Rethinking Product Launch Strategy To Create Success By Design With Tracy Hazzard From The Dr. Nilda Show With Dr. Nilda Perez

Welcome.

You are here with Dr. Nilda Perez with Business Foresight, creating strategies towards your extraordinary future.

Hello, and welcome Back to the Dr. Mildew business foresight show. Today I have another fabulous guest. I'm very excited. You know, one of the things that they do is, is that I really go out of my way to find I'm constantly scoping out people who are creative and innovative to bring you those people and to show you all the things that you can do. And today I have with me Tracy Hazard. Tracy Hazard is an ink columnist, but she's also a product strategist. She has a bachelor's in textile design, but she's taken that degree so much further. She holds 37 patents, design patents, and she has an unprecedented 86% success rate, which is pretty good. For over 25 years, Tracy has been pushing businesses to rethink their product lines as a strategy. Design in success, build success and increase revenues. So with me today is Tracy.

Thank you for having me.

It's so awesome having you here in beautiful Florida. It's so nice. The weather's so perfect here. I know.

It's been a great day.

Yeah, it's been a great day. So I just came back from the beach, so if I'm a little loopy.

That'S the reason why I just had dinner. So.

Yep.

So tell me, what are the three keys to success when launching a new product? Because products are one of those things that, you know, we all have an idea and we all think we're inventors. I've come up with some pretty good ones myself. But how do you do a successful launch?

So 7 out of 10 consumer products fail. So. And I'm in the consumer product world. This isn't just like business to business. Which business to business. Products tend to do better. Industrial products do better. So there's better track record, track record there. But seven out of 10 consumer products fail on in mass market. So Walmart, Target, Amazon, all of those places, they fail 14 out of 15 at HSN, QVC. So that home shopping Network, you'd think they'd be successful because you got somebody up there pitching it, right. Shouldn't they be better at it? They fail 14 out of 15 times. And that's from their best pitch man who gave me that number. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that crazy? Right? And so to me, those are gambling odds. Like, why would I do that? Why would I go into a business that had gambling odds? Like, that's terrible. So we said, well, what are we gonna do about this? We need to be successful. I mean, how are we gonna be, how are we gonna be any good at our jobs? How are we gonna serve our clients? If we are, we have those kind of odds. So we said, okay, well, let's really analyze the products that do really well in the marketplace and the successes we've had in the past and our clients have had and see if we can find a similar, you know, anything similar about them. So we studied them really hard and we came up with three things that work. And it's doing the right things in the right order with the right resources. And I know that sounds like super simple, like why wouldn't you do things in the right order? But it happens so often that inventors get themselves out of order. Like you start prototyping because you think you're an engineer and you just have a lot of fun over there or you want to go make it in your garage. And so when you start there in that wrong part of the process, then you have to redo and redo and redo. And the length of time things take to get to market, you tend to risk failure at that because there's a speed to market necessity in the consumer product world. So that's where some things started falling apart. So we started looking at and saying, okay, well, what is the right order? What works? And the crazy part is, is that it doesn't work to have the product first, it works to have the market proof first. So is there a fit between the market that I have access to if you're already in business? So if you already have a company and you're servicing a particular market area, let's say it's teen girls or something like that, okay, I have access to teen girls. That's a fantastic market to be in. But what if the product I want to introduce, I want to diversify my market. So let me go for, you know, 50 year old women thinking that, oh, well, they buy for teen girls, so they're going to be our market too. It doesn't work like that. You have to go with the market you have today and say, what else fits that market? What else do they want to buy and where can that fit? And you have a better likelihood for.

Success because that's when the tax, that's where you're testing. You need to have that audience already. You can't start building that audience.

Well, you can go that way, okay, so you can go building an audience to check, but it costs more, it costs more to access that market. So what you want to do at that stage is you want to build more market proof. So this happens so often. People come to me and they're like, I want to get seed capital and no one will invest in my idea. And I'll say, well, where's your proof that it works? Where's your proof that the dogs will eat the dog food? Because even in that world, right, we want to know somebody. If I invest in you, is somebody going to buy it? Is somebody going to use that app? Is somebody going to buy your product? Whatever it is, I want to know that there's a market for it or I wouldn't invest in it. And so if they won't invest in it, why should you be investing your own money in it in those early stages? So we work really hard. When we don't know if we have a market for something yet, but we have a cool product idea, we work hard to test that market in the lowest cost way possible to see if we can do it. Lots of companies beta test. You've heard of beta testing, I'm sure, right? You beta test. But you must beta test with the best possible fit for your market. So often people think, oh, Kickstarter, great beta testing, right? I'll see if there's a market. I'll go on Kickstarter. That's terrible. If you intend to sell in Target tomorrow. So if your future is to sell in Target, Target is 85 to 90% women shoppers. Kickstarter is 70%, 25 years or younger, male, with no money.

So if they pick your product and they say, yay, it's a Kickstarter success, it's likely to be a huge Target failure later. Right? So you have to market to and get market proof with the market you intend to go after. So finding a fit for that. So my best way is like, let's say you're gonna make juvenile products or teen products. Go for where those moms are, go for where those teens are. Go find them. It's easy to find little groups of meetups, whatever it is that you can do, and say, what do you think of our product? Would you buy it? Would you pay for this? What if it was this color? You know, test it, everything about it and get some data.

And when you say test, you know, does that mean your friends and family?

No.

Good question.

And is it? And is it? Or is it, you know, five or ten people?

No, no.

You see?

Yeah. No, no. And it can be in the early days, right? Because you, you know, at some point you're going to have to make A prototype. And you're going to have to spend some money to do some of those things. So in the early days you could do five or 10 people, but they must be in that demographic and psychographic of who you want. And they must. And you don't want them to know you. That's the key. If they know you, they're either going to do one of two things. They're going to be super nice to you and they're going to go, oh, your idea is so great, everything you come up with is so wonderful. And, and, or they'll be the opposite of that and they'll go, oh no, no, no, this is terrible, don't do it because they're afraid for you. So both of those come out of a place of love, which is not a good way to be truthful about whether or not it's going to succeed in the marketplace.

Okay, and what is a. In terms of numbers, what is a good test market?

So surprisingly, we've done some data where we do it with like there's some apps out there so you can compare yourself. If there's an existing product on the market, you can do a side by side test with the target demographic. And they found that.

Even 100 people is dis. Statistically significant enough to be able to tell. And you can do some of those tests for less than a couple hundred dollars. So just to get a side by side comparison. So we, we did that on, we did a line of gaming chairs for a client. And so they were like, would you buy this chair or this chair? And if you bought this chair, would you pay $50 for it or a hundred dollars? You know, and we do, and there's a series of like five questions. And they targeted moms of teen boys between the ages of 11 and 14. And you know, and they had to have an annual income size of whatever. And so they had a perfect audience of that and tested that out and you know, they did it with 100 and 300 same numbers. It didn't matter. So you would get a better answer. So why spend more if you're going to get the same answer?

Okay, excellent. So. And that product did well.

It did do well. Yeah.

Okay. And when they saw that product usually.

Yeah. Target this in this particular case was a target item.

Okay, awesome. So how do you. Of course, I'm a force size strategist. I love innovation. This is what I thrive in. This is what I live and sleep and walk and talk. So how do you sustain innovative products.

After product?

So yeah, I mean it's hard for me. Innovation is a, it's a continual thing. So I'm sure you probably talk to your clients all the time about stacking S curves, right? So every product has a decline. You know, everything's at the, and you want it, you know, when you're at that before you're at that top of the S curve and it's coming down again, you want to have your next product on there. So what we really look at is we look for opportunities within the, within your core demographic, within your core psychographic, within your core product category, within analogous product categories. We're always looking at that for our clients, like where can we expand into and how fast can we do that for you? Because in our world the consumer product cycle can be very short. It can be six to 18 months. And so we always look for that. And we get, you know, sometimes we get a five year product and we're like woo, super excited. You get a great return on investment but you don't count on that. And so you have to constantly stack those. So we look for smaller areas of innovation. It doesn't need to be gigantic. The people who are sitting out there waiting for gigantic are going to wait too long and they're going to miss the mark a lot. So somehow when you're always on the lookout for what's some new innovation, what's the area I can be on the uptrend on? And you're just constantly keeping up on that and really in that mindset of always innovating and that mindset is key. When you're in the there, you're going to actually hit yourself on the trail of that. And so that's really where you want to go and where you want to stay. And we always also recommend an in house and an outhouse and out of house kind of strategy because sometimes your in house team is too busy with the day to day firefights to really see the big picture of what's going on in a marketplace. So sometimes you need it. They used to call it, I think, you know, at Xerox and other places, Skunk Works team, right? You want somebody to like, hey, should I try 3D printing? Should I try virtual reality? Should I try augmented reality? What's you know, is this, does this have application for me? Why not commission a project outside and get an outside viewpoint in and then if it seems viable then bring it in. And so you kind of marry those two. And lots of really great innovative companies. When I worked for Herman Miller and Herman Miller invented the Aeron chair. And, you know, back in. This was 1994. 95. So I'm dating myself as to how long I worked there and how old I really am.

You were about four at that time.

I really wish I was, but no. And so, you know, when they worked on that, if they had focus grouped it, if they hadn't started with an outhouse team, with a consulting team and brought them in, it would have never flown because it would have been too outside of the realm of possibility for them. And so because they took it out and then brought it in, it became reality. It got excitement, it got grounded, and it. I mean, still, it's an icon Today, 20, 23 years later, it's still, you know, it's still one of the best chairs. I still own an original one. So, you know, it still works. So that, that kind of innovation can happen if you kind of marry those two things together.

Okay, perfect. I love, love it.

You gotta get an outside view. You know that.

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. So now when you talk about innovation, I love that, the fact, the. The S curve, because most often, and that's one of the things that, that we talk about a lot, is that when things hit the market, they're already outdated. Right. They're already outdated. So it has to be. The thing with innovation is that it has to be fast. Yeah. It has to be timely. It's just, it's at the. You can't jump into it early, you can't jump in too late. It has to be the right timing. But you have to really have the mindset of an evolution of change. So this chair is great. So how can I. Because if you have one product, there's no way that you can have an entire business around that one product. So you need to continue, how can I make it better? Or what can I add to it? So how many clients come to you that tell you, okay, so this is my 1 product, but can you help them with a strategy to make that product better or to add other things to that product?

Yeah. So when we have an existing client that has a broad product line and we get a lot of them, and their product lines are almost bloated, like, they usually wait too long to cut a product. I think the bigger problem isn't introducing new ones, it's actually getting rid of old ones that they hang on to them too long.

Right.

So. And it's dragging down your operational. Your operational excellence. It's dragging down your revenue. You don't even realize that operational cost, especially when you're inventorying a lot of products. And so they're like, but we spent so much money on tooling or we did all this, right? So they're worried about like that investment and did we recoup it enough? So they're so afraid to let go of it. But the reality is that the cost of that is actually a lot higher. So when we come into a client like that, we do three things. We cut and so we go through the program and we cut the ones that don't look like they have long term viability and are dragging down the margins and are dragging down the operational excellence of the company. So that's. It's a hard thing for a lot of. Because you're talking about cutting babies sometimes. That's like how it feels to some companies. We've had this forever. Clients are gonna go crazy. But when I went to, when I worked for Herman Miller, I was actually doing their surface material line and their materials and they had 600 different colors. And skus.

And their community was architects and designers. And they said, if we cut any of these skus, the architects and designers are gonna go up in arms because they say we don't even have enough choice, right? So they're always complaining that it's not fancy enough. And actually I cut it in half. I cut it down to 300 and then I added only 60 back, but I added 60 that were like bridging skus. And we call that cleaning, where we bring in the next part of it. So we cut and then we clean and we bring in things that are going to add longevity to the existing program, the stuff that are still there. And sometimes we have to clean those up too, like recolor them or add a new pattern or things like that. So we do that a lot, maybe add a new feature. And so whatever that is. So we call that cleaning. And we, when we do that, it actually gives the program, even though it's still pretty old, gives it new liveliness, it gives it a refresh, right? And all during that time, for most clients, that's a six month process. So three to cut and analyze and cut and three to bring in those slightly new ones. And then we bring on brand new, innovative SKUs, right? And that's. We bring in between nine months and a year. So the whole process can take a year. But when we do that, they now have spent a lot of time getting more and more excited about it. But they've also raised their revenue to be able to afford new tooling, new, you know, new inventory purchases. We've created opportunity for them to do something that they didn't think they could do, which was expand their line.

Okay.

That's how we do it. So cut, clean and create.

Okay. I love it. Love it. So everything is three steps.

Everything is three step four.

Giving me three steps. Everything is three steps to everything. I love it. So, all right. So when you go from textiles to products, how different is that?

So I'm married to my partner Tom, and Tom is an industrial designer. So. And we both ended up working a lot in the furniture industry in the early days. So there's such a marriage when you're designing a piece of furniture or a chair, between the structure, the engineering, the design of it and the materials that go with it. And because of that Aeron chair in that earlier working, you're talking about, the material itself became such a structural element of that chair that function then and materials go hand in hand. So that's kind of the way we always operated. And we started looking at that from a holistic view of how can we just really design those two things together. And so our products are a lot more interesting integrated in color, materials and finishes, function and form. And all of those things together just work really well for us and make the way that we design seamless. So I don't have to sell someone on let's make it in a new color. I don't ever have to sell it because when the first design is shown to them, they're like, wow, that color is great. You know, it's just because it was already there.

Okay, fabulous. I love that. So in a world where a 7 out of 10 consumer products launches fail, how do you flip the odds to get that 86%? Because that's pretty high.

So when I was talking about that process and starting at that market proof first, that is really a seven step process. So once you have that proof, see, this is the difference. Most people go into the what, right? To the prototype, to the product. They go there first. We instead go in for that proof. Like, is there a fit between the market is. So once there's that market proof, you go into. So we go from proof to planning. So we start thinking about the plan for things and what does this have? And as we think about the plan, where's it going to be marketed? Who's it going to be marketed to? Now that we know some of those psychographics, then we think about the price before we prototype it, because cost is designed in. So if you're going to just design something, you kind of know how much it's going to cost. And there are two ways to look at that. Market basis cost or cost basis. Right. You know you're coming from what a cost of goods are and when. And so you have to know which way you're going. And too often when you start with a product, you always end up in cost basis and then you find out it's too high for your market. That doesn't work. So here we are, selective about the features we design and the criteria. So we then go to prototype next. We prototype it perfectly to fit the market because we know who we're targeting to fit the price point, because we know that price point and it fits our plan of how we're going to market. So how are we going to display it, how are we going to package it? Is it going to be on a shelf? Is it going to be sold on Amazon? It matters what you're doing there because I don't need to spend a ton of money on packaging, it's just going to be on Amazon. But you know, so you're designing out those things that don't matter for this initial stage. And then from there we go to patenting because we don't patent before we prototype, because that's crazy, because it's a waste of money. And so many people waste money on prototyping, I mean on patenting, because they patent too early and then they have to re patent and that's costly or they take too long to patent. At that point we always start at a provisional, keep it really low cost too. So then from there we go right into really thinking about how it's going to be produced. So we have to start to plan and project. So what are the projections? How much do we need to buy? How much of the inventory is it going to be? And we start thinking life cycle, but we also thinking launch cycle. And this is the problem. A lot of people only spend enough money to get that first run made. You don't spend, you don't save enough money or you don't conserve enough money to both market and promote it. But you also don't save enough money in the process to buy enough inventory. So in retail, if you don't have access to a line of credit or capital for nine months, you're going to be in trouble because you may not get paid by your, by Target or Walmart for months and months and months. You've got to, and you've got to buy more inventory, you've got to buy replenishment, you've got to buy all of that before you even get paid back. So that's a long cycle. And so that's where we go. So we project and then we produce, of course, because you got to produce that, you got to make something. And then the eighth one, which is our book, because we don't really do this, it turns it over. But we want to make sure that there's money in the plan for promotion, because nowadays it doesn't matter whether your stuff's in Target, you're still responsible for your brand and your promotion. So you've got to conserve money. It's the most expensive part of building a company right now, building a brand is promotion. I mean, it costs everywhere. So. So those are our kind of. And that's our path. That's different. And that's what flips the odds for us. Because of the order we do it, we can do it a lot faster. So we don't miss opportunity costs. You know, it does cost to miss the time cycle. Right. If you miss the market, it costs you, too. If you're too early, that's bad. But if you're too late, that's terrible.

It's terrible.

Right? You don't want to miss that by taking too long to design and develop.

Right. So typically, what is the lifeline, the timeline, from the idea to actually getting the product?

Yeah, I mean, I'd say that for a consumer product. For us, getting on a shelf takes a lot longer. So it could take you 18 months to get a placement in Costco. It took us, yeah, about 18 months to get a test run at Costco and almost two years to two and a half years before it was actually there full time. So that cycle can be very long. So. So you don't want to spend a whole lot of time at the beginning, taking a long time in development because things will happen, things will change along the way anyway. So we look at anything. If it can be done in less than six months in terms of design and development, then it's worth worth doing for us. So that's why we personally don't do things that have apps and lots of software complications, because that just adds hours and hours of time. And we personally don't do anything that requires FDA approval because that could take just. It's like a big unknown how long that's going to take to get to market. So we keep it within that. So for us, six months is ideal.

So I hear a lot about your disruptive technology. You know, that's right up my alley. I know, I know disruptive innovation y. So like 3D printing, AR. VR, AI like all those.

All those initials. Yeah.

Are those innovations real? And how might they change business in the retail in the future?

So I write a column for Ink, and it's in their innovation section of ink.com. right. And so they came to me because I was writing, because originally I gave a speech about makers making profits, so I was talking about 3D printing. But in that particular case, it was a 3D printing, like, trade show. And that's what they were doing. But you're gonna make things right, and somehow you're gonna do that or you're gonna do VR and AR in my world, why are you gonna do it if you're not gonna make money? It needs to be worth. It needs to be applied technology. To me, that's like the best use of technology. Let's apply it. Let's not just play games with it, right? So when I write articles about all this disruptive technology, that's what I'm looking for. I'm looking for little things that are hints that. That it can be applied and it can be applied successfully. And I have to say, I was the biggest critic of virtual reality and augmented reality. Like, I thought it was, like, for gaming. Because they'd been taught. Because in my world of innovation, we've been talking about it for, you know, 20, 30 years. Like, it seems old in that idea of, you know, of technology. Right. You know, like, it's never gonna happen. Cause it still looks like, you know, it still looks like little disjointed robots. You know, it just doesn't look good. Right? So, you know, to me, that was like, my thought process was it was still not there yet, and it was never going to be ready for prime time. But the reality is, I've seen a lot of great application. I've seen great application education and helping our kids. So you might have a textbook and you can data. You know, you can pull out the data from there and take a look and dissect a frog virtually. You know, isn't that cool? That's really great.

You could.

Delta Airlines has done something with virtual reality and augmented reality where you can actually sit in your seat and go, does this have enough leg room for me? And, like, check it out. And, you know, so there are lots of really great, I think, applications that make sense, that aren't just gimmicks and games. And so when I started seeing that, I came back and my husband and partner goes, what did they do? Did they feed you correct Kool Aid? Like You've just lost it. You're like, all AR&VR. It's very cool. He was like, what's going on? And I was like, I see now such a great application to the way that we want to interact with the world around us and our next generation. Our kids want to interact. We always have our phones on us and we, you know, we're always in that. And I want to know, like, my kids, I have young kids too, and they go on the tablet and they're like, why can't I click there? Right? Why isn't information coming up? So once that world is filled out with all kinds of details and paths for us to take and we're in control of that, I like that better. So I really see a future. I see a lot of application for those technologies in so many industries. The mistake that I think is too many companies take too long to figure out their application. So 3D printing has been a good example of that. They're waiting and they're like, aerospace has adopted it because it's cost saving for them. They don't have to make expensive, you know, airplane parts that they inventory. They can make parts on demand for, you know, low volume, you know, so there's all sorts of ways that they can do that. But why shouldn't a shoe store have virtually made shoes that fit your feet perfectly? Or insoles that they can create right there on site so your feet don't hurt when you're wearing your high heels. Right. Which is why we picked ours off right now. Right, exactly. So that they're perfect, perfectly fits your foot. There's no reason not to.

Right?

There's. And with the speed of what's coming along and the costs coming down, there's no reason we wait two days to get stuff from Amazon. Why not print it on demand?

I love it. I love it.

That's the future.

So Jane McGonagall wrote this book, Reality Reality is Broken. I read this. Wow, like six, seven years ago. And.

To this very same point is how. Why can't we take virtual reality and give and create scenarios for real life problems?

Well, you know, in some cases there are things like that doing and it needs to happen because. So I just saw in the news, I don't know, it was like two weeks ago or something where someone who's got tremendous shoulder pain, like in one arm or has lost a limb and they're still having phantom pain. They can use a virtual reality wand in the other hand, but on the camera, their eye or their, you know, because it's right against their face, right? In virtual reality world, they're seeing that, that sore arm moving. And they can be pain free for days afterwards because their brain has been convinced that it works, that it's not. That it's there, that it's not hurting them anymore, that it can move. That's amazing to me. And that's the perfect application for something. So when we can apply it in a way that we're not doing something evil, which can happen. Right? Something evil can happen. But when we're applying in a way that's improving the world. Wow, that's amazing.

It's amazing, right?

There's, you know, 360 video. I hear a lot. You know, we see a lot of this 360 video. Yeah, it's a big deal, right? And I see some of it and I think about this. It's like, look, there are kids who, who will never be able to travel outside of their home. They're, you know, they, they live in a world in which they, they can't go outside because they're allergic to everything. Or, you know, or you're just housebound.

Or whatever that might be.

Think of all the places you can visit and all the things you can look and it can feel like you're right there. Like those experiences are worth doing.

Right?

Worth experiencing. But we have to take. We can do it.

That's the thing. We can do it. Like you said, why do, why all of these years, why do women's shoes still hurt?

And I can tell you that after four days of wearing heels.

So here's why. Because there are very few women designers in the world. And if there's anything that I can do, I would love to inspire more women to become more designers in this world. There's not enough of that. So I, I travel to China, and sometimes I've done it five, six times a year, you know, go there constantly for my clients and do that. And I have yet once seen a women, a woman designer in any factory. I. We very rarely see women being anything but the translators or sales assistants in that process. So we, we have seen and we're very impressed by a couple of women factory owners, which is amazing. But they still don't have designers on their staff. And in today's world, there are very few designers in our clothing, in our shoes, in our product purchases. They're actually just sourced. It's kind of the same thing. So you go shopping at Target, but Target's buyer goes shopping in Asia or in Indonesia or in India, and they don't actually design anything anymore. So unless you're at like top level brand names, there's no designer in the process. And so when there's no designer and there's no women, then you're in. This is why clothes don't fit and products are not great.

Why are sizes like all universal?

Like, you know, they haven't changed, they haven't changed in decades. And they're archaic in the way that it all based on how much sells in a certain size. And then they buy that for next season and if they didn't offer it, it's no wonder it didn't. You can't figure out to make it again next year. Right. So a lot of that I think is gonna change because we're getting to a lot of smaller end manufacturing. There's lots of specialties going on and I actually think that Amazon has improved the game for everyone.

I think so.

And I really believe that there's gonna be. There's a lot more, A lot more competition at that level is going to up level all of the big players games. And I think we're going to really see a lot of retailers and manufacturers struggle who've been very, very large brands and have them struggle because they are not keeping up with this change.

Absolutely. Well, he's put bookstores out of business. Like whoever heard of dewalden books and these big. It was never heard of. He came and he disrupted that and I think he's gonna keep going. And the beauty is because he's innovative and he continues to up his game.

But not just that. He's built a tremendous trust with his female audience. And we control us women, our pocketbooks control so much of what gets bought and sold in this country. I mean it's amazing. So when I look at that, I've been an Amazon member since 1998, which is a really long time. So I've been a member. I bought books back then and yet. And so when I look at that, you know, and I look at my sales and the purchases that I've made, because you can go all the way through your history. If you haven't done it, you should go check it out. It's cool. So you can go all the way through and see how much you bought before, how much you bought, you know. And I have a little spike. You'll see a gigantic spike every year. I had a baby, so girls, and only two of them were born after Amazon. But you'll see a big spike on those years because what do you do? You shop Online and don't go out. Right. Especially towards the end or right after you have them. So there's these gigantic spikes in those years and there's always big spikes towards the fourth quarter of the year.

Right.

For Christmas and so, yeah, you know, for the holidays and so. But you can see the trend of my purchases going more and more and more to them and less and less elsewhere. And it happens in food, it happens in clothes. I mean, I bought my daughter is getting married in three weeks and I bought my mother of the bride matron of honor because I'm Both dressed for $50 on Amazon.

I know.

Because I didn't have time to shop. I mean, it was like I said, well, I'll just order a bunch, I'll try them all on and then I'll see what fits me, what looks good and then I'll go. And of course, real shop when I have one weekend available because I'm so busy traveling and darn it if it didn't look great anyway, so why would I even bother to go out of the house? It looked good.

And why would you want to pay more?

Why would I want to pay more? Right. So, yeah, so once that's shifting and you get that, that trust that's built and then they continually give us more. So they say, hey, you like you, you're already a prime member. Have video, have this, make your kids happy, have, you know, free time for our kids. Right. Like we're protecting them. I'm like, why wouldn't I continue to give them my business?

Exactly.

And so now the brands that associate themselves with that are getting my loyalty too. Big, big difference, right?

Yeah, absolutely. I love it. So you talk a lot about innovation and products as assets for a business.

What would you recommend for a business such as mine, which is mostly a service business?

Yeah. You know, see, this is the thing. A lot of, a lot of our clients come out of the Amazon selling world or they've just started a small brand. Maybe they've a small boutique company or something like that. And typically they already have a product line. They're not completely service based. But what they realize really quickly is like, I've been selling these products, but everybody can sell these products. So if I want to build a brand that gets acquired by somebody else, if I want to build a company that is able to be sold even as a franchise or be able to be sold out right. To somebody else, I have to build up a balance sheet that includes assets. Right. And so, so many businesses today don't have an Office space, they don't have equipment, they don't have those normal assets you would have. But intellectual property is a great asset to have. So patents, trademarks, copyrights even, it depends on your industry. Right. All of those things are great values to your business. And you know, in some cases inventory is an asset, but it's also a very big liability because what if the trend changes? So you don't. So you want to keep any assets that you have in any patents that you have. If you can keep the inventory level low on that or deliver them on demand in some way, shape or form, that's like the ideal world. Now, you haven't added to the negative side of the balance sheet too, but we look at that and we say, okay, how can we create this asset valuation for our company so that you can go for a multiple. Right. That's your ideal. The more assets you have that are valuable, and especially intellectual property or technology, if you've got that can be valuable. So in your case, I think in a service based business, you have to go for some things that might be a little harder to develop and not just straight products because it requires a combination of a lot of thinking and processing and a hard product that might go into it. So it might be an app, it might be a game, it might be a software tool. So one of the things that I'm considering developing is we do these product research. So we go out there and you talk about market research. Right?

Right.

So there's a lot of market research companies out there you can hire do market research reports for you. We do product surveys that way. And we can go out and we look at every single, you know, selfie stick on the market or something like that, and we say, what price point are they at? What material are they in? And then we do a gigantic survey on them. And wouldn't that be great if that was just an easy online tool that would pull from everywhere and do that? I think it would make my life easier. And if I made my life easier, wow, think of how many clients I could just license that out to or farm that out to. Now I have a big asset that I can do something with. And so when we start thinking about things like that, that's maybe more ideal for a service based business is to do that or to exclusively license someone else's technology. Having an exclusive license is an asset as well.

Okay. I love it. You're a genius. Oh, my God, I love it. I love your brain.

Thank you.

Yeah. You know, it's amazing because when we Met just a few months back when we start talking about innovation.

I was like, somebody else that talks like me. Somebody who cares about it.

Yeah, somebody else who talks like me. Like, oh my God, we speak the same language. So to me, that was so fascinating. And then when you started telling me about product development and how you do this, I just blew me away.

Well, I just think that, you know, we're in a world where everybody is so getting to this point of which they think that it's just so competitive, right? It's like, how do I, you know, how do I beat out my competition or whatever? And I don't look at it from that spread. I want to be in competition with myself, right? So how can you innovate yourself? How can you out compete yourself? And like, you know, that's when you live in Nike territory and Apple territory, right? And that just that mindset of like, how do I out best the last thing I did? Right? When you get in that mindset, then you're really moving on that innovation. And we call it actually intentional invention. Like, we're always intentionally thinking about, what is that original thing we can give? What is that unique selling proposition. So you can call it a usp that happens in the industry, right? What is that original thing that I can give? Because that original thing makes me competitive and it makes me in my own. We call it me only territory. Right? I'm the only person you want to get from. Right. And so when you live in that mindset all the time, you just don't worry about. You really don't worry about your business getting disruptive because you are already ahead. You already are.

And you don't like to worry about competition. There is no competition because you're competing against yourself. You're always ahead.

That's right.

So, and that, that's what I. And well, of course that's what I sell, that innovation. And I call it an innovation machine, right? Because really has to be perpetual. It has to be like, okay, now I did this. We have this master. Okay, now the next thing. And it has to be a constant evolution. That's how we grow. That's. You know what I think, even on a personal level, when you're constantly thinking creatively and you're constantly bringing out new things and meeting you and spending time with you, and I'm listening to you talk about products and you're so passionate.

I love it.

Oh, like, I can't tell. Yeah, it just makes me want, you know, again.

And that's why I asked as a.

Service like, how can I have that? Because that's my next best thing. Like, we need to create something because it's such a reality. We really need to constantly be thinking this way and constantly looking for the new thing and what's the next and better thing. And as you said, not worried about the competition that you have with other people in your industry, but out competing yourself.

Well, because it also brings your business to a new place, which, you know, it means that you are a competitive employer because who doesn't want to work at the company? That's so cool, right? And who's cutting edge and who's thinking in this mindset? But it means that you haven't gotten complacent about anything in your business, right? And if you're not complacent about your business, you are a desirable place to work. You're at the top of your game, you're making revenue, you're going to stay ahead of that. And so to me, at the end of the day, this is a profitability plan, right? This is the way that you are going to build a better, sustainable business. And I don't mean that from a green standpoint, Right? Green might be a strategy for you, but it's not as important as sustainability. Because I want to sustain employees, I want to sustain my team, I want to sustain the growth and marketplace, all my customers, right?

I want to sustain my customers. I want to always have a cutting edge, you know, I want a cutting edge solution, a cutting edge service or product so that my clients can have the best life. That's how I see it. I don't see it as mine. I see it as, I need this so that I can give it to you.

Here you go. So my. Yeah, people are always like, why do you have this place for your business? So we actually do it where many of our customers get bought out, our clients get bought out by some bigger brand or something, and then we're out of a job and they're like, why would you do that?

Why would you?

I was like, if they do that, that means I did my job so well for them. Right?

Which is why you're 86%, right?

I was like, so I got them from 100 million to 300 million and then they got bought out and I'm out of a job. That's okay. Or I got them from 100 million to 300 million and I built them a system and they don't need me anymore. It's still a great plan because I just sustained them. The marketplace, the buyers, everything. So to me, that success, right, it's win and it always pays you back in referrals. So I don't worry about it.

That's right. That's awesome. Thank you so much. Is there a takeaway that you want to leave the audience?

Just that being original, being, you know, thinking about those innovation and original ideas, it doesn't have to be a distraction for your business. It can be a profitability plan for your business. And I think that's really the biggest thing that I want people to take away from my innovation column. My business and you know, and what you do, it's. It's so important to think about that as a revenue generating strategy.

Thank you so much. I am so blessed to have have you here and to have you as my guest and definitely have to have you back because with your next big.

Thing, whatever's new, and I'm gonna have.

You back when we figure out a product. Okay.

Love that.

So, and if they want to get a hold of you, how do they do that?

So it's simple. You can check out hazdesign H A Z Z D E S I g n hasdesign.com and.

Is my last name. So and you can find me on social media and through has design as well.

So. Okay. I love it. Thank you so much. So is there a number? Is it a phone number? No, no.

Just go to the website and you'll find us.

Okay. Okay. Thank you so much for being here.

Thank you.

I really am so blessed. All right, guys, until next week and I'll have another awesome guest for you.

I want to thank you for being with us on Business Foresight. Always creating strategies towards an extraordinary future. Remember, I'm here with you with Strategies every Saturday. I'll see you next week.