When Being Competitive in Business Pays Off - The Comfy | Ep. #008

On this 8th episode of The E-Comm Show, our host and BlueTuskr CEO, Andrew Maff is with the duo brothers Michael and Brian Speciale of The Comfy, a giant wearable blanket which has been featured on Shark Tank. If you’ve ever been curious about what happens after the Shark Tank appearance and the sales hysteria that comes after, here are the Speciale brothers who are here to share with us what comes after the Shark Tank frenzy, plus some sneak peek of what it feels like to be working with Barbara Corcoran! 

Tune in to this episode to learn about how to scale internationally, turn $0 to $50 million, and discover what makes these Speciale brothers incredibly even more special!

Tune in and enjoy today's E-comm Show!

If you enjoyed the show, please be sure to rate, review, and of course, SUBSCRIBE!

Have an e-commerce marketing question you'd like Andrew to cover in an upcoming episode? Email: hello@theecommshow.com

• Listen on:
  
• Listen on:
  
• Listen on:
  
• Listen on:
  
• Listen on:
  
• Listen on:
  

OVERSEEING THE BUSINESS AND FOCUSING ON GROWTH INITIATIVES

SPEAKERS

Andrew Maff, Michael Speciale, & Brian Speciale  

CONNECT WITH OUR HOST: AndrewMaff.com  |  Twitter: @AndrewMaff | LinkedIn: @AndrewMaff

About Michael & Brian Speciale

Michael Speciale and his brother, Brian Speciale, co-founded Cozy Comfort Company LLC in 2017. The brothers invented the patented, wearable blanket The Comfy in February of 2017, which in less than two years went from an appearance on ABC’s Shark Tank to more than $70 million in revenue—and more than $150 million in gross retail sales. The company is now among the five most successful companies in Shark Tank history, as well as Corcoran's most profitable investment in her twelve seasons on the show. 10 million The Comfys have been sold to date. It’s important for them to let others see they are nothing special and anyone can live the American Dream too.

Transcript:

00:02

00:03

This is a product for every man, woman, and child on the planet. So we want to own what we create

00:13

this is Brian Bianchetti of People's Choice Beef Jerky. Hi this is Jake of

00:16

Rinseroo. Hey, it's Brian & Michael Speciale of The Comfy that sensation you saw on Shark Tank and you're listening to The E-comm Show.

00:29

Welcome to the show, presented by BlueTuskr. The number one place to hear the inside scoop from other e-commerce experts share their secrets on how they scaled their business and are now living the dream. Now, here's your host, Andrew Maff. Hello,

00:50

everyone and welcome to the comp show. My name is Andrew Maff. And today I am joined by the special brothers of the company. You may know them from Shark Tank. So, gentlemen, I'm super excited to have you guys on the show. Are you guys ready for a good show? Let's do it. Man.

01:03

Man. Nice to meet Chandra

01:05

full. Nice to meet you as well. I'm so excited, obviously. Because this is a first you guys are the first people we've had on Shark Tank on the show. So obviously I'm gonna have some Shark Tank questions. I'm a big fan, so I can't not but I will try not to annoy you with what I assume is always asked.

01:22

Oh, we love talking about it, man. It's our roots. Oh, good.

01:25

We'll stick to it. So let's pretend no one knows who you guys are. Brian, Michael, whichever one of you prefer, why don't you guys give us a little bit of background on what the company is where you guys got started how you got here and we'll kind of go from there. Okay.

01:37

Yeah, we're just a couple of brothers from the desert. I'm Brian special. My brothers Michael Speciale. And about God coming up on five years ago now in February of 2017. Little brother was going through a divorce and the roughest time of his life for sure. And his high school sweetheart, something he didn't want. So he stayed at my house. Right? And he wakes up one morning. And what happened Michael when you woke up that one morning and walk through the living room?

02:05

Yeah. Trudging through the living room, bro. Yeah. downtrodden, look up. And I see my brother's son, who's seven years old at the time sitting on the couch. And it's not just sitting there. He's actually wearing one of my brother's old hoodies, you know, old sweatshirts, and so it just absolutely swallows him up. He's got his knees pulled into it. He's got his arms pulled and he's got the hood up. And he's just kind of peeking out of there. You know, he's in there playing one of his video games, we just catch eyes and like, wow, like Saxon, you look so warm and comfy. Do you know? And I'm just looking my big bro like, man, wouldn't everybody like to feel like that is that, you know, the config oversize? What's your you know, thingy, and it's like, just to cover you up and have that security and everything. And there was a blanket laying over the back of the couch, you know, and we decided, we're like, man, maybe we can make it out of that material. You know, we researched it for a couple of weeks and couldn't find anything like it whatsoever. And that's really where the idea came for the world's truly first wearable blankets, you know, and that's where it started. And it's been an incredible ride since then it took us six months from that idea from that day to be actually standing in front of the sharks, launching our product now in front of all those sharks, and getting to deal with Barbara Corcoran, six months. So that's how quickly we move.

03:24

Yeah, and the company is taking the kind of taking world by storm man, it's a gigantic, oversized wearable blanket, it kind of looks hilarious on you, when you put it on, you might think it's kind of a novelty or something like that. And then you stop. So you just kind of laugh haha. And then you kind of go wait for a second, this is the most comfortable thing I have ever had on my body before. Where's this been all my life. So we'd like to say you go from the haha moment to the aha moment right away. And four years, four years later, we are in the top three of most successful companies in Shark Tank history. And we are Barbara Corcoran, who we got to deal with we're her number one company in her 13 seasons now on the show. So we're pretty proud of that. And it just goes to show you sometimes ideas are hiding in places that you would never expect them to be. And if you're just willing to kind of look a little bit, you know, opportunities are everywhere. And then we got off the couch and we actually did something about it. And that's why we are where we are today. Very fortunate. It's been an amazing ride. The

04:18

amount that you guys were able to scale in like two years now, don't get me wrong and Shark Tank, you're able to leverage off that kind of snowball effect. But still, like I know, after a while, like there's that really nice bump on Shark Tank, but then it dwindles off relatively quickly. And so I was going to ask you, I think you just mentioned as well as you guys are still in the top five products that have come off Shark Tank since the inception of that show, right?

04:41

Yeah. And it kills us that we're not number one yet and we're very competitive and we will be number one. But we've been at this for four years. But yeah, you talk about that Shark Tank bump Andrew and it's, it's true. It lasted in our case, it lasted for about three weeks. No, and then it slowly started to go away the first night and went crazy. We sold out of all our products. To the point where we were back-ordered. Until May of the next year, we're in December 2017. We were back-ordered until May. So we're basically taking people's money and telling them, hey, we're still going to get this to you. But it's going to be, you know, four or five, six months at a time before we can get it to you. And people were still, you know, giving us their money. But it did start to slow down after that, to the point where it's like, kinda like, crap, what are we going to do now, you know, Shark Tank doesn't last forever. So we had this, this, this video that we shot in our houses, just grabbed my camera, and we shot it. And somehow, it just was a super fun video that resonated with people. And it would just completely bonkers viral around the world. And when I say viral, I'm talking over 100 million views on various platforms, because it just kept getting picked up by the big Facebook pages, and the big Instagram accounts, and suddenly it was everywhere. And we woke up one morning, and I remember I was looking for Michael was on New Year's Day, when the when this happened when I was like, Yeah, 2018. And I was like, Dude, we have like, there's like 60 countries who we've got orders from all of a sudden, and then, you know, over a million dollars worth of sales, and where the heck did this come from, and we find that figured out it was that video, but it happened in the snap of a finger. No kidding. So if you can, if you can come up with something to get yourself recognized on, you know, YouTube or any social media. That was really the key to taking us to the next level.

06:25

You can't afford that. That's the thing. You can't force it, it was truly organic. That's the thing. It's just an organic video that just absolutely took off and took us to the next level. And from there, we knew, Okay, we absolutely have something, we have a product for everyone, but the entire world. Honestly, it's one size for everyone. So you don't have to worry about sizing. It's the perfect gift. And from there, that's when we decided, okay, we need to get this into the big box stores and everything else and really expand our brand. And we did all of that the same year, believe it or not, and just kept pushing, and basically doubling revenue year over year, for the last four years.

06:58

That is a hell of a way to start a new year. Next door like don't wait, it's easy to be great. That's so you mentioned just now too, that you went into retail. I know on the episode, they were kind of like, we don't think the retail is the way to go. And they were kind of pushed back. And yet you did it anyway. So what made you say like, no, forget the sharks, like we're doing this, like, what was kind of that thing that told you guys like, we got to go that route.

07:21

And there's such a lesson there. Because you know, we were on that I think I said on the show that must take our ground and all of the entrepreneurship. We were standing there, these titans of industry are looking back at you these world-class entrepreneurs, and they're all telling you not to do something, you know. So it just goes to show you that if you're talking to a friend or relative, or mom or dad or a sibling about an idea you have and people like oh, no, that'll never work. Well, hey, well, I mean, look what happened to us the sharks, the Shark Tank sharks told us not to do something. And we did it anyway because we knew it was the right thing to do. And it turns out, they were wrong. And we were right. Because if we had not gotten ourselves into retail, our product was so popular. And so knock off the bubble, counterfeit bubble, right? That, someone, was going to step in and steal it from us and become the brand. And we like to use the comparison of back when the Snuggie was big. It didn't start with a Snuggie it started with the Slanket. Right, this little British company and flank it didn't become the brand. They got knocked off by snuggie took it and became you know, the eponymous that they are they are that's that sleeve blanket thing that they did whatever. And it's like it was just this little company and we always said, bro, we will not become the blanket no matter what. And getting into retail, I really believe was the key to that. Yeah.

08:49

So you'd also mentioned like you guys obviously scaled pretty quick. I mean, you went from zero at one point in 2017. Two, I think you surpassed almost 50 million in 2019. Right?

09:00

I believe. Yep. You're right. So

09:02

we're now two years further. Have you guys passed that nine-figure mark yet?

09:08

In terms of revenue, yeah. We'll be right around that this year. Terms of yeah, overall sales at retail will be pushing three to 400 million this year. Total. So that's the what do you think that's

09:19

insane to do in four years? What do you think was the thing that kind of helped you guys get over that nine-figure hump because I know that 50 is always rough. Under its rough. Like what is it is kind of helped you guys through that.

09:34

I think it's our competitiveness more than anything. And we knew it was coming brown just talking about the knockoffs. They came hot and heavy very early on. And they're still there. Yeah, there's all they're still there. I mean, well it's 1000s of companies that are knocking us off. We do have our rip, we have five patents, you know soon to be nine. So a lot of it is a lot of litigation. A lot of fighting these people back with our IP that you know, we always look at it the only reason they exist Because of us, and we keep pushing forward. Barbara always tells us, right, it's like the greatest compliment, you get all these knock-offs, you know, that are doing it. But Brian has kind of shaken our head, it's like, it's really not because we created this category, wearable blanket category, the company is ours, we haven't protected. So you're damn right, we're, we're gonna keep fighting it. But that's what the competitiveness just keeps driving us. Because we know if we scale back or stop pushing forward, that there'll be another company that comes in and steals the market share from us. And it honestly, we look at it, it could, it could still happen. You know, the first one was the was actually the guys that own the Snuggie. They came in and tried to do this, they have no creativity, they knocked us off. And this million-dollar company, a multi-billion-dollar company, people came in and we fought them off. They early on they stole some of the big box stores from us. And we fought that back and said, Look, we're the original, here it is, you know, we sold ourselves and ended up picking those accounts back up. So and it's just it never ends. As you scale and get bigger, the bigger problems come right along with it. And it's just how it is. But you have to be able to take it and just keep pushing forward. And that's what we do. And it's great doing it with your brother as well because we motivate, motivate each other day after day. Keep doing this.

11:17

Right? Do you have someone on your team whose sole job is to hunt down all of these knock-offs and just constantly be finding them and going after him?

11:25

There's another thing right there. We have a when I say we have a team of lawyers and Michael talks about big problems, Mo Money Mo Problems, right? There's nothing that's more true than that when you're paying, you know, all these different law firms who yes are paying attention to the counterfeiters. And we're in litigation with a couple of different companies now that we're trying to make examples of. So yes, we have with law firms on our team, I like to say and we have a couple of people who yet yeah, that's pretty much their, their focus is paying attention to the knock-offs. And we use this incredible software platform called red Point, which identifies counterfeiters, and that can be for e-commerce businesses of any level highly recommend them. We found them within the last year. And they've been really key to taking down a lot of competitions that are infringing on our IP. So that was a great fine, but yeah, Mo Money Mo Problems. Lots of law firms, lots of lawyers, it drives you bonkers, but this is the there's the price you pay, I guess

12:29

you have no choice. You have to do it. Got to do it. Yeah. cost of doing business. I

12:35

mean, I would agree with Barbara that it's a compliment. But at the same time, it sounds really obnoxious.

12:44

It's not a comment, just because we knew we knew it we had absolutely we didn't, we didn't need somebody else to knock us off to show Hey, you guys got a good idea here. We frickin do it from the beginning, call us cocky whatever you want. But we absolutely do it that this is a product for every man, woman, and child on the planet. So we want to, we want to own what we created. And we protect it and fight back. Anyone and everyone. How does

13:10

expanding the product line work? Are you guys looking into going in other directions with the product? Are you just looking at new designs? Like how does that whole process work?

13:19

Yeah, we're, we're getting into a lot, especially on the licensing side of it as well. Now that's going to be a huge, huge force, which we're just starting this year, we're going to be launching a lot of the colleges I'm gonna appear in October or so. But we got a lot of other very exciting licensing opportunities that we're moving forward with, that we can't discuss quite yet. But on top of that, you know, we want to become, you know, our core product is the company, of course, you know, the company original and the company Dream, which is a little bit lighter weight, but we want to create a lifestyle, comfort lifestyle category basically get into everything, we want to own the wearable blanket category first. Because that's obviously what we're known for. And we still have a long way to go to get this out to everyone. And then a lot of it's going to be you know, just low-hanging fruit. Once we show that we have affordable quality or everyone then we can get it we can get into blankets and sort of for socks and robes and whatever else we would like to get into as long as it fits into our brand. But that is also part of the strategic plan. And that's the biggest

14:22

challenge. Yeah, that's the biggest challenge Michael and I have is kind of pulling the reins a little bit and making sure that our team doesn't go too crazy because he talks about low tech, low hanging fruit. He's right, we can go out tomorrow and throw the company logo on sheets, or mattresses or pillows, or whatever the case may be. But it's not something that makes sense for us to do right now. Because we have to own the wearable blanket category that we created. So you cannot take your eye off the ball when you're trying to accomplish something like that. It's challenging, but we'll get there eventually. Yeah. So

14:58

you obviously scaled really quickly Did you ever have your own warehouse at any point? Or did you guys immediately go into a three PL or are you in a warehouse now? Like, how's that whole fulfillment thing working for you guys?

15:11

Oh, three PLS, everybody, right? Oh my god, that was no one you find a really good one and maybe we'll try that I think we're on our seventh or eighth three PL. Alright. Oh wow, you know so and as soon as they disappoint me we got to move on just a swear a lot of times they promised the moon and they just they don't come through there. Yeah, very frustrating. But we started early on actually went to a three PL with our first container that came in, you know that we got out about a month after Shark Tank came in. And they absolutely were it was about 4500 units total. And they were all spoken for we sold every single one down to last I think we kept an extra five, maybe bro. And we had to get you to know we cared about obviously still do care about every one of these customers. And yet they gave us our money the whole month or two before and we're trying to get these out to them. And they decided to go ahead and double ship I think about 150 of our customers on the East Coast. And so that extra, it was like 200 250 units were on the other side on the East Coast. And we owed those to other people that have been waiting for him that we promised. So that was our first incredible big cup with three PL so we had to turn those get those all back to us. Fire down and our next Threepio was in my brother's living room to get all those units. Customers I've been waiting for him and my brother was the customer service rep for the first six months and answering those and flipping customers that were so upset with us and just letting him know, I'm just being honest with him more or less of what was going on. And then from there, we got a little bit larger Threepio and that was about six months long. It was never there about six months each, you know where we but we finally have settled in now to a very large three PL that's worldwide that is doing very well for So hopefully, that continues. But eyes wide open with three pls at all times, make sure you're tracking your products and know what's going on always don't destroy the complications that they were having.

17:07

What were the complications that were having, like, I mean, to go through that many in that short period of time are amazing?

17:13

I honestly what the main thing was is our scale and how fast we were scaling. And we let them know what was going to happen. You know, because Brian is very confident about what was coming, the orders were coming in a big box store started coming in. It's like they didn't believe it and didn't prepare for it. And then when it did happen, you know, it's a fairly large product when it comes over, especially back then we didn't have it. We didn't have it sealed, you know, tighter in the bag, and everything else was very, so they ran out of space a lot of times to the point where they were ready to purchase more warehouses, you know, just for the company and all that, you know, and stringing along saying they're going to do this and then back out of it. The last-second say now it doesn't make sense for us. So we're not going to do it. So we have to move all our products from that three PL to a new three PL. It was just scaling more than anything. And so as fast as we were scaling as much business as we're doing now, we needed somebody who's very large three PL that can handle our volume and have warehouses not only all over the country, but all over the world that can help us out into going into different ports, and everything else. So yeah.

18:13

So going into q4, which is obviously a very giftable product and it's getting colder out. So it's a warm product. Like you're obviously coming into a big season. How are you guys preparing for q4 both on the marketing side as well as the obvious of like, the supply chain issues we're having right now and everything like how's that going for you guys?

18:33

It's always a challenge you know, we've never made it through an entire fourth quarter with products we've always been sold out by the first week of December so we're hoping that this year is different. However, as everyone in this space now knows there are incredible logistics challenges at the ports overseas. Here and here in the States getting containers off of ships. We were just in LA two days ago doing something with BB and when we were flying out we flew right over the Port of Long Beach and you could see I think over 100 container ships out there all of them at least two miles apart just sitting there loaded fully waiting to get into to get there the product offloaded So, we're in the same boat so to speak is everyone as everyone else's we're all going to be facing some challenges that I don't think we even understand the gravity of yet. We've got a lot of product in early which is very important obviously. But man it remains to be seen what's going to happen this fourth quarter I worry for a lot of businesses that are in the same position that Michael and I were you know four years ago if we had gone through something like that where oh my god know, we were on Shark Tank we promised everybody this product at a certain time. And now it's sitting out there off the Port of Long Beach and it can't come in for another who knows how long you're going to disappoint these people. I just really really sorry for people like that I feel I feel terrible, for everyone. We'll just see how it goes, Man I, who knows what's going to happen? Let's cook, let's come back in a few months and say, wow, it wasn't as bad as we thought it was going to be. I hope that's the case. But that doesn't look

20:14

right after COVID kind of hit, I felt like the average consumer was a little bit more understanding of like, okay, maybe I won't get this as soon as I usually do, or maybe things are on backorder, stuff like that. Do you think that that mentality is going to stick through q4 and obviously probably into q1 next year? Like they'll be okay with having to wait a little bit?

20:33

Until, until a Christmas present starts showing up? Stop showing up? Yeah. And you know, you know, that's level for sure. I think right now, people are understanding, but I think as we get into November, especially after Thanksgiving, and coming up on that big deadline in December 25, to get presents under people's trees, that's where you're going to have a lot of upset consumers. So I think a lot of especially on the shipping side, I think a lot of people, a lot of companies are going to say, I think they're gonna have a deadline, probably December 1, something like that, where you got, you have to get your order in order for them to guarantee it. Getting to you or getting into your house, may even be earlier than that. We'll see. We're gonna know a lot more, I'd say in early November on where that trendsetting. And if those ships are starting to get into port and the truckers, which is the biggest issue the can't find truckers to get those products to the warehouses is the big issue. That's what's backing everything up. So yeah, it's, it's a little scary. I worry about the smaller companies, for sure. You know, as Brian said, where we were at a year, even two years ago, if this happened to us, it can, it can be really tough to get through, you know, thankfully for us, we have a product that doesn't just have to be for the holidays, you know, we have an extremely high amount of sales in the first quarter as well. So if we don't get our product and we sell out, again, nothing we haven't been through before, you know, not as profitable as we probably could have been in the fourth quarter, but we just turn it turn that product right over for the first quarter. And we're able to sustain that and I'm confident we will be able to so plan early plan ahead, you know, especially going into I think this is going to continue all the way I think into 2023 Honestly, so I think I think we're going to be very similar boat all the way through next year, unfortunately, until we figure out this labor shortage, it's going to take time. So planning ahead.

22:19

How speaking of labor shortage How big is your team now?

22:23

We have about 35 You know direct employees on our team you know, but indirect employees I mean 1000s For sure we have seven factories that are making copies for us and all the logistical teams and everything else a lot of contractors a lot of outsourcing that we do as well but yeah, we're about 35 strong for with direct employees absolutely incredible team that we've had I level nice so what's the long

22:48

way like long wet long way from from those days to the early days man but you know a lot of people probably listening and watching watching this Andrew you know might be where we were way back in the day or trying to figure out how to get started I remember when I would listen to podcast after podcast on how to do Amazon and how to how to get a product launched and and and there were there were certain things that we did because we had to figure it out all on our own right but it's you have the sum of human knowledge in your pocket we all do on our phones we have Google we have you can you can do this man we used a company back in the day called Guided imports and they were the ones who helped us source the first products and get the products you know actually over over to the states without them I'm not sure how far you know we would have we would have gotten I'm sure we would figured it out at some point but they really helps shorten the process so there's services like that out there that man I would encourage people to use and learn as you go because man if we would have listened to people who told us all along the way No way No You guys just came up with this idea you're not going to be you're not going to have product by Christmas sorry maybe the Christmas after but our attitude is always like no no we're gonna figure out a way to do it and and we did you know being a little naive and kind of clueless to the whole process I think is what really helped drive us forward because we never took took no for an answer. So you know, I encourage people to do the exact same thing that we did because who knows you know, we figured it out. We were just a couple of single dads from the desert inventing this giant wearable blanket and we had a goal to get on Shark Tank and to get it to market within six months and we did it you don't have to go that fast but you can do it if you are willing to put in the work it's work but it can be done because you know Michael was at a pool repair company and that he owned and I was in TV production. It doesn't really lend itself to you know e-commerce and wearable blankets and things like that but here we are, so it can be done. I just encourage everybody to you know, if you got something you believe in, get off the couch and go for it. You can be like us. Don't be scared of inexperience. It can be your best quality or Be honest and entrepreneur? Yes.

25:02

Very good point. So I mean, you guys obviously scaled incredibly quickly, which means I'm sure you had a lot of long days, a lot of weeks, nights, and weekends, what is your day to day, each of your days to day like now, like, who focuses on what

25:16

high-level stuff really is what it's about now, you know, prime, that's the litigation side of it, I think we have seven or eight law firms that we work with now. So it's a lot of that type of stuff, you know, just strategizing, working, working with the executive team, you know, following along, making sure you know, the marketing and everything are going is on point with what we would like there's, there's, there's still plenty to do. But compared to what it was, back in the day, when we were working directly with everyone that day to day operations and had to have more or less all the answers, or at least be able to go find the answers and make all the decisions. That's definitely scaled back completely. We have an incredible executive team now in their very CEO and CEO that is really, that we trust in our managing the company at this point. So we'll just, yeah, that's, that's basically, there's a, there's still sleepless nights, for sure, because of the high-level stuff is going on, don't think big problems. But it's, we always said, bro, we wanted to, you know, get to the point where we had an incredible executive team where you kind of step back and let the experts do their job, which is, we kind of got to that point. But you don't want to step back too far. You still have to be aware of your business and everything that's going on, because you don't want to get caught in a bad situation, which can happen very easily. So we're not right now. Not even close.

26:40

Almost getting there. How, how involved is Barbara and her team and everything since you guys started. I imagine they helped a lot in the beginning. But have they been able to step away? Like how much are they kind of in the day-to-day with you guys?

26:54

No, we don't see we don't talk to Barb that often. She's always there when we need her very important. In the beginning, she was very important in connecting us with the right people to get into retail the beginning when we decided to go against her and all the other shark's advice. She what she says on the show and what she says in all our podcasts, you know, she's like, you guys can listen to me or don't you know, you might be right. So don't be afraid to you know, carve your own path out and I don't think someone in that position at that has reached that level of success wouldn't necessarily be like that. But Barb genuinely is she respects our decisions. We've gone against her plenty of times. And today she's always there when we need to talk when we need to run ideas by her. Every time we get off the phone with her, especially in the beginning it was like we just had a masterclass in business. Because she's so smart and so connected and, and everything that you see on the show, you get tenfold with Barbara in person. That's, that's who she is, you know, she says a super fun, super fun person to be around. And we're lucky to have her as a partner.

28:00

Yeah, and somebody that works with Barbara. His name is Mike Stevens. He's an absolutely incredible businessman handling all of her Shark Tank portfolio and everything else. But that's our main contact with the bar is through him. So I just wanted to give him a shout-out because he's absolutely incredible.

28:19

is reserved deserves it. Um, so I would imagine Barbara's end goal would be for you guys to sell one day. But what is your end goal? Do you want to hand it down to your son? Since it was you should get credit to a certain point? But are you keeping it like what's the thought there? Wide-open anything?

28:40

I think Michael is gonna say the exact same thing. You know, we're wide open to anything. Yes, a business reaches a point at some point where you need to, you know, recapitalize a little bit, bring some more money in, we might be at that point soon. Or we might not we're just kind of taking it. Day by day. We're willing to listen to anything, if anything comes our way we'll listen to it. But more than anything, it's a legacy thing to Michael and me, we have created a product that is going to outlive all of us. It's that good of a product, we truly believe that. And so this company needs to be in the right hands. So that vision is fulfilled now and 100 years from now and whether we're a part of it, a big part of it, a small part of it, not a part of it at all. I think the legacy and the fact that it was invented in the living room by a couple of brothers. And one brother happened to see his nephew wearing an oversized hoodie. A wearable blanket that changes the way the world stays warm was born. It's important to us that that lives on forever, forever whether

29:42

we're a part of it or not. Who would have thought Yeah, the blanket could have been reinvented right? Yeah. Like reinventing the wheel like What do you mean? Yeah, but it's truly streamline

29:55

I love to kind of peek under the hood and ask you guys like What's your tech stack? What do you guys use? And I know you're on Shopify Plus is where your website's on but what else are you guys using to kind of drive marketing and inventory and all that fun

30:09

stuff? Man? That's a good question. We have so many people now doing so many things. I mentioned I mentioned red points. I mentioned the guided imports that we used in the beginning. Shopify, I don't know what Amazon tools that we're using.

30:28

But yeah, Michael, you gotta think of that. Not that. Yeah, not to sound naive about it, because I don't think we are. But we have a lot of people that do this on a daily basis. And not just people on our team that oversee it. But we have a lot of consultants, and as well, that are constantly monitoring, monitoring trends and everything else and making sure we're top of the box, or at least if not top a box in our competitors, that we're at least second down. Because we're you know, so it's just yeah, it's, it's a lot, it's kind of a tough question is going in the beginning, it was Brian and I doing this for sure, just one person. But now, it's gotten so big and so much on a daily basis to handle all this, but it's all positive. Whether or not everything seems to work for us, you know, in terms of marketing. But we always say that comes back to because we have such a good product is really what it comes down to yeah, we're just trying to get the name out there. We did a huge consumer research survey in the last couple of months, and it came back that way about 11% population even knows about us so far. So we're just getting started, is how we look at this, you know, as much growth as we've had. It's kind of endless on where we can go with this mentioned getting into licensing, and honestly taking this to the entire world. And, and that's our overall goal, to get it to the entire world and dominate the wearable blanket category that we created.

31:51

I mean, that's the dream, right is to get out of the nitty-gritty of the day-to-day and be able to step away from it. So perfect answer in my eyes. But what are you so you had mentioned earlier that you used to listen to a lot of podcasts and things like that to kind of get yourself caught up on what to do back then? What do you guys do now? Is there like, are you in masterminds? Are there still podcasts you listen to? Like, what are you doing to kind of keep yourselves in the loop with everything.

32:15

I'm a huge podcast guy I listen to dude, perfect on how I built this morning. That's probably my favorite podcast out there. It's, it's, we hope to be on that it's at some point, that's, uh, that's some inspirational stuff there. I remember listening to Scott Volker and the amazing seller and learning about Amazon back in the day and his whole thing of you got to take action. And then you know, these days, I just read a book from Joe Valley on exit printer, you're talking about selling businesses. And that focuses they do at I think quiet light is the name of their business. And they're like kind of a smaller investment bank. And they help entrepreneurs you know, maybe seven and maybe eight-figure Amazon sellers sell their businesses which is becoming a huge thing these days. So it's just fun to continue to learn because even if that's smaller scale than what we do, there's a lot to be learned from that and like the selling process if you do want to exit your business, so yeah, just podcasts are that's what I do more than anything. Michael, what about you?

33:20

Yeah, a lot of podcasts as well. So important you know, instead of listening to the radio or listening to your favorite music and all that, you know, I think it's better if you really want to be successful, mute your entrepreneur, get that in your ear. It's always available to you know, wherever you're at, you're walking in the airport, whatever it may be, you know, just put that on and just always be listening to it. And you don't you know, always pick up something from all the podcasts or you may know what they're already talking about. But you can usually pick up tidbits here and there that you could use at this point or somewhere down the line. You just never know. So

33:54

I don't want to take up too much more of your time. I know you guys are busy. So this will be that stereotypical time where I give you guys your moment to go ahead and tell everyone where they can find more about you and you know, we'll wrap it up in there.

34:07

You can find us at the company comm I think you can use the code Hello 10 Get 10% off your order. I encourage everyone to get in we're sold out by December every year. Get your orders in now try the company it's the perfect gift. I mean it doesn't have a size. It's a one size fits all it's perfect for men, it's perfect for women, it's perfect for kids, all shapes, all sizes. It will be the most popular gift that you give this year. I'm just certain of that because we hear it all we heard time and time again. Closing in on 70,000 Amazon reviews now at 4.8 stars or on the highest rated products on Amazon so buy with confidence and try out the company we'd love to have you join company nation.

34:45

Yeah, we always like to say you can your Christmas shopping or holiday shopping can be done right now. You just go on there and the grandmas and grandpas out there moms and dads that have to shop for so many different people. You know just go pick all the same color or pick different colors and patterns wherever you may be. And you can have a huge Headstart. Right now we have everything in stock. So this is the time to do it because we do run out in December, almost every year. That's how popular it is. So

35:10

it is definitely the perfect gift for that person that you can't think about what they want. Who wouldn't want something like this right? It's very impressive. Thank you so much Brian & Michael for being on the show. Everyone who tuned in, obviously, really appreciate you guys listening. Make sure you subscribe to us on any of the podcast platforms you want or on our YouTube channel or head over to ecommshow.com For more information, but thank you for tuning in, keep on selling and we will see you guys next time.

35:36

Thank you for tuning in to The E-comm Show. Head over to ecommshow.com to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform or on the BlueTuskr YouTube channel. The E-commerce show is brought to you by BlueTuskr. Full-service digital marketing companies specifically for E-commerce sellers looking to accelerate their growth. Go to BlueTuskr.com now for more information. Make sure to tune in next week for another amazing episode of the E-comm show.