, Dave Hamilton.

Hey, and I'm Shannon Jean. And I've got a quick question for you. Which brainiac decided to have Hot Dog day on the 7th, not on the 4th? That's ridiculous.

It's the 16th. Shannon. We are. We are.

That's what I meant, Dave. The 16th. Recording this early.

We are recording this on the 7th. But hot dog National Hot Dog Day is on the.

Come on, this should be on the fourth.

I'm not. I'm not the one that makes up the days, but we could be. That's the thing. Like we've talked about this before. There are many small businesses that who we have seen take the opportunity to create a National Day of something. And maybe our guest today will be the one to create the National Day of Mattresses. Because we have Nick Hancock from Direct Outlet Mattresses. Or just Direct Outlet with us.

I'm not sure.

Yeah.

Thank you for joining us, Nick.

Thanks for having me, guys. Love the intro music too. That was awesome.

Yeah, thanks, man. This is good. I've been following Nick for a while. He's tearing it up on X and making all kinds of connections. We talk about connections a lot on the show. Give us some background, Nick, before we start digging into this stuff. Tell us about your business, how you got into it, how it works. Give us the lay down, the lowdown.

Yeah, I mean, it all started my dad. My dad's been doing this 35 years. My brother 15, myself, five. So really, really learning from my dad early on. I mean, I remember days vividly sitting on his desk while he was running numbers on Excel spreadsheets and going over his stores and just like asking him questions and then going into the stores and working into the stores. But then, you know, for me, it really, really happened. I got out of College, worked a 9 to 5 for 10 or so months. Hated Life Covid hit I Ended up getting fired. Not because. Not because of COVID just because I sucked at my job. Best thing that ever happened to me. I was home for three months, learned the mattress business, moved out to Pittsburgh for two and a half years and really started running it head first with the help of my brother and my dad, just from outside, really giving me advice and, you know, kind of on the know how to get rolling. So. Yeah.

That's awesome. That's great. And you're in Charlotte, right? And are you do. Are you selling? I. I see people online like, yeah, I need a mat. Nick hooked me up and the mattress. Tell me how your business works. Do you have local locations? Are you shipping these things all over?

We have three stores right in North Carolina. My dad's in Wilmington, my brother's in Raleigh. I'm here in Charlotte. We help people locally. You know, especially traditional style mattresses are the easiest to help locally. And then I'm also able to ship anywhere in the country, so. So I help people out with memory foam and hybrid mattresses all across the country. And that's what you see really online.

That's cool.

I'm curious about this. Getting fired from. From your job. I don't need to know why you were fired. I mean, you already told us why you're fired. You're bad at the job, and that's all we need to know. But this idea of working elsewhere before joining the family business is one where I've seen business owners say that they want their kids to work somewhere else before they come into the family business so that they can have their. That external experience before coming in house, so to speak. Do you feel like that. That. That experience of working in other. Another place or other places before coming into the family business was a. Was a good thing and gave you the right perspective?

It's to each person. My brother didn't do it.

Okay.

But my. I'm. I'm a mama's boy at heart as well. Like, I'm very close to my dad, but also my mom. It's a weird dynamic, a very healthy one. But so I was. I kind of felt the pressure from her, to be honest with you, to, you know, go and not be in the mattress business right away.

Got it.

So I did it. Don't regret it. I think it all worked out the way the Lord intended it to, so. But it did help me see a different perspective and, you know, be able to come into our business with a fresh eye of the world and other. Other perspectives and mindsets and connections.

I love that. Yeah, that's great.

Yeah. Yeah. I think I've seen the dynamic of, you know, you and your brother online. A little competition, little push, shove that kind of thing, I think, which is really cool. Talk about the, your, your. How you connected on social or on X or whoever else you may be to and how that's changed your. Your business either sales wise, but even just personally as a business owner.

Yeah. I mean, before. So I really started going heavy on X in December of 24. Right. So not very far away. Right.

Yeah.

I was previously doing it for other business ventures and those kind of all went to. To crap. And best thing that happened, I just got pissed off, honestly. I was like, why am I not doing this for mattresses? You know, I never really saw the ability to expand my mattress business outside of just adding more stores. And my dad already did that and I already knew all the complexities with that.

Yeah.

So I just started talking about mattresses and people loved it. And I don't, I don't get it. It's not a sexy. It's a very boring business. But people were fascinating about it. Just ask me questions and how can I buy from you? And all this. And it was that personal connection. And so I just continued at it. And, you know, here we are later where, I mean, we've done a hotel deal because of an Airbnb deal because of it, and helped out probably 60 plus Joe Schmoes, regular people that just need mattresses all because of X. Literally. That's it.

Love that. Well, I mean, as boring as mattresses might be to some, it. They are something that almost all of us use at least once a day.

Yep.

So you got it. Well, and I would say that the, the thing that I notice on your account is it. It's you, right? You're just sharing your experiences. You're at the football game, you're here, you're talking here. So people want to buy from other people, right. And you don't put on. You just. It's just being authentic. It's like, hey, I'm going to post this. I'm not posting this to get views or likes or sell more mattresses. I'm just posting this because I'm. It's interested and interesting, hopefully, and that's who I am. Something that, that's. I think it's a big difference.

A thousand percent. Everybody, like, I have, like, what I would say, my normies, friends who aren't on Twitter right. At all, and they're like, how are you making money on. I'm like I just talk about my life. It's so. It's like any girl who's, you know, doing tick tocks and fun dances or whatever, does vlogs or for their girlfriends or whatever, I do the same thing. But, you know, it's just predominantly dudes and they're really business owners that buy from me. That's heavily where it is and, and they want to support you in your mission as small and it's just a way to connect with anybody everywhere.

I love it. No, this is, this is outstanding. There's more I want to learn and more topics to get to. The next thing that I want to do is talk about our sponsors. Because when it comes to growing your business, we all know engaging with customers is crucial. But how do you actually do it? Most of us don't have the time, the, the skills, or frankly the spare brain power to handle marketing every single day. We're out here running businesses, not moonlighting as marketing wizards. And that's where our sponsor, Constant Contact steps in. They've built an all in one platform that makes marketing easy. Even if your idea of design is whatever font is already there. Email, social, text messages, events, landing pages, it's all in one dashboard. You can create killer campaigns in just a few clicks. They even have an AI content generator to help turn your napkin sketch idea into a polished message that actually sounds like you. With real time reporting automation tools and hundreds of templates, Constant Contact gives your business the power to stand out, grow sales, and live the charmed life we talk about here every week. And hey, over half a million small businesses already trust them and I'm really eager to get started. I love that they do more than just email. So unless you're trying to outsmart half a million entrepreneurs, I think maybe joining the crowd is a good idea. You can get a free 30 day trial when you go to constant contact.com. try Constant Contact free for 30 days at constant contact.com again, constant contact.com and our thanks to Constant Contact for sponsoring this episode. And you know, when we were kids, we all dreamed big, right? Astronaut, rock star, inventor of the world's first self toasting bagel. Okay, maybe that one was just me. But then we grew up and those dreams evolved. Maybe now your dream is building a business. Something real, something yours. And that dream, it can absolutely happen with our sponsor, Shopify. Shopify powers millions of businesses and handles 10% of all e commerce in the U.S. i know whether you're selling something big, niche or downright weird. Self toasting bagels anyone? Shopify makes it easy to build a beautiful storefront, process payments, manage inventory, and even run email and social media campaigns all from one place. You get AI tools to help you write product descriptions, templates to make your site shine, and world class 24. 7 support for when you need a hand. It's like having your own business SWAT team, but you know, with fewer helicopters. If you're ready to start selling, Shopify is ready to help you live that charmed life, turn those dreams into and give them the best shot at success with Shopify. Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com businessbrain go to shopify.com business brain again shopify.com businessbrain and our thanks to Shopify for sponsoring this episode. All right, what do you got, Shannon?

Yeah, Nick. So I, I always, I see you post often, like customer service stories, customer service nightmares, you know, this kind of stuff. What's, you know, for me, like, I always try to sell small things in my life, right. It was just, oh, this is easier. I can ship it, I could back it. It's like mattresses, man. That's insane. So, so, I mean, how do you resolve an issue? Does somebody. Maybe it doesn't happen. Somebody buys something like that and they get it home and they change their mind. I mean, how do you deal? Because that just seems like such a touchy situation.

It is. You know, we have some exchanges that people can do, like same in store exchanges or whatever the value is. I just had somebody like this just today actually call me up and so they're paying. The difference of it. I see defect in the mattress. You know, we handle that. We really, I really try. And for people that come in store, try and take them through a smooth process and really hammer down what they call comfortable first. Right. I think doing more, more emphasis on the front end than the back end. Not, not rushing to sale. You know, those things matter. And so we have a process to get people through a comfort test individually, as partners. I think that's important. A lot of the guys go in there and we'll say, just do whatever she wants. And I'm like, no, that doesn't work with me. And so I really take them through that to then figure out what's comfortable so we don't hit those problems in the future. Right. But if they do arise, which very few of them do for me, then I go through exchange, et cetera. But we really try to minimize that.

Yeah, no, that's good. And it's like the lay down test is that like get on this one in the, in the showroom and lay down and if. Yeah, you are. Type thing.

Exactly. We have a firm, a plush and a pillow top that we put people on. Same thing I recommend to people that aren't coming to me. They're trying to buy through me off of Twitter. Right. There's a firm, a plush and a pillow top, et cetera. Like a firm medium soft that I recommend people go try and then send me pictures of what they like. And that's how it works off the Twitter deal. Well, it's very simple. As easy as you can get it match. Nobody wants to buy a mattress. Right. Nobody wants to spend their time doing this. That's where I come in. It's like, hey, you're going to spend an hour or two hours max with me versus 30 to 40 online figuring out what the best review sites have to say. And it's a lot of hot garbage out there. And so I just try and cut down on that.

That makes sense. How long is the mattress supposed to last?

10 years. I mean, seven to 10 is what they say industry is going to tell you 7. I'm going to tell you 10 to 12. You know, it just depends on how well you take care of it. Are you rotating it? You know.

I'm not going to tell you how old mine is.

How often should people be rotating their mattresses?

Every three months from head to toe?

Yep.

Okay.

All right. That's good advice, folks.

What about, you know what? Yeah, go ahead.

And then if it's a, if it's a king size mattress and you're not OCD, it's 75 by 80. So you can take it instead of head to toe. You know, you can go head to side and that. Everybody always talks about that middle part that doesn't get used, you know? Yeah. Partner cuddling 24, 7. So that middle part that's not getting used now comes here. Right. And so you're getting it in your lower lumbar.

Interesting that that's it There. There are certainly those of us that are OCD that would not want to do that. But there are also those of us that are six, three and taller who would not want to do that.

So that's, that's true as well. There, there are cons to it, but any ventures out there who, who want it to last a little longer, that's how you do it.

That's great advice.

Yeah, that's pretty good. I always post like, I, I'm a huge Fan of change. And, like, I get bored and I freak out when everything stays the same. I feel like I'm in a rut. And one of the biggest changes I always talk about that freaks people out is changing the side of bed you sleep on. So, like your spouse or whatever. Okay, every three, four months or whatever, six months, you. You switch on the side. People look at me like I'm sacrificing some. You know what? I could never do that. I'm like, why not? It's like, well, I need to sleep next to the door. And I'm cycle. Where do you live, dude? I mean, it's like, is that really important? But it's. Anyway, it's just kind of an interesting mattress. My mattress hack.

Does your.

I always recommend.

Does your wife subscribe to your mattress?

Yeah.

Okay, that's good.

She's cool. She's cool.

That's what matters. Yeah. Mine, of course, mine does.

Not one person. Yeah, yeah, it's okay.

But. But I. When I sleep in a hotel, I always sleep on the opposite side of the bed from where I normally do for that same reason. Just to, you know. Yeah, well, you. I mean, our. Our human brains are built to just like, find habits and find shortcuts and. And it's good to mix that up every now and then. For sure.

I agree. So, so what's growth look like for you? What's the plan that you're putting in place? I mean, are you expanding stores, Expanding online? What's. What's next for you?

Yeah, this. Content. Content, content. Physical stores are dying. Nobody wants to go into stores. Right. Everybody wants convenience, and online is the most convenient thing possible. We're rolling out online capabilities now. I mean, I'm just doing in the DMs, to be honest with you, right now, sure. But we're rolling it out for even more affordable options. Something that a lot of these mattress companies don't really specialize in at all. And so that'll become more and more part of our. Our business, core business, over the next five, 10 years. But what's more important than that is getting eyeballs on that. Right? You can have a website, you can have all this, but it doesn't matter if you don't get eyeballs on it. So we're going to be diving more into content as we. As we. Really smart.

Yeah, but we. We always say every business is in the content business now.

Right.

Whether you're a stump grinder, you know, like Tyler up there doing his thing, or. Yeah, it's it. People want to watch, they're interested in it. And if you, if you create, you know, engaging content and doesn't take much to get them to pay attention.

Specifically video content. Right? Yeah, that's. Yeah, that's where it's at. I mean, then you can crosshair against all platforms. So I'm still a young dude, 28. I get it. All right. In the thick of it all. Just about how we navigate that going forward.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's really good. I love this. Like, you know, hey, we got a boring, so called boring business. But it doesn't. Maybe the product is, but the way you present it and your business story and the way you connect with everybody, that's not boring at all. That's super interesting to me.

Yeah, no, I found that people really love it. They just want to get to know you and your story and want to buy through you. And I don't care, like to me, as long as people want to buy, you know, use me instead of the guy next door, that's all that matters. Right. And however, however we get that to connect, which Twitter's been an amazing way to do that. And so if other platforms are that way too, then we'll do that.

You know, as we're sitting here having this conversation, we talk about this idea of using social media to do sales as like this like mind blowing thing that not everybody does. And it's a new thing and certainly it is. But when we zoom out a little bit, the idea of buying from someone we know goes all the way back to, you know, before the telephone existed, right. You would go downtown and you would buy a mattress from Nick because you knew Nick and his dad were running the mattress shop and you would see them at the coffee shop. And so this idea of social media of your own personal brand being the thing that drives people to be comfortable buying from your business or to want not just be comfortable, but to want to buy from your business. This is a story as old as time.

Yeah, it's definitely not a new story. I think it's just where the attention is now.

Right?

You guys, if you guys have ever followed Gary Vaynerchuk, he is, you know, the case. Old talks about this, but it was radio, TV, newspapers, and now it's, you know, YouTube and TikTok and Facebook, Instagram, you know, Twitter. Right. And that. So you, you just fall on the attention. Where attention is.

Yeah, you're following where attention is. And it used to be at the local coffee shop because there was nowhere else to go. Well, I mean, that's how it was. Right? You know, that's it. So. Yeah, I love it.

That's awesome.

I love it.

Well, it's. I love your story, man. And you know, I love watch building. Your watching building. You build your brand up on X. And as you expand out, it's great to talk with you. What's the best way for people to. To find you right on X?

Mattress Mattress guy on X.

All right, Love that.

We'll put a link to you in. In the show notes as well. And you know, like I said, keep building, man, and keep in touch and sharing this, sharing your story. It's fantastic.

Yeah, it's. It's amazing. Absolutely amazing. Thanks for taking the time with us, folks. Feedbackusinessbrain show is where you can get in touch with us if you have any questions about this episode. Of course, you can direct them to Nick on X or you can direct them through us and we can get in touch with Nick, too. Thank you so much for hanging out with us, Nick. Thanks so much for. To everybody for hanging out with us for the last 20 minutes or so. It's awesome. We love that we get to do this. What being able to do this is part of our charmed lives, and we hope it's part of your charmed life too. Have a great one and we'll see you on Friday.

See ya.