- Speaker #0
I think we industry neutralize so much that we're not actually talking to anyone. And so we're just a product. And when you compare our product to other products, they have similar features. And we lost the connection of our customer. And so what we did is we started talking to each of the industry specific people on their own landing page.
- Speaker #1
You're watching Marketing Misfits with Norm Farrar and Kevin Kane. Hey, Norm, have you ever had to pivot in your business where something is going really well, then all of a sudden the bottom falls out and you make a pivot and the pivot ends up being bigger than what you originally thought it would be?
- Speaker #2
Well, I've had to pivot. I don't necessarily say it's going to be bigger, but yeah, you got to change, right? If something happens, that's part of being an entrepreneur is being able to pivot in your business, make decisive changes quickly.
- Speaker #1
I mean, our guest today that we'll get into in just a minute, that's exactly what she did. I mean, she was running salons and doing really well in that industry. And then along comes COVID and things crash, as you can imagine. And so she pivots into a need that she saw in her current business and started a whole new business. And out of that, it's booming right now. And not just because... of the opportunity, but because of the way she's doing the branding and the marketing and everything else. And so it's, it's a really, really cool story. I just think Norm, if you actually did something like that, where you would be now, instead of sitting there in your chair and your thong, where would you be now? If you would have pivoted after one of these, every time we smoke cigars, it's like, find out a business you had in a thong, which we'll be doing in Tampa here sure we are. So,
- Speaker #2
yeah.
- Speaker #1
Every time I talk to you, Norm's like, oh, yeah, when I had this business, when I had that business, when I had this business, you sold some of those and you've made some money along the way and you've had some ups and downs just like all of us have. But just imagine where you would be now. Just imagine. You wouldn't have to be sitting here talking to me. You didn't have to be listening to my voice just rail on.
- Speaker #2
I think I still would, you know.
- Speaker #1
That's because you'd miss me, right?
- Speaker #2
Yeah, I would. I would. I miss my little gummies that you get me and my Mexican Coke Zeros.
- Speaker #1
That's when you come to Texas. That's right. That's the good thing about being in Texas. No, but you could get Mexican Coke just down the street from you now.
- Speaker #2
I can now, so I'm a pretty happy guy. That's why I'm staying here.
- Speaker #1
You can't get Tiff's Treats cookies. You can't get those. I know. You know, that white box that's sitting on the counter?
- Speaker #2
I definitely know.
- Speaker #1
It has cookies in there, and like two days later, they're all gone. I don't know what happened to it.
- Speaker #2
White chocolate, macadamia nut, double chocolate, the cinnamon ones. Yeah, yeah, those ones. I know. I know exactly what you're talking about. But, you know, all seriousness, you know, I guess we've got to talk a little seriousness once in a while. But business, especially small business, that's the That's the advantage that you have over these big corporations is that you can change. You see an opportunity. You can go for it. And a lot of people don't take that chance. Or what they decide to do is they're not resilient enough. So they end up lying on the couch weeping and watching Judge Judy twice a day, 6 and 6.30, by the way. And, you know, I've been there. I've done it. I bought the T-shirt. But... you've got to think when a door closes, another one opens. And this one, Mary's got an incredible story. So I can't wait to talk to her.
- Speaker #1
Yeah. So Mary's a really cool person. I mean, I first met Mary. She was recommended by her good friend, Vanessa Hong. I mean, Vanessa, I was doing my first Market Masters event at what you were at back in like two days before Vanessa messaged me and said, hey, you need any more experts? I was like, no, I think I'm good. And she messaged me and said, well, I met this person, I think at the internet marketing party, I think she said, that's really sharp and really, really good. I think she'd be a good addition. You should talk to her. So I was like, yeah, sure. Why not? I don't know. So I get on the phone with, she connects us. I get on the phone with Mary. And I was like, okay, I'm looking at your website. I'm looking at this. It looks like you're good, but I'll give it a chance. So you can come out and sit on one session. And so she came out and sat on one session. And she did so good. I was like, do you want to sit on some more? She's like, yeah. Do you want my husband to come out? He's good at sourcing. We've had him on the podcast. Jason has been on the podcast. So they ended up coming out, participating, and providing massive value. They came to the second Market Masters, and then she just recently spoke at Elevate 360 and delivered an amazing talk there. So this is really cool that we got Mary on the podcast. I think everybody's going to be very... enlightened today on on her journey and some of her stories and especially when it comes to marketing and branding and she has a house pig and she has a house pig and she likes white she likes white everything you'll never you'll never guess but you'll never guess okay here she is hello
- Speaker #0
mary hello thank you for that introduction funny story my house pig is black so i don't love oh house pig is black but seriously yeah does he have a wife He has white boots.
- Speaker #1
Okay, white boots. All right.
- Speaker #0
So his name is Boots.
- Speaker #1
Oh, yeah? That's awesome. So your story is a really cool one. I mean, I gave a brief introduction there, but maybe you can fill us in a little bit on exactly your backstory.
- Speaker #0
Yeah, absolutely. Where do I start? I'll make it as short as possible. When I grew up, My parents traveled a lot. My dad went to medical school in Dominican Republic and my mom worked for the airlines. And so we were homeschooled because we could go to Dominican Republic to and from all the time. And so at a very young age, I learned how to travel. And that bug has never left me. And fast forward to where I am now. I've traveled 64 countries. And I always like to start the story with my traveling because I think it adds to just how life got me. put together for me all the pieces. When you travel, it really helps you to think outside the box. You see things through other people's lenses and you learn how to connect with them when there's no language barriers, that a smile is universal or chuckling with something, something happens and it's funny. You laugh with that person, even though you might have a struggle to communicate with them. And so for me, I always look back to when I was traveling of, I would see people make things out of nothing and put together these contraption and inventions. And it always stuck with me of like, wow, you can really make something out of nothing that doesn't exist. And so through this journey, I went to beauty school when I was 18. I am decades past that. But I've always been in and out of the beauty industry. I loved doing everything from hair to skincare to I ended up falling in love with lashes, which are the little individual eyelash extensions you put on a woman's eyelash. And Through that journey, I came to own my own spa in Los Angeles and everything was going great. We were one of the highest rated salons in that area with the most reviews and life was amazing. And then COVID happened, like you mentioned, and we got the call that we were personal care services and our salon, our location would be closed. And so I did take the pivot and launched a product from just an idea in my head going back to if it doesn't exist, doesn't mean that it can't exist. You just have to use your imagination and understanding how to make it exist. and launched it into what is now a globally recognized brand. We hold stock in five different countries. We ship to over 80. We're patented in 28 countries. And so it's a fun story to tell. But that was my mini-me introduction.
- Speaker #1
It's interesting that you say that travel really gave you a different perspective because as we've discussed, I've been to a few more countries. I'm about to hit my, this Friday, I'll hit my 97th country. Amazing. So I agree with you. It's the best freaking education you can get is to go where you don't know the language, you don't know the food, you don't know the culture, and just it opens your eyes. It's better than reading any book or watching any movie. And it gives you a whole different perspective on the world. It shows you how very similar we actually are despite our language and cultural differences and how different we are. and it gives you a... I think it creates an understanding in human psychology and human nature that you can leverage into marketing and products that a lot of people don't ever have that opportunity to get that experience.
- Speaker #0
Absolutely. And emotional marketing, where you make people feel. You're not putting words on a screen. You're not trying to sell them something. You're making them feel something. I think that's universal. You can do that without languages, without cultures, without religions. all of that. A human just has those natural tendencies to feel things. And if you can use that in your marketing, you're so powerful.
- Speaker #1
It also makes you realize that us, we're fortunate to be in the United States. I mean, there is no other place on the planet that's as friendly and open and as opportunistic for entrepreneurs as the United States, in my opinion. Do you agree with that after being to all these places and seeing some of the struggles and some of the things that they have to fight against just to try to. make their own way?
- Speaker #0
Yeah, absolutely. In fact, I think it's one of the shortcomings of Americans is that they don't travel enough because when you really get to see how other countries live and how little their government steps in to help them, if you're born with a something wrong with you, unfortunately, that's how you spend your whole life. And they're on the streets and they have a really just, they have a not the greatest upcoming of life. And when you look at how Americans are, it's like we have amazing healthcare where we have these doctors that train their whole life and are allowed to really bring out the best for you. And if you have something, it doesn't have to be a disability that you can go through life and make it your superpower, your strength. You can learn how to navigate around that. And I think it's so powerful. And as far as businesses, we all know how that works in America. Of course, you have so many opportunities in front of you.
- Speaker #2
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- Speaker #1
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- Speaker #2
They've helped up-and-coming brands like Magic Spoon compete with Cheerios for top category positioning, while also helping Fortune 500 brands like Unilever launch their new products.
- Speaker #1
Right now is one of the best times to get started with Stack Influence. You can sign up at stackinfluence.com or click the link in this video down in the description or notes below and mention Misfits, that's M-I-S-F-I-T-S, to get 10% off your first campaign. Stackinfluence.com. Yeah, I think the culture here actually is conducive to entrepreneurship versus a lot of cultures actually maybe directly discourage it or just don't support it like we do here. Yeah, Norm's a perfect example. I mean, you could probably give examples of how it's different being an entrepreneur in Canada versus here. Why? Why do so many people that do e-commerce, whether it's Amazon or Shopify or whatever, a lot of them focus on trying to set something up in the US? One, it's a big market for consumerism, but also it's easier.
- Speaker #2
You know what? I'm going to talk to you about that. I was shocked when I was talking to a lot of people over in Europe and why they weren't selling in America, because it was way more competitive. And they could sell their products so much easier in Europe. And, you know, I thought, oh, Europe's going to be like Canada. No, like it's completely different. And you can sell great products, make a good profit when you sell, and move forward to your next venture. Where all these people, I could tell you a ton of people that are not selling in America for that reason. But people in America, I know a million of them. that are involved being an entrepreneur, selling products. There's tons of opportunity, way more than anywhere else in the world. There's opportunity to get funded. There's opportunity for grants. There's all sorts of opportunities, but it all takes a little bit of work. I'd like to know, like, I know your background. I just heard what you did, but how did you go from traveling into a spa? And then into the brand that you did, how did you put it all together?
- Speaker #0
It was always parallel. So I've had my license since I was 18, but I would work a spa job and I would always work a bartending job. And so I bartended for 14 years and one job would pay all my bills and one would go into a fun fund. And that fun fund just would collect cash until I felt like it was time to leave. And so I would work two years, two jobs, one to pay all my bills and one to just fund. And then I would... decide I was kind of like done with that area, quit my job, get rid of my apartment, sell my car and take my fund and go travel all over the country, all over the world. And so I would take sometimes years, two and a half years at a time outside the country. I love to slow travel, get into a country and just take a couple of months to explore the whole country. And I would do that until I ran out of... I actually essentially, and then I would come back and go, okay, I need to get a job again. Let me go into the beauty industry, which is where I'm licensed. I know how to do that job. I'll also get another bartending job because it's quick cash and I'll start my fund over. And so I would work another two or three years, collect all the funds and then get to a point where I'm like, I think it's time to go again and do the whole thing, get rid of everything, sell my car. go pick a spot. I would always buy like a one-way ticket. I would buy a one-way ticket into that country and I'll figure it out and go as long as I can until I run out of cash and then come back. And so I did that over and over again. And at the time I met my husband, my now husband in California, I was working a job. I was bartending and working in a spa. And my goal was to get that fund as full as possible. And I was going to leave the States and most likely never come back. It was going to be my last hurrah. I'm going to go until I find somewhere that felt like home. and my now husband said, oh, that's a great idea. And I was like, I'm not dating. I'm not interested in dating. He said, look, I think you're a cool girl. I would just like to hang out with you until you go. But in no way do I want to stop you from traveling. I thought, oh, wow, that's like the best answer possible. OK, we're going to hang out, but I'm 100 percent going to go. And then as the date got closer, I pushed it back six months and then pushed it back six months. And I ended up never leaving the country like I thought I would. So I had this stack of cash that I thought I should really do something with this. don't think I'm going to leave. I'm going to stay here. And so I'd always worked for people in salons. What if I took the leap and bought a salon and made it my own? And so that's essentially what I did is I bought a salon that was up and running, purchased it and stepped right in, which was its own learning curve. Your first time as a business owner is completely different from employee. So that was its own wild curve and did that for about four or five years. And prior to that I had I had told my husband like or now husband when uh We moved from San Jose to Los Angeles. I said, when we moved, we got rid of our house. We did the whole thing. I was always meant to leave. I have to do a trip. And so I took six months off and went to Africa. And I started at the tip of Africa and traveled for six months the whole way through to Kenya.
- Speaker #1
With him or by yourself?
- Speaker #0
By myself. He met me in, we did Iceland, Norway, and England together. He met me halfway and then flew home. So I still had the bug. I just kind of always try and make it work. You guys. We got to go to Iceland together not too long ago. So I always try and make travel work for me in any way that's possible. But it definitely has slowed down now that I do have the brand that I have and now that I do have the company that I run. Go ahead.
- Speaker #2
I'm kind of curious. Do you bring that ice suit everywhere you go, that ice queen suit?
- Speaker #0
I should. I'll start now.
- Speaker #1
You should. It'll get some attention everywhere you go. Three drinks for Mary. So how did you end up in Texas then? So you had a salon in LA, but now you're on a ranch in Texas with Booty the Pig, Boots the Pig, whatever. Boots the Pig.
- Speaker #0
Boots the Pig, yes. Jason always wanted to go to a place that had land. I had a running salon. The thing with a salon is you're a service-based industry, and you really... try to get as many clients as possible. And when your schedule is full, you add in employees. And when you can fill their schedule, you add in more employees. And so the whole goal of a service-based industry is to hang on to your clientele and continuously build. And the more that you build, the busier you are, the more employees that you add in. And so I had all my rooms full. We were full every day with a waiting list. And my husband would say, I really want to go someplace with land. I'd love to get out of California. And I was like, no, my business is thriving. We're not giving this up. I'm not starting over. And all of that was great until COVID did happen. And in California, we were closed for nearly a year as a personal care service. And during that year, I took an idea, which was my light for beauty professionals in treatment rooms and launched a product from something that I was thinking about. There was a hole in the industry. Nobody had ever made lights for beauty service providers. And I Took that the hoi from a napkin sketch into conception, blew it up through manufacturing, sold out our first batch and got it launched as a real product while we were closed. And so when my salon reopened, I was doing both jobs. I thought I'm working with clients from eight o'clock in the morning until 6pm. My salon's open till 9pm. At 9pm, I'm getting on and handling customer service and helping people get their lights together, get their orders placed. I'm talking to the manufacturers and thinking this is unrealistic. We all have the same 24 hours in a day I have to figure out which one matters most to me. And one was going to keep me in that same location where there's nothing wrong with that. But the other one had a global reach. And I thought, oh, OK, let's go after this one. Let's see how big we can get it. And if I'm ready to sell my salon, that means we can go anywhere. And I put my salon up for sale and sold it three months later. And we were free. So I found a place in Texas that checked all the boxes of everything that we were looking for and brought my now company there, headquartered on my ranch. And we grow it to where it is now, which is, you know, we ship everywhere we can.
- Speaker #1
So explain this light. I mean, tell for those, and we saw your presentation in Iceland, Norman and I did. So we saw pictures. But for people that are listening, what is this light? What problems does it solve? And how is it different?
- Speaker #0
All right. So in the beauty industry, think of eyelash extensions or eyelashes. They're very small human hairs. So lighting is so important. And we would fight with our lighting. I had a salon and all of my girls would be like, this one overheats and this one gives too much shadows. And the struggles, they'd all be on tripods and you go to like stretch your hands because it's a very technical skill. Your hands get cramped and you stretch and you knock over a tripod and you try and catch it before it falls on your client who has their eyes taped shut. And the lighting was just such a sore spot of how has no one ever made lights for people doing the services in the treatment rooms? The beauty industry is so big. It's only growing larger. There's more women and more men getting services done more often than ever before. How has no one ever created a light for us to work under? All of these lights are borrowed from other industries. We have the ring lights, the filming lights, all of the things. But nobody ever made a light for the person sitting in the chair. And so I made a light for that. And it's the first industry specific lighting for the person doing the services. So anyone that's applying eyelash extensions, doing a facial, doing the tattoo, this is the light that they would work under that will light up their client or their workspace or their canvas or whatever they're working on so that they can see perfectly. And the benefits of it are flat base. It's very heavy. So there's no sense of accidentally touching it. It's going to fall over. It gives you perfect illumination from ear to ear with no shadows. So it goes completely over your face. It's like an arc. We call it the halo, but an arc shape. And so prior to that, there was nothing else that existed. We all borrowed from other industries. And if you had one light, one half of the person's face would be beautifully lit and the other half would be this dark shadow. If you had two lights, then one on each side, you would fight because the light itself would fight with each other and it create more shadows. And so I just thought oh my god if we just had one light that would go over and perfectly light up your workspace. You could work so much faster, more efficiently. It would be better for the client to not have to crawl under all of this lighting apparatus. And I had taken that. I thought, okay, my husband challenged me. Were you kind of like, why don't you get this made? You're the one that keeps thinking and complaining about these lights. And I thought, I do eyelash extensions. I don't really make lights. And of course he said, well, you had to have thought of this. And yes, I've thought of it. I wanted to have a flat. face. I want it to move because everybody is a different body shape. And sometimes you need to go higher or lower and move it out of the way so you can make the bed or help an elderly client in and out of the bed. And so I had this whole idea. And he thought, great, okay, this is your napkin sketch, go get that made. And that's really what started it just from a simple metal frame that we got made in a machine shop, we inserted some LEDs, and all of a sudden, that was prototype number one. And then we got prototype number two made and prototype number three. And I really never meant to make it a huge company. It was more so like if I could work, have it in my own salon and let my employees work under it, it would stop them from all the complaints. And so selfishly was like, let's just get these lights for my salon. And the clients would always come in and be like, wow, that's such a cool light. I've never seen anything like it. And I say, well, that's awesome. It's my light. I got it made and it's my idea. And they always say like. girl, stop lashing. Why don't you go pursue that as a company? And I'd always think, oh, but I have such a great salon. I'm not looking to change anything. If I ever get the time, I'll make it a real product. But when would I ever get the time? I'm so busy with this. And so COVID was kind of the catalyst. We're getting that phone call of, hey, you're closed for an undisclosed amount of time leading up to this. I remember going into my salon and closing down and kind of dusting off the shelves and doing my last round of payroll and taking out the trash. And I looked into my treatment room and the way that my light is, it's a very specific shape. And that was on, but my treatment lights were off and it was just lit up. And I thought I always said if I was ever gifted the time, I would make that a real product. And I think I was just gifted the time. And so I switched gears and I mean, literally overnight was how can I get a website? How can we find a manufacturer? How can we get the orders placed? I kind of emptied my bank account. I bootstrapped this whole thing. So it was like, I have a certain amount of money to get this started, which is not enough to actually launch it. So we opened up for pre-sales and I dropped it into a Facebook forum of, hey, fellow lash artists, would this be something that you would like? And they had never seen anything like it. And they started looking, going, it'd be amazing to have even lighting from ear to ear. And it moves and it's height adjustable and a flat base. No light has ever had a flat base. base for us it makes so much sense it can just slide under your treatment room and it it would save so much space And so we were able to open up for pre-sales and I sold out on my batch one before they shipped, opened up batch two, batch two was nearly sold out. And then we got to the launch of these things and it was like, okay, let's see what happens. The first launch, the first light shipped in our first launch. And that was history. I mean, once they landed, we were getting the messages of, this is the best light I've ever used in the 10 years of me lashing, or girl, you're going to change the world with this. And so that's really what it led was COVID was the catalyst of, hey, I had this great idea. I don't think I would have ever done it or pursued it had I not had that break in time that made me realize that I was gifted that time to make this change and make that pivot. I would have just been in my little salon room, probably lashing away still to this day.
- Speaker #1
What's this thing retail for? How much does it retail for?
- Speaker #0
We have two models. The original is 425 and the XL is 495. We brought out that to kind of cater more towards the tattoo industry. It goes as high as six feet, stable in the air. There's no other light like it. It wraps around the body parts. So as they're doing a leg or an arm, you have perfect lighting without the shadows and it has multiple tones. So we kind of split it if you are servicing a client that's laying down in a massage type style environment like the lash artist, the original is great. And if you like standing up or have more of a dental style chair or you work with all around the body and need that extra length, then the Excel version is great for you.
- Speaker #2
So I love your story. And Kevin and I have talked about this. Just what are you doing? Find your product. You want product opportunity? Look for something in your niche and expand on it. And you were there, you were able to do it, and you've grown into this incredible brand. Everybody loves this. And now... you're going into other opportunities. You're seeing other opportunities. Like you just mentioned, the tattoo industry. You were targeting lashes. And now it's big in the tattoo industry as well. I've got plenty of tattoos. And I know that they don't have the lighting that they need in these tattoo shops.
- Speaker #0
Yeah, absolutely. I have a goal. So what I did for the lash industry, which now has rippled into multiple industries. We service medical estheticians, estheticians. uh tattoo industry nail artists love our light but it was made for a certain industry and so i think like okay for tattoo artists it's the best light you can use i think i can make them a better light and so what i've done for the lash industry in the beauty industry i want to do for the tattoo industry i want to have the industry specific golden standard nail light you use for doing nails I want to have if your injector does injectors. Injectors usually only use overhead lighting, which blows my mind. You're dealing with needles in people's skin and they are not used to using a light. And it's like, let me create a light so that you can see your patient perfectly how you will as you're injecting them with needles instead of just your overhead lighting. And so for me, like my goal is to go through and just innovate each industry and give them the industry standard lighting for the needs that they need that they have.
- Speaker #1
What's up everybody? Your good old buddies, Norm and Kevin here. And I've got an Amazon creative team that I want to introduce you to.
- Speaker #2
That's right, Kevin. It's called the House of AAMZ. And it's the leading provider in combining marketing and branding with laser focus on Amazon.
- Speaker #1
Hey Norm, they do a lot of really cool stuff. If you haven't seen what they do, like full listing graphics, premium A-plus content, storefront design, branding, photography, renderings, packaging design. and a whole lot of other stuff that Amazon sellers need.
- Speaker #2
Yeah, and guess what? They have nine years active in this space. So you can skip the guesswork, trust the experts. There's no fees. There's no retainers. You pay per project.
- Speaker #1
So if you want to take your product to the next level, check out House of AMZ. That's HouseofAMZ.com. House of AMZ. You have an industrial engineer that helps you with this stuff?
- Speaker #0
So I have a manufacturer in the USA. So far, we've used their engineering team. I now am very deep into product development for a couple other models. And we are using a design firm who's going through and they're listening to us, interviewing us, hearing what we need. They understand our brand. I like things. I'm an aesthetic girl. I like things very clean, good lines. I like the white. And so they're listening to that and creating us. our design and then the design will go to a team of engineers that will be manufacturing it not the current ones i have but breaking it down into like okay how do we make it in the smallest box as possible how do we make it that it's easy to assemble how do we make these on a larger scale for the price point that you want and so that's really the process is first you get it to look pretty and then you get it realistically how is it made and the two of those teams talk and the conversations are quite pretty because the guy that's making it going oh that's way too complicated to make it like that. Well, we really care about the aesthetic and the aesthetic is what makes it part of our brand. And so, yes, we need the clean lines. We need the 90 degree angles. It must look like that. And the manufacturer goes, OK, well, we can do it like that. It's just harder on us. And at the end of the day, when those two teams talk, you get a finished product and that goes into production. So you know lashes, but what about all these other niches that you just mentioned? I mean, you can't be marketing the same way. So how are you separating? How are you getting your information, your research to market properly to these other niches?
- Speaker #1
So there's a good lesson in that. One is when we first came out, I was speaking straight to the person as if they were in the same chair I was in. Hey, lash artist, I know what it's like to struggle with bad lighting. I know what it's like to struggle with shadows. And then we started realizing that people that do skincare love our product. People that do Brazilian waxing love our product. People that do tattoos. And I thought, we have to stop saying lashes. Stop saying salon and studio. And so I took my whole company, all the websites, we called it brand neutralization. Anytime that we use the word lash or beauty or spa or studio or tech or any of these terms, we just industry neutralized it. And it left us with this. stencil of a product that was, hey, do you want a light that's dimmable and adjustable in height? You should buy this light. And we actually lost market share over a period of three months. I was in a free-for-all. And I thought, what is going on? How did we lose so much of our business? Why are we all of a sudden drying up? And what happened? And as a team, we really had to think back. And it was, I think we industry neutralized so much that we're not actually talking to anyone. And so we're just a product. And when you compare our product to other products, they have similar features. And we lost the connection of our customer. And I thought, you're right. Here we thought this would be such a brilliant idea. And so what we did is we started talking to each of the industry specific people on their own landing page. And so now we have a landing page for tattoos and we have all the best professional tattoos using our light. And we talk to them because your needs are different. You better know what that red light, red ink looks like on the daytime, inside, outside, because you don't want them to walk outside and all of a sudden their red ink tattoo is pink. So we have different color tones so that while you're doing the tattoo, you can switch through the different tones to make sure that that red is going to look red no matter where they walk to. And their needs are different. I don't think they really care so much as far as, hey, it looks pretty. hey, it functions and you can go higher than any light in the entire market with a heavy base. It's going to be perfectly balanced, perfectly weighted. So when you're working on all of these different body parts, you can put your light six foot in the air and have it give you amazing light. And we started kind of honing in on all the needs of different people for a nail artist. I don't think a nail artist is really thinking about, hey, I want my light six feet in the air. They're probably thinking about how can I film the content? I do all these nails and I do designs and I do artwork. And every time I post a set about the certain artwork, it gets me new clients. And we have each light comes with a content clip. And so we really market that you can photograph all and you can film you doing all of your services. And so we really hit to them that it's even lighting. So it really lights up your nails so nice and pretty. And while you're doing all the designs, you can just record it. And when you time lapse that, customers love seeing that start to finish. Hey, I did this design. Here's the finished product. And we market them that we can make your content creation so much easier for you. It's a click and post. So easy to do. When we talk to estheticians, you guys have so many things in your treatment room. You have all of this different app. They use different equipment and different services. But you have a light that isn't on. there is a wheel kit you can get, but it's nice and steady. So instead of fighting with all of these different machines on rollers, our light fits conveniently underneath your bed to free up your floor space. And every industry has different needs and different wants and different solutions to solve. So we put them all in different landing pages and then we run the ads based on, hey, we're targeting tattoo artists. You're going to go to a page that looks like this light was made for you and you alone, as if it's only a light that tattoo artists use. If you're doing nails, we're going to take you to a page that looks like it is only for nail artists. And I have all kinds of girls giving me the reviews are specific to nail artists. The contents are specific to nail artists. The pictures are specific to nail artists. And we do that for each industry. And once we got through the pitfall of industry neutralization and realized that actually connecting to your audience and understanding their struggles and talking to them as if you are them is so important and so valuable in marketing. Once we talk to each of our industries, they all rose together. And that's a great lesson for anyone that's going through it like me, is make sure that you are connecting with your audience and talking to them in their specific niches.
- Speaker #2
That's the exact same product, right? Are you changing the name? Is there a different model number for tattoo?
- Speaker #1
It's essentially the exact same light. One goes for... four feet, eight inches, and one goes six feet in the air, but it's essentially the same product. So I would say, yeah, we do target whichever one is best fit for them. The higher one's more expensive. A nail artist doesn't need it to go six feet in the air. She's good with the shorter one. And you don't want to tattoo artists that can't raise their height, their light as high as possible. So we don't really recommend the original for them. We recommend the XL, but all Cosmo Glow, all the same light. essentially just two different models and then we do pick which one would be best for them through those landing pages so how are you protecting uh your patent like i'm sure that you get a 700 light out there and
- Speaker #0
the chinese see this or somebody sees and they say oh i can do this on the cheap and they come out with a 150 light i'm sure there's lights similar to yours appearing now
- Speaker #1
Yes. I like to think I'm aggressive with IP protection, but who knows on a scale of one to crazy where I fit. But I had the intuition very early on to patent it when I knew my idea was going to be different than anything else that existed. And I knew it was going to change the world. And at the time, I didn't come from a manufacturing background. I had never launched new products. This was like a napkin sketch idea. And so I was calling a couple IP attorneys and they were like, like, oh, we don't really want to steal your money. Are you like, is this a hobby? Are you really going to do this for real? And I was so stern about it. Even my husband was like, I wouldn't waste the money patenting it. And now he comes back and he's like, I'm so sorry you chose that. And you chose over my suggestion. I'm so glad you did. But I was early on to the patent process, even when it was a napkin sketch, when I had my first prototype, I knew I wanted it to be patented. And I worked with a patent attorney to get all of the drawings and everything done up. And I wasn't allowed to share any pictures, any videos, nothing online until we had everything fully processed as far as like it was turned in. And I remember getting the phone call and it was like, okay, you're officially filed. If you want to share any releases of videos or pictures, go for it. And that was the first day I was allowed to share it with the public to be like, hey, does anyone want this light? And the comments took off and it was a great day. but I am patented by design in 28 countries. So all of EU, Australia, Canada, United States, I don't know if we have Mexico or not. And then for utility, I went even further. So that's Brazil, Japan, Korea, all of the countries I mentioned above, we just kind of went for it. And I enforce those continuously. So China or Asia in general, if they see a product that's excelling, they make their own version of it. And it's a constant battle to get those listings down. I believe the most we ever had was one year was 8,500 listings we enforced. And we got about 7,200 of them down. But the reality of it is I'm still fighting with one out of 1,000 other listings. And it's a constant process. I have a firm that handles it through AI. So they take down about 90% automatically. They run through all of Timu, Alibaba, AliExpress, Amazon. DH, Gate, Wayfair. I mean, you name it, they're on it. And so that's all done in the background. And then if we have some stubborn sellers on Amazon, so we go after them through an actual law firm and file our patent, we can put up to 150 people on one suit. So we do that. And then individually, I've never lost a court case. So I'm pretty proud of that. And we enforce it. But it's a very long play. It's a very manual play. And it's very kind of like exhausting, but strategic. So we do enforce it, but. At the end of the day, as much as I love being patented and as much as we enforce our patent, the one thing we have is we understand our customers and we can speak to them because I was that person in the chair and I know what makes my product special. And other people don't. They look at it and they try and recreate it based on what it looks like. And so the functioning of it doesn't always equal the same. The comments are, oh... If you turn on a fan, it falls over because it's not even stable. You know, like spend the money and get the real one because that one is so stable. It will never fall over. You can see the disc. You can feel the difference as soon as you take it out of the box. And we kind of play to that, too, where it's like, hey, take the challenge. You can have the knockoff. You can try it out. You can try mine. And 10 out of 10 times we win. And we love the videos where people had the knockoff version. Then they replaced it with ours because that was the one they really wanted. but they thought maybe I'll just buy this one first and see if it's the same. It's not the same. And we love the pictures where they're like, we're upgrading it. Like this is the legit one. And then they become our little advocates. They're in the forums when people say, hey, is it worth it? Should I, is the price tag worth it? Or should I buy the dupe? They're the ones that say, no, no, no, no, no. If I had a to-do over, just buy the, buy Cosmo Glow. That's the person who invented it. That's the person who stands behind it. They are not the same light. I had the knockoff. Don't waste your money. I wish I would have just gone straight to the source and bought the first one. And so it's so good to see. I love seeing when people have both. But it's still, I mean, I'm not going to lie to you. It's still a process. We still fight it on a daily basis between protecting your idea and getting the story out of, hey, we understand your struggles, not just what it looks like, but like how it functions in your treatment room is what makes us special.
- Speaker #2
I would leverage that. I would actually go do DSP targeting on people that bought the cheap ones and say, here's a video of someone that bought the cheap one and using the real one. You want the real one? I'll give you whatever you paid for the cheap one. I don't know what they paid, but I'll give you a $75 turn in credit or something against the real one. Just send us a picture of the serial number or send us the broken. into the light or whatever.
- Speaker #0
Running over it with your car.
- Speaker #2
Running over it with your truck. Yeah, you could create a whole UGC, running over it with your truck and then send us the video and then we'll give you the real one for $75 off or whatever you paid for the junk one. I can see you actually blowing that up and to get creative with that. And that could be a really cool marketing campaign because I'm sure you're spending a boatload of cash on this legal stuff.
- Speaker #1
We are. I actually do sell my own knockoff on Amazon. So that's a fun fact. And the inside of that is a, it's a cash cow for us. So we, I have the patent. I kick all the other sellers off, but my, my listing always stays. And two, it's really funny to see when they buy my knockoff, but then they return that knockoff in a Cosmo glow box because they actually went through and bought the real light.
- Speaker #2
Oh really?
- Speaker #1
Yeah. And so it's always like a nice kind of check-in of emotionally like, Thank you. You wanted it. You got the cheapy, decided you still wanted the real one, got the real one. Now you're trying to return it, not understanding that you're returning it to me. That's a nice little check. And it makes me feel, even though I'm annoyed, right? I'm like, that's not even the same light. And it's in a different box. But overall, I'm like, we won.
- Speaker #2
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- Speaker #2
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- Speaker #0
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- Speaker #2
That's 8Fig.co, 8Fig.co. See you on the other side. Is this mostly businesses buying this or consumers buy this too? Is it mostly a business to business play?
- Speaker #1
Business to consumer and business to business. We do both. I would say it is all going to a business, but in the beauty industry, it's very common for a person to have a license and kind of do that service either out of their home or in a small studio. So they don't always a hundred percent set it up like a full brick and mortar business. And it's both. But I don't think anyone is buying them to read books under. It's not going to decorate a house. It is always going to someone doing the service. And we hope that they are licensed and have insurance and they're doing the service underneath those lights.
- Speaker #2
Do these last a while or do you have to do any kind of warranty stuff on them or are they built pretty solidly?
- Speaker #1
We manufacture in the USA. That's awesome. That's a flex now. We're proud of Texas. So they're made with American-made steel. They're made with high quality. Everything is done between laser cutting, laser welding, automation, powder coated in the same facility that they're welded. So they're amazing quality. We came out in 2020. My first lights landed. And every show I go to, because I'm still in the industry and go to all the shows, I just had one this weekend. It's like bragging points. People love to come up and tell me, I have your batch one. I have your original light, 650. I have your batch three. I bought my light in 2020. I bought my light in 2021. And they're still going because here we are in 2025. You know, they're still strong, but they are modular. So if there is a problem and you're out of warranty, in warranty, we'll take care of it 100%, no problem. If you're out of warranty, you can just replace the top portion of the light instead of buying the entire light over. We just send you new electronics essentially. And that's worked really great for us because people love the light. And what happens is usually if they have a malfunction or something happens and they're waiting for a replacement, it. They have to go back to their old ring light. And the comments we get of, oh, Cosmogold, please come in. I hate using this light. And then they'll post it like, I got my replacement part. Everything's back to working. This lighting is the best you can get, guys. I had to be without it for five days. And I will never take this light for granted ever again. And so we love seeing those comments. But it is modular if there is an issue, which we handle through replacements and through a support system. But overall, they are built to last. And the majority of them are out there shining bright still.
- Speaker #2
Have you passed eight figures in sales yet on it?
- Speaker #1
Yes.
- Speaker #2
Good, good.
- Speaker #0
Not a bad little...
- Speaker #2
That's a nice little invention. Pivot, pivot.
- Speaker #0
Nice little pivot.
- Speaker #1
Yeah. So I'm not a numbers person. I'm an artist, so go figure with that. But our first year, I kind of did it as it was on the back burner. It was my back pocket job. It was like, if we sell some cool, we were very limited by production. We were very limited by batches. There was only so many I could put out at a time. And I gave it no real effort. And it was funny. And my husband's like, well, you're almost a year into this. How much in sales have you done? And I said, I haven't even actually looked. And so he did a sales report. We were eight months in and we'd done almost a million dollars my first year, like by accident. And so it's only gone up from there as now we've streamlined into this is the company that we'd run. And we do ship to all the different countries and hold stock all over the world. So it's great to see it grow. But yeah. That's when you know you have a really great product when, A, I didn't even realize we were that close to a million dollars without trying. Oopsie. And two, now that we have full focus on it, it keeps growing.
- Speaker #0
Now, are you selling only through your website? Do you have distributors? How are you getting the product out there?
- Speaker #1
Up until last year, we were 100% on our website only. And then we kind of got crazy and said, what would happen if we listed on all these other marketplaces? So now we're everywhere. You can get us on Walmart, Amazon. I'm trying to get into Target, all the fun things. As far as all the salon supply centers, salon centric, Cosmoprof, all the fun things. We just recently last year opened up wholesalers, which has been going amazing for us. We have wholesalers that are shipping them into Europe and the UK. It's been very successful for us. And I'm just trying to work after coming to your events. I'm like, man, maybe we should pay more attention to Amazon and see how big we can get it on Amazon because that was never really a focus for us. But after hearing all of these amazing people speak on stage, I'm like, wow, I have a lot of work to do. So still trying to build it up on all the other platforms. But we've been mostly just off of our Shopify website and mostly off of Instagram. We're on TikTok as well. but Our light is so unique. And when you're in a little industry niche, a little industry like subset, news travels really fast. And so if one esthetician gets a light and says, here's my light, then all of her esthetician friends are like, wait, what is that? I also have to have it. And then we encourage them when they put it, it requires a little bit of assembling. The process takes 15 minutes. But when they get to that last step, we encourage everyone like hey congratulations we wish you like the most success under this light. We would love to see your salon or studio. Tag a picture of you with your light. And so we can see this little adopted light went to a new home. And they'll post us on Instagram and tag us. And we love it. We repost them. But it allows us to reach their network. And so that's really, we've had so much success off of just encouraging people to be a part of our brand and interact with them and show off your salon space, show off your studio. These girls work so hard and build their businesses up over time. They're proud of it. And when we can get our product in there and then encourage them to connect with us and tag us on Instagram, it creates a ripple. We call it like you play for the ripple because who knows who's watching their story? Who knows who's like stalking their page? And if we can get to their audience, it's so powerful for us. So that's really up until last year. Now I feel like we're kind of like the sky's the limit. Let's see all the places we can sell to and in all of the different channels. But prior to this was just off our website and mostly leveraging social media and going to trade shows. Those are always hole in ones.
- Speaker #2
I think you just hit a big, important lesson on the head there is you need when you create a new product. If the product is good, it should sell itself. And you have to sell the first. I think it was in one of the presentations I did. I showed how Atomic Habits, he had to sell the first 10,000 books. Had to get those out there, get those into people's hands that are his target audience or his market. And then from there, the next 15 million were sold by those first 10,000 and the network effect. It's the same thing here. You produced a good product that solved a real problem, and people will rave about that and sell it for you. And you don't have to fight these uphill battles. The only battles you've got to fight is the knockoffs. And it makes it so much easier and so much better. And a lot of people don't. They cut too many corners when it comes to the product, or they're not paying attention to all these little things.
- Speaker #1
Yeah, I think to leveraging the audience, sometimes people won't ask a brand a simple question or they won't go to Google and go, OK, like what bottle is best for me? We have a quiz. You can take the quiz. But it's easier for them to ask their friend. Hey, I see you just got this light. I've been thinking about it. Do you love it? Is it worth the price tag? Do you think it makes your content better? Do you like the phone clip? Is it easy to assemble? And their friends like, of course, let me give you all the stuff. I'll even make a video of me putting it together. I'll unbox it for you. I'll do all of this. And then they make a reel and tag us in it. But they really did it to show their friends like, hey, here's the content you were asking for. Here's my before and after of how good my content, my filming looks when I have the Cosmoglow and how it looked under a ring light. You can see the difference. And everyone starts interacting with that picture of like, wow, your content really is so much better. I need that for my business. I need that to show off my work. And that's where we've been able to leverage social media is just inviting the people to be a part of our brand, be a part of our story. And they say it through their eyes and through their ears, which is so different than sometimes we think like, okay, how can we sell a product? But they're thinking of it as I'm telling, I'm just doing this to show my friend. I'm using the language that I'm talking to my buddy. I want, I hear, hey girl, here's this content I made for you so that you can see the difference between using the product and not using the product. And they post it. They said it in the customer's voice. And now all of the comments are like, I need the light. I need the light. I have to get it. Adding to cart now. Shopping, And being able to invite them to be a part of us has been so helpful.
- Speaker #0
Have you done anything or have you thought about expanding the brand? Is there anything on the horizon?
- Speaker #1
Yes, we have a travel model in prototyping right now. So 14 months later, I didn't think it would take that long, but here we are. There's a travel model coming because my claim to fame is my light should feel like it is a piece of equipment in your studio. It does not need to ever leave your room. I worked in my salon for six years and never left. Why did I have a travel-friendly model? I wanted one that felt like it was supposed to be there. And so this one does that. And then we quickly realized that, especially in the tattoo industry, people go to traveling shows. They're gone every weekend to a new tattoo convention. And although they love our light and it's the best light they've ever used, they leave it at home and they bring other lights to the convention. And so we really took that to heart and we're in prototyping now for a travel model that picks up in a little canvas bag and you have the option to strap it on as a backpack or carry on as a carry-on goes together in a minute or two breaks down in a minute or two and there you go you have perfect lighting on the go and then we've also heard from feedback that particular tattoo artists sometimes permit makeup use the whole bed they they they work on every single part of the body not just a face not just someone's lashes and so for them they said we love your light it's the best we've ever used. But the stand can kind of get in the way. Would you ever think about making a wall unit? We're like, done. So our wall unit is in its last stage of design and then it'll kick over to manufacturing. We'll have that coming out. So we try and keep the pipeline full as far as I have my next probably seven to nine products coming out. But just everything takes time. So one at a time.
- Speaker #2
And you have a lean team doing all this too, right?
- Speaker #1
I do. Yeah, I work with a team of five. And we're all in-house headquartered out of my ranch right now, although Cosmoglow HQ is moving, which is exciting. And yeah, that's us.
- Speaker #2
And why do you need to move it?
- Speaker #1
I think it's good to have a separation from work and home. It worked for a long time. I also it's growing up it's growing up it's it's no longer a teenager anymore it's becoming its own adult right yeah I kind of want to create a creative space that has a content studio that has places that we can come together and really have a hands-on meeting where we can have our own prototyping studio where right now it's my home so all meetings are held at my dining room table sometimes we'll go outside Which, hey, the upside is we take baby goat breaks and the whole team can go down and hold a baby goat or hold baby piglets. So we'll lose out on that. But I think, yeah, it's just the company's growing up and I want to make it a little bit more of a creative space versus just right now it functions as an office.
- Speaker #2
But you said also you take care of these five people because you said a chef comes in and like what makes their meal? What is it that they do? It makes like five different dietary needs or something like that for them? Thanks a lot.
- Speaker #1
I'm in Texas in the sticks. And so I used to take my team out to eat a couple times a week. But finding a restaurant, driving there, service in Texas is slow. And the whole process would take so long. So I flipped the script and thought, what if we bring in people to serve us in our own house? And so I have an incredible chef, culinary degree, who makes us lunch twice a week. And everything from the grocery shopping to the menus, we get a snack at 1030, we get lunch at 12. and she takes requests. So... all the girls are always scrolling through like, oh, make me this like pimento grilled cheese with jalapenos. Can we do this? And she'll fulfill the request of like, okay, this is what Ari wanted for lunch today. This is a request from Melissa. And so we go through, but it's really interactive. And for us, I love that she comes to our team and we love the interactiveness because there are things now we have to worry about such as like... food allergens and dietary restrictions. And she knows each and every person and will build a whole menu based around that. She'll make the same meal kind of in three different variations. Like this one's the keto version. This one's gluten free. This one's dairy free. This one doesn't have mayonnaise, like the whole nine yards. And we found that it really works for us because being able to eat a home cooked meal like today, we had chicken, broccolini and mashed potatoes with gravy. So good. But also coming together as a whole team over a homemade meal is so special. And we really enjoy having her here. So that's one of the perks.
- Speaker #2
Hey, Kevin King and Norm Farrar here. If you've been enjoying this episode of Marketing Misfits, thanks for listening this far. Continue listening. We've got some more valuable stuff coming up. Be sure to hit that subscribe button if you're listening to this on your favorite podcast player. Or if you're watching this on YouTube or Spotify, make sure you subscribe to our channel because you don't want to miss a single episode. the marketing misfits. Have you subscribed yet, Norm?
- Speaker #0
Well, this is an old guy alert. Should I subscribe to my own podcast?
- Speaker #2
Yeah, but what if you forget to show up one time? It's just me on here. You're not going to know what I say.
- Speaker #0
I'll buy you a beard and you can sit in my chair too. You can go back and forth with one another.
- Speaker #1
Yikes.
- Speaker #0
But that being said, don't forget to subscribe, share it. Oh, and if you really like this content. Somewhere up there, there's a banner. Click on it and you'll go to another episode of the Marketing Misfits.
- Speaker #2
Make sure you don't miss a single episode because you don't want to be like Norm. If you ever serve mac and cheese with ketchup and hot dogs, Norm will be there.
- Speaker #0
Absolutely.
- Speaker #2
He'll fly down and have lunch with you.
- Speaker #0
If there was somebody starting out and they're putting their toe in and now looking for a completely different product to get into this, was everything worth the headache?
- Speaker #1
Oh, yes. But had I known now what I know now, I would have never started. I don't think so. I think, I don't know. I'm glad I did. Now where I'm at, I would never have wanted out of it, but I kind of liken it to being on a roller coaster. You get out, you're so excited. You're on a roller coaster with the halter comes down and it takes off. And the whole thing isn't fun. You go up, down, you do a flip. And the whole time you're like, did I make the right decision? Now the whole ride goes reverse and it flips in the backwards thing. You know, it's a ride. And I think you have to be prepared for the ride and thank God it starts off without you knowing anything. or you probably wouldn't sign up for it. But sometimes you just got to get on the ride and hope that it's going to be a great ride. And at the end, you're so glad you did it. But that process in the middle, I mean, it tests you. It really, you have to be resilient and you have to keep going and you have to not quit. Or sometimes you have to not listen to the other people and do exactly what's true to you.
- Speaker #0
Well, going back to what you were, when you started this whole process, now knowing what you know, would you hire experts to come in?
- Speaker #1
to help take that workload off of you um you know it's that's a complicated question because
- Speaker #0
Probably, I would say maybe you should start there. But also, I wouldn't be where I'm at now if I didn't do it my way. So I don't know. We are a small team. And I am constantly now to the point where I used to be so like, everything has to be done in-house. We have to all learn how to do it ourselves, wear all the hats. And I've gotten to a point now where I'm like, whoa, no, we do not have to wear all the hats. Somebody trained in this their whole life. They will know this space so much better than us ever starting to learn it as a, as a beginner, you know, like let them do that part of the job for us. And we've learned to kind of start handing things off the plate to other companies and let them excel at what they're excelling at. So I've kind of gotten away from the, we must do all the things all the time to, hey, we can pay someone who's 10 times better, a hundred times better, a thousand times better than we'll ever be. And they're going to get results much faster for us.
- Speaker #1
So are you coming up on one of these two and a half year, three year time to sell everything. change and go travel again? Are you jonesing for that? Or you've been able to mix in some travel with growing this business?
- Speaker #0
I've been able to mix in some travel. You know, I'm at a different place in my life. I feel like I'm more settled now. I'm really fulfilled with the company I run. And I have a ranch that has a ton of animals that I can, I just go outside and hold little baby piglets if I'm stressed out. So instead of being like that i must leave everything and go do my own thing and completely disconnect i think i'm actually more grounded than i've ever been in my life that makes me happy to stay here and then you throw amazing events that are all over so hopping on a plane and going to check out iceland we overlaid in germany and we were able to hit a couple stops you know that makes it all worth it where I love being able to do something that expands your mind. We learned so much. My head's still exploding with the things we learned and how to implement them, but also getting a little bit of travel in and then coming back and being able to implement in my business. I feel like I'm more fulfilled and excited for what we're doing than I was previously when I was just maybe just an employer, just doing a job to get by. It's a different sense.
- Speaker #2
I heard Kevin wanted to ride your goat. And if he does... Can you think it has a weight?
- Speaker #1
I think it has a weight limit. I think she told me it has a weight limit. It was like 500 pounds. I was like, shoot, I'm out. I'm out.
- Speaker #0
Long ride. And some horses. I would recommend the horses.
- Speaker #1
If I could stay eight seconds, eight seconds on the longhorn, see if I can make it.
- Speaker #0
Hey, I'll film.
- Speaker #1
As long as you don't send it to Norm, I'm okay.
- Speaker #2
Oh, no, I'd promote it.
- Speaker #0
we're getting up to the the hour and we ask our podcast guests our misfits if they know a misfit i do i'm going to recommend dr michael bruce i'll connect you with him he is nicknamed the sleep doctor and he's helped people all over the world all over the country um just understand what you can do in your in your life very simply to sleep better sometimes it's understanding your I'm... I'm not speaking his language, but understanding your like biological clock to understanding the diet. Sometimes it's not doing not that you're not allowed to do things. It's make sure that those things end by nine o'clock if you want to sleep the night or simple things of if this is your target goal to wake up. These are the things you can do as soon as you wake up. So I'm going to pass him on to you and you guys are going to go for a ride. He really knows his stuff. He's always on Good Morning America and all of the shows kind of just walking people through. One of the crazy things we deal with is insomnia and how to sleep better.
- Speaker #1
As a naturopath, that's one of the most important things you can do is get proper sleep. Yeah. It's one of the health, it's all fundamental health problems start with sleep. Yes. And a lot of people don't put enough emphasis on optimizing their sleep.
- Speaker #2
So that'll be great.
- Speaker #1
That's a great topic.
- Speaker #2
Okay. So if people want to reach out, if people are out there that are. in any of the niches that you just talked about, how do they get one of your lights?
- Speaker #0
Yeah, you can just Google Cosmoglow or you can find us on Instagram at the Cosmoglow light. If you want to chat with me on anything, product development or IP, I'm always open to a conversation. I'm on Instagram at Mary Harcourt or you can find me on LinkedIn.
- Speaker #2
All right, fantastic. Okay, so Kevin, anything else?
- Speaker #1
No, I think that this was great. Thanks, Mary, for coming on and sharing. And let me know when I can come ride the goat.
- Speaker #0
Anytime.
- Speaker #1
No, I'm just up the bucket.
- Speaker #2
Please wait till I'm down there. Please.
- Speaker #0
Open invitation. We always have people out this way. We love cleaning up the ranch. So I'll film and see if you can last eight seconds.
- Speaker #1
All right. It's a challenge.
- Speaker #2
Okay, Mary. So thanks so much for being on the podcast today.
- Speaker #0
Thank you for having me.
- Speaker #1
Thanks.
- Speaker #2
All right. You know, thinking about the whole journey that she had, it's so incredible that, you know, people, what they love, what they have a passion for, whatever industry you're in, and they can see something that other people who are looking at Alibaba and just kind of searching for something, they have no clue what's out there. And, like, I had a client, I told you about this guy, he was a physiotherapist. And it was just... a way for people to increase their core. And he came up with this device. He put it on Amazon. This was about two, three years ago. And within the first seven months, he sold $1.7 million. He sold the company now. It's crazy, but he saw that.
- Speaker #1
Yeah, you solve a problem. You see a problem and just solve that problem rather than looking for... like in the Amazon space that we come from, a lot of people are looking for an opportunity or a gap that they can feel rather than actually trying to solve a problem. And when you come up with a problem and you see an opportunity and you create a good product that solves that problem, like in Mary's case, it will sell itself. And then the thing I love about Mary, too, is that she gives back. She didn't really comment on this, but when she said at the end that if you have anything to reach out to, feel free to do that, she's sincere in that because I know Palak, who came to the first Market Masters event. doing 1.5 million. And Mary, I think sat in on one of her sessions. And then afterwards, Palak went and grabbed her at launch or during the afternoon or something. And they had a further discussion. And then Mary offered to help her with a whole bunch of stuff. Palak has since told me this, and now she's at $5 million. And Mary didn't charge for that. She just said, Hey, I want to give you a helping hand. Let me help you out. Let me point you in the right direction. So not only is she a savvy entrepreneur and a cool person, but she really gives back and has a good heart. Yeah. Which is... which is sometimes hard to find in this business. People get selfish and of their time and of their knowledge. And I really appreciate what Mary does on that.
- Speaker #2
Yeah, same here. Same here. She's an awesome person. Same with Jason, by the way. And if you want to hear Jason's episode, it was probably put out about, what, two months ago?
- Speaker #1
About a month ago, I think, actually. Oh, yeah, about two months ago now. But yeah, I think it was in March. I think it came out in... I think, or maybe it came out in April. It's not too long ago. So search back if you want to go to marketingmisfits.co. That's not .com, right? Norm, I got this right now. You got it. It took me a year. Do I get a gold star?
- Speaker #2
You get to ride a goat.
- Speaker #1
Oh, I get to ride a goat. All right. All right. That's awesome. That's the best reward ever. I'll make sure I get this right. All the other links right, too. But go to marketingmisfits.co or just look up. Jason Acevedo on wherever you're watching this or listening to this, if you're watching on YouTube, check it out. It's a really good, he's really big in the sourcing and manufacturing side of things. So a lot of good information, especially when it comes to tariffs and importing and manufacturing in the United States and a whole bunch of, he owns several factories. It's a really good episode as well. But you know, we have a new episode that comes out every single Tuesday. We never miss an episode. So be sure to check out The Marketing Misfits hit subscribe. Share this episode. If you like this talk with Mary, share this with some people and let them know about it. And look for the newsletter, the Marketing Misfits newsletter coming out this summer. We'll have more information on that soon, but we're pretty excited about that as well.
- Speaker #2
Yeah. And one other thing, one quick note. We've got the Collective Mind Society meeting in Tampa for our latest event. This is CMS3 and it's a cigar event. So... If you're interested, go to the collectivemindsociety.com and just join the wait list and we'll be in touch.
- Speaker #1
Yeah, that's coming in November. So we'll have the dates and exact locations, exact dates and everything for that. That's going to be in November of this year. We'd love to have you out there. This is a collective mind society is not a conference. It's not come listen to a bunch of PowerPoints. And it's typically about 16 people all from different walks of life. uh, in the marketing and entrepreneurial world. And we just have, we experienced a weekend together. We did one on a, a train ride through the Canadian Rockies last August. That was amazing. We did one at the F1 track in Austin, like total VIP experience with a private cabana and the whole nine yards a couple of years ago. So this will be the third one. It's all focused on cigars and whiskey and, uh, having a good time and, and Tampa. So, uh, be sure to get on the wait list to get notified when we announced tickets for that one.
- Speaker #2
All right, everybody. Thanks a lot. And we'll see you next Tuesday.
- Speaker #1
See you next Tuesday. Ciao.
