Sean Riley - Co-Founder of Dude Wipes Speaks on Partnering with Mark Cuban and Growing to $100+ Million in Revenue

Welcome back to the Casey Adams show. Today I am joined by Sean Riley, the chief executive dude of Dude Products. Thanks so much. Coming to the show, Sean.

Yeah, Casey, thanks for having me, dude. Excited to be here.

Of course. So, you know, it's. It's been crazy to see how much you guys have grown over the years. I recently, shouldn't say recently, but just I think earlier this year I finally hopped on the dude wipes wave. And I will say, just not only game changer, but just seeing your product out there in the market, the way that you guys have really penetrated the toilet paper business and how you're killing that space has just been super cool to see. But for those that, for the people that may not be familiar with dude products, Sean, I'd love for you to give a. Just a quick high level overview of what it is that you guys have created.

Yeah, man, well, thanks. Thanks for coming on board. And that's what we always say since the beginning. It's just kind of one bot at a time for us, one wipe at a time. You know, we were, we were just some dudes in an apartment after college, drinking beers, eating burritos, you know, trying to think, how can we get out of the nine to five. We had our first paychecks and you know, we wanted to create something fun and different. And we really saw that there was a gap in the market. I was given bringing home a bunch of baby wipes from Sam's club to the apartment. And everyone was kind of quickly using them, getting hooked on them. And this is a place where we had, you know, five guys living there, another four on the couch, you know, a. Basically an animal house of sorts. And it became this like, funny conversation of like, why are we getting hooked on these baby wipes? And like, some guys had used them instead of toilet paper before, other guys hadn't. Why have we never had this conversation? And so that was like the initial aha, like idea moments, kind of like to call it of like the genesis of the product. Like, well, like, let's go look into these flushable wipes and how stale is this market? And toilet paper has never been disrupted. And so we started just researching and, and playing around with it. And then dude wipes was like the brand idea that was almost born right away too, was like, we need to have this fun brand, not only in toilet paper, but in our opinion, in most of like CPG consumer product goods. Like, people hadn't really come out and like authentically talked, like the way like you and your buddies would Talk behind closed doors. Yeah, and so that was another, like, real thing that we were hot on. And, you know, the brand was even cruder right out the gate, you know, basically 10 years ago when it came out, because it was just us putting whatever the hell we wanted on packaging and. Yeah, and all of that. But yeah, long story short, you know, we put our money where our mouth is, we throw $30,000 together, we buy our first round of dude wipes, you know, load them up into a spare bedroom. Four pallets kind of fill up the bedroom. No experience in E commerce or retail or anything like this. Just, you know, actualizing the idea was like the first goal and then it was like, all right, where do we go from here? You know, goal number one was launching and then, you know, goal number two was, was turning into a company and, you know, providing jobs and getting it out to customers. So from there we just said, all right, we gotta figure this shit out.

You know, I love that. That's so cool, man. Just knowing how that opportunity, how you guys saw that opportunity and then and went to dive into it, you know, what was, what was the timeframe from having that moment of like, wow, like, this is a, this is an industry that really hasn't been disrupted to getting those first four, four pallets. Like, how long was that timeframe?

I'd say it was probably close to two years, like 18 months or something like that from like, okay, like we want to do something and then, you know, when you're an early entrepreneur, you don't really know where to start. A lot of times we're like incorporating a company and like, looking at trademarks and, you know, then we got to a certain point where it was like, okay, product, product, product. Like, we gotta get the product developed and find a manufacturer. And, you know, that took a little bit of time because we weren't guys who had done this before or had investor money. So we kind of had to like, act like we knew our. And, you know, reach out to people on LinkedIn and, you know, calling phone calls to wet wipe manufacturers and just, you know, who's going to work with us? And. And we ended up developing just like a one page specification PDF that had like a Dude Wipes logo at the top, had how we wanted them individually wrapped, we wanted them bigger, we wanted them flushable, like all of our specs and that ended up like, looking professional enough to kind of get some people interested and then kind of just like anything. Like the one guy from a company who, you know, was going to take a Flyer on us was in Chicago. We're like, let's take you out for beers and pizza. Like, you know, getting to know somebody face to face and getting a passion across and like all of that. And then from there that guy was like, he kind of believed in us and the idea and he started going to bat at his manufacturer. Like, you know, we gotta, we gotta get something done for these dude wipes guys, because I think, I think they.

Could be on to something, you know, it's so cool. So you, you said it, it's been over 10 years correct. Since you guys started, is that right?

Yeah, yeah. We got product in like July of 2012.

Wow.

You know, and we probably sold like $10,000 worth that year, like literally out of the trunk of our car. And, you know, couple wholesalers, couple local stores and stuff. So then, yeah, 2013 was our first, you know, full year in business.

Got it. That's so cool. So when did you guys ended up going on Shark Tank? You got a deal with Mark Cuban. How did that opportunity line up? When was that? And just what was the business before going on Shark Tank?

Yeah, so, you know, Shark Tank was just one of those things like it, you're an entrepreneur and you know, especially 10 years ago, it was like, gotta get on Shark Tank.

Right?

It's just kind of like a dream. So we applied like our first year in business and obviously we had basically no sales and like we got turned down. Then we applied our second year in business and we had, you know, a couple hundred thousand dollars worth of sales. We were making a little progress. We got pretty far with the producers and then, you know, they kind of basically each week, if they call you at the end of the week, it means you made it to the next. So we made it like four or five weeks and then we stopped getting the calls and shoot, we didn't make it. So then the third year we applied and, you know, the story was continuing to grow. We had just gotten confirmation that we were going to get into our first store, which was Kroger. So kind of like by that year we were actually fairly confident we were going to get on the show because we were like right in that sweet spot, about to have our first million dollar year, you know, fun brand, it would make good tv, fun topic, all of that. Innovative, disruptive. And so we go through all the rounds and you finally get the call out to la where they're like, you know, you guys made it, you're going to be shooting on this weekend, you know, come on out. So that was in the summer of 2015. So you call it, like, about three years into the journey, not quite that we made it onto the show and shot our show in front of the Sharks and went through that whole deal.

So cool. And I remember reading somewhere, you guys are like, one of the top deals on the show when it comes to revenue numbers. Isn't that right?

Yeah, yeah, for sure. We're in that top echelon right now of, like, Scrub Daddy and Dude Wipes. You know, those are some of the products that are selling the most right now. You know, Ring was on there as well, which was more like a venture, you know, backed kind of thing, and then they got bought by Amazon. But, like, you know, we see ourselves as like, that true Shark Tank. Like, yeah, American dream story, you know, just trying to make it, Trying to get a deal with a shark. And now it's fun because we've gone back on updates and stuff, and, like, we can tell that story, like, hey, we came into the Shark Tank, you know, with $300,000 in sales. We were, you know, hoping to do 1.5 million that year. Made a deal with Mark, did all that stuff, but, you know, now we're selling over $100 million worth of dude wipes a year, you know, seven years later.

So, yeah, you can do it, too.

Sort of vibes, like, yeah, absolutely. We were those guys fighting and dreaming early on.

Yeah, it's so cool. Like, a couple of dudes in their bedroom see this opportunity. It's, you know, funny, cool, but a market. And then just seeing how much you guys have grown is so incredible. But I want to talk about not only the Shark Tank deal, but how it's been working with Mark Cuban. Right. As someone that's watched Shark Tank for so long and so many people listening to the show, I'm sure they've watched Shark Tank as well. You see a deal happen, you're happy for the founder on the show. They then, boom. Like, now they got to go figure it out. And you have this incredible entrepreneur, like one of the Sharks, on your team. What was that transition process like after the show, working with Mark, and how much of a difference did it make to the business during that early stage?

Yeah, so early on, you know, it's super impactful because, you know, a lot of these sharks like Mark, like, they also have a team who can, like, do some tactical things, like, you know, look at your website or, hey, guys, we got to get this accounting more in order. And they just, you know, can help out from there. But Immediately, you know, you kind of have access to Mark, right? And Mark's seen a business go from, you know, 500,000 to 5 million to 50 million to 500 million to 5 billion. He's kind of seen every stage. So what's been interesting for us is, like, the, you know, the advice Mark has given us early on is to help us out as early entrepreneurs. And. And one of them was don't drown an opportunity. So, like, when you are an early entrepreneur trying to make your first couple million, it's like you're, like, gasping for air. Like, you're just trying to make sales, you're trying to grow, You're. You're trying to do anything and everything. And there's almost kind of like a frantic energy about it where you're trying to do too much. And, you know, Mark was real good at those early days and, like, focusing us and seeing. Saying, like, guys, you just got into these 200 stores, like, why don't you go kick ass in these 200 stores instead of worrying about the next group of stores and, like, really being patient about controlling the growth and focusing and, like, winning where your feet are instead of trying to be everywhere at once. And so that was some things that helped us early on, like, let's win here, then go get another win. Then go get another win. And when you look at the story of our company, you know, like, been around for 10 years and all that, like, that's what it is. It's like this organic slope of, like, controlled growth, and it all builds on each other. And then you have a really big company, like today. But it's been because of, like, that focus, controlled mindset. So, you know, that was super important early on. And then as we grew and we're looking at things like, hey, Mark, should we raise money right now? You know, like, we're growing. We can do this. Mark's like, well, you know, do you need it? You guys are growing organically. Okay. You know, if I were you, I would hire smart people instead of selling more equity. And. Yeah, and so, like, pieces of advice like that along the way, like, helped us. You know, Mark is our only investor to date.

That's so cool.

Yeah.

Wow. So you guys have never raised capital outside of Shark Tank deal Now just. Wow.

And. And we, you know, you know, Mark's guidance kind of helped us not be too impatient where it's like, hey, we need capital. You know, Mark's kind of thing was like, well, if it's working, just be patient, you know, and that is. Has really helped us kind of grow. And yeah, we're kind of in this unheard of position where we haven't raised capital and we've been able to scale and grow and get into places like Walmart and Target. Kroger had this huge distribution, but it because like we took our time and you know, had a really cool mentor and smart guy obviously along the way to kind of help us with each challenge and now we're this bigger company. But you know, Mark can give us advice on how to get to the next level. And so yeah, it's been a cool relationship, a great mentor to have in our corner and has helped us, you know, really not have to go venture capital, private equity, you know, route until now.

That's so cool to hear, like knowing that you guys haven't raised, you've had that mentor in your corner and you guys have just sustained and grown over the years. Congrats to you guys. For sure.

Yeah, for sure, man. Thank you.

Of course. So when it comes to the business now and just getting to the point where you guys are, I absolutely love what you guys do on Social. You guys have built such an incredible brand. That just speaks to the success of the company. Right. People aren't just going to buy another, you know, wet wipes, right. Like they feel, and as a consumer myself of the product, you feel connected with the brand. And as a man, it's like, oh, dude wipes. You share it with your friends, you tell your boys about it, they come over like it's a very organically shareable product in my personal experience. Right. Especially your friends over they go to the bathroom, oh, what is this? Right? So I would love to hear from, from you, like when was that? Not that, not one moment. But distribution channel wise, direct to consumer getting into stores. Like, when did you guys really start to feel that growth and how has Social played a part in the growth of the company when it comes to the direct to consumer angle?

Yeah. So you know, like kind of that word of mouth, dudes talking about dude wipes. Like that was what always kept us going in the early days. Like we had these little packets of dude wipes. Our first product ever was just a little condom size one you put in your wallet. And that was kind of the innovation. Like this guy can have a fresh ass anywhere he goes, the bar, the office, whatever. But we even used to just like put a box out in a bar and just like sit on the other side and watch people take them out and pass them out and see people laughing and joking and Smiling. And so, like, we're always like, wow, like this product, when it gets in people's hands, like, they talk about it. So, like, that's the old school social media, like, word of mouth still is everything. Right. But it gets really amplified on social now because you go post that online and, you know, you follow dude wipes. And we're saying funny things about going to the bathroom. So, like, we've always been very big on that, like, community with online social. But also, like just getting the product into people's hands because it does do something different for you, get you cleaner. It kind of has that product habit, like hook you want to talk about and then you layer on the fun brand on top of it. And like, they kind of both work like magic together. But I always say, like, you gotta have both. Like, no fun brand can stand on any legs if it doesn't have great product.

Yep.

And if you have great product but you don't have like a, you know, good brand on top of it, not as many people are gonna know about it. So that's like the ultimate combo is like, great brand, great product. And Amazon was like our first channel that really started to blow up for us. So that was the channel where it was like, we're getting all these reviews, we're getting these repeat buyers. You know, it keeps growing and growing. And that's where we were able to sit in front of someone like Kroger, which was our first toilet paper deal. So it was like, you know, two years into the business. Finally we get in front of a toilet paper buyer, which was like our super bowl moment, you know, like, do you want to buy dude wipes? You know, and the reason that he wanted to take a gamble on us is because he saw online and everything we were doing on social was working. So, you know, take, take your time. Building a business on the Internet before you go to retail is always my advice, because you can build up that social proof and that sales proof and then you can bring it to a store and get them to say yes. And then once you bring it to the store, kind of like what I was talking about earlier with Mark, like, don't go worry about the next store. Like, go win in that store, because you might lose in that store and you might understand, like, oh, I need to change something. This packaging needs to change, this price point needs to change. So, like, you know, win and then step up, win again. But we're always kind of like monitoring those failures and those tweaks and, and go into the next level.

Absolutely. No, that's. That's so cool to hear. And speaking of failures and just pivots in the company, I remember reading, and it kind of plays into Mark's advice where he just talked about, like, sticking to what works. And I remember reading how you guys not necessarily made a pivot, but different product categories, whether that's deodorant or different products, then the deodorant. Deodorant one specifically, you guys ended up shutting down, if I'm not mistaken.

What.

What have you guys learned from testing different product lines? Some of the. The hardships of learning that. And what do you recommend to founders that are looking to. Yes, like, try different things, but you don't want to do too much, especially if something is working, like you said before. So we'd love to dive into that experience and really hear, like, what the. The biggest piece of advice would be for founders looking to do that. But, you know, sometimes it's not the best. Best idea. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, my biggest piece of advice, which kind of, like, you alluded to, we haven't always followed, is just focus. So, like, if you're winning on something in a category, just, like, focus on it and continue to grow that category and kind of be the category king. So. And you see, like, all these examples over time, like when Coors Light comes out with a Coors Seltzer because everyone's making hard seltzers. It gets discontinued in 10.

Yeah.

Because guess what? People want to buy light beer from that brand, you know, and that's why White Claw is going to go and win that seltzer battle, because they are inherently a seltzer brand, and they can build on that equity and be the king in that category. So, like, the only time I'd recommend, like, pivoting or expanding is if, like, the girl that brought you to the dance, you know, like, the category, the thing you did out the gate is stopping. You know, the growth is stopping. And then so you got to kind of understand, okay, like, this growth is slowing down. How do we expand? What else can we do? But where we got over a little over our skis was Dude Wipes was growing, so the growth wasn't slowing on Dude Wipes. And we said, well, the power of this dude brand. Why don't we go and, you know, get a deodorant line out and kind of, like, expand into men's grooming? Which sounds like a good idea, right?

For sure.

You know, like, until you actually get into it. And then it's like, wait, I'm Fighting a war with toilet paper, this multi billion dollar conglomerate, and try to innovate. And now I want to go try and fight a war with AX and Old Spice, too. Like, we don't have the liberty of all that capital and energy to be, you know, going on those divided fronts. So, you know, we kind of quickly realized, and this wasn't. The products were, like, selling, but we kind of quickly realized, like, all of our time needs to be spent doing, you know, the entire idea that in the apartment. You know, that got us here. So that was a valuable lesson. But, like, I would do it again at the same time, because failing at that has taught us that lesson, like, galvanized it into us. And, you know, when we were bantering about it with Mark, his kind of thing was, well, if you guys never did that, I think you'd always be asking yourself, what if?

Yeah.

And, like, for sure, plenty of smart people who would recommend our brand still does that today. Like, hey, you guys need to, like, do things stuff. So there's like, two trains of thought, and they call it, like a core brand, where you're focused on a core or a platform brand where you're kind of platforming out and doing a bunch of things. And we are a core brand, but without sort of failing at, you know, looking at some of the platform stuff. We might have always been asking, what if? So I honestly like, that we failed and that we did it a couple years ago, three years ago or so, because now we kind of, like, are tempted to do it again.

I love that, like, speaking about the failures, I learned so much from that. Just hearing how you got, you can really tell you. You really. You went through that experience. And I want to talk about just lessons, and I notice you have some bullet points behind you on the wall. The dudeness is the magic. Have fun, work hard, be a good dude. Couple of these mottos of the brand, it seems. What are some of the core values that you believe have made the brand become such a brand? Right. It says the dudeness is the magic. I would love to just have you expand on that on why some of those bullet points are behind you and really what they mean to you and the company overall.

Yeah, no, it's a great question, man. So these are, like, the dude values behind us. And so we had some. Some very smart people, you know, tell us early on, like, you need to create values for your company when you get started, because that's, like, what makes you guys unique. And then as you grow and bring on people, it's Very clear. Like, hey, this is the values for working at this company. You know, this is the values for this brand. And like, we kind of hire and fire by those. Like, either, like, you know, you're with this and. And you're going to like this or you don't, which is all well and good, but it really helps, like, keep everybody focused and, like, on the same mission. And. And when we say the dudeness is the magic, that is a value about our brand. So, like, that's the one thing no one can ever take away from us is Dude Wipes and the dude brand. People can come out with black packs of wipes and they have and call them, you know, bro wipes and stuff like that. Like, we can't stop people from doing anything but knocking off our brand. Like, our brand is like, what we own and, and what we did uniquely to talk to people and, like, encourage those fun conversations with your buddy and be blunt about shit jokes and share fun things on Instagram. And, you know, kind of our irreverent David versus Goliath sort of story is. Is the only thing people can't take away from us. So, like, totally new people come on board. Like, that's what we clearly explained to them. Like, when it comes to the brand, we need to do a lot of other things. Well, when it comes to the brand, like, the dudeness is the magic and that's what we have to stay true to and not get too bland or too watered down. Yeah, that's what we always have to appreciate.

You know, I love that. Have the core values changed at all over time or have they remained the same since the inception of the company?

They are the same since 2013 when we made them.

That's awesome.

So we're not adverse to, like, changing them. Like, people say, you know, don't visit your values often, but check out, check in with them every, you know, one to two years and see if something needs to be, you know, added or subtracted. But no. Yeah, same one.

That's awesome.

And kind of like when we were talking about, like, the failures and stuff, our one is the like, learn, improve, perfect, repeat. So, like, that's sort of that infinite cycle of, like, it being okay to fail and it. You want to learn something from it and the work is never done. And like, the Dude Wipes product is never perfect. Like, just because it's selling like hotcakes now we have to understand, like, what's the next best packaging technology or the next best flushability thing, or, like, how can we be the Best at this and always learning. And. And you could take that to every, like, department, you know, in your company and just kind of. That always learning. It being okay to fail is something like we're big on here because that's something that bigger companies have a hard time doing. They have a hard time like failing and letting people cut their teeth and, you know, resting on their laurels and stuff. So there's a few things when you're like the underdogs in these big industries, they really start to realize, like, oh, wow, these, these are things we need to hold on to because if we start to lose them, we lose our competitive advantage versus, you know, Georgia Pacific, who totally sells billions of dollars worth of paper products and stuff like that, you know.

Absolutely. And you said something of like, flush ability. And I wanted to dive into that because, you know, thinking about the product as consumer, it's simple product, dude wipes. Very simple. Right. You're not building rockets over here. But. But there's so much innovation in what you guys have done, the branding. But what has been some of the challenges and just the learning, I would say, like the learning curves of creating a product such as dude wipes, as you said, flushability, all the key things that can make the product better, or just speaking to the innovation and how you guys think about it long term. I'd love to hear your thoughts on that because I've never, you know, I'm not in this industry and just hearing you talk about it just really gets me curious about how the team thinks about innovation, flushability, as you said, and just the product itself.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, we're trying to always think of ourselves as like, best in class innovators of this category. And so against toilet paper, we are innovative. Right? Like, we do the job better than toilet paper. And so that's what people really care about. And I think that's what you always want to remind yourself of, like, do you do the job better for somebody? And that's like the old, you know, innovation thing from, like, the Harvard dude, you know, is talking about, like, do you do a job better? And if you do a job better, the customer will rehire you to do it again. And so, like, that's how you have to, like, look at your product, like, down and dirty, serving the customer. And so for us, it's like, how can we offer you, you know, an individual wipe that can go on your pocket so we can go anywhere with you? How can we offer you, you know, we have extra large wipes. So that was always Our thing out the gate, like, ours are bigger. Yeah, Dudes are bigger. We got messier shits, you know, like, we need bigger wipes.

Yeah.

So, like, you know, bigger was a big thing and. And just better. Right. Like, when you say flushability, it's like that has evolved every year since we've been in business. And, you know, there's new technology coming out that works better. And so we want to continuously, like, be on the bleeding edge of all of that stuff. And, like, what plastic is coming out that's more recyclable, you know, we launched a Dude Wipes Mint Chill, you know, in like, 2018 and, like, 2018, 2019, and that was our first scented product that gave you this, like, chill, cooling feeling. And that took off like crazy. And, you know, so we very quickly realized, oh, this is something people wanted from us. And so listening to the customer is, like, where it all starts. Not like the magazines or the research, whatever. Just like DMS emails. Like, people will tell you what they don't like and what they do. Like, and just filtering that in and then, you know, thinking of that when you're innovating, that's key. And people are going to say things too, like, come out with do deodorant. Like, people are going to say, like, ideas that don't make sense as a business owner. Yeah, but you're going to get those key nuggets where someone's like, hey, I use dude wipes all the time. I really wish you could do this or you could do that. And sometimes it'd be one thing you hear from a customer that all of a sudden spins out and, like, this is our next R and D thing. Like, they're right. You know what I mean? So, yeah, ear to the ground at all times, you know?

Totally. I would love to pivot the conversation and chat more about personal life. Right before we started this podcast, we were jamming about cold plunges and how we both did this lake ice plunge. Very dude things, right? What? Outside of work, where do you spend your time? And, you know, what's it been like building a business? And how have you not. I don't like the work life balance type of phrase, but how do you separate work life, personal life, and especially when you're in a business that's growing so quickly.

Yeah, I mean, yeah, the work life balance thing can be tough for an entrepreneur, I think, in a good way. For me, like, it's all just life, right?

Yeah, for sure.

I'm living. I'm thinking about Dude Wipes. Someone wants to, you know, talk to me at a party about them. Like, you know, you're kind of always just, like, in that zone and. And, you know, thinking of it and. And that's because, like, if you love what you do, like, it should just be life.

Yeah.

So. But. But at the same time, as a company grows and there becomes a lot of responsibilities, you do have to, like, prioritize, you know, your physical and your mental health and stuff like that on a regular basis. So I think that was a learning I had, you know, early on was like, you know, waking up first thing in the morning, hitting the computer, you know, grinding all day, going to bed, doing it all over again, you know, not even stepping out to get some fresh air or, you know, go to the gym or something. And. And very early on, I realized, hey, like, you have plenty of time in the day. You know, you need to, like, prioritize some. Some physical things and. And mental wellness and stuff into your day. So I think that's definitely a key component. Like, give yourself that time to unplug and don't just get, like, lost in the grind of it. Like, you have plenty of time. You're an entrepreneur. You're always going to be on anyways.

Yeah, for sure.

But make sure and that honestly can feel like a job. Right? Like, you don't want to jump in that cold lake. Like, it's cold.

You know what I mean?

You don't want to show up to the gym every day, you know, because, like, sometimes you just don't feel like it. So that is, like, super important. Kind of like, mental callousing stuff to get over is like, hey, this is just something, like, I have to structure into my life to kind of balance things out. And that's why the cold plunge is such, like, a cool sort of, like, thing to do, because it's just like, it's a challenge of something you really don't want to do.

Yeah.

You know, you made it look very chill coming out of there with a cup of coffee. I was like, man, this dude's fucking cold, you know, like, oh, my God. Coming out of there, no worries. But, you know, when it first gets in there, you don't want to get in there.

Yeah, not. Not one bit. I wanted to ask as well, is the cold plunge something you do often? Because I can speak for myself. I've had a cold plunge here in my home for the past, like, three and a half months now, and. And it's just become such a daily part of a part of my day. It's the first thing I do when I wake up or sometimes after the gym. But it's really, you know, centered me on do the hard things. And it's helped work into that in life and in business outside of just the cold plunge itself. But would love to hear about your experience with that. Is this something you do often or is it just something you, you do periodically?

No, pretty often.

Yeah.

I forgot when I first started doing it maybe like three years ago or something. Went to like one of those like wim HOF training things you can go to that come to like different cities and where you like learn the breathing and then you got to do the ice bath test at the end. So yeah, I'm pretty much like if, if I, when I'm at the gym, it's like the cold shower, sauna, like do that combo after the gym and then when I'm at my lake house in the winter, jump in there after the runs and just get that, that natural freezing, you know, cold. But yeah, yeah. I live in an apartment in Chicago so don't quite have the cold bath at home yet. But I, I do it all, you know, when I'm at the gym. Every day for sure.

Yeah. You know what, I have some days.

Just like, man, I don't feel like I'm gonna take a hot shower today, you know.

Totally.

But I would say most days in first to challenge myself to do it.

I love that also too. I, I live in an apartment here in la. I have one on my balcony. So I, I, I keep it, you know, it's a good spot for it. Very cool. When it comes to the future of dude wipes, dude products as a company where like, what do you think about what, what keeps you up at night and where do you spend your time when it comes to the future of the business?

Yeah. So, you know, the future of the business is just what we've learned is doubling down on what we're doing. So this year we approximately have hit like 1% of the 12 billion dollar U. S toilet paper sales. So like, you know, we're always very simply able to frame it up to people. Like the next goal is 2% so we can double the size of this company and we'll get there. You know what I mean? Like what, Once you've done all this growth, it's like that seems very attainable. So now how are we going to get there? It is the customer. At the end of the day, it's sort of that Jeff Bezos mentality. You just need to be Obsessed with the customer and serving them better and doing everything for them better. Whether that's product, we have to offer the best prices we can just because we're premium. We always have to be looking to make it more economical for them. And then it comes down to like the team, you know, and the values. Behind me is like building the team, making sure that the values are upheld. As you get more people internally, working at the company has been another challenge that becomes super important because now my job is to like sometimes just get out of the way, right?

Yep.

Bring in smart people to run departments and stop wearing so many hats. And so that's a journey you're going to take as an entrepreneur. If you go from, you know, 0 to 100 million, like you're going to go from doing everything yourself to trying to do less and less yourself. And that like definitely involves like letting go of the ego and letting go of like the control that like you need to do everything. Like no, like people are going to be better at doing things than you and like your job is to kind of find those people.

Absolutely. What, where do you spend your time on a daily basis in the business? I know, you know we're talking about this idea of delegating and hiring great people. Is majority of your time spent doing that or how does it divvy up when it comes to, you know, your day to day at Dude Wipes and in the business?

Yeah, I kind of did something a couple years ago which I've been tweaking but it's like to me it's more week to week. So like having things like on Mondays, like let's check in with like you know, the operations team and you know, make sure everything's going good there. On Tuesdays let's go review all the sales and the issues at the big customers. So what happened at Walmart last week? What happened at Amazon? You know, on Wednesday let's talk innovation and with the manufacturing team and you know, on Fridays I try and leave pretty open for stuff like this and you know, make some sales follow ups and everything. But you know, broadly I'm focused on the sales, you know, the innovation and the team and you know, wearing a lot less hats than I used to but like that helped me especially when you used to wear a ton more hats. I had to be like, Monday is for this, Tuesdays, yes, Wednesday is for that. But having the same day to day is kind of tough when you're, you know, A, doing everything or B, when you're like a CEO or executive I kind of like to break it out week to week.

Yeah, that's awesome. As we wrap up this pod here, a couple more questions that I want to ask. If you were to go back to the beginning of Dude Wipes, what would you tell yourself when it comes to the hurdles that you've run into, the, you know, the challenges, the failures. What would you tell yourself about the business as you were starting out and why?

Yeah, no, it's a good question. I think it's, you know, appreciate those failures more that you're learning so much from them and don't get so stressed out or bogged down, you know, by the failures and, you know, just be a little bit more patient in the journey because like I said, that is. That is the toughest part about that. Early entrepreneurship is like that. Are we gonna live to fight another day?

Yeah.

And, you know, there's kind of a beauty in that too. Like, you get a lot of done when you're worried about living another day. You know, like, it's so. So there's a beauty in that, but you just want to balance it with like, you know, the self belief and the confidence and the patience to just keep working on it and everything will work out. And, and that's something I've always kind of told myself. But looking back on it, you know, you realize you. You fully didn't believe it. And that's what kind of everyone tells you to do in the early days. Like, hey, man, like, you're doing great. This is interesting. You just gotta, like, keep going and believe in it. But like, those two years feel like a hell of a long time, you know, when you're just living day by day and week by week and figuring out all these lessons in real time. So like, the older me would come back to the younger me and just reinforce that, like that confidence and that belief, you know, in yourself.

Totally. That's really, really good advice. And I want to end on this conversation that you briefly touched on just talking about mental health and just daily habits. What keeps you aligned? And what are some daily habits that you've adopted over time that have helped you become a better man, a better founder, a better leader in the organization. And are there people that have influenced some of these habits or beliefs that, you know, you'd want to point to as mentors in your life?

Yeah, for sure. I mean, in terms of like, people on social media following, like guys like Ed Mylet or Jesse or Wim Hof, like, those are people, like, I followed and like, subscribed to Some of their programs and stuff like that who are just like teaching these really powerful like life lessons and physical lessons and emotional lessons. And so, you know, there's so many good people out there and so much information. Like, yeah, find, find some people, you know, who have been there, done that, you know, are older than you and, you know, can kind of give you some of that advice along the way. So those have just been, you know, great people to follow that. I've learned a lot from the Jesse Itzler. I buy his like big wall size calendar, five day calendar.

Yep.

Last year was the first year I did that. Absolutely loved it. Helped me make sure I'm prioritizing other things in my life. You know, what am I going to do with my family, what am I going to do with my friends, what am I going to do with my son? What am I going to do with my wife? Like, you know, putting all of that down in a yearly calendar was like a recent sort of evolution I went through where it's like, okay, I'll always do this now.

Yeah.

So it's like every year we're all finding these things that it's like, oh, this helps me grow. And so it's like just being challenged and doing different things every year, you know, is huge for growth and, but, but the habits wise, I mean, like I said, just like you got to prioritize some sort of physical activity. You know, to me that's almost number one. But then after two, you know, it's like a meditation practice or, you know, these days there's so many good like life coach therapists out there, you know, that you can hire and somebody to like mentally check in with once a week, an accountability partner and help you develop emotional intelligence. Because that's what you're going to find as this, as this whole thing progresses. Like, it's EQ over iq. Like, you know, the emotional intelligence is where you see people win. You know, I'm not the smartest guy in the world by any means. I went to a shitty college in the Midwest. Like, you know, but now it's like, oh, you know, this guy's so successful and all that. And really I owe that to being more emotionally intelligent and of course, like learning and knowing about my industry. But you're going to have to handle a lot of highs and lows, you know, and you want to, you want to stay even. You don't want to get too high on those highs and too low on those lows because you'll be swinging all over the place. And that's where just like habits that revolve around physical and mental health will help you. And that's just what it is. It's those habits. And it could be running, it could be weightlifting, it could be yoga, it could be meditation. It's just finding what works for you and then, you know, not being afraid to change too. Like one year you might be trying to run a marathon and stuff like that too. But it's like just those daily things you do to center yourself.

I love that. And speaking of starting something, 2023 just started. It's January 6th of this recording and to wrap up, I want to ask you, what are you excited about for this year? And of course, where's the best place for people to stay up to date about dude products, dude wipes and the brand overall?

Yeah. So brand overall. Follow us. Dude wipes like Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, you know, we're super active there. I'm Pretty active on LinkedIn if you want to follow me there. And then, you know what we're excited about this year is we are going to be doing some like, bright, broad scale advertising. So that's kind of like a new frontier for us where, you know, we hired our first advertising agency.

Nice.

Where we're gonna be running like cool media. So you're gonna like see us on TV more. And honestly, we're super excited about like the fun creative that we're going to come out with. And just, you know, we like spreading the dude wipes word because it's like, like fun and it like uplifts people and it's goofy and like the end of the day, that's what kind of, you know, gets everybody off around here is like we're spreading positivity and fun.

Yeah.

And we're doing it through a way of like offering you a better way to go to the bathroom and all that. Like, you know, the product works. But like whenever we can do something really fun and like make people laugh in like a mass way, like, who wouldn't, you know, that they feel good.

Totally.

And we have some like aspirations to go bigger on that this year. So, like excited about that for sure.

I cannot wait. You know, as a consumer, and I said this in the beginning, I love what you guys do on social. So I'm looking forward to seeing what's to come this year. And I'll be sure to link all the links down below on social LinkedIn so that everyone listening or watching can check that out. But with that being said, Sean, I want to say thank you so much for your time today. I really appreciate your time and just for coming on the show. So thank you for that. And I'm looking forward to staying connected with the brand and seeing what you guys do in the years to come.

No, yeah, man. It was a blast. Appreciate you supporting Dude Wipes and appreciate you putting all this content out, because I'm sure in the same way we're trying to spread fun and everything, like, you're obviously spreading a lot of knowledge, and you probably don't even know how many people you know your interviews. So, yeah, kudos to you, bro.

Thank you so much.