Unknown Speaker
of trust, and we had the gold standard in this.
Jennifer Bunkers
Yeah, they are the gold standard. So we wanted to make sure that We aligned with that. And it took a lot of testing to get that approval on our products. So we’re extremely proud of it. I think we have the largest offering. That is my products for kids. You know,
Jeremy Weisz
I love it. And so, from that initial launch, what was the next product you released? And how’d you decide that? No skin cream or
Jennifer Bunkers
Yeah, we added more eczema, like eczema, focus products and eczema cream and eczema wash. So like just going deeper into the eczema space and worrying less about sort of the other things that aren’t as important. And you know, in terms of marketing to not only are we serving kids and helping them lead a less itchy life, right, like, it makes me feel really good inside that I can help kids get through a day a little more calmly. has lost my train of thought what was it What was I doing? marketing wise to like, it’s easier to market because it’s a very defined niche. Right. Yeah, we’re being a problem. People are searching for a problem to solve, and we’re solving it. And that was that was a pivotal pivotal point to was not just we were making a quality of high quality product that served our customer base but we could market to other folks who are searching for it versus in our space very busy space lots of people saying natural Earth lots of you know products a natural or not really natural so is really hard to break through the noise and this is this is a much easier path having a defined niche Yeah,
Jeremy Weisz
yeah i was reading looking on the site you know anyone go to TruKid, T-R-U-K-I-D, you know kid.com you know and the funny thing is I’m gonna try and bring it up here so I can show it but I was looking at the ingredients I was like, I wouldn’t try this but my I can almost eat this stuff like there’s like honey in it. There’s like actual natural ingredients.
Jennifer Bunkers
Well, it’s funny. So one of our our most popular products are our bubble podz, which is the last the next innovation after our, you know, our eczema focus product, wanted kids to be able to take it back that that is really fun. But kids with eczema can’t take that because everything hurts their skin, we created our bubble podz, which is basically a tide pod that you throw in your basket. creates a couple of natural bubbles, you actually can eat that. It’s really nasty tasting. I really do recommend that you do it.
Jeremy Weisz
As it sounds great. You go there it is.
Jennifer Bunkers
Yeah.
Jeremy Weisz
Um, yeah, so I was like, Oh, cool. Like, there’s very natural ingredients there. Um, you know, what’s interesting is I’m sure you get this, you know, people back then when you’re doing the sourcing, what are some of the biggest mistakes people make with with sourcing
Jennifer Bunkers
in the US or in Asia?
Jeremy Weisz
Us?
Jennifer Bunkers
Okay, so, um, because I’m so comfortable making products in China, it’s like second nature to me. And that and that the Asian manufacturers are really, really good at making product, right? The US is hard. And I’ve always struggled making products in the US because the language is different. It’s not Chinese to English, but the manufacturing language is different. Apple. When you make things here, like in China and China, you know, they make everything in one place. They do all the sourcing for you. It’s all it’s all locked and loaded here. The challenge is you have to know where to get your packaging, you have to understand the technology of the of the production that’s here. And you have to like buy your labels. It’s like all it’s like 10 times harder to make anything here. And I hate to say but that is the that’s the my experience that I’ve over my years. So the challenge is like just learning a brand new way to to make things it’s just harder, right?
Jeremy Weisz
What about Asia? What are some of the big mistakes when people are sourcing from Asia?
Jennifer Bunkers
Gosh, well, you know, I’ve made every mistake that you could possibly make. In Asia. One of the mistakes I think that’s easy to make is trusting your vendor is going to make what you want. Right away like we have, I have a very defined process of how I make things in China and a different process that I do for making things here. And you know, the important part about making things in China is sourcing that you have three qualified factories versus just the one because especially right now because it’s it’s absolutely chaos. I think making anything we discovered that you and I know when I make things really well and I’m discovering even more challenges than I had. Even Don’t come across in the past,
Jeremy Weisz
you won’t do it unless you have three factories, to do all
Jennifer Bunkers
qualified, all aligned, so I can make it. That’s my strategy. Even with that we still, you know, mistakes happen. Right, you know, but, you know, make sure if you’re making anything in China that you have samples, you’ve not sampled once, but you sampled, you know, several times because because this is the has to be there, right? And the communication has to be really good if it’s, you know, if they’re not evenly back or calling you back. It’s a no go right there just can’t communicate in a way that’s going to be sustainable for you long term.
Jeremy Weisz
Do you still help people you still get questions from people about sourcing,
Jennifer Bunkers
I get I don’t do that I close that it’s my 17 to simply focus on growing the TruKid business. I realized it was a real distraction of my time. I do it for friends and I help people I asked, you know, for
Jeremy Weisz
kids, my kids, you help the kids.
Jennifer Bunkers
And I’m really good at making things here. Now I’ve learned I met I’ve honed that stuff. He’ll set to, you know, it’s harder here it takes longer. I don’t know why that is. But it’s that’s the new challenge. It just takes, you know, something I could get done literally in 45 days in China beginning to end brand new. Takes me six months here.
Jeremy Weisz
So let’s talk about HyperGo. So Freddy in mind, let’s talk about launching HyperGo.
Freddy Bunkers
Yes, this is my business. So I started this back in 2014 when I was 14. And it really stemmed from when I was driving all these like, you know, two hours to volleyball tournament or a basketball tournament and I just didn’t want to sit in a car for two hours on the way home with eight different guys and just like sitting in sweat every car. No, that was just like her new acne. I always just had this thing was like, I had braces at the time. I was like, I can’t have acne and braces. You know, I gotta get this sweat off my face immediately. And you know, my mom’s always wanted me in the business. You know, she’s an entrepreneur and I’ve kind of always wanted to, you know, follow that step. And so I came to this with this idea was like more like, what about a wipe, you know, you can just wipe down and you’re basically showered and she’s like, You know that’s a pretty good idea and so she really just helped me you know find factories and really what she said about samples like is so true we maybe got like 80 different samples because every time you know it’d be a little bit different than or like this one had too much scent stuff like that. So really it took a little bit but with her expertise, it was finally came to a product that we really enjoyed and so we get like reviews all the time like Wow, this is so perfect for like I biked to work but my work doesn’t have a shower like HyperGo wipe down you’re ready to go to work. And like during during COVID right now a lot of people will you know on zoom calls between for school or for work, and a lot of people have been telling me that they do workouts in between their zoom calls and there’s no time for a shower so they just swipe right down and they’re ready to get back to work.
Jeremy Weisz
From and I that imagine must be popular now with COVID what kind of properties I’m sure you got questions of Can I wipe this my table can I wipe myself and my surroundings? How does it work is like an antibacterial or Or that?
Freddy Bunkers
Well we do have like honey, which is a natural antibacterial, but it does not have contain alcohol, which is like you know the ingredient you need to kill 99% of viruses. So while this won’t kill everything, it’s definitely better than having nothing.
Jeremy Weisz
What’s the best use case for it? So you mentioned Tom’s biking to work. Someone is working out right before a zoom call. What else do people use it for?
Freddy Bunkers
Um, camping. People love doing this because they’re biodegradable. So, okay, really good for the environment. It really is just a wipe for everything.
Jennifer Bunkers
Yeah, it’s interesting. I get carsick a lot. And we’re driving to LA for some reason. Of course I got cars I can hop over and I’m like, you know, can somebody give me a why but of course everybody was on the phone. Nobody heard me. And of course, right. But I you know, I leave a car and I see a big pack of wipes. And it never would have gone to because like, the wet wipes for babies are small. Art presents prints are really big. And it’s like, I can tell you it makes everyone have situations. 100% better. And I have a lot of friends that have babies that use our product for a baby wife. Because you can use one wife when they, when they poop all over themselves versus like 10 little baby wipes. It’s so fantastic. Guys,
Freddy Bunkers
you really never know when it’d be too wet. Because every and like, they’re 12 by 12. So we just call it a square from the clean, like, you’ll never know when you need that. Yeah.
Jeremy Weisz
So talk about launching it. So, you you get these ad samples, you’re like, Okay, we need the best of the best. You got it, talk about how you decide how many to order and then launch it?
Freddy Bunkers
Well, so that was one of the big reasons why we didn’t do you know, like, start manufacturing in the US right away, because their mo Q’s are just way too high. You know, this is a, I’m a 14 year old, I’m not going to I can’t order 100,000 pieces, that’s just not feasible. And so China was really like the ultimate source because we were able to only order 10,000 to start, you know, to see if this product could actually be launched and, you know, people would like it. And so that’s kind of how we settled on it because we just could not That many mo q pieces.
Jeremy Weisz
So you go to sell it so you get you to tie them on cue, what do you do to get it out there and to get order
Freddy Bunkers
listed like right on Amazon and that’s still to this day is really our main sales channel. And that first year, we really didn’t run like many marketing campaigns but it just shut off. And that was when we really knew that we had a product that work like we had. We got like, almost like 300 reviews the first year people were just sweating pills. So I was really great to see
Jennifer Bunkers
that also, I wasn’t, I was um, this was his idea completely. I had nothing to do with help him execute right and I of course, my position was to help him make the best product and find the right source and all those things but if there was nothing about this was my idea. And I sent him to see me and said you know, I can tell you I wouldn’t have had this idea I wouldn’t have and I’m really glad that you did because now that we see the opportunity in this product category. It’s been really fun.
Jeremy Weisz
And for years are Jennifer TruKid. Talk about TruKid and you know, g You go with Amazon strategy, both online strategy what when you launch a new product? Where do you put it out to what’s most successful?
Jennifer Bunkers
Well, that is so funny because we were just talking about before on this podcast how we are melding both of both our, our successes, right? So Freddy’s success is now his online digital strategy and very simple packaging. It’s really repeatable, really easy. And yeah, Mike started out super ecommerce focused. And I have been in and out of like brick and mortar retail in Amazon in and out of. And so we now have a strategy where we launch on our Shopify site and our Amazon. And our goal is to build a business here, and then we sell it to our distribution partners in other parts of the world, right. So our international distribution is really important that that is our strategy, right? We launched online here to get you to sort of groundswell and acceptance and then it goes offshore to our international partners. And we’re
Jeremy Weisz
Talk about the distribution partners, what kind of partners they doctors offices, more or
Jennifer Bunkers
no I have so for my international We sell in, you know, several countries outside the US. And we have made we have, you know, exclusive distributors to certain countries, right. So they, they buy up, we, you know, work year in advance and they and we participate in all their marketing. Because like that’s our channel we were talking about earlier, like simple is one of our core values and simple supply channels, right? More than one Amazon’s a really strong business partner for us, like really, really strong. But we I don’t believe in having one channel. I like several revenue streams coming in, in case one has a problem. Because Amazon even though our sales are still strong, because we were deemed essential. Now it could easily could have gone another way. Right? So we so we have our Shopify channel, we have our international, we have our Amazon, and we also sell wholesale customers in the us too. But then, you know, our international business is a huge part of our growing business because we’re made in the USA, which I feel really, really feel really proud of that way our stuff is made in the US now. They just opened up the world if your stuff is made here, and so I want to make sure we have several channels that are all Strong and all functioning at the same time for us to grow and scale our business and Freddy’s businesses, you know, where’s Moe? More just on Amazon and so now he’s starting to take the same approach with you know, a greater revenue revenue streams.
Freddy Bunkers
Yeah. Greater brand awareness. Yes, we are. We’ve launched on gnc.com and then we are launching on Jetta comm pretty soon. And then we also launched on Sears. So yeah, what I like what she did in the beginning, like, you know, like all her brick and mortars I’m trying to do that now after I got a bunch of brick brand awareness from Amazon. And so that’s kind of what she talked about having a multi channel fulfillment.
Jeremy Weisz
So Freddy, talking about your day a little bit, obviously. Well, now it’s a little different COVID but when you were in school, like an actual school, how do you When do you work on the business?
Freddy Bunkers
Well, luckily, in college, you know, I only have like one or two classes a day. So it frees up my schedule a lot. So I was always on the clock like either my social media team or you know, with RBA trying to just get stuff done. But in high school, it was a little trickier. That’s classroom a two three. So that’s how I kind of clustal that habit where I really work best from like 10 to 12pm at night toy at night.
Jennifer Bunkers
That’s that’s our, that’s our peak work time is 10 to midnight, I kid you not, I have to be ready. And I start earlier in the day, so I am building my nighttime stamina, so I can work at the same time he’s working. We get so much done between time that that I can’t tell you
Jeremy Weisz
rob the team, the team behind Trukid, you know, what kind of team did you have to put in place?
Jennifer Bunkers
Well, my team has definitely changed over the years. I mean, it’s like, I’m definitely pivoting or have pivoted to a digital team. 18 months ago, I got rid of my office, like I said earlier, and I got rid of my people, because I I wanted to take advantage of like the best people like to hire didn’t mostly live in my town. And I knew that I wanted to have a digital team because I feel like I could scale the business greater and faster. So that’s what we did. So we have you know, you know, product people and Customer Service people and you know accounting people all that stuff and it’s just such a better way to run the business now I’ve had to change versus other people where I have to be more online and more digitally tech, you know, I guess technology teacher slack a
Unknown Speaker
lot. I mean, I’m getting used to
Jennifer Bunkers
Yeah, yeah, I’m selling the inaugural I mean, it’s just who I am so you know, I’m getting better it’s hard to break that habit. Dude, it really is it was really hard for me to his paper is tried to stop using paper so that’s, that’s one of my biggest challenges. Like no stop printing stuff out right. So I have a big monitor now I can look at things paper you know, streamline you know and and set up the slack is set up like we’ve been very good at creating processes that are repeatable now. Right so that’s one of our main core you know,
Jeremy Weisz
What do use to create processes use certain technology when we
Jennifer Bunkers
start with loom we video the process from from your your desktop, right? And then we send it to the RBA or somewhere else to make sure they can repeat the process. You know that it gets digital So we can, you know, have our, you know, our lockbox processes. So that’s what I’ve been praying I’ve been I’ve been challenging him these days, because he’s our Chief Digital Officer. And he’s very good. He’s very fast technology. And I’m like, but Dude, you gotta be able to hand it to someone else, because you shouldn’t be processing orders. And so he’s now you know, listening a little to get the process right, because right now, so this is the perfect time because as we grow and scale, we don’t want to have to go back and fix these processes or go back and try to do them get it done. Right. There’s there’s
Freddy Bunkers
more important things I should do with my time then, you know, processing orders 100% Yeah, I
Jeremy Weisz
was on with you know, shout out to Cameron Harold. I was talking to the other day runs a COO Alliance and he was talking about how important processes are slps are and we were discussing he he likes uses Sweet Process. I actually know the founder, Owen. So shout out to them and sweet process. Yeah, you’re exactly right. The SLP in that process makes it so it’s repeatable and so you can hand it to someone else. And then you could focus on a you know, a No better use of your time than doing something else, someone also may be better that thing, then then we are, you know, to what was a pivotal hire for you. Generally you’re telling Freddy Freddy in like two years, like, make sure you need to hire this. This position? What’s that? What was the pivotal hire for you as you were growing?
Jennifer Bunkers
Um, it’s gonna have to be my production team for me because we, you know, we’re product focused, right? We’re creating brand new product, and I need the team behind me. So having my head of, you know, product development is really important.
Jeremy Weisz
So what does that look like? What do you look for in a product development team?
Jennifer Bunkers
It’s really hard to hire that because you’re really good at it. And I’m gonna, I’m gonna say, I haven’t found anyone who has a greater mastery of product development than I do. Because I’ve been doing it for so long. It isn’t my strong, it’s my strong suit. It’s finding someone that can think like I think and ask the same question so I don’t have to be doing all the all the heavy lifting up like well just say that, just think about that. Like, how many factors do you find? Right? So it’s,
Jeremy Weisz
that is the toughest thing to do I think for for any business owner is the thing that you’re best at giving it to someone else or finding someone else. Mm hmm. It’s really tough.
Jennifer Bunkers
Yeah, it’s hard. And I, you know, I’m not an awesome hire. I mean, I’m not I mean, I was better at hiring when I had my sourcing business. Like I was, I was like, 95% accurate every time I’d hire someone, because for some reason, like that sourcing business was easier than creating brand new products on my own. I can’t tell you why the difference is what it is for me. So I take a little bit longer now to hire and you know, I screw up a lot
Jeremy Weisz
more some I’m curious because you have so much stuff coming through your you through your desk, especially when you’re in the sourcing and now with product. What were some of the really interesting ideas that you saw other people come to you with? Oh, any weird interesting ones?
Jennifer Bunkers
Well, I like I joke I’ve made martial arts weapons, soft porn graphic products. And you know the the most interesting thing I did was I had a I would do work for a food company and I had it to air airship dried herb mix for a dip like you would make a whipped cream to it or whatever. I shipped out to China pack it out the whole box the whole product comes back and delete done right. And one of my fighters got rated and they destroyed all the herb packs because I thought it was drugs. Oh,
Jeremy Weisz
yeah, looks like comes like somebody’s cannabis or something
Jennifer Bunkers
like something. So no, that’s not it, though. It’s like that’s, that’s hard work. That’s like, that’s hard work. Right. And I said I would never do it again. I think I did it 20 more times, of course, cuz I can’t stop myself. So that was that was hard, interesting and curious.
Jeremy Weisz
You, you know started off working really long hours. And so what took you on the first part of your entrepreneurial journey?
Jennifer Bunkers
Like when I first started my business, yeah, first started. Yeah. You know, so I worked for an engineering company and I was eight months pregnant. And I thought I should probably I should probably get a real job, I worked a ton of hours, I should probably get a job where I work less hours and be less stressful. Like, that was my strategy, right? So I did. So I got a job with a toy company, which opened up my whole world. Because my first job was to fly to China and open up production. I’ve never done that ever. And, you know, it was the thing that changed my life. Forever was was having separate tunity to hop on a plane on somebody else’s behalf and learn a whole new skill set. And in the beginning of my business, I worked a ton of hours, I was on the phone to China every single night, talking to factories and whatnot. And, you know, I’ve learned I’ve learned now to not stress the little things. They’ll happen the next day. So now I don’t hardly work eight hours in a day because I have teams of people
Jeremy Weisz
So with the kids Freddy as the business, what’s the kind of methodology in order? You talked a little bit about it? So first, it’s the idea phase. How do you, you know, brainstorm that he came to his idea, but what do you tell your other kids like, here’s what you should be thinking about before you actually release in come up with your your product.
Jennifer Bunkers
So I have four girls and two boys and Freddy’s number three. And then my last bought little guys a boy. And he and I played baseball catch, right? I used to coach a little league team, and he’s 12 now so we would play catch, and we talk ideas, like they talk about we play catch, we talk ideas, right? And so my, my strategy with the kids is to just discuss ideas while we’re doing something, right. Because that’s where I just came out the other day, Freddy, we’re driving around. We had some ideas for about something that we wouldn’t have had in the office. So, you know, I try to do things like that when we’re not like a focused conversation about ideas for my kids doesn’t work. It has to be be some sort of free thing that we’re doing an idea comes up now what’s interesting about my kids is my four girls are not that interested in having a business you know, the old one is destined to be a CEO someday I leave to go the second one we’re not sure but my fourth girl she wants to have a consulting business of some kind I didn’t remind you that’s still a business it still counts that
Jeremy Weisz
she wants to make money
Jennifer Bunkers
yeah no and then Piper might number five will have a business we’re just going to figure it out but they’re super resistant to it I’m unsure why it could be cuz I’m really forceful about it could be it but the boys are boys
Jeremy Weisz
when it comes from someone else it they’ll listen to a perfect stranger
Jennifer Bunkers
they do they do that that’s that’s my whole life is like I’m never an expert on anything but you know my neighbor can be it’s the same exact same exact stuff. But you know, people come to me a lot how’d you get you can start a business. And when I’ve seen in my house have six kids that they either naturally want to do Or they don’t at one point, I had the four girls ready to launch a business together, because I look at them as the perfect team, right? Because they all have really different skill sets. They weren’t perfect team, right? And we were ready to roll. In the day we were going to do a photo shoot all of this stuff. I had all the girls there. And I said, something’s not right. Because like the older ones snapped at the second one. The second one said you might mean feel stupid, and you name it just really, really fast. And the other two girls like it goes, it goes why was so horribly fast. And I said What’s going on? I said, What What have I done wrong? Right? Why is this not working? And then they realize they don’t really want to work together like it was to was to dissuade but but what it was for me it was my idea is my creation was all me, not theirs. And that was really the that was really the when I had to stop myself because I have so many ideas. It’s so easy for me. They didn’t want to do it. It wasn’t interesting to them. And then Georgia, Georgia. To me, she has, instead of starting a company, we should go to therapy, right? So classically her
Jeremy Weisz
over started coming to therapy.
Jennifer Bunkers
And then we’re talking later and I said to her to tell me what didn’t work for you. Because you, you just assumed we knew what to do because we’ve been around you, but you didn’t stop and teach us how to do stuff. I’m like, Oh my god, yes. So true. I didn’t I didn’t say and then stop and say, here’s what profit looks like. Like, I think I talk about these things. But I wasn’t. I didn’t sit down and teach them like I would teach somebody something to do. And I will. So that was that was a few years ago. And I’ve now since backed way off, because it was it can’t be about me it has to be their desires and their dreams and their wants, right. So I have every confidence and faith in my ability to persuade them at some point through subterfuge that they will do a business of some kind on their terms and it’ll happen Now you know what’s nice about Freddy and rolling my little guy like he wants a business and the pet business Trubuddy has his and we’re launching it pretty soon because he loves dogs and he loves the idea. And he loves business. In fact, a couple years ago, he said to Freddy, I’m going to crush you in sales. I love it. I love it.
Jeremy Weisz
Freddy, what do you think about that?
Freddy Bunkers
I like is, honestly, I hope he doesn’t overtake me, but it might happen.
Jeremy Weisz
So you’re gonna launch this, This Is A Pet talk about what what that is, what are you launching with a pet?
Jennifer Bunkers
It’s, it’s a pet cleansing product that’s not already out in the marketplace. It’s a way to cleanse your pet quickly and easily without having to you know, keep reaching for the bottle. It comes with a little washing minute and the whole thing. It’s just a streamlined, simple product. That makes it really easy and sustainable. It’s like four or five ingredients in it. And it’s just it’s so brilliant. Really, really revolutionizes pet wash. It really does and we’re just so excited about and we’re sitting around doing it too, because he’s super excited. He loves being the face of the brand like we’re doing all this backend work before we launch it and because he and I think I may think it’s because he’s the little one and he’s watched it this time, but he also is inclined, right? He’s inclined to want to make money. He’s inclined to want to do these things. Like he’s bringing his computer over to the next me goes, Okay, I’m ready to work. Like,
Jeremy Weisz
but he’s motivated. He’s
Freddy Bunkers
motivated like, whenever he’s outside playing basketball, and he comes in we always do like rolling you just missed a corporate meeting. I did. Why don’t you just
Jennifer Bunkers
tell me like get back on your phone Did you can keep up with me like we we joke all the time that we that we charge 500 bucks for missing the board meetings. I were just joking, though. But no. Like, get get your technology. I do. Like we talked like I said, even though we’re just really joking, but you know, he, he’s coming along and he has all the technology on his phone now Not to worry, right? He gets to participate, but we want we want him to so that he comes in and sits by us for a while. Even though he didn’t miss a boy but he didn’t really miss anything. We’re just you know, just trying to make sure he doesn’t miss.
Freddy Bunkers
We honestly need a TV show about it.
Jeremy Weisz
Probably, you know, the importance of groups and peer groups. I know you’re a big believer in and you were president of EO San Francisco. Um, so talk about eo and in the effect of yo on your business and what you do.
Jennifer Bunkers
So, um, you know, as entrepreneur organization is a global organization of CEOs, and it’s, it’s designed to have peer to peer learning, for example, you know, Jeremy, you’re an author, I’m an entrepreneur, we have a sort of a language of how we get through the day we talk about things. But what I love about Oh, is that it’s a global network of peers that are struggling in the same way I’m struggling for example, if I have trouble with HR or trouble production, or trouble something else, or I need someone to help me scale my business, someone in our group has had experience for sure. I can send emails to folks and other chapters and other countries and other people, you know, parts of the world, you know, and it’s just a way to connect in a way that I can’t connect with say my best friend Who is not an entrepreneur and she loves me and I love her but she can’t she she can’t understand the same struggles that I’m struggling with where he Oh, I’m surrounded by people who are living the same life I’m living you know, the good the bad and the ugly
Jeremy Weisz
way some great advice you’ve gotten through from someone who because of you in EO
Jennifer Bunkers
You know, there’s just there’s just so much you know, I know Cameron Harold, he is you know, part of our group and you know, watching him work with Brian 1800-got-junk has been really inspirational and how to how to scale a business right but um, you know, recently Mike Mccalla Wits is a, you know, also an entrepreneur. It was about, you know, focus, you know, focus on one thing, and you know, his other thing too recently was his book profit first was, you know, entrepreneurs can be really poor because we’re always putting money back into the business and not not Yeah, fix this next. Yeah.
Jeremy Weisz
I love his books. You know, I talked to him the other day. Like you like you him Yo, Profit First, Fix this Next every single book he’s written, the pumpkin plan is fantastic.
Jennifer Bunkers
Yeah, he’s so smart is so good. I’m really lucky to have him as my friend. I’ve been hanging out this book like like crazy. But the profit first series book that he wrote, really spoke to me because we ton of others don’t take care of themselves financially, we just keep tapping the pool of resources we have and keep putting it back into the business. It is like no, you gotta pay yourself and get the money out of the company. So you have so you have to do that. And so that, you know, that was probably the most recent but really good advice I had gotten. You know, I’m like he’s my friend, because we don’t pay ourselves well enough all the time. You know, and like, you know, in your your talk with James like hoarding cash. My God is now the best time of our cash. You got to be hoarding cash. James James. Yeah, James. Yeah, this is really important. You gotta you gotta have some cash reserves, especially right now this is this is scary territory if you don’t have if you don’t have some cash at hand in mind But profit first helps that happen.
Jeremy Weisz
Yeah. Yeah. So James Thompson Yeah, Buy Box Experts. I don’t I didn’t remember that. He said that, but now that you say it, yeah, he said, make sure you’re you’re keeping cash on hand.
Jennifer Bunkers
It’s, it’s just really critical. And, you know, and how we are launching new brands, Freddy and I, there has to be a certain like, we must be profitable right away. I don’t have tolerance for a long, lengthy, like, I hope this works kind of a thing, right? It has to be profitable, right? So there’s a process that we go through to ensure that we’re launching something that first of all, the profit margin is what we we’ve established, and it can be, because then you can grow your business because you you got, you know, this big runway of profit that you can, you know, find marketing and, you know, and and, you know, buy a new product and you know, grow your business and otherwise, if it’s not profitable, like you have to just stop and so we know, that’s part of our process
Jeremy Weisz
risk. I mean, it’s a risk you buy 10,000 units. I mean, it’s it’s a comparison, right? Okay. 100,000 Whoa, okay, let’s hold back a little bit. But 10,000 for a lot of people is a lot. So how do you ensure when you put that order in for 10,000 that you’re going to because you’re bootstrapping it, right. It’s not like there’s like a VC out, you know, funding this thing. How do you ensure, okay, like, I mean, anyone’s gonna be nervous regardless, but how do you ensure you’re ordering these 10,000 that you before you get them? What are you doing to make sure okay, I don’t want these stocking piling in my garage.
Freddy Bunkers
Well, like, luckily, I had my angel investor here. But, you know, before the product arrives, it takes a little bit for it to come
Jeremy Weisz
out. But your angel investor Freddy is is I wouldn’t want it I mean, I would take her seriously, you know, so you knew she was like, you better get these. Get these flying off the shelves. I don’t care. Right. So.
Freddy Bunkers
So like, luckily we had time to go before the product was coming. It’s like we got all our products already done. And we had our Amazon listing, like, optimized as best they could. And we really were just, I had all my friends go and buy it on Amazon and we get started. reviews and that’s really a big part of is, no one’s gonna buy a product with no reviews. And so I think that was really started, I had all my friends try out my product, I was like, please like, I’ll send you guys a code, just go on Amazon and buy it. It really that’s how we kind of started building up. Like once then more people use word spreads, it really was a lot of word of mouth or word of like another Amazon search, but it really just started spreading from there.
Jennifer Bunkers
However, we did help, like the goal was that we’d be able to unload 10,000 pieces a year, right? Dude, it was a it was a risk, right? It was a category with my with and like I felt based on our research that we could if it failed, we could sell it right? Yeah. And get rid of it. I felt confident that no matter what we wouldn’t know it, maybe we broke even but we wouldn’t get hurt
Freddy Bunkers
at the time we launched it. Like there’s very little competition like the, you know, workout whitespace there’s like really nothing so we were hoping that since we picked such a niche that you know, a lot of people need the wipes but just there was no one to offer them. That product we’re really hoping that this would you know,
Jeremy Weisz
set off Jennifer, you know, what is any you have any recommendations on other groups they should look at or books they should look at for business leaders or entrepreneurs? I know EO is one, are there any other books or groups that you recommend people check out?
Jennifer Bunkers
Well, you know, I’m always looking for new groups because, you know, I, you know, for sure belong to a group, right? For and I both belong to 10x, which is an online Slack channel for entrepreneurs, which you know, has lots of different categories and lots of different expertise. I kind of like that
Jeremy Weisz
runs that is that is that like, more because you knew someone in the group or Can anyone who’s an entrepreneur join that?
Jennifer Bunkers
I think it might be gated also.
Jeremy Weisz
Yeah, I think I’ve heard of it. I think it is gated.
Jennifer Bunkers
I believe it is gated You know, that’s probably all I you know, there’s you know,
Freddy Bunkers
what, gathering of Titans
Jennifer Bunkers
I think that’s party Yes. Party you. Let me see
Jeremy Weisz
any other books that you like? Tell your kids to listen to a read that would be helpful from a business standpoint or entrepreneur standpoint.
Jennifer Bunkers
Well, you know what, I’m a big fan of The Four Hour Workweek. Because I realized that I can, I’m really productive, like I said, between 10 to midnight. So if I can get all my work done then which is not exactly true, I’m going to get it done. So my kids all haven’t read it. Like they resist things. You know, I can’t really write whether the Mike’s books I’ve read all Mike’s books, because they’re easy to read, and they’re interesting and they’re informative.
Jeremy Weisz
Like what have you found? Like, if you’re talking to another person who’s your age, or maybe in high school, and you’re like, Listen, you should check out this resource or I found this helpful from from your standpoint.
Freddy Bunkers
Oh, well, I think like you know, my directions like less used to reading like, really long things I’m just always Google searching like I that’s how I’m always finding new stuff. is just like that’s how I find new marketing stuff new. Just new ways. Like optimize our listings, I’m always just searching for new things I wouldn’t I can’t think of like one.
Jeremy Weisz
Know, if there was like a YouTube channel, you’re like, Oh, I always check this person to
Freddy Bunkers
show up. I was like, You can’t stop it the first Google search, like, I’m going to like page two, three, you know, most people don’t really do that, because everything you want is on the first page. But you can really find some, like useless stuff. You just keep going. Like maybe there’s not as ready for,
Jeremy Weisz
I want to highlight that for a second. That’s a really smart piece of advice Freddy, you know, like when I’m doing research on a guest. And I talk about them like Jimmy, how do you know that? I’m, like, I went to the second page of Google like, it’s literally it’s I just dug might, you know, a little bit deeper than everyone else, maybe the second third page, and like, how did you find that? I mean, when you go past the first page of Google, whatever you’re researching could be a business. It could be a, you know, just you want to research a company. You go to the second page of Google, like most people haven’t gotten past the first search result, right. So that’s a really, I just want to hone in a really smart it’s Seems simple. But it’s, it’s, it’s simple. It’s not necessarily easy. And it’s not what people do. Right. So,
Jennifer Bunkers
Jeremy, I want to I want to point out something Freddy just said too, right? So like, he resists, he resists learning the way I learned and I have to express respect, like, I’ll read, or I’ll listen, I’ll watch things. And I have to drag him to a podcast to listen. But you because they don’t have the patience, right? It has to be really short snippets. So when we talk, no joke, we just do we just hold podcasts Tick tock, right, over 30 seconds or less. Seriously, is that’s where he finds all of his knowledge. And he sends it to me and then I send him articles which he scans and then Alright, let’s let’s watch this thing’s like, you know, I don’t want to watch it. Right? Which is very how much why this works really well, because I’m going to be reading things. He’s looking at things that look that last 15 seconds. And somehow that work that works. We both
Freddy Bunkers
bring, like really different perspectives on like, issues. Yeah, I
Jennifer Bunkers
don’t I don’t ever see free reading in business. But not ever actually there was a cliff notes. Maybe he take a look at it. But that generation and it could be just him. It just it’s, it’s not interesting to them they will information in other ways
Jeremy Weisz
for it what software or technology? Are you trying to force your mom to use that you think is essential that she has not listened to yet?
Freddy Bunkers
Well, I really like Asana. It’s like,
Jeremy Weisz
oh, big, huge, big user. Oh, yeah.
Freddy Bunkers
So like I was going through, you know, like, there’s like Monday, and also, I was like, I don’t really want to pay for this. And Asana is like free for, you know, smaller teams. So like, we originally were using Trello. You know, my mom had a little bit trouble using that. So I was like, let’s just try to find it. And we haven’t fully gotten her there yet. But it’s how I keep like, so when we were like, you know, designing new products, like we always do a lot of like, given takes you like, I want this logo, I’m like Fine, I’ll give it to you because I’m gonna fight you on something else later down the line. I’m always tracking that in the Asana. So if you ever saw her, if she ever says like, no, I gave you This logo, or like this design aspect, or you know, this choice, I’m like, No, I have this written down. I like also I just use it to like, you know, track, like social media team. That’s how I’m always, you know, sending them. I’m writing down like new ideas for like social media posts like that. It’s just like a great tool to track all of my work.
Jeremy Weisz
Plus one on Asana. What else anything else that you should be using?
Freddy Bunkers
I’m
Jeremy Weisz
totally, I’ll second that. 100%. Jennifer, I’ll totally back that up. And happy to, to pull up our Asana board. We use it religiously, religiously. So yeah,
Jennifer Bunkers
I know I need to do it. It’s just part of one of the things I’m resisting
Jeremy Weisz
like intervention or anything. Make it into one.
Jennifer Bunkers
You should either mean for sure because I do reserve I persist.
Jeremy Weisz
What else? What other technology? So we talked about Slack, Asana, what are other critical software that you’re seeing
Freddy Bunkers
for social media, like Sprout Social
Jeremy Weisz
I got their auto Chicago by the way
Freddy Bunkers
I haven’t transferred like I said we always use like my
Jeremy Weisz
wife Sprout Social as opposed to one of the other ones there’s a lot out there the Buffer I’ve had the founder of the buffer on Meet Edgar on
Freddy Bunkers
my social media team told me was that a lot of those Instagram like repost things or like chandeliers are being taken down or something like that because they’re not following the strict Instagram guidelines because Graham is choosing to go
Jeremy Weisz
Specifically for Instagram so like, like MeetEdgar, the Buffer is fine for Facebook and LinkedIn or whatever but but you find Sprout Social is better for Instagram.
Freddy Bunkers
Yeah, cuz, um, I was told that it’s the one that quote like, follows Instagrams guidelines so closely so I know that it’ll be here because a lot of them have been taken down apparently wants you to be like posting by yourself not having machine to it. But that’s just not feasible for businesses and sprout. We get insights into like, you know, the best hashtags we it’s just, I know they kind of showed me that. This is the They like, you know, and I’ve just come, really I’ve grown accustomed to using it. And so that’s just I mean, there’s Hootsuite, there’s MeetEdgar, there’s buffer. There’s so many out there. Yeah, we used to use Hootsuite. And that was priority posts for me. And so that’s how I kind of switched. That’s when we switched over to sprout. And we’ve just been using it ever since. And you like it? Yeah. Well,
Jeremy Weisz
anything else? Well, yeah, go ahead.
Jennifer Bunkers
Well, we have mentioned Upwork. Do you know you from Upwork, right.
Jeremy Weisz
Yeah, for sure.
Jennifer Bunkers
Yeah, I love I love work because this is part of our digital team, right? We we made a one off something right? I mean, might need some renderings. And in fact, he’s gotten really good at creating posts to that Garner, like the best talent now. I kind of suck at it, but he’s much better. And that’s, you know, we love We love we’re all we always have a post on Upwork for something or another. It just it strengthens our abilities to get work done faster. And that’s, and I love that and, you know, and you know, hats off to Freddy for forcing me into the new tech logical I want to be a front runner in technology because I want to spend less time running my business and have a sort of run on the background, why I do what I’m good at, which is creating stuff. I don’t want to stop it technology can make that better for me. You know, I’m jumping in with both feet, although with
Jeremy Weisz
resistance. So I have two last questions. First of all, thank you. This has been tremendously valuable. Before I ask those questions, I’m going to point people to your sites, which is hypergo.com for Freddy’s full body wipes, the guy who’s going to get them boom, like you’re good. And then go to trukid.com T-R-U-kid.com. I always ask this because it’s Inspired Insider. What’s been a low moment, a challenge moment that you had to push through in the business. And then what has been a proud moment. And so I’ll have you each Freddy. Why don’t you go first? What’s been a challenge moment for you that you really Don’t get a point, like I try even do this anymore. Like, where are the challenge mode? And then a proud moment?
Freddy Bunkers
I’m like that I would say so my mom has always been, like, you know, pushing me to be, you know, face of Nick my brand. And so she’s always like, you know, I, I spoke at this Harvard Business event. It was like a Franca business group in the city. And I was like, I had, like, you know, I was super anxious. It’s like, when I was like 15 or 16, I did not want to do it. And so I was fighting for for like, with her up two weeks before because I just do not want to get in the state on a stage in front of those people. Most people don’t. Yeah, I was like, I was just afraid of like, you know, being in front of those people, but she like forced me to get through it, which kind of helped know that. self promotion is like a really important part of your brand. You know, entrepreneurs have their own brand, when they’re building their companies and I was always scared to be like, put myself out there. But once I did that, it was that was like a low because I was just I was not happy this week. Probably I did not want to do it. But I’m glad I did. Because it kind of got me out of my comfort zone to be able to, you know, my, it’s a cool story. And I was like a 14 year old entrepreneur, like that’s a story that should be shared. And I was too scared to do it. But I’m glad that I got pulled out of my comfort zone to do that. So that would definitely be a low moment. And then, like one of the best ones, like I always used to, like go on Amazon and I see where everyone was ordering from. And once we hit the 50 state mark that we had sold to someone in every single state. I was like so ecstatic. I don’t I don’t go look at now because now we’re you know, we’re way past that, but that was definitely a high moment. Something that’s so cool. Every single every single state has someone ordering our product. Like that’s how we know like we’re really getting out there.
Jeremy Weisz
That’s awesome. Thank you, Jennifer, you know, we’re gonna
Jennifer Bunkers
have no idea that he was tracking that metric.
Jeremy Weisz
What about you what’s been what was a big challenge, a moment low point in the journey and then on the flip side,
Jennifer Bunkers
well It tell you, we had an Amazon struggle because we, you know, when I admit we had been selling to Amazon vendor Central, which seemed like a really, really good idea is enrolled back over to FBA. And that was a year pain, because getting out of that is really hard because they buy so much, which is good on one hand, other hand, it took me a year to get all my listings back. So that was really hard, hard work. And thankfully, we’ve had it back for a while. So you know, now we’re seeing terrific success. And you know, a really proud moment and actually might even cry right now is Freddy’s been home from school because of COVID. Suzy has to be here. His office is behind me, right? And so we’ve been working together and then he decided that we need to build this media company together. So we’re building a new company, equipping all of our brands, and he chose me as his partner, and I’m gonna cry probably. And we defined our roles. He’s the Chief Digital Officer. I’m the CEO which he tries always take me every single day, but that moment Let’s work together. I can’t tell you how, how proud it makes me that he wants to work with me. Well, people, that is amazing.
Jeremy Weisz
What is the media company?
Freddy Bunkers
Um, so what we’re launching is more of a cat. Yeah, it’s more of like a, like a big umbrella have all of our new brands are launching and like, we like to call it a protein wellness. And so we’re creating affordable and simple products that you know, are accessible to everyone instead of, you know, because the space is usually your there’s like $100 serums. And that’s just not, you know, there’s a feasible for everyone. And so we want to make products that, you know, are really innovative yet. They’re open to everyone. Yeah, that’s kind of our next step.
Jeremy Weisz
Well, thank you for letting me partake in this. Mother son session. I totally appreciate both you ever check out hypergo.com trukid.com. Check them out. And thank you both for sharing the story.
Jennifer Bunkers
Jeremy was So fun to talk to you. Thank you for letting us on and you know, waste your time like this for an hour.
Jeremy Weisz
Not at all. Now the catch is to have make sure Freddy all Freddy’s friends watch more than three minutes of this
