An unconventional workout tool becomes a hit on Kickstarter, then goes on to earn $20,000 a month for its creator.
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This is an unofficial transcript meant for reference. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
Let's talk about a brazilian jujitsu instructor, who gets a vision to manufacture a workout tool that used by fighters, acrobats, ninja warriors and other hard core fitness enthusiast who want to be able to train
wherever they are jujitsu instructor, Slash, visionary,
It was a path of designing this tool. Getting it in the form of a template. Manufacturers can use funding.
Overseas factory, raising money through crowd, funding and well, there's more, but the story is
doing really well bringing in over twenty thousand dollars a month
is also really smart and how we respond to the challenges. The encounters even flying to China to meet with his outsource manufacturer when something goes wrong
can decide us go up. My name is critical about bringing you a daily story of a real person out. There is somebody who creates a new source of income without cutting their job without spending a ton of money and by using the skills they already have.
We have well over six hundred plus episode in the archives. One of our goals at team Sicel School is to get better at grouping our episodes into themes. For example, if you have just done
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Jason glow
I still remember the moment. He saw the most amazing training tool. It was a teenager and Jim Gnostics class and is coach wheeled out what can only be described as a contraption. It was a large flat block of work which lay on the floor with two metal poles standing out up to waste height each Paul had to smaller, but thicker wooden blocks at the top is coach began to balance his weight on the blocks and contorted his body and strong and powerful ways: handstands debt,
lovers and be sets. You do them all using only the simple tool and when Jason finally got his turn to play with it, he knew it could help him, but being a teenager, he didn't quite have the money to get one. So we'd have to wait a few years fast forward to adult life or Jason is now working full time.
As a brazilian jujitsu instructor, had a little money in his pocket. He decided here
just by one of these training contraptions, which he discovered or called Handstand Keynes. If you're in a fitness industry you might know that is, if you're not doesn't matter, but
tat he would build his own and improve on the design he wanted to replicate the same tool but make it suitable for home use
it would have to be lightweight and collapsible, so they could easily be stored under the bed were transported to your favorite workout.
He found him D. I why Youtube videos and how to create Handstand Keynes and spent his free time tinkering with the design we finished. He showed his fitness friends what he'd made and they liked it painful of them. Even ask of Jason could make one for them to us when he was struck with his business idea ass, he was whittling away pieces of wood. He thought of his friends were asking him to make this point,
There could be other people out there who had won it as well. So he began to look at how we could create this product at scale. The first step was to find an industrial designer. This was someone who could help.
And lay out his back of the neck and idea into a more precise blueprint form which manufacturers could then used to replicate the design. This step was important because it allowed Jason to design a product which he now called based blocks. The way he wanted to shop around for a factory which would make it too speck instead of compromising the product based on what the factory said they could produce
Next he looked for a manufacturer in China. He sent his industrial design to multiple factories to see who would provide the best quote by sending it to a lot of them.
Able to gauge with the true price to manufacturers was and thus eliminate the people or companies who are asking for too much money
one Tipp on this from Jason. He says: if you're going this route have a set of questions
to ensure that you're working with a real factory, and not just a third party company whose out to take a commission asking to see video
the factory and asking how many employees they have can be enough to discover that you should also dig deep into the reviews on sites like Ali Baba, to see what other customers think after a few weeks have back and forth Jason found a manufacturer who could create a sample version for six hundred dollars in ship it to his home when it finally arrived, he was impressed with equality and felt ready to take. This idea to the public and accept was to create a Kickstarter campaign he figured if people would invest in a campaign. He knew it was onto a business idea that could be successful.
But if it fell on deaf ears at least he had a six entered our based blocky could use at home. His goal for the campaign was to raise around twelve thousand dollars enough for his initial run of products into cover shipping to create that campaign. He invested four thousand dollars in making videos for his page. This included the initial
product. Video, ants and training. Videos in the event was successful, even invested the rest of his budget in Facebook, advertising about five thousand dollars to get the product out in front of a targeted audience that audiences people who are really into their fitness.
After a few weeks, he had smash his target and rate eighty four thousand dollars for based blocks. There is a clear market out their eager to get their hands on this cool piece of equipment
He then requested a production sample from his manufacturer. Here's another good Tipp, a production sample is different from the previous one he received, because production sample is based on how it looks
when it comes off a mass production assembly line the first samples handmade where the production samples may with machinery. So it's worth asking for that before giving your final go ahead, it was good that he did because here the base blocks. Bids
its first major snack in comparison to the original sample, their production sample looked awful Jason knew he could
and adverse not to his backers, it was such a punch in the got that he decides to fix the problem himself by booking a flight to China for the next day feeling the pressure he took his blueprint with him and began to visit
the relevant factories. He could eventually, he found my which had the machinery to create the product and need now seen at first hand without charging more per unit. That December Jason was ready to place an order which would be finished in February. Using Google he found a fulfilment centre would handle the based box, shipping and handling that men he could drop ship is,
Eric without filling his garage for stock, but one February rolled around his product wasn't even close to ready the factory pushed it back to April when April arrived Jason,
I did, he would fly to China again to see the first base block roll off the construction line, the off the plane went to the factory and found all of his stock on assembled on the floor.
There are waiting on one final part and delivery had to be pushed back once more. It was frustrating, especially since he'd already apologize to his kickstarter buyers. Multiple times
tell when the process was finally over Jason ship five hundred units directly to the fulfilment centre which they went out to the buyers and the rest state on the shelves ready to be sold in real time to new customers with a retail price of a hundred and seventy dollars, the struggle was real. There was also worth it in the end is currently selling around twenty thousand dollars in stock per month. At around a forty percent profit.
Surgeon? I mean she's, making eight thousand dollars a month in profit. His orders from China are now much more frequent, unreliable and he's got it down to a formula. Jason is now looking outside the? U S and towards developing markets for more sales. He does this by offering cheap international shipping. He basically pays the difference from his profits to see where the next buyers are coming from these thinking long term, betting, that if he finds a market with high to me
He'll be able to figure out a way to make money from it by facing those challenges head on. He persevered in size, fitness product, earning sweat, equity and a lot of cash month after month,
so early
We had another story of a Washington Dc. Doktor belongs to make plus two ways in the shape of human organs, so she whispered,
A similar model of learning to work with a factory overseas import, the products figure out, shipping, get a fulfilment centre, and so on. I don't call she did crap funding or not the point as at the time. I said this is not an easy path, but its doable it. It is a well trodden path, at least like there is a series of identifiable steps that you need to go through to see something like this through in Jason's
in this story. There are two things that stood out in particular. Why was that? He really kept his iron that manufacturing process and a couple of things went wrong, which is not abnormal.
Unfortunately, this happens with a lot of crowding campaigns, there's something that really takes off, but the person behind it hasn't thought through the manufacturing. They end up having problems that can get the supplier to provide the goods or it's gonna be much more expensive or the quality is not there and they just kind of fizzle out and a campaign is unable to fulfil what it promised or if it is, it's not able to transition
where sustainable business later so, in this case Jason, when he encountered those challenges, he's like I'm, gonna, get on a plane and go and sorted out myself, and not everyone can do that, but he was taking it really seriously. That's the point. The second thing was: he devoted his campaign budget to making good videos and driving pay traffic
So what does that mean? First of all, he realised with a fitness to all what this was. It really required
is your demonstration I can you ever heard of.
I think you might not even understand what it is promoting this episode fact I went to go and look at the videos nose like two interesting. I think I've seen those before, but I had no idea. There was a name for them
If you really want to sell somebody on a vision in terms of supporting your project, it needs to look really guide and then the driving traffic thing. He used a tool which will link up and talk about it in the episode it's called unbalance. This is a tool that that, since buyers from Facebook adds to a series of differ,
winding pages and over time you kind of sea which pages convert the best which pages are best for which people and basically a tool that allows you to make more money, have a higher conversion rates that the money is spent on Facebook or wherever you spend. It is not wasted, but rather its invested. So that gets a little bit technical. But the point is: there's a series of identifiable steps not easy, but doable
to use a running metaphor since over here on getting right to run my first marathon in many years. It's not that complicated I need to do is put one foot in front the other, like that's pretty much like there's a race. You have to keep running, but of course most people don't run marathons. Most people don't sell two hundred thousand dollars worth of their fitness tool in the first year, so there is some knowledge technology to acquire, as well as the ability to adapt and respond to challenges.
Even more important, I think, is the discipline to do it. The belief in yourself the commitment to your gall and the confidence that, when you encounter those difficulties, you're gonna figure it out
going to find a way around those obstacles. Take that with you as you leave.
Day. I hope you enjoy this one as always inspired.
This guide put inspiration. What action is better today show
including links to the base, blocks and unbound school everything else. I mentioned all right side, hustle school at dot, com, six hundred and thirty. Seven s episode six hundred and thirty seven.
I'll, be back again tomorrow with the weekly recap and much more to come next week. Thank you for listening. My name is crystal about. This is beside us all. School.
Transcript generated on 2020-04-28.