Live end-of-2020 Q&A hosted by Ryan Daniel Moran (Capitalism.com) where Moran speaks to entrepreneurs (Amanda, Todd, Kirsten, Paulina, Valentin, Jeff) about launching and scaling e-commerce and product brands. Topics covered include product selection and roadmaps, prototyping, manufacturing (US vs overseas), presales/Kickstarter, fundraising vs equity-for-agency deals, regulatory/licensing hurdles (Canada NPN), patents (provisional), and founder mindset and focus. The session mixes tactical advice (samples, pre-sales, influencer outreach, Amazon agencies) with strategic advice (clarify vision, pick target customer, focus on momentum).
Chapters
Good morning my friends. It is the end of 2020. This is capitalism and coffee. Guys. I'm fired up to be with you. If you are a member of the 1% and you want to come into the green room, come on in. There's a link inside of the Facebook group to come join us. If you are watching on the spillover on YouTube, please say hello in the comments. I am going to start off today with a reminder that if you're watching on YouTube, this is the last Q and A that we are going to be streaming publicly. So Moving forward into 2021, we will be bringing these in house. We will just be doing this for 1% members. Reason for that is feedback we've gotten from members is that a lot of people don't feel comfortable talking about their businesses when it's being streamed to everybody. So we're going to keep it in house and we're going to create a closed container here. So if you want to be a part of these moving forward, go over to capitalism.com one hop into the 1%. What's up? Susan Anderson. Good to see you. Hey Brandon. Hey Troy. Hey Lyle. Hey Martin. Good to see you. Welcome to Kirsten and Todd and Amanda who are in the green room. Some of you are still on your way in. Good morning Martin. Good to see you. Thanks for spending the end of your 2020 with me. We are going to jump right into Q A today. We're just going to go right for it. Guys. Listen, I, I don't know what kind of year you had. I don't know what 2020 was like for you and it doesn't matter. So we got through it. We did it today. We turn a page and if you've been sitting on the sidelines in terms of your business, in terms of where you want to go next.
It'S time. E Commerce is on frickin fire and it's not slowing down. This year was not only the year that E Commerce took over.
It's now the only game in town. Money's pouring into E Commerce. Businesses are trying to make the adjustment to E Commerce and all of you are ahead. All of you are ahead. I was having a conversation a few weeks ago with a member of the capitalism incubator who was feeling behind. They were feeling like the boat has left and that they missed it. They were feeling like they've been at this for two years and they haven't hit pay dirt yet and they were feeling really frustrated. So I said to them, all right, let's clarify this a Little bit. Are you taking active sales? Yes. Where are you stuck? They couldn't see the future. 30 minutes of a conversation later, they could see the future and knew how to move forward. In that moment, they were not only caught up, they were ahead.
They weren't just behind. And now you're on pace? No, now you are ahead. The minute that you have a clear vision for what it is that you are building and who you're building it for, most importantly, the who you're building it for, as soon as you know that you're ahead. I want you to understand going into 2021 that things got easier in business this year. More opportunity opened up, more money poured into the system, more opportunities for sales channels opened up, more people bought online, more people moved into buy. New brands, new buying behaviors opened up.
So if you have been feeling like you have been behind, there's still lots of time. The pie just got bigger, that's all. And it's still there for you. A lot of times as entrepreneurs, when, especially on the topic of money, I shouldn't even just say entrepreneurs, but in the topic of money, there is this sense that other people are progressing, other people are moving forward. And because I don't feel like I am, I am behind. But this is the reality of this. The more people that crush it in E Com or that make a killing from Bitcoin or that their stocks go through the roof, the more they have paved the way for the next chapter of success. Here's what I mean by that. Let's take bitcoin as an example. I'm probably going to do a video on this. So if bitcoin goes to a million a coin and there's that much wealth and money in the system and you are sitting there with none of it, that money has to get spent somewhere. That money flows into the economy and the stores and the new startups. That money gets invested into new ideas. It creates a higher launch pad for the next entrepreneur to come in and create something. So the only obstacle, the only thing standing in your way, is your own clarity of vision and your own confidence in moving forward in it. That's the only game. That's it. And as soon as you get that, you're ahead. You're ahead of everybody else who is starting right now, because most people are still trying to find that. And so as soon as you know that that's your only work, that's when everything else opens up for you. I'm going to do a quick pitch. We're going into 2021. In February of 2021, we're opening up new spots for Cap Inc. This is where my team and I work directly with entrepreneurs to build seven figure businesses that they can sell. And I'm going to be doing a webinar sometime in early January that I think is going to fill it because we're going to be positioning some things in a way that's going to make it fairly irresistible. So I want to give you guys a heads up. If you want a spot, go over to capitalism.com Inc. And go fill out an application. So this, right now, this week is launch week for our members. Our members are launching their products and right out of the gate people are doing $10,000 launches. They're doing $20,000 their first month. And all we're gonna do then is layer on some basic pieces. They're gonna take them to 50, $100,000 a month. And we're incubating Million Dollar Businesses Inc. And this is what we do. We incubate million dollar businesses. We do it in a way that allows you to position them to be sold. And if you want a piece of that, come join us. Seriously. It's at capitalism.com inc. All right. Hello, Alan. Hello, Irfan. Hello, Salome. Hey, Kimberly. Hey, Adrian. Hey, Catherine. What's up? Hello, Paulina. Good to see you guys. Let's go over straight to. No, Adrian, this is not really live. I have gone into the future and I have seen your comment and I am clairvoyant and can time travel like that. So no, this is not live. I'm just a time traveler. Let's go over to the green room. Let's do Q and A right away. Amanda, you're up first. You want to do this thing?
Let's go. Good morning, Amanda. How are you?
Good, how are you?
Good. Good to see you.
Yeah.
Who's a little one?
This is Winter. She's a year.
Hi Winter. Nice to meet you.
Yeah, so I just want to get right into it. So I'm just. I just finished your million dollar brands course. Thank you.
Bye, Winter. Good to meet you. Go enjoy your nap.
So I just finished your million dollar brands and I am wanting to do an organic stuffed animal inside and out. From what I've understood and talked to other people that it is needed. I've talked to Val in the group, the brand specialist and just talking big picture and kind of creating this non toxic kind of world with which I'm totally down for. And that's who I would be marketing. And just moms like me. My Question is, so not everyone wants, you know, like, a lion stuffed animal. Do you start with a pacifier, a lion stuffed animal? These like a, you know, a crib sheet or something that's organic?
Yeah.
This is how you. This is how you crack that nut, Amanda. So you've got your person and your vision pretty clear.
Right.
It's important for you to not see this as an organic stuffed animal brand.
Right.
Or even. Or even a stuffed animal brand at all.
Right?
You are. You're an organic toy company.
Right.
And so from there, you make a list of five products that you would be really excited to launch under that umbrella.
Okay.
And then from there, you look at which of these is the easiest to buy, which is the one. Which is. Which one here is the. The least resistant thing for me to sell to, to really build an audience around which one of these has enough demand and enough excitement from yourself to be able to take to 25 sales a day. So do you know what those five products are?
So I was gonna do the organic stuff animal first, but like you just.
Said, so let's just call that one of the products in the line. What else is there?
A natural pacifier with an organic buddy attached to it.
Okay.
So are you wanting to do a toy company, or are you just wanting to do an organic product line?
More organic product. I.
Had a problem finding organic buddies for pacifiers. I had a problem finding organic stuff, stuffed animals, sleep bags.
So hold on, hold on. Answer the question. Do you want to be a toy company or do you want to be a organic something else? Just like an organic family supply company?
More. I'm thinking more the second one.
More family supply.
Right.
So where did the stuffed animal come in.
With the family supply?
So where. So which came first? I want to do an organic supply company or I want to have an organic stuffed animal?
Organic stuffed animal.
Why the stuffed animal?
Because when I was pregnant and I.
You know, thinking all the new things you're going to buy, I wanted the best thing or whatever for the baby. And I could not find hardly anything. They were either made out of other materials or they weren't completely organic.
You mean across the board or specifically with stuffed animals?
No, specifically with stuffed animals.
Okay. All right, so that is one pain point that you're solving in a really a family supply. Organic family supply company.
Right.
All right, now I'm tracking with you because there's really could be two different brands. An organic stuffed animal company could be a completely different brand from just a family supply company. That's why that's why the honest company exists and Melissa and Doug exists. They're just completely different companies. So. All right, you want an organic pacifier. Keep going down that list.
Like an organic sleep bag. They're usually made out of polyester.
Organic sheet, and.
Like an organic, like, baby book.
Okay. I got good news for you. You not only listed five cohesive products, you listed five cohesive products on one idea, which is sleep.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So. So you just got a little bit clearer about where this brand is going.
Right.
You not only do family supply, it's really. You're doing organic sleeping.
Right.
Which is. Which is really good. So which of these. When looking at sleep, which of those five products feels like the easiest sell, the easiest for you to source? The one that gives you a lot of excitement.
Well, the most excitement is the stuffed animal.
Okay.
Feel like design might be a factor into that with time frame.
Okay.
Natural pacifiers are easy to come by.
And.
And I could definitely. Do they excite me.
I mean, rank them in. Rank them in excitement, then.
Probably stuffed animal, the book, the.
The little pacifier buddy. The sleep bag, and the sheet.
So you're not so pumped about the sleep bag, not so pumped about the bedding.
Right.
So interesting, because those are the two that I think are most exciting. Right. So if I was answering the question, that's what I would be like. Those are the ones that are the easiest to source, the most exciting, the most mass market, the easiest to pitch, the easiest to make a Facebook ad around, the easiest to put on Amazon. So to me, from a business perspective, those are the ones that are most exciting to me.
Okay.
But for you, if it's. If it's different, follow that impulse. Yeah. Yeah, Follow that impulse. My. My sense for you is that a pacifier is going to be a tiny little market that bedding and sheets and organic blankets or GL Organ organic security blankets.
Right.
Or like that. All of that is a cohesive brand on all its own.
Yeah.
And the stuffed animal is a really nice to have that you get really excited about that you could build an exciting.
Like, it could be almost like the exciting cherry on top of it.
Okay.
But as a parent, I think that there are bigger things that we think about than the stuffed animal that feels like the cherry on top.
That's good.
So I would. My opinion is go build a great organic sleep company for parents of young children, and then you can expand it as big as you want from there.
All right, that's helpful. Thank you.
I think that's. I think that's a really exciting idea for you.
Cool. Great.
Anything else? No. Did I just crush your dreams? Because if so, you're welcome to disagree with me.
No, no.
I mean, I don't come from. I come from a medical background, so I need the business and everything. And I think. Yeah, I was thinking sleep line.
Great.
Hear that. And.
So hold.
So hold that intent. And then go ask your customers because you might get feedback that's completely different from what either you or I are thinking.
Right.
But now you've got a clear pain point, a clear market, a clear intent, a clear product roadmap. Go ask a few customers, take that feedback, and decide which of these products is your first one.
Okay, Cool.
Good work, Amanda.
Thanks.
All right, good to see you. Take care of Todd. You are up next, my friend. Give me a thumbs up if you're ready to do this thing. Let's go.
Can you hear me? Yes, I can see you.
Yeah.
Awesome.
Good to be with you.
Well, it's just great to talk first, but been following you for a couple years and so, yeah, jumping right in. Things have been going pretty well, but, you know, this has been a long ramp up for me. I started this process with line of men's underwear back in 2018.
You know, I'm a little. I'm a little stuck right now at the manufacturing point.
So, you know, I have a prototype. You know, I have a patent pending status. It works good.
About your underwear.
What'S different is the comfort sack. It's a sack to type underwear, but it's very different from the other competitors in the market. Like, you know, Tommy John has one, Sax has one, but mine's very different in that the, the sack is breathable and it really hangs kind of outside or more naturally, I. I'd put it.
Understand what you are saying, my friend.
Yeah. Bottom line keeps it from sticking to the legs, so.
Okay, got it. So we call that a front wedgie.
Can I use that in the marketing?
If you'd like. Go for it. Go for it. So you got underwear that cures and prevents front wedges.
Yeah.
And you've been. You invented this in 2018, you've got a prototype, two years later, you're stuck at the manufacturing phase.
Yeah, I mean, we just got done.
Tell me why.
Well, you know, it's really about two different things that have probably held me up. Number one, it just took time and it slowed down the process to get the prototypes done. Just finding the people to make it in the US and things like that took time. I wanted to manufacture in the US If I could. But as you know, the pricing is a lot higher. If you go overseas.
They do steal your design almost invariably.
Tell me where you're stuck. I hear the cognitive bouncing around. Tell me what's preventing you from moving forward and taking sales.
Well, I've just gotten to the point where I can really move to that, and I got to get it manufactured. I guess what I'm over is I've had some quotes. They're pretty high from here in the United States. And so I was resistant to going overseas, but I'm reconsidering that now because, you know, the price per unit.
Let me tell you where you're really stuck. All right?
Okay.
You are not sure that this is going to sell, and so you need to find out. Yep. So my advice to you is I would take your prototype and I would make it available for presale. You can do a Kickstarter. You can put it on your own website and drive some traffic to it. You can post it on your Facebook and just ask your friends if they would buy it. Go get active feedback, because your brain right now needs to know this is a winner. And it's okay for me to spend this money. Because if you have a home run, your cost of goods are going to come down over time. If you've got a home run, you're going to be able to order 10,000 units at a time. Right? So now your manufacturer is like, shit, this kid wasn't playing around when now we've got to give him priority, and we're going to drop down his cost of goods. Now you're the hot girl at the dance. Right now you're shopping, and you want to be the one that other people are shopping. Right? You want to be. You want to be the one who is in control of that negotiation. To do that, you've got to have some momentum. And you've been feeling stuck for two years without a lot of momentum. Sales change that real quick. And sales can either be people who put down the 20 bucks for a pair or 100 bucks for a five pack or whatever it ends up being. Or it can be the feedback that no one wants this. And you go, all right, next up. And you stop having this delay, delay, delay, delay, delay, and you go find the business that is really exciting to you. And you've probably already had three of them in the last two years come to you. But your focus was on the front wedge. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I went on gut right there. So tell me, tell me if we're close.
Well, it definitely is. And you know, the kick helps. You know, part of the, part of the problem with that is, you know, like some of my prices just for manufacturing in the US that I got was $32 a pair. Well, that's the upper end of it. You know, my prototypes are about $95 a piece. So just selling prototypes is a little hard to do. I have had a lot of proof on it. I mean, I've had some test pilots. I have done that. They absolutely love them. They're begging for them.
Great. So there's a couple other things that you could do here because momentum doesn't have to come in the form of sales. Momentum can come from raising 100 grand from an investor who puts up money. You'd give up 20, 25% of the company for 100 grand value. You can now value the company at $400,000.
Okay.
Now you can go order.
3,000 units. I think that math is right. You can now order 3,000 units and bring that cost of good to 25 bucks. You're still going to sell them at a loss, but you're going to get momentum now and you're going to get that cash to order more and you're going to be able to have some momentum there. It could also look like you, you're so pumped about your front row jundies that you end up getting the attention of an influencer with 35,000 email addresses who does a blog specifically for men's fashion. And now you send him a pair for 100 bucks and you're like, just try them on and tell me what you think. And you spend $1,000 getting prototypes and sending them out to strategic people. Yeah. Seeing who bites right now. And then you do like they plug you on their podcast because you give them five points of equity in the company. You pre sell 500 units. Right. So all this to say momentum can look like a variety of different things.
Gotcha.
Point for you is you're waiting for something to break so that you can go just like just all in, go all in on it. And my, my advice to you is you've, you've got got to in your mind decide whether or not this is the business that you want to fall on the sword of or not. And if it is, then just like own in your brain that it's already done and watch the pieces come into play. And if not, it's fine. We got your back on the next idea. Send me a pair and we'll talk about that time that we were On Alive Together. And, you know, we're doing a podcast about your new idea, and we're both wearing the undies.
Right.
You know, so, like, it'll be a great story. So it's. It's like, it's all about what does Todd want to do? And if so, just. Just. Just go. And all the. All the pieces are there.
Yep.
And Karen says that she's got.
Oh, sorry, that's not for you. That was for someone else. There's people in the comments commenting on your underwear.
Thank you. I will check them all.
Tell me how you feel about that, because. Oh, it's Renee that says she's got a supplier for you. Renee says she has a supplier for you.
Okay. I would love to talk to her. Just hit me on the. On the 1%. That would be great. So I'm feeling good. I mean, I'm pumped about this idea. There were other. You know, I decided to go with this idea because I was excited about it, and I don't have any doubt about it. You know, it's.
It's.
So I'm just, you know, at the this point, it's a matter of just pressing, you know, pressing until success. So, you know, I feel like I have a little lull here, but I'm not. I'm not anxious about it either, you know?
So for you, where you are right now, every little inch forward is momentum. And that means you talking about it on social media and getting people. Getting nine people excited about it. Yeah, because those nine people, I mean, look, we're in front of less than 100 people right now, and people already saying, I've got a manufacturer for you. And six people are saying, all right, hey, if you put it up for sale, I buy it. Right. So those are wins.
Awesome.
Like, those are tiny wins that you hold on to and you pull forward. And the more you talk about it or if you create content around it or if you send it to influencers, it's just all about those little inches forward that start to stack on top of one another.
Go.
Obsessed with those.
Yeah. Awesome.
Got it.
Yeah, that's awesome. Yep, I got it. Appreciate it.
Good to see you, Todd.
Thank you, Ryan. Appreciate it.
Take care. You bet.
All right, blessings.
Kirsten, you're up after that fire session, so let's do this. Good morning, Kirsten. How are you?
I'm very well, thank you.
Awesome. Very good. What. What are you. What brand are you wearing? Outreach. What is this?
This is a vest.
For my school that I work at.
Yeah, my principal loves to. Loves to buy us clothes, so it's pretty nice.
Cool.
Well, I'm in right now and it's cold. I'm up in Canada. We're freezing.
It looks like it. Done. You're locked down. Well, this is our prime minister is Trudeau.
Yeah.
You have a rough time, Kirsten?
Oh, don't get me started, please.
I'd love to get you started on a political rant. What a great way to start the day.
Oh, right. No, actually, what I was going to mention was that you're watching two men call it a front wedgie was quite hilarious for me, being a Canadian girl. We have a few other terms for it, but they might not be quite as appropriate as yours.
Wait, a Canadian term is less appropriate than an American term? Oh, you must not say it on tv.
No, we won't.
Kirso, what can we do for you?
Okay, so read your book.
And how'd you find out about it?
Pardon me?
How did you find out about the book?
Oh, you were in the number one position on audible. I matched it right up. I had a credit and I was really looking for something, something to really light the fire. So that was it. Yeah.
And within, I recorded that audiobook in this chair.
Nice.
That's a good chair. I hope you place that chair. It looks like lots of good thoughts.
Coming out of that chair. Well, I appreciate it very much. Thank you.
You're welcome. So, yeah, I read the book, and we've been going through some interesting times. So I've just been trying to put more energy into, you know, changing my life and changing my family's life and. Yeah. So I've got the idea. It's a postnatal multivitamin.
Okay.
But instead of having to choke down, you know, two or four pills a day or take two or three different supplements, I've got injection. Yeah, almost. It's all rolled into one. So you drink it in the morning with your water. You need to drink water anyway. It tastes great or it's going to taste great. And it's also. It's got not just the essential nutrients, the vitamins and the minerals, but it's also got some herbs to help calm the adrenals because women are totally pumped after they have a baby and they can't relax. Like, you literally not sleep. You can't relax. You can't. And also promote healing. So it's got a mixture of herbs as well as vitamins and minerals.
I like where you're going with this. Can you tell me two or three other products that you would sell to the same person.
Okay. So my journey, the journey that my customers are on, obviously is they've just had a baby. So I'm not really focusing on the prenatal journey. I'm focusing on the postnatal journey. So that starts with, you know, heal, heal and rest and also nourish your baby.
So.
And so I've got that. The multivitamin also has a little bit of fenugreek in it to aid with lactation, which isn't important to if you're not breastfeeding.
So. So hang on.
What are the other two or three products that you're going to sell to the same person?
I'm going to also formulate something for extra lactation.
Good.
But you can. You can drink it or add it into a smoothie. So there's that. And then I also want to do kind of.
Kind of like a powdered greens supplement specifically geared for women, though. More hormonal balance.
So that's. That's three. Give me one more.
The fourth one was for something further on down the line. You know, when you're in your mid-40s, 50s, kind of approaching menopause. And my mom said you have to make a product for us too, so.
So she's wrong. What's the fourth product for your target market?
For my target market, I don't have a fourth product yet. I almost thought of swinging back and doing prenatal supplements.
Stay with this. Stay with this one person, right? Because guess what else they buy? Lactation cookies.
Yeah.
They buy probiotics and prebiotics. They buy baby food. They buy their own food. They buy low caffeine, coffee.
Yeah.
What else?
Good question. I mean, just like the, the.
Do you have kids, Kirsten?
Oh, yes.
How many?
I have a five year old and a two year old and I've been exhausted for.
Okay, cool. So what do you buy for yourself that is a food or a supplement?
Just really good multivitamins.
And there's another one. You didn't list that one, so that's another one.
Energy and maybe something to reduce the brain fog, you know, and just to help with the hormone balance.
Great, great. I love this. The one thing that comes to mind is a little bit of a swing and swing for the fence here, but a hair supplement. Because every mom that I know is like, I miss my pregnancy hair.
Oh, yeah, I don't have that problem. So that didn't come to my mind because I didn't.
I have heard it from the nine moms I know.
Okay.
Which is.
Missed my pregnancy Hair. So all this to say, we just listed eight or nine products. Your job is to narrow it down to four and go. I love this idea. This is a great idea. So what, where do you need help right now?
Okay, so I'm in Canada. So I've touched base with four manufacturers. I mean they have to be Health Canada certified as well as. I can't remember what the acronym is. GMP or something like that. Yeah, but. Okay, where am I stuck funding?
I don't know if I can take this onto Kickstarter or Indiegogo. I'm not sure. But.
Do you have the money to go get a prototype?
Oh, yeah, yeah.
I'm the first, the only funding you need to worry about right now.
Okay, so I've got, I've got, I've got one company that has already given me the pricing for the sample and I'm going to order two samples and I've got enough women who are postnatal right now that are interested in trying it. I'm going to give them like a one week supply. So I'm going to send those off. I've got my bags, I've got my scoops ready. I just need to get the sample ordered. Obviously nobody's working right now. So I guess then, then that's what's got me freaked out.
Like what's. What's got you freaked out?
This is what I heard you say.
When I want to go to market, I need a special license in Canada which costs about $2,000 to acquire. I need a license for this product. So I don't. Pardon?
What do you mean? What license do you need?
It's called an npn.
Okay, I know nothing about this.
It's a special license that's required for.
For any health.
Supplement or in Canada specifically.
Yes, in Canada specifically. I could, I can take it to the States.
And you need this. And you need this. At what point?
I need it before I can sell it in Canada.
Okay.
I can sell it in dates. No problem. I've already bought.
So what's your question? Because this is what I'm hearing. This is what I'm hearing. You say every time you have a. But you have a very obvious and easy solution.
Yeah, I'm really good at that. It always comes out better when I actually say it out loud than it sounds. Head. So that's good. I guess my biggest question is.
When I want to put this thing on Amazon, which is going to be very soon.
I'm going to need about 12 grand. Ish. Like if I want to sell on Amazon.com because I'm going to need to get my order shipped to the states.
Okay. That's easy.
Okay, I'm just Double that. Pardon?
Do you want double that?
I'm not kidding. Yeah, it's like I, it, it actually would probably be easier for you to raise $100,000 than $12,000.
Oh, right. Well, I like the sounds of that. I'm just not sure where to go. I'm really doubting.
So this is, this, this is where you go. You go get a really good prototype, you go get 20 samples of it, you give it to 10 people that are your target market. You get their feedback in the form of video and written testimonials. You adjust the product as necessary.
You compile all their feedback for that prototype. You create a little tiny vision, like a five page vision for your business. And then like I say in the book, you start reaching out to 10 people that you trust, ask them to review your vision and poke holes in it and watch how fast 50 to $100,000 shows up. Okay, show up real quick, especially right now. I mean, especially. But here's the thing, like this is a very good idea and you know your market and this is a slam dunk.
So the thing that will stop you is if you just don't go get the next step, which is a prototype and feedback. Most people discount those little micro wins in between where they are right now and what they see is the real challenge. But that's not the real challenge right now. $100,000 is real easy. When you've got a good idea with a decent vision and someone who is committed, easy, no problem. But what most people say is I am a person that doesn't know what they're doing and the hundred thousand dollars is out there and. Well, no, it's not. The hundred thousand dollars comes to you when you've got a really clear vision and a product line and a prototype and you're ready to go to market.
Does that make sense?
It does. And this Christmas lull is killing me.
What do you mean?
Well, I haven't been able to order my samples. I would have ordered them, but they're closed.
Do you have your formulation lined up?
Yes, sir.
You talked about it publicly and asked people what's important to them?
Yes.
Okay, cool. Do you have the people that you want to test it when you're ready to go?
I have five people lined up right now and I'm continually looking for more.
You plugged into Mom's groups?
Yes.
Okay.
You have A supplier picked out.
I have one. I have four others that I haven't heard back from yet. So I'm kind of going with.
Go with the one with the best communication.
Yeah.
You're ready to go? You're ready to go?
Yeah. Okay.
You good on your next steps?
Yes. Thank you very much.
You're welcome. Good to meet you, Kirsten. Thanks.
It's nice to meet you too.
Yeah. Keep us posted.
I will.
All right, take care.
Thanks.
That was fun. Let's keep this going. Paulina, are you ready for this? Yes. Let's go.
What's up, Paulina? How are you?
I'm good.
How are you?
Good. We got to keep the energy high for Jeff deville, who's on a. Oh, he just left. Oh, he was on a treadmill. Where'd he. Oh, we. As soon as I said his name, he left. That was sad. I was gonna make a joke. Oh. And now he's back. Jeff is on the treadmill desk. So, Paulina, we got to keep the energy high to keep his calorie count really high. How are you doing, Paulina?
I'm fabulous. So hopefully he's a dad, because we're creating dad baby products, and that'll get jogging on the.
Tell me all about it.
So we're creating dad baby products. Our first product is a dad diaper bag. It's kind of an exciting time. We're just getting ready to put a deposit on our front first order.
Awesome.
Forever.
To create the sample. But we're okay with that because we, like, every single detail is exactly how we wanted it. We've gotten a lot of great feedback from our list, so.
Good for you.
So we're loosely following, like, the Trevor Blake model, where we're gonna hire a bunch of consultants, especially for things we don't like to do. We're kind of. So my partner, he has a podcast for dads with about 2,000 listens a week. He has some hip hop, like, celebrities on there. Our market is hip hop, urban market dads. So anyways, my point in telling you all that is we're into, like, the media and the branding, and we have, like, a. We started, like, a little YouTube channel and that kind of stuff. We want nothing to do with data and analytics. We want to outsource stuff like Amazon. So we're trying to figure out. We're talking to a few people about doing Amazon, and we want to do the whole, like, equity and a percentage of the sale model, and we just have no idea where to start, like, how much equity, like, 2%, 5%, 20%. Like, how much of the sale? I have no idea.
Well, you may not have to give up equity for an Amazon Management. There's like two people you should call are Jeff Lieber over at Turnkey Products, Turnkey Product Solutions.
So they're based out of San Diego. And then the other one. The other one. And the reason I'm going to recommend that you speak to this other one is because they just do profit share.
Okay.
And it's. They're called Sunken Stone.
Sunken Stone. Okay, cool.
Now, full disclosure, I have not worked with Sunken Stone in the past. Okay. I work with Jeff Lieber a lot and he's really good.
Okay.
I guess the reason we were thinking of equity is we don't want to spend.
Cash on it. And the people that we've been talking to, like, honestly, everyone that we talk to, like, really loves and believes in our company. And we've gotten some great offers, but this guy's like, he can work on a consulting basis and he does that with other companies, like just, you know, whatever.
You just don't want to spend the cash.
We don't want to spend the cash. Exactly.
Why don't you want to spend the cash?
Because we're.
We'Re scared to spend the cash, I guess.
Right, right. Because you're scarce about the cash.
Right.
So two options here. You could really bootstrap it like you're trying to do. Or you could take the best people, say that you have the best people lined up, and go do a raise based on the fact that you've got the best people lined up, you have the best Amazon agency, you have the best manufacturer, you have the best marketing agency, and you have a great idea that everybody's bought into. And then you go pitch that to an investor. Those are your two options.
So you don't think that we should give up equity to our consultants. You can, like, is it a bad idea? I don't, like, I guess I'm not a bad idea.
No, it's, it's not a bad idea. It's just, it's less common to give equity. Equity to. You will have a harder time getting agencies to produce well on equity than you will getting an investor to just give you the cash for you to hire the agencies.
Really? Because this guy was like, I can do both, but I would be more excited about equity because you guys are going to kill it. And we're like, we had this feeling of, like, great, if we do equity, he can sort of be one of our.
That's what you want with that point person, go forward. Go, go ahead and go forward. I'm just telling you that traditionally it's going to be easier for an investor to buy into that than an agency to get behind that.
Okay, so let's, let's say, I mean we'll definitely take in account what you just said, but let's say we still decide to go on equity. How do we go about thinking about what that equity carve?
What, what is this position or this person run?
Well, it's going to run Amazon, but also sort of like I don't have, I don't have a title for it yet, but like all the analytics stuff. So if Shopify needs analytics, like maybe Facebook needs analytics, like that kind of.
Stuff, analytics right now. Because you don't need it. What you really need is sales. So I'm only going to take into account the sales portion of this because analytics is.
You don't need to be thinking about it right now.
So when I talk sales right now, maybe I'm saying it wrong, but what I'm saying is like the reason we don't like Amazon is because of like the SEO and like the all that stuff. That's not branding. Like that's not fun marketing. Okay.
None of that is analytics.
Okay, so maybe I'm just naming it wrong, but like the Amazon type of.
Stuff, this is, this is important because if you're naming it wrong, you could be hiring wrong. Do you want somebody to report on data or do you want somebody to get you fucking sales?
So the people that we've been talking to are very successful Amazon sellers that don't know how to do like the Ryan stuff, but they made a bunch of money on Amazon just being Amazon sellers, which I know is very poo pooed up on here.
That's fine. That is totally fine. I'm just saying analytics do not get you sales.
Yeah, I understand.
If you're hiring an analytics company, don't. Sales company, go for it.
Yeah, I don't know.
If you're looking for equity, what you need to do is carve out in your brain the amount that you are comfortable giving up to a pool of people.
And I would suggest that be a large amount if you're going to go the equity play versus the cash play. Even Trevor Blake says he only aims to keep 30% of a company.
Okay.
And then, and then you divvy that up based on performance investing schedules.
Okay.
Which means that yes, this sales agency could end up getting 25% of the company.
As long as it's 5% per year for five years.
Oh, that's good. I like that. It grows over time. I like that.
And you get to hold the option on whether or not it renews.
Okay.
I love it.
Thank you.
Make you sensey.
Totally. That's great.
Thank you.
Good.
Anything else?
No, not right now.
Good. It's good to see you, Paulina. You too. You're gonna kill it. Congratulations.
Thank you.
Happy New Year.
All right. See ya. You too. Valentin, who is referenced earlier. You ready to do this thing? Let's go. What's up, dude?
All good. All good. Your beard looks better than ever today.
Yeah, it's shorter than ever. Also used to have a long Bolshevik beard, but I.
Looks good. What can we do for you?
No, I'm. I'm at the same kind of spot. I'm trying to just let things sit, like, fall down a bit. I'm doing a bit too much. That's what I keep going back to working on what? Too many things at the same time. So just listening to everybody else just reminds me of the things I need to get out of the way.
Okay.
Not be focusing on. So I got some good brands going on.
My problem now is that I'm. I'm taking on some things I want to work with for the future. I'm getting a bit too excited, and I'm not setting up my team strong enough so I can move forward and. And be in the future. I'm hesitating on the hiring part. I'm kind of getting people in and VAs. And I'm. I'm just not getting it solid. Like a solid.
What's not solid?
I think it's me, of course.
For the.
The.
That's a. That's an illusory answer. What?
Yeah.
Part of all of it is not easy.
So the setting up the systems, I. I am about 75 there. And. And handing over. Here's what you need to be on back.
Back up, back up. The fact that you just said handing over the systems when you feel stuck means you're prioritizing the wrong thing. Okay, so what business are we talking about?
So I'm in right now? I'm in. Done for you. I have an agency, and I have a handful of clients. I'm not taking on more clients because I don't need more of that kind of work.
Because you're already busy.
I'm busy. And my goal is to move in towards having a team that is working on the brands and products that I have created.
And so that. What? So that you can take on more clients or. So that you can focus on a different business.
So I can focus on products and my brands only eventually.
Okay, yeah. So in other words, what you're saying is you're trying to systemize the business that you've got so that you can do the business that you want, correct.
Yes, 100%.
Why don't you just do the business that you want? Are you trying to systemize something that you don't want?
Yes, exactly. Is this. That's what I'm trying to figure out. I'm hesitating on.
I'm holding on to it because the current money is coming in from this. That's where I make my living. Right. So the fear is.
It'S saying no to the money. Pretty much say no to that money. I know the bigger money is in building brands and making the exit, and this is how I want to.
You don't have to say money. The what? You don't have to say no to the money. Why would you say no to the money?
No, but that's what I think. I'm.
I'm.
I'm hesitating on building the.
The team that's going.
You shouldn't build the team.
I should not build a team.
You should not build the team. You don't want this business. Drop that whole thing.
Yeah.
I just saved you your biggest point of stress.
Yeah.
You treat this business that you've got as your cash flow to support your life while you go build your brand, and then because now your time is limited, you just raise your prices 20%. So now your clients are actually worth it to spend the time on.
Yeah, I've done.
Client can't afford that, so you drop one. So now you have four clients instead of five. But you're making the same amount of money. You're not building a team, and you've got 20% more time.
So not building team. That's my question. So what I. What I'm. For the new products that I'm building, I need a team to be running my own brands. And to do that, that's the team that I'm actually.
Do you know what the. Do you know what that business is?
The new. The new product?
Yeah.
Yes, it is. Well, it's the pomade.
Right.
The hair care products, and it is the.
I recently partnered up with and working with somebody in the group. Matt Ohm, Hunting Grounds usa.
Yep.
So it's. It's part of the homesteading strategy I have for the future where I'm moving myself and my Family to a small.
What is Matt's role? What was it? What's Matt's role?
Well, Matt, he is the maintainer. He is the. He is the. The main owner of the company.
Right.
My role is.
Why the hell do you need to build a team, Valentin?
Yeah, I think, yeah, you don't need any of this. Yeah, well, running the Facebook ads, running, you know, doing the.
You don't need any of it right now is a product making at least $20,000 a month in sales.
No, not for the new.
Then why are you trying to do things that are come later? You're trying to build a massive team for a business that doesn't exist yet.
Well, the team is for the. The current clients.
Stop it. Yeah, you don't need that either.
Okay? We already solved that problem. That's your cash flow business. You don't want to keep that business.
Yes, but the cash flow. The reason why I can't get out of it is because I'm doing all of that stuff myself.
No, the reason that you can't get out of it is because you're trying to fix it. And you're trying to build a team around a broken business that you do not want. And so all of your mental energy is put into, how do I get out of this? I need a team. I need this. I need this. And so you start adding things to your to do list are for a business that does not matter to you. So you know what you do? You stop all of that and you just give your attention to your clients. You raise your fee 20%.
And you only take on the clients that are most exciting to you, while your attention and your excitement is driven by the other business, which you also do not have to build a team for, because that is your partner's job. So your brain says, what do I do with my extra time? What problems do I create? Your job then is to go get inspired, to go come up with the next breakthrough for one of the two companies.
You are vastly undervaluing your own inspiration on the businesses that you want to build. And you are overvaluing your own grind machine.
Going the amount of energy and thought process, as you said, fixing the broken business that I don't want to move into the future with or build is holding back. And I'm getting that 20 10%, you know, to work on what I truly love and get, I know.
Into the 70, I can churn out one or two businesses every, you know, other year.
Well, you don't want to do that either, because now you're just going to run into the same exact problem.
Yeah. Or add on, I guess, to the series of the things it is to.
Go get inspired enough for the next breakthrough for one of these businesses.
Okay.
So how long have you been trying.
To build a team?
It's been a while. And I'm not. That's the problem.
How good is your team.
There?
This is my point.
Yeah.
You're going to keep running into that challenge.
Yeah.
Because you are solving for the wrong thing you are trying to fix.
Which means you are what I call scaling unhappiness.
Yes.
I had this broken business. How do I give more my attention to this broken business so that one day it won't be broken anymore? And guess what? That rabbit hole has no bottom.
Doesn't.
It's a loop.
Yeah.
Yes.
Yeah, man.
Your literal job is to take your attention away from it.
Yeah.
And into what it is that you do like. Because this is my guess for you, Valentin, you actually like working with the clients. You actually like the work that you do. What you don't like is the trying to scale the business. That is your time to. And you know, because you know what that does? It makes you hate the clients. Yeah.
I've seen it happen with, with the motorcycle builders who used to love it. It turned into them just doing servicing for clients they didn't appreciate. Like, I hate motorcycles now. And it's, it's, it's trying. You know, it's, it's heartbreaking to see that happen. And I love branding. I absolutely love it. I love alignment, identity, going for. I love music and all that. You know, the fine tones, like everything just making sense. And I'm not doing it myself. I'm not going full in on my, my one thing. I'm working with things where I'm.
Yeah.
I, I like it. So a team.
It. I. It.
There it is.
I'm sorry.
You know, when you hire a team, you hire a team because things are going so well.
Yeah.
That you have to bring in somebody in order to keep you in the mode of loving it.
Yeah. And if you keep me in the branding part and you keep me in the visualizing and the. Let's create it.
Let's make it.
Let's get people excited. But the, oh, man. The marketing and the scaling and all this stuff that is, for me connected to. How do you say, monthly something that people are, hey, can you keep bringing me money in every month? Can you get me more leads, more clients on a monthly. It gets more. It's more security based. But I realized I can charge a lot more, which I'm doing. I have up to. I have up my prices because. And I charge 10 times more than I did before in recent years. And they're still paying. And chunks of projects are bringing in more money, which was before. Like, it's counter what I believed I had to do that. I had to become kind of like my own. So I became a slave and I became an employee for this broken system.
So. So instead of rehashing how you got here, your job is to stay focused on where you want to go, which is in the zone of branding.
Okay.
And freed up enough for you to go find the next breakthrough for both businesses.
Yeah.
That is your job.
Okay, fuck it, let's do it.
Good man.
I'm going in. I'll let it go. I'll let it go. I'll do it 20, 21. Let's just work.
Valentine.
I will do.
Thank you.
Good man. All right.
See ya.
The most common problem I see with entrepreneurs is trying to fix broken things rather than scale. What it is that you want me to. Took me several years to get. It's the only reason I can see it. You guys realize I could only comment on the things that I have struggled with in the past. And that's the case with all of us, everybody. We can only see and comment on the things that we recognize in ourselves. So I'm in that boat with you. Took me years to get that, Jeff. You get the last word. You got enough. You got enough breath power to be able to walk and talk at the same time. Let's go. What's up, Jeff?
How you doing?
Good, man. Good to see you.
Nice to see you too. All right, so I'll jump into this. I think this might actually be a short one.
So I am anxious to start the branding stuff. And, you know, I read the book and I'm kind of listening to it several times to make sure that I'm got that focus. The problem is that I am in the provisional patent thing. I need to fill that out. So I've got kind of like two things.
What is that provisional patent that you need to fill?
Oh, sorry. So I can't promote something that I want to patent because as soon as I put it in the public domain, can't patent it anymore. So I kind of have to stay mom until I filed that. It's going to take me a little. A little while because.
I want to run it by a patent attorney. So he helped me do some of the patent search. It's Going to be a little bit of time and right now I've got the time and I want to use it as productively as I can. So I'm working with an engineer to help me make it manufacturable and I am working on the provisional patent myself so that I can accelerate that process. But I can't build the brand stuff. But I've got a little bit of time and I want to use it productively. And so I'm trying to figure out what else can I do. Because right now, you know, pretty soon I'll.
Honest question, Jeff, why do you need the patent?
Because this hasn't been done before and I think it's a pretty enormous idea. In fact, I'm using it right, right now on the treadmill.
So. But it would be really easy to copy, right. So I would, I don't want to turn around and see Amazon, come back later and say, okay, here's the, here's our cheap ass version of it and you're screwed. Right? It's a good enough idea. And the specific.
I mean, it doesn't exist. I mean, I've done the patent search. It's very helpful. I think it's going to be a growing, growing market.
How long does this take to secure?
So technically I could just submit it. With provisional patents, they don't actually look at them. However, if you submit something that's garbage, when you then try to patent it later, if they invalidate it, then it's gone. So I think we're only talking a couple of weeks. I'm going to push this guy and I'm doing as much of the work and research as I can on my own. To just have them kind of like rubber stamp this and say, okay, yeah, this is good, but you know, if you don't write, if you don't reword this, it won't help you get the actual patent. Right.
So this is, this is my genuine advice. Submit it immediately.
And if you don't get it, launch without a patent.
Right. Okay. So with the provisional patent, what it does is it just sets a date, right. And then I have one year to apply get the real patent. No one at the patent office even looks at the provisional patent. So you have no idea if you've gotten it useful really or not. Right. The patents like the real one, that's one that takes a long time and a lot of money and you go back and forth on the claims and.
Blah, blah, blah, and you can be selling the whole time.
Yeah, exactly.
That's why you get the provisional patent. So you can write that on there. As soon as I get that, I can do the branding. I can go through everything that's in the book. We're not talking a massive amount of time, really, only talking a couple of weeks. It's just that I've got this narrow window where I'm sort of between gigs. I do consulting, and I just want to use it as productively as possible. Right.
Okay.
So I'm just trying to figure out what else could I be doing?
What else I'm doing is building relationships with the people who are going to buy the product when it's live. That can come in two ways. One, it's building your own list by either running ads or creating content or participating in Facebook groups or building up your list of 20 people that you might like to have and kind of your. Your network of people who are talking about it on launch day. Or number two, it is going out and finding the audiences and influencers that you might want to partner with when it comes time to launch.
Okay.
That is the groups of people who have enough reach to where you might be willing to give them five points in the company. And you tell them about your idea, and you show them that there's a patent pending, and you start to build that network. Those are the two things that you should be doing with your time right now. They're both made to solve the question of how do we take sales on launch day? How do we stack the deck so that as soon as this product is ready, we can take sales?
That's the question that you're answering right now.
Okay.
I guess I'll have to figure out. Is there a way to do that without being able to show them what it is? Right.
That's the thing. If you're. If it is determined that you put your invention out into the public domain before you've gotten your provisional patent, you lose it. You can't do it. That's the kind of. The blocker.
Right. Look, I just. I live by this philosophy, Jeff, of.
Not playing scared of, like, assuming that the best is gonna happen and going. That is my strategy. So, like, there's a bunch of Amazon sellers who tell me they don't talk about their niche because they're afraid of being ripped off. And I just think it's adorable.
It's like they really. You think I have nothing better to do than to look up your market and launch a similar business? So my opinion, you can be guarded with who you talk to, but go make the list of people you'd love to work with and go have conversations with. Go have private conversations with them. You don't need to be blasting all over their social media, but have private conversations with them.
Right? Yeah.
And you know what else you can do is you can absolutely talk about a brand that one of the products is this one that you're working on a patent for. So if it's at home fitness and one of the products is something that you use on is your special heart rate monitor that you're using on your treadmill and then you got four other products that serve that same target market, you can absolutely talk about the brand. And the other four that aren't pending a patent.
Yeah, well, those other four presently TBD right now.
I mean, that's a good thing. That's a good thing for you to think about in this six week all. Then what are those other.
Products?
Yep, definitely doing that some. I'm getting ideas that are sort of coming out of the work with the engineer, you know, because it's the formulation or the, the structure changes, the, the way it would work and you know, ancillary products that could kind of go with it are also evolving. So I'm not beating myself up too badly yet for not.
I mean, my advice, go submit it as soon as possible. I mean like within days of this conversation.
Yeah.
And to move forward as if it's done. Which means going out and having conversations with the people that you want to do business with or getting plugged into the audiences that will be hungry for this product on launch day and to start working on the other three to four products that are going to round out this brand. That's where I would spend this time. And that will line you up. So as soon as you're able to take a sale, you can take a sale.
All right. I see people commenting on the provisional patent thing. If anyone's got any particular vendors they love working with for contract manufacturing in lightweight metals and plastic, that'd be really helpful too, or whatever that's worth.
Cool. Post. Post in the group. There's somebody who's got a connection.
Okay, great.
All right, Jeff, good to meet you.
Thanks. Keep us posting, Ryan. Will do.
All right, my friends, this concludes our final Q and A of 2020. Congratulations on making it through a zany year. Just so you know, moving forward, these are now going to be private inside of the 1%. So if you're watching from the sidelines, you can join us@capitalism.com 1. So we will have some announcements about what that is going to look like coming to you in the next week or so. So stay tuned. Also, if you're ready to do this, like, ready to go full in on this, come join us inside the Capitalism incubator. That is where for a full year, you're working with myself and my team on your vision, on your capital, on your partnerships. And you're launching about four months from the beginning so that you have cash flow and revenue. We don't kid around. It is the time where you just go if you want in that. It's capitalism.com Inc. Happy new Year, everyone. Great to see you and we'll talk to you soon. Take care, everybody. Here's to a great 2021. Let's do it.
